Pre Season Friendlies

[Gemmill 34625]

1 hour ago, toonotl said:

From the first half and the level of snarkiness on display from our side, it reiterates what I love about this team the most -- and it's been present since shortly after Howe took over: we are never nice. Howe is friendly off the pitch, thoughtful, measured, polite, etc., and the players mirror that approach in press conferences, etc. But on the pitch that shit can get to fuck because we're going out there to win. I love it. It's what sport is about.

 

It's a point about this side that burns even brighter as its exact opposite is reflected at the moment in the Ashes where both teams are obsessed with what the public thinks about them to the detriment of their performance. England's sanctimoniousness as the self-appointed Messiah sent to save Test cricket in the kenotic self-sacrifice of defeat. Then, Australia with a side that has lost its mongrel in a pathetic attempt to impersonate south-English gentlemanliness and repent for sandpapering a ball like they're the first to invent ball-tampering. It's pathetic.

 

Bring on NUFC. A team for winners.

 

So long to a summer of displays of weakness masked as moral superiority. These are beneath Newcastle United. Fuck the accusations of skullduggery from losers obsessed with the 'spirit of the game' or some other mackem-minded bullshit that losers spout as a consolation they award themselves in lieu of material success.

 

We're going to fly high this season. Bring it on.

 

(Brought to you by several afternoon scotches.)

 

Whooooa fucking Toadfish swallowed a dictionary!

[Diego21 1997]

Same vibes

 

 

 

[Kid Dynamite 5941]

32 minutes ago, wykikitoon said:

Lascelles and Dummett shouldn't be near the pitch as players. Is Howe playing them to prove a point to the board? Lascelles absolutely static a few times and just ball watching. Dummett Wtf was he doing for their goal? 

For me, the form of Gordon, Miley, Anderson and Ashby in pre season has shown us we are well covered on the wings, in CM and RB. Any leftover cash absolutely has to go on a CB. In a perfect world we would have a LB upgrade, but that might need to wait 6/12 months 

[OTF 6190]

57 minutes ago, wykikitoon said:

Lascelles and Dummett shouldn't be near the pitch as players. Is Howe playing them to prove a point to the board? Lascelles absolutely static a few times and just ball watching. Dummett Wtf was he doing for their goal? 

 

He was clearing the ball if Pope didn't get a hand to it.

[OTF 6190]

24 minutes ago, Kid Dynamite said:

For me, the form of Gordon, Miley, Anderson and Ashby in pre season has shown us we are well covered on the wings, in CM and RB. Any leftover cash absolutely has to go on a CB. In a perfect world we would have a LB upgrade, but that might need to wait 6/12 months 

 

I'd also say that outside of the notoriously fragile Wilson and Isak we've got no options up top and would have to play someone with next to no arial threat like Gordon, or Barnes or play Joelinton again as a square peg in a round hole. Sure we play one up top mostly but with more games and injury prone players we plainly need more depth up front. We don't even seemingly have any significant youth players up front involved in these preseason games.

[Anorthernsoul 1221]

Brilliant photo, all the young guns together.

[trophyshy 6434]

I was watching this in the middle of the pissing night and turned it off at 79 minutes.  

 

[spongebob toonpants 3606]

6 minutes ago, trophyshy said:

I was watching this in the middle of the pissing night and turned it off at 79 minutes.  

 

The same as me to the minute 🤣

[NJS 3986]

I watched it and it was quite enjoyable and not bad considering how many alternative players were left out. 

 

One thing I would say is that Pope makes a hell of a difference to my confidence that we can win games. 

 

I think I've said before when Given was at his best for us I was almost surprised when we conceded and I think Pope is getting there - flukey deflections that setup opponents aside. 

 

They had a couple of chances in the second half where I just thought you'll have to do a lot better than that to come anywhere near scoring past this bloke. 

[Dougle 2865]

The canned crowd noise made me turn off the sound. Bloody yanks

[OTF 6190]

2 hours ago, trophyshy said:

I was watching this in the middle of the pissing night and turned it off at 79 minutes.  

 

 

2 hours ago, spongebob toonpants said:

The same as me to the minute 🤣

 

You weak as piss bastards. That's actually a better time than the average Newcastle premier league game I watch here.

[ShorehamSeagull 64]

I enjoyed the first 85 minutes and ended up feeling far too deflated after watching a friendly when I usually don't do friendlies! . After a night's sleep I feel much better after coming to realise that that was a good test last night. Just the right amount of edge in it to make it competitive and worthwhile. Like Newcastle we've not fielded anywhere near a strong side throughout and have had Gross at RB!! Van Hecke & Veltman in front of a rookie keeper getting used to playing our system was a big ask. De Zerbi seemed to use this series to blood players with just 2 or three 1st Team appearances (or just 4 minutes at Villa Parkin the case of young Hinshelwood who is not even a FB) to see how they would cope. I thought they did well. We played most of the 2nd half with largely our u21 side on the pitch (with J. Pedro yet to feature in earnest) I have a suspicion E Howe will have had much the same mindset. We both go into uncharted waters with the amount of fixtures coming up. Heaven knows, what the starting line ups will be in the early stages of the League Cup. All good really, I enjoyed last night's match it augers well. Good luck for the coming campaign and, I look forward to meeting a few of you early next season at the Amex,the best set of visiting supporters to come here bar none

[Howmanheyman 26973]

39 minutes ago, ShorehamSeagull said:

I enjoyed the first 85 minutes and ended up feeling far too deflated after watching a friendly when I usually don't do friendlies! . After a night's sleep I feel much better after coming to realise that that was a good test last night. Just the right amount of edge in it to make it competitive and worthwhile. Like Newcastle we've not fielded anywhere near a strong side throughout and have had Gross at RB!! Van Hecke & Veltman in front of a rookie keeper getting used to playing our system was a big ask. De Zerbi seemed to use this series to blood players with just 2 or three 1st Team appearances (or just 4 minutes at Villa Parkin the case of young Hinshelwood who is not even a FB) to see how they would cope. I thought they did well. We played most of the 2nd half with largely our u21 side on the pitch (with J. Pedro yet to feature in earnest) I have a suspicion E Howe will have had much the same mindset. We both go into uncharted waters with the amount of fixtures coming up. Heaven knows, what the starting line ups will be in the early stages of the League Cup. All good really, I enjoyed last night's match it augers well. Good luck for the coming campaign and, I look forward to meeting a few of you early next season at the Amex,the best set of visiting supporters to come here bar none

 

Sorry to be pedantic, but it's not uncharted territory for us although it has been a while since Europe was a regular occurrence. 2012 in our case I think?

[ShorehamSeagull 64]

12 minutes ago, Howmanheyman said:

 

Sorry to be pedantic, but it's not uncharted territory for us although it has been a while since Europe was a regular occurrence. 2012 in our case I think?

Yes I thought that when I wrote it but all things considered the folk at the sharp end - Eddie and the players will be new to all this in the main, I wasn't trying to put you down (Europe is certainly unchartered territory for us) Of course the supporters will have fond memories of European campaigns and those fantastic nights under the floodlights. Even I struggle to understand why or how pundits and journos don't know about your Fairs Cup win and always seem to point back to 1955 for your last trophy. 

[NJS 3986]

50 minutes ago, ShorehamSeagull said:

Yes I thought that when I wrote it but all things considered the folk at the sharp end - Eddie and the players will be new to all this in the main, I wasn't trying to put you down (Europe is certainly unchartered territory for us) Of course the supporters will have fond memories of European campaigns and those fantastic nights under the floodlights. Even I struggle to understand why or how pundits and journos don't know about your Fairs Cup win and always seem to point back to 1955 for your last trophy. 

It's ignorance on their part of course but at the same time it would have been extremely difficult for fans to get to the away ties (before the scousers really pioneered the concept along with their obligatory looting). 

 

I know you were talking in general but it was the travel that made it special for me. 

 

[acrossthepond 707]

Very special experience, I screamed myself hoarse at the end. It was a little disheartening to see us a) playing crap in the first half and b) missing so many first-teamers, but things improved a lot once Brighton took off much of their much-stronger starting XI and our kids grew into the game. Barnes looked quite good though he should've scored in the first half. I don't know if we were under explicit instructions to play out the back, but the regularity with which we screwed it up in the first half was alarming (understandable maybe considering Dummett and Lascelles were playing.) Murphy barely touched the ball in the first half, I wouldn't have known he was playing if I hadn't seen his name on the lineup, but he definitely made an impression in the second. 

 

The atmosphere was a little flat considering how non-partisan the crowd was, though our lads in the designated NUFC sections made noise all game long. Some of the biggest cheers were for Caicedo and Estupinan, who were supported by hordes of Ecuadorian fans in yellow, almost as if there were a third team playing. The worst part was having to listen to a typical yankee doodle dumbass sat next to me, purportedly an Arsenal fan, who knew everything and nothing about football. The stadium also played the Blaydon Races at the end as we were filtering out, which was a nice touch.