| News - October 2007 |
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| Points mean prizes October 31st
 The second month of Prediction Corner has came to an end and we have another new winner to announce.Dan P. of MA has pipped the masses by collecting 16 points so far this season. He's going to have to keep on his toes though with only SIX points seperating the top 25 positions. One game could change all that! Dan P will shortly be receiving his prize which is a copy of the Evening Chronicle the day after Alan Shearer's testimonial. The Evening Chronicle (Newcastle's local paper) did a special edition to celebrate our number 9's achievements including 52 pages of photos and commentry. Dan P will also be receiving a signed photo of our number 9 - courtesy of UMBRO Canada. The winner of November's Prediction Corner will receive either a testimonial scarf or program from the event and all winners this season will receive a signed photo of Alan Shearer, again thanks to our friends at UMBRO Canada. Remember it's not too late to join our free game. In fact, in just three games you could be top of the league!! Find out more about Prediction Corner here. Away Day Blues October 28th
 Full time from the Madejski Stadium:Reading 2 (Kitson 53, Long 84) - Newcastle United 1 (Duberry og 76) So it appears that as soon as we leave St James Park, we turn into a different team as yet another rubbish performance left us with zero points against a team which aren't exactly world beaters. Rivaling our performance against Derby for being bloody awful, we should have been a couple of goals down at half time but thankfully Reading forward Leroy Lita isn't a Premiership player and spurned two easy chances. Despite having Emre and Barton in midfield, we created virtually nothing and without N'Zogbia and Milner on the field we lacked width. Owen and Martins upfront were cut off from everyone and with the exception of a half-hearted penalty appeal, we didn't cause Reading's American goalkeeper any problems. So it was no surprise when we went behind early in the second half when Dave Kitson turned on the edge of the box and powered an effort past Shay Given. The introduction of Smith and N'Zogbia didn't provide much spark especially as our most likely output for goals - Oba Martins was taken off. Infact it wasn't until Milner came on that we looked semi-dangerous and his hard work got us a free kick from which Michael Duberry inexplicably put into his own net for a thoroughly underserved equalizer. For the next five minutes we actually played well and had a couple of efforts to snatch a win - that was until substitute Shane Long came on and scored with virtually his first touch. Typical of our lot to get back in the game - only to throw it away. So where does this leave us? Well, we are obviously better than last season but the away form which has plagued us for many, many years is still there and Big Sam needs to figure out these Jekyll and Hyde performances - especially because our next away game is against the mackems. A View From Back Home - The Season So Far October 25th
 Well after 9 games we stand in 8th position which aint too shabby. However, some fans' expectations for this new season are bordering on the fantastical in my opinion. I've heard people who thought we would be top 4 "nee bother", even people in the Greenford Arms after our opening day victory who thought we could “win the league” - in hindsight however these delusional people were pouring whiskey into their pints!!! In my opinion, this season will be one of transition (how many times have we heard that said) as it will take Big Sam Allardyce time to implement his new methods and time for the new arrivals to gel. The first thing he can be judged on are the new acquisitions and most people (including myself) are impressed. Cacapa has looked like an experienced defender (great header against Spurs) who can read the game well, Rozenhal has been a rock, Viduka (when fit) a good partner to either Owen or Martins. Geremi and Enrique both look like good additions and I'm hopeful that Barton will add a bit of creativity to the midfield when he is given his chance to start. For me though the question marks are over Smith. I admire the lad’s passion and guts (if not his haircuts) but he doesn't at the moment seem to add anything to the team bar upping our yellow card tally. I also like BSA's handling of the "bling bling - divvent set foot in out town anymore you spineless, too much too young" divvies. The likes of Bramble, Dyer, Luque, Moore and Onyewu were simply not good enough, or didn't want to be good enough to wear the shirt. what a few of the knackers forgot is that the 52,000 people who watch them week in week out (plus the 1,000s watching on the box or listening on the radio) grew up wanting to pull on that shirt and would have done so for nowt let alone 30 grand a week plus. BSA knew this and got rid quickly. Shola if he has any sense better find any ability he may have or he will be playing in the Championship, the mackems or both next year! Honourable mentions must go to Sib, Nobby and Pav. Sib's arrival at NE1 4BJ was met with apathy from the fans that saw him as a needless last minute panic buy. But the big baldy Frenchmen won us over with his commitment and some vital goals. Whatever reason Nobby left (he may have said family reasons but many suspect Nobby was not an "Allardyce player") he will always be one of my favourite ever Newcastle players. It took him a while to adjust to the Premiership but once he did he for me was one of our "proper" footballers, control, technique, vision and some great goals over the years. Having met the guy (usually around the Bigg Market / Quayside a sure sign he'd embraced the Geordie lifestyle - I bet you the Peruvians eat ham and Pease pudding stotties now) he was also a gentleman. There is no room for sentiment in football if you want to be successful but it was great to see Pav back even for a short while though anytime he appeared between the sticks (in his second stint) you could imagine the staff at the General A+E preparing for mass coronary emissions from SJP. However as the saying goes "Pavel is a Geordie" and one of the characters of the Keegan era. I'm not too sure how I have typed so many words without mention of Mike Ashley and the takeover! I think most people like the fact that everything has gone smoothly and unlike Fat Fred, Ashley isn't going to double up as a ‘renta quote’ for the Chronicle or screws of the world. The club PR has never been better - free tickets for kids at cup games, the direct debit offer for next years season ticket. Ashley and Chris Mort have also looked at what the previous regime may have regarded as insignificant (or just didn't care) like queues at half time - they have brought in more staff and a better queuing system. At the end of the day whether we like it or not football is now a multi million pound business and the fans are consumers. What Ashley is doing is looking to enhance the match-day experience (and generate extra revenue) and so far I'd only fault him for bringing in blo0dy Carling. Can we have Stella next season please Sir?! – oh and for buying the whole of Blu Bambu a drink when I wasn't there - see you in Sam Jacks for the pre match rippers before the next home game, Mike? Now the football. Allardyce hasn't really surprised us greatly. We've had good wins against West Ham, Bolton, Wigan and Everton although despite some of the goal hauls haven't created loads of chances but wins are wins! ‘Boro away a point was probably a fair result - although always disappointing to leave the green air and chimneys of Teesside without winning. For the record yes songs were sung about Pedophilia (as they have done for the last 20 years) and likening Mido to terrorist shoe bomber Richard Reid. Is this Islam0phobic? No I don't even know is Mido is a Muslim. Is it offensive? Possibly. In bad taste? Definitely. The fact is Mido took it as bait, football fans have always took the p!ss (as anyone who has followed footbaal since pre-Sky/Keegan knows), and if you don't want to hear a bit of craic and swearing then make sure you're not surrounded by predominately young males who have been on the lash since 10am in the morning. Try a church fete for your leisure time! There was the horror show at Derby which was as bad as anything Sou(r)ness or Roedent served up. Man City showed that our defence is still prone to being as tight as the titanic and we all expected that Arsenals wonder-kids would be too much in the end. What the first 9 games have indicated is that we have some good players, our defence is better but that it hasn't turned into the Arsenal back 4 of the late 80s overnight. As we expected Allardyce likes a narrow team but with Charlie and Milner we look more threatening with width especially at home. I should have mentioned at the outset that I wasn't a big fan of Sam - I thought that he looked at football too scientifically when in my opinion the games beauty is it's soul, the players you remember are not necessarily technically perfect, organised or strong athletes (Peter Beardsley anyone?) but are people who can do things others can't. Perhaps I'm living in the past – but football teams now have fitness trainers, nutritionists, dieticians, psychologists, etc, and it seems that Big Sam is staying ahead of the competition and that's beneficial to NUFC. I also thought Bolton were ugly, played long ball football and signed over-the-hill ex-internationals. However I am prepared to give anyone who arrives at our club the chance to do their best and so far so good I'm prepared to accept that maybe my preconceptions are wrong whilst I doubt BSA will ever have us playing like the Dutch in 1978 or Brazil in 1970, I ultimately think given time we will be back in the top 4 with the financial clout now to push further. That is why I think people have to be realistic – message boards and opinions in pubs swings from Sam's class to we should have tried to get Eriksson / Hiddink / Scolari etc..depending on the Toon's last result. Since the last Board were ousted and Roeder sacked the mood has been upbeat. The best thing the fans can do is support the lads on the pitch. Away from home the support is outstanding even miserable away days at Eastlands (more miserable for my mate who got nicked when the Police decided to charge the away following on horses) and Pride Park still saw the lads getting great backing. What we need (IMHO) to do is support them at SJP - the idiots who booed at the end of the Villa game are (a) Johnny-come-latelys or (b) have forgotten what getting hammered at Oxford and Southend used to feel like. We've had a mixed start but have a squad full of potential. Let’s get behind them. Newcastle United - One City, One Club, One Love Written by Andy Coyne, long time NUFC fan. Based in Newcastle. Third time lucky October 22nd
Final score from St. James Park:Newcastle United 3 (Martins 44, Cacapa, 51, Milner 73) - Spurs 1 (Keane 57) We scored three goals today against the side third from bottom. It's the third time in a row we've scored three times at home and it's the third time in a row we've beaten Spurs 3-1 at home. There, that's the stats out the way. We continued our impressive home performance this evening against a poor Spurs side that look a shadow of the team we've seen in recent Premiership seasons. We dominated much of the first half, Faye coming close when his header hit the post and Owen had a good effort saved when reserve goalkeeper Cerny (in for the injured Robinson) tipped an effort around the post. A long ball was then poorly dealt with by the Spurs defense - only for Cerny to save their blushes by denying Martins - and Dawson denying a follow up effort by Owen. Spurs didn't read the warning signs though and only minutes later, a long punt by Enrique found Martins who watched Dawson make a mess of things, then powered the ball through the legs of Cerny. 1-0 half time and we deserved it. Second half saw Milner replace N'Zogbia which was tactical (although Charlie played well in the first half). It didn't seem to matter though, just as the commentator had finished saying "Spurs are vulnerable at set pieces" it was 2-0. Geremi's corner found the completely unmarked Cacapa (replays showing Dawson was at fault again) who powered his header home. It's not Newcastle unless we make things interesting and we did - Keane pulling one back when a Darren Bent header rebounded off the post and fell kindly to the Irish forward. Despite plenty of Spurs possession though they never looked like equalizing as our defenders looked solid and Spurs lacked imagination. The sulky Berbatov's introduction didn't spark any revival as feared, reports claiming it took the Spurs manager three requests to get the Bulgarian to warm up. Cue the icing on the cake then when a mis-cue by James Milner ended up falling nicely to the England-under 21 who hit a left-foot volley into the bottom right hand corner of the net. Game over. There was enough time for Barton to make his Newcastle debut although his passing and first touch looked a little rusty. The game played out without incident though and the three points were safe. Overall we looked solid - our defense particularly played well and Faye and Cacapa looked the part. Up front Martins did well, without much help from England's Michael Owen. Our man of the match though was Nicky Butt who seemed to be EVERYWHERE and gave Spurs midfield (including Jenas) almost zero time on the ball. Another three points at home then (although we stay 8th), now we turn to our away form and a visit to Reading who can be beaten - we just need to take our home form on the road. Cheers to All October 19th
Quick cheers to everyone who is participating in our new online discussion forum. Since releasing the site just over a month ago, we've had 781 posts ranging from discussing our upcoming opponents to what everyone thinks of the new FIFA 08! With more and more member joining each week, we expect more posts, more discussions and more debates as the season progresses. If you haven't done so before, please check out our new forums! Poll Results: Given or Harper? October 18th
A couple of weeks ago we asked our ToonArmyUSA forums the following question:If you were managing Newcastle, who would you start in goal? And this is how they answered: - Shay Given - 78.5% - Steve Harper - 21.5% - Neither - 0% So despite a shaky performance against Everton, our lot would stay with Given and perhaps rightly so, he is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Harper can feel a little hard done by though, he had some solid performances this season before losing his spot to Shay. Remember - if you want to vote, please do so at our new forums! Seems Owen's OK but... October 18th
 ...England
aren't! Defeat yesterday against Russia now means England are on the
brink of not qualifying for Euro 2008. Victory for Russia in their last
two games would confirm this. Owen did very little to get injured to be
honest although he did set up Wayne Rooney's goal.Given, Emre and Rozenthal also featured for their country yesterday with only the latter ending up on the winning team, as the Czech's beat Germany 3-0. Fingers Crossed... October 17th
Our
number 10 faces off against Russia this afternoon as Newcastle fans
wait for the inevitable injury which will rule him out until the next
batch of England games. Victory for England means they would qualify
for the Euro 2008 competition.Meanwhile rumors that Owen could be on his way to either Manchester United or City appear to be off the mark. Chairman Chris Mort has gone on the record to say that Owen no longer has a get-out clause in his contract and the club are even looking at extending his stay. In other news, Joey Barton wont start against Spurs on Monday but could feature from the bench. Big Sam is obviously not one of those managers who will throw players into the deep end when they initially recover from an injury or join the club on a transfer, so while this method is a little frustrating for the fans it should ease our injury worries and so far, all of our new boys seem to have settled in very well. Finally, Damien Duff is getting closer to his return from a "career-threatening" ankle injury, according to Big Sam. The Irish midfielder is doing some light training although isn't expected to feature for the team until late next month. East Coast Convention October 11th
 We
are pleased to announce our next East Coast Convention will be on
November 10th at Nevada Smiths in New York City. The game will be
against local rivals Sunderland and kick off is live at 7:45am ET. The
match will be televised.For those that haven't attended a convention before, it's a gathering of Newcastle fans to watch a game and enjoy the atmosphere that is unique to our team. Although it's an early start, the festivities start just before kick off and usually last long into the day. Our last convention saw around 30 Newcastle fans - from the UK and the US get together. Be aware that the meeting place - Nevada Smiths, is a bar although they will allow children in to watch the game. From experience, hotels in NYC book up early so we recommend booking fast. If you are coming alone and want to share the cost of a room, please visit our forums to see if anyone else is in the same boat. For those that would like more details about the event, please feel free to contact Mike at geordiewebmaster@gmail.com. Otherwise, here are some useful links - Nevada Smiths - Meeting location Expedia - Travel website for hotel, rail and flight information Broken Hammers October 9th
Those
that have been following some of our recent departures will know that
things aren't going to plan - especially for those that left for West
Ham.West Ham suffered yet another defeat on Saturday when they lost 1-0 to Aston Villa and despite having five former toon players on their books, only Lee Bowyer played. So far there has been no sign of our former trumpet-playing Peruvian Nobby Solano although he is listed as being injured. Scott Parker made his debut last week in the defeat to Arsenal but he didn't last very long and after a nasty tackle ended up with a knee injury which is expected to keep him out till later this month. Craig Bellamy has a groin problem and hasn't played recently and this could be reflecting West Ham's lack of goals (the last one they scored in the league was against us). Finally Kieron Dyer is a long-term casuality with a broken leg. Sam's Super Subs October 8th
Final score from St. James Park:Newcastle United 3 (Butt 42, Emre 85, Owen 89) - Everton 2 (Johnson 53, Given OG 90) Newcastle continued their impressive home form with a victory against Everton, although like West Ham, it was another unconvincing performance by our lot. With no Viduka, Martins was paired upfront with Alan Smith and those two combined well in the early stages, Martins missing a one-on-one when sent through by Smith. Another frustrating moment by the Nigerian. At the other end Given made a hash of what seemed like a easy catch when young Everton striker Victor Anichebe beat him to it - only for Capaca to clear off the line. It was to end up being a rough day for our usually reliable number one. With Newcastle edging the game slightly without playing amazingly well, it was time for Nicky Butt to grab his first competitive goal at SJP. A poor clearance from Lescott after some good work from Smith allowed Butt to take control of the ball and lift it over the stranded Howard to make it 1-0. Just like West Ham though we let our opponents back into it when Baines found space down the left and with Given in two minds, delivered a cross that Andy Johnson could bundle home for the equalizer. Also like West Ham, the visitors suddenly looked like the more threatening team and a second goal for Everton wasn't unlikely, especially after Capaca had to deny Anichebe when through on goal. Time for an inspired substitution and what a substitution it was. Emre and Owen on and within minutes we were two goals ahead. First a cracker from Emre, all of twenty yards out with again Everton failing to clear their lines. The third, a header from an Emre free kick by England's Michael Owen which actually came off his shoulder but who cares. Everton defending like we used to, completely leaving Owen unmarked. Still time for Newcastle to leave us with a few nerves though as a deflected cross was palmed into his own goal by Given but we managed to hold the ball for the final few seconds and see of the scousers. So we weren't brilliant but again we got the three points against another decent side. Any sort of improvement with our away form and we could seriously be threatening the top 6 spots come May. Kudos to Beye and Enrique who both did their jobs today and with our injury situation starting to clear up (Barton played again for the reserves today), then competition for places will hopefully encourage some of our lot to improve their performances - and it looks like it's started working with Emre. What happened to 3pm KO on Saturday? October 6th
There is no US TV Coverage of the game but it is on Setanta Broadband.Newcastle entertain Everton tomorrow in yet another game which isn't taking place on Saturday at 3pm. In fact, such is the schedule now with television rights and European games that only one game kicked off at the usual Saturday afternoon spot. That however may benefit our lot, Everton being involved on Thursday in a tricky UEFA Cup tie which despite a very average performance they ran out 3-2 winners. Tired legs and tired minds? - Let's hope so. Last season we drew Everton 1-1 a game which saw Bramble at fault for the visitors goal (surprise!) and then get sent off later in the game for a clumsy tackle. Thankfully he's Wigan's problem now (see article below). We need to continue our good home form, especially as our away from is so weak and it's good news then that Cacapa, Enrique, Faye and Emre are all in contention for a place in the starting line-up. So too is Owen, who appears to have recovered from the surgery he had only last week. It's unclear how fit he is though, although that hasn't stopped us playing him in the past... Although not expected to play but back in training are Barton, Carr and Duff - which would leave only Ameobi, Babayaro and Ramage on the injured list - none of which are a major loss! Everton are without Gravesen and Cahill - the latter of which always seems to cause us trouble and scored the equalizer at SJP last season. We need another strong home performance - and ensure our good start to the season doesn't completely lose momentum. ToonArmyUSA Prediction: Newcastle 2 - 1 Everton - Get your prediction in! Possible line-up: Given, Beye, Capaca, Rozenthal, Enrique, N'Zogbia, Geremi, Butt, Milner, Viduka, Martins Titus back to his best! October 6th
From the Sportinglife website earlier today (commentary for Man Utd vs. Wigan) 68 mins: Bramble embarrassingly brings down his own team-mate Hall, who now looks like he'll have to be taken off injured. Some things never change... Michael Owen - is he worth the hassle? October 2nd
So fingers crossed Owen is fit for England eh? Garbage.Having virtually not played since he joined the club, our number 10 looks like he's going to limp through this campaign, playing a few minutes here and there for club, only to ensure he's fully fit when England come calling. We're getting a bit sick of it all to be honest. We see glimpses of what it could be like having one of the best strikers in the game playing for us (Barnsley & Wigan) but he still seems to be struggling with various injuries that don't appear to be affecting his national form. His recent set back seems to be temporary although it's unlikely he'll be rushed back into action against Everton - especially with the next round of England games coming up! Is this all just us being jealous? Quite possibly, but it's about time we see the real Michael Owen perform in a black and white shirt. Get him fit or get him out. So far he hasn't done enough to warrant being a major loss should be leave in January but believe us, we hope things change and quickly... |