pinkeye

You do know that these kids aren't professional ball boys don't you? They are kids from local grassroots football teams on the whole. They turn up an hour before kick off and get to borrow some "uniform", get a brief talk about what to do - which includes being told not to climb over the holdings or enter the field of play. My son did it recently with his team. They all had a great experience which surely is what it is all about.... It's lovely that we give local youngsters the opportunity to do it, but that detracts nothing from my original point. The problem is clearly the instructions (or lack of) that they are given. I'm not asking them to climb over hoardings or enter the field of play, I'm just asking them to retrieve the ball at some sort of pace and get it put back in the pitch as soon as possible. Like I said in my original post, the longer it takes to return the ball - the better for the opposition who have come to frustrate and slow the game down. Yes, I get your point but, the kids don't really get told anything. My lad loved it but, he said some of the kids in his team were really nervous about it, understandable when they are at the front of a full house at St James'. Funnily enough they also got to be ball boys at Gateshead this season as well, that was a whole different experience with the players shouting at them all the time, swearing to hurry them up. The ball can disappear for 100yards behind the goals in that stadium... Unless they are brought in hours before kick off and given a tutorial and then some practice then the same situation will always exist with poorly prepared young kids dropped in at the deep end.

You do know that these kids aren't professional ball boys don't you? They are kids from local grassroots football teams on the whole. They turn up an hour before kick off and get to borrow some "uniform", get a brief talk about what to do - which includes being told not to climb over the holdings or enter the field of play. My son did it recently with his team. They all had a great experience which surely is what it is all about....

I was on the Metro yesterday. I can confirm that on the specific train and carriage I travelled on from Haymarket to Heworth that claimed altication did not happen....

More chance you'll get a home ticket. More chance to get a FREE home ticket!

Is this official? Currently not showing as available on .co.uk

Actually yes, Bernard and Enrique were both very good left backs. It shows really that - given I have supported and followed NUFC for close to 45 years (since my first ever match) - that I have to really think about who was a great left back.

I am still a fan of the three centre backs with pacey full backs operating as "wing backs". Yedlin fits that role in my opinion for the right but, we have never had a suitable left back / left wing back in my history of supporting this club. Beresford could have been the closest. With that formation we can use Shelvey centrally with another playmaker and a defensive midfielder, then to finish off the formation we need a good #10 to back up whichever striker we go with. I am half convinced that this is the eventual formation / structure that Benitez is aiming for.

When Shelvey is playing Richie looks much better, having said that so does the rest of the team!

A tenner for adults and a quid for kids! As good as free....

Impossible to argue with the context of that article. Newcastle United, for years, has had a losing mentality that has spread from the top of the club downwards. This has resulted in so many long terms supporters and season ticket holders throwing in the towel, myself included. Under Pardew I had simply taken all I could and the effort it took to turn out for a home match was getting ridiculous. I was not enjoying it. Rafa came (and stayed) and I felt some glimmers of hope creeping back into me and I bought a season ticket again, after three years without seeing a single match live. I have the excitement back again, I am not alone (I don't think) when I look towards our bench and see Rafa there and I still cannot believe it fully! He has a huge job on his hands to rebuild a shattered club and to change the mentality of the whole place but, he has the fans on his side and that really has to help a lot. We have a few passengers in the squad and they will be filtered out as we continue to move forward to be replaced by upgrades. Short term, for me, it is great to be enjoying the match again and seeing a few wins and goals. Longer term... who knows. We have potential to be a strong challenger to the top teams. We are not London or Manchester but, we do live in a pretty damn nice part of the country, if we continue to build the club from within the better players will come.

Should have told Sun'lun to name their cost.... Cost of selling Defoe is pretty much certain relegation!

Might want to spell check that mate!

Funny how different people can take a different perspective from the game. I thought his timing for tackles looked very good and his composure on the ball was an asset, I am quite used to seeing Dummet backing off until he has no options left.... yes Gamez was out of position a few times and that is where the lack of pace looked worse but, I thought he looked quite a classy player, was never really worried about him being exposed on the ball. I really didn't notice the lack of a left foot, looked like he had one of each to me from where I was sitting...

Up and until he was stretchered off on Saturday I thought he looked really good.... Slightly lacking in pace when he was turned on ball during the first half but, other than that I thought he looked the real deal. Thoughts?

Been mugged and robbed.... apparently was quite a serious beating he took.

My life long Liverpool supporting mate, actually from Liverpool to add gravitas, told me at the weekend that he really thinks that Rafa has taken to Newcastle in a similar way to how he took to Liverpool. He sees many similarities between the way that Rafa is behaving now to how he did when he started on the long successful road with Liverpool. I told him that my short experience of Rafa has definitely made me understand why they all still seem to hold him in such high regard. Nice!

I can remember them being in the old Division 3 when they were relegated out of the 2nd tier of football.... They were getting 20k plus crowds (amazing for 3rd Division by the way) and humping teams like Man City who were also in that level of football at the time by 7 and 8 goals. I was in school in 6th form so I am thinking early 80's or am I mixing this up with something else that is funny to do with Sun'lun? Sometime back in 1901 they even beat us 9 - 1 but, I cannot remember that one!

Negative 7.....

My Spuds supporting mate going mental tonight about how shite Sissoko is. I honestly think it is funny. The deal of the summer as far as we are concerned. I think we would not have anything like the team spirit that we seem to have right now had Sissoko stayed.

Club expecting minimum 44k crowd tonight. My son is one of the ball boys... he is soooo excited!

Funniest thing is it closed down a while ago and recently reopened as a Brewers Fayre.... Even one of the mackem posters pointed that one out, conveniently ignored!

Absolutely anywhere will be fine in Newcastle, depends what you want out of the day but, bars closer to the ground often do stuff to engage the away fans, I seem to remember that Sam Jacks had an away fans drinking challenge, not sure if that still goes on but, it was always fun and generally ended with vomit.

Yes it was. I updated it to Kuntz. Hence completely different joke.... or maybe 100% plagiarism. Shameless.

Kuntz used to play club football with an Iranian called Karim Bagheri ( at least I wish he did ) Bagheri, Kuntz.... gooooaaallll !!!!