I think this will be a good test for both teams. Newcastle has been doing much better than anyone thought, and should have a great atmosphere for what should be their biggest challenge yet. Spurs missed fourth last year mostly because they couldn't score/win against teams they were favored to beat. There's good reason to think Parker and Ade help a lot in that department (graft plus cutting edge) but we'll know more after the game.
With Spurs playing well but having to undergo a break which often breaks our stride it will be an interesting match. I'm going for a likely draw or an unlikely Spurs win by one goal.
It'll be a great day at St James', atmosphere-wise. It should be a cracking match, very hard to call at this stage. The injuries situation will have a lot to say on the outcome. I'll be a lot more relaxed if Demba Ba misses this one, as I've read some rumours he will. He's a big plus for them. I can't stand Tiote or Pardew (the latter because of his West Ham days, Toon fans, nothing against the way he manages your club). So there are two extra reasons I'll be hoping for a Spurs win. I fear Tiote will be his usual fouling, trouble-making self, and how the ref handles him, will have a lot of impact on the game.
Where's your courage Ghoddle? Why would you want to face a weakened team? Isn't it better to meet and beat a full strength team so we know where we are? Suppose we lose to a weakened team,what does that say for us? I hope they field their strongest team so there can be no excuses if we win. I'm not convinced by Spurs this season yet. Wolves have now gone on a losing streak since we beat them and 3-1 v Shamrock wasn't exactly an impressive score line as wasn't Wigan when we were cruising at 0-2 after 20 or so minutes. Arsenal were weakened and we scraped by. A two goal win to us will tell me that we are on form at Newcastle. Also 4-0 against 9 men wasn't a good indicator either. I'd have preferred 4-0 against 11 man Liverpool. We are not yet the finished article.
We were well on top of Liverpool berore they lost 2 players,and better finishing against Arsenal would have given us 2 more goals,and they didn't trouble Friedal.
Well obviously I'm not as brave as a powerful Norse deity like yourself, but I want three points, and if playing a weakened team helps us get that then great. I'm not concerned about banging my hammer against my chest or my bonce for that matter, it's points that count not bravado. I noticed on another post how you were downplaying our achievements so far this season. I find negative fans like you uninspiring and far from god-like. We've put in some absolutely brilliant performances already this season, and I was delighted with our performance and result on Sunday. If it's not good enough for you , well best you toddle off back to Valhalla and play with the real men, or gods, or whatever
Liverpool could of had 15 men and we still would of made them look like schoolboys that day....best performance of the season by us! Even Man utd scrape victories when they are poor/lucky but I doubt they complain about that when they win the league at the end of the season....we can't be perfect every game! All I know is we are putting in improved performances since last year, picking up points against teams we dropped and looking alot more dangerous in the final third. There is no reason why we shouldn't be confident at the moment
i'm looking forward to seeing tiote and parker lock horns in the middle of the park. I'm not one of the newcastle fans that got on parkers back and i totally fail to see why any of them did. the guy would sweat blood for us every game and i can't knock any player like that. tiote isn't intentionally dirty he's just very enthusiastic. most of his bookings are for cynical fouls where he's breaking up a counter attack etc.
Hi P4L - doesn't this sentence contain a contradiction? Surely 'cynical' implies 'intention'? Whether he means it or not, Tiote is a dirty player, who will do damage to another player, if he hasn't done already. He cynically got Kaboul sent off, and I can't stand him, and hope he gets red carded early on, before he hurts any of our players.
Ghoddle,I think you're just as weak a character as Hoddle was a manager if you are going to throw insults because of an opinion about our score lines. Yes superal we are putting in improved performances but all I'm saying is that we are not there yet and I don't think that we are as effective as we should be and Ghoddle doesn't have the strength of character to accept that without throwing insults. Maybe his standards are lower than mine. tots,exactly,our finishing wasn't as good as it should have been against Arsenal and that's a bit of a concern isn't it? They went very close early on. No I think we still have some way to go whatever Ghoddle thinks or posts. Besides Asgard is the realm of the Gods not Valhalla.
Also there was criticism of VDV allowing the first goal to happen. I'm sorry if I'm uninspiring by posting things as I see them and not making things up.
Europa League hardly counts, Wolves away was a good result regardless of their form since, Liverpool was going to be a mauling anyway, they were on the run long before the first sending off, Wigan hadn't lost at home since February and Arsenal is a derby and that's always going to be difficult - how many times have we given them a hell of a game despite struggling in the league? There's positive and negative ways to look at these things, last season we got 7 points from those fixtures, this year we got 12. I think you're underestimating how good our performances have been too.
Against LFC we may have scored more than 4, because when they lost players, they tightened up a lot, and we no longer had as much space.
Wigan are right down there this season though aren't they and will probably lose more home games. Look,all I'm saying is that our wins have not been as emphatic as they should have been. What's the point of winning by an arm controlled goal? It's not good form if one has to cheat like Maradonna did against England,a goal that should not have stood. I'm very unsure that VDV's goal should have stood therefore making it a 1-1 draw against a weakened and struggling Arsenal. Drogba did it last season at WHL and Chelsea won nothing last season and neither will we because cheating runs out as does luck. It's better to win by well worked and honest play and I don't know why the insults. It's just my opinion that there's better to come from us yet. If we do win by playing well then we will win something. I take your points but I'll repeat that I would have preferred to beat an 11 man Liverpool 4-0,it would have been a better indicator of our form,that's all I'm saying.
They began with 11 men. And we were 1-0 up when they still had all 11. We were too quick for them and their tackles were late. It was our superior play that got those players sent off. They couldn't cope. To take our victory away because they only had 9 men by the end of the match is incorrect as it says nothing about us, but everything about them.
if the ref can't see the arm control the ball he has to give a goal,but was it his arm the tv did'nt prove it was
Yes tots,I've looked at it many times and I'm unsure. Ok Solid. But tell me how you'd prefer to win. How would you prefer to get 3 points forgetting the Liverpool match?
[my post just disappeared - apologies if it suddenly comes back and this looks like I've posted the same thing twice] Thor (I assume from "The Mighty" prefix that you are more into Marvel than Norse mythology), I really can't work out if you are someone who believes themselves to be a Spurs supporter (but in my mind hardly qualifies since you don't really "support" according to the definition of the word), or a more than usually subtle WUM. If you fail to see the positives in recent games then basically you've set yourself up for a very disappointing life. There really isn't any point in only acknowledging perfection because basically it isn't going to happen plus (and this is where my first comment comes in) a supporter carries on supporting *regardless*. I hate to think how you would have reacted in our relegation season! The fact that I am even contemplating whether you are a WUM should make you worried whether your criticism is going a bit far!
Think calling him a dirty player is a bit extreme. Karl Henry & De Jong are dirty players, they go out to foul the opposition. Tiote got a bit of a reputation last season, and therefore towards the end of the season he would get booked for his first foul of the match, even if it was in the 80th minute and harmless. He plays his DM role very well - and commits himself to slide tackles. He isnt the sort to injure your players, or get sent off. (He's only been sent off once for us, against Stevenage where he won the ball )
