Barclays Premiership - Match 9
 

Season 2006-2007

MIDDLESBROUGH

 v

NEWCASTLE UNITED

  Date: Monday 23rd October 2006
  Venue: Riverside
  Kick Off: 12am (AEST)
  Australian Live TV: None
  Internet Live TV Coverage: TBC
  Weather Forecast: 12c
 

 
  Squad:
 

Harper, Srnicek, Krul
Carr, Bramble, Moore, Taylor, Ramage, Babayaro
Solano, Milner, Parker, Butt, Duff, Emre, N'Zogbia, Pattison
Ameobi, Martins, Sibierski, Luque, Rossi
   
  Team News:
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- Michael Owen (knee), as we know, is out till next year with the injury he picked up at the World Cup.
- Shay Given (abdomen) is unlikely to fit until 26th November.
- Olivier Bernard (fitness) still isn’t 100% match fit.
- Kieron Dyer (hamstring) is back in training but will need some reserves team games before he will be 100% match fit.
- Celestine Babayaro (groin) is very doubtful.
- Emre (hip) is very doubtful.
- Steve Harper (thigh) is doubtful, meaning Pavel Srnicek could make an emotion return.
   
 

My thoughts:
  After spending the majority of the week either in bed or on the toilet, I had plenty of time in-between to read the latest addition of The Mag(issue 208) that arrived on Monday. If your ever wanting to get a feel for the current vibe of the club and the fans, then The Mag is the only thing you need, forget The Journal and Evening Chronicle. For me now being in Australia, it's like condensing a months worth of pub convictions into 42 pages to get you back up to speed with living in Newcastle.

What a depressing read it was too(thanks for that Dave!) as fan after fan wrote about the sad state of our club and given it was released the day of the Bolton game, that's some going! It's nothing I didn't already know or hadn't guessed but it felt like the kick in the guts when your down.

Middlesbrough is always a shithole of a place to go for any fan but especially Newcastle United fans. For obvious reasons all pre-match bars are totally off limits, however, given the away end sells beer most fans head straight to the ground. So hence at least an hour before kick off, the back on the stand at the away end is jumping with Toon fans drinking and practicing the vocal chords.

After a much better display by the defence in midweek, Roeder now has the tough decision of whether to drop Ramage & Taylor as his centre-half's and reinstalled his recent first choice Moore & Bramble. It's a no brainer for me, you must keep the winning combination together and give them a run of games to see what they can do. These two our the more long term future of our defence, in any case, so should be given priority.

Despite his goalscoring heroics you would expect Antoine Sibierski to make way for Shola Ameobi, who will have benefited from resting his hip during the week We could do with a Martins goal sooner rather than later, his confidence seems to be improving so he just needs to convert that into goals.

God knows which Newcastle will turn up. We could easily win this two or three one but quite as easily concede an early goal and never look like being in the game. Our record down Smogland in the Premiership is very encouraging however, 10 games, 6 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat.

So come on...
 
HOWAY THE LADS!!!
 
  Did you know?
Middlesbrough FC have only ever won one trophy in there entire professional history, the Carling Cup in 2003-04.