Man City match preview

By: j | October 19th, 2008

Heading into the match against Man City, the fact of the matter is Newcastle is playing for pride and honour. The club has faced massive adversity and the question becomes how and when the slide will come to halt. Performance on the pitch, while they are out-manned has been notable and certainly deserving of respect as a team giving its all in a near impossible situation. The question looms; was their come from behind draw against Everton a signal of a turnaround, a galvanizing line in the sand draw or merely a draw against another club struggling to find its mark. In a league which is increasingly being defined by the very few, a middle table that never has a chance to climb to the top and a further third of the table that simply plays to “avoid relegation” the lines being playing consistent quality Football is being a rare breed each campaign. With roughly one-quarter of the season nearly complete Newcastle must begin to face the reality that step one is unifying as a team and find a way to scratch out of the relegation battle. Sadly for the players, they must do this on their own as support from the executive branch of management is doing little to bring this club together and in-fact is clearly responsible for the state of affairs. While Newcastle’s ownership situation is unlikely to be as easily solved as alluded to in the press, the core group of players have the ability to gut out tough points and needs to come together as a collective team to do so. For supporters the time of protest and what not has passed and the moment has come to embrace this “back against the wall” mentality and show the mettle you’re made of.

With Man City they are obviously facing a club on the completely opposite side of the horizon, one that is billowing with the thoughts of new ownerships deep pockets and the claims that a top four finish is coming. If an underdog wants a better opposition to target their could be none better than City at this time and it is as if they were served-up on a platter for them. Newcastle needs to approach this match with a fervor. The perfectly manicured grounds are replaced by a alleyway battle siege mentality and every shred of grass is to be fought for. “Work rate and hard tackling” will be byline review of this match should Newcastle be victorious and the Magpies need to reaffirm to Man City that championships are not bought.

For Newcastle this match will be a perilous task as they go forward without their leader Michael Owen, out with injury but they will need to embody the spirit and leadership he has shown over the last month. They will however have Jonás Gutiérrez and Habib Beye back from injury and place heavy focus upon controlling the free flowing Man City attack.

The squad list for the match is as follows:

Given, Harper, Beye, Edgar, Enrique, N’Zogbia, Taylor, Coloccini, Cacapa, Bassong, Tozer, Butt, Guthrie, Geremi, Duff, Jonas, Doninger, Xisco, Ameobi, Donaldson, Ranger, Danquah

I will report on the match as it concludes.