Go on, nut himMartin O’Neill disputes criticism that his Sunderland side were ‘dirty’ in the weekend’s derby against Newcastle United.
Martin O’Neill has been responding to accusations that the mackems are a bunch of dirty, fouling thugs whose only aim was to kick the opposition of the park on Sunday. Some of those accusations were at least insinuated by Alan Pardew, who said:
“I didn’t like the way the game started. The first tackle [Cattermole on Tiote] set the tone for the first half. It was premeditated. I was disappointed with it and he could have gone off at any other time.
“There was a physical pattern to the game and it was just a matter of who could keep their head and I was just hoping to get to half-time with 11 players.”
Which I suppose could be interpreted as an accusation of dirty play.
Anyway, O’Neill is having none of it and has launched his own tirade upon Newcastle suggesting that we were the dirtier team: (more…)
St James' Park - Full to the brim?I’ve been checking online for quite some time now to see how ticket sales for the derby match against Sunderland tomorrow have been progressing.
It’s fair to say that they have been going pretty well, which is to be as expected as it is THE local derby, but will we manage a sell out at St James’ Park for the first time this season?
In short, technically we won’t sell out fully as a larger than normal segregation area between the two sets of fans has been requested by the police, presumably to stop those filthy Mackem tramps hoying their sharpened benefit coins at the home fans, again, but what about all of the rest of the avaiable seats? Will we shift them in time for the kick-off tomorrow? Or will we fail to sell out a derby for the first time in quite a while?
I checked earlier and all I saw was one seat remaining in the Platinum Club, just one seat in the entire ground. I checked a bit later on and the official website said that there was a few more seats left. Then I checked again and it said we had sold out. In short, heaven only knows if we have actually sold out what is available as the new club website appears to be a bit pants in all honesty and can’t seem to make it’s mind up on what it wants to show! (more…)
Joey Barton - Pedro look-a-like?Joey Barton has built up a reputation based on his controversial past, but if you take the time to listen, then you could well be pleasantly surprised at what the Cheshire lad has to say.
When Joey speaks he come across as quite an articulate person and has a stunning habit of talking a lot of sense, the kind of sense that if he himself had listened to earlier in his career he may not have found himself in some of the situations he has been in.
Anyway, Joey has been speaking to The Shields Gazette where he talked about Newcastle’s troublesome home form and the upcoming derby match against Sunderland this Sunday.
“It’s a derby game, and form will go out of the window. Sunderland are a very good side. Steve Bruce has built a good, young team,” said Barton, who will play in his third Tyne/Wear derby match on Sunday.
“But we’re on our own patch, and there’ll be 50,000 Geordie lunatics cheering us on, and hopefully we can get the result we want and send them all out on the town happy.”(more…)
