
Season 2011/2012 – Match 3

FULHAM (H)
Date: Sunday 28th August 2011
Venue: St James’ Park
Kick-Off: 10pm (AEST), 9:30pm (SA), 8pm (WA)
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 1
Last 5 Form:
| Newcastle |
Fulham |
| CC – Scunthorpe (a) W 2-1 AET |
EL – Dnipro (a) L 0-1 |
| PL – mackems (a) W 1-0 |
PL _ Wolves (a) L 0-2 |
| PL – Arsenal (h) D 0-0 |
EL – Dnipro (h) W 3-0 |
| FR – Fiorentina (h) abandoned |
PL – Aston Villa (h) D 0-0 |
| FR – Columbus Crew (a) W 3-0 |
EL – RNK Split (h) W 2-0 |
Match Stats:
All Time Head-To-Head: Newcastle 24 wins, Draws 13, Fulham 26 wins
Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Newcastle $2.13, Draw $3.04, Fulham $3.34
Did You Know?
Fulham have already played 10 competitive games this season following their entry in the 1st Qualifying Round of the Europa League which started back at the end of June.
Team News:
Newcastle - Hatem Ben Arfa remains sidelined by injury, while Shola Ameobi, Gabriel Obertan, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez and Steven Taylor are all expected to recalled to the starting line-up after the victory over Scunthorpe in the Carling Cup.
Fulham – John Arne Riise misses out after being carried off with a leg injury in the Europa League clash with Dnipro, while midfielder Simon Davies has been ruled out for 5 months with knee problems. Striker Bobby Zamora is also a doubt for the match.
Managers Comments:
Alan Pardew: “From what I’ve seen, sometimes the right results (Fulham’s) don’t reflect the performances. I think their performances have been very strong and they’ve got some very good players. They’ll have another strong season. They’re a good defensive unit and they’re playing a little bit more expansively under Martin Jol, so that’s a little tweak on their style. And obviously we’re tweaking our style a little bit. We haven’t actually got it as I want it yet but (Yohan) Cabaye probably had his best game last night and was starting to influence things for us and making us look a bit different.”
Match Preview
Newcastle United take on Fulham at St James Park in their third Premier League encounter of the season tonight.
It has been another huge and dramatic week at SJP starting with a big Tyne Wear derby win down the road against the unwashed last Saturday, then there was a thrilling midweek extra-time Carling Cup win against Scunthorpe and on Friday all that was soured by the news that Joey Barton had been sold to QPR on a free transfer.
The sale of Barton was hardly a surprise given his earlier public criticism of the clubs ambitions, but the transfer fee and the club he went too is the sticking point for most fans.
Good (and bad) players come and go, but the football club always remains. Most fans sane Newcastle United fans accept that, the current problem is the way in which Mike Ashley is asset stripping the club of its highest earning players despite their on-field ability. The transfers of Andy Carroll, Jose Enrique, Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton means Ashley has now removed the vast majority of our pre-relegation high earners, and by my calculations only Fabricio Coloccini and Alan Smith remain on the pay role earning £40,000 a week or more.
The £35m promised in summer transfer funds has failed to materialise (not surprisingly!) leaving huge gaps in the squad, especially at left-back and upfront. If it wasn’t obvious to some fans before then Ashley’s plan for Premier League survival at the minimal expense, and hence recouping his money quicker, should be all plan for people to see now.
Back to the action on the pitch and following his stunning strike at Scunthorpe young Sammy Ameobi may have played himself into a starting role. With our lack of quality and in-form strikers, I would like to see Alan Pardew play a 4-3-2-1 formation below. This was mean Dan Gosling, Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye could all start in the middle leaving Jonas and Sammy to patrol the forward flanks.
My Starting XI:
Tim Krul
Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Ryan Taylor
Dan Gosling, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye
Jonas Gutierrez Sammy Ameobi
Shola Ameobi
Fulham have a shocking away record. Last season despite finishing in 8th place they only managed 3 away Premier League victories. This season already they have played 5 away games and they have only scored in 1 of those games.
If the Newcastle players are well backed from the home fans we should have enough to beat Marton Jol’s team. Fresh rumours of fans protests before the game have been on the internet, but so too has the Twitter campaign to #BringBackTheScarves which is in reference to the Alan Shearer testimonial where the home fans generated an electric visual atmosphere by swirling thousands of scarves.
Hopefully the later occurs…
HOWAY THE LADS!
Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army