Newcastle v Plymouth
Plymouth have a paltry 2 points from their opening 7 games, picked up via an away draw at Crystal Palace and a home draw against QPR in the first 2 games of the season. Since then they’ve lost to Cardiff, Derby, Sheffield Wednesday, West Brom and Watford, scoring just 6 goals along the way. Alan Gow – a £200,000 signing from Rangers in the summer – is Plymouth’s top scorer with 2 goals and they also have Bradley Wright-Phillips on the books.
Alan Smith returns from suspension for us which means we only have Ameobi and Jonas unavailable for selection. I’d expect Smith to come straight back into the team, most logically at the expense of Butt although I’m not entirely convinced Hughton will drop Butt. We shall see.
New defender Zurab Khizanishvili will be straight into the squad, although I’d be surprised if he starts and would expect Hughton to stick with Simpson, Taylor, Coloccini and Enrique for kick-off.
Up front I’d guess it will be Carroll/Lovenkrands or Carroll/Ranger, most probably the former with Ranger coming on later in the game.
Hughton said:
“We hope we do get a big crowd again.
“There was wonderful support at Blackpool, and when you lose, you always feel for those supporters.
“The best thing you can do is put things right for them. They travel, and they would have been as disappointed as we were by the end. We’re sorry we didn’t give them more.
“Now we have an opportunity to put it right, and it will be a valuable three points against Plymouth – we must make sure we get them.
“We hope we can pick up where we left off at the end of the Blackpool game.
“We created chances, and we’ll be hoping to do the same again.
“I won’t chastise this group of lads for one performance – they have given everything so far.
“We’ve regrouped and we’ll look to get back on track.”
I think we’ll be angry after the defeat at Blackpool and really lay into Plymouth. I’m going for 3-0 to us.
NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen
A life-long Toon fan currently exiled in Somerset who is known in some circles as "The Thinking Man's Thinking Man". Plays darts with the Dalai Lama and Rolf Harris, cohorts with the Minogue sisters and used to play the tambourine with punk band Definite Integral.
Hugh de Payen has written 574 articles on this blog.
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..Why not get a 
Smithy coming back is the big plus for us. Surely Butt has to be dropped to make way? If he isn’t, it will just be another indicator that Hughton isn’t up to the job longer term.
Yeah, Butt should make way. Maybe he will – I just have a slight doubt that Hughton will drop his first-choice captain.
http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/Toon-takeover-fee-met-says.5662260.jp
Is this statement from the same person who said they had at least two bids of £100m?
Anyway I could never understand why the club needed a £40m overdraft when we are owned by a millionaire/billionaire.
‘Sources at the club say Ashley hopes the team’s success on the pitch will improve the club’s long-term value.’
If this part is true it just shows how bloody stupid Ashley is.
I’m still of the opinion that this current squad just isn’t big enough and experienced enough to get promoted.
This may have confirmed my biggest fears. Ashley thinks this start will make him think we can get promoted and he will hang on to the club.
we could all see that coming stuart,ashley has ££££ signs in his eyes.
http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2009/09/19/nufc-admit-100m-is-on-table-for-club-but-overdraft-is-stumbling-block-61634-24727668/
I had a funny feeling the fat git might hold on.There is still a long season ahead for us, promotion aint going to be easy.
So there is Barry Moat and another two who are in the running? This overdraft must be a real sticking point.
Norn Iron Mag says:
September 19, 2009 at 9:47 am
“I had a funny feeling the fat git might hold on.There is still a long season ahead for us, promotion aint going to be easy.
So there is Barry Moat and another two who are in the running? This overdraft must be a real sticking point.”
I’m not exactly a big fan of Ashley’s blunders, but this Moat fella sounds like he doesn’t really have enough money to take the club forward either. We could go back to the Shepherd days as far as debt is concerned.
nufcbb says:
September 19, 2009 at 10:14 am
Why will we go back to the debt ridden days of Shepherd?
Moat’s backers have value for the club and don’t want to py over that value. What’s wrong with that?
They know the club/business needs investment so they won’ pay over the odds. Totally understand where their coming from.
Why should they pay off the debt that our billionaire owner ran up in the form of a overdraft?
Stuart79 says:
September 19, 2009 at 10:18 am
EXACTLY!!
Baz Moat isn’t some Arab that going to throw millions around. He seems shrewd enough, he even seems to have completed due dilligence. Something Ashely didnt do….
Hope Stephen Taylor can deal with the obvious threat of Dietmar Van Nostrilboy today