St James’ Park awaits – Newcastle v Nottingham Forest preview | OneFootball

Welcome to the Newcastle v Nottingham Forest preview.

Sunday 23rd February – 2pm kick-off

Newcastle play host to third-place Nottingham Forest this Sunday, in a televised clash that could well go a long way to determine who plays Champions League football next campaign.

Forest have been the surprise package of an intriguing season but a win for the Toon will have us just three points behind the tricky trees.

Old boy Chris Wood will be determined to get one over his former employers having netted a hat-trick at St James’ Park last season, whereas Alexander Isak will be hoping he comes out on top in the battle of the in-form strikers. This is a match not to be missed, it has all the makings of a classic!

Form

Newcastle have won three of their past six league matches. Wins over Tottenham, Wolves and Southampton have been cancelled out by defeats to Bournemouth, Fulham and Manchester City. We’ve scored twelve goals in these matches and conceded twelve. During this time, we’ve also enjoyed four cup victories, beating Arsenal twice in the League Cup and surviving scares to win against both Bromley and Birmingham in the FA Cup. We’ll finish the weekend between fourth and ninth.

Nottingham Forest have also won three of their past six league matches, drawing one and losing two. They’ve scored fifteen and conceded ten. They’ll finish the weekend either third or fourth.

Last time out

The less said about Newcastle’s last match the better! The Toon were absolutely blown away by a first-half hat-trick from Man City new boy Marmoush that sealed the deal before half time. Thankfully the second half wasn’t quite so painful but a 4-0 defeat in the end was a very bad day at the office for NUFC.

Nottingham Forest were also licking their wounds at the weekend after a 2-1 defeat away to Fulham. The one bright spot for them was another goal for Chris Wood, who has now netted eighteen league goals this season amid staking a claim for the golden boot. Only Salah and Haaland are ahead of him so far – with Isak hot on his heels.

Newcastle have welcomed Nottingham Forest to St James’ Park on six Premier League occasions, winning five.

NUFC have found the net in each of their last ten home encounters with Forest.

Forest have tasted success against the Toon in two of their last three visits to St James’ in all competitions. They won 3-1 last season courtesy of a Chris Wood hat-trick and 3-2 in the 2017 league cup.

Memorable match

On the last day of the 96/97 season, Forest came to Newcastle having already triumphed at St James’ Park in the FA Cup. Newcastle were hoping to finish second in the league which, for the first time ever, would mean qualification for the Champions League. In order to achieve this, we’d need to win and hope results in both the Arsenal and Liverpool games went in our favour. In addition, both Sunderland and Middlesbrough were hoping to avoid a last day relegation from the Premier League. For the dream scenario of Newcastle to finish second and both Sunderland and Middlesbrough to go down, Toon fans would need six results to go the right way, a tough ask at the best of times.

Newcastle started the match like they meant business! Attacking the Forest goal at will, it was a surprise that it took twenty minutes to open the scoring when Faustino Asprilla was played in on goal and made no mistake. Three minutes later it was 2-0 when Sir Les Ferdinand scored and he was soon in on the act again making it three after just thirty minutes with his last goal for the club. Alan Shearer then made it 4-0 to the Toon with his twenty-eighth of the season to confirm the destination of the points before halftime meaning all eyes were on results elsewhere The second half was, understandably, a less eventful affair but Toon fans were grateful to Robbie Elliot who ensured we at least added to our tally and ran out 5-0 winners.

Newcastle had kept their side of the bargain, now it was time to see whether other results had ensured second place. Arsenal had won their game but a 3-1 win away at Derby County wasn’t enough as the Toon finished ahead of them on goal difference. Liverpool however would finish ahead of both Arsenal and the Toon if they could beat Sheffield Wednesday. In this pre-social media age, some fans had brought pocket radios and were waiting on the score with bated breath. Miraculously, a 1-1 draw in that game meant that we’d done it!

The Toon had just barely squeezed into second place on goal difference ahead of both Arsenal and Liverpool and would be gearing up for our first ever Champions League campaign. We had our cake and the icing too, could our North East neighbours add a rather large cherry on the top with a double relegation? When Coventry City beat Spurs, the ball was in the court of our rivals to see if they could respond with wins of their own. Middlesbrough went away to Leeds and drew 1-1, whilst Sunderland hilariously went down 1-0 away to Wimbledon. Six results had all gone our way. Geordies in the Champions League, Mackems and Smoggies going down – Magic! Final Score: Newcastle 5-0 Nottingham Forest

Played for both

Micheal Chopra was billed as the next Alan Shearer when rising through the ranks at NUFC. As part of his development, he was loaned to Nottingham Forest in 2004 but failed to make much of an impression, playing five games without scoring a goal. He never made the grade at the Toon and his career disastrously took a nosedive when he ended up playing for Sunderland. A fall from grace if ever there was one!

Jonjo Shelvey played for Newcastle for seven years having been signed by Steve McClaren in 2016. He stayed with the Toon following our relegation under Rafa Benitez and was an integral part of our immediate promotion. Highlights of his time on Tyneside include a stunning last minute equaliser against Manchester City in 2019 and a late winner away at Leeds in 2022 that helped kick-start Eddie Howe’s reign. He signed for Forest in Jan 2023 but only played eight league games for the reds before being left out of the squad for the 23/24 season amid rumours of a rift with their manager.

James Perch was affectionately nicknamed Perchinho by Toon fans, having signed from Nottingham Forest by Chris Hughton. He’d played over two hundred games for the reds. He didn’t get off to the best of starts at NUFC with a late own goal giving Stoke City all three points in one of his first games. He steadily improved throughout his time at NUFC and even gave us the lead at Old Trafford with a well-taken opener in a desperately unlucky 4-3 defeat.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 4-0 away defeat to Manchester City:

“We are very disappointed with our general performance. I expected us to be really competitive, but I don’t think we were. Off the ball, in terms of trying to deliver a really competitive, energetic performance, it wasn’t there. We were off on our duels, and then it becomes very difficult because they’re still the best team in the Premier League, maybe the world for me, in the build-up phase. With the ball, I think they’re still a very difficult team to play against. They can keep the ball for long periods of time, so it can become a difficult mix if you don’t get that first part right and we didn’t. Sadly, that led to a disappointing performance.”

Nuno Espirito Santo after a 2-1 defeat away at Fulham:

“Did we see the best of Forest today? No. I think we could be better, I think we lost small battles in the game, when the ball was bouncing we didn’t win the duels. Overall not the best performance. We knew they were dangerous from wide areas with crosses, and the idea was to have an extra body to control those situations. The players should have made contact with the ball, and solved it. It was duels, fouls, and the flow of the game was not there for us. We have been working well, but we have to go better, and finish the season in a good way.”

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.

Newcastle will be determined to bounce back from a heavy defeat last weekend and this would be the perfect time to do it.

We won 3-1 away at Forest in the league and also knocked them out of the League Cup.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chris Wood on the scoresheet but I’m also backing Isak to bag two of his own. Newcastle 2-1 Nottingham Forest