Are these breaks really any good for Newcastle?

A sign of things to come?
We’re sat in limbo again. Another weekend without NUFC having a game. No good!

Combine it with this sunny weather that appears to have graced us with it’s presence, which means that there is a very real risk that I could handed a list of ‘jobs’ to do around the house over the weekend, No good. If there was football on I’d get left alone, but there isn’t which means that I’m a prime target for the wife this weekend.

You see, the gap between these fixtures is no good for me. It was no good to NUFC last time when we got spanked by Stoke 4-0. I’ve said for quite some time that Newcastle struggle after these gaps in the fixture list. Whilst other teams seem to be able to rest and recuperate, Newcastle seem to forget how to play football and generally struggle.

It’s something that I just thought of one day and it seems to have stuck. I’ve done no research on it so I couldn’t tell you if my made up assumption was accurate, so I thought I’d do a bit of digging about now and see if there is actually any basis to my thought on these ‘breaks’ in the fixture list.

So, how have we fared after the various breaks this season? For clarity, I’m only counting breaks of more than seven days. Here goes:

11-09-2010 – Newcastle 0-2 Blackpool – Break = 14 days.
16-10-2010 – Newcastle 2-2 Wigan – Break = 13 days.
26-12-2010 – Newcastle 1-3 Man City – Break = 15 days.
02-02-2011 – Fulham 1-0 Newcastle – Break = 11 days.
26-02-2011 – Newcastle 1-1 Bolton – Break = 11 days.
19-03-2011 – Stoke 4-0 Newcastle – Break = 14 days.

It doesn’t make for good reading does it? That’s six fixtures after long mid-season breaks, and only two points gained from the lot of them. The worrying thing is that four of those games have been at home and two of those home games have been against sides that we should be looking to beat at St James’ Park. Does that bode well for next weekend?

Well it has to change eventually doesn’t it, so why can’t it change against Wolves? Granted the stats suggest that we could struggle, plus we have this Saturday 3pm jinx as well as nerves to deal with, but these kind of runs are there to be broken.

It’s a shocking revelation really, but I thought I would do a bit of research into it to see just if my suspicious mind was being just that – suspicious – with regard to our run of form after international and cup competition breaks.

As for what causes this, well who knows. Part of me is leaning towards the fact that the players are used to playing so much football from last season when it was generally a case of playing two games a week, every week. They aren’t used to having so many gaps in the fixture basically.

What do you think is responsible?

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.

29 thoughts on “Are these breaks really any good for Newcastle?

  1. If only I could play like Carroll toonsy 😆

    I used to think the breaks helped us because we always have players who a injured then where as last season where we had 2 games a week pretty much we didn’t have as many injuries.

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  2. Just as I was starting to think good thought about the Wolves game, thanks so very bloody much 👿 😆

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  3. dont want a repeat of last result,i got so drunk thought i was home took off my shoes,suit and under-clothes crept upstairs so i didnt wake the mrs,when i got to the top saw i was still on the bus home 😯

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  4. Fine article to bung in when there’s no match, Toonsy! It’s got numbers and everyfink! 😮

    As a team that always has an injury crisis at this point, it’s pretty poor form to fail to capitalise from it. We should have some players back for Wolves, but I still can’t see where the spirit is going to come from.

    On the other hand, it happened against Brum and I didn’t see that one coming!

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  5. yeah maybe for the past few breaks the returns have not been so good but at the end of the day like you said it is to rest and recuperate. its a big game we have coming up against wolves and i thinks its best that we have this break so the players come back fresh for a game that we need to win.

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  6. just wish we could move smith out, might free up some cash to spend elsewhere poor guy will never make a PL player again imo

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  7. A draw actually wouldn’t be that bad for us. We could get away with draws whilst the others need to win. Mind you, a win would make the nerves a lot easier.

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  8. I think we’ll see next Saturday what Pardew’s capable of. If they turn up, look organised and fight, we’ll be ok. If it’s anything like the Stoke game, I think we’re in serious trouble.

    The optimist in me (it’s still there somewhere) wants to put recent problems down to injuries, but the realist still just finds the situation too reminiscent of two years ago. We’ll see.

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  9. Toonsy: on the subject of footie-free weekends ending up kicking you in the clunge: I recommend inventing patriotic passion for all things competitive at a national level. So this weekend you’ve got some footie, plus McLarens driven by Englishmen in the F1, and England in the cricket to watch. At the pub.

    You have to build it up over time, boring your missus with details she’s so uninterested in that she actually wants you to get out of the house to go watch it instead of boring her.

    Works eventually. 😉

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  10. Whumpie – I usually watch the F1 anyway. I like it when it’s at odd times like 6am as I can get up early and get stuff done whilst nobody else is about :mrgreen:

    Why one of these days you may even find this place has an entirely new layout 😉

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  11. Whumpie
    Posted March 24, 2011 at 11:26 AM

    “Fine article to bung in when there’s no match, Toonsy! It’s got numbers and everyfink!”

    I thought so. I like off the cuff articles and prefer doing them to just the reporting news type articles 🙂

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  12. Just seen Tavernier’s been recalled from his loan at Gateshead because of Perch’s red card.

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  13. Whumpie,

    Looking forward to the new F1 season. Button is on a Melbourne hat-trick as well so hope he gets it. I reckon the the cricket will be hard to call, so bloody inconsistant in the tournament.
    See Ponting is a run off a century against India, glad these 2 get the chance to knock each other out early on

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  14. I think the situation is more like the year before relegation when Fat Sam was sacked and Keggy didnt get a win in his first 10 odd games.

    We were slipping a bit close for comfort then and all of a sudden we clicked and got a few wins and draws and finished midtable i reckon well do the same again…

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  15. AOD @ 3 – Wouldnt mind having a couple of the players on that list. Too bad Shürrle is joining Leverkusen this summer. Götze is sadly probably out of our range, same with Gündogan, and Schalke apparently wants Holtby back when his loan finishes.

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