But still, the Magpies would love to snap a four-game winless streak this weekend at home as they host Birmingham, who is looking to move further away from the relegation zone as well ; bookmakers promotions such as Ladbrokes’ allow to place bet on nice odds about that.

Newcastle has a pair of draws and two losses since a 4-1 win at home over Wolves on April 2nd, and they were spanked 3-0 at Liverpool, where they came face to face with striker Andy Carroll, who they sold to Liverpool for a club-record for $57.7 million at the transfer deadline.

They could have used Carroll to boost their faith among those who bet on sports right now, because they’re struggling to find the back of the net, scoring a single goal during this four-game winless skid. Now that Carroll is on Merseyside, Newcastle’s leading scoring is captain Kevin Nolan, who has 12 goals in 30 games from midfield, followed by forward Shola Ameobi, who has eight goals in 20 games, and then Leon Best, who has six goals in 10 games, but he’s gone for the rest of the year with an ankle/foot injury. Then you have another midfielder, Joey Barton, with five goals and a team-leading eight assists in 30 games, and you have what should be Newcastle’s main goal of the offseason.

The Magpies need to go out and find a goal-scorer to replace Carroll (who had 11 goals in 18 games), because you’re not going to be very successful when your main goal threats are your midfielders.

Nolan and Barton are great at supporting strikers from midfield, but they’re still not of the quality of a Frank Lampard, for example. This week’s forward pairing should continue to be Ameobi and Peter Lovenkrandis, which is fine against the likes of Birmingham, and Newcastle has a home game against West Brom to finish the season, so they should escape the season unscathed, but they need to find a striker in the offseason.

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Football betting pundits note how midfielder Joey Barton and defender Jose Enrique are both out of contract in the summer with a whole host of clubs chasing their signatures following impressive performances in the top flight.

Barton, who originally said he would sign a new deal if Nolan did, should keep to his word and renew his contract in the summer while Enrique’s future remains in doubt as he continues to be strongly linked with a move to Liverpool.

The Spanish defender played a major role in his side’s promotion back to the Premier League and has continued to excel this season as Newcastle cemented their top-flight status.

Barton and Nolan have formed a formidable partnership with an energetic and aggressive approach that has given Pardew’s side steel and determination in the midfield region.

Pardew not only needs his current players to pledge their future’s to the club but he also has a huge task in the summer to try and attract players to St James Park with the money raised from Andy Carroll’s £35 million move to Liverpool.

His number one priority has to be signing a striker following this season’s lack of activity in front of goal. After Carroll’s departure to Anfield and Shola Ameobi’s facial injury, the Toon Army’s striking options were limited with Pardew having only youngster Nile Ranger, untried Leon Best, out-of-position Peter Lovenkrands and veteran Shefki Kuqi, who signed until the end of the season, at his disposal.

Newcastle’s strike force lacked fire power and a striker who could find the net on a regular basis which ended any hope of progression into the Europa League places this season. They relied too heavily on the contribution of Nolan, who is the club’s leading scorer with 12 and when he was absent, it showed.

It is unknown how much of the £35 million raised from Carroll’s sale Pardew will get to spend, but it is needed to be spent wisely if Newcastle are to emulate this season. Those looking to win football bets will agree that a couple of strikers, a winger, a central midfielder and a defender would see Pardew’s squad improve drastically.

If Pardew can tie Barton and Enrique down to new deals and bring in some quality new additions, Newcastle will have a decent squad to make an assault on the Europa League places.

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With eight games to go before the end of the season, just how far can the club push on? Can Newcastle reach for a Europa cup place or are they destined for a mid table position at the end of May?

There are no easy games in English Premiership Football these days and Newcastle United certainly have a tricky run in to the end of the season. March has been a disjointed month and like many clubs, Newcastle will have their fixture calendar decimated by FA Cup ties and Euro 2012 qualifiers.

Their remaining March fixture sees Pardew`s men travel to Stoke City who are flying high after reaching the FA Cup semi final. Stoke are an unpredictable side and may have Wembley on their minds this time round. Newcastle should at least be looking for a point from this game.

After the sparse March calendar, there are only three games scheduled for April and the Magpies kick off the month by hosting Wolves. Mick McCarthy`s men have enjoyed a change in fortunes recently but with home advantage, Newcastle should prove too strong for them. A week later, United travel to Aston Villa and with premiership survival seemingly assured, Houllier`s men should be there for the taking.

April ends with a trip to Bloomfield Road to take on Ian Holloway`s Blackpool. Once again, their opponents have been inconsistent to say the least and the result of this game could depend on which Blackpool team turns up. If Charlie Adam is back in their ranks after injury, they should be a tough prospect and a point would be a good outcome.

Newcastle round off the season with four fixtures in May and these include difficult away ties at Chelsea and at Liverpool, where they may well run into their former striker Andy Carroll. Although both teams have enjoyed mixed results this season, Liverpool and Chelsea are hitting form at the right time and you feel any points from these two games would be a bonus.

United`s two home games see them take on two more relegation candidates in Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion and although these will be testing fixtures, six points from those two should be a realistic target for Alan Pardew and his side.

Much has been made of the departure of Carroll and the likely effect that it would have on Newcastle`s season. However, many argue that the reverse has happened and that this has, in fact, galvanised the rest of the team. There was no better display of Newcastle`s quality than their dramatic comeback against Arsenal that rescued a point with a 4-4 draw.

It`s not unrealistic to expect Newcastle United to achieve at least 14 points from their remaining games. Such a return would see them in Europa Cup contention and although it will be a tough battle, there are many soccer pundits offering free footy tips prepared to agree that European Football is within Newcastle`s reach.

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In a bid to have at least some extra options up front and following the injury to Shola Ameobi, those studying Sportsbook online note that Shefki Kuqi was brought in on loan.

Despite this, Kevin Nolan is aware that everybody in the team needs to be chipping in with goals for the remainder of the season. More accurately, they should continue to find the back of the net regularly.

As yet, Carroll has not been missed, with the Magpies scoring six goals in their last three games. The most recent two resulting in a fantastic 2-0 victory at Birmingham City.

Speaking after the win at St Andrews, Nolan said: “We are all putting pressure on ourselves because we know the goals have to come from all around the pitch, but that is generally happening. It’s about time the centre-halves start popping in with a few too.”

“It’s a team game, we know that and we are a great team together. We win, lose and draw together, we’ve all enjoyed the last few days and want to feel it a lot more this season.”

The former Bolton man is certainly a man on a mission and seems focused, which is exactly what the Newcastle fans want to see. If there was 11 Kevin Nolan’s turning out every week, Alan Pardew would be a very happy manager.

Not that he isn’t happy at the moment. Newcastle sit in a very respectable 9th position in the Premier League, a comfortable eight points above the relegation zone and just four points behind Liverpool in 6th.

If more players start chipping in with goals like Nolan has requested, it could very well be a relaxing and enjoyable end to the season. Then, there might be a bit of money to spend in the summer.

For now, it is good times at St James’ Park.

The post Kevin Nolan calls for goals appeared first on Magpieszone.

We did start the match in much comfortable style than in the last FA Cup third round match, and in just 4 minutes into the first half, Ameobi should have scored for the Toon if he can calm his nerve and steady the ball first rather than make his shot wide of a post.

It was the sign of more under par performance in terms of goal scoring opportunity for the newly adopted Nigerian player. I was thinking of his Geordie status which is now surely gone by chosing to play for the Super Eagle team, and maybe that has cost him a little bit out of the mood to scoring a goal against the mackems too.

For couple of times Ameobi looking like a school boy team player who has very little of creativity up front. Despite he can won the ball up in the air couple of times, and causing Bramble to have a torrid afternoon, he was surprisingly failed to create every opportunity he has to converted into a goal.

His final passing ball was also very poor and it seems he just get the ball away from him without looking at where his team mates are before releasing the ball.

Only one time he did great when he rising high above all mackems defender to meet Barton corner and flicking it on into the danger area and struck Bramble first before Nolan backheeled the ball to give Newcastle a deserved lead.

Without the presence of Andy Carroll, we are once again failed to convert many opportunities to double our lead since then. Leon Best is once again return to his natural form which is need couple of weeks or months before he can start to produce goals again.

During the match, we are totally controlling the midfield with Barton and Nolan command the area expertly. In defence, Coloccini and Williamson are also securing every inch of our side, with Enrique also doing great to charge the ball out.

Strangely, I was a bit of surprise that without Tiote we still can play good defensive role, and it was a good sign after all, we are now can be sure that we still have a team which can do better in controlling the midfield without one of our first team player, but not in front.

It was clear that we still need one or two additional attacking player who can score goals to cover the absence of Andy Carroll in the future. I’m not sure we can depend on any of Best, Ameobi or Ranger to replace Carroll when his out.

Until then, thanks for coming to this site and Howay the Lads!

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