Game On! Atromitos v Newcastle

Europe!
Welcome to Europe! After a five year absence we are back in continental competition this evening as we visit Atromitos F.C. of Athens.

A string away performance will go a long way to ensuring safe passage into the group stages of the Europa League but, as we’ve seen so often, nothing can be decided until the final ball is kick at the end of the second leg.

Of course Newcastle fans should be well aware of that little fact after what turned out to be our final trip into Europe before our five year exile. Having beaten AZ Alkmaar 4-2 in the home leg back in the 2006-2007 UEFA Cup, we then transpired to lose the away leg 2-0 and found ourselves out of the competition on the away goals rule after drawing 4-4 on aggregate over the two ties.

To get past Atromitos Alan Pardew is looking increasingly likely to depend on a largely second string United side, with names such as Fabricio Coloccini, Demba Ba and Cheik Tiote all left at home to ensure that they are ready for our game less than 48 hours later against Chelsea.

My match preview was written prior to confirmation regarding who was to be left behind on Tyneside so we can scrub Haris Vuckic (also left behind) from my predicted stab at a starting line up.

TV coverage is scarce and none of the “big hitters” like ITV 4 (sarcasm intended) have picked up the match. However, “Premier Sports” on Sky channel 428 are advertising the game but you have to subscribe. A quick little look has revealed that if you input the word “NEWCASTLE” as a promotional code you can get two months access for £9.99.

If that doesn’t tickle your fancy and you can find it somewhere, like perhaps on the internet, then please feel free to accidentally post a link to it in our ‘comments’ section below. Be warned though, streams might be harder to come by as there are new ways for broadcasters to identify live broadcasts and shut them down. Maybe…

Team news, as always, will be added below as and when it becomes available.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Steve Harper; James Tavernier, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Ryan Taylor; Gael Bigirimana, Vurnon Anita; Gabriel Obertan, Dan Gosling, Sylvain Marveaux; Papiss Cisse

Subs: Tim Krul, Davide Santon, Steven Taylor, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Romain Amalfitano, Adam 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.

169 thoughts on “Game On! Atromitos v Newcastle

  1. This has been awful. Just stuck a whole 2 quid on us to win though 🙄
    In other news, despite travelling, Carroll not included in the Liverpool squad for tonights game

      (Quote)

  2. Got to agree that Obertan has been shocking. He just seems to have no idea. He gets the ball excitedly runs and then plays a rushed awful ball. Was hoping Marv would be more involved.

      (Quote)

  3. Well, bailed out at the end of the half there. We’ve not been as bad as Quin has been making out but we do look a bit flat. Anita/Biggy look very good in the centre, but we’re lacking creativity elsewhere. Tavernier certainly has his work cut out for him…

      (Quote)

  4. Now sit back, hold possession and wait for them to start throwing people forward. They won’t fancy coming to SJP needing to score.

    Gosling getting into the game, but Obertan and Tavernier have been useless. Let’s hope they improve after the break.

    Very happy with Bigi though.

      (Quote)

  5. 11/4 for the win at half time 😉

    To be honest should have put Raylor to score first aswell…we’ve only looked likely from a set piece! It is hot out there but some of these boys should be busting a gut to break into the first team 😕

      (Quote)

  6. SOLANO@76 ,I think that’s going to be par for the course for Carroll this season .Liverpool should just take the hit and let him go ,at least they can buy who they really want then. Bucks attitude and comments amaze me ,he acts like we mugged him personally . It all sm acks of cutting off the nose to spite the face a bit.

      (Quote)

  7. Kimtoon, the bin dippers have short memories, remember the way they unsettled Judas Enrique a whole season long ?

    Only getting our own back selling them a serious pair of donkey’s ears with Carroll… 😆

    Let them squirm I say…

      (Quote)

  8. Tav’s not been great so far, (trying to be generous–hate to write off a player on one bad showing) but we’ve had 63% possession and it feels like we’re just getting serious now. Let’s see.

      (Quote)

  9. Tav generally looks good on the ball, and he’s probably a better dribbler than Simmo. However, for someone who some claimed was better than Simpson even a year ago he isn’t a better defender, and therefore definitely not above him in the pecking order. When was the last time Simmo conceded a goal like that? I’d put money on not once all of last season… 😉

      (Quote)

  10. Did we really sell Routledge and replace him with the 6 times more expensive Obertan ? 🙄

      (Quote)

  11. Dave-Aye 😉

    Obertan doesn’t even seem so fast anymore, I don’t get it, I thought that was the one thing he could do 😕

      (Quote)

  12. FSOTC-Personally I thought he did the right thing, Ammy was running pretty quick and without the flick on he would have ran past it imo.

    Good to see Pards was listening to me, Campbell for Cisse 😛

      (Quote)

  13. Well, he’s hustling, isn’t he. I like to see that–though it’s the luxury of knowing he’s not playing on Saturday and he’s only got 10 minutes to run.

    Go on, son, get it out of your system!

      (Quote)

  14. Doctor Gloom but I think tonight proves our squad is neither big enough or strong enough to compete in all competitions like 🙁

      (Quote)

  15. Tav looked a bit poor, hopefully we’ll have a few more young’uns fit for next thursday. Whats the situation with ferguson, vuckic and sammy.

      (Quote)

  16. I dunno, Sharpy. I’m as pessimistic as the next guy, but this was good experience for the B team & youngsters, I imagine Pardew will calculate his risks throughout this tournament and the other cups to get them as much experience as he can while putting top priority on the league.

    It’s an away draw, in very oppressive heat, against an opponent who have been to their league cup final twice in two years. It was never gonna be a stroll.

    Seems to me we could smash them at home with a slight upgrade of that b-team… or with the b-team itself if they keep playing and developing together.

      (Quote)

  17. Well, there were several players who proved today that they are way off the first team. Gosling, Tavernier and Marveaux didn’t cover themselves in glory I’m afraid 😕

      (Quote)

  18. i was on the other thread and thinking **** me its quite for a match night , then i saw this thread 🙄 😆

      (Quote)

  19. Little mistake by Bigi at the end there could have cost us but Perchy put in a great tackle to save us, although he had one wobble himself. Willo was very solid, Raylor was his usual quiet self until given the opportunity of a set piece and naturally he put one away 😉

    Marv was poor, Obertan very poor, Gosling mostly invisible and as a result Cisse didn’t get too much service although he did alright when he could. Anita/Bigi were the best performers, looked very comfortable. Adam and Ammy didn’t have much time, but Amalfitano should defo be picked ahead of Obertan for me… 😕

      (Quote)

  20. Sharpy @ 137 I agree mate, it’s ok giving the younguns a go but imo 2 or 3 at the most and thats with our 1st team players to help them bed in and take the pressure of them, but what can Pards do his hand are tied.
    Because we went a goal behind then came back this game will be seen as a not bad result but in all honesty this should have been a game we won 😥

    FSOTC @ 143 yeah mate unfortunately they were all ogs against us 😳

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *