NUFC hope to achieve something they’ve failed to do since 2013 over the next week

Olly Hawkins

As the International break draws to a close, Newcastle United fans are set for a busy week at St. James’ Park, with the Magpies facing back to back home games against Wigan Athletic and Burton Albion over the next 6 days.

While myself and the entire Geordie faithful will be hoping to see the team pick up what would be a valuable six points, history suggests it won’t be that straight forward – despite Wigan and Burton presenting what may appear to be two ‘winnable’ home fixtures.

Remarkably, Newcastle have not won back to back home league games since November 2013, where Alan Pardew’s NUFC saw off  Norwich and West Brom, earning consecutive 2-1 wins at St.James’ Park.

Four years on, upcoming games against Wigan and Burton represent the FIFTH time United have played back to back home league games this season, with Rafa’s side failing to take six points from any of the previous four pairs of matches, as highlighted below:

Results in back to back home league games at St.James’ Park this season:

  1. Huddersfield (lost 1-2) / Reading (won 4-1)
  2. Sheffield Wednesday (lost 0-1) / Nottingham Forest (won 3-1)
  3. QPR (drew 2-2) / Derby County (won 1-0)
  4. Aston Villa (won 2-0) / Bristol City (drew 2-2)

With the last pair of back to back home league wins coming in 2013, Newcastle have not only failed to repeat the feat this season, but in the last 13 attempts over the past four years!

While this does not bode well for Benitez’s side, records are their to be broken.

Several players in the Newcastle squad have had two weeks off to fully prepare and refocus for the task in hand, with Benitez no doubt benefiting from the break, giving him time to rethink Newcastle’s stuttering home form.

The last two home games may have been highly concerning, scraping a 2-2 draw against the struggling Bristol City and a comprehensive 3-1 defeat to Fulham, but I am confident that the side will get back to winning ways over the next week.

Let’s hope so, given six points could put Newcastle in touching distance of a return to the Premier League next season.

(Fancy having your say? Send any articles/ideas over to us at [email protected] & we’ll get back to you!)

About Olly Hawkins

As a Junior Magpie since birth and season ticket holder, I eat, sleep and breathe all things NUFC! Here at the blog, I aim to bring you news, views, match reports and transfer exclusives as and when I get them.

View all posts by Olly Hawkins →

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9 thoughts on “NUFC hope to achieve something they’ve failed to do since 2013 over the next week”

  1. Well Olly, that’s a worrying statistic. All the same we should be capable of seeing both of those off really. Let’s hope the home fans lift the roof off and push the lads on.

  4. I’m still twitchy about these two games with our record. Really they should be dominant comprehensive wins but I’ll breath a sigh of relief if they’re both 1-0s.

  5. Well, the International Break has done what it always does and killed blogs and newspapers alike. It is hard to keep focused when England play in a Lucas Podolsky testimonial followed by the 107th ranked team. Can you believe Podolsky has 130 caps for Germany? That will be a trivia question in a few years – which German donkey has more than double the international caps of Gerd Muller?

    Anyway, this has been a strange season. I haven’t been able to watch many games because they only show one or two Championship games a week and we are hardly ever on anyway. I get the impression from being on here that everybody just wants the season to end. We are top of the league and yet most of the games have been dull against dull teams – I think John Anderson on radio Newcastle needs to see a therapist about his depression after listening to him on some recent games.

    Georgio is content with a couple of 1-0 wins against ***** teams at home. Burton Albion FFS. I understand his point though, he just wants an end to this. There just doesn’t seem to be any excitement about this team even though we are winning. But winning ugly?

  6. And Podolsky puts Fat Wayne’s England career into perspective. Wayne has 53 goals in 119 games and Lucas has 48 in 130, many as a sub. What does that say about the quality of opposition they have faced, especially the qualifiers for both the Euro and World Cup? They did star in a movie together though, one played Shrek and the other Donkey.

    Lucas played 19 games in Serie A and scored 1 goal.

  7. I know I am being harsh on Podolsky. He is a decent player, I am shocked that he has over 100 caps for the World Cup winners. He is the Theo Walcott of Germany.

    But Eric, I thought you just said he was the Wayne Rooney of Germany?

  8. Talking of donkeys. Do you know Emile Heskey has 62 England caps? Alan Shearer has 63 and Jimmy Greaves 57.

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