Season 2009/2010 - Match 15

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SHEFFIELD UNITED

 v

NEWCASTLE UNITED

Ground Guide:

BRAMALL LANE

Address:

Capacity: 32,702

Away Allocation: 3,000 in the Bramall Lane Stand  (sold out)

Miles from Newcastle: 109

Sheffield United continue to be without a whole host of players.

Jamie Ward, Derek Geary, Gary Naysmith, James Harper, Nick Montgomery, Andrew Davies and Lee Williamson are all unavailable

Newcastle hope to have defensive trio Steven Taylor (hamstring), Danny Simpson (ankle) and Fabricio Coloccini (groin) back in their squad.

Shola Ameobi (ankle), Joey Barton (foot), and Haris Vuckic (foot) remain long-term absentees.

Match Preview:

The Sky Monday Night Football road show travels to the steel city as Sheffield United host Newcastle United in the Coca-Cola Championship.

The last seven days have been a typical average week at the St James' Park circus with the Magpies firstly snatching a dramatic injury-time winner with only 10 men to beat Doncaster on Saturday, then on Tuesday came the news that the  takeover saga was over as Mike Ashley was taking the club off the market and had appointed Chris Hughton as permanent manger for the next two season.

This was not the news a lot of Newcastle fans wanted to hear especially following the recent Kevin Keegan tribunal verdict, which stated that Ashley and his board had deliberately mislead the fans as part of a PR experience and had constructively forced Keegan to leave the club, meaning any respect and trust of Mike Ashley had reached an all-time low.

Therefore, when the club statement that was released informing the fans that Ashley was staying put included a comment that the club was looking to maximise it's commercial revenue by put up the naming rights of St James' Park for next season, fans everywhere were rightly outraged and saw this as one insult to many.

How a man who built up a £1 billion business fortune can regularly make his customers so unhappy is beyond me, is Ashley so naive as not to know his customers at all after two years?  What did he hope to gain by added that comment to the statement, anarchy?  It feels to make me like he is sitting in his London board room and just laughing at us, 'Hey Derek if we say this about renaming St James' Park that'll piss off those stupid Geordie's won't it!'.

We have a man running a football club that by his own admission ‘He knows nothing about running a football club.’ and has stated he will have the final say on all player transfers.  Well that is a fantastic situation isn't it, could you imagine yourself being put in charge of Rio Tinto or Sony, no neither could I.  So the fact that Ashley has appointed Hughton as his permanent manager is in keeping with his appointment of 'yes men' around the club.

Don't get me wrong Chris Hughton is an honest bloke who has done a terrific job in stabling the playing side of things and he deserves to be part of the future of the club, but not necessarily as manager.  Hughton is not the enemy here and I hope he continue to be a success, but his appointment does not fill me with any confidence what so ever.

One thing is for certain now (after reading various Toon websites) Ashley has succeeded in uniting the club's supporters in the goal of ridding him from the football club.

Protests at the next home game are already in the planning and the Newcastle United Supporters Trust is running an on-line petition that already has thousands of signatures on it. (If you haven't already done so then please sign it)

The last time there was a 'Sack The Board' campaign in progress I was a teenage boy still at school.  Protests and boycotts were the order of the day then when fans had finally had a enough of Gordon McKeag's board in the late 80s.

Back then I didn't really understand the politics of it all, I was just happy living off the buzz of being old enough to watch my team live.

To be honest I have always been anti protests, boycotts, booing or anything that could affect the team on the pitch, but this time is different, after well over 20 years of frustration and hurt I can understand what those lads must have been feeling back then.  I've reached boiling point, I've had enough, I want Mike Ashley out of my football club and I don't care what we have to do to achieve that.

Not a great feeling or situation to be in, but the show must go on, so back to matters on the field then.

Sheffield United away does not seem the difficult fixture it did back in July.  Without a win in six games the Blades season is in danger of coming off the rails and they will be desperate to kick start things following three straight defeats.

Even despite a massive casualty list, Sheffield manager Kevin Blackwell has several talented players available who are more than capable of playing at a higher level.

25 year-old Matthew Kilgallon is a commanding centre-back who has been the subject of interest from several Premier League clubs, and striker Chad Evans, who is on loan from Manchester City, is full of quality and despite being only 20 year-old he is a regular in the Welsh national side.

Like Nottingham Forest the other week with David Kelly, Sheffield United will have a former Toon player in the home dugout as Gary Speed is player-coach.

With all three defeats this season coming away from home, Newcastle will be looking to redress the balance and try and regain top spot following West Brom's 5-0 victory on Saturday.

Which Newcastle United team turns up is open to question though.  Recent performances have hardly been inspiring and a serious improvement is required.

Do you think Mike Ashley might turn up for this one?  No I don't either...