Game On! Newcastle v Manchester City

One final time!
Well, sadly, our final home game of the season is upon us and we now only have one week of domestic football left to look forward to.

What’s that? Still looking forward to games in early May? A rare treat for United fans!

You see while all the talk will be on Manchester City and whether or not they put one hand on the title by beating us at St James’ Park, the fact remains that we have our own agenda to look after. A win today will see us jump into fourth place at the very least thanks to Arsenal and Norwich drawing 3-3 yesterday, in fact a win could even see us jump into third place depending on how Tottenham get on against struggling Aston Villa. It’s madness really!

It’s going to be tough though. Manchester City have the players to hurt anyone when they are on form so we will have to be wary of them. However that works the other way also as Roberto Mancini will have to task his players to keep an eye on one or two of our own crown jewels if he wants to take three points away from St James’ Park.

I just hope that Nigel de Jong isn’t tasked with looking after our players. Again!

For more background on the match, news of any injury problems, form guides and some fun facts you can peruse my match preview by clicking the blue text at your leisure.

The game is being broadcast live on Sky Sports 1 and via a whole host of overseas broadcasters so streams shouldn’t be too hard to come by. Having said that, if you manage to find a particularly decent one and wish to share it with your fellow NUFC fans then you can do so by leaving a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below.

That just about wraps things up for this. It’s our final home game of the season and I’m sure the players will want to send the full house home happy having secured three points and setting up a rather tense and interesting final day clash with Everton. However to do that we simply must win today.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Krul; Perch, Williamson, Coloccini, Santon; Tiote, Gutierrez; Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Ba; Cisse

Subs: Elliot, Ferguson, R Taylor, Gosling, Marveaux, Obertan, Shola Ameobi

Man City: Hart, Zabaleta, Clichy, Kompany (c), Lescott, Barry, Yaya, Nasri, Silva, Aguero, Tevez

Subs: Pantilimon, Richards, Kolarov, De Jong, Milner, Balotelli, Dzeko

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.

309 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Manchester City

  1. Dub , typical of us to miss out on a chance to step up with spuds underperforming. 🙁

      (Quote)

  2. Truth is we have been lucky today once or twice. I just can’t see us scoring though.

      (Quote)

  3. No shame in losing to this outfit ,they will take the title and its payback to Manure for overtaking our 12 point lead . Ah karma don’t you just love it.

      (Quote)

  4. I’m aghast with Pardews subs – he got it wrong – and that was obvious 10mins before they were made – Ba has been invisible second half and taking Ben Arfa off he wasted a chance. Should have been Ba off and Shola on, as Shola links the play up well – so disappointed.

      (Quote)

  5. A win at Everton required, Arsenal won’t beat WBA next week imo although a draw would do them 👿

      (Quote)

  6. Proud of the team today. They gave everything and really pushed city at times. It took a moment of real class to get them the goal and from then on I don’t think we ever really believed we could get back in to it. Still an incredible season and can still become and unbelievable one depending how results go next week.

      (Quote)

  7. Ba should have been off for Shola but at the same time Benny wasn’t having much fun. We need a better sub than Raylor to change a game though.

    Still, not sure whether it would have made the difference.

      (Quote)

  8. The tactics today were so negative. We started playing this game the same way we finished at Chelsea defending as though we were defending a lead. You have to create chances for our strikers who could not hold onto the ball allowing the the mid to move up for support. Pardew is too limited in tactics that is his biggest problem. I would have taken off Cisse for Ameobi and kept HBA

    Cisse today had been so poor. Not challenging for headers not doing anything when the ball comes to him always losing it I cannot count a single complete pass from him today. If he is not scoring he has nothing else to offer

      (Quote)

  9. Stardy I tend to agree with you benny was causing lots of probs, and Ba was pretty quiet and couldn’t hold on to the ball

      (Quote)

  10. A great effort – just needed a little bit more composure upfront with the link up play. I think the soft yellows in the first half also meant we couldn’t close them down in the second half.

    That said Man City looked great in the second half.

      (Quote)

  11. Can’t see why Arsenal won’t beat west brom either, their home form is very average and Hodgson is hardly a club legend hoping to end on a high, he’s now a very rich man and probably couldn’t give a toss about them.

      (Quote)

  12. They’re being beaten by Bolton for god’s sake, shocking team even if they are fighting for survival 🙄

      (Quote)

  13. If we can win next week and Spuds lose it could still be a great ending. even if they draw today it’s only one point ,just need them to lose or draw next week and we HAVE to win.

      (Quote)

  14. As gutted as i am it’s still been a brilliant season above and beyond expectations .

      (Quote)

  15. Just my opinion, sorry for giving it, just like it’s your opinion saying the dream is over when in fact it isn’t as owt could happen next week 🙄

      (Quote)

  16. Can’t say I didn’t expect us to lose today, I obviously hoped we’d win but never expected it so I ain’t too down about it. It goes down to the last day for fourth if it stays like this but can’t see spurs losing.

      (Quote)

  17. Michael it’s good that you can share with us all your tactical knowledge because the manager that has put the team in it’s best position for 10 years is obviously an inept cretin.

    The way that some people come on here is ludicrous. We just lost to the champions. We were not outplayed or spanked. Yes we could maybe have done one or two things better but overall we put in a solid shift and were outdone by a moment of class.

      (Quote)

  18. here here axel m8, played like ****** lions but they were a step above us ……proud of the lot of them! HWTL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      (Quote)

  19. Howay guys, you’re questioning the players after they lost to the Champions Elect?

    The boys worked their socks off today and were outdone by a team of superstars.

    There’s still hope as long as Tottenham don’t win. All we can do is beat Everton and hope things work out, but to get on the team’s (or manager’s) back after the result today does not do a great season credit.

      (Quote)

  20. michael12
    have some perspective mate! pardews tactics is one of the main reasons were challenging for top 4! we were NEVER going to over-run man city. we played spot on but lacked quality up top…cabaye was very poor today. his passing and set pieces were brutal! he was wrong to take off barfa but thought cisse and ba caused trouble with the limited service they had

      (Quote)

  21. doesnt really matter is spurs lose or draw! as long as they dont win either game then a win against everton will get us fourth! if they draw both games it means sweet FA!

      (Quote)

  22. Micheal ,how can you say Cisse was poor .He was back heading clear in defence all game . Up front every time him and Ba got the ball they were 2/3 man marked out the game and when they did get free to get a shot off they came up against a formidable defence and brilliant goalie in Harte. Leave off man ,we played really well against a team of superstars on megabucks and I for one am well proud .

      (Quote)

  23. They gave it their all. No shame in losing to champions elect. Don’t want man u to win it again.

      (Quote)

  24. Richie
    Nah mate I’m not having a go at you. Standard bad mood yaknow how it is 😆

      (Quote)

  25. @Buddy I agree when you step back and look at the season as a whole Pardew has done a good job I am not denying that but he is very limited on the tactical front.

    Today we started played like we were defending a lead all men at the pump backs to the wall. We invited the pressure rather than city pressing us into that position.

    His subs today were not good. Cisse was so poor Ba was the better by a country mile, HBA also posed considerable threat. Logically up for a change would be Cisse for Ameobi who did more in his cameo role. If Pardew was looking for another wonder goal by Cisse today then he was his strategy today was to rely on luck. Cisse was poor today but looked at from the perspective of the whole season he has been great.

      (Quote)

  26. KIMTOON aye man your reet how many millions have spent phew,top c/h that kompany like,we have had great season and in euros,cannot ask for more imo 😉

      (Quote)

  27. Kimtoon not sure which game you watched. Look at the game with a more analytical eye and you will see all that I say is true. On the whole season it has been great there is no doubt about that but simple minds are never critical.

      (Quote)

  28. Michael12,
    few teams if any attack man city with any luck! we coped very well at times and threatened on the break. cabaye was the most disapointing…all the set pieces came to nothing.i can understand leavin on cisse as he can score out of nowhere and i think thats all we looked like gettin..either him or barfa! Ba played well but i woulda subbed him for ameobi, and would have brought on one hte pacey wingers as opposed to raylor. Subs were poor today but we never had the quality on the bench to match city

      (Quote)

  29. The season is an accumulation of so many things, including tactical decisions. Over the season, you’d have to say Pardew’s got most of them right. He’s certainly not hidebound to one system and tries to mix things up. On the day, and the season, City’s money told more than Pardew’s decisions.

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *