5 key battles between Newcastle and Norwich

Isaac Hayden Signing St James Park Close Up

Howson vs Hayden

Former Leeds man Jonathan Howson is Norwich’s top assist-maker so far, setting up three of his team’s goals. Both Howson and fellow midfielder Wes Hoolahan have been ever presents in the league this season.

It’s more than likely that the pair will get the nod again, and expect Rafa to deploy Shelvey and Hayden to try and stop them from pulling the strings.

Hayden has been solid in the middle of the park, however Hoolahan and Howson are two of the most experienced midfielders in the league so he’ll need to be at the top of his game to get the better of them.

162 thoughts on “5 key battles between Newcastle and Norwich

  1. Gayle hattrick might give him some confidence. He sat on the bench a lot at Palace so hasn’t really had that much playing time until he got here. He has it in him to be a good finisher, obviously, and Shelvey seems to be in tune with his runs.

    My bloody radio feed went down after the Norwich second goal so I couldn’t hear it never mind see it. Why was there no TV coverage of the only Championship game played tonight? Probably had something to do with Champions League conflict/TV rights?

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  2. Some people are hard to please. We’ve won 6, drawn 1 and lost 1 of the last 8 games, have a goal difference better than everyone else and lie 3rd in the league, 1 point off automatic promotion.

    YCMIU

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  3. It seems churlish of me to have a few moans after such an exciting evening and a great team performance. Although the score doesn’t reflect it we were far superior to Norwich who sit second in the table. We really should have been four up at halftime – reflections of the Aston Villa game. I am not certain I agree with Shamrock that Darlow should have done better with their second goal. It was I thought an excellent goal by Norwich. Now for the moans. Dummet is a strong defender and a good tackler but his positioning is not good and his distribution and speed of reaction are terrible. A squad player but not really good enough. Much the same but to a lesser extent for Colback. Next is not a moan – Clark did his job as a defender and I would describe him as a no nonsense stopper – nothing more. I think Rafa may have had words with him at halftime because he did try to get forward more in the second half. Mbemba has I think more in his locker than Clark and better all round game.
    Well done the lads. Very very pleased.

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  4. Stuart79: We’ve won 6, drawn 1 and lost 1 of the last 8 games

    just shows what a 96th minute winner gives you.. it could of been:
    won 5, drawn 1 and lost 4 of the last 10 games..which tbf, fans would be right in wondering if its good enough for promotion

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  5. Gash it would have been won 5, drawn 2, lost 3 actually….but that’s irrelevent as all that matters in football is the result. And the result is we won (against a side many wrote us off again at pre-game) and are now in a very strong position going into the next set of fixtures.

    I said the other day, it’s no good having 70% possession and 10 shots on target if you end up losing 1-0. The team that scores the most deserves the win, end of. We deserved the win last night and are on course to achieve our targets.

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  6. Just looking at the highlights again. Shelveys ball for Gayle’s 2nd goal was class. I still think Darlow should have had far better movement when Norwich took the lead but I guess stuff like that is subjective. Like Sharpy said, for me we need to go with 2 men up front. Little and large. The triumvirate of Shelvey, Gayle and Mitro seemed to work well, although I’m sure Murphy could do the same job as Mitro – but with a cooler head and more goals.

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  7. Shamrock:
    Gash it would have been won 5, drawn 2, lost 3 actually….but that’s irrelevent as all that matters in football is the result. And the result is we won (against a side many wrote us off again at pre-game) and are now in a very strong position going into the next set of fixtures.

    I said the other day, it’s no good having 70% possession and 10 shots on target if you end up losing 1-0. The team that scores the most deserves the win, end of. We deserved the win last night and are on course to achieve our targets.

    Sham – why does it have to be one or the other though? – all possession & loose or a scrappy win?.
    We can’t fans hope for a comprehensive win now and again?, yes we got one again QPR but have made hard work of it in the 3 after that – defeat to Wolves, a draw to Villa and needed injury time just to draw the game last night.
    We’ve scored 5 in those games but conceded 6.

    Must of us agree that the squad has been addressed & has better balance to it – not too many Jonny foreigners to bed in & have a world class manager to lead them.

    I don’t believe I’m one of these deluded fans that they speak of. Both you and I said at the start of the season that we expected to take the league comfortably and I think that should still be the case.

    We are watching scrappy football and I expect better – and I bloody well hope Rafa and the players do too by the way.

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  8. Andy – I see you’ve had time to throw 3 ad filled articles up today without the ability to comment on – yet no post match article.
    You can kinda see why people accuse you of running this site to profit.

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  9. There’s a thread by Geordie 2 going up in a minute!

    Sharpy17:
    Andy – I see you’ve had time to throw 3 ad filled articles up today without the ability to comment on – yet no post match article.
    You can kinda see why people accuse you of running this site to profit.

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  10. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a link to watch the game but by the sounds of Stuart79 we had loads of chances and deserved the win, which is definitely good. Shame I missed it.

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  11. Shamrock:
    Gash it would have been won 5, drawn 2, lost 3 actually….but that’s irrelevent as all that matters in football is the result. And the result is we won (against a side many wrote us off again at pre-game) and are now in a very strong position going into the next set of fixtures.

    I said the other day, it’s no good having 70% possession and 10 shots on target if you end up losing 1-0. The team that scores the most deserves the win, end of. We deserved the win last night and are on course to achieve our targets.

    yes mate. silly me. I was speaking as if was a defeat.
    I fancied our chances v Norwich. even at half time… I also called for the winner 😆 …we do well against the flighty teams. not so good verses the cloggers that are hard to score against.

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