Archive for October, 2010

Match Preview: mackems (h)

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 29th, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011


Season 2010/2011 – Match 10

mackems (h)

Date: Monday 1st November 2010
Venue: St James’ Park
Kick-Off: 12:30am (AEDT), 12am (SA), 11:30pm (QLD), 11pm (NT), 9:30pm (WA)
Referee: Phil Dowd (Stoke)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 1
Forum: Match Thread

Last 5 Form:
Newcastle United
CC4 – Arsenal (h) L 0-4
PL – West Ham (a) W 2-1
PL – Wigan (h) D 2-2
PL – Man City (a) L 1-2
PL – Stoke City (h) L 1-2

Sunderland
PL – Aston Villa (h) W 1-0
PL – Blackburn (a) D 0-0
PL – Man Utd (h) D 0-0
PL – Liverpool (a) D 2-2
CC3 – West Ham (h) L 1-2

Match Stats:
All time – Newcastle 51 win, draws 46, sunderland 46 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Newcastle $2.25, Draw $3.20, sunderland $3.30

Did You Know?
The History of the Tyne and Wear derby is regarded by many in the North East as the modern day extension of a rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland that dates back to the English Civil War when protestations over advantages that merchants in Royalist Newcastle had over their Wearside counterparts led to Sunderland becoming a Parliamentarian stronghold.


Lee Clark you legend.

Team News:
Newcastle United will be without injury victims Dan Gosling, Hatem ben Arfa, Leon Best, Stephen Harper, Sol Campbell and while Steven Taylor has returned to full training this game will come too soon for him.

Match Preview
The 144th Tyne Wear derby takes place tomorrow night as Newcastle United entertain sunderland at St James’ Park and for both sets of the supporters this game can make or break a season.

A break in hostilities last season while Newcastle regained their Premier League status means the expectation is even greater than normal for this match. Boasting 51 wins compared to 46, and with only one defeat in the last eleven games, Newcastle have had the recent advantage including being undefeated at home since 2000. However, as is usually the case form goes out of the window with everything on the line in the derby and more often than not it is the team who wants to win it more that prevails in what is sure to be a tight and firry affair.

Following on from their exit in the Carling Cup in midweek Newcastle manager Chris Hughton will restore his strongest line-up with Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Cheik Tiote, Joey Barton, and Fabricio Coloccini all coming back into his side. Barton and Tiote will have a key role to play in what will no doubt be a tough midfield battle. This will be a big test for Barton, who’s discipline and temperament has been excellent of late, as he will be targeted by the sunderland players to see if they can make him react.

Despite the fact this will be Carroll’s first derby game, the Geordie striker knows what this game is all about after being a season ticket holder at St James’ Park, and he will looked upon to lead the line and be the main threat. His striker partner at West Ham last week, Shola Ameobi, had one of his poorer games this season but Ameobi has an excellent record in this fixture with four goals making it difficult for Hughton to consider leaving him out.

Heroes are made in this game, just ask Liam O’Brien, Scott Sellars or Emre, and players have built reputations by scoring goals in these games. The likes of Andy O’Brien and Nikos Dabizas will not be in anybody’s greatest ever starting XI but scoring against the mackems will mean they will be remembered forever on Tyneside. I wonder who the next Black & White hero will be?

The short trip up the road to Newcastle upon Tyne will be a well travelled one for the 2,600 mackem supporters and their players. Without an international airport, or train station on a national rail line, and without any world class shops, bars and restaurants, the inbreds from down the road have no choice but to come up to Newcastle to use decent facilities. This fact must stick in the throats of every single one especially considering the people of Tyneside had no need to make that reciprocal journey other than when their team is playing at the stadium of shite.

What a truly horrible bunch these lot are….lets hope we smash them, Howay The Lads!!!

Update (31/10/2010)…
Past & present players pre-match quotes
Fabricio Coloccini said:

“We know the game can make us into a hero. This is a very important game, but I don’t want to make history in one goal against Sunderland. I want to write a history over a long period. But we know how important this game is, and we have to win it. We have to think only of the three points.”


Liam O’Brien said:

“Oh, yes it’s a real platform for anybody to write their way into the history books. I think it’s one of the biggest derbies in the world. It’s right up there with Celtic v Rangers and I suppose you have to have played in one to fully understand it. It’s one of the biggest games of the season of course for Newcastle. And I’ve got fantastic mem-ories of playing in them – the week building up to the game is really exciting too. They haven’t played one for a season now and it can add to the pressure for Newcastle when Sunderland have been doing better. There are standout memories for me in the derby, of course. But I will never forget the day I scored the free-kick against Sunderland. We’d won 10 great games on the spin and even though we’d been ahead through a deflected goal from Kevin Brock, we thought the 11th win was out of our reach. It looked like it was going to be a draw. But we got the free-kick. A couple of people came over but I said, ‘get away’, John Beresford come over and said ‘Let me take it’. I said ‘get away’ in no uncertain terms. And then Bez chirped up, ‘where you going to put it!’ He knew by my expression I wasn’t letting anyone take it, maybe because he’s smaller than me! I always had it in mind to put it where the keeper was standing because I knew he would move.”


Shay Given said:

“You cannot walk the streets in Newcastle without somebody talking to you about football – not least during derby week. That shows just how much it all means up there. It is certainly one in which you just do not want to lose.I had a lot of great memories from derby games, but the one which probably sticks out the most was when we won 1-0 at the Stadium of Light in 2002 when Nikos Dabizas scored and we were on our way to the Champions League. Any game like that when you have helped the team to get the result is satisfying, especially against the local enemy.I hope the atmosphere will still be alive when I go back and they are still talking about a derby win. I have to say I fancy Newcastle to do it as well. I hope that is not putting the kiss of death on them, but I know there is more than enough quality within the ranks to get a result. The lads will be up for it and I fancy them to take those important three points.”


Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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Match Preview: Newcastle United v Arsenal

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 26th, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011


Season 2010/2011 – 4th Round

Arsenal (h)

Date: Thursday 28th October 2010
Venue: St James’ Park
Kick-Off: 5:45am (AEDT), 5:15am (SA), 4:45am (QLD), 4:15am (NT), 2:45am (WA)
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 2
Forum: Match Thread

Last 5 Form:
Newcastle United
PL – West Ham (a) W 2-1
PL – Wigan (h) D 2-2
PL – Man City (a) L 1-2
PL – Stoke City (h) L 1-2
CC3 – Chelsea (a) W 4-3

Arsenal
PL – Man City (a) W 3-0
UCL – Shakhtar Donetsk (h) W 5-1
PL – Birmingham City (h) W 2-1
PL – Chelsea (a) L 0-2
UCL – Partizan Belgrade (a) W 3-1

Match Stats:
All time – Newcastle 65 win, draws 36, Arsenal 64 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Newcastle $3.70, Draw $3.40, Arsenal $1.91

Did You Know?
Newcastle United have not beaten Arsenal in a cup tie since George Robledo’s goal beat the Gunners in the 1952 FA Cup Final. Since then Arsenal have won the last six meetings in both the League and FA Cup.

Team News:
Newcastle United will be without injury victims Dan Gosling, Hatem ben Arfa, Leon Best, Stephen Harper, Sol Campbell and Steven Taylor.

Match Preview by DjBigK
After a solid victory in the league it will be interesting to see whether Chris Hughton continues with his policy to play youth and fringe players in the Carling Cup. Interestingly, despite Arsenal’s history of employing the same policy some early rumblings from Arsene Wenger indicate that the Frenchman would be playing his strongest 11 in this match. Whether that suggestion rings true remains to be seen. After an impressive 3-0 win in the league the prospect of their first 11 could be a very daunting one, particularly if we field less than our best.

Personally I’m not entirely decided on who we should be playing for this match. With the crucial derby coming up Sunday at home it’s critical that we can field our strongest 11 in that match, so that could be an argument for Chris Hughton to give the fringe and youth players a chance to pick up from their impressive win over Chelsea in the 3rd Round. On the other side of the argument, with a number of strong sides already eliminated from the Carling Cup if we were to progress to the quarter finals it’s not impossible to dream of a berth in the Cup Final, and from there a trophy is just 90 minutes away.

If the choice is to go with fringe players we could still put out quite a strong side. Danny Guthrie, Wayne Routledge, Peter Lovenkrands and Alan Smith will all be available. In form left back/midfielder Shane Ferguson has looked a prospect, and Nile Ranger has impressed in patches. Our current Spanish outcast Xisco should be chomping at the bit to prove himself. Tamas Kadar has not disappointed at the back when called on. Up and coming midfielder Haris Vuckic has been talked about a lot and should relish another chance to test himself against a strong opposition. After being dropped from the first team after a string of poor matches James Perch will want to get straight back out on to the pitch. Add to that mix a spattering of first team experience and they should be capable of putting in a good showing.

Whatever the case I’ll be watching on keenly!

Thanks to Keith Rowe (aka DjBigK) for supplying his view on this match.

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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West Ham 1-2 Newcastle United

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 25th, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011


Season 2010/2011 – Match 9

Date: Sunday 23rd October 2010
Kick-off: 5:30pm (GMT)
Venue: Upton Park
Attendance: 34,486 including 2,950 travelling supporters
Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside)

Teams
West Ham: Green Jacobsen, da Costa, Upson (Ilunga 53), Gabbidon, Behrami (Barrera 76), Parker, Noble, Obinna, Cole, Piquionne (McCarthy 67).
Subs Not Used: Stech, Ben-Haim, Boa Morte, Faubert

Goals: Cole 12

Newcastle: Krul, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Barton, Nolan, Tiote, Gutierrez, Carroll, Ameobi.
Subs Not Used: Soderberg, Guthrie, Routledge, Lovenkrands, Perch, R. Taylor, Smith

Goal: Nolan 23, Carroll 69

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton said afterwards:

“It’s been a tough week and that was a big win. My position is completely different, but I’m delighted for this group of lads. It’s a very spirited group of players and staff that we’ve got. Whenever they have been questioned they have generally come up trumps. It’s difficult to single out anyone because it was a good team performance. West Ham is not an easy place to come and when the team sheets go up you see the quality that they have. I think that was the best performance of my time here. No disrespect to the Championship – where we had some tremendous performances – it is hard in the Premier League and it means that little bit more. It was definitely the best performance of the season so far.”




Match Report
Newcastle United recorded their 250th Premier League victory with a 2-1 win over West Ham United at Upton Park on Saturday. After going down to a early goal by Carlton Cole Newcastle came back to claim victory thanks to goals from Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll.

Manager Chris Hughton decided against playing his usual 4-4-1-1 away formation and resorted to a more traditional 4-4-2. Carroll was partnered upfront by Shola Ameobi, while the returning Nolan was moved back into centre midfield with Joey Barton moving out right at the expense of Danny Guthrie.

The Hammers started the better of the two teams, the home side finding too much space in behind the Newcastle back four as the pace of winger Victor Obinna and striker Frédéric Piquionne exposed the Magpies high defensive line. Twelve minutes in and West Ham’s pressure told, Mark Noble feed Obinna down the left flank and the wingers perfect cross found Cole in the box who had a simple tap-in.

After what was a shaky start for Newcastle the West Ham goal seemed to inspire the Toon as they then started to dominate, and only 11 minutes later the match was level at 1-1. A Barton right wing cross found Carroll at the back post and the big strikers knock down fell to Nolan who smashed home a first time left-foot strike.

The second half saw why West Ham are bottom of the Premier League. A thoroughly inept performance by the home side was taken advantage of by Newcastle who again dominated the half without playing having to much top quality football. Midfielder Cheik Tiote bossed the midfield, and as usual Jonas Gutierrez & Jose Enrique caused plenty of problems down our left-flank.

On 69 minutes Newcastle got the goal their dominance deserved. Barton was again the provider, another perfect right wing cross found the unmarked Carroll who headed home from 5 yards out. After a difficult week for Carroll this was the perfect way to round it off, and with Nolan scoring Newcastle’s other goal it meant celebrations around in the Nolan household.

This was the result Newcastle needed leading into a massive week with games against arsenal in the Carling Cup and the derby match at the weekend. Chris Hughton will be happy with his teams performance and pleased with his teams response to his 4-4-2 formation.

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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Match Preview: West Ham v Newcastle United

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 22nd, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011


Season 2010/2011 – Match 9

West Ham United (a)

Date: Sunday 24th October 2010
Venue: Upton Park
Kick-Off: 3:30am (AEDT), 3am (SA), 2:30am (QLD), 2am (NT), 12:30am (WA)
Referee: Chris Foy (Merseyside)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 1
Forum: Match Thread

Last 5 Form:
Newcastle United
PL – Wigan (h) D 2-2
PL – Man City (a) L 1-2
PL – Stoke City (h) L 1-2
CC3 – Chelsea (a) W 4-3
PL – Everton (a) W 1-0

West Ham
PL – Wolves (a) D 1-1
PL – Fulham (h) D 1-1
PL – Spurs (h) W 1-0
CC3R – sunderland (a) W 2-1
PL – Stoke (a) D 1-1

Match Stats:
All time – West Ham 37 win, draws 35, Newcastle 47 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

West Ham $2.30, Draw $3.20, Newcastle $3.20

Did You Know?
Andy Carroll scored his first ever Premier League goal against West Ham in a 2-2 home draw back in January 2009.

Team News:
West Ham welcome back England defender Mattew Upson who missed last weeks game at Wolves, while former Magpie Kieron Dyer should face his former club after regaining his place in the starting line-up. Zavon Hines and Jack Collison are both our with long term knee injuries.

Newcastle United are again without injury victims Dan Gosling, Hatem ben Arfa, Leon Best, Stephen Harper and Steven Taylor. Sol Campbell is out with a new thigh injury, while right-back Danny Simpson should return to the starting XI after three successive reserve team outings and captain Kevin Nolan has been declared fit.

Match Preview
Newcastle United travel down to London to take on West Ham United looking for their first win in four games and their 250th in the Premier League.

Despite being bottom of the league West Ham have recovered well from losing their opening four games and are now unbeaten in four matches, including victories over sunderland in the Carling Cup and against Spurs. A win for the Hammers would take them above Newcastle and round off a miserable week for manager Chris Hughton. Unbeaten in their last three matches against Newcastle confidence will be high in the hammers camp.

There has been plenty of off field distractions for Hughton with assistant manager Colin Calderwood leaving to become the new manager of Hibernian and striker Andy Carroll appearing in court charged with assaulting his former girlfriend.

With only 1 point in the last three games and without a victory for over a month, Hughton has some serious decisions to make with regards his team line-up. Hughton claims Carroll is in the right frame of mind to play, but with the striker due in court again on Monday (facing a separate assault charge) and given his car was torched by vandals the other day, he would be forgiven for resting his number 9 especially considering Shola Ameobi has found the back of the net in recent weeks.

Hughton also needs to decide whether to switch away from his favoured 4-4-1-1 away formation in search of a much needed victory. The returning Kevin Nolan means Hughton can easily play that formation, but whether he gambles and plays a second striker will probably depend on whether he chooses to start Carroll.

In defence James Perch has been slaughtered of late after a string of poor performances, so given Danny Simpson has now played three reserve team games the time is right for Simpson to come into the team and give Perch a much needed rest.

After the exploits of Charles N’Zogbia last week, the Toon Army will be fearing they don’t experience the same fate this week from another former player in Kieron Dyer. Dyer moved to West Ham for £6m in 2007, but there have been few positives to his West Ham career which has been blighted by injuries. Dyer missed the entire 2007-08 season after a double leg break in pre-season and he didn’t return to first-team action until January 2009. Having made 6 starts already this season the 31-year-old appears to be over his nightmare, but lets hope he doesn’t find he goalscoring boots just yet.

A massive game for Newcastle then, with home matches against Arsenal in the Carling Cup and the big derby against sunderland coming up this week, the team needs to find back some sort of it’s early season form and rhyme quickly, as three more defeats this week would spell disaster for everyone at the club.

HOWAY THE LADS!!!

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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Calderwood gone and Carroll going down?

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 20th, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011

Firstly apologies for not doing a match report on the 2-2 draw at home to Wigan game last Saturday. A combination of being in Mornington all weekend, a hectic work week and the depression of actually watching the re-run has halted my efforts to bring it to you. You can read my comments and thought in the Match Thread on our forum if your bothered.

It has been another interesting week in the life of Newcastle United FC with again all the headlines being off the field sadly.

Firstly on Sunday the news broke that striker Andy Carroll had been released on bail following a charge of assault. Carroll is alleged to have attacked his former girlfriend Laurie Henderson in her Ponteland home in the early hours of Sunday morning. Carroll denies the charge and oddly has a bail condition where he must live with Kevin Nolan, what relevance Nolan has to all this is unknown.

As ever the UK tabloids have had a field day with this piece of juice news. The Sun yesterday ran a story with the headline Toon star ‘beat me after sex with pal’ as rumours circulate about what, if anything, actually happened.

This fresh allegation of assault is hardly what Carroll needs as he has another court appearance due on Monday (25th) where he will face a different charge of assault after an alleged brawl in a nightclub last year. This can’t help that court appearance in the slightest and you have to think that he is in serious danger of going to jail. Innocent until proven guilty naturally and Carroll does deny both charges, but one thing is for certain he really needs to keep his head down and have a serious think about the people he is associated himself with. It is typical that all this has comes out just a week after the club agreed to give Carroll a 5-year contract, he won’t be much use to us if he is spending time in Durham prison!

 

In other news this week assistant manager Colin Calderwood has left the club to become new manager of Hibernian. This one has surprised most people as we didn’t see this coming, Chris Hughton and Calderwood have worked well together over the last year or so, but I guess the lure of a management position, especially back in his native Scotland, was probably too much to refuse for Calderwood. Anyway good luck to the bloke I hope he does well.

There has been no mention of any replacements so far by Hughton or the club so it will be interesting to see if they promote from within, hire a new guy, or alternatively not replace Calderwood at all. Speculation is rife about possible replacements or re-shuffle in the club management but the Daily Mirror take the award for the biggest pile of bollocks, they claim Joe Kinnear is set for a sensational return to the club as manger alongside Peter Beardsley with Kevin Nolan player-coach.

Just your average week at Newcastle United FC then!

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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Match Preview: Newcastle United v Wigan Athletic

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 14th, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011


Season 2010/2011 – Match 8

Wigan Athletic (h)

Date: Sunday 17th October 2010
Venue: St James’ Park
Kick-Off: 1am (AEST), 12:30am (SA), 12am (QLD), 11:30pm (NT), 10pm (WA)
Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 1 viewer’s choice
Forum: Match Thread

Last 5 Form:
Newcastle United
PL – Man City (a) L 1-2
PL – Stoke City (h) L 1-2
CC3 – Chelsea (a) W 4-3
PL – Everton (a) W 1-0
PL – Blackpool (h) L 0-2

Wigan
PL – Wolves (h) W 2-0
PL – Birmingham (a) D 0-0
CC3 – Preston (h) W 2-1
PL – Man City (h) L 0-2
PL – sunderland (h) D 1-1

Match Stats:
All time – Newcastle 4 wins, 2 draws, Wigan 5 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Newcastle $1.83, Draw $3.40, Wigan $4.50

Did You Know?
Wigan’s fans and Wigan people in general are known as ‘pie eaters’ or ‘pies’ which is reference to the 1926 General Strike, when Wigan miners were forced to eat ‘humble pie’ and return to work before miners in other towns, even though they had been on strike before the other towns joined in.

Team News:
Newcastle will be without long term injury victims Dan Gosling, Hatem Ben Arfa, Steven Taylor and Stephen Harper, while Leon Best is getting closer to a return to action. News is awaited about the fitness of Fabcrico Coloccini who was forced off with a groin injury in the last game against Man City. Meanwhile, Danny Simpson and Danny Guthrie have both played comeback games in the reserves and are in contention to making their first appearance of the season.

Wigan welcome back midfielder Tom Cleverley after the Manchester United loanee looks to have recovered from a knee injury.

Match Preview
Newcastle United take on Wigan Athletic at St James’ Park this Saturday night as the Premier League returns to action following the international break.
Following successive home defeats to Blackpool and Stoke City the Magpies go in search of their second home victory of the season and their 250th in the Premier League. The omens are positive with Newcastle winning three and drawing one of Wigan’s four previous visits to Tyneside.
Wigan will potentially have three former Magpies in their line-up with the Caldwell brothers, Gary and Steve, and Charles N’Zogbia returning to SJP. Naturally all the media and fan focus will be on N’Zogbia after the Frenchman left Newcastle under a cloud in 2009.
Rumours in the summer of 2008 claimed N’Zogbia would leave but they never materialised, however, by that December N’Zogbia made it clear he wished to leave in the January transfer window stating “After four years at Newcastle, I want to reach a higher level of ambition. I don’t think that is possible here.”. The final straw came a month later when a falling out over the alleged mispronouncing of his name by then manager Joe Kinnear, N’Zogbia released a statement saying he would never play for the club again. The next day he was sold to Wigan for £6 million in a deal that saw Ryan Taylor move in the opposite direction.
Quite how Charles N’Zogbia thinks he can reach a higher level at Wigan Athletic is still to be clear, the one thing that is certain is that his return to St James’ Park will provoke a loud reaction out of the home crowd. Another talented footballer gone to waste because of his ego.

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton will no doubt be considering a few options with regards his team selection this week. A replacement for injured Hatem Ben Arfa will be required and Hughton may also decide to reshuffle his pack and return to a 4-4-2 formation bringing back Andy Carroll into the starting-lineup. When quizzed about recalling Carroll, Hughton said “It is a big question, isn’t it? The important thing for me is to field a team which can go out and win the game. We are at home and we are on the back of two home defeats – and we do not want to make it three. We just have to field a team which will win, whichever way we can. The emphasis is very much around how we win.”

Right-back James Perch is one player who could be in danger of losing his place in the team after a serious of unconvincing performances. The former Nottingham Forest captain has so far struggled to make the step up into the Premier League and is likely to be dropped for either Ryan Taylor, who has been performing well in the Carling Cup, or the returning Danny Simpson. Simpson has played two comeback games in the reserves following an operation at the end of last season, including captaining them to a 3-2 win at Blackpool in midweek and his return is well timed.

After two straight home defeats to teams who are likely to struggle this season a third defeat is unthinkable for Newcastle. After building so much of last seasons success around their home form, Chris Hughton will be looking for a positive performance and result to kick-start the Magpies season.

Let’s hope they can get one….HOWAY THE LADS!!!

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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An Aussie Goes Geordie

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 12th, 2010 - in Season 2007/2008

My missus was tidying out up her hard disk at work the other day and she came across a scan she had e-mailed me a few years back of an article in the Melbourne free MX newspaper.

Re-reading this brought a big smile to face as the author described an away game perfectly and it gave me a slight insight into what it must be like to go to a Toon away game as a complete stranger to us Geordies.

To be fair to the author he did, or saw, all the essential parts of what a Toon away game is all about.

For example, pre-match drinking in a bar overran by Geordies. Check. Singing all the way to the ground and during the whole 90 minutes. Check. Drinking a half-time Bovril. Check (if no beer is on sale anyway!). And watching a game that “never reached any great heights”. Check, I’ve been to so many of those.

I guess that is the point, you don’t necessarily go to watch Newcastle United away games for the match itself. I know that may sound silly, but it is true. Yes naturally we hope or want, depending on our expectation levels at the time, Newcastle to win or at least not lose, but at times the away experience is largely about having a laugh with your mates and representing our great city that is Newcastle upon Tyne with pride.

My first experience of a Newcastle United away game was way back in the mid 1980s when my parents took me to Anfield to see us take on the best team in the land at the time. As a 12 or 13 year-old I enjoyed it so much I got my parents to take me back again the next season. For the record, Newcastle lost both games but I was hooked, and when I was old enough and could afford it I went to as many away games as I could.

St James’ Park is a wonderful stadium in the perfect location in the city centre and any Aussie Toon fan that travels to the UK is naturally going to go to a home game, however, I would encourage any of you to get yourself to a Toon away game because I guarantee it will be an experience you will not forget.

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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The World Football Programme radio appearance (Sat 2nd Oct)

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 7th, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011
 

Those good people from Radio Fremantle’s The World Football Programme invited me back onto their show last Saturday (2nd Oct) for the third time. This week regular host Penny Tanner-Hoath was joined in the studio by Don Evans and the three of us discussed the latest news and results from the Premier League and Europe.
The main topics of conversion were Newcastle’s defeat at the hands of Stoke City, Man City victory over Chelsea, Manchester United’s attacking woes, crowd attendances across Europe and the Bundesliga, plus the latest round of Champions League games.
To listen to the full interview yourself download it here and then fast forward to 32 minutes and 20 seconds.

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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Manchester City 2-1 Newcastle United

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 5th, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011


Season 2010/2011 – Match 7

Date: Sunday 3rd October 2010
Kick-off: 1:30pm (BST)
Venue: Eastlands
Attendance: 46,067 including 2,600 travelling supporters
Referee: Martin Atkinson

Teams
Man City: Hart, Kompany, Boateng, Lescott, K.Toure, Barry (Johnson 72), Milner, Silva, De Jong, Y.Toure (Adebayor 56), Tevez (Vieira 86)
Subs Not Used: Given, Boyata, Santa Cruz, Jo
Booked: Boateng, Kolo Toure, Tevez

Goals: Tevez 18 pen, Johnson 75

Newcastle: Krul, Perch, Enrique, Coloccini (Campbell 36), Williamson, Nolan (Carroll 76), Barton, Tiote, Ameobi, Ben Arfa (Routledge 7), Gutierrez
Subs Not Used: Soderberg, R.Taylor, Smith, Lovenkrands
Booked: Coloccini, Williamson

Goal: Gutierrez 24

Manager Chris Hughton spoke afterwards:

“Coming here with the world class players that they’ve got and what they are able to bring off the bench, you know that it would be a difficult day anyway. I thought we went through large periods of the game when we were able to contain them. We were comfortable enough and our goalkeeper wasn’t tested so much, but you have to have some decisions go your way and I think the referee has made two horrendous decisions. My first impressions were that Mike Williamson had played the ball and also the fact that it was outside the box. They were confirmed when I saw it again. My first impression when Shola Ameobi went down was that his standing foot had been taken away from him and that was confirmed as well. Absolutely (it’s a penalty). We’ve already seen it. Lescott loses his footing and of course – absolute penalty. It’s a tough enough place to go. He (Andy Carroll) did have a bit of a virus last week but I felt over the last few games he has just lost a little bit. And Shola had a fabulous game at Chelsea in the Carling Cup so I wanted to give him a chance. But Andy is a massive part of this club and will continue to be for a long time.”

Mike Williamson on the penalty decision:

“My view was, I thought at the time – and I’ve seen it afterwards – that I did get a clear touch of the ball. Maybe it was a difficult angle for the referee to give it. I would have thought more likely, it was for the linesman to give but he didn’t and the ref did. You saw the ball deviate to the right. You’d be able to tell that I got a nick on it because that’s the angle I was coming in from. Unfortunately it didn’t go for us, and it did change the game. Anywhere on the pitch, I got the ball – it doesn’t matter where it was. But the actual ‘offence’ happened outside the box and my momentum took us in the box, so it was very disappointing. We’re very disappointed with the result. We felt we were strong and had good possession and good periods of the game. They’ve got a lot of quality and we kept them at bay for long periods. So we take a lot of positives, but we’re very disappointed with the result.”




Match Report
Manchester City maintained their unbeaten home record this season with a 2-1 victory over Newcastle United at Eastlands. However, the match was overshadowed by a horrific double-leg break for Newcastle winger Hatem Ben Arfa.

With only four minutes on the clock tragedy struck for Ben Arfa, the French winger was brought down by a savage tackle from Man City midfielder Nigel De Jong and shockingly referee Martin Atkinson waved play on without awarding a free-kick or a card. Dutch international De Jong is a serial offender and this seems to be the final straw for his national manager Bert Van Marwjik. Van Marwjik spoke after pulling Nigel de Jong out of his latest squad:

“I’ve seen it (the tackle) on TV. It was a wild and unnecessary challenge. I don’t think he did it on purpose, but he goes in way too hard in this challenge. That’s a pity, because he doesn’t need tackles like this. The strange thing is that the referee doesn’t give a card. Apparently there are other standards over there. I have a problem with the way Nigel unnecessarily searches for the limit….I just told the players- I told them that I saw no other option. In the future I will agree with Nigel to talk. Now I want the staff and the players to concentrate on the next two important qualifiers.”


Ben Arfa has since had a successfully operation but given the severe nature of the leg break no recovery time can realistically be set. The player has stated he wants to stay on Tyneside to recover which will benefit both club and player. However, whether we see Ben Arfa in a Black & White shirt again has to now be in question as he only has a limited amount of time to recover before the club makes their decision to make the loan move permanent. As good as a player as he has looked the club can ill a found to put sentiment before spending millions of pounds these days.

Newcastle have written to the FA requesting that they look into the indecent and hand out any appropriate punishment. Sadly I except the FA to claim they are powerless to do anything and the matter will go no further.

On 18 minutes Newcastle’s afternoon went from bad to worse when Mike Williamson was adjusted to have brought down Carlos Tevez just inside the box. Replays made that decision look dubious at best with Williamson just beating the man to the ball. Tevez made no mistake and smashed the resulting penalty beyond Tim Krul to make it 1-0.

Newcastle rallied and were first denied an equaliser when England goalkeeper Joe Hart tipped a Fabrico Coloccini’s long drive drive over the bar before fellow Argentinean Jonas Gutierrez levelled to score his first ever Premiership goal. City defender Kolo Toure blocked a Gutierrez’s left-wing cross back into the path of the Argentinean as he advanced into the box and Gutierrez blasted the ball past Hart from 10 yards.

The Magpies looked the better of the two sides for the remainder of the half despite Gareth Barry having a great chance for City. Half-time 1-1.

The start of the second half brought about more industrious play from Newcastle without them creating any real openings and on 72 minutes substitute Adam Johnson scored a brilliant individual goal to ultimately separated the two teams. The England international danced and weaved his way past a couple of players into the box before firing a suburb low left-foot strike past Krul.

Having opted to start with Shola Ameobi instead of Andy Carroll, who later it was claimed had had flu during the week, Ameobi was tripped in the box by an outstretched leg from Jolen Lescott, but referee Martin Atkinson wanted nothing to do with it despite replays showing it was a nailed on penalty.

Williamson then had a late chance to salvage a point, but the defender fired a header wide from a corner.

The creditable performance by Newcastle United was encouraging, but the bad taste that will no doubt have been left in every Toon fans mouth from the Hatem Ben Arfa injury and the poor standard of the refereeing will fester throughout the international break.

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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Match Preview: Manchester City v Newcastle United

Published by Row 'S' Army on October 2nd, 2010 - in Season 2010/2011


Season 2010/2011 – Match 7

Manchester City (a)

Date: Sunday 3rd October 2010
Venue: Eastlands
Kick-Off: 11:30pm (AEST), 11:00pm (SA), 9:30pm (WA)
Referee: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 1
Forum: Match Thread

Last 5 Form:
Manchester City
UEL – Juventus (h) D 1-1
PL – Chelsea (h) W 1-0
CC3 – WBA (a) L 1-2
PL – Wigan (a) W 0-2
UEL – Red Bull Salzburg (a) 0-2

Newcastle United
PL – Stoke City (h) L 1-2
CC3 – Chelsea (a) W 4-3
PL – Everton (a) W 1-0
PL – Blackpool (h) L 0-2
PL – Wolves (a) D 1-1

Match Stats:
All time – Man City 53 wins, 38 draws, Newcastle 70 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Man City $1.44, Draw $4.20, Newcastle $8.00

Did You Know?
Manchester City have never lost a Premier League game in October at home to a non ‘Big-Four’ side and Newcastle have won only one Premier League away game in October since 2003.

Team News:
Manchester City will be without Pablo Zabaleta after the defender suffered a hamstring injury in the midweek Europa League draw against Juventus. He joins Shaun Wright-Phillips, Micah Richards, Mario Balotelli, Aleksandar Kolarov and Alex Nimely on the treatment table.

Newcastle United will be without long term injury victims Dan Gosling, Stephen Harper and Steven Taylor. While Danny Guthrie and Danny Simpson are now back in full training but aren’t excepted to be risked yet.

Match Preview
Newcastle United travel to Eastlands to take on Manchester City for the live Sunday lunchtime (UK time) kick-off looking for their 250th victory in the Premier League. City are unbeaten in the last seven Premier League games against Newcastle, winning five of those games, so this is set to be another tough test for Chris Hughton’s side.

Hughton is excepted to name an unchanged side for the third league game in a row despite defeat to Stoke City last week. His preference for the 4-5-1 formation especially away from home means the likes of Hatem Ben Arfa, Wayne Routledge and Kevin Nolan will need to get forward when appropriate to lend some support to lone striker Andy Carroll.

Roberto Mancini sets his side out in a very familiar Italian style with three holding midfielders and two wide men supporting a central striker. Gareth Barry, Nigel de Jong, and Yaya Toure were all excellent in containing Chelsea last week and again will look to dominate the middle of the park. While former Magpie James Milner and David Silva provide the width and support upfront for the teams captain and inspiration Carlos Tevez. Silva has taken time to settle so far at Eastlands so don’t be surprised to see the excellent Adam Johnson playing instead of him down the left flank.

The Newcastle defence will need to be at its best to stop City who have already had 50 shots on target this season, the most in the league, so the back four will need to stay tight and concentrate for the whole 90 minutes. After poor performances last week James Perch, Wayne Routledge and Kevin Nolan will all be looking to improve this week otherwise their places in the team will come in question. In the case of James Perch a big improvement is required with the unlucky Ryan Taylor playing so well in the Carling Cup.

The Magpies have the highest percentage of shots on target this season so far with 53%, so with chances no doubt at premium the Newcastle players will need to take them if they are to return home with a positive result.

We are yet to taste victory at Eastlands and City haven’t conceded at goal at home this season, so hold onto your hats this could be a bumpy ride….HOWAY THE LADS!!!

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

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