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!
For some reason it doesn’t feel like we’re winless in 5 😯 let’s win one **** it 👿
JerseyGeordie(Quote)
Ryan Taylor is playing tonight for reserves against Bedlington at Whitley Park
Moreno(Quote)
pls bringRanger on if Loverman is not performing, dont wait til the last 10 or 20 mins goddamnit
arcarius(Quote)
A few seasons ago, this, and Blackburn last week, would have been the type of game where we just wouldn’t have turned up.
If we think the team hasn’t imporved over the last couple of years, tonight will be a good indicator if this is true. Our attitude needs to be first rate tonight if we want anything out the game, fingers crossed.
Birmingham 1 – 2 Newcastle
I Love Mike(Quote)
ILM I agree. I’m really concerned about this game. I just don’t like how we match up. I’m thinking 1-1 but I can see us losing this one 😐
JerseyGeordie(Quote)
Lets put the stats being thrown around in another perspective, a positive one for a change.
How about in the last 8 games we have lost 2, Fulham in the league and Stevenage in the FA cup.
Drawn 4, tough games away to the mackems, Blackburn and home to Arsenal and Spurs.
And won at Wigan and hammered the Hammers.
2 narrow defeats in 8 doesnt look too worrying to me.
bobby(Quote)
All being well it should be like the crusades tonight – Jonas and Jose should be raping and pillaging their way down Birminghams left side
Stardust(Quote)
🙄 😯 😯
batty(Quote)
I think this is a game we could win but would be happy with another point. St andrews is a tough place to go.
Johno Toon(Quote)
Stardust
Posted February 15, 2011 at 9:49 AM
All being well it should be like the crusades tonight – Jonas and Jose should be raping and pillaging their way down Birminghams left side
Unfortunately I agree, it’s just a shame we’re relying on Best and Lovenkrands to finish the good work off.
Stuart79(Quote)
stu i reckon nolan too score of a set piece 😉
batty(Quote)
I reckon Jose to score and to win 1-0 🙂
Mags(Quote)
Here’s hoping batts.
Fancy us to get a result tonight. Which probably means we’ll lose.
Stuart79(Quote)
I see tugboat’s been done for speeding.
Shame on all you moaners who said he was too slow for the PL! 😉 😆
Toon Chicken(Quote)
When is the last time nolan scored? He prob due one , could be worth a punt
Johno Toon(Quote)
Stuart79
Posted February 15, 2011 at 10:54 AM
Here’s hoping batts.
Fancy us to get a result tonight. Which probably means we’ll lose.<<<< yeah and me 😆
batty(Quote)
12/5 for the draw.
All things considered that’s not a bad price.
Toon Chicken(Quote)
im going for 3-1 victory, i think after the dull result at blackburn pardew will make sure that any chances created are put away. im going for nolan, barton and ranger to score.
a victory tonight could really push us away from the bottom half a bit more
HWTL
rambo87(Quote)
I think this is a game we could win or lose depending on how we approach it. (I know thats a silly thing to say and what happens in every game, but in some games it applies more than others)
No wins in 5 isn’t good, particularly when we threw away the points in the last few minutes in two games. We will have to match them physically, but thats not how we will beat them. We need to outplay them like we did Blackburn and then hope we have more luck infront of goal this time.
DJG(Quote)
I think the season in the championship as prepered us for games against the likes of Blackburn,Birmingham etc.with respect to those clubs we where playing tough physical games like that nearly every week.
Mick G(Quote)
I agree that our best chance is the left flank, but that giant Zigic is going to cause problems for us too. We really need Barton and Nolan to have a good game and to be prepared to have a crack at goal at every opportunity rather than just keep hoping a striker will do well from a cross.
Not to have a go at or three strikers, but we know they’re unlikely to be getting a hatful against this kind of defence, so we may have to play a numbers game and just keep banging them at the target.
Close game. Probably 1-1, but I would just love to get a win; the timing would be brilliant, as Toonsy points out.
Whumpie(Quote)
see oba has come out and said, like Carroll, he was pushed out the club.
Anyone seeing a pattern…….of BULLSHIT from players?
I Love Mike(Quote)
I Love Mike
Posted February 15, 2011 at 11:28 AM
see oba has come out and said, like Carroll, he was pushed out the club.
Anyone seeing a pattern…….of BULLSHIT from players?
I assume you know the truth then…
Stuart79(Quote)
He actually said it himself. The club told him they couldn’t afford him, so he was free to talk to other clubs.
Dekka must have had a gun on his desk pointing in his direction
I Love Mike(Quote)
How’s it bullshit then?
Stuart79(Quote)
ilm they didnt want martins as he was costing too much money ,martins comments seem pretty fair too me m8
batty(Quote)
martins was out of the door in a flash, he was too good to rough it in the CCC. and to be fair i was glad to see the back of him and the other mercenaries who left.
rambo87(Quote)
Stu: in my opinion, the club was dead right to push him out. Too much money, not enough product, and very much part of the problem that took us down. If we go down again (and I don’t think we will) then we’d be right to do the same with some of our other high earners.
Whumpie(Quote)
I don’t see why every player movement has to be someone’s fault. He hadn’t performed, we couldn’t afford him. Best for all parties for him to go.
The club clearly identified the dead wood (with help from players like Smudge) and cleared it out. Ashley agreed to put his hand in his pocked to keep some of the others like Collo and Enrique, and the rest is history. It worked. Good on ’em. Especially (gulp) Ashley, who could easily have insisted on selling the lot of ’em.
Whumpie(Quote)
whumpie – who would you say if that were to happen should be pushed out? because by all accounts our higher earners are the ones that have excelled for us this season – colo, enrique, barton, nolan
rambo87(Quote)
I really hope Martins doesn’t start tonight. You just know what’ll happen if he does… 🙄
Whumpie(Quote)
Agree with Whumpie – got to say I was happy to see the back of Martins – along with Saylor one of the most over rated players (by a large amount of supporters) that we have had recently.
Stardust(Quote)
Whumpie
Posted February 15, 2011 at 12:08 PM
I agree. My point is that ILM was saying the players were talking **** by saying this.
Like you say he was forced out because we couldn’t afford him.
I believe we forced Carrolls hand too, to a degree but money does talk…
Stuart79(Quote)
i can honestly see martins scoring tonight and it will be whumpies fault 🙂
batty(Quote)
So long as we give Martins plenty of time and space on the ball we’ll be fine.
If we press him too much he might just whack it from 30 yards without thinking about it – then we could be in trouble! 😉
Toon Chicken(Quote)
i agree with stuart like re players, Carroll should still be here in fairness, if dave whelan can turn down big offers at daft o’clock on deadline day then so should we! i still think he’s gonna one of the best 5 strikers in Europe.
And were left with best, kuqi and shitty lovenkrands – perfect planning!
i think tonight could be embarassing for us if our strikers play as they did at fulham, bham seem to be hitting form, lets hope theyre thinkin about the cup final.
do u lot think 442 and best and lovenkrands are the way forward for us?
toonarmy87(Quote)
Martins was overrated, probably because of his awesome goal vs spurs, but at the end of the transfer window I would have taken him on loan…never permanently obvs but would have been nice to at least get another body through…like Sturridge?
Anyway we got some decent cash from Martins, more than he was worth. How much did we pay for him in the first place?
NewkieBrown(Quote)
ta87 – there’s a good chance we’ll be safe by the time Judas ever kicks a ball for Liverpool – not to mention £35m richer! 😉
Toon Chicken(Quote)
I liked Oba, he missed some sitters but at least he put the effort in and you always thought he might crack a goal, pity we didnt get him on loan when we sold carroll, surely better than kuqi, best, ranger and loven – would have been good until summer when we can poss buy someone better
oh well, hopefully he wont be playing tonight or if he is plays badly
4411(Quote)
Rambo – good question. I’d hope that Ashley would step in again with his wallet and try for a repeat of last time, but that may be optimistic. I don’t think it’d be a matter of who we should sell so much as who we’d have to. Basically all those on the tail ends of inflated wage deals from the previous business model (if you can call it that): Collo, Jose, Jonas, possibly Nolan… can’t think of many others.
Whumpie(Quote)
The front two tonight should be Ranger and Nolan with Guthrie (never thought i would say it) in the middle of the park. Give Ranger the hour then bring on a sub. who it is doesn’t really matter none is any better than the other. Although Best does look like he might score while Lovenkrands for all his hard work looks incapable of scoring
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
toonarmy87 – I don’t think any set formation will do it for us now; it’ll be horses for courses. Tonight I think we’ll need to squeeze as many quick attackers in there as possible. Hopefully Ranger will get more than his usual cameo, as I think he’ll do well against their huge CBs. Besides – the sooner he can finally find the net the better for us. He’s had some cracking shots saved recently.
Whumpie(Quote)
tc – lets hope so 😉
I just think a bad result 2nyt and then against bolton and we could be in the shizz!
Still u have to b optimistic – kuqi to get the winner in both! Tbf go him there are plenty worse that we could of got. I for one was buzzin with the reception he got at ewood park wen he came 😀
Why did we let xisco go???? I think we need o go 451 with jb, kn and cheik the boom boom in the middle. Best up top and ranger and jonas wide. I think even man u went 451 there cos thats how bham play.
toonarmy87(Quote)
Nice suggestion, Toby – I quite like that. No problem suggesting Guthrie; he’s shown repeatedly that he can deliver from that position, and he’s as good as anyone for a good through-ball.
Ranger has shown how well he can work against defences to set up Nolan too.
Meanwhile, I just get the impression that cow’s arses are safe from banjos for the time being if Best and Lover are on. (c’mon boys – prove me wrong!)
Worth a go…?
Whumpie(Quote)
Toonarmy87: “Why did we let xisco go????”
Seriously? Apart from him draining us of over £3m a year in salary, proving himself to be a lazy git consistently across several years and even more managers?
I don’t get why people still defend the guy. On what evidence?
Whumpie(Quote)
Whumpie
Posted February 15, 2011 at 1:16 PM
Toonarmy87: “Why did we let xisco go????”
Seriously? Apart from him draining us of over £3m a year in salary, proving himself to be a lazy git consistently across several years and even more managers?……….
& not forgetting – he was also a backdoor merchant.
well shot of him.
roy cropper(Quote)
Ah, Roy. You’re really on the pulse of today’s PC society, eh? 😆
Frankly he could have had a penchant for shagging rabid badgers in the ear for all I cared as long as he put the effort in and delivered some results.
Whumpie(Quote)
Best is more likely to score than Lovenkrands or Ranger, for that reason I would play him. Might upset some of the romantics on here who hope Ranger is gonna chip in with a hat-trick but it just ain’t gonna happen lads. Even if he started every game till the end of the season I can’t see him scoring many, if any.
DJG(Quote)
political correctness brigade/society – they can go & f@ck themsel’s for al i care – whimper.
roy cropper(Quote)
roy – 🙂
DJG(Quote)
Whumpie, cropper- I just feel he’s probably technically superior to lovers and best. And the only time ive seen him this season he was on for 10 minutes and set up a goal. (villa) so who knows what else he could of done, ur probs right tho, i spose if he wanted to b here he would be!
Looking forward to seein best tonight, he’s generally been good then awful so he should be good tonight! 😉
Any else pissed off lovenkrands didnt square to best when he hit the bar on saturday??
toonarmy87(Quote)
toonarmy87
Best was good at Blackburn, looking better with every game, wouldn’t be suprised if he put one away tonight. He is unrecognisable from last season. Could it be down to Pardew perhaps?
DJG(Quote)
Im just generally pissed off with Lovenkrands in general and I think he should go back to scotland, which is more his level.
DJG(Quote)
Best did look good – well, better – the last couple of games. So did Ranger; some real skill from both. Not sure what to make of Loven; can’t help but feel that his (comparative) experience and pace will come good for us somehow.
But my mind’s now on that suggestion above about Nolan and Ranger up front with Guthrie in behind. I kinda like that. And you could swap Guthrie for Benny when the time comes; get some competition for that spot.
Anyone else tempted by it?
Whumpie(Quote)
Djg – agreed man its embarassimg we pay this mans wages! It is strange to see his goal/game record for us pretty decent. He works well with a target man otherwise offers nothing! I was at sjp when we drew 4-4 and we only looked good after they took him off!
Im startin to like best like, its obvious to me that pardew has improved a lot of our fringe players, i like how he seems to be utilising colo’s and jose better offensively, we seem to have a party piece at corners now aswell, joey to colo….then smash!!!
What do u think about enrique delaying talks? Smells fishy to me, Lets hope he doesnt bite the hand that feeds him! This last month has really seen develop a hatred of liverpool the scummy tw@ts! 🙂
toonarmy87(Quote)
toonarmy87
Posted February 15, 2011 at 1:45 PM
Douglas Bader was technically more superior than them two!
Stuart79(Quote)
Aye best was decent at blackburn…remember him not quite catching a relatively easy ball cleanly though…not a sitter but he still seems a bit rusty. Loven is just being a nob now “oh look at me i got 16 goals last season blah” been ***** so far. If he starts today and does nowt then i hope we push up Nolan and bring on guthrie as people have suggested…or just bring on ranger/kuqi
NewkieBrown(Quote)
The Lovenkrands bashing on here today seems a little harsh, imo. Admittedly he was pants against Arsenal, but his non-performance at Fulham was essentially down to getting no service whatsoever.
At Blackburn, aside from the incident that sparked the row with Enrique, I thought he looked ok. By that I mean he did what he could with the wrong type of service – loads of crosses which he just isn’t going to win against big ‘uns like Samba. I can only remember one through ball played for him, and he almost scored with what was nearly a perfect lob.
blip(Quote)
Stu – Haha well said. We seriously need investment in the summer but who wants to come to a club intent on selling their big players? As pardew says we’ll struggle to keep them – wouldn’t see best or lovers going for big money tho 😉
toonarmy87(Quote)
ime going for a draw,because takeing out the gunners game we have scored only 3 in5 strikers just not good enough imo.
will hope for a change like 😀
icedog(Quote)
All I can say is thank god some of the geniuses on here are not the manager!
Start Ranger and Nolan up front.
With the effort Ranger puts in, he knocked after 30mins.
He only really makes an impression as a substitute. He’s still learning.
JJ(Quote)
We should stick with the same game plan we had against Blackburn…
We just need to make sure our finishing is better.
I see us winning 2-1 or drawing 1-1 tonight.
JJ(Quote)
I’m not predicting anything 😀
toonsy(Quote)
TOONSY think thats best mate 😉
icedog(Quote)
toonsy you should predict a defeat. 💡
DJG(Quote)
Can’t wait to see martin score a screamer,and His goal celebration. 🙄 😕
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
15 Feb 2011 15:06:00
A rumour that might just interest NUFC fans my son works in the city of london with STANDARD CHARTERED BANK a russian oligarch ALEXEI MORDASHOV net worth 4billion is interest in buying the club he went to northumbria university 1998 to 2001 never missed ahome game and has supported the club ever since HE has been to hundreds of games since then was a vip at stamford bridge and the emirates other russian clubs this could be very good news or just a rumour
🙄
hitman(Quote)
Hitman: how would being bought out by a murderous, corrupt foreign oligarch be a good thing? Especially at a time when the only possible up-side of such a move – being able to spend more than you earn – is outlawed in the game?
He may have made some gawd-awful decisions and be a petulent git at times, but Ashley is an absolute angel compared to some owners out there and earned his money through (relatively) legal means. And he’s only likely to be in court for fraud now and again, not dragged off to the Hague..
Whumpie(Quote)
Sorry to soap-box it, but I’ve worked in Eastern Europe. People have no clue what these monsters are like or what they’ve done to get their money. How anyone could want to be associated with them – let alone want them to have power over a much-loved football club – is beyond me.
Whumpie(Quote)
HITMAN will take it as just that a rumour,dont go russian to the bank 😉
sorry for the pun m8
icedog(Quote)
ice. ouch.
Whumpie(Quote)
Hitman: something you may be able to get some info on: How does your son reckon the court ruling on Sky vs foreign sat feeds is going to impact the game?
By my rather simple reckoning, since that pub landlady in Portsmouth (bless ‘er) won the case to be able to show Novaports Greece in her pub, Murdoch – and every Prem team -are right in the poo.
Pubs are not going to shell out five times the cost for Sky any more. Sky is going to have to drop its pricing accordingly, which means far less money from TV rights, which means far less money to clubs, which means far less money available for player transfers and wages.
All of which, IMHO, is desperately needed.
Whumpie(Quote)
Any think we will have a stream for tonight? Just with all the champions league on tonight?
Johno Toon(Quote)
Gotta be Berlusconi for no.1 Owner. Not only do you get a billionaire kingpin of his own country, you get plenty of prostitue banter as well!
NewkieBrown(Quote)
Could be some clubs in trouble whumpie if your right like the unwashed 😆
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A81389721
Johno Toon(Quote)