Game On! Newcastle v Aston Villa

Game On at St James' Park
Game On at St James’ Park
Twas the match before Christmas, where we’ll play Aston Villa. Three points are on offer, let’s hope it’s a thriller.

Ok ok I’m really bad at poetry but I’m just trying to get into the festive spirit of things so forgive me.

One thing however that would help keep the festive mood ticking along nicely would indeed be another win and another three points to extend our winning run to a third game.

But, as always seems to be the case, you can never feel assured of anything when United are involved. 

The last two games have come when nobody expected us to get anything. The pressure was off if you like and, credit to everyone at the club, they responded. 

But this one is different. Villa will look to make us break them down and try to frustrate us while the impetus will be on us to attack which in turn will potentially open up space on the counter.

Those are just my thoughts anyway…

Early team news, injury updates for both sides, a look at the history of the fixture and some fun facts and stats can be perused over in my match preview which went live yesterday and can be viewed here.

For the actual team news you’ll have to take a look below about an hour before kick-off where I will add it as soon as I physically can. For streaming links take a look in the ‘comments’ section below.

There’s been a lot of talk of mentality this week and how it has changed at St James’ Park. We shall soon see if those are words of meaning or words of emptiness.

Howay the lads!

Newcastle: Rob Elliot; Daryl Janmaat, Chancel Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini, Paul Dummett; Moussa Sissoko, Vurnon Anita, Jack Colback, Georginio Wijnaldum; Siem de Jong; Papiss Cisse

Subs: Karl Darlow, Kevin Mbabu, Cheick Tiote, Yoan Gouffran, Florian Thauvin, Ayoze Perez, Aleksandar Mitrovic

Aston Villa: Brad Guzan; Alan Hutton, Jores Okore, Joleon Lescott, Leandro Bacuna; Ashley Westwood, Carlos Sanchez, Idrissa Gueye; Jordan Veretout, Scott Sinclair, Jordan Ayew

Subs: Mark Bunn, Ciaran Clark, Kieran Richardson, Carles Gil, Jack Grealish, Adama Traore, Rudy Gestede

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.

826 thoughts on “Game On! Newcastle v Aston Villa

  1. That’s a very good idea Troy bringing in Ron Atkinson. He might even do a program on us with sky like he did with Swindon town F.C and Peterborough united.

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  2. He tried helping Swindon and failed because the manager at the time didn’t want his help. They ended the season getting relegated. At Peterborough united he missed the play offs and the manager ended up resigning while Big Ron was still there. It’s a brilliant idea Troy and would make a good 6 part series.

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  3. Gashley the clubs Big Ron goes to he tries to save. He puts on fund raising events so the players get paid. A dead winner with Ashley. Bring Ron inn 😆 Let him help Steve save the club from relegation and do a 6 part series with sky ? Even if we go down it makes good entertainment for million’s of viewer’s. Ron can loan some players off Bryan Robson.

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  4. Sounds a good idea terry. Run it past troy. Steve wraith manages Troy’s affairs. He might get something sorted 😉

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  5. Bryan Robson out of work Troy, would you have him as the next toon boss with Big Ron advising him ? Or venner ? Sounds like a very unstable ladder but a cheap option for mikey.

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  6. terry@684, did he ever manage a foogball team ? bryan robson, steve mcclaren, john carver, nigel clough, roy keane, people who stumble around in football making good money, talking a good job but achieving nowt.

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  7. Troy @ 668

    Derby spent about £5m last season; Less than half what Fulham paid for Ross McCormack

    try removing your head from pardews **** and check

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  8. Haha. 😆 the Clueless Crew feel safer in numbers. 😆
    CC he spent more than any other manager in the Championship. That there is no doubt. 😉
    You are all feeling foolish now, eye nose zit. 😛
    You all slated Pardew and now look at you. 😆
    I want Big Ron and Venners now! Sack Mac. 😉

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  9. It is the ironic you’re ridiculing the way our club is run, When it’s the only reason you’re man Pardews involved in the premier league.

    Sacked by West Ham with them rock bottom, Relegated twice with Charlton, Sacked by Southampton in league 1. He would have been back glazing the gherkin the way he was going

    That he got a chance in the pl is even more comical than hiring McClaren who at least has won trophies as manager

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  10. Bryan Robson managed West brom and Boro at some point Munich. His last job was managing Thailand but defiantly a rung you wouldn’t want on a ladder. UnlessTroys there to catch you

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  11. Give it a rest son, or else everyone will fink you do have one of them man crush fings on Pardew. It is past due that you keep it shut about Pardew.

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  12. Kim I lost friends to throat cancer. I never realized. I am glad he recovered and hope the same for Paval also. I just don’t remember him ever being a good manager and can only see Ashley appointing someone cheap and terrible.

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  13. Well I look at that WBA side and there are no stand out threat players there. We play well today and take our chances we should be winning this game with relative ease IMO.

    Also Berahino left out again – perhaps he would be a big money transfer, but I would love to see him at Newcastle.

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  14. Terry, Wasn’t having a pop mate, just suddenly remembered like, didn’t know if he stopped managing .

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  15. Same team and formation then. Let’s hope it’s the team who turned up a bit more 2nd half last game 🙄

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  16. If they continue to play this system then I would look to bring back Sammy if we can.
    He’s a far better left winger than Gini who I would move into the centre. Bring Townsend in and play him on the right and move Sissoko into the middle.

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  17. Its very simple if you look at it from Ashley’s point of view. Buy a cheap player like Gouffran for example and get McClaren to turn him into the next Messi

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  18. Colback is a total waste unfortunately, yet McLaren continually sings his praises, Colo star man first half, Dummett is so slow, Perez not involved other than that one attempt, WBA 11 attempts on goal

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  19. JJ, your not wrong mate, he looks very suspect for corners, defenders having a better day than normal today, both Dummett and colo doing ok. We really have to stop conceding corners and try and stop the crosses that are coming at will, he won’t get away with another 45mins cause our lads will lose concentration at some point they always do.

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  20. Colo was excellent that 1st half, don’t want to jinx him but he’s looked good.
    We are getting forward well but struggling to break down their defence – a few shots from range would be good to see – keeper may spill it for Mit or Perez to follow up on. We need to at least try scoring coz there’s no end product.

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  21. Sharpy we have no midfield at all, Kim all Dummett does is back off, really adds nothing to the game, good job Colo knows that and covers for him

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  22. Sharpy it’s a real worry, there is no real threat again, build up looks good but end product is rubbish. Our corners are ***k too.

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  23. Agree Kim, but the idea is to stop the pass in the first case that allowed the shot to take place, he just continually backs off, then dives in as per a couple of weeks ago when he turned his back on the ball and it went in off his backside

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  24. Ashley for better or worse needs to get back at the helm of the club as all those below him are clueless as to the needs, he needs a bloody good right arm and whatever the difference between them it needs to be someone like Shearer,

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  25. There must be a penalty in all that grappling in the box at corners like!!! – seen plenty of other sides awarded them

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  26. Thing is we have no one on the bench that can change the game, so it’s a case of going with what’s on there, but they are trying hard, should of been a penalty there

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