Season 2011/2012 – Match 3

FULHAM (H)

Date: Sunday 28th August 2011
Venue: St James’ Park
Kick-Off: 10pm (AEST), 9:30pm (SA), 8pm (WA)
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 1

Last 5 Form:

Match Stats:
All Time Head-To-Head: Newcastle 24 wins, Draws 13, Fulham 26 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Newcastle $2.13, Draw $3.04, Fulham $3.34

Did You Know?
Fulham have already played 10 competitive games this season following their entry in the 1st Qualifying Round of the Europa League which started back at the end of June.

Team News:
Newcastle - Hatem Ben Arfa remains sidelined by injury, while Shola Ameobi, Gabriel Obertan, Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez and Steven Taylor are all expected to recalled to the starting line-up after the victory over Scunthorpe in the Carling Cup.

Fulham – John Arne Riise misses out after being carried off with a leg injury in the Europa League clash with Dnipro, while midfielder Simon Davies has been ruled out for 5 months with knee problems. Striker Bobby Zamora is also a doubt for the match.

Managers Comments:

Alan Pardew: “From what I’ve seen, sometimes the right results (Fulham’s) don’t reflect the performances. I think their performances have been very strong and they’ve got some very good players. They’ll have another strong season. They’re a good defensive unit and they’re playing a little bit more expansively under Martin Jol, so that’s a little tweak on their style. And obviously we’re tweaking our style a little bit. We haven’t actually got it as I want it yet but (Yohan) Cabaye probably had his best game last night and was starting to influence things for us and making us look a bit different.”

Match Preview
Newcastle United take on Fulham at St James Park in their third Premier League encounter of the season tonight.

It has been another huge and dramatic week at SJP starting with a big Tyne Wear derby win down the road against the unwashed last Saturday, then there was a thrilling midweek extra-time Carling Cup win against Scunthorpe and on Friday all that was soured by the news that Joey Barton had been sold to QPR on a free transfer.

The sale of Barton was hardly a surprise given his earlier public criticism of the clubs ambitions, but the transfer fee and the club he went too is the sticking point for most fans.

Good (and bad) players come and go, but the football club always remains. Most fans sane Newcastle United fans accept that, the current problem is the way in which Mike Ashley is asset stripping the club of its highest earning players despite their on-field ability. The transfers of Andy Carroll, Jose Enrique, Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton means Ashley has now removed the vast majority of our pre-relegation high earners, and by my calculations only Fabricio Coloccini and Alan Smith remain on the pay role earning £40,000 a week or more.

The £35m promised in summer transfer funds has failed to materialise (not surprisingly!) leaving huge gaps in the squad, especially at left-back and upfront. If it wasn’t obvious to some fans before then Ashley’s plan for Premier League survival at the minimal expense, and hence recouping his money quicker, should be all plan for people to see now.

Back to the action on the pitch and following his stunning strike at Scunthorpe young Sammy Ameobi may have played himself into a starting role. With our lack of quality and in-form strikers, I would like to see Alan Pardew play a 4-3-2-1 formation below. This was mean Dan Gosling, Cheik Tiote and Yohan Cabaye could all start in the middle leaving Jonas and Sammy to patrol the forward flanks.

My Starting XI:
Tim Krul
Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Ryan Taylor
Dan Gosling, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye
Jonas Gutierrez                                                           Sammy Ameobi
Shola Ameobi

Fulham have a shocking away record. Last season despite finishing in 8th place they only managed 3 away Premier League victories. This season already they have played 5 away games and they have only scored in 1 of those games.

If the Newcastle players are well backed from the home fans we should have enough to beat Marton Jol’s team. Fresh rumours of fans protests before the game have been on the internet, but so too has the Twitter campaign to #BringBackTheScarves which is in reference to the Alan Shearer testimonial where the home fans generated an electric visual atmosphere by swirling thousands of scarves.

Hopefully the later occurs…

HOWAY THE LADS!

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

Season 2010/2011 – Match 24

Fulham (a)

Date: Thursday 3rd February 2011
Venue: Craven Cottage
Kick-Off: 7am (AEDT), 6:30am (SA), 6am (QLD), 5:30am (NT), 5am (WA)
Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire)
Australian TV: Live on Foxsports 2 viewers choice
Forum: Match Thread

Last 5 Form:
Fulham
FAC4 – Spurs (h) W 4-0
PL – Liverpool (a) L 0-1
PL – Stoke City (h) W 2-0
PL – Wigan (a) D 1-1
FAC3 – Peterborough (h) W 6-2

Newcastle United
PL – Spurs (h) D 1-1
PL – mackems (a) D 1-1
FAC3 – Stevenage (a) L 1-3
PL – West Ham (h) W 5-0
PL – Wigan (a) W 1-0

Match Stats:
All time – Fulham 25 wins, draws 13, Newcastle 24 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Fulham $2.10, Draw $3.25, Newcastle $3.60

Did You Know?
Fulham are the oldest professional football team in London.

Team News:
Newcastle United likely line-up: Harper, Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Enrique, Barton, Guthrie, Nolan, Jonas, Best, Ameobi

From: Harper, Krul, Coloccini, Williamson, Campbell, Enrique, Simpson, Perch, Jonas, Barton, Nolan, Guthrie, Vuckic, Ferguson, Ameobi, Best, Lovenkrands, Ranger, Richardson, Dummett
Unavailable: Tiote (suspended), Smith, Ben Arfa, R. Taylor, Gosling, Ireland, S. Taylor, Airey (all injured)

Match Preview
Before discussing the upcoming Fulham match I must first cover off some of my thoughts regarding the latest chapter in Mike Ashley’s tale of woe at Newcastle United Football Club. We currently find ourselves in a little bit of a he-said, we-said affair; Carroll has claimed that he was pushed out of the club, and the club have countered that he wanted an improved deal and that if he didn’t want to go he could still be here. Now I’m not privy to all of the facts of the situation, but the two most patently obvious ones are as follows;
* Andy Carroll could not legally talk to Liverpool unless the Club gave him permission to do so.
* The Club could not force Andy Carroll out. He had a five year contract that needed to be honoured.

The logical conclusion to reach from this is that the club, when enticed by the excessively large £35M carrot, wanted to cash in. Convincing Carroll to talk to Liverpool would be easy. They knew that he’d be offered a substantial pay rise in order to join the Merseyside club, they knew that his agent would be pushing for a deal in order to maximise his own slice of the pie, and they knew ultimately that he’s an impressionable 22 year old with stars in his eyes. The inevitable happened and Carroll made a last ditch attempt to remain at the club by pressing for an improved contract just months after signing a new deal. When that failed Carroll submitted his transfer request; a move that will have ensured that Mike Ashley did not have to pay any loyalty bonus to Carroll. Off he hopped in Mike Ashley’s helicopter on a direct trip to Liverpool. It hardly seems reluctant on any of the parties behalves.

The greatest problem to come out of this whole nasty affair is the current state of our playing squad. We entered the window with manager Alan Pardew claiming that he was planning on making at least one signing, and possibly more, noting that he needed to strengthen our squad. Instead we’ve seen three players leave (Carroll, Routledge & Xisco) and only one come in (Ireland). Stephen Ireland is, or at least at one stage was, an excellent prospect. However after a poor year at City and an even worse cameo at Aston Villa his stock has dropped significantly and this can be seen as nothing more than an opportunistic signing. He may come good or he may not, either way the risk is minimal as he’s here only on loan until the end off the season. Courtesy of our actions in this window we’re left with a less than inspiring strike force consisting of the ever-present Shola Ameobi, Leon Best who hardly set even the Championship on fire, 31-year old Peter Lovenkrands and 19-year old Nile Ranger. It’s not a forward line that will have many defensive units too worried. Carroll was the clear outstanding talent amongst the bunch and yet he’s been sold, with no replacement. That for me is an almost unforgivable piece of business incompetence, unsurprisingly from the comedy duo who wrote the book: Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias.

Now onto the Fulham game. Despite the frustrating points we’ve thrown away in the dying minutes of our past two league games we go into this one on the back of a four match unbeaten run. Fulham’s league form has been largely indifferent, but their last start was a 4-0 dismantling of a full-strength Tottenham side in the FA Cup. That result was somewhat an anomaly for Fulham, who sit in 15th place on the table having scored just 25 goals in their first 24 league matches. By comparison we’ve scored more goals just in our home matches (26), picking up a total of 36 at all venues. Our strikeforce is obviously weakened at the moment, though our leading scorer wouldn’t have been available even if he was still on our books. It once again falls to Ameobi and Best to pickup the slack with Lovenkrands and Ranger on hand if required. Kevin Nolan’s goal scoring ability from midfield could also prove critical if we are to leave this match with a result.

The Manager
Alan Pardew will have a significant task on his hands in overcoming the negative feeling at the club resulting from the departure of Carroll.
“The mood on the training ground wasn’t great. We are disappointed to lose a friend and a player. Disillusionment? You can’t hide that because Liverpool gained Carroll and Suarez, and Chelsea gained Torres and we haven’t gained a striker in that process.”
He added:
“Myself and the players are sad to see Andy leave and I hope he remains our friend. It was an extraordinary situation for him and for us. I am confident the group can pull themselves together. By the time we get to the game at Fulham they will be ready to show that.”

Keith Rowe – DjBigK