I'm no puppet managerThese 3 gadgies sitting on the Tribunal panel finished listening to the respective Keegan and Newcastle United sides of the story on Friday and then wanted to give it the weekend to mull things over. Well they’ve had the weekend and two days now and we’ve heard nowt.
We simply want to know who won and how much was awarded to Keegan (assuming the general factivity of that statement). How hard can it be?
Don’t these tribunal judges realise how much speculation, scaremongering and general bickering fans have to put up with while they sit around deliberating on these things? If they think it’s hard being on a tribunal panel they should try being a Toon fan for a few months.
I’m suspecting Keegan won the tribunal and will be awarded about £9m although sources close to me suggest he may get a couple of million extra for all the mental anguish he’s suffered. And then of course the club will have to fork out for costs, which I would imagine aren’t trivial. (more…)
Toon v QPR. Kick off 7:45PMNewcastle United have a great opportunity to extend their lead at the top of the table but QPR will make for stiff opposition.
The three teams below us failed to win last night. West Brom suffered a surprise defeat by Barnsley, Preston lost at home to Reading and Middlesbrough lost at home to Leicester. Charmed results as far we’re concerned and if we can capitalise on them and get the win tonight we’ll go 5 points clear at the top of the table.
QPR are sitting in the middle of the table on 13 points but they have two games in hand over most of the teams above them and a win tonight would see them up amongst the play-off positions, so they have everything to play for.
QPR have only lost once in the league this season, which was away to Bristol City. They’ve notched up draws against Blackpool (H), Plymouth (A), Forest (H) and Peterborough (H) and wins against Scunthorpe (A), Cardiff (A) and Barnsley (H). (more…)
Waddle hattrick.As we look forward to the Newcastle United v QPR game tomorrow evening, it has made me reminisce about an unbelievable match I witnessed between the two teams 25 years ago this month.
I was a homesick student nurse living in London and in fact QPR was probably the nearest big ground to where I lived.
One of the best bits about following the Toon away from home for an exiled geordie was being surrounded by your own people. Hearing the geordie voices, the usual banter, talk of familiar places was like being wrapped in a cloak of familiarity that you didn’t want to take off. A couple of hours later it all came to an end. Watching the Toon fans get back on the coaches – knowing their next stop later that evening would be Newcastle – I would fight the urge to jump on the coach as well to go back home. Anyway on to the game …
Our manager at the time was big Jack Charlton (I know), and our first 3 wins of the season had been swiftly followed by 3 defeats when we started what was our seventh game of the season at Loftus Road on Saturday September 22nd 1984. Looking back at the attendance figures a crowd of only 14,234 were present but I remember quite a lot of mags being in the crowd. Loftus Road had recently installed their plastic pitch, remember them? (more…)
Jonas due to return thoughThe diminutive Newcastle United squad is about to be stretched further by injuries and international duties.
Fabricio Coloccini picked up a groin strain and Ryan Taylor picked up a calf injury during Saturday’s game against Ipswich. Danny Simpson is also sidelined with an ankle injury from the Plymouth game and is doubtful for this week’s games. These add to the longer-term injuries of Shola Ameobi and Joey Barton with the latter now expected to be out until Christmas with an ankle injury.
Hughton said:
“As ever we will be assessing everybody as we go along.
“Ryan has been suffering with a little tightness in his calf and is a doubt. But Fabricio looks the more doubtful of the two and we are probably more hopeful on Ryan.
“Danny Simpson has got a chance but he is again touch and go. And providing Jonas gets through the next few days without any problems, he could also be back against QPR.”
So it’s good news about Jonas but there’s going to be some defensive reshuffling needed. (more…)
Leader of the packHughton sings Newcastle’s praises while Keane thinks Ipswich gave Nolan an early Christmas present.
I was away this weekend. A close friend of mine is off to Australia for at least 3 years, so a bunch of us got together for beer and golf in Oxfordshire (and I use the term ‘golf’ in the loosest possible sense), but I did manage to watch 70 minutes of the Newcastle United match before I was prised away from the TV and man-handled into taxi on Saturday evening. And I must admit my 70 minutes of Toon watching put me in a good mood for the evening.
We’ve had little to celebrate in recent seasons, so I thought I’d milk this victory for all I could and quote some of the match reaction from the two managers. (more…)
