The Toon and English football fans alike welcome back domestic football this weekend as the Magpies take on Brentford at St James’ Park. Their opposition the Bees have enjoyed a solid start to their Championship campaign and currently sit in 7th position in the table.
On the back a stern rearguard has been where Saturday’s opposition have built momentum; they have conceded just 9 goals so far this season and have lost just three games – the same amount as us.
Up top they also have quite the bite with dangerous striker Scott Hogan netting 7 goals for them this season. Of course, the absence of Alan Judge after his horrific broken leg injury will help ease the work load in the centre of the park.
Where the game will be won or lost
From all accounts, Brentford have not been a side to ‘sit back’ and rest on their laurels this season. Whilst sides such as Huddersfield have come to St James’ and sat deep to claim a victory, it’s likely Dean Smith’s men will want to take the game to us from the off.
This in my opinion, with the pace we have on the break, will only play into our hands. Brentford have only conceded 9 goals this season but with us being the league’s most dangerous side going forward, I do not think this will be a case of the ‘immovable object meets the unstoppable force’.
Brentford’s admirable stubbornness to play football the ‘right way’ may in fact be their downfall tomorrow afternoon. With this in mind, I’d like to see Rafa field a high attacking line and have plenty of bodies forward for when we do break on the attack.
With Mitro’s fine international form and Diame’s questionable club form, I’d like to see the latter dropped this weekend and see a front two of Gayle and Mitrovic deployed by Benitez.
Prediction
Despite my 1-0 prediction the other day, I believe this match will have more goals in it than originally expected. I still think we’ll win, and indeed I still think the margin of victory will be narrow but a scrappy win akin to the one we got against Rotherham will not be on the cards tomorrow I feel.
Therefore, as a result, I’m plumping for a 3-2 win in Tyneside this weekend.
With a little over 24 hours to go until kick off, feel free to get the banter and discussion started in anticipation for tomorrow’s game in the comments below.
Cheers Andy, I think we’ll win this one, just a feeling like. Rafa’s had a bit more time to work on the team and I’m hoping it pays off.
kimtoon(Quote)
he hasnt had much time really mate,maybe a day and a half with a lot of the first team were away playing for their country,this is a canny team we are playing ime worried a bit over this one,they havent really had any players away so had a nice rest and plenty time to work on their game plan
icedog(Quote)
Holloway’s got us down as a loss. Whilst I take anything he says with a pinch of salt, we’re right to have a bit of cause for concern. If Wolves can beat us on our own turf, then these certainly are capable too.
Andy The Magpie(Quote)
They sound like a decent team but there again if you look closely the whole division does. It’s no time for faint hearts if we want to get out of here. Just please take the early chances when they come!
Georgio(Quote)
Well, I think Rafa will not have a full squad to choose from. If I were him I wouldn’t play any of the players who went to Africa or Yedlin who went to the USA and Cuba. The other internationals were in Europe so that is not too arduous. I doubt anybody would be ruled out unless they played both their qualifiers which is only Clark and Ritchie. I think he will save Ritchie but may play Clark as he has said there is not as much stress on defenders as forwards. This is especially true since we have a game on tuesday and I think MBemba might come in for Clark then.
The question then is who comes in for Diame and Ritchie? My guess is Mitro and Perez since Atsu was in Africa. My guess at the team is therefore:
Darlow
Anita Lascelles Clark Dummett
Perez Hayden Shelvey Gouffy
Mitro Gayle
I think Rafa will play as close to the best available team in order to get this win in the bank after the international break.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
One more thing on International Breaks. The next round of matches takes place on the 11, 12, 13 of November. But there is a 2 week break. So what do they do, arrange a friendly for the second week (England play Spain). It is bad enough that there is a 2 week break at a critical part of the season but a week of it is for friendlies FFS. Why not make it a 1 week break?
Maybe the South Americans or Africans have to play 2 games at that time, I don’t know and I don’t care. This is totally stupid and if they had to miss some of their European based players then tough ***, that’s what happens with the ACON. Which is also a joke by the way having a tournament every 2 years at probably the most critical time of the season barring the final month.
So settle in boys for a few NUFC matches before we have another fkin 2 week break in 3 weeks time. Morons.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Agree Eric, it MUST have an effect on all teams, how can you get any bloody momentum going with all this stop and start, ridiculous situation. No way we should be playing a friendly at this time of year.
kimtoon(Quote)
i hate these bloody breaks,the better teams in this lge will always have players away,the poorer teams lose none of their players therefore they can rest up and work on their game plans thats why you get strange results in this lge,most PL teams have players away so it kinda evens things out,i do worry a bit on these games after breaks,imo this game will be tough
icedog(Quote)
Ice, hope not mate, I’m to ill to be put through a tense affair
kimtoon(Quote)
Your in my thoughts mate,I feel for you,hope the pain has eased a bit
Icedog(Quote)
Good article Andy mate. Brentford sound good enough to worry about but we have to win matches like this one to get promoted. Just one of many must wins. Get well soon Kimtoon mate. You sound a bit worn down.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
I think our defense is now solid enough that we should be able to deal with Brentford. I think 3-1 to us with them getting a goal on the break. I know their defense has been stingy but NUFC being at home should present them with quite a few problems.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I know I have ranted about the international break but the qualification rules are even more stupid. The Europe pot has 8 groups and the winners of each go through. Second place goes into a pot to play a 2 legged knockout game and the winners of that goes to Russia. This might sound fine until you see a couple of the groups.
Group A has France, Holland and Sweden. One of them will finish 3rd and will not go to the finals. Whoever finishes second goes into the knockout crapshoot. If we have learned tournaments like the Europa League it is that the better team does not always go through in these formats.
Group G has Spain and Italy so one of these teams will end up in this crapshoot.
Amazingly, England have been handed the easiest group but have still struggled against Slovenia and Slovakia. They are likely to win the group but of they do not they could easily face a very difficult opponent if they finish second and might not even make it to Russia.
The groups were all decided on a seeding system based on World Ranking. Believe it or not, England and Wales were number 1 seeds and France and Italy were number 2 seeds. Bizarre.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
this constant disruption for international games is preventing us getting up a head of steam, and may hinder our promotion hopes. I hate these international breaks, tomorrow will be a draw 1-1 and more grinding of teeth for the geordie faithful.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Eric Sykes, get your money on Germany mate, they are just unearthing a brilliant striker in Draxler, and marco reus will soon be back to full fitness…they’ll be pretty much invincible by the time the russia world cup comes round.
England and Scotland both stink…. and show no signs of improving..
Munich Mag(Quote)
The good news is that Europe has by far the most teams going to Russia at 13. More than double any other area where a few of the South American teams will be disappointed because they only have 5 spots. However, the way it is set up it is very conceivable that France and Italy could finish 2nd in their group and have to go into a pot for a 2 legged knockout, winner takes all. From what I have seen there is no seeding in the knockout stage so the bingo ping-pong balls and the football Gods might throw them together.
So basically, even though England have been **** at tournaments and Wales have done nowt in their history, the fact they have recently beaten up on crappy teams puts them in the top 10 of FIFA world rankings and gets them high seedings. I suppose if you are England then these international breaks are essential to maintaining a high ranking by beating crappy teams, but when you get to the tournament you are useless because the only competitive games you have had is against crappy teams. In a way it is self-fulfilling.
Sorry to go on, but I think this sort of explains why England qualify and then turn out to be ****.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Also, the South American qualifications only have 4.5 spots. They are all in a big group and the 5th place team has to play a team from another conference in order to qualify. Argentina are currently 5th and Chile are 7th.
I think this madness is why the new FIFA president wants to expand the number of teams at the finals.
In the meantime, we are stuck with all of these international breaks because FIFA and UEFA are more interested in money than making sensible decisions on qualification.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Munich: that nice man Rupert Murdoch has the rights to the Bundesliga so I watch a few games (he started the PL here but when it picked up steam he was outbid for the rights). I will keep an eye on Draxler although I have seen him a few times and he looks like he could be the next big thing.
We need it as Messi, Suarez and Ronaldo are getting on. There’s Griezmann and Neymar and of course Rooney is still at the top of his game.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Sorry. I got riled up when I looked into how qualifying worked and even more riled up when I realised they were playing fckn friendlies during these international breaks and it got me to look deeper into the qualifying rules. England play Germany in a friendly in March so we will see how they stack up. I am pretty certain it is during an international break as well 😐 Gareth (relegated Boro, Finished bottom of Euro’15 U21 Group) Southgate will probably be Manager and Wayne will probably still be (non-playing) Captain.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Paul Merson’s giant balloon head has just announced that Rooney should start against Liverpool to “take the pressure off Pogba”. FFS, couldn’t he see that Rooney was stunting Pogba’s game by coming into his space and was **** on top of that. I despair sometimes.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
More from Merse. The Mirror always use this picture of him and it always looks to me like someone has just got a giant orange balloon, drawn eyes, nose and a mouth on it and stuck a collar and tie underneath:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/paul-merson-says-hed-liverpools-9047141#rlabs=1%20rt$category%20p$4
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Actually, on closer inspection, it might be a new orange variety of potato with a collar and tie underneath.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Andy – thanks for the article mate. I cob on when there isn’t a pre and post match article so thanks for putting this together.
I hope to see a good month from us personally. We have some good fixtures, most of the players have had a 2 week break from competitive football and Rafa has had time to work with them.
To my knowledge the players are fit & Rafa should have a good idea of who his strongest 11 are by now.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Reckon 2-0 tomorrow.
Little bit of food for thought – we’ve actually only lost 1 from 9 and have had a pretty tough run of fixtures despite losing our first two games.
Things are looking ok.
Stuart79(Quote)
Well looks like Warnock maybe has started working his magic winning his first game 2-1
Icedog(Quote)
Stu, agree mate it could be much worse. A win tomorrow and hopefully my cold and cough subside a bit and I will be a happy bunny.
kimtoon(Quote)
Warnock will be very pleased to win particularly cause he doesn’t get on well with Gary or Lee Johnson having a run in with both in the past.
kimtoon(Quote)
Hopefully Bruce doesn’t get Villa going. They are actually on live here tomorrow and it looks like he lost a bit of weight from the photos. I will confirm when I see him. He said Villa fans had called him Potato Head for 20 years but he took it as a compliment. I have absolutely no idea what that means.
McClaren might get Derby going as well as that is about his level and he hasn’t taken his former backroom staff with him. Too late for this season I think.
So that is 2 of our expected rivals probably getting playoffs at best. Unless we play to Munich Mag’s predictions I think we are in good shape as teams will start to adapt to Huddersfield’s style of play and their squad becomes stretched.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Is it Saturday? Is there any Football on? Opportunity to leave a couple of clubs in our wake after last night.
Premandup(Quote)
I reckon that the league has just got a whole lot tougher with the re-appearance of Bruce and McLaren… neither good enough for the Premiership, but know there way round the Championship. In addition both clubs have owners who may be persuaded to spend some cash to back up thee new appointments. Derby aren’t too far away anyway, just need some tweaking. Fortunately we have played both of these teams away… I don’t necessarily think that Huddersfield will run out of steam either, they are a good side with a canny manager.
In the mean time, Rafa has enough on his plate getting some of his misfiring attacking players to fire on all cylinders, especially Mitro, Perez and Diame… This area isn’t performing well enough to take the pressure off an at times brittle midfield and defence. With the reintroduction of Darlow he seems to have gotten the goalkeeping situation back under control.
Munich Mag(Quote)
TBH sometimes we seem to up our game when we play against a decent team, especially if they come to have a go and leave space at the back. I’d like to hope we won’t see another poor home performance.
DJG(Quote)
DJG I read somewhere that a typical Raf team will often win the cagey tight fought games, but if they have to take the game to the opposition and break them down they struggle. Of course this is a difficult generalisation, and is dependent on which attacking options or players one has avaiable. One irritating part of the DNA of recent toon sides is the tendency to give the opponents control of the midfield, even at home. This is still happening this season.
The last toon team to leave opponents floundering home and away was the toon line up with Ba and Cisse, Cabaye in the line up…
Munich Mag(Quote)
we didn’t manage to up our game against many teams last season. This season we have also struggled big time, only avoiding a massive defeat against Norwich by the skin of our teeth… ditto our last lucky win at Rotherham. For a club like NUFC with the coach, array of international players and resources available must say I haven’t been too impressed how we have won games this season. A win is a win though at the end of the day…
Munich Mag(Quote)
For all Gayle is a very capable finisher (certainly in the championship) he’s a bit like Cisse in that he is just there to score goals and nothing else. We now have options up front with some international strikers but we still haven’t got a Demba Ba or a Loic Remy level striker. To play with one up front like Rafa seems to be doing, I think you need a striker of that type and level. Mitrovic and Gayle should complement each other in theory because their games are different. Mitro could create space and distract defenders , which is what Gayle needs. Just look at the end of the Norwich game for an example of this, it created 2 goals in the space of 1 minute. We should play that from the start today IMO and not Diame as a no. 10, where he gets caught in no-mans-land. One can tell that Rafa is stubborn though and he will persist with something that doesn’t look right, like Sels in goal.
DJG(Quote)
DJG Rafa and the toon got out of jail big time against Norwich. He hoyed Mitro up front, then relied on Shelvey, who was paggered anyway, to lump long balls forward, Gayle fed off the scraps created by Mitro’s presence. Route 1 football I think they call it.
Norwichs central defence just fell apart, surprisingly and shockingly so, cos they were also paggered plus Mitro was there hoying his weight about for the last 20. If Mitro is as much use for the team in the starting line up I’m not sure, but starting with one man up front against supposed weaker opposition when at home with 50k behind you doesnt seem particularly adventurous.
Munich Mag(Quote)
I think Yedlin left the USA camp after the first friendly against Cuba last week, so he may be back and rested enough for this game, for what that’s worth.
Any chance this one’s televized?
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
Fans, nope it’ll be a radio stream from pepe again .
kimtoon(Quote)
Shazzbot!
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
I guess this is the only thread available for the match then? I see Raffa is starting with Ayoze alongside Gayle and Atsu starts again.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Haven’t heard that expression in years. Mork and Mindy I think..?
Dubai Toon(Quote)
More attack minded with Perez & Atsu
This conversation about Bob Bradley on soccer Saturday is practically identical to the one these dullards had when Pochettino went to Southampton. Stilted bigoted ******; What on earth makes shagger Giggs more suitable than a guy who coached at World Cups & has a decent record at every club he’s worked for ?
CC(Quote)
Yep. Nanoo-nanoo, bitches!
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
Pepe not online… any links?
Dubai Toon(Quote)
pepe is not on air by the looks of things today 🙁 Can’t even get radio comms now 👿
kimtoon(Quote)
Bein are not showing any championship games today.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Scum losing to Stoke
kimtoon(Quote)
radio link
https://www.spreaker.com/user/onnradio
kimtoon(Quote)
GetinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnClark you beauty
kimtoon(Quote)
I hate this, not being able to see our matches on the telly. ??
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Just in time for the goal 😉 😆
kimtoon(Quote)
Dubai, does that radio link not work for you ?
kimtoon(Quote)
Get in! Clark header assisted by Jonjo
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Get in Clark. Love the fact our defenders actually score goals now!
Newkie(Quote)
that will help the tooth pain 😆 😆
icedog(Quote)
Cheers Kim! Yup it’s working. Thanks a lot. Just missed the goal.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
GetinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnGayle
kimtoon(Quote)
Get iiiiinnnnnnn… 2-0. Gayle you beauty.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Ice, my teeth are fine it’s the head cold and hacking cough that’s killing me, feel heaps better at mo tho 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
mint 😆
icedog(Quote)
The Gayle Force wind blowing Newcastle up the table.
No doubt Gayle still isn’t up to standard though, lol
funkyjesus(Quote)
Scored but ruled out ? Handball apparently
kimtoon(Quote)
Thanks for the radio link!
Anybody watching Arsenal-Swansea? How’s Bald Bob Bradley doing? I must support my bald American brother.
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
Swans 1-0 down at the moment
Dubai Toon(Quote)
2-0 down for swans now.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
****!
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
Oof–Walcott’s got a 2nd.
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
2-1 now Fans… ?
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Sweet, one back for Swansea.
Fans Should Own the Club(Quote)
Scum 2-0 down now.. happy days
Dubai Toon(Quote)
This ref is having as poor a game today as when he refereed our Fulham game by all accounts
kimtoon(Quote)
Yeah Kim he sounds *****.. we should be 3 up now. Sounds like he’s dishing out cards like sweets too.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
Norwich winning
kimtoon(Quote)
2nd half on that radio link I posted now
kimtoon(Quote)
51, 855 at SJP
kimtoon(Quote)