[Archived] Newcastle United Preview

[Saltysellars]

Right then, Bolton provide the meat in a North East sandwich over the next couple of weeks, and if we pick up six points against these teams and make it through to the fifth round of the FA cup, then I’ll be a very happy man. By the time February dawns and assuming that the fourth round tie at the Stadium of Blight is decided on the day then we will have played various teams from the North East an impressive nine times, which is more than enough for one season. Of course our manager has played for Sunderland and managed the Toon until January of last year so there will be plenty of knowledge to part to his charges before the teams walk out at Ewood for what now turns out to be our first league game of 2009.

I know if is a small word with big connotations, but if big Jase hadn’t missed that open goal on Boxing day and if our defence hadn’t fallen asleep after 85 minutes against Man City two days later, then it could and should have been nine points out of nine over the Christmas period with three clean sheets to boot, probably leaving us around fourteenth and looking down rather than up at Tottenham and Saturday’s opponents. As it stands, we’re in the middle of a run of games that we should be and probably need to win. Come February, we’ll have Aston Villa and then Man United in consecutive league games followed by Arsenal in the middle of March, so we really need to be picking up points. We need to make Ewood a fortress again (much as I mentioned when I did the Hull preview in August!) and make it an unwelcoming and intimidating place to come (football wise) as we did under Hughes and as we did against Stoke and for 80 odd minutes against City.

I have fond memories of playing Newcastle and of the North East in general. I spent three happy years in the region at university and as a result, have got quite a few Newcastle friends. The folks are spot on, and football rivalries aside, you couldn’t wish to meet a nicer and friendly set of people. To digress a little, my time at Uni started in 1996, just as Big Al had moved back home-so I took a bit of stick for that. Two of my footballing heroes have played for both clubs- Shearer and the left footed legend that is Scott Sellars.

My first ever game at Ewood was against Newcastle back in either 83-84 or 84-85, it ended one each with Derek Fazackerley scoring from the penalty spot and I would love to tell you who scored for them, but being five, I’d dragged my Dad off to the gents!! I’ll never forget VE day back in 1995, where we hung on for dear life and Tim Flowers had an absolute blinder “tonight we had bottle”. There have also been a few decent cup ties and a 5-2 victory around six years ago stands out as well. I think they had Dabizas sent off, we went two nil up, a certain centre forward scored two for them to bring it level and then rather un-rovers like, we scored three more and possibly should have had more. Oh and Matt Derbyshire’s last minute winner at St James’ Park last March, when we’d been battered and created nothing and Tugay’s cheeky outside of the right foot last minute finish to seal a 3-1 win are up there too. The odd mishap at home aside, I think we’ve got a pretty good record against them.

I’ve never been too sure how to take Newcastle. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve got a fantastic ground and support to match when the mood takes them, but there’s always something about them that makes you want to laugh at them. Take 1996 as an example, when they threw away a twelve point lead in the title race, rather than feel sorry for them -that was funny, when Graham Fenton popped up twice in the last ten minutes in the same season and sent them spinning to a 2-1 defeat- that was side splitting, and the Kevin Keegan rant at Ferguson in that season “I’d love it if we beat them” and the fact that the Geordie nation regard him as the Messiah lark is funnier than a decent episode of Fawlty Towers. Add in the fact that they get rid of managers just because they don’t play attractive football, pay overinflated prices for mediocre players, whilst “little” Blackburn were giving managers a chance, spending a fifth of what they did and still finishing higher than them in the league, going further in the cups and actually winning one when they haven’t won anything since 1969, makes them a very easy target to have a sly chuckle at them.

When I went to Newcastle on September 27th not realising that this would be the last time I saw Rovers win until 20th December, Newcastle were as poor and lacking in confidence as much as we were when we went to Wigan. Joe Kinnear must be doing something right, and whilst most of the country must have been laughing when he was appointed, might be beginning to sit up and take notice. A defeat against their nearest and dearest aside in the Tyne Wear derby, they’ve had some decent results, including beating Villa 2-0 at home and keeping a clean sheet in picking up a point at the Bridge. If they can squeeze past Hull in the cup replay, then they’ve got either Millwall or Crewe at home, so they’ll have a great chance of going on a decent cup run. I’m not saying that they’ll be good enough to win the thing, but a run to the quarter or even semi final would be a great achievement for this season considering that they only had two wins up until the end of October.

What do I know anyway, I pinged a few questions to my Newcastle mate Keith, who’ll be at the game with me and then I’ll be showing him the delights of Halifax on a Saturday night.

Right then mate- sum up your season for me.

A fairly decent start drawing away at Old Trafford and a home win against Bolton before it all went tits up after dwarfy Wise brought two players in on a season long loan.. One has been injured since then (fits right in at our place) and the other appears to be a Spanish version of Shola Ameobi without the skill factor. Keegan threw his toys out of the pram because of that and the fact Ashley wouldn’t give him the GDP of a small African country to waste on some other knackers. Keegan overlooked the fact that it was Wise & Tony Jimenez who brought Spiderman & Collocini to the club. Chris Hughton was way out of his depth and we lost a load of games that we’d probably have gotten something from now. JFK (Joe Fu***ng Kinnear? as everyone said at the time) has sorted it out and at least we aren’t getting hammered every week.

What did you think of Joe Kinnear's appointment?

Bit of a strange one, though better than El Tel and the other numptys getting banded about by the gutter press. Plus at that point almost anyone would have been better that Hughton

What's your opinion of him now?

Not changed that much. He’s doing an okay job, but seems to have dementia as no sooner does he make a statement to the press someone else reckons the complete opposite (eg Given’s happy/no he’s not etc). Not the man long term, but better than anyone else who’d take the job at the moment (I thought we’d end up with Sven)

What's your opinion of Mr Allardyce and more importantly, do you think he'll do a decent job for us?

He’s a fat twit (edit!!). I got the feeling in the middle of his thankfully brief stint that he was deliberately messing the fans about. Almost everyone knows James Milner is a right winger. Fat Sam was playing him on the left, and went as far as saying in an interview with leading toon fanzine ‘The Mag’ that, ‘James Milner is not a right winger and he never has been, so stop telling me what to do, I know better than you lot’. Two games after it’s published, Milner’s back on the right wing. He’s a big headed (in more ways that one) idiot.

Will he do a good job for you? It depends what you want. He’ll keep you up, you’ll have the odd good result, but won’t go anywhere and he’ll strangle any creativity from centre midfield and your full backs won’t be allowed past the halfway line. I’d say you might lose some fans due to his negative style but then you don’t have that many to start with.

What's going on with Mike Ashley- is the club still up for sale?

He reckons not. I’m actually a fan of Mike Ashley, far better than fat Freddy Shepherd who bled the club dry (by the time Ashley bought the club Freddy had taken that much money out of the club we owed more money than we had assets. That’s not to say if someone offered him 300 million for us he’d turn it down, but who’s going to do that?

Any outlandish rumours circling the Gallowgate about who might be joining you in the transfer window?

Not really, Barry Ferguson’s been mentioned, Riise on loan to end of season has been mentioned, but it’s fairly quiet for a change. The gutter press are too busy talking up Man City to bother us with stupid rumours these days.

If money was no object, who would you love to see in a black and white shirt?

Hmm.....

Gerrard (if only to stop him scoring against us)

Torres or Drogba (preferably the Drogba who murdered us when playing for Marseille and not the sulky git he is now)

(Though money no object would be put into developing a time machine to produce a 20 year old Peter Beardsley and a 55 year old Sir Bobby)

What's the story with Shay Given, and why does he want a move away from SJP?

He’s a spoilt brat at times, probably wants a pay rise. Steve Harper’s sat on the bench for years without complaining, yet when Given was injured he played well enough to keep Given out on his return to fitness, so he lobbed in a transfer request after two games. To be honest, I don’t know why he wants to move, if he goes to a top four club he’ll get found out, i.e. he’s a great shot stopper but doesn’t command his area. He’s not a patch on your old keeper Friedel. He’ll probably stay, but if we got offered good money (more than £10 million) I’d sell him. Harper’s almost as good, and we’ve got two great young lads coming through in Tim Krul and Fraser Forster.

Any fond memories of Ewood Park?

Mainly in the cup, Marc Hottiger curling one beyond Tim Flowers & Louis Saha lashing in after a great cross field ball from Didi Hamann. The other memorable thing about that game was that I was in your end, main stand next to the toon end. I’d spotted one of my mates in the toon end scoffing a hot dog. I got him to lob half of it at me. He did, but I thought it’d never reach, and probably hit a steward/copper standing in the gap between the stands. At the last minute, I realised it was going to reach, so legged it along about 20 yards, jumped down 2 rows of seats and caught it about 6 inches off the deck. It still gets mentioned every time we come down.

Sheet metal workers son from Gosforth apart- who's your favourite player to have played for both clubs- how about Darren Peacock or Keith Gillespie?

It’s certainly not Glen Keeley!

Scott Sellars, then Kevin Gallagher.

Would you rather have a hairstyle like Fabricio Coliccini or a season ticket at the Stadium of Light?

The Hair, defo. It’s probably more expensive than a Mackem season ticket too. Buy one, get 10 free.

Newcastle player we should be keeping an eye on come Saturday 3.00.

Depends who’s fit. Normally I’d say Habib Beye (one of the best right backs in the country once Fat Sam left and he started being able to get forward) but he’s knackered, so Charlie Zog.

Player you'd like to pinch off us in the transfer window?

Morten Gamst Pederson. We’re lacking some creativity in midfield.- Obviously hasn't seen us then!

Blackburn player you fear most?

Probably Jason Roberts, not because he’s that good, but he’s one of those players who always seems to score against us.

What's the worst CD you've ever bought?- so bad that you'd scrape the ice off your car with it?

As my CD collection only stretches to about 15 CDs, I’ve never bought a bad one. I did get a freebie cricket CD from the cricket Barmy Army by way of apology for cocking up an order. It's so poor I wouldn’t even do the car with it, it’s being reserved for the next time the cat next door shi*s in the garden.

Prediction for the match

Heart says 2-0 to the toon, more likely to be a 1-1 draw.

Safe to say, my mate wasn’t too impressed with Mr Allardyce’s stint in charge at SJP, or with some of the current regime up there (Dennis Wise take a bow). The good news for the blue and white’s is that Martins is out with an injury of some description and Shola Ameobi has signed a new contract, so looks like he’ll be playing and I’ve never rated him. Saturday's postponement will give the players another week off to shrug off any bumps, bruises and niggles, but we’ll have another midweek game no doubt to squeeze in at some point.

Looking back at our home games against the barcodes since we got back into the premier league, there have been plenty of goals and also sending's off. Here’s the run down.

2001-2002 23/04/2002 2-2 Gilespie, Cole-Shearer 2

2002-2003 19/10/2002 5-2 Dunn 2, Taylor 2, Griffin (o.g) – Shearer 2

2003-2004 11/02/2004 1-1 Stead-Bellamy

2004-2005 26/12/2004 2-2 Dickov, Todd-Dyer, Robert

2005-2006 18/09/2005 0-3 Shearer, Owen N’Zogbia

2006-2007 09/12/2006 1-3 Pedersen-Martins 2, Taylor

2007-2008 01/12/2007 3-1 Bentley 2, Tugay, Martins

Before I close this preview, I tried to come up with a team who’ve played for both clubs. This is what I came up with.

GK Given

RWB Gillespie

LWB Sellars

CD Peacock

CD Keeley

RW Gallacher

CM Batty

CM Bellamy

LW Duff

CF Shearer

CF Cole

Safe to say, if you take everyone when they were at their peak, then it’s a pretty frightening starting eleven from an attacking point of view. Safe to say that I don’t think Gillespie and Sellars are full backs, neither is Bellers a midfield general, but what a forward line with plenty of supply coming in from the wings. Conversely, the centre back pairing is giving me the cold sweats just thinking about it. If anyone can better that starting XI, then please give it a go.

So that’s that, I’m going for a sneaky 2-1 win to the fully refreshed blues, with a messy night out in Halifax to follow.

Bonjour

[philipl]

Fantastic preview.

Must-win for Rovers. 'nuff said!

[Mc Love]

Anyone know where i can find philo's preview

Nice article, well done Sellars

[joey_big_nose]

Really good preview Sellars!

This will be a MASSIVE game in Sam's mind. He feels bitter about being sacked, and feel like the Toon fans were unfair to him. i imagine he would give almost anything for a win involving good passing football, just to shut them up.

Interesting to see what kind of team we will have. Cruz could be fit by Saturday but might be sold by Saturday. Also It seems like we are seriously tracking a left back, a right back and a striker from what Nicko has said, and Ooijer might well go. Plus Grella will be fully fit. So we could well have an absolute mountain of players to choose from, and it will probably be the first time Sam will be able to organise the team "his way" to an extent due to the amount of time he has had with the players.

It will be facinating if we start moving towards "percentage football" as our Geordie friend suggests, or whether Sam fancies a crack at a more expansive style of play to send a message to his critics. Our three league games up to now suggest the latter, but on the other hand Sam has not had much time to change things. Personally I hope we retain the compact 442 with the quick breaking and attractive interplay between the strikers and the wide players. Entertaining without leaving us exposed. If so a lot will depend on McCarthy keeping up his renaissance.

[The Prof.]

RSC Benni Roberts

Pederson Grella Tugay

Warnock Samba Nelson Bert

A Keeper

Should be enough 1-1

[frosty]

2-1 to Rovers I think.

[chocky]

Going to the Newcastle and Bolton match so hoping for 6 points...

[1864roverite]

For me, this game is the pivotal axis of our season.

Win and we begin to climb.

Lose and we stare oblivion in the face.

Draw - not really an option.

having watched the Barcodes throw away a cerain 3 points at home to wham I suppose it all depends on which Newcastle team turn up.

A club in turmoil ? Most definately.

A team with winners ? Oh yes, especially with a cerain Owen scoring again up front.

A team that can collapse ? Yes they can.

It is believed that Martins will be missing up front so that leaves Shola, Owen and the young lad Carroll as the front options.

In midfield they have options too. Duff, Butt and N'Zogbai to name but a few and all of whom can score on occasions.

In defence Taylor is a class act along with Beye but it is the goalkeeping heroics of Given that is going to be the stumbling block for Rovers.

Saturday has to be the day we take our chances like we did versus Stoke. We cannot afford 1 on 1 misses and we most certainly cannot afford to give sloppy goals away.

Rovers to win 2-0 for me.

[1864roverite]

For me, this game is the pivotal axis of our season.

Win and we begin to climb.

Lose and we stare oblivion in the face.

Draw - not really an option.

having watched the Barcodes throw away a cerain 3 points at home to wham I suppose it all depends on which Newcastle team turn up.

A club in turmoil ? Most definately.

A team with winners ? Oh yes, especially with a cerain Owen scoring again up front.

A team that can collapse ? Yes they can.

It is believed that Martins will be missing up front so that leaves Shola, Owen and the young lad Carroll as the front options.

In midfield they have options too. Duff, Butt and N'Zogbai to name but a few and all of whom can score on occasions.

In defence Taylor is a class act along with Beye but it is the goalkeeping heroics of Given that is going to be the stumbling block for Rovers.

Saturday has to be the day we take our chances like we did versus Stoke. We cannot afford 1 on 1 misses and we most certainly cannot afford to give sloppy goals away.

Rovers to win 2-0 for me.

[1864roverite]

For me, this game is the pivotal axis of our season.

Win and we begin to climb.

Lose and we stare oblivion in the face.

Draw - not really an option.

having watched the Barcodes throw away a cerain 3 points at home to wham I suppose it all depends on which Newcastle team turn up.

A club in turmoil ? Most definately.

A team with winners ? Oh yes, especially with a cerain Owen scoring again up front.

A team that can collapse ? Yes they can.

It is believed that Martins will be missing up front so that leaves Shola, Owen and the young lad Carroll as the front options.

In midfield they have options too. Duff, Butt and N'Zogbai to name but a few and all of whom can score on occasions.

In defence Taylor is a class act along with Beye but it is the goalkeeping heroics of Given that is going to be the stumbling block for Rovers.

Saturday has to be the day we take our chances like we did versus Stoke. We cannot afford 1 on 1 misses and we most certainly cannot afford to give sloppy goals away.

Rovers to win 2-0 for me.

[Mc Love]

I think we get the message 1864roverite

[1864roverite]

button got stuck sorry chaps and chapesses

[philo]

Right then, Bolton provide the meat in a North East sandwich over the next couple of weeks, and if we pick up six points against these teams and make it through to the fifth round of the FA cup, then I’ll be a very happy man. By the time February dawns and assuming that the fourth round tie at the Stadium of Blight is decided on the day then we will have played various teams from the North East an impressive nine times, which is more than enough for one season. Of course our manager has played for Sunderland and managed the Toon until January of last year so there will be plenty of knowledge to part to his charges before the teams walk out at Ewood for what now turns out to be our first league game of 2009.

I know if is a small word with big connotations, but if big Jase hadn’t missed that open goal on Boxing day and if our defence hadn’t fallen asleep after 85 minutes against Man City two days later, then it could and should have been nine points out of nine over the Christmas period with three clean sheets to boot, probably leaving us around fourteenth and looking down rather than up at Tottenham and Saturday’s opponents. As it stands, we’re in the middle of a run of games that we should be and probably need to win. Come February, we’ll have Aston Villa and then Man United in consecutive league games followed by Arsenal in the middle of March, so we really need to be picking up points. We need to make Ewood a fortress again (much as I mentioned when I did the Hull preview in August!) and make it an unwelcoming and intimidating place to come (football wise) as we did under Hughes and as we did against Stoke and for 80 odd minutes against City.

I have fond memories of playing Newcastle and of the North East in general. I spent three happy years in the region at university and as a result, have got quite a few Newcastle friends. The folks are spot on, and football rivalries aside, you couldn’t wish to meet a nicer and friendly set of people. To digress a little, my time at Uni started in 1996, just as Big Al had moved back home-so I took a bit of stick for that. Two of my footballing heroes have played for both clubs- Shearer and the left footed legend that is Scott Sellars.

My first ever game at Ewood was against Newcastle back in either 83-84 or 84-85, it ended one each with Derek Fazackerley scoring from the penalty spot and I would love to tell you who scored for them, but being five, I’d dragged my Dad off to the gents!! I’ll never forget VE day back in 1995, where we hung on for dear life and Tim Flowers had an absolute blinder “tonight we had bottle”. There have also been a few decent cup ties and a 5-2 victory around six years ago stands out as well. I think they had Dabizas sent off, we went two nil up, a certain centre forward scored two for them to bring it level and then rather un-rovers like, we scored three more and possibly should have had more. Oh and Matt Derbyshire’s last minute winner at St James’ Park last March, when we’d been battered and created nothing and Tugay’s cheeky outside of the right foot last minute finish to seal a 3-1 win are up there too. The odd mishap at home aside, I think we’ve got a pretty good record against them.

I’ve never been too sure how to take Newcastle. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve got a fantastic ground and support to match when the mood takes them, but there’s always something about them that makes you want to laugh at them. Take 1996 as an example, when they threw away a twelve point lead in the title race, rather than feel sorry for them -that was funny, when Graham Fenton popped up twice in the last ten minutes in the same season and sent them spinning to a 2-1 defeat- that was side splitting, and the Kevin Keegan rant at Ferguson in that season “I’d love it if we beat them” and the fact that the Geordie nation regard him as the Messiah lark is funnier than a decent episode of Fawlty Towers. Add in the fact that they get rid of managers just because they don’t play attractive football, pay overinflated prices for mediocre players, whilst “little” Blackburn were giving managers a chance, spending a fifth of what they did and still finishing higher than them in the league, going further in the cups and actually winning one when they haven’t won anything since 1969, makes them a very easy target to have a sly chuckle at them.

When I went to Newcastle on September 27th not realising that this would be the last time I saw Rovers win until 20th December, Newcastle were as poor and lacking in confidence as much as we were when we went to Wigan. Joe Kinnear must be doing something right, and whilst most of the country must have been laughing when he was appointed, might be beginning to sit up and take notice. A defeat against their nearest and dearest aside in the Tyne Wear derby, they’ve had some decent results, including beating Villa 2-0 at home and keeping a clean sheet in picking up a point at the Bridge. If they can squeeze past Hull in the cup replay, then they’ve got either Millwall or Crewe at home, so they’ll have a great chance of going on a decent cup run. I’m not saying that they’ll be good enough to win the thing, but a run to the quarter or even semi final would be a great achievement for this season considering that they only had two wins up until the end of October.

What do I know anyway, I pinged a few questions to my Newcastle mate Keith, who’ll be at the game with me and then I’ll be showing him the delights of Halifax on a Saturday night.

Right then mate- sum up your season for me.

A fairly decent start drawing away at Old Trafford and a home win against Bolton before it all went tits up after dwarfy Wise brought two players in on a season long loan.. One has been injured since then (fits right in at our place) and the other appears to be a Spanish version of Shola Ameobi without the skill factor. Keegan threw his toys out of the pram because of that and the fact Ashley wouldn’t give him the GDP of a small African country to waste on some other knackers. Keegan overlooked the fact that it was Wise & Tony Jimenez who brought Spiderman & Collocini to the club. Chris Hughton was way out of his depth and we lost a load of games that we’d probably have gotten something from now. JFK (Joe Fu***ng Kinnear? as everyone said at the time) has sorted it out and at least we aren’t getting hammered every week.

What did you think of Joe Kinnear's appointment?

Bit of a strange one, though better than El Tel and the other numptys getting banded about by the gutter press. Plus at that point almost anyone would have been better that Hughton

What's your opinion of him now?

Not changed that much. He’s doing an okay job, but seems to have dementia as no sooner does he make a statement to the press someone else reckons the complete opposite (eg Given’s happy/no he’s not etc). Not the man long term, but better than anyone else who’d take the job at the moment (I thought we’d end up with Sven)

What's your opinion of Mr Allardyce and more importantly, do you think he'll do a decent job for us?

He’s a fat twit (edit!!). I got the feeling in the middle of his thankfully brief stint that he was deliberately messing the fans about. Almost everyone knows James Milner is a right winger. Fat Sam was playing him on the left, and went as far as saying in an interview with leading toon fanzine ‘The Mag’ that, ‘James Milner is not a right winger and he never has been, so stop telling me what to do, I know better than you lot’. Two games after it’s published, Milner’s back on the right wing. He’s a big headed (in more ways that one) idiot.

Will he do a good job for you? It depends what you want. He’ll keep you up, you’ll have the odd good result, but won’t go anywhere and he’ll strangle any creativity from centre midfield and your full backs won’t be allowed past the halfway line. I’d say you might lose some fans due to his negative style but then you don’t have that many to start with.

What's going on with Mike Ashley- is the club still up for sale?

He reckons not. I’m actually a fan of Mike Ashley, far better than fat Freddy Shepherd who bled the club dry (by the time Ashley bought the club Freddy had taken that much money out of the club we owed more money than we had assets. That’s not to say if someone offered him 300 million for us he’d turn it down, but who’s going to do that?

Any outlandish rumours circling the Gallowgate about who might be joining you in the transfer window?

Not really, Barry Ferguson’s been mentioned, Riise on loan to end of season has been mentioned, but it’s fairly quiet for a change. The gutter press are too busy talking up Man City to bother us with stupid rumours these days.

If money was no object, who would you love to see in a black and white shirt?

Hmm.....

Gerrard (if only to stop him scoring against us)

Torres or Drogba (preferably the Drogba who murdered us when playing for Marseille and not the sulky git he is now)

(Though money no object would be put into developing a time machine to produce a 20 year old Peter Beardsley and a 55 year old Sir Bobby)

What's the story with Shay Given, and why does he want a move away from SJP?

He’s a spoilt brat at times, probably wants a pay rise. Steve Harper’s sat on the bench for years without complaining, yet when Given was injured he played well enough to keep Given out on his return to fitness, so he lobbed in a transfer request after two games. To be honest, I don’t know why he wants to move, if he goes to a top four club he’ll get found out, i.e. he’s a great shot stopper but doesn’t command his area. He’s not a patch on your old keeper Friedel. He’ll probably stay, but if we got offered good money (more than £10 million) I’d sell him. Harper’s almost as good, and we’ve got two great young lads coming through in Tim Krul and Fraser Forster.

Any fond memories of Ewood Park?

Mainly in the cup, Marc Hottiger curling one beyond Tim Flowers & Louis Saha lashing in after a great cross field ball from Didi Hamann. The other memorable thing about that game was that I was in your end, main stand next to the toon end. I’d spotted one of my mates in the toon end scoffing a hot dog. I got him to lob half of it at me. He did, but I thought it’d never reach, and probably hit a steward/copper standing in the gap between the stands. At the last minute, I realised it was going to reach, so legged it along about 20 yards, jumped down 2 rows of seats and caught it about 6 inches off the deck. It still gets mentioned every time we come down.

Sheet metal workers son from Gosforth apart- who's your favourite player to have played for both clubs- how about Darren Peacock or Keith Gillespie?

It’s certainly not Glen Keeley!

Scott Sellars, then Kevin Gallagher.

Would you rather have a hairstyle like Fabricio Coliccini or a season ticket at the Stadium of Light?

The Hair, defo. It’s probably more expensive than a Mackem season ticket too. Buy one, get 10 free.

Newcastle player we should be keeping an eye on come Saturday 3.00.

Depends who’s fit. Normally I’d say Habib Beye (one of the best right backs in the country once Fat Sam left and he started being able to get forward) but he’s knackered, so Charlie Zog.

Player you'd like to pinch off us in the transfer window?

Morten Gamst Pederson. We’re lacking some creativity in midfield.- Obviously hasn't seen us then!

Blackburn player you fear most?

Probably Jason Roberts, not because he’s that good, but he’s one of those players who always seems to score against us.

What's the worst CD you've ever bought?- so bad that you'd scrape the ice off your car with it?

As my CD collection only stretches to about 15 CDs, I’ve never bought a bad one. I did get a freebie cricket CD from the cricket Barmy Army by way of apology for cocking up an order. It's so poor I wouldn’t even do the car with it, it’s being reserved for the next time the cat next door shi*s in the garden.

Prediction for the match

Heart says 2-0 to the toon, more likely to be a 1-1 draw.

Safe to say, my mate wasn’t too impressed with Mr Allardyce’s stint in charge at SJP, or with some of the current regime up there (Dennis Wise take a bow). The good news for the blue and white’s is that Martins is out with an injury of some description and Shola Ameobi has signed a new contract, so looks like he’ll be playing and I’ve never rated him. Saturday's postponement will give the players another week off to shrug off any bumps, bruises and niggles, but we’ll have another midweek game no doubt to squeeze in at some point.

Looking back at our home games against the barcodes since we got back into the premier league, there have been plenty of goals and also sending's off. Here’s the run down.

2001-2002 23/04/2002 2-2 Gilespie, Cole-Shearer 2

2002-2003 19/10/2002 5-2 Dunn 2, Taylor 2, Griffin (o.g) – Shearer 2

2003-2004 11/02/2004 1-1 Stead-Bellamy

2004-2005 26/12/2004 2-2 Dickov, Todd-Dyer, Robert

2005-2006 18/09/2005 0-3 Shearer, Owen N’Zogbia

2006-2007 09/12/2006 1-3 Pedersen-Martins 2, Taylor

2007-2008 01/12/2007 3-1 Bentley 2, Tugay, Martins

Before I close this preview, I tried to come up with a team who’ve played for both clubs. This is what I came up with.

GK Given

RWB Gillespie

LWB Sellars

CD Peacock

CD Keeley

RW Gallacher

CM Batty

CM Bellamy

LW Duff

CF Shearer

CF Cole

Safe to say, if you take everyone when they were at their peak, then it’s a pretty frightening starting eleven from an attacking point of view. Safe to say that I don’t think Gillespie and Sellars are full backs, neither is Bellers a midfield general, but what a forward line with plenty of supply coming in from the wings. Conversely, the centre back pairing is giving me the cold sweats just thinking about it. If anyone can better that starting XI, then please give it a go.

So that’s that, I’m going for a sneaky 2-1 win to the fully refreshed blues, with a messy night out in Halifax to follow.

Bonjour

even i can call this a good preview

mines still better but

LOL

[colin]

Good preview Salty. Thanks for the time & effort.

It's appreciated

[bennyboyt11]

We can do this one lads CMON ROVERS

1 - 0 McCarthy to score a scorcher

[Roost]

We can do this one lads CMON ROVERS

1 - 0 McCarthy to score a scorcher

Got some Geordie Londoners up for this one, plus my bird is a geordie.............. bloody 'ell Rovers, you had better win this one.

I can see Allardyce being well revved up for this.

One Love - BRFC

[1864roverite]

Can you elaborate?

yes I can do, a draw means yet another 2 points thrown away and puts further pressure on our team. It will also allow a couple of teams above us to sneak further away from us at the same time if they get 3 points.

Its pretty simple mathematics really.

3 points reels in a few of the teams above us.

[DeadlyDirk]

Good preview, can't wait for the game.

Losing wouldn't be the be all and end all of our season but a win could be massive going into the new year.

[Presty On Tour]

Big Sam will want to win this at all costs.

After the way he was forced out, he will certainly wanting to prove himself.

Newcastle's defense is a shambles and we will get a lot of chances if we deploy an attacking mentality. We may even see a 433/451 formation with 3 strikers selected in the blue N white halves.

We have had a long rest period and the preparation for this game i can imagine would be very thorough to every player.

No mistakes and make the home advantage count.

If everything goes to plan, i think we will win by a few goals.

[Hughesy]

3-1 Rovers. Just need to stop owen, simple really.

Think our boys will be up for this, hopefully they will all be fresh too as most have had almost 3 weeks off (after blyth and game off).

[mode_m]

Yeah if they stop Owen should be okay. Given should be on top of his game as always unless he is in Manchester's roster by that time. Rovers need this win.

Hopefully televised.

[benlloninho]

The fact that we haven't played in so long worries me.

[Majiball]

Why?

Sam will have had almost two weeks with them straight. He should be getting his ideas across and the players picking them up, if anything I think it will help.

Two weeks is a long time in football a lot of team errors can be eliminated, set pieces worked on more and so on.

TBH I'm expecting to see an improved Rovers.

[AggyBlue]

TBH I'm expecting to see an improved Rovers.

I'm hoping to see an improved Rovers.

I'll take any sort of win. They are supposed to have a shed full of players missing, I'll believe that when I see it.

[47er]

Kinnear was quoted earlier in the week as saying that they only had 11 fit players. Couldn't be a better time to play them. I want to say we could be out of the bottom three by Saturday evening but I daren't!