Big match preview – Newcastle vs West Ham United.

St James' Park.
Newcastle take on West Ham this evening.
A tale of two United’s will ensue this evening when Avram Grant brings his slighly happier Hammers to St James’ Park.

Both United’s will be looking to build on the respective wins they managed to pick up in their last outing. Newcastle managed a 1-0 win over Wigan in their last game whilst West Ham buried another team that is struggling at the foot of the table as they dispatched Wolves 2-0 at Upton Park at the weekend.

A win for either side would assist in dragging them temporarily clear of the drop zone ahead of the break in fixtures for The FA Cup this coming weekend. In fact if the result goes in favour of the home side, and if other results go the right way, Newcastle could very easily find themselves sitting in eigth place in the table come the end of the evening.

Andy Carroll is still missing for the home side as he continues to recover from a thigh injury. The lanky striker is also likely to miss the weekend trip to Stevenage and is rated as ’50-50′ for the Sunderland match in a couple of weeks time.

Sol Campbell will be missing as he is still struggling with a mystery illness whilst Ryan Taylor and Hatem Ben Arfa remain long term injury absentees.

Shola Amoebi looks likely to play through the pain barrier again whilst Dan Gosling edges ever closer to a first team return after being named in the matchday squad for the game at Wigan last Sunday.

I don’t expect us to make many, if any, changes for the match against West Ham, despite the short break between fixtures. Instead I think that Alan Pardew will opt to rest some players for the match against Stevenage on Saturday evening. Basically, the team that I think will play is the team that played on Sunday at Wigan.

Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi.

West Ham will give fitness tests to Valon Behrami ans Lars Jacobsen ahead of the game although both are expected to be fit enough to at least make the bench. Mark Noble returned from injury against Wolves at the weekend and is pushing for a place in the starting eleven.

Despite the return of those three players, West Ham still have a lengthly injury list to contend. Top of the crocks is the one and only Kieron Dyer, which is to be expected I guess, but joining him in the treatment room are Jack Collison, Anthony Edgar, Peter Kurucz, Manuel da Costa, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Herita Ilunga and Benni McCarthy.

Perhaps the most intriguing battle of the night could take place in the middle of the park when Cheik Tiote and Scott Parker go toe-to-toe. The winner of that battle could have a very real impact on the result this evening, but the prospect of seeing the two players face-off against one another is mouth-watering.

West Ham have not won at St James’ Park since 1998 when The Hammers won 3-0, although Carlton Cole has managed to net against Newcastle in his last two games.

The 3-1 victory West Ham recorded at Fulham in their last away outing was their first away victory in 27 attempts. The last time they won back-to-back away games was in 2007.

Newcastle have scored 20 goals in their 10 league games at St James’ Park, but have been beaten four times on their home patch – more than any other team. They have won only two of their last nine league games on Tyneside, keeping just the one clean sheet in the process.

It’s a tough one to call in my opinion. My heart is telling me that Newcastle will build on the Wigan victory by taking three points again this evening, but then my head remembers that I said much the same thing in the build up to the Blackpool, Stoke and Blackburn games. On that basis, I’m saying nothing!

Howay the lads!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

143 thoughts on “Big match preview – Newcastle vs West Ham United.

  1. must win game! similar to Blackpool, Stoke, Blackburn!! had we won those games we would be looking at a top 6 position!!
    Come on lads lets follow up a good solid win at Wigan with 3 valuable points against the hammers, lets get a cushion between us and the bottom 6 or 7!!

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  2. bit harsh, there’s only a few games this season where we have been awful, even games like Blockpool where we lost we played well and did enough to win!

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  3. Perfect – can access this blog form work 🙂
    Not sure thats a good thing from my employers point of view like

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  4. A few players carry the team, ILM. It was harsh but when we are bad we are really bad. The Blackpool performance wasnt bad but five games that stand out in my mind as total gash were Bolton away, WBA away, Wigan at home, Blackburn at home and Stoke at home.

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  5. Skysports reporting about Ben Arfa signing soon. Come on.

    And more please….

    MUST WIN tonight

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  6. It would be nice to get our first double over a side tonight. I think Scotty Parker will really struggle with Tiote like I don’t care how good he’s been for the happy hammers lately he aint that good like. Remember his little 360 spins on the ball. 🙂

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  7. ““I like the Premier League and, for me, it is not a problem to play every two or three days. Actually, I prefer it.” ~ Tiote

    This guy is a machine! 😆

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  8. Who could forget Scott ‘Pirouette’ Parker, eh? 😆 Believe it or not, he still does that every game and is often praised for it…

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  9. i just hope we can keep tiote beyond the end of the season because all the big boys are going to be after him! the guy patrols the whole of midfield leaving barton and nolan to roam free. @ DJG he does look like MR T just no gold chains

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  10. 3 points tonight would give us a big between us and the bottom 3 ( which is the main aim of the season ) and could push is to 8th if results go our way 🙂

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  11. I am a wee bit sick of Pardew – every time he is askes about Carroll – he feeds the flames – whips up the journos interest as they know they’ll get a quote on it – keep the story alive – why on earth he doesn’t just say – “its not a talking point – he is not for sale”

    I’m also worried about this continuous Bentley link – he would be a step backwards to the dark old days characterwise imo

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  12. Stardust
    Posted January 5, 2011 at 9:59 AM
    I am a wee bit sick of Pardew – every time he is askes about Carroll – he feeds the flames – whips up the journos interest as they know they’ll get a quote on it – keep the story alive – why on earth he doesn’t just say – “its not a talking point – he is not for sale”<<<< worky thinks the same

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  13. Good news El T – I imagine as he was signed now not at the end of the season when we had our option to buy – that we probably got even more of a discount to take BA off their hands – they wouldn’t want a badly injured trouble maker (in their eyes) back.

    So it makes sense all round for us to do the deal now – but at a discount!

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  14. yeah I thought that, why doesn’t he just say, ‘i’ve said before he’s going no where, and nothing has changed, let’s talk about something else’

    He’s experienced enough to know they will try and keep the story alive from any angle they can, so why doesn’t he just keep it to football?

    Then again, then the headline will be ‘We can cope without Carroll – Pardew’

    lol

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  15. Agree about Pardew’s slack mouth. I much preferred Hughton’s style of not giving anything away to Journalists. Even in the Journal this morning he’s talking about Tiote not being quite ready to move to a bigger club – is that Pardew’s ambition?

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  16. best news we have had in a while. pardew seems to have had an influence which is good, hes the manager and good to see players supporting him. whether we like it or not hes the guy tasked with getting our club 3 points every game

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  17. Tiote is absolute class! Best signing of this season by any Premier league side IMO. I am sure Spurs would argue Van Der Vaart like….

    I am so anxious about tonights game.

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  18. Aye Batty – we used to go along the same lines usually and had similar takes on things – until he went cuckoo! 😆

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  19. that bloke on twitter (can we officially refer to him as that now?) said it was only for £3.2 mill, he’s been right so far, so if that amount is right then it’s a complete steal.

    How much did he sign for at his old club, was something like 10 million euro or somthing wasn’t it? Great business

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  20. Pardew’s handling of the media seems more about raising his own profile than protecting and promoting the club.

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  21. Stuart79
    Posted January 4, 2011 at 1:07 PM

    “Ashley is just a arrogant, disloyal little man who cannot be trusted with the future of this club.”

    Llambias on signing Ben Arfa, “Bringing Hatem on loan earlier in the season was quite a coup, but to sign him permanently on a long-term deal is even better.

    “Alan Pardew made it clear that he wanted Hatem here beyond his loan spell so we have backed him and made that happen. Hatem is exactly the type of player that we want here; a young international class player with his best years ahead of him. And now those years will be spent at St. James’ Park.”

    Here’s one for you Stu, are these words, and actions of signing Ben Arfa actually proof that maybe we can actually trust these people to have the best intentions of NUFC at hand?

    Is this signing not a sign that we can trust them with our future?

    i don’t know the answer, but an interesting thought though.

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  22. furthermore, the fact that they see Carroll as the future of the club, so much that they’ve just told Spurs to do one, another sign they have the clubs future best intentions at heart?

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  23. Spartan

    “Even in the Journal this morning he’s talking about Tiote not being quite ready to move to a bigger club – is that Pardew’s ambition?”

    It potentially displays what he is here for. There wasn’t an obvious reason to sack Chris. Whereas Chris educated everyone about building affordably over time and managing expectations of “over success shot term, with long term success aims” Pardew seems to say we are also rans – has given up from day 1 and is happy to prep players to be sold to clubs who want to win things – or who are “bigger”

    What makes “bigger” in his eyes – higher in the league?

    I’m fumin!

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  24. Stardust
    Posted January 5, 2011 at 10:34 AM
    Spartan

    “Even in the Journal this morning he’s talking about Tiote not being quite ready to move to a bigger club – is that Pardew’s ambition?”

    It potentially displays what he is here for. There wasn’t an obvious reason to sack Chris. Whereas Chris educated everyone about building affordably over time and managing expectations of “over success shot term, with long term success aims” Pardew seems to say we are also rans – has given up from day 1 and is happy to prep players to be sold to clubs who want to win things – or who are “bigger”

    What makes “bigger” in his eyes – higher in the league?

    I’m fumin!<<<<< well your mukka signed him ,whats happend too mike ashley is god

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  25. Lace – that’s an astute observation 🙁

    A man with those motives will bring the good old unstable days back.

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  26. “<<<<< well your mukka signed him ,whats happend too mike ashley is god"

    Batty it was an easy mistake to make – the first time I met Mike he was in Collectables, next to a "Little Buddha" I was confused about who was who after that day, I only realised Little Buddha wasn't running Newcastle the day Chris was sacked and a Spiv appointed – Buddha would never have done that

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  27. Fuming over what, he hasn’t done anything!

    thing is, though I love Tiote, and his type of play, there are more Tiotes out there, and furthermore, on the cheap, for that reason, I wouldn’t be immensely gutted if we sold him for a good deal (and knowing how difficult the club are these days over money, it would have to be a good deal)

    However, in Carroll’s case, we all know strikers are the stars, the ones who cost big money, as you don’t find many of the good ones around, this is why it is unthinkable to get rid of Carroll, as dare I say it, he’s is almost irreplaceable.

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  28. Stardust: He sounds too much like Allerdyce and Redknap to me and I don’t like either of those two. I know people who know Peter Harrison (Panorama agent) very well and the stuff they have told me about Sam and ‘Arry confirm what everybody suspect.

    On the other hand we have to remember that Pardew hasnt been at the club long and has no previous knowledge of the club. The Tiote quote is a joke.

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  29. ILM – fumin over either – his incompetence at dealing with the press Or his long term intentions about prepping players for “bigger clubs” – the message conveys a long term vision of mediocrity!

    He reminds me very much of S Taylor – opens mouth for the love of his own voice and doesn’t even bother to think later – as long as his hair was in place and he looked good on the photographs.

    I’m just waiting for the interview on MOTD when he actually licks his own eyebrow and has a gold star stuck on his teeth

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  30. just dont like the snide hes working for the better-ment of ashley not the club or fans,build them up sell them on seems to be his job in the longer term hope ime wrong,his gob runs away with him and would take hoots anytime over this guy he loves the press,this is just my view and could be a mile out,ill wait and see

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  31. Morning Ice – see I am “temporarily forgiven” – let’s hope I make it long term – though I can’t promise to be a saint! 😆

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  32. He needs a bootlicking PA to stand next to him during interviews holding a mirror and dabbing his furrow.

    No I wasn’t suggesting an ethnic PA before people start questioning my motivations….

    You just know he would try and knob your wife or sister if you knew him. But as long as he gets results on the pitch he is welcome to them!

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  33. Lace – nah fella – only Collo has a free licence on wife shagging – fortunately I haven’t got a mirror above my bed – only fellas who have mirrors over their beds need worry about their wives 😆

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  34. Jeez, the move has been swift and brutal for the .orgers, eh? And even brought some old faces out of the woodwork…

    Site looks canny toonsy, good luck with it.

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  35. aye bowburn this has been planned for a good while – you dont get a newborn overnight. but it’s a free world we live in – so the best of british to you toonsy.

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  36. I think you’re reading to much in to it, this subject has been done before.

    When Ashley first came the club talked about scouting and bringing through young, hungry talented players with their best years in front of them, and possibly, with a higher sell on value.

    But who has been sold who didn’t want to leave? There’s opportunities there now, Krull, Ranger, Carroll, Kadar, Vukic, we could get a pretty penny for those, but they’re still here!

    Mediocrity? Mediocre was the team that got us relegated. We are by miles a better team now, so answer me this, is that not progress? Are mediocre teams progressive?

    I’ll agree with you regarding him liking the sound of his own voice though, we’ve become accustomed to Hughton’s dodge the question a and say nowt mantra, and I think we were all starting to like it, but furthermore, seeing the wisdom in it. Just think he should be a bit more reserved maybe, keep us off the gossip pages.

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  37. BBM – good to see you fella! Freedooooommmmmmm!

    Aye Roy caught up yesterday – don’t worry – we are just in the warm up and stretches stage – I’ve spent the last 8months eating burgers kebabs and sitting in valley bottoms getting as much thick air as poss – that’s more than good enough shape to show him up 😆

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  38. stardust where you been then, did you use a different name, I know Edward Rogers but that was only recent.

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  39. nice one stardust & dont forget about – slamming – him on a regular basis about his – imaginary – business degree.

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  40. jez its like an old bloggers reunion on here lol
    BBM hows you fella i hope you had a good xmas and new year.
    Roy that was a mighty fine fry hayley done me this morning you wana keep hold of her.

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  41. DJG – don’t believe everything you read!

    I have a line to say now in relation to it “the truth is now out, in respect for .info I would like to not comment any further but to say I was totally vindicated!”

    Cheers for your comments when you were on “there” DJG – they were appreciated!

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  42. Roy he dies every time its mentioned! Then he tries to deny it, a bit like calling someone a racist in writing then saying you didn’t 😆

    But its a clean slate – dirty ones only to be brought out in times of war 😉

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  43. Eek! I wanna go on both blogs but I feel like im gonna be forced to pick one the way people are going on about all this. I ditched Ed’s quite easily but that was no hardship. 🙂

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  44. Good luck with the blog toonsy, well handy for me as I can’t access .org from work

    Reckon we’ll win tonight – prediction is 2-0

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  45. Alright Stardust! Interested to hear your views on recent events but all in good time.

    Big Dave – yeah cheers, chilled out family affair, just what the doctor ordered. And you?

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  46. Just looking at one page of Newsnow and its Pardew says this and Pardew says that. I prefer new managers to keep a low profile until they prove themselves. I remember Souness was like that initially and then when things turned sour, he started sending his sidekick (whose name I can’t recall) out for post match interviews.

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  47. Tonite will be a good gauge on pardew. Games like tonite were games that we struggled with under st. Hoots. If the lads come out sharp and put the hammers away, it would be a good sign of progress on the managerial front. If they come out flat and use lack of rest as an excuse then we’ll have to question hoots sacking once again.
    I also agree, with comments earlier about pardew talking too much, unless by some chance he’s working the press down a false alley while we do our real business under their noses. I get the feeling though, that he is just loving the attention.

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  48. Maybe he is a good manager though and it was time he got a chance at a big club. No doubt he is enjoying himself and being out of the shadows and into the premier league, can’t really blame him for that.

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  49. Re the current contracts – happy,

    Re Chris being sacked – gutted and disgusted. It also blew a hole in my reasoning why he stood by JK – i.e. Loyalty.

    When one of your lines of rationale has been shown to be wrong, well you can call into question many others…….. lol.

    Good to see you fella, it really is,

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