Newcastle United v Tottenham Hotspur Match History 1905-2011

Just found it interesting and refreshingly honest. And it's quite funny, how he puts it.

 

very honest in these times

 

read the post ...he does every week

 

yes i have a suprise this week aswell

 

has son of a pitch left you in charge this week

 

KEVIN BOND ON NEWCASTLE

Assistant manager Kevin Bond expects the team to face a stern test at St. James’ Park on Sunday as we take on an unbeaten Newcastle side.

Alan Pardew’s team has made an impressive start to the season and lie in fourth place in the Premier League having taken 15 points from their opening seven fixtures.

We can leapfrog Newcastle with victory by a two-goal margin but Kevin is aware of the task at hand.

“We always knew that they (Newcastle) were capable of good things, but they’ve probably started the season better than maybe one or two people expected," he said.

“I’ve seen them play. They’re a strong side, well-organised, well-balanced and they’ve had a really good start to the season.

"Newcastle is always a tough place to go. It’s going to be a hard day and a difficult day, but one that we’re looking forward to.”

With four league wins on the spin, including a North London derby victory over Arsenal two weeks ago, the team go into the match in a rich vein of form.

Kevin, who worked at Newcastle as assistant manager alongside Glenn Roeder for a period in 2006, believes we’ll need a focussed performance on Sunday to come away with the points.

“Sometimes you need to grind out results and be strong and I certainly think we’re going to need to be resilient," he added. "Hopefully we’ll do that and get a good result."

 

Fair I think.

 

Reading between the lines, that might suggest that we're going to play a formation that will help to control the midfield.
Sandro and Parker may start this one, if they're both available.

 

Implying they'll play for a draw? I expect us to stay unchanged and deploy a 4-4-2.

 

No, implying that the side will be set up to dominate possession and try to win that way, rather than matching formations and allowing the game to be more open.
Sandro and Parker protecting the back four and getting the ball to Modric, van der Vaart, Bale and Adebayor to do some damage.
They're both capable footballers, as well as being good defensively.

 

well he hasnt been on much and so ill stop when hes on to ask if he wants the job back

 

Fair enough, I'd like us to do a similar thing by bringing Ben Arfa into the side for one of the strikers, but both are playing well so it's hard to imagine one being dropped.

 

It might be better to take your time with Ben Arfa's reintroduction.
He's been out for a long time with a bad injury and he'll be very rusty.
Rushing him back could be disastrous.

 

Already made that mistake in pre season, we were lucky he was only out until now. With all the build up though, and with how desperate he is to play, it's just a matter of time before he starts again. Wish he hadnt missed the reserve game last week.

 

Wouldn't it be better to give him the odd appearance from the bench and build up his fitness?
Use this season to get him up to 100%, so that next season he can get in a good pre-season and hit the ground running.

I know it's very early on, but you wouldn't want to risk his long-term fitness for a short-term gain.
He could be key to your development in the future.

 

Despite possibly being the best course of action, it just wont happen, he's been built up for over a year to us (with that Everton goal in our minds), the manager's talking him up and he's going to expect to start as soon as Best or Ba get injured or lose form.

 

I think Ben Arfa is ready. Reports have said that his fitness is better now than before his injury even occured, so he just needs conditioning against the rough and tumbles of football, and he should get that through reserve games. He's also had 20 mins in the EPL so far and looked good, so he's already halfway towards being able to put in at least one half, which I'd be happy with on Sunday. Spurs are a relatively clean side (I can't think of any particularly rough or heavy tacklers) so if there's any game where I'd rather he debuted for a decent length of time, it would be this one. That's a stark contrast to when we faced Wolves with their dirty bastard players like Karl Henry.

 

PARKER ON NEWCASTLE:

Deadline-day signing Scott Parker thinks Newcastle and the Toon Army will pose a tough challenge at St. James’ Park on Sunday.

The midfielder has had a fantastic start to his Spurs career, with the team winning four consecutive Premier League matches since the 31-year-old’s arrival.

But Scott believes the lads will face a very stern test from Alan Pardew’s side, who remain unbeaten this season after seven fixtures.

“Certainly, throughout my career, whenever I’ve gone up and played Newcastle, they’ve been very, very tough games.

“Obviously they’ve started very well this year and they’ve got a lot of momentum behind them. It’s going to be difficult for us, there’s no doubting that.

“Anyone who regards Newcastle as an easy game for us is crazy. But we go there with confidence and certainly with a lot of quality. Hopefully we can do the job.”

Scott made 70 appearances for Newcastle during a spell at the club between 2005 and 2007 and has fond memories of his time at St. James’ Park.

“I had a good couple of years there. People say that I didn’t really settle up there but I did settle well. I was named captain, which was a big honour for me.

“It’s a good club. It has a big fan base and obviously a very big stadium. It was good times for me up there.”

Scott has first-hand experience of how loud the Toon Army can be and thinks that starting the game well is vital if we are to take all three points.

“If you can keep the crowd a little bit quiet then you’re doing well, but I think at times they can be Newcastle’s twelfth man. We need to get off to a fast start, try to nullify the opposition and the crowd, and get the points.”

 

Would I be right in thinking that Parker will be well received at each of his ex-clubs?
That must be pretty rare these days.

 

he had a great first season and then he had this knack of passing the ball to the defense which I found strange... Tiote takes the ball forward which is why I think he's the better player.