Newcastle United vs West Ham United

After having endured yet another farcical episode of the Graham Poll show last week, we are now into a situation where every game is a vital one.

There has been much debate and computation all over KUMB about how many points we need to survive and although the answer is not certain, most people would concede that we need to win at least half of our games (if we include some of the relegation six pointers).

Our next opportunity to get some points sets us off on the long road to Newcastle as we travel to the North East for a 3pm Saturday kick off.

Our opponents are in a rich vein of league form and they currently sit pretty in 11th place in the table with a points advantage of ten over our good selves. This is despite an atrocious start to the season that saw them on a tally of just 11 points from the opening 13 games on a run that included home defeats by Fulham and Sheffield United, them coming second in the North East Derby and only managing a goalless affair with Charlton.

Recent form has been in sharp contrast and to our detriment; it is at St James that things have really picked up. They have not been beaten at home since early November and since that defeat by Sheffield United, Arsenal and Man Yoo have managed a draw and Portsmouth, Reading, T*tenham and Watford have been conquered, as were Wigan on the opening day. Away form has been slightly more erratic, where they have only registered three victories, including last week’s plucky 3-2 at White Hart Lane.

This despite a much reported absence of first team players and the need to blood several products of their youth academy. A selection of those currently queuing up outside the physio’s room include strikers Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi, defenders, Celestine Babayaro, Oliver Barnard and Craig Moore, mistake prone liability, Titus Bramble and midfielders, Charles N’Zogbia, Scott Parker, Damien Duff and Emre. That should take care of most of the players that you’ve heard of; let’s have a look at their likely line up.

“James – Schemmel – Winterburn – Pearce – Repka – Dailly – Sinclair – Cole – Defoe – Cisse – Carrick”. The line up of the 2002/03 West Ham team that was led up to St James by the current Newcastle manager. We lost 4-0.

Their manager is the only person that is currently capable of causing my face to go West Ham claret just by a mere appearance on my television screen. I stuck up for him in the home game preview, suggesting that he was an honourable and decent man who gave his best. My opinion was altered to the polar opposite view with his ridiculous mocking behaviour at the Boleyn.

For anyone who did not see that, it sounds for all intents and purposes as though he acknowledged the cheers of his own fans (as Pards used to do and that Curbs doesn’t seem to). However, the exaggerated manner in which he conducted himself, his facial expression and the repetition of his actions conveyed that he felt he had proved to us that he was a great manager and that he was able to give a metaphorical two fingers to the theory that he was the reason we went down.

If he thinks he is free from any blame for our relegation or that half a season in 11th place (where the improvement in fortunes has co-incided with the arrival of new assistant, Nigel Pearson) makes him some sort of Alex Ferguson, then he must be seriously deluded. Even if Newcastle go on to be the Champions of Europe under his stewardship, history will always demonstrate that in his time at the Boleyn he was the manager of the team that didn’t win at home until February, that he was the boss when Blackburn turned us over 7-1, when Everton done us 5-0 and where we were mullered 6-0 at Old Trafford (“6-0 and we’ve found the subs” sound familiar?).

If he had turned up in East London and displayed some humility or even kept himself to himself then he would have retained my respect. However, that was wiped out with that insolent wave and my contempt has prevented me from even mentioning his name in this article.

“As it was, the surgeon was a West Ham fan and he was at the game, so they operated on me straight away” – Shay Given after he collided with Marlon at the Boleyn earlier this season. Nice to see that we have a surgeon amongst the faithful, he probably sits with a rocket scientist and a nuclear physicist in the back of the Centenary Lower somewhere.

After the serious nature of his injury at our place earlier in the season, it will be good to see Irish shot stopper, Shay Given, back at work. He has suffered setbacks since his return and had missed a couple of games over the festive period with a groin injury. He was seemingly rushed back before regaining full fitness to replace veteran, Pavel Snircek, but his outstanding performance at White Hart Lane last weekend suggests we won’t be getting any favours from him on Saturday.

The back four is likely to be made up the young centre back pairing of Peter Ramage and Steven Taylor, two academy products and a third young, academy product and centre back, Paul Huntingdon, playing in the left back position. Veteran Nobby Solano has dropped back from the midfield to play at right back and has made a decent job of his new role, though it is felt that a decent left winger with a turn of pace would be his undoing.

The absence at the club of any fit full backs has been a problem (though Steven Carr has returned to training this week) and the centre back positions have also been troublesome this season, Nicky Butt being one forced experiment in the centre of defence. This, and playing an unfit Given in a couple of games has no doubt contributed to the recent run of goals against where they have conceded ten in their last five league appearances and if we can manage to muster some semblance of a forward line, there should be goals available.

The midfield is the strongest position, on paper at least and in particularly good form is the pacy Kieron Dyer. His age old problem of dodgy hamstrings had kept him out of the side for the early part of the season but he has returned to the side and to form, the goal against Arsenal on his return was something of a catalyst to the Newcastle recovery. A particular concern for us is the link up play between Dyer and the equally quick, Martins as they are starting to form a dangerous partnership.

Nicky Butt has also won over the Toon faithful since his return from a loan spell at Birmingham. He is putting in the kind of inspirational performances that a senior and experienced professional should which led their manager to describe him as “a warrior” last week. Providing a similar style of play though in a more petulant and niggly manner is the Turk, Emre and Scotty Parker may also have recovered from a stomach strain to be in contention for a weekend run out.

The wide positions have been less convincing with Duff missing (but perhaps not as missed as you would imagine) and Charles N’Zogbia out, Newcastle have used academy product, Matthew Pattison on the left, though if all of the central midfielders are available, Dyer may be played in a wide role. A West Ham summer target, the versatile, James Milner has featured in most games this season, with just one league goal to date, though it did come against Manchester United.

Up front, the main man is the 22 year old Nigerian international, Obafemi Martins, snapped up for a mere £10m from Inter Milan in August. His tally of 8 goals against a background of being a young player in a new country and a new league, having to try to replace a Toon legend without a real strike partner is highly commendable and his goal tally has upped considerably of late.

His strengths lie in his pace where his powerful (if short) frame enables him to have a tremendous burst of pace and a good ability to jump, even from a standing position. He is not the finished article as for every one of his spectacular conversions, there is often an equally spectacular missile into row Z but he is definitely one of the future and a concern for us to manage on Saturday.

His strike partner is the balding, French Tony, Antoine Sibierski, procured from Man Citeh in the last transfer window. He has seen his fair share of the action in the absence of Owen and Ameobi, but his tally of 2 league goals to date and his lack of much evidence of a partnership with Martins suggests he is only keeping a place warm for future acquisitions. Italian starlet, Giuseppe Rossi had been an extra option for attack but has now returned to Old Trafford at the end of his loan spell, meaning the Geordies must be looking to bring a striker in before the end of the month.

As a football romantic, it would be nice to look at the Newcastle story as testament to proof that so called superstars such as Albert Luque or Celestine Babayaro, despite their big price tags and fancy reputations, have been shown up by the current crop of kids that have been rushed into first team action before they should be ready and yet have proved that hard work, drive and desire are the factors that make results on a football pitch happen. However, if my own team can blow that theory out of the water I’d settle for being a hardened cynic.

“Hislop – Pearce – Impey – Lomas – R Ferdinand – Ruddock – Sinclair – Big FF – Wright – Kitson”. The last Hammers team to win at St James, 3-0 in 1998-99, two from Wright and one from Tricky Trev.

Initial impressions suggest that this game screams goals. Two leaky defences, ravaged by injury and with a recent history of conceding from set pieces (three for them at Everton, us no better last week) means there should be a hand rubbing opportunity for any attacking players. The question for us is who is going to form our forward line. With the suspension of Zamora, injuries to Tevez and Cole struggling to walk at the end last week, we could be left with just Harewood and Sheringham as true strikers, neither of whom were even worthy of a squad place last week.

I have a hunch that Curbs may well go 4-5-1 for this with a return to the line up of Mullins, perhaps utilising Benayoun just in behind the striker. It is a tactic that our manager often used at Charlton and a packed midfield would suit our dual problems of having a weakened back line and no bodies up front.

In respect of the score, I am terrified of predicting a defeat as we are badly running out of games but think it is too far to travel to get three points and their manager will ensure they are well up for this one. The Birmingham cup replay showed that they have plenty of weaknesses but their league form has been good, especially at home and we are far from top form at the moment. I’ll plump for a 2-2 as well as keeping one eye on Everton and Reading in the hope that they can help us out.

Enjoy the game.

* Like to share your thoughts on this article? Please visit the KUMB Forum to leave a comment.

* Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the highlighted author/s and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of KUMB.com.


More Opinion