Season 2007-2008

NEWCASTLE UNITED

 v

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

- Peter Ramage (knee) is out for the rest of the season after getting inured at Middlesbrough.
- Damien Duff (ankle) is expected to be out until November after having surgery on his injured ankle.
- Celestine Babayaro (hamstring) is on the injury list with no return date mentioned.
- Stephen Carr (hamstring) is now back in training but isn't in the squad for this game.
- Shola Ameobi (groin) is struggling with his groin problem.
- Mark Viduka (calf) is likely to miss out, as he is yet to recover from the injured he picked up before the international break.
- Cacapa (groin) is a slight doubt after still not being fully recovered.
- Alan Smith misses out with his one game suspension.

My thoughts:

As the lads run out onto the St James' Park turf on Tuesday morning, it will be over 2 weeks since our last game. Two weeks of twiddling the thumbs and trying to find something to do to occupy our minds, as the alleged best players from countries around the world got together to play international matches in the far flung corners of the globe.

So what have you been doing for the last 2 weeks?

I've watched more games of rugby than I have done in 4 years, I've watched more news bulletins on the Federal Election to last me a lifetime (and there is still 5 weeks to go!), I went to the Caulfield Cup Day and picked the winner Master O'Reilly and generally recharged my Black & White batteries.

The good news after these 2 weeks is that it appears we've haven't picked up any fresh injuries but tiredness could be a factor with some of our players playing in places like Istanbul, Moscow and Mexico City.

Not ideal preparation for Sam Allardyce won't have seen half his squad in 2 weeks. After the last international break when we went to Derby County on a Monday night and turned in a dud performance, so Allardyce will be determined to stop that happening again.

The talk this weekend is that Allardyce is considering changing our style of play to incorporate playing Martins & Owen upfront together, as it sadly appears Mark Viduka is still struggling. That will be interesting to see, as it would be good to see us play the ball on the floor more and utilise the pace of our forwards. That would require more creativity in our midfield (something we all want anyway) for it work, so you'd have to expect Emre to start. Who for is the big question?

Joey Barton has been the main benefactor from the 2 week break, as he's be able to play a reserve game and a behind the closed doors friendly. It would be a big ask for him to start with a place of the bench being more realistic. I'm sure we are all looking forward to seeing Barton's energy in the midfield but I think we'll need to give him 2 or 3 games before he 100% match fit.

Tottenham Hotspur, not one of my favour teams I have to say and I'm sure Adolf Hitler would have agreed with him. However, that has got nothing to do with why I don't like them, Spurs fans have this knack of taking arrogance to a new level. These cockney's seem to really think they are a massive football club and they tend to look down at us up in the North East and for what? Yeah the last won the league in 1960's and have won 3 FA Cup's since then, which is miles better than what we've done but it's hardly setting the world on fire. If anybody has walked the 20 minutes from Seven Sisters tube station to White Hart Lane, you will see what is one of the most awful high streets in North London (nothing like area around the old Highbury) and then you arrive at White Hart Lane. A old looking stadium that has certainly seen better times. Not much to be proud of really, so if these Yids ever did pull there heads out there arse, they would realise how far there clubs stocks have fallen.

Which game isn't big these days? We are in 8th place and 4 points behind Chelsea in 7th, which means this game is vital if we want to stay in the early running for the top 7 places.

Lets hope for our good home form to continue and we condemn Martin Jol to some more misery.