Season 2006-2007

PORTSMOUTH

 v

NEWCASTLE UNITED

- Shay Given (groin) is out for a couple of weeks and getting injured against Arsenal.
- Shola Ameobi (hip) is back in full training and played in behind closed-doors friendly this week.
- Michael Owen (knee) is back in full training and played in behind closed-doors friendly this week.
- Craig Moore (groin) is excepted to be passed fit to play.
- Kieron Dyer (hamstring) after missing the Arsenal match, now have a chance of be back for this one.
- Scott Parker (ankle) is very doubtful to play.
- Antoine Sibierski (knee) is doubtful to play.

My thoughts:

We make our longest trip of the season, with a 700 mile round trip ahead for the Geordie based Toon Army. They will however be met by summer arriving early to the South Coast of England, as Portsmouth is forecast to be a warm and sunny 24 degrees. So something for the boys to cheer about at least, with the scramble to find a quality beer garden being top priority pre-match and no doubt there will be plenty of chants of "top off if you love the Toon"!

So we've got 5 games left this season, can can we qualify for Europe next season? Is it just me, are is this typical of our football club to again tease us with possibility of doing this after playing so shite recently!?! By my calculations (which could be wrong) if one of English teams wins the Champions League it would mean 8th place would be good enough to qualify for the Intertoto Cup next season and with Reading publicly saying the aren't going to enter into the competition, that could mean 9th place would be good enough to be in the Intertoto Cup, providing they finish in 8th place of course. All very complicated I know but the simple fact is, if we are to stand any chance of getting into Europe we must avoid defeat, or better still, beat Portsmouth in this game tonight.

Our away form has been poor again this season, currently our record stands at won 4, drew 2 and lost 10. That is nowhere near good enough frankly and we need to continue on from our encouraging performance last week away at Sheff Utd. They finally showed some commitment and along with some positive football proved they can win away from home.

We all know the current problems with the squad, management and board but we can't let that stand in the way of us trying to finish as high as possible in the league. Not a case of painting over the cracks, more a case of giving us a better platform to rebuild the squad and club with. And lets not forget with every place higher up the league we finish, the more prize money the club will receive.

So like I said before the Sheff Utd game, come on lads please show some bottle for once and the chances are a decent performance will follow. Here's hoping anyway.