Tom_NUFC

I can't knock him, he's doing the business. He's not one of the greatest players by any means, but his attitude and work rate is spot on, and you can't argue with the performances he's giving.

It was emotional as hell - spanning the whole range - but Leicester, away - May 1992.

The 10,000 The 10,000 before Keegan mentioned amongst the comments there belongs to that old addage if you tell a lie and keep repeating it then people start to believe it. How many pre-Keeganers here remember us pulling in crowds of 10,000? I'm pre- Keegan and I don't remember crowds that low. I think there might have been one or two games in the Jim Smith period when we were playing appalling football where things dropped as low as around 12,000 - but only a few games, it wasn't a regular attendence. And I seem to recall a game against Oxford where we might have got 10,000 but I remember that was due to bad weather - it had been pouring down all day. It was an evening match and Tyne Tees and Metro were saying the game was off. We hung on at home to see what Look North were saying. They said it was still on, so we went up. But crowds of 10,000 were certainly not regular occurances by any means.

shite west brom miss! Boro are through

boateng scores

3-3

arca puts boro 3-2 up

2-2

so do west brom

He gave away a couple of free kicks. He wasn't the worst player, but he wasn't the best either - and given that there wasn't really anyone who played well.......

Aye mate, you're right about their goal. The free kick was taken right in front of us, and it was a good strike, not much Given could have done. I still don't know what went on with the pen, it was at the other end from us, and I've not seen any highlights. But, the fact is, we didn't do anything, we just weren't creating anything - several players were anonymous. If we had a gameplan then it was to run around like headless chickens, and for that reason, Roeder must be partly to blame as well for that very reason. I don't want to get at Roeder too much, because sometimes we look OK, but sometimes isn't good enough. Wigan themselves weren't very good, and as I've already said here (or was it on T-T), if we'd had anything about us - any proper plan and a bit of effort, then we'd have got something - probably 3 points, but as it was, Wigan deserved the win. What I found really annoying was that once it was announced there was 5 minutes added on, suddenly we perked up a bit and put a little bit of effort in. Why the f*ck didn't we do that earlier on! Too late lads.

Aye, that was class

Who was booing like? Having been to the game, I can't say I heard any booing myself. Shite today, and Wigan weren't that good themselves. If we'd had anything about us, we'd have won that today, but we didn't. Duff was dreadful - completely anonymous.

And after he finished analyisng us he celebrated his achievement with "I feel good der der ler der ler der ler!"

I think he's been great. I don't know why people have been critical of him, or how he started with us - probably the £10m price tag to be honest, but he's still only 22 (was 21 when we bought him) and had come to us from Internazionale. I think it was just a question of a young player settling in and adapting to the English game. He's doing that now, and he's looking very good. In 2 or 3 or 4 years he'll be a hell of a player. I just hope he's still with us.

Look at Blackburn. According to Five Live they're charging bairns £1 for their UEFA game tomorrow night, and season ticket holders are getting big discounts. We should be doing this. I can't afford to go to all the Cup games because I've not got much money. I'm having to miss tomorrow night. I suppose I could have gone tomorrow instead of Wigan away like, but I've not been away yet this season. Anyway, the point is, if we did things like that, people who find it a bit much to get to all the cup games, would probably go (I would), and with kids discount as well - especially with it being half term this week, the club would probably end up with more money, because there'd be more people going.

Yeah. That's a top book "The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football" by David Goldblatt - Very extensive, about 1000 pages long - reads more like a standard history book than the usual sort of generic books you get on Football. "A Mag For All Seasons" - Billy Furious (from The Mag) - Looks back at the 92/93 promotion season. Very funny and great to remember what was a brilliantly fun season. "The Far Corner" - Harry Pearson - It's an 'oldie' now, but still a brilliant look at NE Football. Very funny, and hits the nail on the head with what the NE is like. "Newcastle United: Fifty Years of Hurt" - Ged Clarke - A great read examining the last 50 years or so and the fact we've won nothing (excluding the Fairs Cup). It's frustrating just reading about it, but very good. "Football Against The Enemy" - Simon Kuper - Another 'oldie'. It came out in about 1994. But full of some funny/strange/tragic football stories. Including the East Berlin supporters of Hertha Berlin (of West Berlin), one of whom did everything he could to follow his team, trying to dodge the East German authorities to watch Hertha (and other West German sides) play in Eastern Europe

I think that some are more credible than others. You have people just setting up online petitions about really silly things. There was a one a while ago when someone came on here asking people to sign his petition to get Shepherd to improve the atmosphere at St James' - that's down to us, not FFS. I think some of the more well-organised petitions for proper issues can, at least allow people's feelings to be known.

Harper is OK, a decent keeper, but I'm always happier with Given in goal.

Aye, I don't think they should be scrapped either. I remember before the one replay rule came in. Replays could drag on and on. I remember us playing Nottingham Forest in a FA Cup tie in the early 90s (I think it was 1991) which went to three or four games.

I do sometimes. I went to my first game in 1985, and was going regularly from about 1989/1990. A few years ago I used to look down on people who didn't go to the cup games, but I'm in a position now where I haven't got a lot of money and I can't get to all the Cup games myself. I'm not entirely sure whether I'll be able to afford a season ticket next year yet - as I'm leaving Uni this summer and have to find a job. So now I can appreciate that often people don't go - not because they aren't bothered but because they can't afford to go to every game etc. I know that there's been a pre-Keegan superiority thing as well, but I'm not sure how relevant that is now. The pre-Keegan days were 15 years ago now, so there's a hell of a lot of kids - teenagers even who weren't even born back then let alone were old enough to go to the match. I was 6 when I went to my first game, but 10 or 11 before I was going to every home game, so there are maybe 20-25 year olds who didn't go pre-Keegan simply because of their age.

Roeder was on earlier. Here's a summary of what was said. Michael Owen's recovery is going well. He has been running in straight lines this week. However it is too early to say when he will play, he needs to start twisting and turning in his training, which he will be doing soon, but that will be a big test, as will training with the ball and tackling. But Roeder is optimistic that Owen may be able to participate in a few games this season. He's happy with the general performance of the team so far this season. He was very unhappy with the manner Newcastle was knocked out of the FA Cup, but he's very pleased with the performances in the UEFA Cup, which he sees as a major chance of some silverware this season. It was put to him that considering all the injuries, Newcastle were doing well. He replied by saying that injuries are not an excuse, but that it can make things difficult and that he'd had to call upon young players to step up, and was very pleased in the way that they had responded. Roeder was asked about the Academy situation following Ferguson's comments this week. Roeder said that it is hard to find academy players that are up to the standards, due to the rules about clubs only being allowed to sign players based within an hour of them. It was put to Roeder that the tradition of the North East as a strong area for producing quality players put Newcastle at an advantage over many other clubs, but Roeder disagreed. He argued that they have to find academy players up to the right standard in a relatively small area, with "a lot of grass" to the south, "a lot of grass" to the north, "more grass" to the west, and "quite a lot of water" to the east. Roeder was asked about Arsene Wenger's comments that FA Cup replays should be scrapped, and he said that he agreed with Wenger, as fixture congestion is a big problem.

I think Roeder's doing well with what he has. It's been tough getting players in, but I think that's more down to the fact that he hasn't been given money. He seems to have instilled a bit of team spirit, by all accounts the players respect him and he respects them. He's honest and doesn't hide behind excuses. How far he can take us, I'm still unsure about, but as far as I'm concerned he's doing a decent job.

Another one I've just remembered. David Kelly taking on half the Ascoli team and coaching staff in the Anglo-Italian Cup 92/93. That was a class fight.

There was a story in the papers and on the Radio and TV news maybe about 10 or 12 years ago, of an Arsenal fan who went to the bog after the game and fell asleep. He woke up a few hours later locked inside Highbury.