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The Relegation Battle - Newcastle draw with West Ham

Newcastle will now have to win at least one of their final two games to secure safety after Wigan held off West Bromwich Albion to win 3-2. Newcastle were unable to break the deadlock at Upton Park, and both sides walk away with a draw.

Newcastle aren't the only side fighting for survival with two games to go, there are 8 teams that can go down, Wigan seem the likely with some tough games ahead. Newcastle have the already relegated Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road next week, and then Arsenal at home.

Newcastle had started the better in their game against West Ham, having Hatem Ben Arfa back in the side and Coloccini in defense really help the Magpies build towards almost scoring. Some would say that Papiss Cisse did score, but Winston Reid managed to clear the ball, the referees assistant fell down so he was unable to help the situation.


The argument for goal line technology was helped along with that decision some replays showed it was a goal, others didn't but that's just the luck you get when you are down near the bottom.

As good as the both teams were in defense neither were good enough in attack, although West Ham came close a couple of times, Newcastle's defenders were able to keep the ball out. Rob Elliott was strong in goals with some fine saves.

Jussi Jääskeläinen was just as good for West Ham, fans were baffled when Alan Pardew took Hatem Ben Arfa off for Shola Ameobi, but Ameobi almost scored for Newcastle. He took a couple of knocks late in the game.

Dan Gosling who has had some horrible injuries at Newcastle almost got an unlikely winner as well, after a shot bounced back into his path and he almost put it back in but it went wide. A rare clean sheet for Newcastle has seen them closer to safety but they need to improve.


The lack of goals recently has become a worry for Newcastle, Demba Ba's departure had left Newcastle with a big hole to fill, and while they found some others to score in the past lately they've not been able to.

Andy Carroll almost scored a couple times for West Ham, at times the Newcastle defenders were double teaming him but his size and strength was allowing him to get free from this and got to the ball.

The leaky defence of Newcastle was much better, they have really missed Coloccini this season, and they may hope to keep him from departing the club. Hatem Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye teaming up during the game was some of the finer moments for the Magpies in this game.

Sunderland could be plunged back into the relegation zone should they lose to Stoke City and Wigan beat Swansea on Tuesday, while Norwich City, Fulham, Aston Villa and Southampton are all in the mix of relegation with Newcastle United.

Wigan have that match in hand, which is the game on Tuesday at home, before they have the FA Cup Final against Manchester City. While they have flirted with relegation the last few seasons and survived, you have to wonder how long they can flirt with it before they end up going down.

For Newcastle a win could save them from going down, but they haven't had the best away form all season, and facing Arsenal at home will be a very tough ask for the Magpies to take the points.

Queens Park Rangers may not have much to play for at Loftus Road now, but they can still have a say in what happens in regards to the relegation battle.
Newcastle may only need 3 more points to survive, but they will need to hope for some others to fall over as well to save themselves.
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Guardiola's decision not to join Chelsea no surprise

Josep "Pep" Guardiola's decision to join Bayern Munich may have surprised Fergie, but It doesn't surprise myself or many others who have followed the eager nature of the sackings by the Chelsea board.

Roberto Di Matteo's sacking is still a baffling one, Chelsea had won the Champions League under Roberto, they had also won FA Cu and now he's without a job and now they have Rafa Benitz who also probably won't be there soon.

Chelsea's kneejerk reaction to their situation with Di Matteo has lead managers to be very cautious about joining the club. Who'd join a club that will sack you after a few loses? No one, that's who. Well, Rafa Benitz but he's almost no one.

Guardiola would have been a big get for Chelsea, but would he have been afforded time to manage to side through the good times and the bad times? At the first sign of some bad results would they cut and run again?

Of course they would, the perfectionists that seem to the Chelsea board would probably look to replace another manager. It's a surprise that Rafa Benitez has not been shown the door, could this be because they missed out on the prized Guardiola?

The special one Jose Mourinho wants to return to England to manage, would he stop by Chelsea to manage again? Or will he head to Arsenal if they were to remove Frenchman Arsene Wenger?

Makes you wonder what will go on with Arsene and his troubles of late, seems that Arsene could make the move to Chelsea maybe he'd bring them the success in the Premier League again that they want.

Mourinho could be good for Arsenal, but you have Mancini as well that could be without a job soon, so there could be a bit of a game of musical managers afoot. Chelsea's issues aren't their mangers, they have moved on good mangers, and still have the same issues.
They have big egos, like Man City, and need to start to work on those egos, my belief has been that Chelsea's players play well when they have a manager they like, when they stop liking him they stop winning and he's out the door.

Chelsea also need to be smarter with their spending, spending 50mil pounds on Torres and he's been less like the player he was at the start at Liverpool, then they signed Lukaku, and now they pinched Demba Ba from Newcastle.

Now is the time to decide on who should remain at the club, and who is in need of going, it seems Lampard is out the door, possibly to LA Galaxy some say his place in England would be under threat going to America.

Then there is John Terry who could also soon be shown the door, and maybe it's time to show Torres the door, it's obviously not working and they won't get the money back for him, but at least they will be able to start to rebuild their strike force.

Sturridge was sold, Lukaku extended his loan, it seems by his performances at West Brom he could be a talented player, but he suffers Sturridge's problems, does well when he's on loan gets a big ego and thinks he's the greatest.

Will he become a full on Sturridge and fail back at Chelsea? Who knows, but he looks like a talent for the future if he can stop the go stuff.

So Chelsea the ball is in your court now, it's time to stick by your manager, whoever the full time guy will be and not sack him after a few loses, if you want a perfect manager you are out of luck. Even Fergie has loses with Manchester United from time to time.
Over the years Manchester United have stuck by him, sure he's brought success but that's because he was supported, he was given the time to make the mistakes build the side and get it winning.

what have you done for your managers, Chelsea? You've sacked them without the chance to so now you are back struggling in the title race, well your current manager says you are out of it. But you could have stayed in it by keeping the faith.
Di Matteo brought you Champions League success, FA Cup success, this season you have been disappointing but no reason to sack the manager, work on the problems and try again. But your kneejerk reaction has set your club back again.
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Off The Crossbar Managers game

The Football Forum Off The Crossbar is seeking members to take part in their new managers game, it's a game based around stats and such you draft a player and then then points are tallied up.

Also FIFA Managers game, you are given a side from FIFA 13 and then you are the manager, games will be played live.

all you need to do is head to Off The Crossbar here

And register and follow the links to the sign ups.

We will have the future sign ups as well.


A new blog about the beautiful game is on the works.
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AFL Draft Competition

For those of you on Twitter, Bound for Glory running a little competition in celebration of it being draft day. All you need to do is follow them on Twitter (@Bound4GloryNews) and tweet using the hashtag #bfgncomp which picks will be used to select both Troy Menzel and Brodie Grundy. Prize is a $50 gift card to be spent at the AFL Store.

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Off The Crossbar

Come and check out the new look of Off The Crossbar, they have made some changes, and have added a few settings, and a new matchday board for all leagues, and team threads too.

Check it out by clicking here register today and join in the football discussion, you even have the chance to write your own article there.
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The new Victory League in Tasmania

FFT and the Melbourne Victory have entered into a partnership to bring the brand new statewide league known as The Victory League. The league has brought 4 Southern, and four Northern teams into a statewide league while also still having the Southern and Northern Tasmanian Premier Leagues

The successful applicants into the Victory league are


[ Click here to read more ]
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Cisse commits his future to Newcastle

Papiss Demba Cisse has put an end to speculation and stated he wants to remain at St. James' Park next season. The Senegalese striker arrived at Newcastle United in Janaury, from Freiburg and has become a scoring sensation for the Magpies.

Many transfer sites were stating that interest was high on the striker, after his fantastic start to his EPL career. A newspaper in Spain that interviewed Cisse tried to make it known that he wanted to move to Real Madrid, but Cisse and Newcastle refuted these claims


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Canberra loses out in Perry decision

Dual International Ellyse Perry was told this week by Canberra United to quit cricket this week, to concentrate on her football career. But Perry has told them she has no desire to quit Cricket, nor does she have the intention on quitting football either.

Ellyse who has gone to the World Cup for the Matildas, and for the Australian Women's Cricket Team has been pretty successful for both. Scoring a goal for the Matildas at the last Women's World Cup, and she won the game for the Aussies in the last T20 World Cup


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A pardon for Pardew

Alan Pardew came to Newcastle as a manager under fire, Newcastle fans are irate that the man that lead them to the Championship Title, and back to promotion was sacked unexpectedly.

Then he was replaced with a manager that most fans around the world have labelled a terrible manager, Newcastle fans became even more angry when in January Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool


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Was Brian Clough the best manager England ever had?

I recently came across an article written on a Football Forum that has taken a chance to research a bit about Brian Clough, since the movie The Damned United, I have become interested in knowing more.

Often proclaimed as a genius and other times a madman, Brian Clough is in my opinion the greatest manager that has ever set foot in the English game, And in the same breath one of the greatest men to have graced football as a whole. The success that he had was solely based on his own Brilliance and eagerness, nothing to with Money, just getting the best out of players. Not one to be told what to do and how to lead his own team, He suggested that was the reason he was never given the international job... "I’m sure the England selectors thought if they took me on and gave me the job, I’d want to run the show. They were shrewd because that’s exactly what I would have done".

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