Game On! Newcastle v Southampton

Game on at SJP!
Game on at SJP!
After the joy of progressing in the Europa League midweek, Newcastle United must now quickly focus their attention to domestic matters as Southampton visit St James’ Park.

The results yesterday mean that it’s easy to see what a win will do for each team. Three points for either side will extend the gap to six points between themselves and the relegation spaces.

If you want to get a bit more technical and look a little bit deeper, then a win for Southampton will take them above Sunderland and West Ham into 13th place whilst a win for Newcastle will be enough to propel us above the Mackems into 14th place. United could jump into 13th place aswell but they’d need to win by three clear goals and would then go above West Ham on goals scored. A draw for either side is no good to anyone.

Southampton go into the game having not played a competitive game for over two weeks whilst United, who named a strong side in Ukraine in midweek, have played twice in the period with a break of only two days between playing in Kharkiv and playing in Newcastle. Tiredness could play a part, but then by the same token the opposite could be true and Southampton could be rusty whilst we’ve continued to grease the machine with competitive games. We shall see.

The match preview is online and can be viewed by clicking here. It features injury news for both sides, a look at the history of the fixture between the two clubs, some stats and facts along with some of my random rambling at the end.

The game itself is not being broadcast live here in the UK as the TV moguls have opted to show Manchester City v Chelsea instead. That means a lot of people who aren’t going to the game today will be looking for a stream so if you happen to stumble across a good one then by all means feel free to leave a link to it in the ‘comments’ section below.

Team news will be published below as and when it becomes available and is once again being provided by Big Dave, who is doing sterling work keeping you guys updated with team sheets in my enforced absence through work. Not good for me, but probably good for United as they always seem to win when I’m at work. Hopefully that streak continues today.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Elliot Debuchy Colo S Taylor Santon Tiote Cabaye Jonas Sissoko Gouffran Cisse

Subs: Anita Yanga-Mbiwa Marveaux Sho Ameobi Alnwick Perch Obertan

Southampton: Boruc, Clyne, Yoshida, Hooiveld, Shaw, Schneiderlin, Cork, S Davis, Rodriguez, Lallana, Lambert

Subs: Davis, Fonte, Ramirez, Fox, Prowse, Mayuka, Puncheon

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.

446 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Southampton

  1. Everyone knew sissoko would be a beast but gouffran might end up being pick of the signings.
    No doubt in my mind now that we can get the points to survive.

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  2. debuchy is a class act. i also have to hold my hands up and say that AP selection and subs has been well done today…great result.

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  3. Well chuffed. That win ends a great week for NUFC. For me Sissoko was MOTM again but close 2nd is Debuchey. He played his best game for us yet (Debuchey)

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  4. Spurs to beat West Ham tomorrow anyway, and then we’ll go 13th. Midweek win and weekend win, take that. Beat Swansea and Stoke and we’ll be pushing top 8!! 😆

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  5. Craig-If cabs is completely knackered, who do you want to bring on to see out a match? Perch is the best shout out there..

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  6. 4-2 flatters us but man we needed that. Great contributions from Guffran and as ever Sissoko. Cisse was weak but got a great goal. I would rather see him score 10 tap ins than 1 wonder goal but hell we needed that.

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  7. Ah but you just held your hand up so fair play 😀

    We had the rub of the green we’ve been crying out for this season, but a great performance for most as it was. Bonus was the fact it was a comeback-surely now we will have more faith in ourselves. Great to stop saints getting a point or three of us…

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  8. SJP14… got to agree, we should not be looking backwards with this talent in the squad.. we should and could still go for a late spurt on the top ten.

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  9. Really chuffed with the result, would have put a dampener on French day if we’d lost, instead they see a cisse wonder goal :mrgreen:

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  10. That performance has put any relegation fears I had to bed. Southampton have been very good lately and we deservedly beat them. Neither side will go down.

    I am a bit puzzled as to why their manager had Puncheon on the bench though. He’s one of their biggest threats. I would have brought him on before Ramirez, who has looked dire for about 10 games now.

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  11. Yeah we’ve been team of the month for sure, well maybe spurs but we’ve had such a turnaround that we deserve it 😎 .

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  12. Craig

    If you are looking for a bad sub today, look at Soton. Pochettino subbed off Shaw and on his place was Fox.

    Fox then practically gave us two goals.

    Thats why the 17 years old was the first choice ahead of an international.

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  13. Puncheon looks an absolutely class act., If we could get him in the summer on a freebee jeebee I’d be ecstatic 🙂

    What a great win today, we got the run of the green with the own goal, but deservedly won. Hats off to Pardew and the team for putting in a really high octane fast running performance, against an excellent and tricky Southampton side.

    Two magnificent wins this week imo … but we have to keep at it, we’re not out of the mire yet.

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  14. The Kid – hopefully Puncheon will be one of our biggest threats next season – for nix 😉

    By the way – How do we look from down there you Mackem scum fuckaz 😛 😛 😛

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  15. Great win against a very tidy Southampton side, cant praise Pardew enough for the new signings, they are class, also Rob Elliott had a cracking game. And the Cisse goal, breathtaking.

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  16. Sharpy

    Wouldn’t mind Puncheon. He’s a good player and has that unpredictability about him. He’s got a good relationship with Pardew too, so might actually happen.

    All of our signings have been great. I’ve never known a January transfer window to go so right. All of these players signed for cheap and they are all performing.

    Imagine if we hadn’t signed those players. 😯 We’d be in the bottom 3 for sure.

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  17. wouldnt be too confident about So’ton not going down like

    as decent as they are on the ball, and as dangerous as they are going forward, they’ll concede plenty of goals.

    They give the ball away often in dangerous areas and are very susceptible to longish balls in behind their high-line

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  18. Sharpy17, you’ve been on about Puncheon for yonks now, and I’m right with you on that one. Get him signed up, he’d be a great addition to the team.

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  19. Maybe Ben Arfa can inherit Michael Owen’s blanket for the bench ? Not sure where the lad is going to fit in tbh 🙄

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  20. some good pluses today..

    3 pts
    Tiote was mom
    elliot did well, and uses the ball better than krul, liked the long throw
    Debuchy’s best game
    Mbwia is the best central defender we have and should start each game.
    Gouffran is a quality signing
    Sissoko is a beast
    cabaye and cisse put in a shift.

    bad points
    Santon still gets caught out defending.
    our corners are still ****.
    we still give the ball away too much.
    quicker we get benny in there for Jonas the better

    bar that our first post euro game win, ( I think ???)

    onwards and upwards 3 wins and a draw to go.

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  21. Great result! Thought Elliot did well today. Conceding after 3 minutes on your PL debut, he could easily have wilted. I liked how all our defenders patted him on the back after that free kick save in the 2nd half.

    Still concerned by Santon. Great going forward, but we get exposed so often down that side.

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  22. Could this be the first time that a Pardew Newcastle team has won a league game after going behind ? One of the lads was mentiuoning this stat a few weeks ago, hard to believe but I think it could be true 😯

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  23. I personally am excited by Haidara. I wonder what the team would be like with him in in place of Santon. But today was not the day. Credit to Pardew to stick with the same team and a credit to the players that backed up.

    Kev, you forgot a positive; Cisse scoring. He needs it.

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  24. Chelsea game MM 😀

    Cabaye didn’t do to much today like. I thought Santon was poor as well but i dont even care great team performance and a great win.

    Southampton look a class team how are they doing so bad this season. Luke Shaw future England left back for sure.

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  25. MM yes. Officially.

    Kev in the league we never done that. The Chelsea game, we actually scored first.

    Hopefully Colo injury is not serious.

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  26. @Munich mag: I agree cannot see where HBA will fit in. Some say for Jonas but I suspect HBA / Sissoko will cause another Ba / Cisse problem in that one will suffer as a result of the other.

    Pardew better just take the best solution currently and that is Sissoko. Knows when to pass the ball and does not try to take too many people on.

    HBA could create more chances if he just knew when to pass and not always looking to weave around everyone with his showman stunts.

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  27. good goal by cisse, but still struggling with confidence, first touch etc, but still put that down to being messed about by Pardew / Ba this season, should never have been moved from his spot after last season. have plenty of faith in Cisse once the new ones really get up to speed with where he runs and wants the ball etc..he will score plenty.

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  28. fitting benny in… easy… if everyone’s fit…

    …………………………. Krul………………………..
    Debuchy……Mbwai………(St or Collo)……….Santon
    ………………….Cabaye……..Tiote…………………..
    …………benny………..Sissoko…………Guffran…..
    …………………………….. Cisse…………………………

    if those three behind cisse cant provide enough chances then no one can..

    as for the going behind, stop moving the goal posts, the original comment was winning after going behind 😆

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  29. @KHeneage: Alan Pardew confirms Middlesbrough have asked about Sammy Ameobi on loan. Pardew says #NUFC will look to help them out and do the deal.

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  30. Just managed to get on to see the comments.

    Laughing my **** off at comments about wondering where HBA fits in…unreal.

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  31. Just back from that match an reading the comments on here make me laugh – especially regarding Cisse… Very funny how fickle is fans are.

    Strange game really. High scoring but neither keeper really overly busy. What a goal by Cisse, pity I was getting the beers in at the time. Southampton looked good going forward to be honest and I think they’ll stay up.

    Anyhow, above the Mackems and should be looking up not down now.

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  32. Stu – my stream for the match was terrible. Just wondered how Yanga Mbiwa looked in the 2nd half? I am starting to feel he should be starting now, personally.

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  33. I notice nobody’s mentioned how poor Taylor’s defending was for their first…

    Still, he has played well lately.

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  34. Good to hear about the Sammy loan if true, needs game time. Anyone heard anything about the colo injury

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  35. Toon TRW@268. I thought it may have been the case, thank you very much kind sir 😉

    Kev, don’t take it to heart, you getting so many facts wrong, I’ll accept your apology. 😳 😉
    btw people have “long” memories, not big ones, and the Blackburn game was the FA Cup, I clearly stated “league”.

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  36. Bradford 3-0 down just had their keeper sent off and Swans have a pen 🙁 poor lads after all that giant killing.

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  37. I’m pretty sure that today was the first time that a Pardew team has won an EPL game after going first behind. Could be wrong though… 😉

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  38. So if Colo’s fit, does Saylor get dropped for the next game? Isn’t that what the competition idea is about?

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  39. Swansea look class today will be a very tough game next week. Hope they win and go on a week long binge. Then they can play us with that hang-over 😀

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  40. Was at the match. I thought Cisse lead the line well. Debuchy would be my man of the match – a real threat down the right. Tiote was good in parts but did dither with the ball on the edge of his own box. Did anyone notice Cabaye’s reluctance to pass to Jonas. Personally, I would have taken Jonas off before Gouffran. I also think that Saylor is as bad as Willo for aimless punts up field. But I am vary pleased with the win against a very good Southampton side who were faster and fitter than us.

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  41. Mbiwa looked steady enough. Has plenty pace and is good on the ball.

    Thought Tiote played a slightly different game today, he was playing quite high up the pitch, further up than Cabaye most of the time. He played well but I think it left us a bit exposed at times.

    Sissoko is just on another level and you can just see he’s class. But I would like to think Ben Arfa would replace Jonas as he’s not been great recently and was quiet again.

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  42. Just back from the match… Buzzing! Great result. Cisse’s goal was right in front of me what a great goal. Sissoko was immense and Gouffran excellent too. Well chuffed

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  43. “wearing my Newcastle top for good luck, it’s the 1st season back to the PL one and I reckon it’s a good luck one.” Oh yeah 😎 .

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  44. Just in the hoose in Scotland
    I thought it was a good game of football that had something happening all of the time.
    This Premier League is hard to fathom out. You wouldn’t have known both sides were in the bottom six.
    Pardew for me has to work on that ten minutes at the start of the second continually we let teams dominate posession and territory.
    Very satisfied though. Cisse scored a worldy and there was a work rate and belief that wasn’t there in the first part of the season

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  45. Just read through the comments and it just proves when we watch games we all have different views on performance levels of the team and individuals. That is how it should be. Makes it more interesting. Everybody is correct and nobody is wrong

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  46. Ha !
    Should be a good day at work tomorrow. The scum fans will have crawled back under their stones, gobshytes.
    All we’ve had is that we’ll never catch them now. 9 point gap n all that.
    Good to see more desire and effort from the Lads today.
    A nice worldy from Cisse, but I just couldn’t watch Cabayes penalty.
    Happy days.
    Toon Toon

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  47. Slow starts to both halves made it harder than it should have been but overall well played. Sissoko was powerful in the centre of the field again, Cabaye was excellent, as was Gouffran. Cisse must be more consistent and was offside too often again. A fabulous strike but he still doesn’t link up well much of the time. Where was Ben Arfa this time? Still ill with flu? Colo played well until he was injured. Pleased with the 3 points and the growing confidence in the team. 😀

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  48. Geordietwo

    I don’t think it was a case of starting slowly, but more of Southampton starting like a house on fire, but fizzling out. Their play in the opening 15mins of each half was class. Some of their movement and passing was a joy to behold.

    As someone said earlier though, their Achilles heel is a long ball down the channel in behind their high line. They struggled with that all afternoon.

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