Three home games within the space of a week will ensure that, one way or another, we know whether we’ll be safe or not.
Next Sunday the Mackems visit SJP. On Thursday Benfica travel to the North East with United needing to overturn a first leg deficit, but first off it’s Fulham who rock up at the cathedral on the hill in decent form. Positive results in the two league games are a must and if we can win both we should be pretty much clear of any relegation worries. Turning it round against Benfica would be the icing on the cake but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves and take things one game at a time, starting with Fulham.
Newcastle:
Yoan Gouffran will return after sitting out the defeat at Benfica due to being ineligible to play for United in the Europa League. Cheik Tiote could return after a muscle strain although he is officially listed as “doubtful” so we’ll have to wait and see on that one. Danny Simpson should be fine to feature after picking up a knock in Lisbon.
Unavailable for us are Mathieu Debuchy, Fabricio Coloccini, Massadio Haidara, Ryan Taylor, Haris Vuckic and Hatem Ben Arfa.
Fulham:
Steve Sidwell will miss the match after having his appeal for his red card against QPR last weekend overturned. Ashkan Dejagah is out with a sprained ankle, Mladen Petric is missing courtesy of an abductor problem and Mahamadou Diarra is sidelined for the remainder of the season with a knee injury.
Previously…
Fulham have a good record against us to be fair. At St James’ Park we edge the results but there isn’t much in it. In total 29 games have been contested between the two sides on home soil with United clocking up 13 wins compared to 8 for Fulham. The other 8 games have seen the points shared between the two sides.
Overall though it is Fulham who have the edge in the head-to-head stakes. Out of the 59 matches played between the two sides in all competitions, Fulham have won 26, United have won 20 with the other 13 meetings ending in a draw.
Our most recent encounter saw Fulham run out 2-1 winners at Craven Cottage in December with goals from Steve Sidwell and Hugo Rodallega either side of a cracker from Hatem Ben Arfa proving to be enough to earn victory for Martin Jol’s side.
Match stats and facts:
Fulham are on their best run since 2010 and are unbeaten in five games.
Mike Williamson could make his 100th appearance for United.
Newcastle have a 50% win ratio in games contested immediately after a Europa League match. Of the six games played after a Europa League outing, United have won three and lost three.
United now can’t match the points tally earned from home games last season. However if they win their remaining four home fixtures we’ll have managed to accrue the most home Premier League wins in a season since the 2002/2003 campaign.
Newcastle have managed just four clean sheets this season in the Premier League. Only Reading have managed fewer.
Final thought:
I can’t stress the importance of this game. To put it simply we need to win and nail Premier League survival at the earliest opportunity and grabbing three points against Fulham should be part of that plan.
We’re the home side and the onus is on us to go out and get the job done. We can’t approach this in a half-hearted manner. We need everyone performing and for everyone to know what is at stake in what is a crucial week for us that gives us an opportunity to effectively banish thoughts of relegation.
Howay the lads!
Date: Sunday, 7th April, 2013
Time: 3pm
Venue: St James’ Park
Serious Question No. 1:
Kim Jon Un has 3 bombs, but needs to bomb every ****. There are at least 5 known cunts at this time.
Does he:
A) Seek psychiatric help
B) Pretend to do everything with Photoshop
C) Not even exist
Answers on a fucking postcard
Rodzilla(Quote)
FIRST!!!! 😯 😯 😐 😀 😆 😆 😎
Rodzilla(Quote)
Honestly. What a bunch of infidodgilledges. 😡
Rodzilla(Quote)
Fenwicks nicked my dentistry 😕
Rodzilla(Quote)
Sunderland ARE ACE! 😛 😛
WHOOOOOO_HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Toonsy is di Canio’s Nazi walrus-*****
Rodzilla(Quote)
MM…Ya always(well nearly) have a bad feeling…negger 😉
Not really worried about the relegation threat at all, reckon we’ll be fine…don’t ask me for rhyme are reason ‘cos ya won’t get any, it’s just based on my infinitely superior intelligence 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Richie even I tend to agree with you.
And a few of Rodz post’s i agree with
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave…ya not as daft as ya look 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Match Day. Lets have it.
Go for it from the start and get the job done
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
I agree with TLR 😯 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Thanks Richie your so kind 😉
TLR your right do that and give 100% and we’ll have 3pts today
Big Dave(Quote)
So long as we don’t press like we did against Benfica. 🙄
Wellington(Quote)
Welly ,But for the post (twice) and 2 errors that pressing so nearly worked though 😉 .
If we can cut out those silly little mistakes and attack a bit quicker on the counter we could get a result 😀 Hooray my emoticons have come home 😛 😎
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim, if Benfica had taken just the easy chances they missed (let alone taken aim at the parts of the goal where Tim wasn’t), they would have scored 5. It wasn’t a matter of luck.
Wellington(Quote)
Welly , Fair point but had we gone 0.2 up they had a mountain to climb then due to away goals and it may of knocked the stuffing out of them.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Thanks Richie your so kind 😉
TLR your right do that and give 100% and we’ll have 3pts today.
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave…We heard you the first time 🙄 😆
richietoon(Quote)
I keep thinking back to that Wigan farce and the poor officiating ,it could come back to haunt us yet ,though in truth we should of taken control of our own destiny before that game . ****** emoticons gone again !
KIMTOON(Quote)
Would be happy with a scrappy 1.0 tbh ,at this stage any type of win is welcome even an og by them will do.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Those sound fine, Kim. I would also be happy with a Cisse hat-trick. 😉
Wellington(Quote)
Richie your too kind 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
1-1
Stuart79(Quote)
Welly@95, Cisse hat trick , now your’e talking 🙂 .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Or a Williamson hat trick, I’m not picky. 😛
Wellington(Quote)
Birthday boy today, 34 but hoping to celebrate 36 today – toon points that is.
I’m hoping for a big game from Gouffran today as he’s had a canny rest compared to the rest of the boys. I’m hopeful of a 2-0 win today.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Happy birthday Sharpy and don’t be drinking too much, well not until after the 1- 0 win and 3pts
Big Dave(Quote)
Sadly I can see us getting a draw at best and more likely another loss, we’re all over the place and confidence immediately drops if a team attacks us – our goals scored and against is relegation form and guess we have to hope teams below us drop points … We need 6 points from somewhere
stevep(Quote)
Our home form will see us safe, 4 wins in a row at SJP coming into today and i can see a fecking ropey nervy win today.
3-2 Cisse 2 and Gouffran for us Berbatov and that loathsome **** stain Duff for them…
CC(Quote)
If Simpson continues his good form, we should be in good shape. Fulham’s attack doesn’t have much pace (Richardson aside), so I’d like a high line to keep Berbatov away from goal.
Wellington(Quote)
Dave – cheers mate, but those days of drink me own body weight in ale are gone I’m afraid 😥
That said, I am hoping to get out and watch the match so depending on how that goes…. 😛
Sharpy17(Quote)
Karagounis’ pre-match interview with the guardian is interesting – http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/06/giorgos-karagounis-fulham-greece. He comes across as a great pro.
Wellington(Quote)
Happy birthday Sharpy, hope you have a good one and it brings us some luck!
Geordie Deb(Quote)
GFNFrance’s twitter page apparently has pics of Cheick M’Bengue at Newcastle airport, going to watch the match.
The new French tax thing means all big players will leave France.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Cheers Debs – you and me both.
Funky – He’s a full back isn’t he?, not sure that’s a priority for us at the moment – unless there are things going on behind the scenes with Santon that we don’t know about like. Is he another Frenchie?
Sharpy17(Quote)
We’ve been tracking Mbengue for years now, had a few national call-ups and would probably be better defensively than the Italian.
Andymag(Quote)
Andy – national call ups for who?
Sharpy17(Quote)
hopefully we’ll get a much needed win…unfortunately, it has 1-1 written all over it.
After the initial excitement when the frogs arrived, things have gone a little flat..to say the least
mark(Quote)
Sahrpy17, all the best big man. Hope you have a great day 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
GFN also say we will pay up to 15m euros for Aubemyang or whatever he’s called.
funkyjesus(Quote)
I fear this could be the week when the wheels fall of the Toon Chariot 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
I hope all these stars have clauses in their contracts for the Championship 🙁
Munich Mag(Quote)
Sharpy
M’bengue has had a few French team call-ups and is supposed to be the future of LB for France. Funky
Do you mean that how high we’ll bid or what we’ll have to bid to have the offer accepted?
Andymag(Quote)
MM you are a right cheerful ***** no matter what Richie says 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
MM
As much of a ‘team spirit’ as we have I can’t see many (if any) of the frenchies staying with us if we go down.
Andymag(Quote)
Hmm my bad apparently he is a Senegal international. I was under the impression he was a French player.
Andymag(Quote)
Benny put through a fitness test on the pitch today apparently 😯 …reckon it’ll be next week at best tho.
richietoon(Quote)
Powerful attacking left footed left back, Certainly fits the bill if Santon is off at the end of the season.
A bit concering that we seem to be assuming that everything will sort it outself out and we will be premier league next season, We have to scrap like mad and take 6 points before Mbengue, Aubameyang, Carroll or anyone else will be arriving at SJP for big money…
CC(Quote)
Nae chance we’re going down, KTF
richietoon(Quote)
Has Inman actually touched the ball for Crewe yet, Hes stood out on the wing shouting im free… 🙄
CC(Quote)
No idea, just relaying the tweets really from a real French news place.
funkyjesus(Quote)
CC… 😆 You may have to explain that one to some of the younger viewers
richietoon(Quote)
Tell you what if we don’t win this game relegation looms large. I want to see a good performance for the whole match not just one half of decent football and another of Sunday league level. Pardew better play this game to win not sit back and try and counter!!
I’m hoping Sunderland carry on their rich vein of shocking form 😀
Santii(Quote)
Bottom 5 will be Reading, QPR, Wigan, Stoke and Sunderland(not given in any particular order) 😉
richietoon(Quote)
Richie lets hope the players aren’t thinking like that!
Santii(Quote)
Richie I have to agree with you on MM he must go to the same doom and gloom finishing school as 1 or 2 others on here 😯
Big Dave(Quote)
Let’s hope they are thinking like that, then that means they’re still confident in their own ability to get the points neccesary, as long as they’re not complacent and still go out and put 100% in then we’ll be fine 😉
richietoon(Quote)
I do hope we don’t need out bench today…
Stuart79(Quote)
Big D & RT 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
Dave… In MM’s defence he’s married to a German, I was like a downbeat “Morrissey” when I was in those shoes 😆
richietoon(Quote)
Richietoon, it’s because the wrong person was wearing the shoes matey 😉
TTBAWA
Munich Mag(Quote)
Big D, I seen no reason to be other than doom and gloom at the moment mate ;-). Now….when we cuff Fulham confidently playing football for longer than 23 minutes I’ll be a reet happy camper 🙂
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM…I was wearing the shoes mate….it was wearing the trousers that was the hard bit 😆
richietoon(Quote)
RT@137 … 😆 😆
Munich Mag(Quote)
MM @ 136 I look forward to you being a happy camper again as its bad enough on here with the anti Pard doom and gloomer without you aswell,
Although to be fair I haven’t seen much of B+B from the Benfica game when Pards made the right calls
Big Dave(Quote)
Big D, once we get those points on board I’ll be well happy mate…
Munich Mag(Quote)
Cool another freaking injury.
Munich Mag(Quote)