Game On! Newcastle v Sunderland – Ryan Taylor starts on the right

Game on at St James' Park
Welcome one and all to the ‘Game On’ article which will take us through every twist and turn of this early kick-off against the inbreeds of Sunderland.

This isn’t your regular match. This is the Derby. There are many others like it but this one is ours.

You may recognise (sort of) those lines from the movie ‘Full Metal Jacket’, but whilst its not outright conventional warfare that will be taking place on the St James’ Park pitch this lunchtime there is most definitely a tribal feel to it.

Who will come out on top? Who will take the bragging rights in what is one of the most hotly contested duels in Premier League football between two top-ten sides? Its been a while since that has been applicable, which is maybe why this one feels bigger and somehow more important than recent encounters.

A win for Newcastle would set us up to attack the rest of the season and look towards European qualification while a win for the Mackems will set them dreaming about what they could salvage from this season. This is not a place for pretty football or fancy footwork, instead all that matters is getting those three points!

Anyway that is enough chest thumping. This match needs little build up as it is. Everyone knows what it means to us and them so I need play on the emotion no longer.

Now it’s down to the boys in black and white to do the business, but first off we need to find out just which boys in black and white are tasked with getting us a result. To help with that we must consider injuries and team news which you can do with the help of match preview, which you can view by clicking here.

Now it really is ‘Game On’. Team news will feature below as and when it becomes available but for now it’s time to crank up the noise, increase the fervour and really become the 12th man by roaring our team on to yet another success against the Mackems.

Howay the lads indeed!

Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Ryan Taylor, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Demba Ba, Papiss Cisse

Subs: Rob Elliot, James Perch, Danny Guthrie, Gabriel Obertan, Hatem Ben Arfa, Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi

Sunderland: Simon Mignolet, Phil Bardlsey, John O’shea, Michael Turner, Kieran Richardson, Seb Larsson, Lee Cattermole, Craig Gardner, James McLean, Stephane Sessegnon, Nicklas Bendtner

Subs: Craig Gordon, Wayne Bridge, Matt Kilgallon, Jack Colback, David Meyler, David Vaughan, Frazier Campbell

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.

570 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Sunderland – Ryan Taylor starts on the right

  1. Can’t be hard on Pards today really, MoN brought his doormen in and they kicked us about with the help of the ref. The red cards could have been earned by any number of them and if they played every game the same they would have nobody to field second half of a season. Their penalty was a bonus handed to them by Willo I’m afraid, his man had nowhere to go if shepherded sensibly. We should have had two or three goals,more with the amount of crosses and corners we had. Benny owned both men assigned to him. I see only the positives, although it was through the fingers viewing. Credit the unwashed for their dirty game plan, and the lads for wearing it down. We will now be better for this game in the run in. They definitely won’t. 😆 BTW it was LOUD in the Gallowgate today!

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  2. m12 – you do realise Shola was laid up sick all week with flu dont you.
    A manager has to take this into consideration too.
    You should have a listen to his interview pal and stop the sniping.
    You have made your point loud and clear. Now let it go ffs
    zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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  3. M12 – so how would you get Cisse to appreciate the fixture? Play him in it? plus Shola has been sick this week. You just say out loud what’s in your head ha ha

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  4. TSUNKI@452- So loud the ref had to blow whistle a second time to start the game as players didn’t hear him 😆

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  5. Beggars belief anyone could say AP is incompetant 😯 ffs.
    wot fucking planet are you on.
    Cheeses wept. give ya head a slap quickly.

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  6. ………’Cheeses wept’ …….quality m8 PMSL ….Foookin mashed after this aal day sesh like …hic 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

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  7. Michael12

    March 4, 2012 at 17:24

    Come end of season Beardsleys boots we will be in 8th or 9th.
    .
    so you admit we will have improved on last season then????
    still not good enough for you tho.
    hahahahahahahaha muppet. Take a step back and remember where we were 2/3 yrs ago.
    If we improve again next season, you still wont be happy will you.

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  8. spuds getting a football lesson from manure. 0-3 already 😯
    wouldn’t mind but manure not really playing great. Just keep on grinding out the results at the business end of the season. Twats 👿

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  9. Witters looks like you are banned big man. Join the club mate, “free the .org 4″……it’s a self-help group set up by us lost souls… 😆 😆 😆

    I really miss the occasion to crack on with the three other guys who make up .org…. 😳 😳 but I never did toe the party line… 😆 😆

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  10. Just back home in jockland after being in the match,

    Reading the early comments a lot of posts were criticising our attack. It was poor but look for the reasons. We defend so deep because we are crappping ourselves players run in behind Willo. The central midfield are back helping and Taylor has no drive down the right. Taylor for me can no longer be considered for midfield. It is full back or nowt.
    The balls knocked up to Cisse and Ba are more often than not aerial. Neither of them you would class as dominant in that sphere.
    So although Ba and Cisse were poor first half for me they are not the problem. Team selection and a decent centre half is.

    Second half it was worth the entrance money alone to watch HBA. Must be first name on the teamsheet.
    Taylor left back for future with Santon right back and unfortnuately we will just have to suffer Willo to the end of the season but the truth is he is out of his depth. A trier and 100 per center but not got the ability.

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  11. MM did you give witters his membership forms 😆 well im sure you’s have all been put out of better places than .org an donors

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  12. First half we were shocking. Maybe waddle had a point we played the occasion and not the game. Second half we murdered them. We should of won it if truth be told. Think Ben arfa has to start nexr game. For all his faults he is a game changer and can do things for us no one else can. He just needs to simplfy things every now again

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  13. TLR yeah Benny looked like he gave more in 1 half than the others all game. and have to agree Willo is no where near good enough, was glad to hear Pards says to him at half time that he needed to give more to make up for the pen he gave away. but for now we’re stuck with him 🙄

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  14. Johno KK and Keown touched on something that I think could be true, they think we planned to attack but because of Clatterholes tackle it changed things round to become a bit of a scrap with player trying to get into the others rather than play footie

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  15. Yes, we are stuck with Willo the Handy Man. Hmm summers coming though. HBA played some neat passes, nice and simple today but still designed to get forward, good work rate, non-existent tackling (bless!) but many more chances created than lost. He will be a gem with a few starts under his belt. BTW if his little dink over that final sliding defender by the near post had come off, he would have passed the final ball right along the goal line for anyone to tap in. Close.

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  16. Just seen the league table and the unwashed scum are back in the bottom half where they belong.

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  17. A reflection from the game is McLean is over hyped.
    O’Shea was there rock.

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  18. What happened to the little Mackem squirt who was on the blog 1st half ,just seem to vanish.

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  19. Tsunki without a doubt Benny does have an odd minus to his name when it comes to tackling, but he can make up for it , and is a treat to watch.
    It just gets to me that every team we play we name atleast one player that will or can cause us problems today was McClean but we have a player that would worry any team in the prem and he is normally on the bench because the defence isn’t strong enough 👿

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  20. They may have too many points to be relegated, but in all likelihood they will not be able to catch up with us. That is a result, along with a couple of multiple match bans which should help that cause no end.

    Another lesson garnered from the game is that Febreze alone is not enough to rid SJP of the pervasive tang of the away section.

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  21. The reason we did not win today is simple ,mon told his players to turn it into a street fight ,they did we retaliated and the first half thanks too the ref was theirs . I would love for him to explain why he did not show red in the second minute of the game for that foul .After Pardew calmed the lads down at half time and explained to them it was a football match and start playing football our lads showed with the help of HBA that we are a better footballing team than them . Lack of discipline first half and a **** poor ref cost us the game and while i am estatic that we managed an equaliser i am still seething at the ref and the fact our lads let themselves get involved in a out and out punch up for 45 minutes .Passion is one thing ,going over the top is another .

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  22. Agree with all second half good, first half we were not playing football.
    But one think I remark all the time this year, we must completely stop puting some long ball (which looks like crosses but they aren’t) in the box from 30 metters. We see Ba and Cisse and we just put a ball in the box. The specialist of that are Simmo and Tiote, and Cababye to. How many times Benny was asking for the ball but Simmo prefer to put it in the box and with this left foot, that’s a fucking joke. Jonas done 23 crosses today, no one was precised. So maybe it will be nice to stop.
    Benny made the change because Benny is not affraid of playing the guy like hot atmosphere, he likes the crowd, he plays for the crowd and he tries everythink that comes in his mind. I like this mentality, he must start every game until the end of the season, just to take confidence in his skills. When you have a player like that against you I can promise you that the defence is scared.

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  23. willo is ccc class at best simpson isnt much better,scum ended with 9 we start with 9 every game imo makes it bloody hard 😈

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  24. i have too agree ICEDOG ,Willo is just not a premiership defender ,the penalty that he give away proves it . How many times has he got away with that this season ? . It was bound to come to a ref’s attention at some point and today it happend ,trouble is now how many more ref’s will be watching out for that now .

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  25. Ice your 100% right mate, its not right to pick individual players out for blame but Willo has cost us atleast a few points so far, combine that with Simmo, but in Simmo’s defence he has saved us a few pts, But I just feel our whole game and final position are being affected by them 👿

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  26. Ice@477 Spot on ,that’s what i said yesterday when i suggested a 3 man defence of Fergie Colo Santon ,we may as well cause Willo and Simmo are so poor everytime they are on the ball i’m really nervous ,i would rather have three at the back and pack the midfield and play Hba in the hole at least we attack then. It’s like playing with 9 men lately and it has to change.

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  27. DAVE i know what your saying about simpson,but imo we would not get to that position in the first place if they knew how to defend 😉

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  28. i see Pardew said at the end of one of his interview that he has too find a place in his team for HBA . Hope he means it .

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  29. Ice I know what your saying too 😆 mate thats why I was and still am fukied off that we didn’t strenghten in Jan when it was obvious that we needed too, even Jabba knew and he knows fuk all 😈 but we get the old line that the right players weren’t available but imo the right player were available but at the wrong price.

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  30. Axel Pards had touched on it during the week that he thought Benny was almost ready, and he did say that he changed the game today and that was his best 45 mins 😉 so hopefully thats him now

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  31. big dave got a tip for ya……..

    divvnt get dressed up as the village people with the lads.. it seems funny at the time mate but U dont pull nowt … lesson learnt

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  32. BIG DAVE it was a great 45 minutes from him and it showed we are a better team with him playing . Does anyone know why Santon was subbed at half time? hope he is not injured .i think we should put him on as RB and give Ferguson a run at LB in the next couple of games , a fresh face in and something different on the right with Santon and HBA might just freshen the team up a bit .

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  33. DAVE aye jabba stuffed up with no /c/h,maybe its time for benny, yes he does the ball away at times but hes not going to get into the swing of things with bit part games but he can draw a couple players to him when he does have the ball

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  34. healed up a dream tiny bit of ink came out in one bit if i am being picky but i am going back asap so it will be touched in then with the rest added

    cheers for asking matey

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  35. Was a bit disappointed to see Pardew going radged against the makkem bench. Understandable though…. 😉 😉

    Looks like the trend has been set for MON’s tenure. No after match drinks with the mags management team !…scumbag makkems… 😆

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  36. PUP you will always get a bit of ink falling out never worry about that 😉

    As for Benny without a doubt we are a better team with him in it and imo we have a better chance of winning as we don’t have any other player in the team that can change a game the way he does. yeah he will lose the ball but he will make atleast 2 or 3 chances to make up for it.
    But Jill touched on it earlier a couple of times today he passed the ball for a 1-2 and ran on waiting for it but Tiote and Simmo don’t catch on and cross the ball to the far side of the pitch.

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  37. MM KK was asked about that but he says the passion for the occassion takes over, and that a few times he has done stuff and afterwards has seen it and wished he never done it, I tend to agree Pards showed a lot of passion today

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  38. glad with a draw but need a fighting young player right hand side! enough said…!but that won,t happen…. longer deals to players that nufc can sell next season!!!!!!…well thats great for us ….dosh.. plain as it comes with out the politics now collo has been forced this four and a half year contract means he will be gone next summer
    !…..just watch!!!!!!

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  39. Icedog/Big D….I also saw Johnny Craver getting mucked in a couple of times…good stuff all round….

    Big D…..you just need to look at the Stats for the game between Toonsy and .org… A huge 88 hits on derby day, against co.uk’s ahem….497 at the last count….easy, easy….

    I’m sure I saw that legend from .org Chucky make a flying visit to the blog during the week…. must have gotten fed up with the tumbleweed ower there.

    Have you got Witters tee-shirt printed yet ?

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  40. i think pardew has mind-set on how the team plays which has held us in canny shape (6th) maybe now he can see there is a diff tac he can use as we have fallen away lately maybe we have been sussed a bit the results seem to point to that,or is it we started season so well and expect to much with the players we have

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  41. I really think the time has come to start Benny on the right, but to allow him to play further up the field where he can cause more trouble. There is no defender in the EPL who can stop him with his fast feet and feints. We need to have this skill in the team imo.

    Hats off to young Timmy today, who put in an absolutely top notch performance with at least three brilliant stops. Well done the lad.

    Papa Cisse….well, it all seems to be too much for the lad at the moment, but he’s a natural goalscorer and will come good…didn’t put himself about enough today imo

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  42. MM yeah itwrapped and ready to be posted 😆 funny like you I have a bit of time for a couple of lads over there but I don’t see them on that much now, it’s just a who hates Pards the most blog now, and yeah Chuck was on here, I used to talk to him and enjoyed his dry wit at times but when I got banned, I seen him slagging me off saying that I had an ulterior motive for coming across as friendly.

    Ice we know that most of the players are capable of more imo they are being asked to cover too much for the defence, I think with Tiote covering for them would be enough aslong as the attacking players can get on with attacking.

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  43. DAVE great minds think a like,chuck was a guy i sussed right off and the only one i really lost the heed with the guy is a first class **** and i told him so 😉

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  44. my closeing remark to him was to crawl back down the sewers in usa where he came from 😉

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  45. Ice I know and I have to admit I had a good laugh when you lost it, funny enough I was having a laugh watching you lose it a few weeks ago, then when I seen you snap I had to break it up 😛 , even my Lass asked me what I was laughing at 😆

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  46. I think we all agree that the defence is dragging the midfield down.
    Some major re thinking needed before the summer and some transfers made asap after the window opens.
    Dont want to be waiting till the start of the next season to improve the squad. Get it done early.

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  47. Reet, tried to get match report done. Nearly managed but ran out of time as I’m off to work. Would have got it done sooner but I was on nights last night and didn’t finish until 10:30am. Stayed up for match though and had a few hours kip after it. Knackered. Off to work again now. Laters 🙂

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  48. Well just back in from the match then a couple of cheeky ones while watching Man Utd teach Spurs a footballing lesson!

    I’ve been saying it for weeks and weeks now and the 2nd half proved me right. We are far far far better playing the ball on the ground than we are playing hoofball.

    Arfa as normal was a total game changer, the lad ran the 2 defenders marked to him ragged. Immense ball skills and some neat 1-2’s with his team mates. He has GOT to be a starter for me for the rest of the season because he looked like our ONLY creative influence.

    Tiote was also immense today, you could see he was totally up for the occasion and took a good beating from the Scumberland thugs all game and still came back for more, one of the top 3 DM’s in the league easily.

    Cabaye was well…***** if I’m honest and would have liked to see Guthrie come on in his place to change things in the middle.

    Willo – utter garbage and need replaced ASAP.

    Cisse – Hard to get into the game.

    Ba – Pretty much the same, but hoofball is NEVER going to get the best out of our front 2.

    Krul – Fucking immense.

    Sunderland – Dirty, thugish, diving, time wasting, inbred cheats. 2 reds say it all. Can’t play and never will be able to play football against us.

    Ref – 2 reds don’t hide the shittest biased display all season for me. Fucking dirty cheating ****.

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  49. dont agree with you Stevo @498.
    of course its a possibility, anything can happen, but I think Colo is happy here for now, moreso now that he has the security of a 4 yr contract.
    I worry more about keeping TK tho. He is developing into a world class keeper imo. Got a feeling spurs will test the water for him in the summer, as friedel is an old knacker now and even tho he is still top class, his days are numbered.

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  50. Big D/Ice…the bloke in question is one of the .org blogmasters mob of three who always blast out the same anti-toon, anti-pardew gash. He knows absolutely nowt about football either, it’s quite humourous at times reading his waffle… with him and his mate slapping each others backs… 😆

    There are a couple of good lads over there, but they probably get bored talking to themselves all week… 😳

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  51. Big D…the wheels could come off the Spuds charabang if wobbly chops takes the England job.

    Three of the top four are slowly running out of top managers to test then fire…. Chelsea go through them at a real rate of knots…. looks like Benitez will be next.

    That’ll still leave one or two top positions to be filled – Chelsea/Spurs and hopefully Liverpool….

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  52. aye BD but the new manager will be given funds. He will also have his own clear out and Friedel will be top of the list.
    If you were looking for a top keeper to replace him with where would you look.
    Rubber face will already have Levy briefed imo.
    The only thing that might put them off is money, as it will cost them a fooking fortune :mrgreen:
    All the better if Arsenal can finish above them. 4th place will only get them into the qualifying rounds i think. 😕

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  53. good call MM @ 517. re Dog leash.
    If they dont finish above us he will get sacked.
    By which time I will have pissed my pants laughing. :mrgreen:

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  54. Dave @ 516 – I knew you’d agree with me mate, we always seem to be on the same wave length. Especially if it’s about Ben Arfa, the lad was excellent today…bearing in mind that it was a very dirty match which people have always said he would never suit.

    Proved wrong and makes all the idiots wanting him sold in the summer look like total fucking mugs.

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  55. BB…if SAF got hornswoggled of 15 million big ones for that Spanish gadgey De Gea, what do you think the price tag will be for wor Timmy ? There is no way the toon will sell him, the lad loves the toon and will become a legend…

    Compare Timmy to ANY of the supposed good young keepers at ****, Man Utd etc and we have a REAL gem on our hands…

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  56. MM how do you know Witters got banned ❓

    BB I think Krul would know if sloppy leaves there is a good chance they will start to go backwards. but if we can get a few in there is a good chance we’ll be on the up 😕

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  57. EvilFranky….we just need to perservere with HBA and find the right place to play him. I would give him a roaming role between the flat midfield 4 and a lone striker. The bloke would cause havoc with his feints and twinkling feet. It wouldn’t disrupt the defensive midfield set up, and would give us some spark up front in the final third.

    Was Santone injured today ?

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  58. Munich – No I don’t think he was mate. I think it was tactical. I think it was because Ryan Taylor provides an added attacking threat from set plays and corners but Pardew also wanted Ben Arfa on to change things on the right hand side.

    Worked a treat.

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  59. MM he also seems to be very fond of Pards for giving him his real break.

    EvilFranky the funny thing was that some of the ones slagging Benny were also telling us that Oba needed more time and our support and wouldn’t hear a bad word said about Cabaye, who imho has been a bit disappointing 😕

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