It will be a tough match as Birmingham are a strong outfit at home, but Newcastle can cause their own problems if they stick to their own game. I view Birmingham as being similar to Blackburn, so I expect more of the same kind of approach from them as we had from Blackburn just a couple of days ago.
The importance of a result will be magnified by the fact that Newcastle don’t play again until the 26th of the month, which gives them 11 days after the fixture against Birmingham to rest and recover, but it’s also a long time to wait should we suffer a defeat.
The good news is that Newcastle have suffered no new injuries to any of their players. Danny Simpson will be fit to feature after coming off at Ewood Park due to cramp, but other than that we will have pretty much the same players available as we had at Blackburn.
Hatem Ben Arfa, Shola Ameobi, Dan Gosling, Stephen Ireland, Steven Taylor and Alan Smith are all still sidelined although Ryan Taylor is pushing for a place in the matchday squad after recovering from a long-term ankle injury.
It’s up front where we are having problems though, and Alan Pardew has dropped hints about the performances of Nile Ranger that suggest that the young gangstaaaar could be in line for a start. Personally, I don’t think it has come to that just yet so I expect that we’ll see a front pairing of Leon Best and Peter Lovenkrands again. That will leave us lining up with team looking like this:
Newcastle: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Peter Lovenkrands, Leon Best.
Up against Newcastle will be few familiar faces, which isn’t good news when you consider that our former players seem to crop up against us and score.
Lee Bowyer, Stephen Carr and Obafemi Martins will be the old boys in the blue kit later on this evening, although Martins could well drop to the bench after the combined effect of his poor debut and Cameron Jerome’s impressive cameo role from the bench at the weekend.
Nikola Zigic grabbed an injury time winner for The Blues in their last match against Stoke where they lined up with a team of:
Birmingham: Ben Foster, Stephen Carr, Roger Johnson, Martin Jiranek, Liam Ridgewell, Seb Larsson, Barry Ferguson, Anthiny Gardner, David Bentley, Nikola Zigic, Obafemi Martins.
Newcastle have a surprisingly good record at St Andrews as they have not lost away to Birmingham since 1977, or eight games to be precise. The last four matches have ended in draws.
Birmingham are unbeaten in three games whilst Newcastle haven’t won in five, although they have drawn four of those games.
Kick-off is scheduled for 7:45pm UK time, so don’t forget to keep an eye on the clock and adjust your time accordingly!
Howay the lads!
Whumpie-Didn’t realise that woman won her case? Sounds like good news all round really, bringing in a bit more competition into the prem with regard to spending I guess….mainly brilliant because i can’t stand that c*nt murdoch.
NewkieBrown(Quote)
I think they’re appealing the decision, but it definitely went against that bastid Murdoch. What a woman. 🙂
Whumpie(Quote)
Incidentally, this probably won’t be of use to many, but my local’s showing the match tonight, using the same system wor Portsmouth heroine has. Anyone near Exeter should head to Lympstone and the Saddlers Arms. Corkin’ pub.
Whumpie(Quote)
Well, I’ve officially had enough of work 🙁
Worked too long last night, not had enough sleep, will end up working too long again tonight 😡
Grrrr!!!!!
Rant over 🙂
toonsy(Quote)
http://www.lfcreds.com/reds/index.php?topic=36293.0
More about that landlady vs sky. Hope sky can’t get it revoked, bring on affordable sport 😀
NewkieBrown(Quote)
Newkie – If that does go through it will kill the Premier League, especially wages. I’m not sure of that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
toonsy(Quote)
Toonsy: good thing IMO. The Prem is a corrupt, avaricious, inept, self-serving monster that needs killing off rather than mending. People keep going on about what they’ve done for the game, but apart from making certain people lots of money, everything that’s come about since their inception has been bad.
Let the ***** fly as far as I’m concerned.
Whumpie(Quote)
johno toon
loads of links on here mate
http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=103751&part=sports
Do yourself a favour and download sopcast and watch it on that, the stream doesn’t stutter or stop.
I Love Mike(Quote)
Toonsy-Can see what you mean, it will cause massive upheavel, but I reckon it will come good in the end, reducing ridiculous wages and transfer budgets can only be a good thing. Hopefully it would make the PL more competetive rather than a relatively established continual hierarchy…although it might have an adverse affect and make wealthy benefactors even more influential…still if UEFA’s new rules are comming in soon as well it could co incide well.
Plus Sky, the FA and the PL is full of absolute c*nts so ****** em all 😀
NewkieBrown(Quote)
New thread up anyway 🙂
toonsy(Quote)
Sopcast is brilliant. Particularly fox sports in America. You also get warren Barton explaining tactics on a chalk board for the yanks American football style. It makes no sense at all, he just makes it up as he goes along!
On th TV rights issue, you should look into the mobile TV rights from operators which they are working on. Going to be worth a fortune to prem clubs from likes of vodaphone, o2, orange etc. Maybe make up for sky money going down? They tried it in the past but the stream wasn’t reliable enough to charge money for but improvements are being made
Moreno(Quote)
I think i have vshare or something like that which seems alright but ill have a look at sopcast , ill be hookin my laptop up to my tele n settling into a few cans 🙂
Johno Toon(Quote)
Moreno – I think it will be a while before we have that mate. I get around the country quite a lot and there are still loads of blackspots where you lose even just the phone signal so to be able to have the frequency set to allow streaming would be a big ask.
I mean as I sit here in my house now I only have two bars out of six for phone reception, and that is with a bloody great phone mast about half a mile away 😆
I’m not saying that it won’t happen, but I can’t see it for a while yet.
toonsy(Quote)
toonsy stop trying too kid people you live in a house ,we know you have a caravan 😉
batty(Quote)
A tent 😆
toonsy(Quote)
Actually, it is one of those trailer tents. The lead paint must be stopping the signal from getting through 😉
toonsy(Quote)
yup totally agree fox sports is good on sopcast, warren barton was made up for toon against in arsenal game, could see he still carries a soft spot for the toon 🙂
I only love biased opinion when its a bias towards the toon
4411(Quote)
oh aye toonsy i forgot you sold your caravan too fund your crack addiction 😆
batty(Quote)
0.2g for £20. I have to get the money from somewhere 😈
toonsy(Quote)
this aint my rumour its what someone put on another site,whumpie
hitman(Quote)