Game On! Newcastle v West Brom

toonsy
St James' Park.

St James' Park.
Game On at St James’ Park
Newcastle welcome West Bromwich Albion to St James’ Park this afternoon in a match in which the home side will be looking to put to rest some alarming stats against the Midlanders.

As pointed out in my match preview. we have a rather alarming run of recent results against the Baggies with only one win in seven matches against the Midlanders post-relegation and following the subsequent promotion of both sides.

Not just that but we also have a penchant for suffering after our European exploits. Both league defeats this season have followed our exploits in Europe, although I blame the fact that both defeats were against superior opposition in Chelsea and Manchester United as opposed to any lingering “continental hangover” effect. Having said that we’ve only scraped one win after a European game with the other match ending in a draw. None of the performances have exactly been sparkling but that will have to change this afternoon if we are to get anything from this game.

The game is not scheduled for live transmission here in the UK, but it being broadcast in other parts of the world. Please feel free to leave a link to any decent stream in the ‘comments’ section below.

As always team news will be up in full as soon as I can get it published. You may have to bear with me a little bit though as I’m at a family dinner right now so will have to sneak away from the dinner table to publish it. Again keep an eye on the comments section though as there is always somebody hot off the mark and willing to share the teamsheet if you look closely enough.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini, Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, James Perch, Jonas Gutierrez, Demba Ba, Shola Ameobi

Subs: Steve Harper, Steven Taylor, Shane Ferguson, Vurnon Anita, Gabriel Obertan, Sammy Ameobi, Papiss Cisse.

West Brom: Ben Foster, Gabriel Tamas, Gareth McAuley, Jonas Olsson, Liam Ridgewell, Youssouf Mulumbu, James Morrison, Peter Odemwingie, Zoltan Gera, Graham Dorrans, Romelu Lukaku.

Subs: Luke Daniels, Gonzalo Jara Reyes, Goran Popov, Yassine El Ghanassy, Markus Rosenberg, Shane Long, Marc-Antoine Fortune

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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213 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v West Brom”

  2. Afternoon all, HWTL

    I’m guessing Saylor isn’t fully fit, or does Pardew see Willo ahead of him now 😯

    Also, think it’s a shame Cisses been dropped.
    If he’s going 4-4-2 (which it looks to be) I’d have rather see Fergie on the left. I haven’t seen enough productivity from Jonas this season and I don’t see him getting the crosses in for Shola and Ba.

    Fingerscrossed, but it’s not the team I would have went with.

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  3. Willo with Colo is a good match. Let’s face it, Colo makes both Williamson and Taylor look good. Not worried about the back. More about up top.

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  4. Hi Sharpy . I agree about Cisse I’m gutted for him,his confidence will be ruined in a minute. If the rumours about Ba and Liverpool are true then we should be playing Cisse and getting him back to form otherwise IF Ba goes in January we are stumped.

    Any good links anyone?

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  5. Yeah, not quite the attacking intent that a lot of us wanted to see. Although I think we all knew that Jonas was gonna stay in the squad for his work rate more than anything else. He may get us free kicks, but those haven’t resulted in much, have they?

    I do think Shola was a good choice up top. He can work the ball well on the deck and receive the aerial balls that Williamson will pump up there better than Cisse can. Here’s hoping

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  6. Not sure about the team, Ameobi hasn’t looked up to it and Taylor should be ahead of Willo. Also reckon Bigi should be ahead of Anita in the CM pecking order.
    On Demba leaving
    See Llambias is saying funds will be provided for replacement, although its unlikely and he’ll be at the ACN in January I’d like Doumbia at the toon. Imagine this line up
    ————————–Krul—————————–
    -Santon——-Taylor—-Colocinni——–Fergie-
    ————————-Tiote—————————-
    ————-Cabaye———-Gutierrez————–
    -Ben Arfa————Cissé—————Doumbia-

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  7. Andy ,YES , but as you point out the ACON is a problem. I would prefer Shola as an impact sub rather than a starter too.

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  8. Griff
    Colo may make Willo and Taylor look good but I always feel the team is more solid with Taylor. Our unbeaten streak last season wasn’t just down to colo otherwise it would’ve continued when Steven got injured which it didn’t.
    On my team I posted, if we do get Debuchy(also unlikely) then him at RB, Santon at LB and Fergie at LW and Bigi/Perch CDM till Doumbia and Tiote gets back from ACN.

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  10. From watching Shola in the Bordeaux game, I remember actually having energy throughout the match, and working the ball extremely well to help maintain possession and create scoring opportunities! I know Cisse needs to get his goal in the league, and be given confidence from the manager, but he also knows that he has simply not been producing. As a professional, he has to understand that

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  11. Kim
    Would be a problem this Jan but would be ok after that cus I think they’re organising it for summer 2015 after this one. Should be able to cope for a month without him.

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  12. Same old same old, meh. If we get the 3 points I won’t complain.

    Wolfie-Maybe Pards just thinks Willo’s form has him over Staylor? 😆

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  14. Willo better than Saylor so far this year

    Ameobi is a better option than Cisse at the min – both on form and tactically (we are primarily a long ball side)

    Shame we haven’t persisted with the Fergie/Santon FB combo tho

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  15. AndrewT – don’t mind Shola up front but would have preferred Fergie on the left with that front pairing. I understand Jonas workrate and if he’s being selected for that I’d have sooner seen him put in the middle in place of Perch and had Fergie on the left. Don’t think we have enough width.
    I see WBA are starting Lukaku, so Willo does have the pace of Long to worry about.

    Really important we start quick today, can’t say why but not hugely confident today like 🙁

    Merseyside derby looks a cracker as well – Come on the Toffees!!!

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  16. Andy-To be fair, we lost to Chelsea with Staylor playing (although he did get injured at the end), so technically it didn’t last with him either.

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  17. Andrew, that’s fair comment but Pards never dropped Ba when he lost form and I think it sends out a vote of no confidence in him really. I always trust Pards to see us right but I don’t understand the lack of faith in Papiss at the moment.

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  18. M, I really wanted Fergie to start today too. It looks like Pardew is just afraid of West Brom with that lineup, even though we’re at home. There is gonna be a hell of a lot of reliance on Ben Arfa and Cabaye if we want to produce anything offensively today.

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  19. Newkie
    That match was an injustice though 😡 , we probably would’ve won and Taylor wouldn’t have gotten injured if the ref had sent off Luiz like he should’ve.

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  20. Good teams do not carry players out of form. Cisse can not expect to start and needs to make an impact off the bench before he can be reconsidered. It doesn’t bode well for the other players sitting on the bench when they have been putting in the effort and a player playing badly starts ahead of them. It’s the right call for the shrt term…..until Cisse scores again 🙂 🙂

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  24. Aussie ,we’ve only lost two this season and Ba has played left loads of times at west ham .I can’t see why he can’t go out left again and have Papiss up front ,it worked well enough last season.

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  27. Sharpie, I was hoping Jonas would play central today too. Is it weird that I’m hoping for a tiny injury on Jonas or Simpson today so that Fergie can come on to give us more going forward?

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  28. Kim-because then you take away the in form striker from goal and put the off form striker among all the chances. Very big risk if he plays poorly again don’t you think?

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  30. Kim, that is true that Pards never dropped Ba once Cisse started going crazy, but he was still performing well for the team on the left wing. We didn’t really have too many other options to put out there last season. Now I think Sammy, Obertan, or even Marveaux or Fergie could slot in there well. Shame we haven’t used that 433 that served us so well too often this season

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  31. I see what your saying Kim but. Rclon Pardz has made the right call with Cisse… Shola will be off after 60 mins so he will get a run out

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  35. I feel nervous every game now. I just don’t have confidence in Pardew. THis looks like one of those home games we don’t win again.

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  46. I’m watching Toonsy’s link, it’s stop n start, but not too bad…..

    We look up for it. Keep attacking lads!!!

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  71. Swap Ba for Carroll? No thanks, give Ba a better contract. He is quality and sometimes you have to pay for quality Mike.

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