Return of the Mackems.Venue: St James’ Park. Date: Sun 4th Mar 2012. Kick-Off: High Noon. Referee: Mike Dean.
It’s that time again. Time for the Mackems to rise the challenge of walking upright and drag themselves to St James’ Park for what is undoubtedly the best derby fixture the Premier League has on offer.
The Mackems have been somewhat rejuvenated under Martin O’Neill’s leadership although their form has stuttered a bit in their last two games. Then again, our form has suffered a similar dip in the last two games.
But form isn’t always a good indicator when it comes to derby matches anyway. Extra tension creeps in and it can sometimes be about mistakes and about which players rise to the challenge and which shirk away from it.
Both sides have been talking up the game of course. Yohan Cabaye said: (more…)
SMB's, you will see!Derby day fever is starting to get in full swing and we are now less than 24 hours away from the event itself.
The cheesy chip eating, trampy blue pop drinking brigade will be ruining the look of the landscape in Newcastle for a few hours tomorrow afternoon, so let’s hope we can send their distorted faces back home without anything to smile about!
Sunderland are wandering around at the moment believing they are the best, and they could have some justification for that to be honest. Afterall, they didn’t spend last season in The Championship, unlike us.
Still, I have a newsflash for them – they are not as good as they seem to think they are!
A bit of luck, and a few own goals have gained them points at home against some good teams. If they had lost that bit of luck then they wouldn’t have anywhere near as many points as they have now. To illustrate just how a bit of luck can play a part in the table, if we had some luck we would be four points better off already.
Steven Taylor will miss the match although he is back in full training and will be back in contention for a first-team recall soon enough. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa, Steve Harper, Sol Campbell and Leon Best. (more…)
