Mackems v Magpies match banter!
Posted on August 20th, 2011 | 64 Comments |
With Sunderland having home advantage this time at the Stadium of Blight, they will be far more accustomed to playing on a pitch which can often be an obstactle course of abadoned carrier bags, polystyrene fast food containers etc. Hence, Sunderland haven’t lost to Newcastle at home since the 2005/2006 season, when the Magpies triumphed 4-1 with goals from Chopra, Shearer(P), N’Zogbia and Luque, with Hoyte managing a consolation goal for the Tramps. Of course, most of you will remeber that last season’s results were a glorious 5-1 victory at home under previous manager, Chris Hughton, and a more modest 1-1 draw back at their place. Incidentally for more stuff looking forward to the big match, check out Jimbab’s excellent match preview.
One slightly ominous statistic for the Magpies is that thanks to the largesse of Texan billionaire owner, Ellis Short, Sunderland have bought no less than ten new players so far in the current transfer window, though many have been aquired for a very modest outlay.
Moving on to the managers, this is what Alan Pardew had to say about the forthcoming battle:
“I think it’s a game and a team that are not too dissimilar from ourselves [sic]. I think it will be a cut and thrust game. I think the referee will have to be astute and makes sure he makes the right calls at the right times because there’ll be alot of passionate players on the pitch, and I think if there’s one feature of the Newcastle Sunderland teams, it’s that they’ve got characters in the team and fiery characters at that.
“I think that the stadium was alive and kicking, we certainly felt that, and you know it just makes eveything energised, a football match like that, I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait for Saturday and you know the welcome will be ferocious for us, as it will be when they come to Newcastle. But you know, as a football manager, if you can’t can’t get excited by those types of games then you shouldn’t be in it. I can’t wait for it to start and I’m looking forward to us doing well.”
Meanwhile from the other side of the fence, the broken nosed Dinner Lady had this to say:
“The north-east is about their passion and their support for their team. It’s unrivalled. May the better team win and let’s make sure it’s a spectacle.”
Still on the old rivalty, but looking at the bigger picture, he also remarked:
“The big thing for me is that we finished above them (us) for the third time in a row, which hasn’t happened for a long, long time, and our aim is to finish on top of them again.”
But that’s enough of that!
Team News
Well, Pardew has already confirmed that ‘Mackem Slayer’, Shola Ameobi, will be starting the game. At this late stage though, I think it may be best just to hoy up the official teamsheets when the become available, which I shall endeavour to do!
Finally, if any of you have any good links for the game, please feel free to post them!
Howay the Lads!
Newcastle United (4-2-3-1): Tim Krul(G), Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini(C), Ryan Taylor, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Joey Barton, Gabriel Obertan, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi.
Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, Dan Gosling, Sylvain Marveaux, Peter Lovenkrands, Leon Best, Demba Ba.
Sunderland (4-4-2): Simon Mingolet; Phil Bardsley, Wes Brown, Anton Ferdinand, Kieran Richardson; Sebastian Larsson, Lee Cattermole (c), Jack Colback, Ahmed Elmohamady; Stephane Sessegnon, Asamoah Gyan
Subs: Kieren Westwood, Titus Bramble, Louis Laing, David Vaughan, Craig Gardner, Connor Wickham, Ji Dong-Won.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1084 articles on this blog.
Bit late but no matter. :D
Nearly gave a foul away then, nail biting stuff.
@Jimbob:
It’s allowed. Worth it for this win though!