Newcastle Preview.

[Alan75]

Preview by ihatethedingles

Saturday 9th December see's two teams meet who should be further up the table then they currently are. This is very early in the season to be saying this but this is a 6-pointer even with the barcodes win last night over Reading reality of it is simple, they need points, we need points. At the start of the season this fixture would have been looked upon as being as fixture between two top-half teams both in the Uefa Cup. Instead it is a bottom half of the table scrap between two sides distracted by the Uefa Cup and ravaged with injury problems.

Both sides have a host of names missing from their squads with us missing players like Ryan Nelsen, Steven Reid, Jason Roberts, Zurab Khizanishvili and Francis Jeffers, could probably add Brett Emerton to that list now. Newcastle have players like Shola Ameobi and Michael Owen missing indefinately and with having injury prone players like Damien Duff in their squad, they were tempting fate with an injury crisis.

Both sides campaigns this season have been blighted by injuries and with fully fit squads, both teams should make their way back up the table.

After Tuesday's pathetic performance down at the Valley, we need a big performance against the barcodes, players like Gamst and IMO Benni who i don't see what all the fuss is about, need to step their game up. Gamst looks like he cannot be bothered anymore, he looks tired and he looks like he has no desire. As for Benni, the guy never gets in the box to get on the end of a cross and is constantly being caught offside. On Saturday, Benni should have no excuse for getting caught offside as Newcastle's defence has to be one of the worst in the league. Big Titus Bramble is a big strong but slow centre half, a player with a slight bit of upper body strength and some pace can make a fool out of him, here's hoping Benni can do that. Although Bramble may not even be fit for the match as he missed Newcastle's superb win over Reading, coming for 1-2 down to win 3-2.

The Bardcodes are relying on a blend of youth and experience to get them through their problems with players like Ramage, Taylor, Huntington, Pattison and Rossi(on loan from Manure) all making appearances this season. We do not have any youth team players who are making starts for us, only Sergio Peter has had a start this season even with our injury problems.

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