Newcastle head into this game on the back of a narrow victory in the Europa league on Thursday night. Narrow it might have been, but ultimately it was enough to see us secure a passage through to the group stages of the competition, meaning we can look forward to more odd kick-off times as the season progresses.
I say odd kick-off times, because this one is odd. It’s a 4pm kick-off on a Sunday which usually means we are being shown on Sky, but not this time around. In fact we aren’t scheduled for any live TV broadcasting here in the UK today so you know what you have to do if you can’t actually get to the match…
As an interesting sub-plot today, there is a chance that we could see some history being made by witnessing our 1000th Premier League goal being scored. For that to happen we need to score two today, so the scorer of the second goal will be written into history basically.
As ever team news will be published below as and when it becomes available and if you haven’t already done so I would suggest reading Connor’s match preview which details injury news for both sides plus some other titbits such as previous history and likely team selections.
Which just about neatly wraps it up. We saw a largely second string side once more in midweek so I think it’s pretty safe to assume that we’ll see more of what are our “big hitters” for this match. Plus the transfer window is closed now so hopefully those players that do remain can get their heads in to gear, focus on the match, and send the fans into the international break on the back of a win.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Time Krul, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Vurnon Anita, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba
Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, Dan Gosling, Gael Bigirimana, Sylvain Marveaux, Romain Amalfitano, Gabriel Obertan
Aston Villa: Brad Guzan, Matt Lowton, Ron Vlaar, Ciaran Clark, Eric Lichaj, Brett Holman, Karim El Ahmadi, Stephen Ireland, Barry Bannan, Andreas Weimann, Darren Bent
Subs: Shay Given, Nathan Baker, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Charles N’Zogbia, Graham Burke, Jordan Bowery, Derrick Williams
why does Cabaye keep taking the corners FFS he is *****
Big Dave(Quote)
why Cisse doesn’t know how to pass a ball. Pass to Benny here and thats a goal for sure
HBA39(Quote)
Dema and Cisse have contributed way too little today. Disappointing. Again, not one of there better days…
Munich Mag(Quote)
Let Jonas take em. He used to take them in our cup matches, I remember Shola actually scoring from one.
Newkie(Quote)
Santon’s been rather good today. However, his final ball is still almost always poor
M(Quote)
Christ we’ve been lucky in this match..
Newkie(Quote)
Really after 3 passes we seem to be in difficulty in defense
HBA39(Quote)
Obertan to run at Lichaj, who should be on a yellow already for persistent fouling.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Ben Arfa’s goal was with his right foot aswell 😯 What a rocket
Moreno(Quote)
Man our crossing is dreadful. Even when we have time and space to pick out a man… 😯
Munich Mag(Quote)
Jonas is far beeter in this position
HBA39(Quote)
Another ABSOLUTELY GARBAGE dead ball…
Munich Mag(Quote)
Bring Marveaux
HBA39(Quote)
Jesus our corners and free kicks are ***** 👿
kimtoon(Quote)
Well done Bigi
kimtoon(Quote)
jonas ffs
Big Dave(Quote)
we really need to stop this kind of ball. Very good fault by Jonas
HBA39(Quote)
Marvalous on now 😉
kimtoon(Quote)
Actually think Jonas’ foul was the right option, villa’s pace is destroying us
Newkie(Quote)
love it Jonas 😆
M(Quote)
After that foul Jonas looked at Probert as if to say “Well, are you gonna call THAT, cause you ain’t called anything all day.”
Come on, flying wingers! A bit late, but let’s go…
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Let Obertan take a corner… 😆
Newkie(Quote)
reet, lets see if Obertan can pick up from Thurs nite
M(Quote)
Cabaye has been gash fairplay
Newkie(Quote)
crossing!!!! and corners!!!!
M(Quote)
Give the ball to Benny and let him try a shoot, Thats our only chance
HBA39(Quote)
Cabs that was ****
kimtoon(Quote)
**** man Anita…and Obertan…GREAT CHANCES to put in a cross and they just couldn’t manage it… 😳 😳 😳 Realy poor
Munich Mag(Quote)
Lichaj should be off by now.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
About time he got a card.
kimtoon(Quote)
should be a nice meaty slice of added time to come
M(Quote)
Free kick to Villa, joke decision
Newkie(Quote)
Is this the worst ref in the prem?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
these subs shouldve been made at 10 mins earlier
M(Quote)
Taylor got really lucky there… 😯
Munich Mag(Quote)
Yeah, at least 10 mins…
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
At the end of the day the poor quality of our filnal ball has cost us this game. So many poor balls in from really excellent positions. Another one from HBA there … 🙁
Munich Mag(Quote)
Benny want the free kick. But Cabaye will take it
HBA39(Quote)
Come on Cabs we know you can shoot from fks at least..
Newkie(Quote)
This is going in Row F….. 🙄
Munich Mag(Quote)
what a dirty team Aston Villa
ron(Quote)
Excellent ball from Cabaye… his first good contribution today?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Top class Cabaye
HBA39(Quote)
Brilliant from Cabaye…unlucky…
Munich Mag(Quote)
a points a point but we need to be taking all 3 when we’re playing teams like this
Big Dave(Quote)
Free kicks and corners have got to improve
CC(Quote)
They were very dirty today. A legacy of the last manager (whose name escapes me) or is Lambert really that dirty?
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Probably a fair result given how ***** so many people played.
Newkie(Quote)
FSOTC-Villa are always dirty, hence the Villains 😉
Newkie(Quote)
I’ll tell you what went wrong there – Lack of respect from our Gaffer, sounding off before kick off like the 3 points were already in the bag. 🙄
Shamrock(Quote)
Good point at the end of the day. We did well to pull this back, and with more quality with our passing we could have scored 2 or 3 second half. A wonder strike from HBA saved us.
Munich Mag(Quote)
**** game, **** performance. only saving grace was benny’s goal.
hashish(Quote)
Couldn’t we have resigned Barton. I’m willing to forgive that bellend as he can actually take a corner and deliver a free kick. What would our team give for that now 🙄
Newkie(Quote)
imo, Anita did a decent shift as an emergency RB, can’t blame him for poor crosses tho’, he play with his left.
Cadbury(Quote)
It seems like we’re still in preseason mode. Ok we got a good win against Tottenham but since then we just haven’t clicked.
Also the criticism about the lack of depth is immediately being proven correct. We’re already without several first teamers. To be fair I thought Bigi did well today but still we have no defensive cover.
SJP14(Quote)
Wow that was a **** game from us. No inspiration imagination nothing save from an individual effort from HBA. Corners were rubbish, crossing rubbish, strikers nothing to work on at all midfield nowhere.
Our tactics today were another case of no homework done by Pardew. We played that game like we did not know what to expect, not knowing what to exploit. Tactics were just generic.
Michael12(Quote)
Really not good enough today like!!
Thank god for Benny!!
Too many silly mistakes and Pardew said big players are missing at the mo – Cabaye defo was today – as were Ba and Cisse.
If you can’t win, don’t get beat. But really, this is a game we should have been winning man.
Hope Simmo can be fixed over the break as well 🙄
Sharpy17(Quote)
one silver lining from this game Bigi , a young boy that played a mans game . The lad really does have something , a rough diamond that needs a bit of polishing ,but why the **** did Pardew wait so long to bring on the pace of Marveaux and Obertan ? 2 points dropped . Ref and linesmen were **** poor as well .
Axel(Quote)
Thought Ba was EXTREMELY selfish today. He doesn’t deserve to start next game.
Jonas is pathetic in the opposition half when playing on the wing. He should play as a wingback or defensive midfielder.
What was Cabaye doing sitting on his **** sulking when we had a throw in and Anita needed to pass to him.
Santon was excellent today. If only we had a fullback on the opposite side that could be as threatening as he is…
Our set pieces are terrible. We have to be the worst team at putting crosses and corners in league…
Drop Ba, start Marvaeux next game. Hopefully Cheik is back by then too.
JJ(Quote)
Still it could be worse we are ahead of the bindippers , the spuds and the scum doon the road 😀 😈
Axel(Quote)
That was get out of jail imo .only turned up for last 30mins in reality , HAVE to improve on corners and free kicks ,missing Raylor already.
Positives, Bigi looked good in parts as did Marv when he come on .Jonas better in dmf and Oba look better again ,thers hope for the boy yet.
Cons, Ba and Cisse no good together and Cisse very subdued again worryingly .Must ditch 442 it’s horrid to watch and rarely works anymore mainly because we can’t cross a decent ball in.Must keep Benny where he causes most havoc and pray he don’t get injured. Oh and we really missed Tiote too. Anita needs time to adjust he looked shell shocked at times today .
kimtoon(Quote)
**** performance today. If Pardew wants champs league there will need to be a step change in performance, especially from our 2 forwards! We need to winning our home games against teams like Villa.
Disappointed!
Cologne-toon(Quote)
I can’t believe people are saying Cisse was subdued.
What choice did the lad have when Benny and Ba are shooting every chance they get from 45yards out and there is absolutely shocking service from the wings.
Great goal by Benny but he only came alive the last 30mins.
Thought Ba was terrible (far too selfish).
JJ(Quote)
Agree with those saying 4-4-2 doesn’t work.
JJ(Quote)
Thsat was total rubbish, other than Benny goal, Have this gut feeling that AP is back to telling one or two porkies to suck up to MA.
Us the fans are not thick AP, its about time you called it like it is and stood up and be counted.
After watching Liverpool and Arsenal, both those teams would have torn us apart today, we are so imobile up front, paint dries quicker.
Thats 5 competetive games gone now, so we should be seeing things happen, afraid that is not the case, those that did not want AC back, should rerun the match and just see how many high balls we tried to get into the box without hitting a Villa player,
Yes I am peed off, but justifiably so..
ash1001(Quote)
And KIMTOON is right never again 442 , its out dated and we dont have the players to play it .
Axel(Quote)
Lads as I said i’m not a fan of 4-4-2 and would much rather see 4-3-3 but I wouldn’t blame that for the result, to me the result lies at the feet of the players and their lackluster performance too many aren’t giving it their all, and need to have a long hard look at themselves
Big Dave(Quote)
I’d have to say I don’t see much difference in Ba and Cisse atm and deciding who starts is no easy matter. Still, I’d prefer Ba out on the left and Benny right next time…we can’t give every single team we face a free 45 minutes with our ***** football.
Newkie(Quote)
I cant agree with you JJ.
Cisse was ****. First He miss a big chance of goal first half. A chance that you must not miss.
Second his passing was so ****. He misses a simple pass for Coloccini that will be a great chance of goal if he doesn’t miss it. And around the minute 80, he doesn’t made an easy pass to benny who will be alone.
and prefer trying a cross for noone.
Furthermore, he lose almost all his duals and was never able to keep a ball.
I agree with you that Benny and Ba was **** to. Benny was really not on his day, if he had his form of last week we would win the game easily. But at least he brings some magic sometimes.
I think Cisse is really out of form. But yes our corner and our crosses are so poor. And I think that comes from pardew rules to put this dead ball from 40 yards in the boxx, so awful to watch.
HBA39(Quote)
DAVE 292 i agree mate they dont seem to have the same bite they had,early days like but not happy with that showing,imo ba and cissie dont work as a partnership in that set up 🙁
icedog(Quote)
Hopefully that will be the end of 4 4 2 and the end of Jonas, cisse should be benched for the next game too.
Alex(Quote)
When my next article comes out, I fully expect to get hammered given today’s result and performance – however I lay the blame squarely on Pardew’s tactics, over confidence and the inability of Ba & Cisse to play together in a 4-4-2 today. We have a decent squad – if it is used correctly. (Disclaimer signed & delivered!) 😀
Shamrock(Quote)
How long till the mackem slayer is fit ? because if Pardew keeps playing 442 we need him in the team . Bigger ,stronger and more able to hold the ball up than those two today . WTF was pardew playing at today why the **** did we not play too our strengths at home against a poor side . My god i will celebrate when the Villa go down at the end of the season and they will.
Axel(Quote)
swansea’s neil taylor out for a season..poor lad. bad week for the taylors?
ron(Quote)
Ash
That is the frustration. We play a long ball game everytime the ball goes down the right hand side. But we don’t have the players for it.
Our players are perfectly suited to 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1
But Pardew plays 4-4-2 just to accommodate Ba.
He needs to wake up or man up.
Agree HBA the set piece 40 yard balls **** me off too.
JJ(Quote)