English Premier
2008-04-20 - Newcastle United vs Sunderland AFC
A Sports Betting Pick by chappers
- English Premier League -
St James' Park
20th April 2008 KO 1.30PM (live on Sky)
Newcastle United(12th EPL)
Played 34 with 39 points
Unless there is an absolute disaster, Newcastle will be playing in the top flight once more next season. Yet for along while in-between January and March of 2008 this didn’t seem the case and even with Kevin Keegan returning the magpies continued to get beat every week, and not only get beat but hammered.
Arsenal scored three past them, Villa got four and Manchester United got eleven in two games (however Keegan was only manager for one of them). It took a while but now it seems like Newcastle have now found their feet and are now unbeaten in five games including both home and away. At home this season it has been tough for them with a record of 7-5-5 which is a win rate of 41% and this has not been good enough for a team whom normally have a great home record.
In recent weeks however this has changed and included in the five match unbeaten run are two home victories against Reading 3-0 and Fulham 2-0. Yet before this saw them lose two and before that came two draws. Keegan knows that if Newcastle want to improve next season then this home form needs to be sorted out as at the moment the days of teams fearful of going to the north east are long gone.
Sunderland AFC (14th EPL)
Played 34 with 36 points
I think most people at Sunderland thought that safety was in the bag after three wins on the bounce, but we were brought back down to earth with a 2-1 home defeat at Manchester City with all three goals coming near the end of the game. Now I’d said the draw before the game and if it had ended 0-0 I don’t think many could have argued, as it was not a very good game.
It was the type of performance that led to agreements in the pub after and while we mostly still think that we will stay up the Sunderland fan inside of you always thinks that yet again we will blow it at the end of the season. I cannot see it and I think that maybe one more point will be enough but the bookies had us at 60/1 to go down last time I checked so a lot of things have to go wrong and right for Sunderland to be playing in the Championship next season.
At the start of the season I wanted the team to stay up and I didn’t really care how we did it and with two back to back away wins at Villa and Fulham along with a point at Derby has seen the Black Cats rise away from the drop zone. When you consider that this is a team with an away record of 2-3-12 you can see that away games have not good places for us this season with only nine points gained. Then when you consider that seven of those nine have come in the last three away games you can see it has been a long season away from the Stadium Of Light.
Head to Head
Sunderland have a better H2H rating at St James' than do when they play Newcastle on Wearside with the last six games being 2-2-2, however Newcastle have won the last twice when Sunderland were to be honest the worst team in the top fight for many a year (Derby should soon take that mantle). Yet last time out the team that only managed 15 points all season lost 3-2 it a very close game that could have gone either way.
Verdict
As a Sunderland fan I never expect to get anything when we play away at Newcastle and this doesn’t change no matter how well either team are doing. And this game is no different, I set out hoping for at least a point and anything else that comes is a bonus.
I really don’t mind if we lose the game as long as we give a good account of ourselves. As for this game my first thought is the draw as while Newcastle have turned a corner so have Sunderland and it the last five games Newcastle have taken 11 points while Sunderland have 9 so there isn’t much between the two teams as the league table also shows.
Now this is the game that is being talked about all over the office and it seems that the feeling is two fold (and I'm not going to include the fans who say Newcastle 5-0). Sunderland fans seem to think the draw is the result to have and quite a few Newcastle fans agree. We also have a few you think 1-0 or 2-1 Newcastle in a very tight game that Newcastle will win in the end.
I'm going to agree with them and maybe it's just the safety bet as Newcastle win and money is made, anything else and I’m happy as we haven’t lost and also we should have enough points to stay up.
So Newcastle to win it is (god have mercy on my soul)@ 1.80
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Newcastle to win this match
