August 2009 Archives

At the start of the summer if Bolton Wanderers had admitted they were up for taking back Kevin Nolan there probably wouldn't have been too many complaints on Tyneside.

But after a solid start from the man who rammed home the winner against Huddersfield Town in the Carling Cup many fans have been pleasantly surprised by Nolan's contributions so far.

To be fair it's not like Newcastle can afford to lose any player at the moment due to the paper thin nature of their squad.

NEWCASTLE United have beaten Huddersfield Town 4-3 in a Carling Cup cracker at St James's Park.

The Toon were handed the lead on a plate by a stray backpass which Guthrie rifled home on 35 minutes.

But they allowed Huddersfield to get straight back into it when Theo Robinson ghosted past Kadar before firing past Krul after Newcastle gave the ball away cheaply and only moments after going ahead.

Then two minutes later Robinson went round Krul before crashing to the turf to earn a penalty before brushing himself down to fire home for 2-1.

That's how it stayed at the break but Newcastle were stunned when Rhodes went around Krul again to slot in number three just two minutes after the restart.

However, Geremi pulled one back on 48 minutes when he tucked home Kevin Nolan's pass for 3-2.

Sub Shola Ameobi then earned a penalty when Butler clipped his heels and Shola slotted home to make it 3-3 on 64 minutes.

With six minutes left Jonas won a free-kick in the left channel and after Guthrie's free-kick was headed across the face of goal, Nolan crashed it home from close range to win it 4-3.

All in all a cracking game, and I was at the ground to bring you regular updates on the action and let you get involved in all the drama.

To replay the coverage, just click below.

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Once upon the Tyne players turning down Newcastle United to play in what some of us will always regard as the Fourth Division would have been regarded as something as a shock in football - in fact during the first KK era players turned down Premier League clubs to join a Second Division (old money) side (ask John Beresford, Paul Bracewell, Scott Sellars or Barry Venison if you don't believe me).

But there was nothing puzzling about Sol Campbell's decision to snub the Magpies on Tyneside for the Magpies of Nottingham, nothing puzzling at all.

Campbell was offered a deal to play for Newcastle with caretaker boss Chris Hughton confirming this today at the club's media conference ahead of the Huddersfield Town Carling Cup game.

Anybody at Crystal Palace on Saturday must have thought that the Eagles would have served up a bit more of a challenge than they did at Selhurst Park as Newcastle's Championship road show reached sunny Croydon.

No doubt Palace were fired up by Neil Warnock as they walked out to Glad All Over with the Selhurst faithful also seemingly up for the challenge.

But it was a case of yellow clad all over Selhurst Park within 30 minutes of this game with Newcastle looking dangerous each and every time they ventured forward against Warnock's troops.

Kevin Nolan and Ryan Taylor's first Toon goals provided the lead and set up a great away win.

NEWCASTLE United continued their brilliant start to the season with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.

It's now three wins out of four for the Magpies with their unbeaten run keeping them at the business end of the Championship table.

It is early doors but this was a great show by United, with the players keeping the ball brilliantly and Kevin Nolan and Ryan Taylor netting two superb strikes.

The boys in yellow got off to a perfect start, taking the lead with less than two minutes on the clock.

Jonas Gutierrez picked up the ball on the left, saw Nolan's clever run into the area and found the former Bolton midfielder with a clever chip.

Nolan made no mistake with a first-time finish through the legs of Eagles keeper Darryl Flahavan for his first Magpies goal.

Later in the first half, Ryan Taylor collected spiderman's square pass 25 yards out and, spotting Flahavan off his line, sent a delightful left-footed curler into the top corner to open his account for the club.

Throw into that another clean sheet for Chris Hughton's men and it was great day all round.

United fans though did end the game chanting anti-Ashley songs with all attention now on Monday's statement over the future of the club.

I was at the game, and you can replay my live blog on the action below.

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SHOLA AMEOBI made it four goals in two games as he hit the winner to defeat Sheffield Wednesday.

The Toon Army turned up in force to watch United take on the Owls, with a crowd of nearly 44,000 swelling St James's Park.

This was more than turned up to watch Sunderland v Chelsea at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night.

Ameobi put the ball in the back of the net on 15 minutes, and while Wednesday had a good spell of play at the end of the match, the Magpies held on to record their second victory and move on to four points and third place in the table.

I was at the game to bring you all the colour and drama, and have some banter with the thousands of fans who logged on.

Click below to see a replay of my live blog.

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Make no mistake - Brian Laws will have his players ready for a war tonight at St James's Park when he brings Sheff Wed to Tyneside.

While many teams will be heading to St James's Park and looking forward to their "cup final", the tired cliche that is going to follow us around all season, Laws - who is the Football League's Mr Motivator - will want his players to sweat blood for the cause.

Speaking from experience, Laws doesn't take anything lightly when it comes to his football clubs.

Quite how Shola Ameobi's form can go from absolutely dreadful to first class probably didn't matter too much to the Toon fans who attended the first second tier game at St James's Park since 1993.

In fact the last time we played at this level special measures had to be made for Andy Cole and David Kelly to get a match ball each after the pair hit hat-tricks against Leicester City in a 7-1 win 16 years ago.

However, this time there was only one hero and that was Shola.

IT'S the second match of the season and as usual I'll be at St James's Park to bring you all the colour and drama from the game against Reading.

The Toon got off to a pretty good start last week with the 1-1 draw at the Hawthorns, and all eyes will be on the players to see if they can up that performance this time around.

Displays at home last season weren't good enough to keep us in the Premier League, with the only standout performance in 2009 coming against Middlesbrough.

It'll also be interesting to see how many fans do show up with the continuing uncertainty around Mike Ashley's ownership, the manager's position, and the fact the clash is on Sky.

However if you can't make it to the game, I hope you'll join me from 5pm on Saturday.

As well as all the action, there's also a chance to ask me questions about the ongoing situation at the club and have a bit of banter with other Toon supporters.

To get involved, come back here before kick-off or click below to set a reminder.

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With the transfer deadline now very much on the horizon and the new season already well under way - Newcastle United are starting to think about the consequences of life on Tyneside if the club isn't sold.

Utterings from across the Irish Sea suggest that David O'Leary (the man many Toon fans do not want in charge of their team) will only take the job if the club is taken off the market.

And while it's thought that Gordon Strachan and Alan Curbishley have been sounded out to take over the reins at SJP, you would have to question the sanity of either if they were to come in and expect to lead Newcastle to promotion with little or no time to manoeuvre in the transfer market and work with a paper thin squad ahead of a marathon season.