Mick

2-0 to us, if we play as well as we can.

It's a big day for him today as far as I'm concerned. He said after the Man U game that he'd told the players to play possession football rather than more direct football and I want the same again. We have the players to play that way and we're a better team for it. Also, by that admission he's proven that the players do listen to him so the myth that the players do what they want as soon as they get on the pitch is busted.

I didn't see ladders, I know a rope was tied to something inside and the first person climbed over and threw the rope over the wall for the others to use. When you got over you came out in the toilets which were at the bottom of the stairs into the corner of the Leazes where it joined the East Stand. For those who don't know, that's the view in the photograph.

the story I was told was the stand to match the east stand was ready to go up. but the cost of demolishing the old leazes end went over-to about half a £million- and they were left unable to pay for the leazes stands construction. Look at the kids getting in for nothing by climbing the wall, one of our future players (at the time) used to get in that way.

If anybody has some spare time read this, it's a brilliant read http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=982536

I think you're right about it being while they built the Milburn.

This? http://i43.tinypic.com/2hyxcht.jpg

I remember the seating and the scaffolding they were mounted on, I don't think we had them too long, maybe a season or so.

It would be a bastard if you were at the top and needed a piss, or even at the bottom using the same scenario.

It was knocked down in 1978 and not rebuilt until 1993 so it was down for 15 years.

I think they were locked out rather than being tight but I could be wrong.

I did it at the Gallowgate when I was a kid but never to the height some of those are at. During some of the bigger games you could see people up trees in Leazes Park from the Gallowgate, that was after they'd knocked down the old Leazes and had a lower back wall.

We've drawn the mackems at home in the FA Youth Cup if we beat Barnsley in this round.

I've seen things kicking off at Carlisle but never over here.

He also stated that fatigue was a problem for certain players who played on a Thursday in Europe and rustiness for players who hadn't played on the same Thursday in the same game. Does that also make sense?

Bowie, 1987, at Roker Park Marra... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILzrb5iU0lc "Thank you, good evening Newcastle...." That's the only time I've ever been to Joker Park when we weren't playing them (edit, that's not true I was at the relegation game v Gillingham), I can only guess a lot of the crowd were from Newcastle as a lot of us cheered when he said that. A few mackems were booing which was probably a natural reaction when they attended the place.

I don't think Cabaye and HBA are our only creative players. I'd personally wouldn't play HBA until the day our current system goes to sh*t. We play completely differently with HBA in the side and you can't ask him to do a job like what sissoko or Goufran has been doing because he can't. HBA gives the ball away too often but yes he can create magic, but I still think we can create the chances without him whilst playing our current system. What is our current system?

If we're that skint that we have to charge papers for reporting, why don't we charge a fee for the lucrative advertising we give away around the ground?

We showed Swansea far too much respect, let's go for it and give them something to worry about, like we did against Man U.

Not starting Shola will be an indication that we're going to play a possession game again, do that and we'll win.

3 years and he's only just told our players to play possession football, better late than never and for me one of the highlights of the weekend.

Not when we're both at home

Home to Cardiff

Hartlepool or Carlisle at home or away would be a good game for those clubs and I like the idea of the FA Cup helping our smaller local clubs financially. If I had to chose one it would be Carlisle away for the day out as it has a bigger ground capacity and more of us would get tickets.