Benwell Lad

Depressing and embarrassing in equal measure. Depressing because the very people who benefited most from their ancestors being given education, decent working conditions and a health service by the Labour movement are now so entitled they are voting for a fascist party. And it is a fascist party, despite the protests of the snowflake hard right. It looks, talks and smells like a fascist party so let's call it what it is. It creeps up and they're never going to tell you that if you vote for them they will be representing the interests of billionaire tax avoiders, crypto barons and big oil companies, so the populist "your problems are all all caused by minority A,B or C and we will fix it" is their mantra and sadly there are sufficient ill informed, gullible voters who back them. Those same people who have now grouped parts of the north- east in with the UK's biggest shitholes, Stoke, Clacton on Sea etc will also be the first to be moaning and complaining when their local services start falling apart and disappearing..

Killa was never really as hard as his appearance or the myth would have you believe. Kenny Wharton and David Batty for example, though about half his size, really were

So, essentially, nothing like the "quote" you attributed to him

Seems like just yesterday that mad Richie's Jarrow Roofing were the number one club on South Tyneside Hebburn Town in the National League North really is some achievement.

This season, though a bit flat now, has been frantic and exhausting as we went through that hectic spell playing more competitive games than any other club in Europe. Even as fans we were exhausted, it was intense for the players though most got enforced breaks at some point. For Howe and his staff it was just relentless. I honestly don't know how he did it and always stayed positive. I hope he enjoys a good break close season and comes back ready to take us further again, and struggle to think of anyone better suited to lead NUFC through what will be a huge season ahead. But if he does leave, we'd better face up to it, it will be for a big club . I think I'd be close to tears watching him being interviewed after winning something with Man U, Chelsea, Tottenham or the likes. Best and most successful manager for a generation, someone who we took to our hearts as he took the city and region to his.

In fairness they've managed to spoil games and achieve a result against better teams than us this season. That's what the do, spoil games, whinge, fall over and constantly harangue referees and somehow it's worked. Dreadful to watch and last night they got their comeuppance. They'd be incapable of entering a game as the better side and have to take the game to the opposition from the off, Huddersfield, Port Vale, Burnley spring to mind. It will be interesting to see what they do next season after succeeding at survival this season? Can they evolve or will they just have to try and do it the same way again ?

Just can't understand the decision to play all the NL games at the same time when a lot of people would have taken them all in. It's not like any game has any bearing on any other game ??

So much going on in South Tyneside with Shields, Hebburn and Jarra all involved

Ironically there have probably been more financial artificial bubbles burst at lower levels than have ever happened higher up. The Richie Rich's of the game who become attracted for whatever reason, throw money at unrealstic ambitions and then bale out a year or two later when they get bored. There have been dozens and dozens of such examples (remember Colne Dynamos) and probably enough material for a good book about it all South Shields and Hebburn recently, and Morpeth before that, thankfully seem to be going about it in a sustainable way. Then there's Gateshead almost the opposite. Consistently, for decades now, the North East's top non league club, from the most hampered of situations, without ever making any waves. (Should probably be in the NL thread )

Because we have really been cheated out of an exciting end to the season - you know that time when you're not only supporting your own team but also supporting other random teams who are playing your "rivals", I'm going for us needing three points more to ensure safety just to have a bit of late season excitement and anxiety.

From the Northern Leaguer 2nd division all the way to the Champions League it's essentially the same and though the numbers are bigger nowadays it always has been like that.

It really is and it's located in a nice place out of the city towards Nottingham. Add to that the fact he bought an amazing house not far from there a few years ago which he probably finally got to move into will make him reluctant to leave, you'd think, when the axe starts swinging.

"It seems as though Gordon feels he has outgrown Newcastle" Didn't read the full article but whoever said that knew just how to gain maximum impact from Newcastle's more angry fans. Just like yesterday when the BBC and it's political correspondents descended even closer towards becoming the Daily Fail by headlining a good old gay/immigration story to give the nation's gammons some red meat to feast on. These reporters are playing with us. Try, difficult though it may be, to concentrate on facts.

Yes, and Liverpool at home last season when he blew up for full time as we were breaking rapidly towards their goal with 3 on 2 and loads of space, right on the 5 minutes of extra time despite a 2 minute delay for a free kick. He then booked Pope for asking Why? and had earlier denied us a clear penalty after a blatant trip in the box. It's every fucking game that he's involved in with us. And fwiw I think he'd decided Palace were getting a penalty before the throw was even taken on Sunday whatever happened and possibly hadn't even seen the shirt pulling when he blew.

Said so many times previously no Madley should be allowed anywhere near a Newcastle game, in any capacity. They hate us and it have consistently cost us with corrupt decisions over many years. Yes, it's a foul but the consistency and timing aspect has been eloquently explained in the posts above.

Madley the ref. Few soft decisions given our way, possibly when we had the advantage anyway, but all significant potential game changing decisions to go against us.

Sadly, too many of these soulless sports centre grounds entering the NL while great old grounds like Ferryhill, Willington, Brandon etc and more modern classics like Durham City have left. It definitely detracts from the NL day out experience

Amazing crowd 1,235.

Absolutely nothing wrong with VAR in principle, in fact it's a good thing given how bad refereeing can be at times, and the tens of millions at stake at the highest levels of the game. It's the execution of it which creates the negativity and hairline offsides are the worst thing. Introduce clear daylight for offsides and let VAR concentrate on missed fouls, handballs, clear deception etc.

One of my favourite books ever

Great thread which is inducing some interesting and thought provoking responses. But, would it have been created and responded to so enthusiastically had Sunday's game had a different outcome? That was a shit performance and a shit result against a shit team and it really, really hurt most of us. We are entitled to feel bad and curse, shout and gnash our teeth accordingly. Questions about performances this season, the coaching staff, a poor summer of recruitment etc are all very valid, but Sunday's debacle and the emotion surrounding it has to be detached from any discussions about where we are in our longer term development. FWIW I still think right now we're ahead of where we could have reasonably expected to be the day PIF and Eddie Howe walked into the club. Generally recruitment and results have been excellent since they arrived. This has been a long exhausting season and Sunday was the nadir for many but calm analysis and assessment is needed right now, and in fairness has been provided by the excellent OP.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, Gateshead's third goal is a thing of beauty. As good a free kick as you'll see and a classic far post towering header from Lewis Storey. When they play well Gateshead are a very impressive side to watch.

Media loves a bit of booing at Newcastle. Even on Sunday it would have been maximum a couple of hundred booing, it get's heard in what was an almost empty stadium by then. 200 fans booing, 50,000 fans not boing , media interpretation - Newcastle fans boo management and team.

I don't think Eddie Howe has taken us as far as he can. I think he has taken us a lot further, a lot faster, than anyone thought he could and other aspects of the club's development have not been able to keep up. It's quite literally exhausted the staff and available players in our 50 odd game, and counting, season. The miracle he performed in keeping us up, and the season that followed, puts us a clear two years ahead of schedule. Sunday's result and the emotion that surrounds it, painful as it was, needs to be detached from the context of what has been achieved by Howe since he arrived. Nothing tells me that there is a more suitable person than him to take us to the next stage.

They certainly didn't play us off the park, I'm not sure a team who's only tactic seems to be a long throw could do that to anyone. They were however definitely the better side second half, we bottled it, they smelled blood as someone said and the crowd started sensing the inevitability of what was going to happen.