However if a spot in front of the box isn’t good enough for you then you may be interested to know that tickets are still available for the game from the West Bromwich Albion ticket office so you can still make it if you fancy it.
Anyway, Newcastle will be looking for revenge tomorrow after Roy Hodgson’s Baggies took all three points in a 3-2 victory at St James’ Park earlier on in the season. Demba Ba scored both of our goals only to see efforts from Peter Odemwingie, Gareth McAuley and Paul Scharner secure the points on the night.
Newcastle
Leon Best, Sammy Ameobi, Sylvain Marveaux, Peter Lovenkrands and Steven Taylor remain out, while Steve Harper and Shane Ferguson are back in training and could be recalled to the bench. Question marks remain over Cheik Tiote, Ryan Taylor and Gabriel Obertan, all of whom missed the victory over Norwich last week. The most important one is Cheik Tiote, who has been training although reports in the press today seem to suggest that he will miss the match with a hip injury.
West Bromwich Albion
Zoltan Gera and Steven Reid are still sidelined with long-term injuries, but Jonas Olsson is available after suspension and Peter Odemwingie is back in training after recovering from a calf problem.
Previously
Once upon a time we had a really good record against the Baggies, but that isn’t the case anymore. The levelling in fortunes can be attributed to one thing – relegation.
Prior to the drop we did well against West Brom, even on our travels. Please bear in mind that I’m purely talking Premier League era here, although in general we were always good for a result at the Hawthorns. Prior to relegation we won two and drew two of our four trips to the Black Country. Post relegation and we’ve lost two and drawn one on our travels.
What to watch and how to win
Well the obvious thing to watch with West Brom is pace. It’s how they hurt us St James’ Park and Shane Long and Peter Odemwingie had a field day. However the onus is on them this time around, not us, and we’ll likely be sitting a bit deeper, or at least I’d hope so as our defence is not exactly quick.
The other thing to watch is their height, which combined with the delivery of Chris Brunt will cause us problems. Paul Scharner, Jonas Olsson and Gareth McAuley can all do some damage in the air while Chris Brunt will cause problem from any set piece.
However they can be got at. Their defence is also not the quickest and can be exploited in much the same way that ours can. For me the outcome of the game will depend on which striking pair play the best and exploit the weakness of the opposition the most. Sounds easy doesn’t it?
Facts and stats
Peter Odemwingie has scored three goals in his last two games against Newcastle. One more tomorrow and he’ll become the first Baggies player to reach 25 Premier League goals.
Newcastle have failed to win a game this season after conceding the first goal.
Games between the two sides are generally high scoring. Since the start of the Premier League there have been an average of 3.33 goals per game between the two sides although this average rises to five goals per game if you look purely at our post-promotion results.
Final thoughts and expectations
I’m actually not expecting anything from this game and would be over the moon with a draw. Just call it a gut feeling based on our last few performances if you like.
However we have the tools to hurt the Baggies providing all of those tools turn up and play to the best of their ability.
Which Newcastle will turn up though?
Howay the lads!
P.S – Don’t forget to change your clocks overnight and put them forward one hour!
Date: Sunday, 25th March, 2012
Time: 4pm – Live on Sky
Venue:The Hawthorns
Bah – bindippers equalise – very poor from Wigan who basically set up gerrard to cross
Stevep(Quote)
Cisse sent off for QPR. Again.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Goal! Liverpool 1, Wigan Athletic 2. Gary Caldwell (Wigan Athletic) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner following a set piece situation.
😛 😛
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
I heard somewhere “King Kenny’s” record is now no better than Hodgson’s.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Newcastle fans will know how much of a ‘King’ Kenny he is actually. 😉
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
Been having a diy disaster with a bifold door aargh . Come on here for some respite . Glad to see the bindippers 2.1 down but Scum 3.1 up 👿 Chelsea and Spuds was a stalemate is that any good to us, not sure
kimtoon(Quote)
Come on Wigan – if we can beat baggies tomorrow then beat bindippers at home 6th is virtually nailed on
Stevep(Quote)
Wigan are really hanging on by their fingernails by the sound of it…
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
5 mins added time at anfield 👿
kimtoon(Quote)
**** ,Scum win 👿 But hey Bindippers lose, happy days 😀 😀 😀
kimtoon(Quote)
Mr Barton and Mr Nolans teams not so hot at the mo. 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
All hail the Loserfools. 😆 😆
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
Haha – good to see the bindippers lose
Stevep(Quote)
Daglish for the sack
Stevep(Quote)
Good one Toonsy and glad to see the bin dippers fuked up 😆 is it me or does it seem like yonks from we last had a sat 3pm kick off
Big Dave(Quote)
Eahh, eaa, aee. Callm down!! Callm down lads, still gonna win der league!
bindipper(Quote)
The liverfools result was good, shame would have been better if tottenham had beaten chelsea, then we just needed to win to go fifth and be eight points clear of liverpool.
andymag(Quote)
If we beat Liverpool the can only get 63 points if they win all their remaining games. We then just need 13 points from our other 8 games. 1 tomorrow will be a good start.
Premandup(Quote)
I bet Hanson still doesnt slate Liverpool if he’s on MOTD tonight.
I hate Liverpool, I hope they get to the final, secure us Europe and then get hammered by spurs or Chelsea – resulting in KKKenny getting the bullet… tossers !!!
Sharpy17(Quote)
Out of curiousity if the teams above us all apocalyptically fuked up and we won ou remaining matches could we still win the league? 🙄
andymag(Quote)
Just figured it out, if we won our remaining games we’d have 74 points, the teams above us then they would only we allowed three draws and we’d still win the league. How I love hypotheticals
andymag(Quote)
Wow just saw the Liverpool result. At this rate they’ll do well to finish 7th!
Also, just looked at their fixtures. After us they play Villa, Blackburn, West Brom, Norwich. Judging by how they chronically underperform against the lower teams, that could be a really tough set of matches.
Long live the King!
Jon R(Quote)
Sharpy funny enough I have heard Hanson slate the dippers before, but can’t recall hearing Lawro slate them.
Jon but tbf we don’t really do ourselfs justice against the so called lower teams 👿
Big Dave(Quote)
Just seen a good stat.
If the Premier League started on Jan 1st, who would be bottom?
toonsy(Quote)
🙄 Spuds ???
Big Dave(Quote)
Big Dave @15 I said just the same yesterday ,it’s been ages , wasn’t it Wolves on 25th feb 😕
kimtoon(Quote)
Dave – Nope
toonsy(Quote)
BigDave: Other than Norwich, WBA, Fulham and the Wolves draw we have won practically every game against the “lower” teams 😕
Wow what a goal from Crouch!!! 😯 😀
Jon R(Quote)
Toonsy@27 IT’S NOT US IS IT 😯
kimtoon(Quote)
Toonsy: I reckon Wolves 5 points, QPR 8 points, Liverpool 8 points are the bottom 3.
Jon R(Quote)
Well. as it is now, our reaching 4th spot is sctually looking more likely than the scouselanders catching up with us. Spud-U-Don’t-Like v Chelski was a great cancelling result IF they both suddenly dip in form with their respective run-ins. Chelsk for example have CL & Cup games, Arsenal and two dodgy games against bottom-feeders which are notorious pitfalls at the end of a season, so I think 5th is the best they are hoping for, and we may just be able to nick it from them, starting with this next game. Spuds, on the other hand have, on paper, a relatively cushy wind down, and we may even need the soap-free to win and assist us. Gahhh ! 👿
But we all know what ‘certainties on paper’ look like when they are licked by the flames of reality…..
Tsunki(Quote)
And we would have 17 points, Scum would have 20 points. But we have only played 10 games compared to Scum’s 11 games.
Jon R(Quote)
Toonsy just tell us 👿
Big Dave(Quote)
To be fair to King Kenny, a lot of managers would struggle to beat Wigan at home having invested £113 million in their team. I think.
NUFCgt(Quote)
QPR, Wolves, and.. Liverpool. 5 points each. ‘course i googled it 😀
Tsunki(Quote)
@34 – Yeah tough times for King K, he’s had to tighten his belt and buy bargain players from the continent and ship out older stalwarts to….hang on, that’s not Kenny…..
Tsunki(Quote)
Tsunki….Googles wrong, Liverpool have 8 as JonR said 😉
richietoon(Quote)
If only we showed the ambition Liverpool did and bought players for overinflated prices 😳
toonsy(Quote)
Just seen the scores now.. I am sh!ttttttting it! Scousers are definitely going to blow the chance of 6th place being for europe.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
Yep shot me bolt about the bottom 3 points thing got too excited at the scousers form. But on 8 points they would still be in the bottom 3 right? Wolves would have 4 I think.
Tsunki(Quote)
scratch that wolves still on 5 I’ll just get me coat.
Tsunki(Quote)
Tsunki well atleast you got 1 of them right 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
A win tomorrow and then beat the bin dippers at SJP and we are as good as in europe next season . What an outstanding season that would be ,who would have thought we would be so close too doing that .Its in our own hands now ,lets hope every one stays fit until the last day of the season and the boys get themselves over the finishing line . Anyone else on here think that Spurs are going to bottle it and we can catch them ,we still have them to play and if we win tomorrow we are only 5 points behind them . It can be done
Axel(Quote)
Dave – he’s slightly more critical than Lawro but they are both full of **** when it comes to Liverpool.
Tell ya what, having seen Chelsea today and the way they and Liverpool have played this season – if we loose any players to those teams in the summer it’s purely for money and not football reasons
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY i agree with you , losing players too those 2 teams will not be for footballing reasons , i can honestly see us finishing above those 2 if we can just start playing too the best of our abilities . Its time for the likes of Tiote , Cabaye and Ba too step up and kick on .
Axel(Quote)
Axel I really can’t see us catching Spuds 😯
Sharpy I suppose most will opt for big money at a club that has a good chance of winning things rather than low money at a club with less chance of winning things
Big Dave(Quote)
Spurs strike me as a team that can be untouchable on their day but fragile as me grandmas favourite tacky glass ornament when things go wrong. Melty-Mouth in charge or no, they could crack. I say could.
On our players being bought by the giants of the English game – why go to Chelsea? Guaranteed CL? Hmmmmm lets see, no manager yet so whose team would you fit into? Would the new guy even give you a number for your shirt? Ok, moving on to Liverpool, what’s their brochure look like? Ok, hmm, ok yes, I see, hmm. No thanks, I’ll pass. 🙄
Tsunki(Quote)
Dave – they stay at Newcastle and allow us to build a team and there’s no reason why they can’t win things here … so it would be for the big money.
Ok, liverpool have won a cup this season but they won nowt last season and ain’t a club regularly challenging for the league … They don’t ever play good football in my opinion!
Chelsea are all over the place at the moment and the changes they are making are to huge for them to remain consistent over the next few seasons – again, that’s only my opinion.
There used to be a top 4 in this league, City and Spurs have turned it into a top 6 – so why can’t we get in on the act (if players stay loyal to the club that put it’s faith in them)
Sharpy17(Quote)
Spurs played reasonably well today I thought and deserved the win.I still think they will finish above Chelsea.
I’d deffo agree that neither Chelsea nor Liverpool are very attractive footballing propositions right now, but Chelsea could come in with a massive bid which we’d be daft to turn down. In that case I reckon the player would go. I don’t think any of our players would be quite good enough to draw a bid from either of the Manchester clubs. So that just leaves Spurs as possibly the biggest threat. Ba as a replacement for Adebayor??? 😕
Jon R(Quote)
Jon – I know what your saying and to be fair Pardew and the board have been honest enough to say it aswell, but I’m still not ok with it like.
I mean look at Spurs and Chelsea today. Modric could have probably picked up a higher wage at Chelsea, but which team do you think hed rather be playing for at the moment. Plus, he’s almost guaranteed a game week in week out at Spurs but would probably be part of a rotation system at Chelsea.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Yeah you’re right about Modric, but I think Spurs last summer were in a position we hope to be in in a couple of season’s time (having qualified for the CL just the season before). And even then they had to leave out Modric for a few games cos he got the hump.
I just look at it practically and I think if we got £25m+ for Tiote we could invest it and make the team stronger than it is at present. Don’t get me wrong, I like Tiote, but he’s certainly not irreplaceable with £25m in your wallet.
Jon R(Quote)
If we were a cash strapped club like maybe Everton, I might agree but we aren’t. Forget “in a couple of seasons”, well never get a better chance to break into that top group of teams than now.
Tiote probably could be replaced with £25m, but what if he’s not? what if you spent £10m on a player who doesn’t settle in. What if we spend £5m on a player who does settle in and a club want to buy him off us next season?
Now our finances are sorted (excluding the Ashley loan), it should be time to build a team/squad.
Sharpy17(Quote)
What a fekn goal by Crouch like 😯 😯 😯
richietoon(Quote)
Sharpy: I don’t think we are going to agree on this 😛
If Graham Carr has some players lined up who is he confident will succeed (and I think he has earned our trust o that one by now), then selling Tiote and buying 3 or 4 quality players with the proceeds will build the team much faster than just keeping Tiote!!!!!
Take the Andy Carroll situation. We could have kept Carroll. Or we could have sold him for more than he’s worth and used the money to buy Ba and Cisse (and still have a load left over). Which of those two paths will build the team fastest?
Jon R(Quote)
Jon – my point is that they should be doing both!!
Retaining your best players and sending the scouts out to add to them.
I’m not going to argue that Carr has been brilliant for us, but he’s a football scout, not a profit turner for the club. Hes found some really good players for us, but he isn’t gonna be able to find cheap gems every season for us, hence the investment into the youth set up.
Plus, if he were capable of such things, don’t you think Chelsea would just take him instead of folking out £25m on Tiote?!
At the moment, id say we are short of a FB, CB and winger from having a really strong first 11. Straight selling players like Tiote or Ba and your then looking at 5 positions or half the team to replace and bed in. That’s one thing we have been quite fortunate with this season, the likes of Cabaye, Ba and Cisse all settling in fairly quickly.
I think the foundations are there to build on already, don’t get stripping them away to sell on and start again I guess.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Fol-de-rol-lol-troll
Rodzilla(Quote)
…ye divnt haaf taak sheyt leyk Shaapy 😯
Rodzilla(Quote)
seriously, arekin yi still nick milk off yi neighbaz. ye rampa 😛
Rodzilla(Quote)
oh yes, what what, I’d say, play the 456912 formation, what what, BRAVO!!!
Rodzilla(Quote)
what a load of ****
Rodzilla(Quote)
(swear word, swearword, Tesco-Tesco Sainsbree Sainsburee, ARIBAAAAHHHHHH!! 😯
Rodzilla(Quote)
Quality Joke alert:
Q. What did the c*nt say to the W@nker?
A. Nothing, you c*nt
……………
…reet, off noo, och aye the geordies man, way ayeeeee!
(the noo)
Rodzilla(Quote)
Aye Toons, that’s 3 weeks boonsin ye awiz noo like.
….adivnt tekni **** like 😎
Rodzilla(Quote)
…the going gets tough from the get-go, go man go oh brother not another motherf*cker gotta go now.
Rodzilla(Quote)
**** you all
Rodzilla(Quote)
weird innit, this interweb and stuff
Rodzilla(Quote)
joey barton on twitter, sunderland the place, reminds him of a film deliverence,hes not a bad lad is he 😆 😆
mg man(Quote)
What’s the time?
witters(Quote)
keep off the pills rod.
nobby(Quote)
0912 😉
richietoon(Quote)
…..but not now 🙄
richietoon(Quote)
http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/why-van-persie-not-best-striker-premier-leage-3660316.html
Saw this thread. Make me laugh. 😆 😆
————————————————————————————————
This is why VAN PERSIE is NOT the best striker in the premier leage!
Found this post online somewhere..
Top 4 Strikers right now.
Stats only including league goals.
1) Lionel Messi- 28 games 35 goals
2) Cristiano Ronaldo- 28 games 35 goals
3) Liverpool- 29 games 35 goals
4) Robin Van Persie- 29 games 26 goals
He cant even outscore liverpool. tsk tsk.
AngelOfDeath(Quote)