A string away performance will go a long way to ensuring safe passage into the group stages of the Europa League but, as we’ve seen so often, nothing can be decided until the final ball is kick at the end of the second leg.
Of course Newcastle fans should be well aware of that little fact after what turned out to be our final trip into Europe before our five year exile. Having beaten AZ Alkmaar 4-2 in the home leg back in the 2006-2007 UEFA Cup, we then transpired to lose the away leg 2-0 and found ourselves out of the competition on the away goals rule after drawing 4-4 on aggregate over the two ties.
To get past Atromitos Alan Pardew is looking increasingly likely to depend on a largely second string United side, with names such as Fabricio Coloccini, Demba Ba and Cheik Tiote all left at home to ensure that they are ready for our game less than 48 hours later against Chelsea.
My match preview was written prior to confirmation regarding who was to be left behind on Tyneside so we can scrub Haris Vuckic (also left behind) from my predicted stab at a starting line up.
TV coverage is scarce and none of the “big hitters” like ITV 4 (sarcasm intended) have picked up the match. However, “Premier Sports” on Sky channel 428 are advertising the game but you have to subscribe. A quick little look has revealed that if you input the word “NEWCASTLE” as a promotional code you can get two months access for £9.99.
If that doesn’t tickle your fancy and you can find it somewhere, like perhaps on the internet, then please feel free to accidentally post a link to it in our ‘comments’ section below. Be warned though, streams might be harder to come by as there are new ways for broadcasters to identify live broadcasts and shut them down. Maybe…
Team news, as always, will be added below as and when it becomes available.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Steve Harper; James Tavernier, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Ryan Taylor; Gael Bigirimana, Vurnon Anita; Gabriel Obertan, Dan Gosling, Sylvain Marveaux; Papiss Cisse
Subs: Tim Krul, Davide Santon, Steven Taylor, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Romain Amalfitano, Adam Campbell
Axel your an old hand at this mate you should know when the games on we’re on the game on 😉 rookie mistake that like 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
So Willow owes us three goals just to clear his deficit. Come on Big Mike!
Bigirimana had the odd error today, but otherwise he and Anita looked solid if unspectacular.
Pretty disappointing from Obertan, Gosling & Marveaux. The last two were mostly invisible tongiht.
Obertan was involved in one chance, had a number of poor passes and ran up his own a-hole a few times. I had hoped he was over that particular affliction, or had at least reduced its severity, but he seems to have had a flare up or a full blown relapse tonight. Shame–such a skilled dribbler, when he doesn’t try to beat the same man three times.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
FSOTC – I can’t agree that we have some good players on the field tonight (and Obertan), but we have little to no experience within the team and I just worry that the likes of Tav was a little over awed tonight. It would have been good to have had an old head out there tonight.
I’m confident we will qualify through in the 2nd leg but I can’t see too many games where Pardew could make SO many changes.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Actually it really makes you wonder whether it makes sense partaking in the Europa League.
I’m really curious as to how many fans turn up for the second leg…
Munich Mag(Quote)
MUNICH MAG i will take a guess at somewhere round about 38 -42 k , if Ashley is clever he will reduce ticket prices to show some good will and push it up to near capacity .
Axel(Quote)
should put the game to bed in 2nd leg,oba never going to make it imo,even when he does manage to cross theres nee whip or pace on the ball just dont like the lad,gosling given a free role and done dog ****,but all in all happy with result 😆
icedog(Quote)
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1140759?&cc=5739
icedog(Quote)
Axel, I fear 20K mate…. 🙄 The Greeks will be ower the moon playing in front of a big crowd.. 🙄
Munich Mag(Quote)
Ice @ 155 another 1 bites the dust 😉
MM @ 152 you must be fishing but i’ll bite anyway, why would it not make sense it get us back into Europe and start to become a well known name again that could make us attractive to bigger players, plus most players want to play in Europe yeah I know they would prefer CL but the next best thing is the EL 😕 and surely most fans want there team to be testing themselves against other European teams.
Yeah I now we weren’t playing no big name tonight but you normally have to get the smaller teams outta the way before you meet some of the big boys.
Big Dave(Quote)
Okay, I’m out for a breezy afternoon in the park. So long.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
FSOTC 😉 take it easy lad
Big Dave(Quote)
Should someone not tell fans that its evening already and their was hardly any breeze this afternoon , don’t know what the forecast is for the morn though .
Axel(Quote)
Sorry Dave wasn’t ignoring you, bedtime for the boy.
My main concern tonight was that those who you’d expect to play well and push for a first team place – the likes of Oba, Gosling and Marv – just didn’t turn up tonight like. I’m afraid Obertan and Gosling have done nowt to impress me since they came to be honest.
I know there was a suggestion that Marvs kid is sick so his head may have been elsewhere.
Youre right tho, people will say a draw is a good away result but in reality we should have won this game. I think we’d have benefit having a Douglas or Pieters in the team and maybe an Adam Johnson or Loic Remy, players who have experience.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ice-exactly. We need to tell Obertan to just shoot across the box, because his crosses are unbelievably tame. Think it worked once for Ba last season, and that was it.
Newkie(Quote)
DAVE@157 whats the point of other players wanting to come here because we are in europe,your forgetting we have to get jabba and owlheed to open the purse strings a bit which up to now they havent unless you call 3mil a good spend,lets keep dreaming mate it might help 😉
icedog(Quote)
SHARPY on gosling,he had a free roll tonight and did nowt yet when that french kid came on in his place you could see how he found space to run into and would have scored had cissie let that ball run through to him,gosling never got in any kind of space,pity the lad had such little time on the pitch 🙁
icedog(Quote)
Decent result. Expecting us to up it at St James’ and ease through.
I thought we never got out of 1st gear. It looked like those pre-season friendly matches (or worse) in terms of tempo. But by all accounts it was ******* sweltering over there so I don’t think we can blame the lads. 38 degrees at 8 o’clock at night?! 😯
Cisse doesn’t seem to be getting into games at all atm. Can’t really remember him having a shot in either the Spurs match or tonight. Hopefully he’s saving it for Chelsea!
Jon R(Quote)
Ice – I said after watch Amalfitano in the Hartlepool friendly that I fancy him to be a success for us, similar to Cabaye.
With the likes of Vukic and Abied missing tonight, I’d fancy Gosling and Oba may really have to work alot harder. Oba is the biggest disappointment for me like. Other than Stoke away last season I think he’s been a huge let down to be honest. Gosling free from Everton was less of a risk but still expected more from him.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I enjoyed the match, was a really good performance by the young lads. Was happy to see Obertan showing his potential as well as Tavernier getting a run out. We slacked a little at the beginning but second half was an amazing turn-around by the lads. I hope we have a similar team out next week too should be a comfortable win and another good occasion to see more from the youngsters.
Brian(Quote)