Welcome to the Newcastle United v Hull City preview.
Saturday 19th September and a 3pm kick-off.
Newcastle United finally get to enjoy a Saturday 3pm kick-off this weekend when hosting Hull City at St James’ Park.
Unbeaten in the Premier League so far, the Tigers are enjoying life back in the big time after a tremendous start to their season, whilst the Toon are looking to draw a line firmly under a disastrous midweek match with Leeds.
Astonishingly, this is the only NUFC match of our first twelve that hasn’t been selected for live UK TV and highly likely to be the only home Saturday 3pm kick-off that we can savour until January of next year.
An elongated international break means this will be the last Toon match for twenty-three days, making it especially important we go out on a high.
Form
Newcastle have played six matches this season, winning three, drawing two and losing just the one. Wins have come against Tottenham in the league as well as West Brom and Millwall in the cup whilst irritating draws were achieved at home against Liverpool and Bournemouth in the League. The LiVARpool match was daylight robbery when the reds were awarded a controversial penalty to steal a point with the last kick of the match. The Bournemouth match was equally frustrating as the Toon struggled to get going and were forced to come from 2-0 down to steal a point of their own (maybe these things really do level themselves out over the course of a season). Our only defeat came on Monday night when Leeds United dismantled us in a fairly humiliating 4-1 defeat. Newcastle have scored eleven goals and conceded ten. A win this weekend could see us up to third on goal difference.
Hull City have also played six matches in all competitions and their only defeat has come in the North East when being beaten by the Mackems in the League Cup having seen off Stoke City on penalties in the previous round. Their League form has seen them delight in wins against Manchester United and Coventry before taking useful points from both Aston Villa and Chelsea. They’ve scored six goals in these six games and conceded four. A win this weekend could see them up to third in the league.
Last time out
The less said about Monday night the better! Newcastle travelled to Leeds in apparently fine fettle having enjoyed an unbeaten five matches so far this season in League and Cup. A slow start from both teams looked unlikely to bring about an opening goal until Hornicek was completely wrong-footed by a wicked double deflection that ultimately went down as a Miley own goal. Before NUFC could regroup, it was 2-0 when Steur gave the ball away cheaply and Leeds were able to work it onto the left wing where it whipped into the danger zone and headed home. The objective was now to hang on to half-time and try to pull one back soon after but with Leeds looking rampant, the fatal blow came on forty-five minutes when more slapstick defending was punished with a third Leeds goal making a comeback extremely unlikely. The second half saw a mild improvement from the Toon but a fourth Leeds goal just before the hour raised fears this could turn into a cricket score! Thankfully, the only further goal came from the Black and Whites when Bazoumana Toure scored his first Premier League goal for NUFC to slightly reduce the arrears but not spare any blushes.
Stat attack!
-Hull City have only visited St James’ Park twelve times in their entire history.
-Newcastle have won six, drawn two and lost four of these twelve matches.
-The Toon have only ever failed to find the net on one occasion at home against Hull City, in a dismal 1-0 FA Cup defeat under Joe Kinnear in 2009.
Memorable match
In October 1997, Kenny Dalglish welcomed third division Hull City to St James’ Park for a third round League Cup tie that wouldn’t live long in the memory. The Toon had enjoyed a great start to the season, winning five of their opening seven league matches as well as being unbeaten in four Champions League games. Hopes were high on Tyneside that this would be something of a goal-fest but the first half failed to generate one for either side as we went into the half-time break with the match goalless.
Thankfully, the second half began with debutant Des Hamilton lashing home to open the scoring. With Newcastle piling on the pressure, all eyes were on Ian Rush to see if he could score the goal needed to equal the record for the most goals scored by an individual in the League Cup. The Welshman had two efforts cleared off the line and also had a header well-saved before finally getting his goal in the eighty-third minute to seal the win when chipping the ball over the stranded ‘keeper. This was a routine victory for NUFC but would signal the start of a dreadful run of form that saw us win just two of the next fifteen league games and one of the next four European matches as our season imploded over a three month period. We did however manage to muddle our way through to a first FA Cup Final in twenty-four years but that’s a story for another day. Final Score Newcastle 2-0 Hull City
Played for both
Nobby Solano is a modern-day legend having become the first Peruvian to play in the Premier League when signing for Kenny Dalglish in 1997. Scoring his first goal in a 3-1 win over Wimbledon, he’d go on to score twenty-nine league goals in his first spell for the club with a personal favourite of mine being the winning goal in an incredible match at Elland Road in 2001, read all about this special match here. He was sold to Aston Villa in 2004 but returned to NUFC eighteen months later to continue his fantastic record of goals and assists, opening his second account with the winning strike against Arsenal in Dec 2005. Nobby will be remembered for silky skills, attacking play, incredible free-kicks and for scoring the first Toon goal under Sir Bobby’s reign when netting against Sofia in 2-0 Uefa Cup win just days before we hammered Sheffield Wednesday 8-0. He played eleven games for Hull City in 10/11, reunited with former Newcastle assistant manager Nigel Pearson.
Steve Harper spent twenty years at the Toon after signing in 1993. He played 157 seven league matches despite going out on loan on six separate occasions. Often used as an understudy, Harper did have some memorable moments during his time on Tyneside including playing in the 1999 FA Cup final and keeping a clean sheet in a Champions League victory over Juventus. Despite an ill-advised spell on Wearside, Harper remains intrinsically linked to Newcastle United and is currently director of the NUFC academy. He Spent two years playing for Hull City between 2013 and 2015 and played twenty-three league games for the Tigers.
Mo Diame played for Hull City for two years and scored thirteen goals in fifty league games., including an absolute rocket at the Leazes End against NUFC in a 2-2 draw in 2014. He became a Hull City legend in May 2016 when scoring the winning goal in the Championship play-off final at Wembley to ensure a return to the Premier League. He signed for Rafa Benitez in 2016 and scored one of the most bizarre goals in NUFC history in a crucial championship match against title rivals Brighton. Newcastle were losing 1-0 when a miss-hit shot deflected off Diame’s heel and looped into the top corner to pull the Toon level in a match we’d go on to win 2-1. Other highlights included a very good finish away at West Ham in a fine 3-2 away win and a smartly taken brace in a 6-0 win over Preston in the League Cup.
Managers
Matthias Jaissle after a 4-1 defeat away at Leeds United: “That’s the Premier League. It was clear from the start and I have said many times we will have ups and downs and challenges along the way. Tonight, we faced that challenge. It’s really tough. Difficult to digest, but this is a chance to learn because there’s not long until the next match at home to show the right reaction. For sure now the frustration is a big part of it, it feels sh… The first half was disappointing, definitely, because we couldn’t bring the fundamentals of football on the pitch. You need to bring the fundamentals on the pitch against a physical and strong team. Leeds are so intense, especially at home and we couldn’t match that physicality in the first half. That was a key element. No excuses, we have to learn from it.”
Charity
Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.
For further info and/or to donate online go to Newcastle Foodbank
Prediction
There’s no denying that Monday night was a kick in the teeth for everyone associated with NUFC. Over the course of any season, there are going to be matches like that. The important thing now is to bounce back. Hull City have really exceeded expectations so far this season but I still fancy three points from this one. Jaissle will be looking for a reaction from his players and I think he’ll get it. NUFC will take an early lead, Hull will equalise before half-time but we’ll score a late winner to take all three points into the international break. Newcastle 2-1 Hull.
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