Kevin Nolan takes his ball home.Firstly of course, this game will be remembered as a time when Ipswich paid tribute to the great Sir Bobby Robson and renamed the north stand of Portman Road in his honour. Lady Elsie Robson and her sons, Andrew and Paul were in attendance for the ceremony. Also, both teams wore special, commemorative kits for the game, and a musical tribute of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ was held during the half time break in what was a moving event for both sets of fans.
On the game itself, Merseyside hit squad, Kevin Nolan and Ryan Taylor came up trumps once again as Newcastle United eventually cruised to a 4 – 0 win at Portman Road, including a debut hat-trick for Nolan. Though there were times when he looked like a certain number 9 as he combined opportunism, strength, and good finishing, Ipswich certainly made it alot easier than it should have been with some pretty awful defending at times. This gave Toon in general, and Nolan particular more than enough space to play the game that they wanted. Ryan Taylor also added to the total with a superbly taken free kick for the third, along with some excellent mortar fire, creating several opportunities around the Ipswich goal.
Ipswich’s attack was pretty awful too generally. Being seemingly terrified to crack one off in the box, they had very few chances overall. The midfield were poor too, though perhaps not quite as bad as the rest, they were bullied by a no nonsense Magpie mid section full of enforcers including captain, Alan ‘Slasher’ Smith, who wasted no time rolling his sleeves up and getting stuck into some raw meat as usual. (more…)
Ryan Taylor - unsettled.Well, another day, and the ceaseless tide of drivel about Newcastle United continues unabated in the media.
First dog out the trap today is the Guardian, not the risable Louise Taylor for a change, but Simon Williams. He’s been speaking with the ubiqiutous Newcastle “source” again, who tells him that the “close friend Rob Lee” was wrong after all, and that Alan Shearer will not give up on the Newastle United manager’s position.
The source says:
“There is no chance Alan will give up on becoming Newcastle United’s permanent manager. He will not walk away and he continues to wait for news regarding the sale of the club.”
Meanwhile, old Crusader, the Daily Express is running with the story that Sebastien Bassong has joined Alan Shearer in limbo. Niall Hickman reports that Tottenham, “made a £6 million offer for Bassong”, who, apparently “deperately wants to leave”
Writing about things of which he knows nothing, Hickman spouts: (more…)
