Game On! Newcastle v Aston Villa

toonsy

Game On at Newcastle
Good afternoon and welcome to the one and only ‘Game On’ article which this week will feature the visit of Aston Villa to St James’ Park.

I know we spannered them 6-0 last season and in some way it compensated for their tw*tish behaviour upon our relegation, but the wounds run deep with me. I know too many Villa fans and not many of them are high on my Christmas Card list so I’d love us to give them another going over.

That’s just my personal circumstance though. I’d take three points however they come right now as we have eyes, at least for now, on a bigger prize. That prize being a rather surprise stab at European qualification via the league, and not the Fair Play league either!

A win will take us back into 5th place in the table. A significant win for us and a significant loss for Chelsea could see us in the top four come the end of play today. The maths involved means it’s unlikely, but I’ll be happy enough with 5th place anyway and a Tottenham victory over Liverpool. That’s the ideal world though…

Enough waffle!

If you wish to read yet another cracking match preview courtesy of Shamrock then click here. Alternatively, or supplementary, you can have a look at the numbers involved with another one of NUFC_stats fantastic ‘Stat Attacks’ by clicking here. They are both well worth a few moments of your time.

The good new for fans not lucky enough to be in attendance today is that the match is live on Sky. For those who don’t have Sky there are plenty of overseas channels showing the game so the chances of a stream are looking pretty **** good. Should you happen to stumble across a rather good link please feel free to share it with your fellow NUFC fans and put the link in the comments section below.

That just about wraps it up and now it’s up to the boys in black and white to do the rest of talking. Will Demba Ba score on his return? Will Papiss Cisse notch a debut goal? Well we shall soon find out…

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Davide Santon; Ryan Taylor, James Perch, Danny Guthrie, Jonas Gutierrez; Leon Best, Demba Ba

Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Hatem Ben Arfa, Shola Ameobi, Papiss Cisse

Aston Villa: Shay Given; Richard Dunne, Carlos Cuellar, Stephen Warnock, Alan Hutton; Stiliyan Petrov, Ciaran Clark, Charles N’Zogbia, Stephen Ireland; Robbie Keane, Darren Bent,

Subs: Brad Guzan, Emile Heskey, Eric Lichaj, Nathan Baker, Barry Bannan, Andreas Weimann, Gary Gardner

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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484 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Aston Villa”

  3. HBA, what are you on about lad? To begin with, semi pro is not pro. Secondly, you have no clue what experience I have in football. Third point – Roy Keane was one of the best PRO footballers out there – and even he has no clue how to manage despite playing under Sir Alex or all those years.

    Dont try and tell me you know more about the game because you played at semi-pro mate. Half semi pro teams you can get a game with simply by turning up at the training ground and showing them you are half decent on the ball – that’s what I did 😉

    All of your comments are biased and repetative mate. At some point in this season, you will find comments from pretty much every poster on this site that are both positive AND negative regarding just about every player to have worn the NUFC shirt. Balanced.

    Until you evidence a balanced point of view on our team or indidvidual players i’ll never take you seriously mate.

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  4. @BIg dave @JJ

    I completely agree when people say he must know how to take a risk and how to make a simple pass. But when he plays only 20 minute he just wanna eliminate and takes risk because he knows that he has only 20 minutes. And yeah for people who think that one day he will track back all the time like jonas it will never happend even in the future this player will never be like jonas and you must accept that. If you track back like jonas you cannot be effective after when you must go forward and it exactly what happen with Jonas if you look to the endproduct for the minutes he played. because you don’t have the excuse to told me he is not dangerous offensively becuase he has to cover taylor as a left back, since Santon play left back, he is not very dangerous too offensively. And i don’t call that a decisive pass his cross today because the cross was ppoor its just the talent of Cisse that makes that decisive.

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  5. richietoon off topic but seen this in paper ……The contract of right-back Tavernier is also up for renewal at the end of the season, but he WON’T be among those leaving in the summer.

    The 20-year-old will be rewarded with a new contract in the next few weeks as recognition for his development this season.

    He is currently on loan at MK Dons after spells with Sheffield Wednesday and Carlisle this season.

    “James is staying at this football club,” Pardew told the Sunday Sun.”

    “He will be at this football club next year – 100 per cent.”

    well done to the lad and nufc for his development!….and well done the toon!!!!!

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  7. Injury update – @lee_ryder

    AP on R Taylor: “we think he’s ok it’s only swelling”

    Best has suffered medial ligament (damage) AP: “We’ll have to see”

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  8. @ Shamrock

    My objective here is not to have balanced opinions players, is just to say the truth about players. About wingers who only defends and are unable to eliminate an opponent or be decisive, for me they are useless but maybe some fans like you love when a players just run all the game like a chicken whitout head. That’s a vision of football, I don’t live in England, so i imagine what kind of players english people like, but I don’t know good the thoughts of english fans. But I’m planning to come to watch a game at SJP, after maybe i will understand you more. And if you believe you know football more than me you cannot imagine how wrong you are. Because when i read your comments or your articles, you say so many stupid things.

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  9. Dave, would not know mate – Too busy trying to pull his head out of Benny’s ***. No wonder the lad is so subdued when he plays recently! 😆

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  10. Cant please everyone HBA – But then my comments wont make much sense to somebody who is bleeding clueless.

    As for defensive wingers, Ryan Taylor had a direct impact on our 1st goal today and Obertan was a great outlet for our midfielders. He’s not known for being defensive minded – I’d have thought you would know that though having such a superior footballing brain 😆

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  13. Stevo- happy to hear that about Tavs. He has impressed me the times I’ve seen him, plus he plays position of need and thin and can cover other places where we are thin.

    Well done to the lads today. I though Perch and Guthrie were fantastic.

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  14. yes Oba is not defensive i agree but can i know just end product had he made a decent cross? a decent goal attempt? a dangerous action? help me maybe I miss some action even if I watch the complete game.
    Ryan taylor ok it was part of the first goal, but as i said the first goal was just a mess.
    And for Benny i agree in his last 2 games against Brighton and Blackburn he was completely ****, but against Blackburn who wasn’t **** in the first half and even second half offensively,all the player. But it always Benny who will be sub even if against QPR and Fulham it was our best player in the pitch. for me it’s a little bit an injustice.

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  17. Stevo….Aye “M” posted on the thread this morning about Tav being offered a new contract, good news 😀

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  18. “The good news for Ryan Taylor is that there is no break or fracture so we think he’s going to be OK and there’s big swelling on the leg. We’re very pleased because he’s been fantastic for us this year. For Leon best he’s got a medial ligament problem which is usually a six-week injury.”

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  19. mds …looks like we are going from strengh to stronger!!!!..lets enjoy the moment and the future lads!!!!who knows…..champions lg? well we seem to be doing it right!

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  21. Hba39
    I agree with you but I think tath Coach Pardew is right, I think is very demanding with ben arfa because he know how good he can be! He is more hard with him than any other player at the club and that’s a good thing because now ben arfa knows that he has to raise his level everytime he plays! This guy a potential to bey a key player for us everybody knows it but he asks him rigour and regularity! Look at obertan: I know him since his debut at bordeaux in 2007! This lad has never impressed me but pardew is less demanding with him and the manager give him a lot of confidence because he give everything even if it’s not enough! Ben Arfa needs to work harder that’s all! But Im sure he can do it!

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  22. Obertan cut in and made a great pass along the floor to either Ba or Cisse inside the box within a few minutes of coming on. Listen, I’m not usually his biggest fan but today he played well if you cannot see that then debating is pointless with you.

    Ryan Taylor was in the team on purpose to help shackle Nzogbia, which he did well – but he also did reasonably well offensively too.

    We are agreed that Benny does not fit into a 4-4-2. However I did state in the match preview that a 4-3-3 with Benny playing centrally just behind the two demba’s would be great. Do you think that idea was utter bolox then? If so, where do you think he should be playing? I’d like to see us playing with a bit more of an edge at home, but at the end of the day we cannot really criticise the manager or team when they are consistently winning games.

    The fact that he has rarely completed 90 minutes over his entire career speaks volumes. Or do you know better than every ACTUAL manager that has ever supervised him?

    If he was effective, fit and confident nough to play every game I’m sure he would be in the team more often than not. However he isn’t, so something is going wrong with him somewhere – meanwhile the team is 5th in the best league in the world. Their football can’t be that bad.

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  23. HBA39@389- Obertan was really good today and most importantly he brought balance to the midfield and DID track back. Look i’m a Benny fan but the truth is he does try to take on too many players when often the simple solution is to pass.We know he is a real talent but the English game is very different to other countries ,it’s faster and not as good maybe technically .There are plenty of flair players here but they have mastered the art of defending as a team unit in theyr’e respective teams just as Benny also has to.I’m sure he will gel in the team given time and with some more good editions to strengthen us in the summer that can only help too.

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  25. Obertan wasn’t amazing, he should have at least put his effort on target and he did become reliant on cutting it back to simmo for the cross because he keeps running in to trouble

    However

    His athleticism, team work, hassling can’t be questioned and he did brilliantly in releasing pressure on us. If our forwards can bang em in on scraps then we can get by with defensive wingers like him and Jonas…Arfa has different quality that we got by without today.

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  30. Pards says that Shola is a goal scorer who can produce a moment that can win you a game 😆 😆 its a pity its only once or twice a yr 😀 I think he has been smoking something 😉

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  32. Ice I thought Cisse’s goal was a bit special, plus he could have had a another 1 or 2
    I think having the double D’s back gave the team a big lift you could even see Simmo getting the fans to cheer them both on when Cisse scored

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  38. DAVE aye i like his movement too,think he was trying to hard when he missed that header,but that will settle now,in fact i think he would have buried that if it come after his first goal

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  41. You could see the proper pocher instinct in Cisse today already. He’s going to be huge for us. Exactly what Best & Shola seem to lack – killer instinct.

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  43. Big Dave-to be fair I reckon if we use Shola as an impact sub in the last 20 or so minutes for some games he can make something happen.

    Maybe 😆

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  45. Shamrock@416-Dead right ,it’s not easy to hit the ground running like that .They both must be pretty tired still also .Imagine what he’ll be like when he gets properly used to the PL .Can’t wait for Tiote to get back too and Cabaye .

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  46. Just back in from match, Great result. Ba awesome in front of goal, Cisse what a worldy, Guthrie MOM was brilliant in the middle. Whole team performed great. Always in control.

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  59. Just got back from Toon. What a game and what a goal from Cisse. My seat must have been the best in the house, I was on my feet well before it hit the net. Unbelievable strike and well deserved. This lad looks a real live wire upfront and was constantly on the move. He doesn’t look like the type of no.9 we are used to, but boy he looked good. Over the moon about today.

    Chelsea 3-3 Man Utd – here’s a sentence I never thought I’d say…. Come on Man Utd!!!!

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  61. Gary….Isn’t it just great to be in a position where the outcome of a Manure v Chelski game interests you as a Toon fan? 😀

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  64. RICHIETOON @436 – Isn’t it just! To be fair, though, I don’t see our position as a ‘fluke’, which many people believe it to be. When you look through the centre of our team (when fully fit), we actually have a top draw heart to the team… Krul, Colo, S.Taylor, Tiote, Cabaye, Ba, Cisse. For me, that’s pretty much as good as any team bar City.

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  65. Gary….Isn’t it just great to be in a position where the outcome of a Manure v Chelski game interests you as a Toon fan? 😀
    —————
    Richie 😆 Well said

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  67. Howard Webb was kind of blatant with the pens but i think back to Mike Dean not sending Luiz off at our place and what goes around comes around

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  68. Gary,

    That is quite an incredible spine I agree.

    When you add that that, Marvaeux, Ben Arfa, Santon, there is some genuine quality but are still adapting.

    The the rest (Raylor, Perch, Best) I view as very handy, gutsy squad players, and then the likes of (Vuckic, Fergie, Tav, Abied, Gosling) are all top youngsters coming through, which is a superb mix…

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  69. Robert,
    Just think what Chelsea spent on Luiz and Torres. Both are playing terribly.

    Luiz’s defending has been shocking, Torres’ finishing has been shocking. For 70mil!

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  70. @Big Dave
    no i don’t count the cross of Jonas as an assist, because the same cross to Shola, Best, or an other player it will not finish in the back of the net, it is just because Cisse made really a great control and great shoot, it comes more from Cisse than from Jonas.
    @ Shamrock
    And I agree with most of them when you say you cannot criticize a winning team, so that means that Pardew is completely right with his management for the moment, even if me as a Benny fan i will play him Pardew is right to don’t play him. And I don’t think we will play with Benny behind Ba and Cisse because with this formation you don’t have a lot of crosses and Pardew want a lot of balls in the box.
    But now if some of you wanna convince me that Oba is a good player i can promise you that this guy is really not very good and will disappoint a lot of fans, because he has not shot and not very precise passes to. He gives all to the team, he is very very quick, he made some tricks but when you look good to his stats and even what he creates in a game for me that is just not enough.

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  73. Yea it’s not about who’s he better player, but who is better for the team. HBA obviously isn’t at the moment, however if Pards can get HBA & the two Dembas interlinking well then we could have a very formidable team. Otherwise HBAs chances will be limited.

    from the BBC
    NEWCASTLE FACT
    Papiss Demba Cisse is the first Newcastle player to score on his PL debut since Xisco v Hull in September 2008
    doesn’t bode well does it.

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  74. HBA39 @ 445 so who provided the assist for Cisse then ?? someone must have provided him, or is your dislike for Jonas blinding you to the simple fact that it was Jonas that assisted Cisse ❓

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  75. Richie,
    Big Dave’s been telling me you been saying some things behind my back! Apart from the usual “get off my missus!” which I’m used to… 😕 😉

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