Benwell Lad

As I said in a post here months ago Bobby, when some were doubting him and touting him for a Championship loan, if he ever left Newcastle it would be to go up the chain not down it. He's been catching the eye of top clubs for years and even before he caught the eye of many Newcastle supporters. Before his current "breakthrough" he's been involved with England at every level, normally in age groups above his age. He's been well monitored by the top clubs.

Think you, me, Eddie and Dan himself would prefer it if he never had to play LB again

How good is this guy for us? Absolute legend.

Couldn't argue with any of that, it's a good assessment of him, apart from the "hometown club" bit. He's from Hebburn on Tyneside isn't he? And aren't most of his family black and whites?

We have an outside chance. We'll always have a chance in CL matches - unless they ever start kicking them off at 2pm on a Sunday afternoon.

He's a very good goalkeeper, not a perfect one but does such a thing exist ? Amongst our fans (especially social media ones) there's a strange need to always have someone to pick fault with and unfortunately for him the pendulum of unjust criticism swung his way eventually.

Really undisciplined. They constantly harangue referees over every decision and were very lucky not to have a player sent off before half time yesterday for a stupid challenge. Then one of their players petulantly shuns his management and team mates when he's subbed. Whatever the circumstances of the Xhaka flare up, he's a senior professional footballer FFS, you don't get involved with knackers in the crowd and certainly don't rise to them and start offering them a fight. That would be considered "unprofessional" in the Northern League man

Six pointer. Finishing above them is essential if we seriously have top 4 or 6 ambitions.

thought the refereeing standard tonight was way above what we have in the Premier League.

Yes, ironically he'll probably have more game time when everyone is fit. With no defenders on the bench we almost need to keep him in reserve to cover all eventualities.

Right up amongst the very best boozers in town. That's based primarily on the variety and quality of the beers, though a cosy good atmosphere place too, which overflows onto the square most match days. And yes the Garter is still as rough as fuck

Definitely, anyone not up for this just plain shouldn't be there. That said I think the place will be jumping tonight. High stakes and floodlights.

Amazing run they're on.

Stars have aligned for them this season in a quite extraordinary way and their fans will love being the plucky underdogs back in the big league and achieving results by any possible method. I watched the last 30 minutes of their game on Saturday, when again they got Palace on just the right day. It was an awful watch, nothing flowed, no pattern, just constant fouling, feigning injury and non stop and mass whinging at the referee over every decision, even the most minor ones. It's heaven for fans who deemed players like Bally and Cattermole legends. And somehow it's working for now

Might get away with a careless racist remark (though it probably wasn't careless) given the era and his age, but years later endorsing Britain's new racist, fascist party pretty much says it all really.

Our first choice midfield now has to be considered any 3 from the 4, not the first choice three that it was and Miley as the replacement if necessary. IMHO he is the most natural and accomplished finisher of the four and that's something we could do with right now.

Can't argue with any of that. The fit version of Izak is a miss and any team anywhere would benefit from a fit Izak, but that version hasn't been seen for quite a while and you start to wonder whether it will ever be seen again ?

Fickle Teddy Mackem

Sunday 2pm kick off against a team at the bottom but just starting to find a bit of form and most of this forum thinking it's an easy game. Home win.

I It was a straight arm on Ramsey, a red card possibly, and the player who did it went on to provide the assist for a player who was cup tied, while Ramsey was off the pitch getting attention. Fucking joke.

It's understandable given the amount of big games we've played in in the last couple of years, and this intense period of home fixtures we're in right now, but it would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago that the excitement levels would be so tepid on the eve of a cup semi final. It will ramp up once inside the stadium I'm sure.

Really liked that comment from Ian W a while back when he said if a footballer had been created in a laboratory he'd be like Lewis Miley

Good t see you back, you speak sense unlike the others who just use this place for fickle snidey wind up comments, and only when you're winning. Yes, Sunderland and other places in the NE must be very careful what they vote upon themselves. A lot of seasoned, decent local councillors were ousted by charlatans in the last local elections and now, months later, you hear a lot complaining because the local authority is not attending to this or that and doesn't answer requests or attend to incidents. What did they expect when they replaced largely decent committed local people with a bunch of racists attached to a party which has been created solely to protect the interests of their billionaire backers and is fronted by the fascist Farage.

Fickle Teddy Mackem.

Tuchel will know all about him. He's been involved with England at every level ,except the full team, and even played in certain age groups when he was younger than that age.