Season 2006-2007

NEWCASTLE UNITED

 v

WIGAN ATHLETIC

Given, Harper
Carr, Ramage, Bramble, Moore, Taylor, Boumsong, Babayaro
Solano, Parker, Emre, Butt, Duff, N'Zogbia, Milner, O'Brien, Pattison
Ameobi, Luque.

Michael Owen(knee), as we know, is out till next year with the injury he picked up at the World Cup.
Kieron Dyer(hamstring) is unfit but some positive noises have been made about an end of August or early September return.

My thoughts:

After 15 weeks of winter, in which we’ve had some world football tournament and Aussie Rules matches to help ease our Black & White addiction, the time has finally come for the real thing.

I can picture the scene now on Tyneside. The management of the Trent House pub will be ordering in extra barrels of beer, the guy who sells Keegan’s burgers will have made a trip to the wholesalers, Mark Jensen will be putting the finishing touches to the new edition of The Mag, hospitality staff at SJP will be getting primed for a full house, groups of friends with season tickets will be discussing whether to stick with last seasons pre-match pub or try a new ‘lucky’ one, wives(and some husbands) will be looking forward to having Saturday afternoon all to themselves again, lucky kids with a season ticket for the first time will be buzzing with excitement and Glenn Roeder will be in his office masterminding a plan to take three points in his first league game as permanent manager.

Wigan Athletic at home. It certainly isn’t the most glamorous of games, but that doesn’t matter. Given the fact that we’d started the league campaign so poorly in recent seasons, it’s vital we get off to a positive start this season and get some early momentum for a change.

If we believe what we read, Shay Given and Damien Duff will be fine to play, then the team picks itself, with Roeder really only having to make one decision. Does he stick with the 4-5-1 formation with Nicky Butt holding and Shola Ameobi as a lone striker or does he bring in Albert Luque for Nicky Butt and play a 4-4-2?

Even though Nicky Butt did a decent job in Riga, and Scot Parker revelled in the freedom to go forward more, I suspect and hope Glenn will go with the more attacking 4-4-2, giving Luque a start alongside Shola.

Reading the press this week it has been announced the club will once again be handing out free black and white scarves to fans on Saturday. Anybody who saw the Alan Shearer testimonial on ESPN will have seen the fantastic scenes the Toon Army generated by waving the scarves above their heads whilst singing. It’s good to see the club doing something positive PR wise for the fans, granted 50,000 scarves doesn’t cost the club much but they don’t have to do it, so it’s all good.

The atmosphere at SJP for home games has been a hot topic for a number of years now. I wouldn’t argue that when everybody sings we are very loud and do generate a cracking atmosphere but this simply hasn’t happened often enough during games. Such times have normally been reserved for when we are winning, or for the really big games. Too often the average fan starts to moan or go quiet if we haven’t scored after about 25 minutes. They seem to think the players should inspire them to sing by playing well, hence they join in with the singing when we are 2 or 3-0 up, but in fact the term supporter means the total opposite, they should inspire the players to up their performance by generating an atmosphere.

How many times do you hear players say they love playing in big games with great atmospheres? If games like Wigan or Fulham at home can be turned into big games by the atmosphere, then it might make the different of turning a draw or defeat into a win.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bagging the season ticket holders who pay good money to go to St James’ Park every other week, but as a regular away game traveller you get to be in some amazing atmospheres with the Toon Army. Regardless of the score or performance, the team is backed 100% and I think that is infectious, you want every Newcastle United team whether at home or away to get that backing.

After all that, my point is, after seeing the Alan Shearer’s testimonial, we’ve seen what the home fans are capable of and it’s good to see the club are taking the right steps to encourage a repeat of that, this season.

With the lack of TV coverage for this game it looks it’s a radio job over the internet. So if you’re on your PC listening to it, make sure you pop into the Aussie Mags match day chat room to speak to the lads during the game.

Fingers crossed we get off to a great start this season.
 

HOWAY THE LADS!!!