Sometimes, I get lost for words with events at Newcastle United. Years ago, we were 
dubbed a soap opera type of operation. Ridiculous off-field incidents would see our club splattered across front and back pages of newspapers.
Events such as Shepherd and Hall and their brothel escapades and falling for the old, ‘fake Sheikh’ trick.
There always seemed to be something going on. Our own fans had to take the club to court because they wanted to kick fans out of seats. The club it seems has been bonkers for years.
And now we find, that whilst our on-field situation makes for unpleasant reading, our owner is now playing games with the press. Apparently he’s now taken to giving reporters fake stories to print….. Why? Fuck knows. What is there to gain (particularly for NUFC and Pardew) from pretending the manager is “dead” – awful turn of phrase by the way – if we lose to Stoke?
Maybe his lawyers were bored and needed something to do? Ultimately, all this has done,
is put Pardew and the team in an awful position where the pressure now, to not lose to Stoke is unreal.
Even if we were do now lose and the performance is so bad that it deserves a sacking, how the fuck can Ashley sack his man after his lawyers have now declared Ashley was just ‘larking about’, surely the LMA and Pardew’s own legal reps would win a subsequent appeal, and in amongst all of this, where would that leave the team? It’s a fucking mess, and sadly, it’s all so avoidable and self inflicted.
Going forward, I fail to see how United can be cut any slack in the media when we’ve now 
clearly taken to winding them up. The reputation as a soap opera is unlikely to go away. The win at Crystal Palace didn’t really bring about much light relief as before our match had even finished, we knew we’d drawn the current league and league cup holders, away, in the next round.
The match may have proved that there’s a world of difference between “cups not being a priority” and “not trying in the cups” but personally, tactically, it may have been more prudent to send one of our relegation rivals up to Manchester for an unplanned, midweek, hiding instead of ourselves? Stoke’s current home form is worse than ours, which is hard to do. They lost to Aston Villa on the opening day 1-0 and Leicester City have also triumphed at the Britannia Stadium by the same scoreline.
They did beat Portsmouth 3-0 in the league cup 2nd round. Diouf has 2 Premier League goals so far, whilst Crouch, Walters and Muniesa have 2 as well, if we include cup goals. Geoff Cameron, Peter Odemwingie and Jon Walters are their injury doubts.
Team News Mehdi Abeid is suspended, which may not matter too much as he rarely gets
a look in in the Premier league matches. Hopefully that sickness bug has gone from our squad. Not much sign of the long term injuries improving anytime soon. Papiss Cisse made a welcome return to goal scoring form last week. If he can recapture his 11/12 form, then would be very handy indeed. I don’t see Pardew making too many changes to the side if Im honest and I expect he’ll play Dummett at left back ahead of Massadio Haidara.
Injured Ryan Taylor – Knee –No return date
Davide Santon – Knee – November
Siem de Jong – Groin – No return date
Rolando Aarons – Hamstring – November
Adam Campbell – TBC –No return date
Curtis Good – Groin – No return date
Possible Team (4-2-3-1) 1.Tim Krul: 2. Daryl Janmaat, 5. Mike Williamson, 6. Fabricio Coloccini, 3. Paul Dummett: 8. Jack Colback, 4. Cheick Tiote: 7. Remy Cabella, 10. Moussa Sissoko, 11. Yoan Gouffran: 9.Emanuel Riviere:
Subs Rob Elliot, Steven Taylor, Massaido Haidara, Vurnon Anita, Gabriel Obertan, Papiss Cisse, Adam Armstrong
Referee: Craig Pawson
League History at Stoke 1984/85:Won 1-0, United would finish just 3 points above the drop zone in our 1st season back in Division One, Those 3 points were enough to put 6 places between us and 3rd bottom Norwich. Our last away win of the season would come at The Victoria Ground where a Stoke O.G. settled the result. Attendance, 7,088
1989/90: Lost 1-2 A Boxing Day defeat as our league form took a turn for the worse, whilst our all important Zenith Data Systems cup run rolled along nicely!! Kevin Scott’s goal wasn’t enough for the Magpies as we lost the side who would finish bottom of the league. . Attendance, 14,878
2008/09: Drew 1-1 Played out in typical Stoke, snidey, atmosphere, United fell behind after what was becoming ‘standard’ defending for the season saw ex Mag, Abdoulaye Faye score from a corner. Whilst most knew relegation was in the post, a false moment of belief occurred when Andy Carroll thumped a superb header home for a late equaliser. Obafemi Martins phoned in sick, but to be honest, this prick was a waste of time anyway. Attendance, 27,382
2010/11: Lost 0-4 A hideous afternoon, one which is beginning to look increasingly like norm under Alan Pardew. This was a one to forget quickly. Attendance, 27,505
2011/12: Won 3-1 Our barnstorming start to the season continued as we thumped the Potters on a Monday night, with Demba Ba rattling in a hat trick. An ironic twist being that Stoke had pulled out of a deal to sign Ba after discovering a problem with his knee. Walters struck their consolation from the penalty spot. Attendance, 26,564
2012/13: Lost 1-2We managed to make it no wins in 5 (4 defeats) with another loss in the potteries. Papiss Cisse’s 1st goal with his foot since he started using Tony Cunnigham’s old boots had put us 1-0 up and on course for a win. But, obviously, this being Newcastle United, we don’t do that sort of thing and promptly conceded to shit, late goals to Walters and Jerome, and lost 2-1. Attendance, 26,793
2013/14 Lost 0-1 Total fluke goal by Eric Pieters, but significantly, a post match dressing room “discussion” involving Ben Arfa that didn’t appear to go down too well. Attendance, 27,400
Stoke Fanzines
The Oatcake http://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/
Duck.
Dangermen Crouch will always be a danger in the air, whilst Stoke have nothing to be frightened of, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone like Charlie Adam had the best game of his life
Prediction After Ashley’s comments, you know it’ll end 1-0 to Stoke, just to see what happens.
CHRIS BETTS
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I don’t think Stoke are anywhere near as much of a threat as they were under Pulis, Mark Hughes is trying to polish a turd by getting this lot to play football and under proper management we would be looking at a fairly easy Three points, however we are not under proper management and Pardew’s tactics are becoming more and more worrying, I honestly believe he will attempt to play for a draw and with Williamson in the side that spells disaster.
Going down this season are QPR, Burnley and one other, we seriously can’t loose tonight. Pardew is obviously fucked, he’s out of his depth, he’s tactically inept and it makes me laugh that people think beating Crystal Palace reserves 2-3 after extra time is a good result, however this is how far we have sunk under this pathetic regime.
I actually think we might just scrape a 0-1 win tonight simply because getting beat isn’t even an option.
The worst six teams in the PL are in the bottom six, where we sit in that group of awful teams after tonight will be barometer for the season
Chris, when you said “Stoke have nothing to be frightened of” did you mean their useless players shouldn’t scare us or our useless team won’t frighten them.
On a serious, worrying note did everyone notice the annihilation of our junior teams by Liverpool. at Benton on Saturday. Under 18’s lost 1-5 and the under 16’s 2-11. In the latter game it was 0-8 at half time and Liverpool eased off in the second half.
The under 18’s have a worse record than the first team. With Ashley playing safe in the transfer market these kids are supposed to be our future.
Our club seems to be failing at every level on and off the field.
Haha, yeah I did mean Stoke are very mediocre.
Yes, I ckocked the Young lads’ scores at the weekend..never looks good when you get hammered but just like if they’d both won 10-0, we shouldn’t read too much into 1 game.