Game On! S.C. Maritimo v Newcastle

toonsy

The quest for silverware starts here!
Welcome one and all to a very special ‘Game On’ article which this evening will see us back in European action (properly at least) for the first time in five years.

Our opponents are S.C. Maritimo of Portugal and this will be the first time we’ll have played competitively at their ground.

A whole host of changes are expected for the game this evening as the squad is already weakened by injury to the likes of Fabricio Coloccini, Danny Simpson, Tim Krul and Cheik Tiote. Add to that the fact that senior stars such as Yohan Cabaye, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba and Hatem Ben Arfa, albeit the latter courtesy of suspension, have all been left at home with an eye on the upcoming Sunday afternoon Premier League clash with Norwich.

This game gives us a chance to concentrate on some football rather than the whole Demba Ba situation that appears to be blowing around at the moment. Call me cynical, but it’s funny how all of these things come up when contract negotiations are apparently ongoing between the two parties.

Anyway, moving back to the football, team news, as always, will be featured below as and when it becomes available. It will be interesting to see just what team we manage to put out and whether that team can be competitive against a side who finished fifth in the Portuguese Premier League last season.

The game is actually being broadcast live on ESPN this evening and kick-off is at the early time of 6pm. This is of course great of you have ESPN, but if you don’t and are limited to watching it on the web then please feel free to post a link to any streams you may find in the ‘comments’ section below.

Howay the lads!

S.C. Maritimo: Salin, Briguel, Guilherme, Roberge, Olim, Miranda, Luiz, Heldon, Simao, Sami, Dias

Subs: Lima, Diogo, Rosario, Rossi, Abreu, Fidelis, Adilson

Newcastle: Rob Elliot, James Perch, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson, Davide Santon, Gabriel Obertan, Gael Bigirimana, Dan Gosling, Haris Vuckic, Romain Amalfitano, Shola Ameobi

Subs: Steve Harper, James Tavernier, Shane Ferguson, Mehdi Abeid, Sylvain Marveaux, Sammy Ameobi, 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.

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280 thoughts on “Game On! S.C. Maritimo v Newcastle”

  1. Bordeaux are obviously going to be the team to beat. They are cuffing Bruge easily at the moment.

    The mighty Liverpool are being toasted by the legendary Young Boys Bern…

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  3. Including the ones that played against Everton, non of that lot out there, look as if they are PL level, looks like APs been seeing something I haven’t in that lot, really disappointing, fell sorry for those that have travelled out there, you’re the best.
    Having said that Elliott is having a better game than I thought he would,

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  7. Am not a stroller lover, but he is so lazy its unreal, and that half hearted through ball he just tried to play says it all.

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  11. ash1001@153….couldn’t agree more.

    I feel for the fans paying big bucks to travel to be treat to this hotch potch team…

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  13. Big D’s great white hope coming on now….. 😉
    Go on young Fergie…

    Wow…Marveaux cannot even get a run out in the “third team”… 😯

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  15. #BEARDSLEYS BOOTS, its pretty poor, and if this is the backup sort of fair we have to look forward to, the fat controller needs to get himself a look at what we have in reserve and get the cheque book out in January + AP needs to tell him straight and stop been a YES man, cos even he can see (I would hope) that this lot ain’t good enough.

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  26. wtf is up with Oba wouldn’t even look at Marv never mind a pat on the back or a hand 😯
    I really do think if we had a slightly stronger team we would have been winning this, but then saying that we should be winning this with the team we have

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  28. @Ash
    But you’ve said they all look ****. Doesn’t that suggest that we are some way to be considered a European team? That it can’t just happen overnight?
    I’ve been impressed with Elliot. Bigi is going to be a class player. Gosling has been improved. Sammi looks decent. Shola has created a couple of class chances for himself with little service.

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  30. Big D….. Pardew has done his homework already and sussed out that Bordeaux are the team to beat. He’ll set out his stall now to beat the other two teams…Maritimo hold absolutely no fears… Bruges ditto… Hopefully he’ll show Bordeaux more respect with his team selection

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  36. I think with a goal scorer or a player with skill and we would be winning games like this, I wonder if Benny will get playing now, thats his last game of his suspension isn’t it ❓

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  37. @BD
    Yeah I think with even just one of our attacking stars we’d have had this game. Poor decision imo

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  43. Liverpool made 11 changes to their team and still won 5-3.
    We need a goal scorer desperately

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  44. Well a draw isn’t bad considering some on here had us down for a gubbing. We were the better team and on another day might’ve got some of the decisions that we should have ie the penalty call.

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  45. Maybe ESPN will end their Newcastle obsession now to follow Liverpool after they missed out on a 5-3 for our boring 0-0. 😛

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  46. Big D…that’s the Pardew way, play it cagey. Risky business if you ask me. This game could have really gone either way, but with a bit more class we should have won this game.

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  48. @SOLANOSTRUMPET
    What’s been a European team got to do with it, its 11 v 11 thats all manager hype.
    it really pees me off when they go on about having to be cautious in the away leg.
    its the same pitch and ball for both teams, try telling that to a bunch of 11 year old schoolchildren, home or away its the same, they wanna win.
    Its football managers and coaches that create all the ‘away tactics’ tosh.
    But before any of that you have to have players that are good enough to compete and on tonights performance we don’t. Its not Barc we have been playing.

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  50. Cant win games if we dont score.
    Its plainly obvious a better team would have scored against us tonight as we look **** defensively.
    meh ❗
    Take the point and move on, for now. But this team wont get us far in this comp imho.
    NEXT

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  51. Andymag…it could have been a gubbing if they had taken there chances in the first 15 minutes. Never expected this game to end 0-0 but there you go….

    Mom Elliot in goal
    Canny games Bigi, Gosling, Sammi and Shola.

    Amalfitano seems to have taken a step backwards… Vukic too, injured again as usual unfortunately. Obertan….well what can one say..too nonchalant, doesn’t seem interested….

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  52. we needed a better finisher out there tonight ,Shola is great at providing ,not so good at finishing 🙄 Bigi looks like he can put a half decent ball in ,well impressed with Elliot which is a nice surprise as last time I watched him he was rubbish ,having said that there was no real sharp striker testing him tonight. Ref was **** as per usual in the Europa games ,all in all rather a let down ,could of done with an away goal like.

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  54. MM – I would agree with that. Whats the point playing Obertan on the wing. ❓
    Yes he has pace but cant deliver a decent cross.
    Would be more effective straight thru the centre I reckon.

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  55. What surprises me is in commentry Chris Waddle praising Gosling ,ffs he created nowt through the middle , Bigi did his job well and is a good stand in for Tiote . We at least kept a clean sheet and came away with a draw ,but we needed Ba or Cisse upfront . Still , back to the premiership on Sunday with a few of the better players back .

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  56. Ba should have played but then Ameobi was a bit unlucky.

    Thought the lads did alright- Few things we learned-Gosling much better as a DM than anywhere near behind the striker. Vuckic is the new Kieron Dyer. Elliot is not as bad as has been made out prevously. I don’t think anyone has given the lad credit including me before this match but he had a good game today, who knows, he could be the next perch 😉 At least one of Ba or Cisse should be playing our euro matches, assuming the other one isn’t injured and its too early for Campbell. Obertan, most frustrating player ever… 😆

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  57. Beardsleys Boots@200….I disagree mate, this team will get us through the group stages, but one thing’s for sure, it aint gonna be pretty. The prime reason we will progress is because the opposition are poor, and we (our reserve team by the way) are only fractionally better. Our strong defence will stand us in good stead, we really need to start scoring goals, and that includes the whole team, not just the strikers.

    As Big D mentioned, I hope we get to see more of HBA now that his ban has been served. A 30 minute cameo from him today and we would have won the game…

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  58. Newkie we might find that Pardew plays one of his big hitter strikers for the home euro games, but leaves them at home for the away trips ? Would protect them somewhat from a tiring journey abroad.

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  59. Munich-Aye that would make sense to be fair. I’m happy drawing all our away games and winning all our home ones, guarantees us through and won’t put too much pressure on the first 11. Plus I guess Shola is better for holding it up and passing to our youngsters and seeing if any of them can score, which would be worth knowing…

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  60. This is why Shola has always been a ‘back-up’ striker IMHO. Flatters to deceive and then ultimately, usually, just, fails to deliver. Cry away Strumpet and co. but it’s true isn’t it. 😐

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  61. Newkie… 😉 you got my back… I reckon we will get through, but it won’t be pretty…along the lines of just enough…

    Spurs – Lazio, now that’s a proper euro game after our “non-football”….

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  62. MM @ 208 😯 fuk God love them we can’t have our stars getting tired on a plane for a few hours with a bit of travelling now can we 😕 ,
    I don’t buy all this tired **** I watched some of the milk cup games and the toon younguns played 5 games in 6 days, yeah I know they’re kids but were talking about professional athletes here, whats different between Santon Saylor they’ll be playing Sunday so why can’t Ba or Cisse

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  63. I reckon Shola has a part to play on a game like today, not least he keeps the centre halves busy with his stature. The goals will come, we just need to get the midfield taking more chances and pushing further forward. Shola will score the goals to bring us through the group stages 😉

    Not saying he’s brilliant like, but he normally knows where the goal is, probably the only one on the field tonight .. 🙁

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  67. The big question is , why take Campbell and not give him the last 15 minutes when we are crying out for a goal scorer and the lad is scoring for fun in the u21’s ? yes he is very young but if he is already at the level to be a part of the squad then give him a go . It was a no lose situation ,the lad would of gotten minutes playing time and if he did not score ,no one would blame him or slag him off .

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  68. @DJG
    Don’t think there has ever been a clamour for Shola to start.
    He is what he is, a back up striker.
    Had a decent game today with no service, the turn for the shot that hit the bar was class. And he played a crucial part in our draw against Everton.
    So can’t complain about his efforts as third choice striker so far this season.
    (And before anyone says “he’s not good enough for us in the future”, maybe not, but he’s better than the third choice strikers for Liverpool/Tottenham/Everton so grass isn’t greener)

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  69. To me, it’s not so much tiredness as injuries. Plus the more someone place the more likely they are to injure themselves, not just the addition of a game by game kind of thing, just the cumulative effect, wear and tear and the like. I know it sounds pretty pathetic-the tiredness thing especially. I just don’t want people like Benny getting crocked by angry Belgians 😕

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  70. I wonder how much we are gonna get ripped for the home matches.
    If we are sticking with these kids then should only be £20.
    But I’ll wager now its more like £35.
    And we’ll not fill the stadium.
    Ah yes. Greed is good. Apparently. 😈

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  72. I wouldn’t say it was dull, but we started off shyte as per usual, Rob Elliott made some good saves to keep us in it. Then we came into it a bit more and could/should have scored ourselves.
    The ref was the usual euro tripe and didn’t help things.
    Sammy Amoeba came on and looked much better and stronger than last season, which is good. Obertan was his normal self. 😕
    Bigirimana had a great game in Central Defence. Shola hit the crossbar and the game basically petered out.

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