Thursday, December 11, 2014

The Geordie resurgence

I imagine Sir John Hall is sitting in his Northumberland country manor with a smile on his face as he watches a great bunch of Geordies in the NUFC first team squad.

It was back in the mid 1990's when Sir John made the famous "I dream of a team full of Geordies' speech. We had a bloody good team back then, however the only Geordie's who made it to the top level with us were Alan Shearer, supported by our best crop of local talent - Clark, Howey, Elliott, and Steve Watson the Geordie version of Man Utds class on '92.

In all honestly though Alan Shearer was the only member of that group who played for us in their prime.

Since then only Shola Ameobi and Steven Taylor have broken through and stayed around the 1st team - both with varied success. This season though we have seen a group of local lads having a big influence on our recent success.

During Saturdays win of Chelsea we fielded the following Geordies - Taylor, Dummett, Colback,Alnwick, and Ameobi. Add to that Armstrong, Campbell, and Streete who are next in line to make the 1st team squad and we have a lot to be proud of. 

The time and money spent on the academy is paying dividend right now. Outside of the Geordie group we have seen Tim Krul,  and Rolando Aarons make the 1st team after progression through our academy system.

Our squad all of a sudden looks in a lot better shape than we first thought thanks to the Geordie resurgence. 

Now if only we could find the next Alan Shearer!  

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Burnely, Ings, & awful set pieces

Tuesday night saw NUFC grab a decent point away at Burnley despite an awful 1st half performance. Second half have changes saw us equalise and push for a winner yet in the end we had to settle for a draw - probably a fair result. This is the kind of of game NUFC usually lose so lets take that as a positive. 

Saying all of that that the only things Tuesday nights game confirmed for me is that we are terrible from set pieces - corners, free kick, and even throw In's - we are awful. Secondly we need to make a move for Danny Ings who I felt was the best player on the field. If Ings was in a NUFC shirt we would have won this game.

Ings is a old fashioned England style forward - much in the mold of a young Alan Shearer, similar to QPR's Charlie Austin who is looking great this season in the Premier league. Ings or Andy Carroll wold be the kind of forward NUFC fans love. Young, hungry with bags of potential.

Ings is free to talk to clubs in January and leave Turf Moor in the summer. He is someone NUFC should certainly talk too and is a forward who could lead our forward line for years to come.

The new Shearer?

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Burnley away - Injury crisis

After a quick read of the morning football news is appears we have 13 first tteam players currently injured and will miss tonights game at Burnley. 

Add to this list Moussa Sissoko and Jack Colback who are suspended and we are really down to the bear bones.






The likes of Remie Streete,and Lubomir Satka will come in as defensive cover, while the likes of Vurnon Anita will be given a chance. Pardew will have to earn his wages tonight as coming up with a team which can win a Premier league game tonight will be tough.

I would go with the following 11

Elliott

Dummett
Taylor
Streete
Haidara

Cabella
Anita
Tiote

Sammy
Perez
Riviere