Benwell Lad

I tell you man, they're the football fanbase equivalent of Trump, MAGA and Karoline Leavitt

Didn't they once have a thread where some of them said Shearer being stretchered off at the SoL was their favourite moment in football ?

It's a club that names things after, and I think voted as their greatest ever player, a centre half who was essentially a clogger. Someone similar to what John McNamee was for us. Weird really, as just a little later they had defenders in Colin Todd and Dave Watson who were really classy players. But that's what they are. They have always preferred cloggers. Baally, Cattermole and don't laugh... O'Nien in more recent years. Strange that any football club would promote the dirty side of the game over skill, but based on what I've seen recently it still manifests itself in the team they have right now.

Consett has always been predominantly black and white. The Derwent Valley side of it from Consett down to Newcastle is staunchly (may as well say almost 100%) black and white. People from there look upon Newcastle as their recreational and shopping place. They call it "the Town". It ALWAYS has been and I'm pretty sure it always will be.

I think he was always playing to instruction and the management team was nurturing him very carefully. I said all along that there was much more to come from him in an attacking sense, his goals by minutes, and from the position he plays, is already very impressive and he can become our set piece specialist eventually too.

It was never going to happen in the real world, i.e. the one EH lives in. Talents like him only come around very occasionally and everyone at Newcastle has known it for years.

Yeah, if it's possible to look at it in a neutral sense, which of course it isn't, it was probably the best game we've been involved in this season.

They always work themselves into a rabid frenzy when we are about to play them. Shame they're so fickle and have to play in front of four figure crowds for home midweek cup games, but then get all worked up about the big games. Of course no denying it's also an important game for us and now, that the most important game of the week is out of the way, we can concentrate on this.

Yeah, sadly that's how it works in football (and life) sometimes. What feels like a very disappointing result was twice just a millimetre away from being a historic, legendary result. I doubt there would be a single negative comment on here, or anywhere else, if we had come away with the 3-1 or 3-2 victory our second half performance probably deserved.

That interview was brilliant. What a lovely bloke. But some of those questions from the (English) journalists were plain embarrassing.

Let's be honest even when they were playing in the Johnstone's Paint trophy, or whatever it was called, while we were playing in Europe, any combined XI would have a minimum of six of them in it. They're just weird. Karoline Leavitt would think twice about spouting some of the shite they do.

It would be more rotational to rotate for the Sundlund game but I don't think anyone wants that

Yeah that's what started me thinking about it, and Brackley drawing Boreham Wood just before they kicked off their second round tie. Must have been a downer for them.

That's pretty much what I meant and how it works in Germany. Maybe "seeding" wasn't the right term

That's a great line "you get direct feedback on what happens on the pitch". Of course that also means periods of relative quietness when the game lulls as opposed to the German ultras non-stop, orchestrated singing. I've spoken with a lot of Germans who prefer the English atmosphere that ebbs and flows with how the game is going and overall I agree with them.

I'd actually see it as the opposite. Smaller clubs guaranteed a home draw against a bigger club. I could only see non league clubs and lower league sides welcoming it and the wealthy clubs not. Not really pandering to them. In general I agree, don't fuck about too much. Anyway it's not going to happen The world cup, for example, is reaching farcical levels of fucking aboutery.

Third round should be seeded with the lower seed given the home tie. Similar to the DFB pokal in Germany and non of these boring games between teams in the same division.

Thomas should pursue a career in law

"Am going to Germany as well if that makes you feel any better"

Good defender, good person, Rafa loved him.

Thankfully the number on here who advocate loaning him out has now diminished to not very many. Just so it's clear, he will not be going out on loan, he never was going to go out on loan even as a 17 or 18 year old, EH has always wanted him in and around the squad and it will take some radical change in circumstances for that to alter.

I was at an awards ceremony in Dubai many years ago. A good friend who organised it came to me half way through and said that one of the sheiks was upset that he wasn't getting an award and sent one of his serfs to complain. They had to invent an award on the spur of the moment and later made the presentation to a beaming recipient. Until today it may have been the weirdest thing I ever saw.

I reckon his reception will be a 10/10.

Their lack of quality means Le Bris has them constantly fouling, niggly stuff, and cheating at every available moment. It's working for now as the PL refs haven't cottoned on yet. Like their gruesome game stats versus points on board it's unsustainable long term, but for now they just seem to be rolling along

I honestly don't think easy games exist in the PL nowadays. Sunderland was meant to have been one iirc, but we seem to regularly find the supposedly "easy" ones very difficult .