Game On! Wigan v Newcastle

Game On at Wigan
Game On at Wigan
Newcastle take on Wigan this afternoon, with both sides desperate for three points for differing yet broadly similar reasons.

For Wigan it’s starting to look perilous with a gap between themselves and 17th placed Aston Villa starting to open up. For Newcastle, the need to pick up three points to prevent ourselves being sucked back into the relegation mix is what should be our motivating reason for today.

Both sides need the points and both sides are capable of getting them although it could be argued that Wigan’s need is actually greater than ours as the table stands currently. It’s an interesting game in prospect, but I hope we manage to give a good account of ourselves rather than the usual non-performance our trips to Wigan have become known for.

The headline team news is that Hatem Ben Arfa has been ruled out for the remainder of the season and will undergo surgery on his hamstring. I say headline but it’s not really as we’ve coped without him for most of the season anyway and will just have to continue to do so. Other team news and assorted titbits can be viewed here in the match preview.

Full confirmation of team news will be provided at the bottom of this article and will be added by me as I’m not stuck in delays of 25 hours caused by snow on the continent like I was on Thursday. That’s also the reason why there was no match report following the Anzhi game. I’ve still only seen the goal so it would be a bit wrong to write up a report when I’ve not seen anything of the game. However if you asked me to write a report on the field in France I spent hours parked up next to I could have provided some real detail about it!

The game is live here in the UK for a change and can be viewed on Sky Sports 1. However if you’re not at the game and don’t have Sky then you’ll most likely need a stream to watch the game on. A whole host of overseas broadcasters are showing the game so getting hold of one shouldn’t be too much of a problem. If you do find one please don’t be shy with it and share the stream by leaving the link in the ‘comments’ section below.

Which neatly wraps this up and now it’s over to the players and manager at the DW Stadium to form the basis of my match report. Hopefully I can write a positive one for a change, which is something I’m not used to doing following trips to Wigan!

Howay the lads!

Wigan: Joel Robles; Emmerson Boyce, Antolin Alcaraz, Paul Scharner, Maynor Figueroa; Shaun Maloney, James McCarthy, Jordi Gomez, Jean Beausejour; Callum McManaman, Arouna Koné

Subs: Ali Al-Habsi, Ronnie Stam, Gary Caldwell, Angelo Henriquez, James McArthur, Roman Golobart, Franco Di Santo

Newcastle: Rob Elliot; Mathieu Debuchy, Steven Taylor, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Davide Santon; Cheik Tiote, Jonas Gutierrez; Sylvain Marveaux, Moussa Sissoko, Yoan Gouffran; Papiss Cisse

Subs: Steve Harper, Massadio Haidara, James Perch, Vurnon Anita, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Shola Ameobi

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.

345 thoughts on “Game On! Wigan v Newcastle

  1. Well comment number 5 .I’m away to see to Lew befor I reach 12 in an hour and get locked out again ! lol ,Emoticons not working again either, this blog is falling apart Toonsy lol.

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  2. Munich…Cayman Islands mate…and it’s a jet, helicopters are for tramps 😉

    Kim…True, but the couple of words will stop you getting sin binned 😉

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  3. I’m with Toonsy – ref was man of the match for Wigan. Just like the Ben Arfa incident against Man City ref thinking NUFC players can be kicked off the pitch. Again not even a free kick. Just after Haidarra was stretchered off Gouffran made a good tackle winning the ball but as the Wigan player went down he gave them a free kick. I think Sissoko is a great player but for the last three games he has not been as sharp as he can be therefore he should have been substituted. Sissoko is also tending to hold on the ball too long I am also getting concerned with Tiote dwelling on the ball on the edge of his own box and often losing it. I really think we have to get Anita back on at some time during a game. My criticisms will I hope come across as minor and correctable. However for some time I have been puzzled by Alan’s subs. They seem, in my view, to be based on who the player is and not on the performance at the time. Gouffran should not in my view have come off. He was doing a lot of tracking back and winning the ball in our half.

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  4. When is someone going to say Goofers was anonymous? He seems to have escaped all criticism, perhaps because nobody noticed he was there. He was there, wasn’t he? 😯

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  5. Mark – I wince every time I see that ‘tackle’ – sick!.

    TLR – what I mean by it is that we need to strengthen our squad – they shouldn’t be there coz they aren’t good enough – but I accept that at this time we have nobody stronger available at the moment. Particularly up front with Ba, Ranger and Xisco all leaving when we were already short up front.
    An actual switch could have been Anita for Sissoko.

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  6. JJ you astound me sometimes honestly. Cisse has been absolutely **** this season. Absolutely dire in the majority of games. You were the one championing that strikers don’t just need goals they need to put in a good performance just the other day and he has been doing neither! Yes two very important goals recently but he stands offside and makes incorrect greedy decisions with speculative efforts that don’t go in!! He was been garbage and that’s coming from me who backs all of our lads and particularly sticks up for the under-preformers when everyone else is on their backs!!!!

    Anything said about him from fans is totally justified in my opinion so when you start slating fans for pointing that out, as per a couple of your comments I have read, maybe look at yourself who tends to jump on players in a very aggressive way a hell of a lot. Really hypocritical if you ask me.

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  7. The absolutely ***** defending for the first Wigan goal seems to have gone unnoticed. Santon didn’t cover himself in glory with either of the goals imo.

    Cisse appears to be untouchable, similar to the line where he’ll be better when he’s moved to the centre. He is not untouchable, when he scores a brilliant goal then he’s the dogs bollocks, just as when he is good he is brilliant, when he is bad he is really ****. His inconsistency is infuriating, but he CAN score goals. Thank flock for that because he’s the only one in the team who can do it, and maybe that is part of the problem with all the pressure and frustrating being heaped on his shoulders.

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  8. MM,

    I agree with what you say, he is the only one in the team you can rely on for goals unfortunately, only one in the squad and that is pressure. He is a player who you do need to carry as he isn’t great without his goals. He just hasn’t been good enough the whole season for me though and I don’t get how it is the ‘Cisse brigade’ when a couple of people point this out ❓

    I am not laying the blame for today at his door. I think there was a clear strategy to get the fullbacks up as they had three at the back. We saw Debuchy and Santon both offside and furthest men up the pitch in the first half, they were told to do this no doubt. 2 fullbacks off and gameplan had to be changed. I thought there wasn’t a man on the pitch who can really take any plaudits apart from Taylor and Perchy and I don’t want to single out Cisse today but in general he has been poor for a long time now.

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  9. @B&B

    I’m not saying he wasn’t poor but Gouffran done twice as much as Marv yet you defend him. I’m beginning to think your Marv’s agent or something 😀

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  10. Moreno, I’ve battered Cisse for a while now, because the lad is so infuriating. I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that he is more a striker who scores stupendous strikes from next to nothing, while missing the easier chances. It happens to all strikers, but I think this seems to be his style.

    We really need to get midfielders up there supporting him too, we seem to have a lack of tactical awareness on the edge of the box when the ball is cleared. We seldomly win the second ball.

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  11. Santii – We watched a different game again. Like everyone, Marv didn’t have one of his better games. Aside from a couple of bloody awful passes, he played it tidy, filled in the right holes when they had possession, and looked most like creating something. I can’t remember Goofers doing very much at all.

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  12. MM We have been outran by all teams all season. Is there something wrong with the training? We certainly lack sharpness. Maybe it’s because we had a hard game on Thursday but even before we played in Europe other teams were beating us to the second ball. I might except Taylor from this.

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  13. Groucho, you are spot on there. A few weeks back we seemed to have overcome the losing the second ball scenario. It looks like we are back into that way of playing, especially today. It’s as if the player kind of thinks to himself, should I tackle or should I hold out and wait for the option to win the ball back awhen the opposition fails to control the ball. Obertan is an absoluet expert at that. Then we have Tiote who is wild in the other direction. We were second best to a lot of tackles today. Wigan just won the ball while wor lot stood off and hesitated.

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  14. mm@305 ,She may well hijack my post now , on the bright side any offensive stuff I say I can blame on her 😉

    Newkie@307 🙁 and I thought we was friends 😉

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  15. Prem are you being took to Tiger Technologies when you tried to post comment or are they just not showing?

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  16. Munich – I have to commend you on your wise and prescient words from yesterday: “B&B…as the legendary Jose Moreno said, you’re only as good as your last game”

    You call me slippery, but you still haven’t answered me from yesterday as to how good you think we are now? How do we compare on paper in the EPL and are we good enough to win the Europa League? Is the consensus that Ashley has to spend big again in the summer? You set the level and let’s judge Pards against it.

    The reason I ask is that I think Ashley has given Pards almost all the tools he needs to attack the top four. We only need another top striker. All the players have top ability so, if he can get them playing well, we should stand a good chance. It is essential, however, for the manager to make the whole amount to more than the sum of the parts. Unfortunately, I see the general consensus as being Pards is being let down by the players.

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  17. i dont use twitter but a boys put this on facebook !!

    So im hearing Callum Mcmanacock tweeted this evening saying “us wigan boys love a good tackle #twofooted”

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  18. Surely not Ice Pup. I don’t believe that, I suspect it’s a wind-up as no one is that stupid surely

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  19. lad saying this was his post in feb when he did something similar not this challange???

    if true he wants fucking banned as he has no remorse for any one

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  20. B&B, you’re a bit of a cheeky monkey 🙂 I asked you a simple one word question yesterday,a yes or no answer, and you answered with a 97 word answer which I couldn’t fathom 🙂

    Now you ask me one question, adding four more on the end before I start 🙂

    “You call me slippery, but you still haven’t answered me from yesterday as to how good you think we are now? – WE ARE NOT VERY GOOD NOW, TODAY WE WERE GASH THROUGHOUT THE TEAM, I THOUGHT WE HAD TURNED THE CORNER BUT OBVIOUSLY WE HAVEN’T. WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT OUR LAST MINUTE WINNERS OF LATE How do we compare on paper in the EPL I THINK WE ARE A 12 – 14 PLACED SIDE AT BEST, COULD BE BETTER BUT ARE TOO INCONSISTENT and are we good enough to win the Europa League NO – BECAUSE WE WILL GET FOUND OUT NOW. ? Is the consensus that Ashley has to spend big again in the summer WHAT IS BIG ?? You set the level and let’s judge Pards against it. NO , HOW CAN I DO THAT ?

    There’s my starter for 10 🙂

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  21. lets hope not moreno

    going to watch a movie i need to distract myself…. im not into violence at all bar boxing of course but i want to really damage that kid if all this is true

    thoughts are with all family and the lad concerned GWS

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  22. B&B; you need to take the one hour difference between the Island and mainland europe into account. Plus I’m jet lagged so I might be in my scratcher before you fathom out my ingenious answers to your trick questions 🙂

    I fear you have only one theme, and that is to prove to us all that Pardew isn’t making the best use of a fantastic pool of resources which he has at his disposal. I think Pardew should get in a coach from Billy Smart’s Circus, cos someones gotta coach that freaking blind side pirhouette out of Tiote, that is really doing my freaking head in.

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  23. Yeah mate, new country, new team and getting first team action. A dream come true shattered by an absolute moron. Such a shame 🙁

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  24. I love how the Cabaye slagging crew have got absolutely nowt to say on the matter now. 😀 I agree with Toonsy, surely the excuses have run out for Tiote, I have said he was our worst player for the last two matches and he was poor yet again. This is somehow our bogey ground and we have now lost 5 out of 6. I’m starting to think ol’ DW (Ashley’s foe) is offering up a bonus to the players for a home win. Since the last time we played there (the 4-0) they have won TWO GAMES 😯 at home. Seriously though they weren’t that good and it was a game where it came down to who wanted it most and apart from 20 minutes of the second half I’m afraid they wanted the win more than us. Santon finally scored but it merely cancelled out his poor defending unfortunately. We had an incompetent old fart referee who was probably too busy watching Tiote to see their player deliberately knack our second fullback and to top it off I got caught up in a shitestorm of snow on the way home from the club in the middle of March. Lets hope these bastards are relegated once and for all and we don’t have another season at the ‘bogey ground’.

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  25. Pup – surely he hasn’t wrote that?!, if so I hope it’s picked up on by the FA – ***** I hope John Carver doesn’t see it 😯 👿

    Pup – have a look on U-Tube if you get chance, I can’t post the link for some reason. The clip to look for is 3rd or 4th in ‘guy gets punched by street performer’ – I also don’t condone violence, but that kid earned his clip like 😆

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  26. Munich – I’m impressed. You’re cooking on gas. You’ve certainly worked me out, although that’s not hard. 😆

    You say 12 – 14 placed at best. What happened to the great feel good factor after the money spent in January? Just to be clear, do you consider the other 11 to 13 teams who are better than us have bigger and better squads? I’m guessing you mean West Brom, Swansea, Fulham, Stoke, Norwich?

    You see I thought, after the January signings, nobody could argue that we had a really good squad and, if we continued to under-achieve, which I thought we would, people would then have to point the finger at Pards. I believe I have been shown to be right to fear we would continue to flounder but shown to be wrong that people would point the finger at Pards for this. I didn’t think they would blame the players first and foremost.

    You ask how you can set the level. The question means, given the resources pards’ currently has, what do you consider is a realistic target for him next season? You point to inconsistency. Do you consider that is Pards’ job to sort out?

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  27. I am still livid about the ref for not seeing that “tackle” . The ref should be hung naked from a tree his balls smeared with the pollen from the plants around said tree and then a swarm of bees let loose to do their job . How the fck was their no card shown .

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  28. Both the ref and assistants need to go to specsavers or get some binoculars or something. 😐 Handball for their winning ‘goal’ as well. 😕

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  29. 👿

    Well I’m still p***ed off, Alan smith is a c**t, the ref’s a blind f**ker*, Mcnamarr’s a dirt b*%^tard. and carver is a nice person cos I dont want to be the one who upsets him.

    everyone one of them were s&^t today, Elliott didn’t do much wrong I suppose.

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  30. haha thanks sharpy

    sorry for late reply guys went to bed fuming woke up to sunderland fans taking the pi$$ thinking its funny

    nee wonder there not respected as a team as fans as a area…. **** bags 99 percent of em im sure of it

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  31. Moreno @310

    I said Cisse had a bad game. Overall this season he has been poor.

    However, what I stick by is that a poor Cisse is still twice the player that Shola is. He has gone offsides far too often yes. But so does Shola. He also gives away more freekicks and his work rate is non exsistant.

    So what is the point in slating Cisse when there is nobody to replace him? Who are we going to play in his place?

    Since Ba left he has four goals and two assists in 10 games. I can’t think of any player in our squad who could have done better. If he can do that playing poorly, then we are lucky to have him.

    Personally I think his link up play has been decent too.

    My problem with Michael 12 isn’t that he slates Cisse. It’s that when there are players who are ten times worse he ignores them to only slate Cisse.

    I think Sissoko was far worse than Cisse was yesterday. He continuously ran into walls and lost possesssion on so many occasions. Yet he escapes any criticism. Cisse takes the blame.

    Ba missed a couple sitters yesterday. Yet Michael 12 thinks he’s the bees knees. If that’d been Cisse he would have been on about how useless he is…

    A player who has 20 goals and four assists in 42 games. Who works hard every game for the team and whose link up play has been quite decent.

    He is described as very poor??? What exactly is expected of him??? He isn’t van Persie or Messi. He needs to work on his offside runs but he is by far the best striker we have.

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  32. The game yesterday was a write off for me anyway.

    If the ref had done his job we would have won the game. He was diabolical.

    Losing Debuchy also disrupted us majorly. Haidara made it even harder.

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