**Official Pre-Match Thread - Newcastle v City**

Lot's of talking points here.....

Will the new man be in charge for that game or will he leave it to David Kerslake?

If the former, will we see a second string team, or treat this game as a freebee and experiment with tactics?

I think we will see the full side, probably not very different to yesterday. If Conway is back and available and I wonder if he might get a start in place of Mutch?

I presume the Premier squad can be altered now the window is open but as Saturday is FA Cup I think anybody can play anyway.

Malky leaving seems to have put the spanner in the works with outgoing moves, so, although Conway was hoping for a return to Brighton, he may be stuck with us for a while. Filip Kiss's loan to Ross has already been mentioned, but on the back-burner.

I'm guessing that Rudy's move to Blackburn will go through, as it was pre-agreed. They said Friday that they wanted him permanently and he scored the winner on Saturday.

I couldn't give a sh*t about this match. Leave Kerslake in charge or experiment with a different setup. West Ham is the next match I care about and OGS needs to focus on that and get his team (on and off the pitch) in place for that

I agree that the result of this match is not important.

However, in my opinion, it has come along at exactly the right time, in that there is a chance to look at options without the pressure of picking up points.

TDA wrote:I agree that the result of this match is not important.  

However, in my opinion, it has come along at exactly the right time, in that there is a chance to look at options without the pressure of picking up points.

  

Glorious defeat and a run out for the fringe players so we can concentrate on the league

Be our luck we go on a cup run, when we don't need the distraction

Tans Tache wrote:Be our luck we go on a cup run, when we don't need the distraction

I don't know about that, so long as we are not commiting the mainstream players to too many games.

A Cup run would be handy match practice for the fringe players. Look at what has happened recently with Katie's injury......SuperKev was brought back in from the cold, as he was the only full back with any sort of match practice.......

I think it's important that we test out our fringe players - particularly in areas where we are short on experienced faces. Brayford and McNaughton played in the same league and Brayford was considered better, so him getting the nod over John was a very unusual decision. It's also important Hudson gets a game as he's first port of call if we lose Caulker or Turner.

As I said in my other thread it should have two objectives - give fringe players a change to shine and give first team players on poor form a chance to put things right. The established backbone - Marshall, Caulker, Medel, Mutch and Campbell - should be given a backseat here, as they've already earned their slots.

 

56% possession so far, away from hone...  

We sound competitive (as far as I can gather) and had a goal disallowed from Hudson

BBC commentator very very complementary. We are playing an electric short game which has given us the bulk of posession. Alan Pardew is discussing with his coaches, completely bemused as to how to handle us. Shots are level on paper but we have had by far the better chances.

(Copied from other thread)

Half time and so far so good..........

I'm out shopping with the Mrs today, how is Cornelius getting on?