Wigan v Newcastle – Premier League match preview

toonsy
The JJB Stadium - Home of The Latics.

The JJB Stadium - Home of The Latics.
The DW Stadium - Home of The Latics.
Newcastle head to Lancashire tomorrow afternoon where they will do battle with a resurgent Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium.

Both sides have something to play for as the final few games of the season roll into view. Wigan are still too close to the relegation zone for their liking and will be looking for a result to help pull them away from the mire, meanwhile Newcastle have Champions League aspirations now and will be looking for three points and a chance to consolidate 4th place in the table for another week.

To be honest that should be all the motivation we need to beat a Wigan side who sit one place above the drop zone. However they have beaten the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal in recent weeks and have picked up 12 points from the last 18 available. It won’t be easy and I’m expecting a tough game regardless of our own impressive form.

Wigan Athletic

Franco Di Santo is doubtful with a calf problem while Ronnie Stam is likely to miss out thanks to a hamstring injury.

However Roberto Martinez will be boosted by the news that Hugo Rodallega could feature after a seven week absence while Albert Crusat is also back in contention and could feature.

Newcastle United

The good news is that there is no new news with regard to injuries for United. Steven Taylor, Sammy Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands and Haris Vuckic are all still sidelined and are unlikely to play again this season. Gabriel Obertan, Danny Guthrie, Steve Harper and Sylvain Marveaux are back in training however none of them are expected to start tomorrow.

Previously…

Newcastle have only ever won once at the DW Stadium, or JJB Stadium as it was previously known, and that was last season when Shola Ameobi scored the winner. Prior to that we suffered five one goal defeats (four 1-0 and one 2-1) on the spin although one of those came in a League Cup encounter back in 2005.

Overall the record between the two sides is remarkably tight. There have been 14 meetings between the two sides in all competitions. Newcastle have won six, Wigan have won five with three draws. As far as goals scored. Wigan have scored 16 goals to our 18 so it’s even close on that front!

Tactics and team selection

I would suggest that we are going to see an unchanged side from the victory over Stoke. The players have had a week to recover now so tiredness shouldn’t be an issue, and the results with this 4-3-3/4-5-1/4-2-3-1 or whatever formation have spoken for themselves.

Wigan don’t score many goals and tend to win by the odd goal – five of their last six wins have been by one goal. They’ve only kept five clean sheets this season aswell so there is an argument to suggest that we’ll find the back of the net at some point.

They do like to play the ball about a bit though and have hit a bit of form in recent weeks, but they aren’t unbeatable and we will present our own threat in terms of attack. We haven’t been too shabby at the back either recently so Wigan will have to do well to break us down.

Match stats and facts

Newcastle have won the last two games against Wigan, with both games ending 1-0 to the Magpies.

Tim Krul has not conceded a goal in 398 minutes.

Papiss Cisse is looking to score in seven consecutive games – the first Newcastle player to do so since Alan Shearer. The record is held by Ruud van Nistelrooy who scored in ten consecutive games back in 2003.

Wigan are chasing a third successive home win while Newcastle are aiming for a third successive away victory – something the Magpies haven’t achieved since 2001.

Final thought

I’ll probably get stick for saying this, but I honestly believe tomorrow will be a tough game and have a horrible feeling about it. Yes we’ve been in great form, but it won’t last forever and we’ll lose at some point. I just hope that tomorrow isn’t the day.

However a positive result will go down rather nicely and will help us in our quest for Europe, especially when you look at the other fixtures this weekend – Chelsea play Tottenham while Arsenal travel to Stoke. It gives us a real chance to put some distance between us and the chasing teams and maybe even apply some pressure on those above us.

Howay the lads!

Date: Saturday, 28th April, 2012

Kick-off: 3pm

Venue: DW Stadium

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.

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69 thoughts on “Wigan v Newcastle – Premier League match preview”

  2. Gannin the morro like. Start drinking at 9am.
    Oooooh yes.

    Everyone likes a drink no one likes a drunk. 😛

    I keep telling mesel that before I start and I get over the problem by quickly getting past the drunk stage and get blootered! Everyone likes the blootered fool who starts all the songs off and adds a few funny one liners. 😛

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  3. Like you say Toonsy ,this could be tricky. I really hope we beat them though as I can’t stand em ,every season it’s the same ,they survive by the skin of their teeth ,well times up I hope. 😈 😉

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  5. According to the schedule I saw, Chelsea are home to QPR and Tottenham are home to Blackburn, both on Sunday.

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  6. Well if we play like we can we will win.
    But if we’re not 100% commited we will be in for a shock we have to treat them with respect and take them serious

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  7. Tend to agree this could be a tough game, Wigan haven’t been shipping many goals lately and have played decent football.
    Need to keep Moses well shackled – still think we’ll win although only by odd goal

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  8. Some error in the article. 😉

    Chelsea vs QPR.

    And that stoke always been a difficult team for arsenal to break down,and that arsenal have pressure not to lose any points in their remaining 3games.

    I see a draw or even lose for arsenal. 😳

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  9. Whenever i’ve seen them they’ve looked wasteful in front of goal (with the exception of the Arsenal match), and this is reflected in the stats too – they have the 2nd worst attack according to number of goals scored.

    Also just read that Assou-Ekotto is out for the season so that’s good news for us.

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  10. Surely nobody is writing Wigan off? Even had they not had such a stunning recent run no games are easy, and we’re notorious for screwing up the *easy*games.

    Having said that, if we can’t beat Wigan there’s no chance of Champions League, so I’d expect the team to go out with the same desire as they have in our run of 8 matches or so, and if they do so there’s no reason why we can’t win.

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  12. From perhaps a cynical point of view, I hope Tiote puts himself about in the Chelsea game. He can leave those players who are already out of the champions league final well enough alone, but the others, well, would be nice if he made sure they knew who was the boss… 😈 😉

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  13. Haha, good idea Newkie. Tell Tiote to bruise up the players that could do anything in the CL final

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  14. Nufcgt, decent thought of starting Perch in place of Williamson this weekend. Williamson would then be fully primed to handle their aerial threat on Wednesday!

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  16. Andrew- :mrgreen:

    Lets just say if I were Pards or this were Football Manager, I’d be telling players to go in hard on certain individuals *cough* MATA *cough*

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  17. 7 wins in the row is a big ask in the premiership so this will be some effort if Pardew and his merry me pull it off. As much as I don’t see Wigan as a Championship club never mind a premiership club I do have some respect for their owner Dave Whelan. He has played in all four divisions as a pro footballer as well as guiding his home town club through all four divisions as its owner. This will probably never be repeated. Also dispite his bitter battles with MA he was quoted in his book as taking no satisfaction from Newcastles relegation and even expressed his admiration for the toon army and their unrivaled loyality. Must of took some doing after MA gave him the mother of all shaftings.

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  19. While I am obviously not listing this game as a win already. I have to say that I feel confident with the way our boys are playing. It seems that the players are just gettin more and more comfortable with this formation, and with the better quality players that we have, it could be another 3-0 win for NUFC.

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  20. Whatever our fate will be much clearer after the weekend. Lose and results go against us we could be looking at 6th. Win and other results going our way and we could be favourites for 3rd. Amazing.

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  22. Newkie @ 16. Yes Cheik Tiote is on 8 yellows, so I would deffo let him loose against Chelski to do some robust tackles. 😛 One more yellow wont make much difference.
    Targets are Mata, Lampturd, and Cole.
    😆

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  23. Beardsley 😆 Glad I’m not alone….

    Cole would be a great addition…they probably would miss lamps but not as much as if they lost Cole and had to line up with Bosingwa and Bertrand in the back four against Ribery and Robben 😆 😆

    Obviously I’m not hoping that these individuals suffer too much (although they’re a bunch of twats anyway!) and I have no real malice towards them….but at the end of the day, winning is everything, right? 😀

    Let Tiote loose…sub on Perch late on to cause some grief? Some say its cheating…I call it wily tactics… 😉

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  24. Sidekick – 😆 you could always add a touch of Vodka 😕
    Ask Perch to take one for the team by kicking the sht out of Drogba…

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  25. Sorry guys. Was looking at the wrong fixtures 😯 Iblame it on the screaming child! 😈

    Even so, QPR won’t be an easy game for Chelsea and Blackburn mightbe difficult for Spurts 😕 😆

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  26. Just had a peep at the Shed end Chelsea forum. One of their blogs is about who they would like to deny a CL spot to by winning CLfinal .Obviously they all say Spuds or arsenal but they have some nice things to say about us ,like “they been brilliant all season and deserve it” 😯 Still I reckon we should kick two tons of ***** out of em 😆 :mrgreen: 😈

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  27. Dunno if anyone’s had this thought for a song for wor no.9. To the tune of Papa was a rolling stone.
    Summat along the lines of:

    Papiss comes from Senegal
    Whenever he gets the ball, scores a goal
    And Demba Ba!
    Oh you know
    He cost **** all

    Just popped into me heed tonight as I was playing pro-evo. Thought id share it. Like the **** that I am.

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  28. And continuing in the 60’s soul theme, to the tune of War by Edwin Starr:

    Ba! Huh! Good god!
    What did he cost us?
    Absolutely nothing.

    (except a signing on fee as well as the much publicised agents fees)

    I would probably leave that last bit out though as it may be a bit tricky to work it into a chant.

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  33. Don’t know what it is but I’m nervous about this game, moreso than I am for the other games left, might be their recent reputation as ‘giant killers’. Though I am a bit of a pessimist so am probably just being silly, hopefully we’ll hammer them 😀

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  34. I see floppy chops is going on about another “I could have signed”, this time on tevez in January, funny that he didn’t admit that before carlos hit fom isn’t it? Reckon we should throw a few at him “we could have signed, Modric, Bale and even C.Ronaldo”, Its who you get that you appreciate, not feel down on who you could have gotten 😎

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  35. Hmm.. everyone’s gone to bed it seems. Should prob do the same, work in the morning followed by cinema with friends. See yall prob Sunday, heres hoping for a toon win the morrow :mrgreen:

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  37. @29
    A really good coverage to give credit to the people working hard behind the scene. Hats off to Derek and Pardew for this little nice gesture which will definitely lift the place even more.

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  40. wow thats a great article by the Daily Fail. 😯
    Very interesting to see how professional we are behind the scenes now.
    I just cant see any of our Lads wanting to leave this summer. Its not like it can get much better for them, apart for the money of course 👿

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  44. can someone tell me what ‘sopcast’ is please. Is it safe to download and use. 😕 ❓

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  45. Cheers Ice – Good article, something i didn’t think the housewives choice was capable of!

    Colo is a legend and prob player of the season for me.

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  46. BB – it’s a peer to peer video streaming
    I use it over watching Flash streams as it’s almost impossible for the authorities to shut down the stream – usually better quality pic as well

    it’s prob safer than using websites to view games as they often have a load of malware etc infecting ya pc

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  47. Oh good thanks.
    I think it was after watching some dodgy video stream that my last pc got infected and I haven’t bothered since. Hence my concern.

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  48. BB@46-If you want to understand sopcast go to -http://sopcast-firefoxchrome.blogspot.co.u.k , it will give you step by step guide.

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  49. Hope the pressure don’t get to the lads today.All season we been underestimated and brushed aside as credible top four contenders and now there is a massive magnifying glass right over us . I’m keeping everything crossed which is gonna make getting through the day a bit awkard 😉

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  50. I tried Sopcast and couldn’t get it to work 🙁

    Anyway, apologies for the lack of an article this morning. Had the bairn to hospital last night at 1am so I’m a bit knackered. Working on one now though 🙂

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  52. BB….It’s canny, usually a minute or 2 behind other streams, if you download it go on here http://www.footballstreaming.info/streams/todays-links/ if there’s a sopcast stream from “Bloodzeed” go on that, he does the best streams I’ve ever managed to find, just like watching it on normal tv, he only does one match at a time and not all the time…unfortunately for me my internet speed is ***** here so normally not fast enough for his streams.
    Which anti virus to you use?
    I have Avast for the antivirus, Super anti-spyware and Malwarebytes(all free versions) and I’ve never had any problems from using the online streams.

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  54. Ice – Aye, I won’t say what is wrong as people are eating breakfast 😆 but they’ve said it’s fine just to keep an eye on him. I phoned up that NHS Direct and spent 40 minutes answering questions before they said to take him in! I could have got him there in 15 minutes 👿

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  55. KimToon thanks mate, I’m away for a quick read then.
    Toonsy fella, no worries about the blog, your family is is your priority.
    I hope all is well with the sprog. 😕

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  56. Icedog @ 29 great article, My favoutie line is :

    Carver says: ‘There were some of the older guard, shall we say, who said this was a waste of time and it would never last. Now we do it twice a week and it is an integral part of our preparations.’

    HaHa I wonder who that was aimed at? 😆 😆 😆

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  57. Richie – I let my previous anti virus expire and never updated it 😳 😳
    Now I am using Kaspersky. but it seems to slow my laptop down.
    Its good tho as it scans evrything before it allows me to open links etc.

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  58. We’d have all been asleep still but for my Dad ringing me up. I know you’re reading this Dad so cheers for waking your Grandson up 😆

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  60. BB – I used Kaspersky and it did the same for me. Now I use that Avast free virus software and I’ve had no problems. Highly recommend it, and for nowt it’s worth it 😆

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  63. BB…just google the free versions of the ones I put and download them, as Toonsy says Avast is canny and I scan with the superanti spyware and malware ones weekly , they usually pick summat up.

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  64. Malwarebytes is another handy thing to have, and Ccleaner. Run both of them once a week and it keeps your computer clean

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  66. Toonsy I really hope Billy is better soon and next time take him straight in as N.H.S. Direct are a bunch of monkeys or ring your out of hours G.P .I know a few who have worked for NHS direct and they are not doctors or nurses but get training and pass you on to *qualified to answer your question colleagues* if they assume you are really poorly ,and nine times out of ten they tell you to go in after 45mins of faffing about !. I nearly had to take the lad in yesterday he had a cluster of fits after wakeing up but they self resolved luckily and saw g.p and got some cover antibiotics as he been rubbing his ear on & off again. The thing is Toonsy Babies get ill very quickly and if could give you one tip it’s go straight to A&E if you are ever worried about Billy ,they never ever mind a parent bringing a baby in as they know how fast they can get ill.Hope he’s on the mend now.

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