Morecambe v Newcastle – League Cup match preview

The Shrimps v The Magpies
The Shrimps v The Magpies
Newcastle kick-off their League Cup campaign with a trip to Morecambe this evening looking to record their first competitive win of the season.

The venue will be the 6,400 capacity Globe Arena and it’s been confirmed that United have sold their entire allocation of 1,800 tickets so a good atmosphere should be ensured. Hopefully with a good result for us in the end to boot!

Cup campaigns have been awful for us for years and we’ve seen ourselves fall at early hurdles far too often for my liking. No doubt eyes will be on another upset tomorrow evening as the TV cameras roll up in Morecambe looking for some “giant killing” fun.

Of course it’s no “fun” for us having to go through it all again, but it’s a cup and we should be going for it. There is no excuse of the Europa League this term and we’ve seen teams like Swansea win it so why can’t we? That shows it doesn’t have to be dominated by the bigger clubs. Why can’t this be our year?

Newcastle:

Yohan Cabaye will not be involved as he continues his absence from the first-team. Loic Remy will not be be risked until Saturday at the earliest whilst Steven Taylor serves the second of his three match ban following his sending off against Manchester City. Jonas Gutierrez and Massadio Haidara are both sidelined whilst the availability of Mike Williamson, Gabriel Obertan and Cheik Tiote are unconfirmed.

Loan players such as Mehdi Abeid, Adam Campbell and Shane Ferguson will obviously not be available, but fringe players like Gael Bigirimana and Dan Gosling could be involved along with players who have, as yet, not featured as much as they may have liked such as Sylvain Marveaux and Vurnon Anita.

Morecambe:

Andrew Wright returns from suspension while Barry Roche, Kevin Ellison and Marcus Marshall, who returned at the weekend, are expected to play. Andreas Arestidou, Morecambe’s second choice goalkeeper, was once on the books with United.

Previously…

This is the first meeting between the two sides so there is no previous to write about so to speak.

What I can say is that we’ve progressed in our last 12 second round ties in this competition, with our last exit coming in 1990 at the hands of Middlesbrough.

Match stats and facts…

No player created more chances for his team in the first round than Morecambe’s Ryan Williams (four) in his side’s victory over Wolves.

Newcastle have played their last six League Cup ties away from home.

Final thought…

We must win this game. Alan Pardew was right in his pre-match blathering when he said Morecambe are in a no lose situation. We are the ones that are expected to win here. The problem is that we’ve struggled to do that against lower league teams. Wit the greatest of respects to Morecambe we should be overcoming this comfortably but football doesn’t work like that.

We need to make sure it does and those eleven on the pitch need to ensure that they are suitably up for it. It’s the managers job to do just that, but it’s also the responsibility of the players to carry that through. For once, and rather stupidly with no foundation behind it, I’m actually surprisingly confident…

Howay the lads!

Date: Wednesday, 28th August, 2013

Time: 19:45

Venue: Globe Arena, Morecambe

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.

166 thoughts on “Morecambe v Newcastle – League Cup match preview

  1. Just joking about the 16 year olds. It must be pretty scary when you’re faced against fully developed guys that are twice your age.

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  2. Gman – Interesting point. What is wrong with our academy?? As a one club city we should at least had another Shearer, no?

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  3. KK
    The bottom three you mention are all worse than Pardew, as was Big Sam. Souness, Dalguish and Guillit all had superstar teams and made them worse, they had big budgets and were ***** with them. In my era it would have to be
    SBR
    KK
    AP
    as the best managers as they did the best with what they had to use.

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  4. The trouble with our accademy is that the kids are good prospects but im not sure the people in charge and doing the coaching are the best we can get.Beardsley might be a cult hero for the toon but ive watched the reserves countless times and to be honest I think him and his side kick Donachie are not up to the job,the negativity that they project is insane,they think nothing of tearing them to shreds from the dug out,i always thought it was encouragement these kids need but from what ive seen there is very little of that on show
    .

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  5. Andy – personally I think Hoots was better than Pardew like. To achieve immediate promotion with 100 points and the home record we had we hellish when you consider it was his first managerial role.
    That said I don’t agree that Pardew is the worst manager we’ve had. That would be shared between between Gullit and Dogleash for me.

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  6. Hmm, oddly enough that’s the order of the longest serving managers at the club. I agree about SBR followed by Keegan but Pardew? Really??

    I’d say Big Sam is at the same level as Pardew. He never really had a chance though as he was in charge for 24 games.

    I wouldn’t say Pardew was better than the bottom three (the results don’t say that either) but if you think he is, surely you don’t think he is much better?

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  7. Pardew has been in charge for almost as many games as Dalglish & Gullit combined.

    It doesn’t seem fitting for Pardew to be the third longest manager in the last 20 years especially as we haven’t progressed under him.

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  8. Graeme Souness…utter *****,by far and away the worst manager ever!! for those that have been getting their weekly doze of ***** for a long time id add Gordon Lee to that .utter bollox as well

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  9. As good as the Premier League is we don’t seem to have enough players or managers going abroad to learn the game.

    Without learning different styles of play, cultures, tactics etc how can we ever get decent British Managers to compete?

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  10. Regarding the kids, I say put them in!.

    Our first team aren’t really showering themselves in a great deal of glory, and how many players are likely to come in in the next 5 days?!.

    Stick a couple of older heads in there then let the kids show Pardew that he shouldn’t be sticking with the same under performing senior players.

    ———————- Elliott —————-
    Mbabu — Saylor — Williamson — Dummett
    ——– Bigiramana — Kemen ———-
    —— Gosling —- Vukic —- Sammy ——
    —————– Shola or Gouffran ———-

    We can put the likes of Santon to cover full back positions, Sissoko and Anita for midfield and Benny, Marv and Cisse all on the bench.
    But if we don’t have a look at the young uns and give them a chance, how are we going to know?!.

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  11. Mixed feelings about tonight. We should be beating teams like this easily but this is the cup and we have severely low levels of confidence.

    Any ideas of squad / team lads?

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  12. The point about managers is that Pardew is not better than the rubbish we have had before so why is he still here?

    He should be gone. He should never have been here in the first place.

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  13. Think its going to be a mixture of the accademy kids and out of form players from the first team squad so thats just about everyone lol

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  14. Not sure if I can bear to watch ……. 😕

    Would have love to see adam campbell back to play.

    Would like vuckic to get a run out aswell

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  15. See Swansea have signed Dwight Tiendalli or should I say re-signed him. He’s a 27yr old full back who can cover right and left back.

    Why on earth do we not sign decent free transfer players. This window we could have had Alex Pearce from Reading, Andreas Weimann from Villa, Franco Di Santo from Wigan and this lad from Swansea.
    That would have strengthened CB, FB, CF and wide attack. They may not be first teamers but would certainly give strength in depth.
    Tiendalli would have covered Simpson – probably on a lower or similar wage. Pearce would allow us to let Willo go. Weimann for Obertan and Di Santo for Ranger and Xisco.
    Then we could get away with just loaning Remy or just bringing in one CF.

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  16. @Sharpy17

    there are loads of players that could of made us that bit better.

    I sometimes wonder why we have Carr, JFK. they seem to be on an extended jolly.

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  17. ANDYMAG
    Lol, I don’t mean the ones who are 16, I mean the ones who are 20, 21, 22. That’s why I say ‘kids’ in inverted commas. The likes of Vuckic, Gosling, Sammy, Dummett should be beating teams like this now are they are not good enough. Simple as that.

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  18. Sharpy
    Hoots crossed my mind as I was writing it, could have been either but I felt that Pardew getting us to fifth was better than achieving promotion. Chris is a close 4th for me.
    KK
    Its just my opinion mate, just as you are entitled to yours. I didn’t really know any of the managers you mentioned, I was too young and so what I do know is second-hand information but from what I gathered they butchered our club. Same with regards to SBR and KK, I only remember Keagan from his second (disappointing) term and didn’t know much about Sir Bobby until after he passed on but from what I’ve learnt from others both seem to be great managers and especially in SBR’s case, great people.
    On Big Sam (who I remember well)
    Apart from bringing in Nolan he was rubbish, played **** football and got us nowhere.

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  19. Ba has done nothing at Chelsea. In such a team should have done better. Not even making the bench. I would prefer to move on without him.

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  20. It will be interesting to see how players like Dummett, Vukic, Gosling, Sammy and Bigi perform if they get their chance. I’m fairly certain several of them will. This is a big game for them. If they don’t show improvement and desire and not sure where they go from there. I’m thinking mainly of Vukic, and Gosling as Pardew already seems to rate Bigi, Dummett and Sammy. But we need a good performance from everyone. Keep your fingers crossed.

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  21. Mark – sorry mate had the dog out. I just think the free transfers are a corner of the market we seem to overlook or don’t take advantage of.
    I know there are some players who allow their contract to run down so a move could get them a big wage. But there are also players, like the ones I mentioned who would want wages that fix our structure.

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  22. Andy – I think Pardews job was made alittle easier by the stability that Hoots have the club.
    When you think of the players that were sold or moved on when Hoots first took charge he probably didnt know who he’d have to select from. He also did a great job in keeping hold of the players he did and I know it was the Championship but to go all season unbeaten at home is no mean feet.
    Hoots had never managed a team before so to achieve that in the spot light of a club and fan base as big as ours was a huge accomplishment and the dignity he showed when stiffed by our board – good on him. Pleased he’s doing well at Norwich personally, but I’d never admit that 😯 😆

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  23. Spot on Sharpy @101. I think it shows Joe is not up to it mate. We just don’t have a proper structure in place and I doubt very much whether Joe and Pardew get along. It just feels all wrong. No serious progress can be made without big changes at the club. If the next move is to sack Pardew and replace him at least temporarily with Joe I don’t think we will see much real improvement. Possibly an early lift for 4 or 5 games but long term Joe is definitely not the answer as manager either. We could definitely have strengthened the club without it costing the club an arm and a leg this summer but it took Joe too long to get going (and he may never get going).

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  24. G2 – I actually blame Carr, Pardew and Chamley for this particular oversight mate. Oh I don’t disagree JFK isn’t up to the job – that’s a given. But the bloke can’t be blamed for this one just a weeks into his new role.
    They seem to look at players who have a year left on their contract but overlook those out of contract. Or look at them and decide against it.
    There’s been Marv and Amalfitano in on a free but there have been so many good options.
    Nathaniel Clyne was another one from last summer who we could have got free for example and he went on to do pretty well for Saints while we went on to miss out on Debuchy. Having not sorted the Simpson deal out Clyne would be good competition for Debuchy now.

    It just seems stupid to not use that free transfer pool when the board have put other restrictions in place like fees, wages and age of players.

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  25. I would agree Sharpy my 3 fav managers were SBR ,KK and Hoots ,Chris did an amazing job in the fizzy pop ,got us up for the fight back and fostered a winning mentality and we won that league at a canter too. SBR was a legend his man management and tactical nous second to none imo . KK was a different fruit (1st time) his enthusiasm for the game and man motivation carried us along on the crest of a wave and we so nearly got the holy grail there for a moment .What all three of those managers gave us more than anything was entertainment ,and hope of better stuff to come and that’s what I miss the most.

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  26. Newcastle United (4-2-3-1): Rob Elliot; Mathieu Debuchy, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (c), Curtis Good, Paul Dummett; Gael Bigirimana, Dan Gosling; Sammy Ameobi, Haris Vuckic, Sylvain Marveaux; Yoan Gouffran
    Substitutes: Jak Alnwick, Davide Santon, Remie Streete
    This is the lineup for tonight. Is this the first attempt with Gouffran as lone striker? It should have been tried in preseason with the struggles of Cisse. Interesting lineup all told.

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  27. Vurnon Anita, Moussa Sissoko, Hatem Ben Arfa, Shola Ameobi are all on the bench as well. 😳

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  28. Kim – KK woke the giant, and signed some great players early on like Andy Cole and Rob Lee whilst developing our young uns like Lee Clark and bringing back Pedro. He basically breathed life back into the club, but he an awful lot of money handed to him to do it.
    Sir Bobby was just right!. I was in a bar in Ibiza when SSN put the yellow band up – I got very drunk that neet and sang his name his name all the way back to the digs – I was younger and dafter those days.
    He is want our clubs needs again now and I loved and miss the fella like a relative – crazy really 😆

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  29. Interesting lineup but do we really need to go 4-2-3-1 against this side? What about a more attacking formation Alan? Pardew seems terrified to play an open attacking game. Good to see people recalling better times for the club but I think we need to see more ahead. It’s shocking that more can’t be done with the 3rd biggest support in England and a single team city of Newcastle’s size. 😥

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  30. Still struggling to have any attack against this club! Unbelievable. Morecambe are very tidy in midfield and at the back.

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  31. Finally an effort on goal by Gosling. Bookies have Morecambe as one of the favourites to be relegated from League 2!

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  32. Did I just hear the song “Get our of our club, you fat cockney *******, get out of our club,” and the chant “spend some fucking money” from our traveling band of merry pranksters?

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  33. Hmph, decent effort from Bigi.

    But Morcambe have had, what, four or five clear-ish chances and two goal line clearances?

    Sheesh.

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  34. Already 2 goal line clearances by Gosling and 2 fine saves by Elliot. Their keeper has had 1 easy save to make. 😥

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  35. The lack of team cohesion is stunning. It’s just more of the same. Just lump the ball up the pitch and hope someone can bring it down and hold play up. I guess I just can’t be shocked anymore by our poor play.

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  36. We need to show them pace and passing on the ground. Shola coming out for the second half.

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  37. They have a fairly big side so why are why playing hoofball? The back 4 look very comfortable with it.

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  38. actually Sammy is having a pretty decent 2nd half so far. Marveaux hasn’t done much to improve his chances in the Prem.

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  39. Gouffran must wonder why he joined us. No support whatsoever. He’s starving for service out there.

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  40. more decent play by Sammy to get a free kick but in the end wasted by Marveaux’s poor shot

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  41. I think we’ve still only had 1 shot on goal! And it was a weak header straight at the goalie

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  42. we definitely can’t hit the net with shots. it’s pathetic. Fulham must be shaking in their boots waiting to play us.

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  43. missed a bit there with the link but some pressure by us and a set piece. We can’t finish though. Sammy just missed the net again.

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