St James’ Park awaits – Newcastle v Leicester preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Leicester preview.

Saturday 14th December 3pm

Newcastle return to action this Saturday for a traditional 3pm kick off against a Leicester City side who have spent most of this season near the bottom of the league.

The Toon will be desperate to put the last match behind them after a horror second-half performance saw them lose 4-2 away to Brentford.

Leicester will be hoping to carry on where they left off against Brighton, scoring two late goals to salvage a draw.

Newcastle’s form is becoming a real concern. The last six league matches have seen two wins, two draws and two defeats, but this masks the fact that these are our only two wins in the past eleven Premier League matches stretching back three months, which is nowhere near good enough to battle for the European places.

December tends to be a key month in any season and it’s getting desperate now that we put points on the board, starting this weekend. We could end up anywhere between ninth and fourteenth in the table depending on results elsewhere.

Leicester have enjoyed something of a new manager bounce in the short space of time since Van Nistelrooy was appointed. They won one and drew one of his two games in charge.

Their past six matches have seen a win, two draws and three defeats, scoring eight goals and conceding thirteen. They are now five points clear of the relegation zone and will be fifteenth, sixteenth or seventeenth in the league come the end of the weekend.

Last time out

Newcastle were dreadful last match despite scoring two goals away at Brentford. A particularly poor second half saw us go down 4-2 in a poor performance that we deserved absolutely nothing from.

Two equalisers raised hopes we could leave with at least a point, but a total lack of attacking threat in the second half coupled with conceding poor goals, led to yet another Premier League defeat in an increasingly inconsistent season.

Leicester enjoyed a late comeback against Brighton. The foxes were losing 2-0 with just four minutes remaining but pulled one back through Jamie Vardy, which set up a grandstand finish. The equaliser came in the ninety first minute to spark scenes of wild celebration. They’ll be buoyed by this result and hopeful of climbing away from the relegation places.

Newcastle are unbeaten in their last three home matches with Leicester City in all competitions.

The past ten Premier League meetings at St James’ Park between the sides has seen four Toon wins, one draw and five wins for the foxes.

The past five home matches with Leicester have seen both teams score five goals apiece in total.

Newcastle have scored three or more goals at home to Leicester on four separate Premier League occasions.

Memorable match

Kenny Dalglish’s Newcastle hosted Leicester in 1997 and played out a classic, live on sky sports.

With just four minutes gone, Robbie Elliot opened the scoring to give the Magpies a lead that was held until half time. When the teams entered their fifteen-minute break, no one could have had any idea of the drama that would unfold in the second half.

Goals from Matt Elliot, Steve Claridge and Emile Heskey put Leicester 3-1 up and it looked like the foxes had bagged the points, until Ginola took a tumble in the seventy second minute, twenty yards from goal. At that point, Alan Shearer smashed home a free-kick that almost broke the net to make it 2-3. More was to come from our talismanic number nine.

In the eighty third minute, Shearer picked up the ball in the box after a pass from Sir Les Ferdinand and squeezed an effort across the face of goal into the bottom corner to level the match. The comeback was on and Newcastle fans and players could now sense a famous victory.

The referee grew tired of blatant spoiling tactics from the Leicester players and began pointing to his watch every time they tried to run the clock down, to signal he would be adding it back on to stoppage time. Thank God he did!

In the ninety second minute, a series of one-touch passes in and around the Leicester area led to the ball at Shearer’s feet just a few centimetres from the goal-line. One of his easiest ever goals in a black and white shirt was also one of his most enjoyable – the tap-in sealed his first ever hat-trick for the Toon and ensured three of our least likely points of the season. Final score Newcastle 4-3 Leicester. Wonderful!

Played for both

Keith Gillespie was a controversial signing for NUFC in January 1995, as he formed part of the deal to take Andy Cole to rivals Man Utd.

He went on to become an integral part of Keegan’s entertainers, forming a balance down the right with David Ginola on the left, as the pair of them loaded the bullets for Sir Les Ferdinand to fire United to within four points of being 1996 Premier League champions. His finest hour came in September 1997, when whipping in two inch-perfect crosses for Tino Asprilla to smash home headers in a legendary 3-2 victory over the mighty Barcelona in the Champions League, happy days! He signed for Leicester in 2003 and spent two seasons with the foxes.

Nolberto Solano was one of Kenny Dalglish’s better signings and became the first ever Peruvian to score in the Premier League when netting against Wimbledon in 1998.

He had two spells in Black and White and scored forty eight goals in three hundred and fifteen games. A free-kick specialist, he had the honour of scoring the first ever goal of Sir Bobby Robson’s managerial reign when crashing home a set-piece in a European tie away at Sofia. He’s also a derby hero having scored the winning goal at the Stadium of Light in 2003. Always getting a great reception from NUFC fans when playing against the Toon, he played a few games for Leicester in 2010, including a 0-0 bore draw with NUFC as we racked up another point towards promotion.

Ayoze Perez signed for the Toon in 2014 for the bargain price of £1.5 million. He scored a number of fine goals for NUFC, with a personal favourite of mine being a cheeky back heel away at West Brom in a 2-0 win that sent the away end wild. He also netted a fine hat-trick at home to Southampton in one of Rafa’s last home games in charge. He signed for Leicester in 2019 having scored the winning goal away at the Foxes in the two previous seasons. He never quite reached the heights at Leicester that he did at NUFC and moved back to Spain in 2023.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a poor 4-2 defeat away at Bournemouth –

“The third goal was especially disappointing. I thought we’d fought back really well from conceding two goals. The game was very much in the balance at that moment, so it was really, really disappointing from our perspective…It’s frustrating because before the last few games, we were looking really tight at the back and the problems were probably at the other end of the pitch”

Ruud Van Nistelrooy after a 2-2 comeback draw at home to Brighton –

“This squad has to do well to stay in the Premier League, there’s no other way. We have eleven starters and we also need all five subs to be contributing. I demand a lot from the wingers, off the ball and on the ball. I demand a lot from the full-backs and strikers. I’m glad we have a lot of options that we can put on in the squad and I’ve used them all in the two games.”

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 HERE.

This is a tough one. On paper, we should be too strong for a struggling Leicester side, but they are out to impress a new manager and have gained four points from the past two games.

Ruud Van Nistelrooy was the architect of many NUFC defeats in his playing days and I’m praying this doesn’t continue into a managerial career.