Damien closes in on return

[Barney 0]

Damien closes in on return

 

Dec 14 2007 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

 

DAMIEN Duff made a scoring return to action for Newcastle in a behind-closed-doors friendly yesterday – but neither he nor Brazilian defender Claudio Caçapa will play at Fulham tomorrow.

Damien Duff

 

United manager Sam Allardyce was delighted to see the pair come through the game against a Hartlepool United XI unscathed, but he will not take a chance on either of them as the Magpies look to rediscover their winning touch on the road against a Fulham side with one of the worst home records in the Premier League.

 

Duff will not even travel to the capital so that he can work on his fitness on Tyneside, while Caçapa will only be considered for a spot on the bench as Allardyce looks ahead to a gruelling Festive fixture list.

 

“The game will come a week or two too early for Damien because he is well short of match practice,” said Allardyce, who warned the Magpies that Fulham are a far better team than their lowly league position would suggest.

 

“He came through the game well and scored, but we’re not going to take any silly risks. He is just really happy to be out on the pitch again and the light at the end of

 

the tunnel is a really big one for him now. I’m sure he’s very relieved and we are looking forward to having a fit and firing Damien Duff available for selection.

 

“I don’t know when that will be. He needs another couple of behind-closed-doors games before he can be considered for the first team and the problem is the reserve league shuts down for Christmas. We’re desperately trying to get some games for him.”

 

Caçapa will be in the squad which travels to London this afternoon, but the Brazilian will not come straight back into the team, even though his manager is adamant the blunders in his last game – the 4-1 home defeat to Portsmouth on November 3 – are long forgotten.

 

He said: “That game is so far gone, it has gone down the River Tyne, into the sea and it’s on its way to bloody France now. We will not be talking about that again.

 

“Caçapa looked good and he will be back in the squad on Saturday. But I can’t see him starting the game, he’s still a little rusty and he’s short on match practice.

 

“Like Duffer, he needs a bit longer yet, but it will be great to be able to use them at some point over the busy Christmas period because the squad is going to be stretched.”

 

Allardyce hopes to add to his squad in January, but while he would like to sign Manchester United centre-back Wes Brown, he said: “I don’t know if Wes Brown will be allowed to leave Manchester United in January, I’m not convinced he will, so for the moment, we are having to look at targets elsewhere.”

 

Fulham have won just two games at home in the league all season and are only kept out of the relegation zone by their superior goal difference to Sunderland. Newcastle, meanwhile, have won just once on the road so far under Allardyce and the Newcastle boss knows something has to give tomorrow.

 

He said: “I think Fulham are a better team than their league position suggests. They have been in the lead a lot this season and drawn games they should have won and lost games they should have drawn. They have conceded a lot of late goals, but they are close to being a top-half-of-the-table side in my opinion. They are a bit like us because we could be in a higher position than we are for the same reason. We’ve been talking about the need to be better at the back all season, in fact we’re sick of talking about it.

 

“It’s time to go out there and do it on the pitch.”

[Kid Dynamite 7327]

To be fair to cacapa, he was our best defender by a mile til the pompey game. Id give him another go with taylor as rozenhal is looking dodgier by the game

[Barney 0]

Rozy has made far too many mistakes and has looked dodgy in the air, but he was in the French team of the season last year, despite playing in a shite PSG side. He deserves time to adapt(but not as first choice).

 

Cacapa looked very good before Pompey, and even Beye has looked good in that position.

 

Slightly(completely) off topic, we've been getting goals from defenders so far this season, which is great to see. Tayls, Beye, Cacapa and N'Zogbia have all scored from there. It would be nice now if Smith, Geremi, Emre, Barton et all could pitch in.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

I don't think Cacapa was fit against Pompey. My prediction about MOTD showing his dodgy backpass against Reading and making a 3 course Newcastle can't defend meal out of it seem to have come true unfortunately, after reading that tit from the bbc's column last week. We need to show him support, as we've seen how good he is, and try to ignore the yearly media witchhunt our defenders seem to get if they make one mistake. Anyone remember the disgraceful antics of Soccer Saturday last season where they showed a compilation of all of Brambles mistakes a couple of hours before one of our games and had a good laugh about it? Cunts.

[The Fish 11080]

this pretty much forces N'Zogbia to stay at fullback doesn't it?

[Asprilla 96]

this pretty much forces N'Zogbia to bugger off to Arsenal doesn't it?

 

 

[Guest alex]

this pretty much forces N'Zogbia to bugger off to Arsenal doesn't it?

 

 

Duff, N'Zogbia and Enrique could all feature in a 4-3-3 though and I would quite like to see that tried a few times.

[Asprilla 96]

this pretty much forces N'Zogbia to bugger off to Arsenal doesn't it?

 

 

Duff, N'Zogbia and Enrique could all feature in a 4-3-3 though and I would quite like to see that tried a few times.

Well that was my point, BS doesn't seem to want to play Enrique and Zoggy would rather be further forward, if not in the centre. If he were to play Enrique/Duff/Zog all on the left (or Zoggy in the luxury roaming role ) I'd be a very happy chap.

[khay 10]

I can see Jose getting a game at the weekend like and with Martins going away and not being to sure when Duff will be playing all the time I would like to see Zoggy and Milner on either side of Viduka/Smith.

[Happy Face 29]

Was Owen not meant to be fit for Derby?

[Happy Face 29]

Michael Owen is rated only at 50-50 to return for Newcastle when they face Derby in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday.

 

The 28-year-old has not featured for the Magpies since suffering a thigh injury playing in an England friendly against Austria last month.

 

Newcastle boss Sam Allardyce had originally pencilled Owen in for the Rams clash, but is keen to tread carefully with four games to come over the Christmas and New Year period.

 

"Hopefully Michael is going to get back into some form of training this week, and Derby might still be a bit soon, but we'll keep our fingers crossed," Allardyce told the Newcastle Chronicle.

 

"Certainly, we would hope to have Steven Taylor and possibly Abdoulaye Faye and Stephen Carr back.

 

"We'll try to get them into training as quickly as we can, because the games are coming thick and fast."

 

 

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/..._Newcastle.html