FA Cup 3rd round preview – Stevenage v Newcastle.

toonsy

Giuliano Grazioli equalises for Stevenage back in 1998.
Newcastle kick off their FA Cup campaign against Stevenage Borough tomorrow evening, and they will surely be hoping that events run a lot more smoothly than they did the last time these two sides met way back in 1998.

Back then, Newcastle had been flying high for a few seasons in the Premier League and had superstars such as Alan Shearer within their ranks. It took two matches and the intervention of Shearer for The Magpies to progress past a plucky non-league Stevenage outfit, although the lasting memory of the encounter will be the off-field arguments between the two clubs.

Most of the trouble centred around the Stevenage ground. Newcastle officials claimed that Broadhall Way, or The Lamex Stadium as it is currently known, was unsafe to hold the larger than normal crowd that was anticipated on the day, and this was before our officials even visted the ground. Much mud was thrown and Newcastle were made to look like the bullies after attempting to get the game switched to St James’ Park.

Stevenage won out on that occasion and the game went ahead as planned with the addition of a temporary stand. The events around that day lacked class from all parties. Stevenage weren’t innocent in the whole affair and their chairman at the time acted like a bit of a ******, but we hardly covered ourselves in glory either. If you want to cast your minds back to that match you can do so by watching this video.

Fast forward 13 years and we find ourselves in the position of having the exact same fixture, although this time the build up to the game has been an all together quieter affair with matters centred around team news rather than horrer stories about the two clubs bickering.

Speaking of team news, Alan Pardew will have to make do and mend as he takes an injury plagued Newcastle side to Broadhall Way. The visitors will be without several first team players for the game, with several more likely to not be risked in preparation for the Wear-Tyne derby match next weekend.

Midweek hat-trick hero Leon Best is struggling with a heel injury whilst Steven Taylor and Cheik Tiote are both struggling with hamstring strains. All three of those injuries were picked in the 5-0 victory over West Ham.

Andy Carroll, Sol Campbell, Alan Smith, Ryan Taylor and Hatem Ben Arfa are all definately ruled out through injury whilst Steve Harper will miss the match on comapssionate grounds due to his wife being heavily pregnant. The one bit of good news is that Dan Gosling could feature at some point for Newcastle.

I expect that we will play a mixture of youth and fringe players, although any sudden recovery to any senior players could well see them involved aswell. For what it’s worth I would go with a team looking something like this;

Newcastle: Tim Krul, James Perch, Mike Williamson, Tamas Kadar, Shane Ferguson, Wayne Routledge, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan, Xisco, Nile Ranger, Peter Lovenkrands.

Stevenage will be missing Darius Charles for the match tomorrow as he serves the last game of a three match ban. Byron Harrison will be unavailable for The Boro as he is cup tied after already playing for Carshalton in an earlier round.

Joe Byrom, Darren Murphy and Lee Boylan will hope to be in contention after shaking off recent injuries, although manager Graham Westley could name an unchanged team from the one that beat Barnet on Monday.

Stevenage: Chris Day, Scott Laird, Luke Foster, Mark Roberts, Lawrie Wilson, Stacy Long, John Mousinho, Michael Bostwick, Charlie Griffin, Rob Sinclair, Chris Beardsley, Rob Sinclair.

The last time these two sides met in the cup it took two games to seperate them, as you may have seen if you watched the video earlier up in the article, but by the end of the cup run Newcastle found themselves in the final.

Hopefully the omens will be similar this time around.

Howay the lads!

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.

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180 thoughts on “FA Cup 3rd round preview – Stevenage v Newcastle.”

  1. Hmm,i know it is sick to keep hearing Xisco name,but i seriously hope he is given a chance to prove it.

    Who knows,Best+Xisco=Winning formula? 😆

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  2. Jez it dosn’t seem like that long ago 😆
    AOD I have allways wondered why he never gets a chance because surely he couldn’t be that bad, So I think if he dosn’t get a run out there must be something real bad about him be that his heed or laziness

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  3. Newcastle:Tim Krul,James Tavernier,Mike Williamson,James Perch ,Tamas Kadar,Wayne Routledge, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith , Shane Ferguson, Nile Ranger, Xisco.

    subs:Ole Soderberg,Haris Vuckic,Bradden Inman,Leon Best,Peter Lovenkrands,Dan Gosling,Steven Taylor.

    My choice for the game. 😉

    I seriously don’t think Perch is situable for full-back position anymore,he seems fine as CB,can deploy him as CDM if needed.

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  4. I’m hoping to see Xisco as well. He is just 22, and it is time for him to push forward or push on to another squad.

    The key to this fixture will be if NUFC can dominate some portion of the field and build on that. Barton and Tiote owned the middle vs. West Ham, and we will have to see if their replacements, or some other Geordies, take control of the pitch and therefore, the game.

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  5. What’s does you lot perfer.my line-up does looks strong. ^_^

    @Big Dave: well,in two Xisco apperance for us,he score on his debut in the defeat against hull in the relegation season. He assist a goal this season in our wonderful win against Aston Villa?

    Doesn’t look bad to me. hahas.

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  7. Sounds like a good line up. How long is Smith out for? Must have missed his injury, i’d rather have him captaining and pairing Gosling, but without him i guess nolan needs to be there.

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  8. Tavernier is away on loan to Gatesheed so you can count him out 😉
    I do think he deserves a run but as I said I cant workout why he dosn’t get a chance unless it is attitude as as you said he has been allright

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  9. Sry my bad,just notice that United have loaned out defender James Tavernier and forward Joan Edmundsson.

    So that means Perch certainly will continue take the RB position. 🙁

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  10. Newcastle:Tim Krul,James Perch,Mike Williamson, Tamas Kadar,Shane Ferguson,Wayne Routledge, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith , Haris Vuckic, Nile Ranger, Xisco.

    subs:Ole Soderberg,Phil Airey,Bradden Inman,Leon Best,Peter Lovenkrands,Dan Gosling,Steven Taylor.

    Well,off to sleep. is 3.10am here. 😯

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  11. Xisco has been decent on his appearances, but my feeling is that he just doesn’t give a ***** in training. The club has undoubtedly not given the lad any help, the circumstances of his arrival and the fury of the fans will do nothing to endear us to him, perhaps similar to Leon Best before he just silenced everyone on wednesday. Still, the feeling i get is that Xisco has the quality to play-and he knows and feels that too-but feels from the lack chances he gets that no matter what he does in training he won’t get a look in-and therefore he just doesn’t turn up to training. Personally he probably doesn’t blend with the squad as he’s never felt a part of it. So yeah, he should be giving his all week in week out and its a fault in his personality that he doesn’t. Still you can’t quite blame it all on him, and certai ncharacters *cough* Barton who people wanted rid of last season, and arguably rightly so because of his antics/injuries and high wages, is now an absolute vital organ of our squad. Its all interesting really. But I’d like him to start asa striker for our long F.A cup run and see if he takes the chances given to him, and if he does then more chances will be given, and he too can contribute to Newcastle.

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  12. Newkie I do feel sorry for the Lad because he got so much **** threw at him over the KK fiasco and really the Lad done nowt wrong and didn’t deserve any of the **** he got. I agree the Lad probably thinks whats the point no matter what he do’s he will allways be thought of by most as the straw that broke KK’s back
    Here endeth my rant 🙂

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  13. Aye Dave, its hard not to pity the fella, who isn’t going to take 50k a week even if you’re not sure you can do a job? That’s for the club to decide. Still, it seems strange, i feel he needs someone with experience to just give ihm the right words and a bit of hunger-he was cited at an early age as a quality player, and it seems wrong to cripple your career early on in the manner which he may be accused. We don’t really have any experienced forwards who can do this for him, but Pardew clearly gave Best a good talking to, heres hoping he can do the same for Xisco. I’ve called for a xisco inclusion constantly and I’m not gonna lie i would have wanted him over Best at West Ham but hey, i’m still only half way through my humble pie 😉

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  14. My mate is a depor fan and he had bought a xisco shirt just before we signed him, because he saw him as a quality young striker who would be there for a while. The promise was there, but since he’s been here he’s had 5 managers and thus 5 chances. He hasn’t done anything with those chances and he wasn’t impressive on his loan last year. Ranger is a player that xisco, with his pedigree and potential, should be beating out for a spot but 5 managers have chosen ranger, with his lack of goals and apparent lack of effort in training. For me, all the signs point to xisco simply not being good enough.

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  15. All the NUFC blogs can just speculate on what the Chron & Journo writers print after they interview the manager. In the USA, the sports reporters get interviews with everybody, or get ideas about a player from asking coaches. At NUFC you get injury recover reports when a guy is back in the squad, or what a player was like after he has left the team. As far as I can tell, none of us have any idea how Xisco fits in.

    Oh, and BTW for the conspiratheorists out there, Carroll sent to Dubai to “heal”. How do we know if he is not actually down there to show Qatari investors what they will be getting for their purchase of NUFC?

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  16. or he just hasn’t been giving a proper chance and made to feel like part of the team. But who really knows ?

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  17. Aye that may be the case. But I just wonder why 5 different mangers have so far felt he wasn’t worth a shot?

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  18. True enough comments about Xisco, and his record for santander was shocking, but not seeing any of the matches myself i couldn’t comment on his performances. On the one hand you could say he didn’t fit into the squad or was suffering massively from poor morale, but on the other hand you have to say if he wants his chance then he should have bloody got his head down. Still like i said, didn’t watch his performances, only ever seen him a limited time in the toon shirt and despite mere cameos they’ve been decent. Still, you know its bad when PowerRanger gets the no ahead of you 😀 just hope he gets an inclusion and some f.a cup matches under his belt, and hopefully we can get a clear conclusion about him.

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  19. Also the Qatari thing, was wondering when that would be brought up 🙂 I don’t think it would be too hard for them to find a way into St James’ or the training ground without media attention, and an injured carroll lying down next to a pool might do it for some people but I wouldn’t put money on the Qatari’s shipping him out so they could get a good view of his beach body. 😀

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  21. Not sure about Carroll touting the club. its not like he will be playing over there. any potential investors will be better off watching the games he played in on dvd.

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  22. Can just imagine Carroll trying to advertise the club. Not being funny like but, quality player, but comes across as being thick as mince 🙂

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  24. “Thick as mince”, that would put him in company of what many feel about MA & DL! (But not me.)

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  28. Re: xisco – it’s fair enough to say he hasn’t been given a chance but the fact is that 4 managers have yet to give him one for a reason, pardew whether you like him or not gave best a chance who we all thought was a bad buy so it’s def got to be about attitude in training
    I agree he looked ok when he came on against villa but villa were well defeated by the time he came on

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  29. Welcome Richard and thank you very much 🙂

    Micky – Ok mate. I’ll have a look into it tomorrow. What browser are you on?

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  39. i heard that today , batty.very sad news as i can remember him fighting all those years ago.

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  41. Ice I see that Batty one was trying to have a go at you about your age ? i thought it was a bit below the belt like

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  44. Xisco has how many…4 fellow Spanish speakers at the toon, which should go a long way to making him feel at home. If he hasn’t managed it yet, he never will, and he’s on a huge wedge so he aint going anywhere in a hurry unfortunately. Perhaps this says somewhat about his character.

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  46. Munich I would normally agree with that, but I think they will be well up for us. I just hope they dont try to kick lumps out of us, as we can do without anymore injuries

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  47. Big D this is there cup final..NUFC at home. They can try kicking lumps out of us, but I still think we’ll have too much for them. I also don’t think that AP will risk too many senior players, even the FA Cup isn’t what it used to be sadly..

    Still think we’ll win through and hopefully get to Wemberlee !!

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  48. looking forward to tomorrow. A rare treat…Newcastle on the TV 2 games in a row.
    Personally, I’d like to see Xisco get a run…just so we can see if he’s got it. I just can’t accept that he’s ****. I mean, he had to have been purchased originally for some reason other than a favor, right? Yeah, you want to do a favor for someone, but you also want to get somewhat quality in return. Just my feeling.

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  50. Jay I would agree with you mate I dont think we should have too much bother.
    So when are you planning on you 2nd thread

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  52. Hope so jay jay, it would let everyone know we’re back in business, and would be great for all-round morale..

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  55. Off topic, but I wonder if Liverpool will start attracting bad press now for turning on a fellow Londoner?

    hope so 🙂

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  56. Is it me, or are the press desperately trying to over hype and romanticize what should be a pretty routine win for our lads?

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  63. Well no one knew I was planning to write so it was a bit unexpected I guess. Well toonsy knew obviously 🙂

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  68. Didn’t realise the Sidwell to West Ham deal was cancelled because west ham already have a squad of 25? Means they’d have to pay wages for a player until next year, or kick someone out this year with compensation..not looking good for them if they want to sign 10 people then is it 😀

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  70. 25 senior players?? The kids dont need to be registered is that right? Christ they are in a mess. 25 sacks of shyte.

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  71. I don’t think that Xisco will play for us – ever. Maybe if he appears, he will trigger some sort of a transfer clause and club will need to pay Deportivo some money.

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  72. Aye Lacedaemonian..although this is information I’ve gathered whilst trawling through the Telegraph sport section so maybe i was too quick off the gun. Two days ago they were saying that Crawley had a larger transfer budget than us because they had 1mil to spend whereas newcastle would have to sell…even though we’ve just brought in a french international for about 5.1mil? Hmm…Bloody journos.

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  75. Cadbury he’s already played for us though, two years ago he played against hull and he played earlier for us this season vs Villa, so thats not it. I think he might actually have like four or five appearances for our first team but I don’t remember the others if i’m honest.

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