Mike Williamson had a great game alongside Fabricio Coloccini on Saturday afternoon, and he did well to keep the huge 6’5″ Chris Samba at bay for those Blackburn corners and free kicks into the box.
Mike Williamson – another top performance tonight
Mike is one of our favorite players at the club, and of course he has been a huge hit since he arrived at the Newcastle club just over a year ago, and has already played 38 times for the club, and still has to get his very first goal for Newcastle – maybe tonight?
Mike got the job done for Newcastle last Saturday, and he has another tall task ahead of him at Birmingham, in the form of Serbian 6’8″ striker Zigic.
Nikola Zigic has not been a huge success for Birmingham since he signed for around £6M last May, but he is now starting to score some goals with a goal in each of his last 3 games.
In 30 appearances for Birmingham this season he now has 7 goals.
While very tall, Nikola is not a particularly good header of the ball, but Newcastle will find both Birmingham and Zigic in good form tonight.
Pardew knows he has to somehow keep Zigic quiet tonight, if Newcastle are to get a victory and all 3 points:
“We had a similar problem at Blackburn with Christopher Samba. Samba is 6ft 5in and very, very strong physically at set-plays.
“Zigic is the same, but Mike Williamson will be tagged to look after him and I have no doubts.” “Mike is very, very strong himself.”
That’s one of the keys to the game tonight, because Birmingham don’t score many goals, just 25 in their 25 league games, but they don’t concede many either – so tonight could be a very similar game to the game at Blackburn last Saturday.
Mike Williamson, who’s 27 years old, signed for a ridiculously low fee of just £1M from Portsmouth a year ago, was pleased with the performance at Blackburn, as he had said yesterday:
“Coming to Blackburn, you know what you’re in for – they’re a very physical team.” “They don’t mind putting the pressure on the box by getting the big lads up.”
“We knew if we didn’t win the first ball, we would have to win the second, and that was crucial. I think we did that well and dealt with it.”
“The back four stayed strong, and we were pleased with that. It’s going to be tough and we had to stay strong, and I think we did that.”
“It’s another point towards safety.” “It’s a difficult place to come and, had we had the rub of the green, we might have nicked all three points.”
Since Birmingham are beneath Newcastle in the league table, it will be very important not to lose the game tonight, but with a little luck and a little more enterprising play up front, there’s no reason why the lads cannot get their third league win of the year, and another clean sheet would be very nice.
So we have to hope the defense is again in top form, as they were last Saturday.
We’d take a 1-0 win – take it with open arms!
Comments welcome.
18 comments so far
Geordiedoonsooth
Feb 15, 2011 at 9:48 AM
Comment #1I hope he plays better than he has done lately I still think he let’s the player he is marking get too much space at set pieces.
john_cena163
Feb 15, 2011 at 9:51 AM
Comment #22-0 for newcastle
scottsellars...unsunghero
Feb 15, 2011 at 9:51 AM
Comment #3i agree , he needs to stay tight to Zigic but i still can see a 0-1 win to us
lets just win next 3 and we can relax a little! not asking for much am i??!?
john_cena163
Feb 15, 2011 at 9:53 AM
Comment #4We can even win 5-0 dont think birmingham will be a tough game.
Sinner
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:01 AM
Comment #5John_cena163:
They have lost only once this season at home!
john_cena163
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:04 AM
Comment #6Sinner this is newcastle, everything is possible for newcastle mate. Have faith, i hav a feelng v gona rock 2night.
toonhamu
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:14 AM
Comment #7First post for me here, been an interested observer of the blog for a while and thought I’d eventually get round to signing up and occasionally posting!
5-0? I’d be happy with 1-0 given our current striking options!
Anyone else reckon we should push Nolan further up the pitch alongside Best, and bring in maybe Guthrie alongside Tiote?
toonfan09
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Comment #8if he stays tight to zigic tonight he is going to lose every header going zigic is about 3 ft taller than him therefore mike will need to get a run on the ball to head it before zigic
Brutooon
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Comment #9i m concern that obafemi is a fast player, williamson might struggle to cope with his pace
toonfan09
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Comment #10dont worry about oba he couldnt hit a barn door
Jan Stavik
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:24 AM
Comment #11Wouldn’t it by just typical for our luck that Oba found his feet today and smashed home a brace? Hopefully Coloccini will keep him quiet, but with Martins you never know what you’ll get.
This will be a tight one, I predict a 1-1 draw.
toonfan09
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Comment #12i have no doubt he will score if our fans boo him because that just makes our ex players want to play better and they never seem to learn
connor_nufc
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:31 AM
Comment #13Sinner
Theyve lost.more than once at home this season
Everton, arsenal
connor_nufc
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Comment #143 ft taller than him ?
Told u a million times about that exaggarating
toonfan09
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:35 AM
Comment #15i meant 3 inches lol
toonfan09
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:36 AM
Comment #16which is actually a fact
connor_nufc
Feb 15, 2011 at 10:40 AM
Comment #17lol fair enough
BeeGuy
Feb 15, 2011 at 12:56 PM
Comment #18Better have big Sol ready to intervene.
The best thing NUFC can do tonight is to limit Birms corners and set pieces. If the big strikers can get comfy and set up, it will be hard for the NUFC back line to cope with their size.