Scoreboard82

Exactly. If anyone thinks this club is on its a**e after the bad season we've just had, it's nowhere near the sorry state it was in before keegan came to the club. I'll start with the 1st time round as a player. Here was a world famous, iconic, twice european player of the year who came to play for 2nd division also rans, Newcastle United. His arrival doubled the gates and soon we'd be back in the top flight. It was an honour for such a star to be associated with my club. Then his 1st spell as boss. The club was skint, SJP was in a terrible state, attendances were poor again and we were on the brink of the old 3rd division. Enter KK to save us from the drop and possible extinction. Promotion followed, and the next season we finished top 3 and back in europe for the 1st time in decades. SJP was full, week in, week out. There was a buzz in the city. We became regular top 6 finishers, and the relative success gave the board the confidence that SJP could be, and should be redeveloped to give us the magnificent stadium in which we watch todays passionless dross. Despite it not working out in his 2nd managerial spell and his ultimate departure, that simply can't undo all he has achieved at NUFC. IMO one of the best people to have ever been with this club.

Aye, me too. Typical. I always cancel the sky sports during the close season.

If PDC wants a disciplined, clean living squad, he's going to have to start afresh and replace half of the existing lot. The current squad are stabbing him in the back and it'll be hard for him to know which players he can trust. He's given himself a massive repair job. He's right. Footballers are like spoiled brats these days. Don't think he's dealing with it very well though.

Very interesting the Di Canio interview. He's right in most of what he says but that won't stop him being despised in the dressing room. It'll be a struggle for him to get the best from dissenting players. He's mad though. He could be the next North Korean leader. He really is crazy.

I was at st mirrens game at Kilmarnock yesterday. Dummy and Newton have done well up there. Newton scored 1 and made another with a pin point cross. Seems like the st Mirren fans are sorry to lose them, either back to the toon or loaned elsewhere. They were singing 'toon army' and an adaptation of the coloccini song for Newton, 'I want ginger hair too'.

True, merely staying up isn't success, but IMO being in the top flight gives you a better chance of success. Good players, and yes i know we don't always sign them, are attracted to sign for premier league clubs. TV money helps you afford those players. Finishing in a europa league place gives you the chance to win another cup. As bad as we've been this season we weren't that far away in the europa. Granted winning the FA cup would get us into the europa league, but after seeing how we've struggled with the extra games this season, imagine europa games added onto the fixture laden championship season.

But relegation is failure. I've been suffering mental torment at the dread of relegation for the past month. Being knocked out the cup just isn't as disappointing. Would love us to win the FA cup but not at the expense of being at the top of the English game.

Me too, as much as i'd love us to win something. Think of how we'd be viewed by other fans. Would we get more admiration for winning a cup or for being a top flight club. I think of how i view Portsmouth who won the cup recently. once they left the prem' i more or less forgot they existed, before the regular updates on how skint they are.

I think the joint Villa-Sunderland badge deserves another airing if Wigan win today. There was a joint badge? Aye, it was a total cringe crest. Didn't they then have a big fallout soon after? Was it when Bent went to Villa? I can remember the 2 respective fanzine lads arguing like school kids on tele about it.

Now that i can sit back and look at fixtures calmly and objectively, without us being involved, i'll predict Arsenal to win fairly comfortably tonight. Had we not been safe, i'd be feeling quite the opposite and be bricking it. Hopefully the mackems have sweaty palms as we speak.

If Wigan don't win tonight, sky won't even have a 'Survival Sunday' to show. Strange outcome. I can't even remember a season when the 3 relegation places were sorted before the last day. Not that i've looked into it like.

Mackems MUST beat Spurs to win the NETD title. Relegation they can probably live with, but failure to win that would be disaster for them.

We should never have been in that situation but suddenly the world's a better place now we're safe. As someone previously said, I can have my life back. There are those who try and tell you 'it's only football' and there are more important matters in life. They're probably right, but that hasn't stopped myself from being thoroughly miserable for the last month. Staying up is the difference between a good summer and a bad one for me. A massive relief. Can enjoy things without the thought of us being a 2nd rate club, (officially anyway), niggling away at me. One horrible club, Wigan, villa, mackems will go instead. In the words of band aid, 'Tonight thank God it's them, instead of us'. Let's hope we don't have to suffer again next season, but we've a chance to regroup. Sort it out NUFC.

If it does go to last day, Benteke will be suspended for Villa at Wigan i assume after todays sending off. Not good.

So tantalizing to think that all of the uncertainty and stress of this relegation rubbish could be over by tomorrow night. Knowing our lot they'll keep us hanging on for at least a few days yet though.

As usual he's had to come to Newcastle to see such an event. They hate Newcastle so much that they spend half their lives' here. Fair enough they get the odd concert and that's the only time the SOS is full. Even that boosts the Newcastle economy when everyone stays here.

I think if Villa u18s beat Norwich tomorrow, they'll snatch that away from us. It would be nice to win it. Would set up a play off v the mackems i think.

No but if Villa get beaten off Chelsea we are. Please let this happen. Can't take much more stress. We've been thrown a massive lifeline last night, but the pessimism this club has instilled in me makes me think of how bad it would feel to still go down. When Wigan took the lead after about 56 seconds of a minutes stoppage time, it really did seem like we were fated to go down. At last we got a lucky break. Make it count Newcastle and make sure we don't get into this kind of mess again. As for Wigan, i'd be glad to see the back of them. Sick of all the hype about their powers of escapology, blah, blah. It's about time their luck ran out.

I see a common contradiction in this miserable, depressing but unfortunately necessary thread. Any team who have nothing at stake are "on their holidays" when they're playing one of our rivals at the bottom, but when they're playing us they are "playing with no pressure". Can't believe we've reached a point of fearing an already relegated club, rock bottom, with 2 points from their last 6 games according to the form table.

Terrible news. Seems so recent that he was a fit, strong defender playing in the 84 promotion winning side with Keegan, waddle and Beardsley. What a team that was. RIP Steve.

This has got such an air of inevitability about it. It's like trying to walk through quicksand. A feeling of being dragged down. The mackems should never have got back into that game with 10 men. Think it was Jerome who tried to side foot a great chance at 1-0 instead of putting his foot through it. I'm mentally preparing myself for the championship now.

Woke up at 4am by a bizarre footballing nightmare, that was unbelievably vivid. Couldn't get back to sleep for nervous excitement/dread of todays games. The nightmare involved old players but felt like it was now. Last day of the season v Ipswich, we needed a win to stay up. Leading 2-1 in the final minute, Mark Stimson had what should have been the simple task of clearing a slow moving ball off the line with our keeper beat. You've guessed it. He sliced it into the net for an OG to send us down. Bedlam among the fans. In my mind i'd lost my voice and struggled to say "Worst goal i've ever seen." Ipswich boss George Burley ushered his players towards the tunnel of what appeared to be the old West stand,(pre milburn). As they reached the tunnel, Kevin Carr and John Trewick, arguing about the game, came to blows in the centre paddock. Keegan and Mickey Quinn appeared to hold them both back. Told you it was bizarre. Really scary stuff. This relegation battle's messing with my brain man. Looking forward to todays games has been like waiting for a visit to the dentist.

I think they'll struggle again next season. Let's hope it's the club brought to it's knees instead of him being on them.

Wigan aren't playing the WBA fans though. They're playing a team of professionals who won't imo throw a game to keep the fans happy. I fear the worst between now and the end of the season, but talking about situations that don't exist doesn't help. I don't think our game at West ham is any tougher than Wigans at West brom. I'm not predicting this weekend's results, but certainly don't think West brom will roll over just because their fans want villa to be in trouble. I agree but the negative attitude of the fans is a factor imo. If the fans don't care if they win, the players are hardly going to be as fired up as they could be. I think we're all so worried just now, that it feels like every set of circumstances is against us.

Wigan aren't playing the WBA fans though. They're playing a team of professionals who won't imo throw a game to keep the fans happy. I fear the worst between now and the end of the season, but talking about situations that don't exist doesn't help. I don't think our game at West ham is any tougher than Wigans at West brom. I'm not predicting this weekend's results, but certainly don't think West brom will roll over just because their fans want villa to be in trouble.