Game On! West Ham v Newcastle

Game On at Upton Park
Game On at Upton Park
Newcastle and West Ham face off against each other this afternoon, with the need for points for the away side reaching a critical level.

Currently we’re five points clear of Wigan who are away at West Brom this afternoon. In an ideal world that gap would be extended to eight points with just three games to go (for them anyway) as we win and they lose.

However I get the feeling that things aren’t going to go to plan in much the same way that they’ve not gone to plan all season long. At the moment we can sort of forget about Wigan as our destiny is in our own hands, but for it to stay that way we must win at all costs this afternoon and take the points away from a host of faces who will be desperate to put one over on us.

Sam Allardyce, Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan are all former employees of Newcastle and will want to make a point, especially Allardyce who has made it a habit of getting one over us wherever he has been. His brand of football may attract criticism but it’s effective, especially against us.

We look devoid of confidence, lacking ideas and low on fight which are ingredients needed to help pull us out of this mess. One win is all it will take I reckon, but until that comes nerves will understandably be frayed. A growing injury list has seen Moussa Sissoko added to the list of walking wounded. Put simply, things are bad right now.

If you need a bit more background ahead of the match then why not take a look at our match preview article which is linked at the bottom of this article? It features all the other injury news, a history of the fixture and some facts and stats to get you thinking.

The game itself is not being shown live here in the UK so streams will be needed. Once again if you happen to find one then please leave a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below. Team news will be made available as soon as I can get my hands on it.

Howay the lads!

West Ham: Jussi Jaaskelainen; Joey O’Brien, Winston Reid, James Collins, Guy Demel; Gary O’Neill, Mohamed Diame, Kevin Nolan, Matt Jarvis; Ricardo Vaz Te, Andy Carroll

Subs: Stephen Henderson, Emanuel Pogatetz, Matt Taylor, Mark Noble, Jack Collison, Joe Cole, Carlton Cole

Newcastle: Rob Elliot; Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa; Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez; Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse, Yoan Gouffran

Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Dan Gosling, Vurnon Anita, Adam Campbell, 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.

436 thoughts on “Game On! West Ham v Newcastle

  1. BB@299 ,there is comfort in the fact that Stoke have looked much more Stoke like last couple of games , so hopefull the Scum will have a hard game.

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  2. That disallowed goal (again) may be what sends us down… I really hope not. Theoretically we should’ve won that game. We scored a good goal. Disappointed with Cabaye. Can’t understand why he stayed on the pitch. Anita should’ve replaced him. Thought Elliott was excellent and also thought Danny Simpson did well for us. Shola… Well not much to say about him… Should be helping Mrs. Miggins make the pies, he is certainly not a striker… Really not happy….

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  3. Cisse will come good when he finally gets to play in the middle. That he is FUKING useless in the air, and with his back to the ball, and doesn’t know the offside rule isn’t too important.

    Ba is a ****, it’s all his fault 👿

    Thank you Pardew for handing the initiative to West Ham by falling further and further back. Or maybe half the team just cannot last more than 70 minutes of an EPL game. ?

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  4. The fact Pardew brought Ameobi and Gosling on showed me he was happy with a draw. Not good enough I am afraid. Draws just will not keep us up we need wins and considering we’ve only scored 1 goal in our last four games (in the 93rd minute) I think it’s fair to say a change in strategy is required.

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  5. Thank god, Bale scored. Soton are not out of woods yet.
    Good thing is they play mackem next week. They will take points off each other.

    Need Stoke to become another fortress especially with Sessegnon out and succesfully play for a draw.

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  6. I’m thinking we will get a similar result against qpr ie 1 point
    what that will mean I do not know.
    But I don’t think we will get anything at home to Arsenal, except another kicking.
    Fully expecting a riot thru the bigg market afterwards too.
    Especially if we is relegated too.
    Nightmare

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  7. Michael – I’m not entirely sure what the point of your question is to be fair mate.
    Even if everyone on this site admitted they were wrong what would it achieve?!
    Newcastle didnt actively sell Ba, he had a buy out clause in his contract which Chelsea met and Ba then agreed to join them.
    I think anyone who were saying that Cisse will pick up the goals were trying to be positive about the situation mate.

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  8. Cisse is a finisher, not a target man. So why we keep playing long balls into him? Pards?

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  9. @Toon TRW
    Tbh looking at the fixtures, Stoke could quite easily get 0 more points. Fulham’s remaining fixtures – Liverpool home, Swansea away, could also quite easily get 0 points.
    The BIG problem isn’t the other teams – there are so many in the mix – it’s that we just don’t look like getting enough points.
    42 points would 100% keep us up. 41 points and it would depend on goal difference.
    Can’t see us winning though 😕

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  10. No one has mentioned Stoke or Southampton in terms of relegation candidates.

    Stoke on 40 pts – Mackems (a), Spurs (h), Saints (a).

    Saints on 39 pts – Mackems (a), Stoke (h).

    It’s SO tight down here 😯

    If Mackems play well and beat Stoke and Saints, then Stoke vs Saints on the last day of the season could be just as decisive as Wigan vs Villa.

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  11. @Toon trw
    Aye, shame that Reading have proved that not all games against relegated sides are going to be easy

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  12. QPR 0-1 down after 21 seconds. If we cannot win against them we really deserves to go down. 😯 😳

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  13. Toon TRW – don’t hold your breath on that one mate.
    We can barely muster 1 goal in 5 matches, so to actually thrash qpr, AWAY.
    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 😯
    nee chance

    Have we heard owt from Pardumdum yet, ❓ ❓

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  14. @Solano

    That will be our typical luck if suddenly QPR turn up next week for their farewell party.

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  15. And even if we did (somehow!) manage to thrash QPR, I can see Arsenal thrashing us the week after 🙄

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  16. Ha Ha Pardumdum: “we’re under pressure now”
    ffs 👿 idiot

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  17. “our performance today showed we are good enough to stay up”
    OMFG ❗
    it just gets better

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  18. @BB

    😕 Earlier in the season we beat them by one goal. That was Shola’s. Oh dear.

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  19. <<<<<<<<<<< is starting to think some of theses footie officals are bent something they miss every week like cisses goal in 1st half today and these things are happening way to often to us 😯

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  20. Journo’s not got the bottle to ask why we have only scored 1 goal in last 5 matches and why we don’t even look like scoring.
    meh

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  21. Sharpy17@ 307: It would prove they are willing to admit they were wrong in the debate.

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  22. Pardew is really delusional, isn’t he? Ashley, i do not care he is your gambling buddy or what, please get a new gaffer for us next season.

    Arsenal will tear us apart at this rate. 👿

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  23. TAE – I don’t think that ball was 100% over the line.
    But as has been said earlier, Cisse should have buried it instead of his usual fluff scuff **** shot thing that he always does.
    The lino fell over too, so what can you do ?
    It was never going to be given after that.

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  24. @ BEARDSLEYS BOOTS the ball was over bud had a look on the big tv defo over as you will see on match of the day later,good excuse for the linesman but i aint buying it meself

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  25. You know there is no footballing god when a **** like Mcmanaman gets away with ABH and ends up scoring the winner in wigans last two games 👿

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  26. If we beat QPR I think we would be almost certain to stay up. The reason is that is Villa play Chelsea in their next game and I really don’t expect them to get anything, and also Wigan play Arsenal away, again I don’t see them getting anything that would mean that we would be on 41 points with Villa on 40 and Wigan on 38 and they both play each other in the final game so we would be safe.

    Now here is the problem – we have only won once away from home this season so it’s a huge leap of faith for us to expect a win against QPR. For this reason I think we’re ******!

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  27. just goes to show we just say got a point at wba,wigan go there and get three points diff being wigan attacked the game pardew was happy to defend in the whole 2nd half 👿

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  28. ICEDOG
    WBA are this seasons big overachievers, I reckon they will struggle next season without that Chelski no.4 striker 😯

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  29. Needless to say we have to become Chelsea, Stoke and Swansea fans for the next week or so.

    If they win those games, then the rest of the pack are deep in it with us.

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  30. That frigging Callum McManamamanmcmamara scored for Wigan, we could very possibly suffer the humiliation of old and recent enemies, Sunderland, Villa and Wigan staying up by the skin of their teeth as we go down here.
    ‘diff being wigan attacked the game pardew was happy to defend in the whole 2nd half’
    If we go down Pardew will have nobody but himself to blame and his career will be pretty much over in the top flight. Games like Reading at home where he went negative and dropped the 3 points are now coming back to haunt us.

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  31. DJG my point is wigan done what we could not in a matter of a couple of wks ago with players so called not as good as ours,what does that tell you?

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  32. <<<<<<<<<<, thinks scumberland the real 1s under threat lost there main striker for the rest of the season

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  33. Well if QPR can give as good an account of themselves against Arsenal then we should at least try to do the same.

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  34. we’ll not beat QPR. we’ve won one away all season and struggle to score. For me we’re doomed. been **** for ages now and weren’t prepared for this.

    At least the last time we went down we had a few english lads that stuck around and got us back up. who’ll be here out of the french players?? Haidara probably..

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  35. truth is we have 6 points to play for ,we have to try and not write off the Arsenal game before it’s played ,else whats the point.

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  36. Tbh a point at West Ham would be seen by many as a decent point. It’s only results elsewhere that have ruined it.
    However next up we’ve got bottom of the league away, if the current team don’t win that then we’re getting relegated next year anyway.

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  37. Pardew…”Whether we are good enough to stay up, we have to show that now in terms of our quality but lack of spirit, lack of fight, that was there in leaps and bounds today and we will take that to QPR.”

    it wasnt there v L’pool or sunderland.. and we probably are good enough to stay up but your **** tactics and neg football has put us in danger of going down.. 👿

    i really dont like Pardew anymore…

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  38. As bad as our situation is, out-of-form Norwich host WBA then go to Manchester City. Wigan’s last three are Swansea, then away at Manchester City and Arsenal.

    It would be nice to guarantee survival, but I think there are other teams that are too bad to stay up.

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  39. QPR PLAY BETTER THAN US… 😥 remy 8s a friend of hba and begining football.school in olympique lyonnais..hope join us next season if safe 😳

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  40. Ok everyone want to release some anger? Going to leave you all with something to ponder, will come back to receive my hate mail tomorrow 😉
    I want Sunderland to beat Stoke & Southampton.
    Yeah, it’ll mean they are safe, but they’ve arguably got the easiest run in of anyone.
    It should mean that if we beat QPR we’ll definitely be safe, as we’ll have more points than Soton/Stoke who are playing each other last game.

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  41. wigan will lose to swansea then mancity and arsenal they got could be posable we have enough points now 😯

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  42. trompets talking like little girl crying for sweet.. 😡 what a **** ? with mackems ? move on there… 👿

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  43. As expected folks but the sour taste is obviously the Villa and Wigan results. We are at a point now when unfortunately, destiny is no longer in our hands. Wigan will more than likely drag themselves out of this mess, and so our most likely looking rivals are going to be Norwich.

    QPR is going to be our D-day. Clichéd as it sounds anything less than a win and we are down.

    As for Mr. Pardew – we’ll the more he opens his mouth the further and further i want him from this club. I swear the moron still thinks we’re somewhere around midtable! When i saw the line up i was rather optimistic, but then we kicked off and predictably, we had all the urgency of a pensioner shuffling for the number 365 bus. It was a typical response to an absolute mauling – same as when we went to Norwich following the Brighton loss.

    Anyhow, dejected after the final whistle i spotted this little gem from him and it really got my goat up..

    “Whether we are good enough to stay up, we have to show that now in terms of our quality but lack of spirit, lack of fight, that was there in leaps and bounds today and we will take that to QPR.”

    Spirt & fight?!?!? What game was he watching? If by spirit and fight he means keeping the score-line to under five then mission accomplished but to go to an average, newly promoted team and play for a draw, when anything less than three points is needed is soul destroying. Seriously, it’s like watching a relative dying in front of you while the doctor tries fixing it with Calpol and water-proof plasters!!!

    If Pardew wants real spirit and fight, tune into MOTD tonight. Wigan coming from 2-1 away to win. Villa battling a hard-fought victory away to its nearest relegation rivals – they are teams who want to play top flight football next season. They are teams willing to fight until the very end, and ultimately they will be the ones who stay up.

    Having Pardew in the dugout is about as reassuring as boarding a cruise liner to be greeted by Francesco Schettino. The only tiny silver lining i can hope for is come 20th May, Pardew will no longer be at this club, relegation or not.

    Before the pro-stability lot jump on board, i appreciate we needed to build after Liverpool but the situation is becoming very very grave. The predictable 65th Shola sub again is about as effective as a chocolate teapot and why Pardew feels the urge to play Gosling our Anita is beyond sanity.

    Apologies for sounding so downbeat, but when you see the others around your fighting their corner and we seem content to settle it makes you wonder what you’ve done to deserve the absolute horse sh**e we’ve been served up all season long.

    Anyway onto QPR – in all honesty, with nothing to play for i can see them inflicting some damage, as Reading did to Fulham today. Imagine pretty much a mirror performance to today – we have to pray that WBA do us a favour against Norwich, however, after today’s results i wouldn’t hold my breath.

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  44. I could honestly imagine a lot of teams and fans being spiteful to Newcastle for the arrogance and “bigger than you” stuff Newcastle has incorrectly spouted for years.

    I read on Ed’s blog the other day one of his posts where he said this:

    “We could lose out to Wigan, that small club in Lancashire”.

    Obviously he isn’t the sole voice for Newcastle but I’ve seen about 95% of comments from Newcastle fans online with the same arrogant opinion, especially ironic considering the hubbub after Fergie’s comments.

    No club will go out of it’s way to help Newcastle.

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  45. On that performance we will beat QPR. That’s wigans last points of the season. I would keep that back 4 as is until the end of the season.

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  46. @DJeb
    ?
    Chances are they are going to win one of the games. I would rather they win both and give us a better chance of staying up.

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  47. wigans average points per game is 1.0 so a point should see us home

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  48. Maybe I should edit my mackem thoughts.
    If they win their first game I’ll be hoping the win their second.
    If they lose their first, I’ll hope they lose their second.

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  49. I understand Benny was taken off because he was tired. But he is fit enough to play, but not to track back all game. So play him behind Cisse and drop Jonas or Cabaye.
    Just tell him to focus offensively. He can really bring us goals if he can keep all his energy to take on players.

    And Colo made a huge difference defensively.
    It was also the best performance of Yanga Mbiwa in a newcastle shirt.

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  50. Yeah the back line looked good, don’t think i noticed Taylor was even playing – a compliment in that he handled everything thrown with minimum fuss

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