What has become the traditional Boxing Day travel for fans of NUFC will see us visit Old Trafford this time for our ninth Boxing Day away league game in the last ten seasons.
It’s not the best fixture in truth as our record at Old Trafford is shocking and the strength of Manchester United is something that pretty much everyone knows about, but all we can do is try our best and hope.
We’ve been on the end of some real hammerings from Alex Ferguson’s side over the years and we’ve failed to beat them away from home in more than my lifetime. It is quite simply a “write off” as far as I’m concerned and if we can sneak a point then I’d be over the moon. With the relative form of both sides though I can, unfortunately, only see one outcome though.
Manchester United:
Alex Ferguson is reportedly ready to make some changes after failing to beat Swansea on Saturday. Robin van Persie should be fine to play after his near-death experience at the Liberty Stadium. Sir Alex is reportedly asking for footballs to be banned from football matches as a safety precaution.
Joking aside, Rafael will undergo a fitness test after missing the match against Swansea with a hamstring injury while Anderson and Nani are doubtful with the same complaint. Shinji Kagawa is back in training following a knee injury.
Newcastle United:
No new regarding injuries. Steven Taylor, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Ryan Taylor, Haris Vuckic and Dan Gosling are all missing through various injuries whilst Cheik Tiote will miss this one as he serves a one match suspension for picking up his fifth booking of the season against QPR on Saturday.
Previously…
Well where do I start? It’s been over 40 years since we won a game at Old Trafford (2-0 back in February 1972) and we’ve only won nine games at the home of Manchester United in the entire 118 year history of meetings between the two sides. Manchester United have won 47 times on home turf with 20 draws making up the 76 games contested between the two clubs in Manchester.
Overall there have been 156 matches between the two sides in all competitions over the years. Manchester United have won 79 of them, Newcastle United have won 40 of them, and the other 37 have ended in a draw.
Stats and facts:
Manchester United have the best record of Premier League matches on Boxing Day. They’ve played 18 in the Premier League, won 15 and lost just one.
Manchester United have taken more Premier League points off us than any other team. The Red Devils have picked up 75 points from the Magpies in the Premier League era.
Manchester United have scored in 57 consecutive Premier League home games. The last time they failed to score at home was during a 1-0 loss against Aston Villa in December 2009.
Newcastle are most prolific away from home in the fifteen minutes after half-time. Six of the 12 away league goals scored this season have been in this period.
Final thought…
I can usually dig up some positive statistics for the last section but this time around it was a real struggle which kind of puts into perspective how tough this game will be. The sad thing is I could have kept going with various nuggets about Manchester United, such as Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie’s scoring records against us…
As I said right at the top of the article, the best we can do is go to Old Trafford and give it our best shot. We’ve had teams that have been playing better than this current one be sent home from Manchester United with their tails whipped so I guess we just have to hope for the best and see what happens.
Howay the lads!
Date: Wednesday, 26th December, 2012
Time: 3pm
Venue: Old Trafford
Team News: Newcastle United: (4-3-3) Krul; Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini (c), Santon; Anita, Perch, Bigirimana; Cisse, Ba, Marveaux
Subs: Elliot, Tavernier, Ferguson, Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Campbell, Shola Ameobi
Manchester United: De Gea; Smalling, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra (c); Valencia, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs; Van Persie, Hernandez.
Subs: Lindegaard, Wootton, Tunnicliffe, Vidic, Cleverley, Fletcher, Buttner
Sorry but all too easy 7.3 is a fucking joke man ,we are going down man unless serious signings are made.
KIMTOON(Quote)
😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 they just carve through us and have done all game
Big Dave(Quote)
This has just got embarassing FFS
Axel(Quote)
Sorry but I just cannot see how we can stay up…
The players look completely gone, totally pissed off and the biggest worry of all, they look like they did when we were relegated.
Stuart79(Quote)
we got a worse defense than aston villa 😳 😳 😳 😳
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Embarrassed
ToonTom(Quote)
Surly Cashly will buy in january now just too protect his invesment . He wont want too get relegated and miss premiership money again .
Axel(Quote)
tiote had a hand in at least 3 of their goals..
mark(Quote)
although no real major **** ups Perch was well out of his depth, but a few players made major **** ups
Big Dave(Quote)
Time out for me. 😥
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Jabba got his finger in too many pies ,he needs to concentrate on us a while or **** off and sell to someone who wants to .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Going for a cold shower to calm down now ,laters.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Imagine if we could defend eh?
I cant see tiote starting with a fully fit squad. Being positive here but with cabaye, anita and marvaux in the centre. We desperately need a full back and a centre half.
Alex(Quote)
Disheartening loss. Very sad last 15 minutes or so. Could really affect our chances vs Everton and the rest of the season perhaps. We looked ridiculous at the end. No depth has killed us again. If Ash/Llam don’t see we need defenders now they never will. 😥
GeordieTwo(Quote)
tiote needs resting or all out dropped. we actually benefited from a Jonas injury as he would of been picked if fit. Marv looked good and so did Obertan.
Tiote for me gave the game away with indecisive passes, tracking and dodgy tackles.
hes starting to remind me of amady Faye
mark(Quote)
Said at start of season that we weren’t fit enough. We can’t last 90 minutes.
Groucho(Quote)
Difference in class shown. We opened up to attack and simply couldn’t defend as a consequence. Wow!
griff(Quote)
..Well, that was fun 😆
Only positive is that we now know we have players in Obertan, Bigi and Marveaux. ESPECIALLY the latter, who surely must be first team now. Quality player.
The Kid(Quote)
Commitment from the owner is essential now. If I don’t see it in the January window I’ll know it’s finished for Ashley. He already deserves to be gone with his handling of the club last summer but these last few games have done it for me. Either commit to the club or get out Ashley. 👿
GeordieTwo(Quote)
going to hide for a fortnight 😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 😳 happy new yr to jabba and owlheed
icedog(Quote)
Oh and despite losing to Man U and Arsenal I certainly have been entertained. Just hope that they don’t take it to heart. It was a good effort in attack. We simply can’t defend. It’s a time warp 🙂
griff(Quote)
Couldn’t understand why Bigi and Marv were subbed. Would have tried Abeid for Tiote.
Groucho(Quote)
We are absolutely desperate for defensive reinforcements and any selling club will know this. The complete incompetence of the people running this football club is embarrassing and nothing short of negligence.
One good season and everyone was licking their arses, but their record is **** poor at this club. Run it right or fck off!!!
Stuart79(Quote)
only positive for me was we were that **** at defending, we must secure defenders in the first 10 days of the window.
mark(Quote)
Didn’t understand why Bigi and Marv were subbed. Would have tried Abeid for Tiote who is wdwelling too long on the ball.
Groucho(Quote)
In other news, I think it’s about time we offloaded Tiote. If we can get anywhere near £15million we should snatch their hands off. **** poor on the ball and makes too many mistakes per game for my liking.
The Kid(Quote)
I feel especially bad for Krul. He doesn’t deserve that defense in front of him. Made some wonderful saves. Marveaux and Obertan were excellent as well. Ba took his chances up front. Other than that we were woeful. Hard on Pardew to get the team up for Everton after the last 2. We now have a -11 goal difference and have conceded 37 in 20 games. But we’re excellent at the back aren’t we Derek?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Go on keep hiding Llambias you fool. Trying to turn our club into a laughing stock. Take that cretin’s face back to London you pathetic excuse for a managing director. 👿
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Kid – seriously who in their right mind would pay that kind of money for Tiote.
He’s not worth 1/4 of that. Weakest link in the whole team. Bar none.
The sooner he ***** off to ACoN the better for me.
Agree, the match turned on Pards ridiculous subs.
Why oh why take Marv off???
divvy 😳
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
The Kid I think we have more chance of winning the prem than getting £15mil for Tiote, I would take £7mil have said all along he is a liability
Big Dave(Quote)
I would take £10million for Tiote if I am honest. I’m sure there must be someone out there that still rates the lad. I see now why we were looking at bringing in Moussa Sissoko. The days of enforcers that can’t pass are well and truly gone.
The Kid(Quote)
Tiote is showing this season that he not much more than an average player ,yes he gets stuck in and is a warrior but it would help if he could make a pass ffs . Hope Anita makes it for the Everton game , Bigi at this moment is ahead of Tiote imo and Marveaux is stepping up a gear . 2 class defenders in and we are not far short of being a good team but the last 20 minutes , our lads had nothing left to give and that is because we are short of squad depth and too few players playing too many games .
Axel(Quote)
‘liability’ is to do him credit.
utterly **** performance for 95 mins by our so called ‘enforcer’
Hapless and hopeless. Being saying it all season.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Lets look at the form book;
We need players in January and selling clubs know that. Ashley will not pay a penny more than he thinks a player is worth so I think it’s a fair assumption to make that there won’t be many players coming in January. Oh and don’t forget I think Ba will be off too, so the player who has scored 50% of our goals this season will be gone…
Oh dear… Can we stay up?
Stuart79(Quote)
How do we turn this around with the village idiot negotiating for us? Definitely we need several players in but now we are desperate and other clubs will know it. The big mistake was last summer. Ashley and Llambias will go to ground now. We won’t see or hear a thing from them. Ashley is in danger of blowing it completely with his investment in the club. But he won’t learn. He makes the same mistakes over and over again. What other club would hire Llambias? This is a cruel joke. A billionaire owner who thinks he’s a bin dipper. 👿
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I’m sorry, but Bigi showed his total lack of experience today.
Dont get me wrong, I’m not slagging him off. He played really well.
But this is arsenal, not coventry etc. Its just too big a game for him at the point he is at in his progression. Same goes for Ferguson and Tavernier. These lads have a lot still to learn.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Sell Cisse who was poor again tonight and give Ba every penny he wants
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
This has truly sickened me when we could all see it coming. I can’t see how the season can be turned around now with the ownership we have. They tried to do it the cheap way which is impossible at this level. You can’t hide lack of depth and average bench players over a whole season that includes Europe. You can’t throw young inexperienced players against top sides and hope for a miracle. You can’t have a clueless managing director and hope to succeed at this level.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
BB the thing is though Bigi was better today than Tiote and that is the worrying thing a 19 year old better than an expierenced international player. On the other hand the lads won’t learn without game time .We need cabaye and Anita fit with bigi in their as well and we need to sign 2 international class defenders a rb and cb and we need to give up on the Europa league .
Axel(Quote)
I agree that January isn’t a good time to get value with new players coming in etc blah blah blah.
But sometimes its more important to get the right players in than to save a few million. Even if that means paying over the odds. Survival will recoup that outlay anyway. Gotta look at the bigger picture, or pay the ultimate price.
You reap what you sow and the reasons for our demise rests firmly on the shoulders of the board.
If I was ash/limp I would be starting to worry. Big styleee.
Now is not the time to be cool and clever. Pay up the going rate and be done with it.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Axel I agree. But it makes no sense to bring on young inexperienced players when you are trying to shore up the defense and midfield.
He would have done better to stay with what we started with.
Its not like we had any injuries or anything.
Very disappointed with Tiote’s performance today tho. Just awful the whole match. Yet he stayed on. 😕 😕
Pardew showing his inexperience also. 😳
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Agree with the thoughts on tiote the sooner we move him on the better, he makes me nervous every time he has the ball, regarding papisse playing him out wide is pointless he might as well be on the bench. really impressed with Marv going forward, genuine class act, the guys got a footballing brain, if he had cabaye and anita along side him with benafa demba ba and obertan up top we would be hard to stop. thing is Pardew wont recognise this and as soon as guti is back he will be back in the side.
The defense is real worry though at the moment though
Alex(Quote)
sorry dont buy this tired **** all pl teams play the same amount of games over this holiday time or playing in euro,spurs are playing in it useing most of the same team ect,players are fed up not tired you dont feel tired as much when your winning,its down to lack of depth in the club,thanks jabba and owlheed,for nowt 👿 👿 👿
icedog(Quote)
Many won’t say it because he has become something of a fan favourite, but Santon has been awful defensively over the last two games. Very, very poor. Especially positionally.
Also, hats off to Wenger for identifying our tactical weakness and exploiting it. Pardew has our full backs sit very tight to our CB’s to make up for their lack of pace. This left massive amounts of space out wide for their wingers and fullbacks to exploit – they did this to the fullest.
The Kid(Quote)
Don’t expect that result done much for poor Toonsy’s man flu 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
How good was walcott today,wish he was ours.
KIMTOON(Quote)
I actually lost count of the amount of times Arsenal’s fullbacks left SAnton and Simpson in their dust. Very discouraging with regards to Santon. Same old story for Simpson. We all know he is a dog s**t player, so no surprises there.
The Kid(Quote)
The KId ,I agree he’s been off colour last two but very good previously. It doesn’;t help when the back four is constantly changeing due to injury and suspensions and Tiote really didn’t do our defence any favors today either. Think with Cabaye, Anita and Benny it would of been a much better outcome. Desperately don’t want the lads to get too disheartened after trying so hard but we HAVE to start defending as a team until new faces arrive or we are surely doomed.
KIMTOON(Quote)
One massive positive!
…The hoofball seems to have gone! Even under pressure we generally look for a pass.
Good times. 😀
The Kid(Quote)
“You take November out of the calendar year and you have to say what a bloody great year we had. But unfortunately November soured it and it’s put us in a tricky position for this first half of the season.”
Quote of the day from Pardew. Can’t stand any more of his bollocks. Forget last season Pardew. Look at the standings and look at our goals allowed and goal difference. Complete shambles as far as the defense goes. He is living in a dream world. How can we go forward with this management team? Just can’t get me head around it. Kid @799 if you can take positives out of that game I have to take my hat off to your optimism. Unfortunately we’re carrying a complete ****** of an owner and a managing director on our backs.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Anybody care to big Simpson up tonight or explain why he is in our first team? Liability
Robert(Quote)
We have 3 days to prepare before Everton. How will Pardew assess that last performance? Surely he will see that Marveaux has to start and that Perch isn’t a CB? I suppose Willo will be back but we have no RB and our midfield is shaky the way Tiote is playing. Bigi tried hard but turned the ball over many times. Up front Cisse may as well sit as play out wide. He is hopeless out there. We have so many problems right now despite what Pardew is spewing.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Ah, another thinking what I think about Santon. Flatters to deceive with his attacking, but in the end he needs to be able to play defensively. He has poor reading of the game so winds up out of position. But on the other hand he is young so he may learn.
griff(Quote)
You’re right Griff @803. Santon has a lot to learn about defending. It leaves Colo with a massive job on the left. We have a huge hole on defense right now. There will be no covering it up until we get a couple of good defenders in. All the talk from Pardew last spring about CB’s and the so-called efforts to get Debuchy led to nothing accomplished by Llambias as usual.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Santon needs to learn when to release the ball going forward, but he has improved this area of his game massively since he arrived, so I am confident he will continue to improve in this area. Defensively is not much of a concern either as he has been decent defensively this season, but has just had a shaky few games.
Debuchy may come in, but he won’t improve us defensively. Quite the opposite as he is a similar player to Santon (except a better crosser of the ball).
New CB is key. We need to push the boat out to get a quality CB. Similar to Vertonghen of Spurs.
The Kid(Quote)
We should have gone after Verthongen as hard as possible Kid @805 but the owner is too cheap. No decent CB will come in. I’ve seen enough of Douglas now to say no thanks but we’ll probably get him on the cheap so that will suit Ash/Llam to a tee. Hate to be pessimistic but I see no resolution with Ash/Llam. They are both clueless. Ashley only cares to stay up, nothing else. The man is a traitor to the club. He has never committed beyong saving us so that he could pull in a big reward but he is even screwing that up now.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Good players will be far less likely to come to us now. Remy is now being very cautious and I would be surprised to see him come. We are our own worst enemies and Pardew sounds so desperate now it is pathetic. He can’t last I don’t think with this kind of pressure. January will be the month to decide his fate. I wish him well because if he is sacked it will be because we are in the bottom 4.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Is anyone not nervous like me. when we were relegated i called it, but this team is a million times better than that 1, i know we dont want to hear excuses but they have ravaged our season, we havnt been able to field our strongest 11 once this season. i seriously think come the end of february if we can get a defender or 2 in we will be in the top half. 🙂 Thats probably just me
Alex(Quote)
when i say excuses i mean injuries
Alex(Quote)
Geordietwo
Remy would be good, but after seeing Marveaux and Obertan’s recent performances, I wouldn’t be averse to waiting for the summer to sign a left sided attacker. Maybe Pilkington,who will only have one year left on his contract and is a massively underrated player in this league.
RE Vertonghen: We would never have got him ahead of Spurs. Arsenal were also monitoring the situation and were keen.
The Kid(Quote)
Alex
We won’t get relegated lad.
We have a good, balanced team for the most part and will be decent once everyone returns. Also, there are worse teams than us. Look to Villa, QPR, Reading, Fulham and Southampton, who are also in dire form. I see us finishing above all of those mentioned.Reckon we will end up 12th this season.
The Kid(Quote)
If we wait for the summer it might be too late Kid @810. We need players in January or it’s not impossible for us to go down again. We have a lot of dead wood in the club with Simpson, Willo, Ranger, Jonas, Gosling, and maybe even Pardew. It’s going to be squeaky *** time in January mate. 😥
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Don’t we have less points now than at this stage in our relegation season, worrying.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Yes it’s been that way for a few games now Kimtoon. We are not far from disaster and no confidence in the owner. Is he paying attention? He may be a gambler but the odds aren’t looking too good to me.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Games won out of 20 ,5 🙄 not good and one of those was a lucky goal off cisse ****.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Talk about watching a slow motion train wreck happening. That is what our season is turning into. We’ve already lost 10 games. I can see this as a sub-40 point season unless we improve drastically with our defending. It just seem like a blind spot for the entire organization.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
The Kid ,
agree but When everyone returns will pardew continue to pick Guti and tiote ahead of Anita and Marv?
If we can offload simpson and buy an actual left back and a top notch centre half like Sakho we will move up the table. im not convinced we need remy at the moment unless we lose Ba.
Would love this team
Krul
Santon Sakho? Colo Peiters?
Anita Cabs
Marv
Ben arfa Cisse Remy?
Alex(Quote)
Alex @817 Ashley just won’t pay what it would take to get Remy and Pieters in. That’s been the problem all along. You can’t just set a price and say you’re not going to budge as Ashley has. It’s called negotiating for a reason. They should understand that by now. Will things change with Ash/Llam? I have no reason to think they will. To get both of those players in Pardew would have to sell someone for at least 10M pounds and that means 1 of only 4 or 5 of our players.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
G2 ,I don’t think it’s a blind spot ,they have known for ny on 3 years the defence needs addressing ,they just choose to **** about with paltry bids ,which is all well and good when it works but clubs will only trip up once selling to us they won’t sell cheap twice and this is the problem we face . It’s not helped by that ****** Lambias bragging about his buying /negotiating skills . I was starting to come round to Jabba as he did seem to be steadying the ship but the inactivity last summer rankled me something rotten ,such a waste of time finishing 5th with the attitude of our current owner.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Too bloody true Kimtoon. What a waste of effort last season is turning out to be. All for the price of a few million extra pounds. We may finish 10 places lower this season and for what reason? Spend 5 or 6 M more in the summer, finish 9 or 10 places higher and earn many millions more. Strange arithmetic this owner believes in.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Every fan on the street could see this was a possibility .The minute we didn’t strengthen in the summer defensively I said we were 2 or 3 injuries away from disaster what with the extra Euro games like. Now if me and others could see that ,why couldn’t Pards and the owner ❓ The answer is they could but chose to ignore it unless they could do a cheap deal. Well if we go down he’ll lose millions the fool ,how smart they gonna look then .
KIMTOON(Quote)
G2
I see what your saying but is he willing to take a chance that we will stay in the division, because that will cost him alot more money than say £10 – £15 Mil.not forgetting we have the TV money next year which is big bucks and the higher we finish the more money we get. To be fair we have needed a centre half for along time and even ashley knows this.
Im just keeping the faith that he will invest in a couple of players that we should have bought in the summer.
If we lose Tiote then thats a better result HAHA 😉
Alex(Quote)
Alex I have no idea how Ashley’s mind works. If he has known for a long time that we needed a CB why didn’t he do something about it? He is a coward that is why. Or perhaps a coward and a fool. If he believes anything Llambias tells him then he is both. He has shown poor judgement many times now. I think he still believes we will survive no matter what he does or doesn’t do. It’s called denial. He just doesn’t believe we can go down again with the players we already have. I hope he is right but personally I loathe the man.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Personally I’m tired of having a cowardly billionaire as our owner. It’s pointless having him. He won’t fool anyone with the “I’ll not pay over the odds” line of bull. Anyone can say that but nobody has to agree to it. Over the odds doesn’t mean anything at all. A player valuation is subjective at best. We want players with skill, guts and ambition but so does every other team. So why should they come to us for less wage and a lower transfer fee? It’s absolute bollocks and it hasn’t worked last summer and it won’t work in January. Be prepared for more disappointment lads and lasses. 🙁
GeordieTwo(Quote)
@GeordieTwo
It wasnt Ashleys fault.. he even said himself we need a center half but Pards didnt pursue it 😯 🙄
both ****-shifters for each other, mike pulls pardews strings while Pards pulls the wool over the fans eyes..
Dec 15th 2011 (2windows ago)
“Mike asked me when am I going to get a center-half.” “It’s about making sure we get the right one.”
“When you look at centre-halves it is easy to get it wrong.”
“You can look at David Luiz, who is finding it difficult, he was £18M and he didn’t play the last game.”
“So it doesn’t matter what you spend, you have to get the right one.”
mark(Quote)