Newcastle play host to West Ham United this afternoon in another Sunday afternoon kick-off – a by-product of our involvement in Europe.
I’m no fan of Sunday kick-offs and feel that the atmosphere inside St James’ Park sometimes suffers as a result. We’ll need the atmosphere today if we are to grab three points against a West Ham side with many different points to prove.
As mentioned in my match preview, a whole host of former faces familiar with the St James’ Park crowd will be coming back to try and haunt us. Andy Carroll will be keen to put the horror show he had on his return with Liverpool last season well and truly behind him while Kevin Nolan will be itching to prove that the club were wrong not to offer him a longer contract extension, or more money, whichever you believe.
In the dugout there will be Sam Allardyce who is clearly still smarting from his dismissal as United boss back in 2008. He must be as he keeps on going on about it! Also likely to be in the dugout is former Toon target Modibo Maiga (cheers Rinton Toon!) who will no doubt be itching to get on the pitch and show that there isn’t actually anything physically wrong with him and that his medical, which collapsed suspiciously just before signing Papiss Cisse, shouldn’t have been failed.
An interesting game in prospect against a team who, so far, look perfectly equipped to survive in the Premier League following their promotion from the Championship last season. there are worse teams in this league than what has been on show from West Ham so we will need to be on it if we are to take the three points on offer.
My match preview, linked earlier on in the article, is there for you to peruse. It features news of injury and suspension for both sides, some facts and stats, a brief history of meeting between the two sides and some random thoughts regarding team selection taking into account the aforementioned injury and suspension news.
Team news should be printed below as and when it becomes available. I say ‘should’ because I ballsed up my planning and will actually be on the way to Paris when the teams are announced. I’ve called in reinforcements so hopefully it will be covered, but if it isn’t I’m certain the team news will appear near the top of the ‘comments’ section below.
Being a rearranged game die to Europe, that unfortunately means that the game isn’t live here in the UK. the good news though is that the game will be broadcast on a whole host of overseas channels so picking up a stream will hopefully be easy enough. Once again, if anyone happens to stumble across a good, reliable stream then by all means leave a link to it below.
Which just about wraps it up really. Fingers crossed Newcastle could be in 6th place come the end of the game although for that to happen we need to win our game today by several goals with Tottenham losing at Manchester City by several goals. Failing that 7th will do, but first things first we need to get the three points.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Krul, Simpson, Saylor, Williamson, Santon, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Gutierrez (c), Ferguson, Cisse, Ba
Subs: Elliot, Anita, Bigirimana, Amalfitano, Marveux, Obertan, Shola
West Ham: Jaaskelainen, O’Brien, Reid, Tomkins, McCartney, Noble, Diame, Nolan, Jarvis, Banayoun, Carroll
Subs: Speigel, Cole, Maiga, Collins, Demel, O’Neil, Hall
So exactly who is big sam shouting at?
Archie(Quote)
ben arfa shocking
Newkie(Quote)
No point anyone goin down in the box like that Dean will give us F. all.
KIMTOON(Quote)
What was **** BENNY
HBA39(Quote)
Archie-his own players for wasting time since half time. Tho he definitely told them to do it like…saving face
Newkie(Quote)
awful choice there Benny
M(Quote)
I wish my stream would go down because this is fuking **** but I just don’t have the heart to turn it off 😳
Big Dave(Quote)
Think I would have preferred Sammy on instead of Shola
Archie(Quote)
and to think that Pards thinks we could make the top 4 😆
Big Dave(Quote)
Archie Strolla has a touch like an elephant
Big Dave(Quote)
we have a very good tactic. BIG **** just try to put the ball in the box. what is that Really? you happy with this ****
HBA39(Quote)
At least Shola is being the faithful geordie and teaching mandy what it is to be a man 😉
Newkie(Quote)
Dave -As the saying goes its difficult to do well when your second touch is a tackle
Archie(Quote)
There should be a ton of extra time on this game ,I’m expecting at least 5mins with all the stoppings.
KIMTOON(Quote)
why not at half time try to introduce Marveaux or Obertan. and place Benny in the hole. Adn stop playing with 2 strikers who are useless
HBA39(Quote)
HBA39 🙄
Absolutely agree.
TonyGreenSupreme(Quote)
There are times when I miss being in the UK. Have to say , this isn’t one of them.
Archie(Quote)
Spuds lost and Liverfool are 1.0 down . just to cheer you all up like 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim I hope theres not much cause I can’t wait till its over
Big Dave(Quote)
👿 5 mins
Big Dave(Quote)
Only 5min? For all the time wasting? Still, won’t make a difference anyway.
Newkie(Quote)
Whoa ,I called extra time dead on like
KIMTOON(Quote)
Big Dave @235 – that was never going to happen
Archie(Quote)
TOP 4 😆 Not even top half. 4 games to do something? There’s one gone. ❗
DJG(Quote)
Obertan just smash the fucking ball in that position man..
Newkie(Quote)
We just aren’t fcking good enough!
Last season was a fluke – it had to be with the thinness of our squad.
Chickens home to roost you fcking rose tinted arses!!!
Stuart79(Quote)
They have feckin fluked this result make no mistake ,we are **** but should of had a pen and that ball was also over the line too.
KIMTOON(Quote)
A bigger load of ***** I have never seen
brisvegas(Quote)
Cabs gilt edged chance and fluffs it 👿
KIMTOON(Quote)
Absolutely fucking pathetic
CC(Quote)
Woeful, reet I’m away to kick the cat or summat 👿
richietoon(Quote)
total **** reet im away for a bath with a bottle of whiskey and a razor blade
Big Dave(Quote)
Well that was a horrific game of hoofball.
Newkie(Quote)
what a big turd that was
M(Quote)
Stop playing with 2 strikers. Benny in the hole Behind ba and so we can play a little more football.
HBA39(Quote)
Well, that was fucking wretched.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
Utter ***** of the highest order ,awful just awful. 14 years since that lot have done us apparently. Makes the point hard earned at the Dippers a waste of time when you drop 3 to teams like WH.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Been the same all season just to soft at giving the ball away 😯
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
If their fans are happy with their team they have my pity, A 95 minute example of why sam allardyce never will be and never should have ever been considered as a possible england manager
CC(Quote)
Well that 90 minutes of my life i wont get back,
Were total *****, have been all season.
Alex(Quote)
I am upset about the result and the ref but I am mostly upset that we just didn’t look threatening enough. Long balls aren’t working.
griff(Quote)
Cababye Cisse, Anita, shola, Ba, Simpson, Williamson was really completely ****.
Hopefully we have at least Santon and Benny in this team.
HBA39(Quote)
Right I’m off to call cats protection on Richie 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
Pardew’s old club, Sam’s old club. Nolan and Carroll’s old club. We don’t do old clubs remember. 🙂
DJG(Quote)
CC-Agree with that. Can’t believe he’s back in the prem. Can’t be a coincidence that’s the worst match i’ve seen since he was last here… 🙄
Newkie(Quote)
That game was over as soon as West Ham got their flukey goal.
From that point onwards their only intention was to break up play and ensure there was no flow to the game. Our biggest problems are the lack of pace & movement up front from ALL of our strikers. Couple that with a midfield that don’t do enough to get into scoring positions and we have games like today.
Very, very poor.
The Kid(Quote)
How long before Santon gets gobbled up by a good team? 😕 Reet, I’m away to boil me heed, tarrahh.
DJG(Quote)
Is funny whenever the team charge forward,there is only 1 black and white player in the box. 👿
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
<<<<<<<<<< thinks ben afra the main culprit in giving the ball away allways trys to take on to many he needs to bring his game to the table
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
I think Pardew got his priorities wrong today.
1. Tried to please Cisse by starting him.
2. Trying to please Ba by playing him upfront with Cisse.
3. Focused on keeping Carroll (‘A man yet to score’) out the game when Nolan and Diame were the biggest threat. He has speaking so glowing of Carroll stating he would like him back at Newcastle then goes all out today to flatter him by focusing too many human resources on keeping him out the game leaving Nolan to pop in and score.
The cat is now out of the bag surely after this performance. Our Season tactic so far has been Ba. We cannot expect him to score every game and in those games he does not score we are exposed.
Michael12(Quote)
peeps mentioning not enough players in the box aint that ben afras job in a 4 3 3
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Micheal 12 ,Spot on but don’t worry about the cat ,Richie gone to give him a good kicking 😉
KIMTOON(Quote)
I dont even see a proper formation formed in past few PL matches. 😐 😐
Against Swansea i suspect we will be chasing the ball mad and having lesser possesion. 🙄
Oh, just cant believe we got so many corners and not even one leads into goal.
AngelOfDeath(Quote)
I just think playing safe and doing nothing imaginative has worked so far for Pardew and he has had acceptable results. Like last season, maybe if we have a few spanking with this set-up he might have to change it. If this is the case then what the hell are you doing Alan. We beat the champions-elect of Europe 2-0 at their place playing proper football and you go back to this ****? FFS can’t believe it, I had high hopes for his as well. 8 year contract playing like this? 👿
DJG(Quote)
Absolute mess at the minute.
I tend to think whatever suits when it comes to teams playing hoofball. If Stoke want to play that way and are successful doing it then good luck to them, WE AREN’T GOOD AT IT. I wouldn’t mind if it actually worked for us but it hasn’t since Carroll left.
Pardew needs to sort his tactics out. Cisse does nothing aside from scoring. So if we are playing Cisse, we need to cater the whole team to him so that he gets good service. There’s no point playing him in a formation not suited to him as we may as well be playing with 10 men.
Tbh the football wasn’t much better last year, but we were winning so we were happy.
Last year was a fluke. Top 10 should have been our aim last year, top 8 this year, top 6 next year. Sure I want us to challenge for higher, but the sad facts are that our squad hasn’t got quality in depth and our “purple” players aren’t consistent enough.
SolanosTrumpet(Quote)
How bad are we when Ameobi is looking better than Ba and Cisse!!! WTF
We should have had a penalty and I’m sure that the ball crossed the line for a goal for us.
There seemed to be no connect between mid field and the two up front. Cisse was especially terrible today. Think Ben Arfa is the only creative player we have and the only one capable of scoring and needs to be played in a different position.
Ref should have started handing out yellow cards with all the fouls going on interrupting the play constantly from West Ham.
Sick of all the back passing when we are not even under pressure and should be going forward. Krul is good at saving goals but he seems to be a terrible kicker of the ball, although the lad is constantly receiving back passes from our players putting him under pressure when there is no need to.
At 1-0 down why the heck didn’t we get more players into the box?
Whole team needs to learn how to pass! So sick of watching this same **** game after game.
Jill(Quote)
Suarez just got Pool level 👿 where the hell would they be without him.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Is Mike Williamson the worst player in the premier league
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
Diame was a different class to anybody else
differeTlonttby le Rhone(Quote)
Come on England! 12 France 0 😮 Might cheer me up a bit. 😛
DJG(Quote)
Just had to post this, although its probably been put up already. But how was our main attacking plan against a Sam Allardyce team supposed to be crosses into the box?! Instead of working the ball around a bit, we just kept seeing cross after cross, even though we only had our 2 strikers in the box while 4 of their defenders were always there!
Stupidest thing I’ve seen in a while
AndrewT(Quote)
AndrewT-Got to agree. I’ve been calling for Fergie on the left if we’re going to play 4-4-2 for a while. And the game he adopts it is against bloody west ham! I mean ffs, that much isn’t rocket science.
Gutted Sammeobi was out, because he was exactly the player we needed. Someone willing to run into the fucking box and help the strikers, Obertan COULD have been that man, but again showed his hesitation and rather than smash the ball towards goal attempted to set up a striker with 5 defenders around him.
Newkie(Quote)
Jill .Totally agree , the minute they scored ,they were only really interested in breaking up the game to stop any momentum we may have got going. It was terrible football from both sides in truth but we should of had a pen and I agree that ball was over the line for me too. All that aside we were shocking today against a team who’s majority of goals come from midfield and knowing that you would think we would at least try and nullify that threat from Nolan and Diame instead of worrying about AC who won’t score without service 😉 Poor tactics from Pards today out smarted by fat Sam 😳 One things for sure Jill ,with the injuries and out of form players Jabba needs to seriously invest in January .
KIMTOON(Quote)
DJG-When all else fails, turn to Rugby League eh 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Tim Krul showed more aggression than all of our midfield in his three second leap for glory than they did in the entire match, sums it up for me.
Newkie(Quote)
Agreed Kimtoon 😀
Jill(Quote)
Pardew hasn’t got a clue
Munich Mag(Quote)
The sooner Pardew stops this top six bvlather the better. We have NEVER been able to hang onto the ball, and everyone outplays us. Without Cisse, Ba and HBA’s wonder goals, we are really struggling.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Didn’t think we were as bad as some are making out. It was a disappointing result and bloody frustrating because the ball would not go in for us. I got the feeling early on at the match it was just going to be one of those days. Ben Arfa probably our most dangerous player. Ferguson tenacious and had a good game. Certainly better than some purple players. Anita was as good as any, constantly looking for the open space. At least one player who can pass and move. Cabaye subdued. Was he under orders to stay back in our half? Simpson’s inability to pass the ball forward makes him a liability. Wouldn’t be on the pitch for me. Willo defends well but why do we pass him the ball. You can see he nearly messes his pants when he is given the ball. I do think that Pardew has to get more men in the box when we go forward and to cut out the passing across the back without looking to go forward.
Groucho(Quote)
I hate these f##### that say, quote. ‘There are a lot of Newcastle United fans overreacting right now, following a disappointing defeat to West Ham United.’ I’m not over-reacting thank you very much. The manager says judge the team after 10 games right? Well here we are after 11 games so I feel warranted to judge. And I honestly can’t think of a single game that we have played particularly well THIS SEASON. So don’t patronise people please, I for one don’t think the WHOLE of last season was a ‘fluke’. (One game could possibly be a fluke). The performances have dropped and we were due a few signings which didn’t happen. I’m sick of patronising people. If you have an opinion that everything is fine then great, but please don’t try and discredit my opinion…. you fool. 😮
DJG(Quote)
DJG do you feel better now you got that off your chest 😆
GROUCHO if you don’t think thats bad well then thats your opinion and I won’t say your wrong maybe your just easier pleased, but for me we were **** yet again, just as we have been for most of the season.
IMO this has to stop we can’t go on being outplayed by “lesser” teams
Big Dave(Quote)
The worrying thing is of the 5 november games this was the most winable for me. Swans ,the Saints and the devil that is stoke away will all be harder imo. Remember how we out Stoked Stoke last season ,well I for one cannot see us doing that again this time ,not the way we are going about things at the moment.Pretty soon the confidence level will fall away then we will be really in the **** ,we simply have to be beating teams like WH and Reading and Villa ,loses and draws won’t cut it. Top 4 ,Pards you are having a laugh ,and it pains me to admit it ,it really does.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Pards says we lacked “imagination or verve today ” well I think we have lacked that all season 😯
Big Dave(Quote)
DJG if that was aimed at me then I apologise if you thought I was being patronising. In fact I agree with much of what you say. We have been poor this season and do not seem to be putting right things that have been bad since the start of this season – lack of movement, repeated failure to win the second ball etc. However in my opinion we were better today than we were against West Brom a game we won but didn’t deserve to. Whereas today I though we played better than against West Brom and lost. I know stats don’t tell the full picture but today we had more possession, more shots on goal |(poor though they were) , and more corners. That’s why I found it frustrating.
Groucho(Quote)
(THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)
That’s what happens when you don’t strengthen in the summer. 😯
Troy Stavers(Quote)