Heron

Despite his slowing pace and today's poor distribution he is an important leader for us like and most likely had been instrumental with the leadership team this week in intervening and getting the players' collective heads out their arses. There's something to be said for that role at the club - especially now Lascelles has left. What he did for Sandro in that interview - protecting him from having his words misinterpreted and then going on to tell some home truths on the refereeing and the stance on Howe was fantastic.

Funny how all these clubs belittle the cups they've been knocked out of...

Cheers!

Aye? I mean tbf those decisions were wild like and effectively kept them ahead. Sorry...just seen your follow up remark.

It actually felt 10× better doing it against the odds today. Away from home against a currently top 3 side, our skipper and a few other key players missing and generally just poor form away from home too and a very inconsistent season. That's before a ball was even kicked. Dominated possession first half without creating a massive amount. 3 or 4 players offside for their goal (including the goalscorer). A blatant Red card that was given a yellow, 2 other fairly soft but potentially valid penalty shouts denied and that's before the more trivial decisions. Villa questioning the Red they did receive is absolutely mental. Talk around Villa having players back?! We were 3 on 1 and past their keeper at that stage - it was a clear goalscoring opportunity and an almost knee high assault to boot. Second half and the most disgraceful refereeing decision I have ever seen - certainly in a Toon match. He literally should be suspended for a game for how poor that call was. Even if he couldn't see the linesman has to correct him. Absolutely shambolic. So not only did Digne get away without a red card he got away with a penalty. That feeling of injustice seemed to spur us on though and as multiple players told officials to "fuck off" (Dan Burn, Jacob Ramsey and Lewis Hall) - and they were just the televised ones - it was fantastic to see Sandro (who everyone has been sceptical about) say it one last time after levelling the game. The fact he ran to Howe and hugged him spoke volumes for me too. As did Trippiers interview when he protected Sandro and told the truth about the refereeing and Howe and what he means to the dressing room. Woltemade scoring was the icing on the cake. Two fairly difficult places to go and two wins, let's do it out in Azerbaijan as well. No doubt Man City will be a bridge too far but hopefully this is a turning point for our confidence and the discussions the players have had internally have been a force for change in their collective confidence. We're coming in to the final third of the season and now is the time to kick on if it is going to be at all this season. You cannot fault their collective effort though. As always...long live the king.

Cheers! Hope you go the distance in the SPL too!

<3

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAdfjfkgoicjcjfjfjfjgkgig! Fucking Yes!

This was about right - but largely because of horseshit refereeing. A blatantly obvious corner given as a goal kick, 3 or 4 players blatantly offside for their goal and inky 1 of 2 blatantly red cards not given. Murphy could have had his ankle broken there. The audacity of Villa fans booing that. Stupid twats.

Not expecting a pleasant watch here tbh which is unusual for me. Good side Villa and feel they'll be right up for it. We're a little bit patchy. Let's see what we can do.

Love the locals on here like. Especially the bairn who keeps saying "Like" and the auld lady near the end "So proud to be a Geordie" feels like that's a banner to me.

Happy birthday King Kev!

They said that about us under McClaren...

Just make it so any contentious decisions are in Newcastle Uniteds favour. Job done. We aren't owned by trillionaires for nowt.

Mad is it may sound it could be the cause of their demise. Is the pitch quality not as good because of the other sports and events played there? Is the atmosphere worse than White Hart Lane? Are the fans a different demographic? Are ticket prices driving iut proper fans? Is it full of folk who wanna go for a nice afternoon out of entertainment? Has the money been spent on facilities rather than sufficient quality and strength in depth? They're pretty much the example of a modern club not being the be all and end all that modern football would have you believe is required to succeed. Relegation could be catastrophic for them.

I'm sure these were the excuses made last season too though about injuries. Maybe they need to be looking at what they're doing in training and the pitch quality etc. Maybe they're horrendously unlucky...but it all just seems a bit strange.

My manager supports Spurs and he always laughs about them singing "sideways and backwards, everywhere we go". I hadn't watched them properly but after watching tonight - my God they were awful. I actually believe they have a fairly talented side but they're just really mismanaged and probably have a few bad apples with the wrong attitudes. Kinda feels a bit like Man United - where the players think they've made it just because they're at Man United. No - you've made it when you're winning at Man United. With Spurs - I'd say it's the playing for a top London side and having the nice lifestyle in the capital. There's just a whole entitlement thing about them for me. I would have hounded out Steve Bruce every day of the week cause he was a lazy bastard and a plastic Geordie to boot, working under Mike Ashley and defending him. Pardews abuse was canny extreme and harsh like but he also got into bed with the devil so kinda got what he deserved (to some degree). I generally don't like seeing how much the media stir and revel in the demise of managers though. TNT desperately trying to get soundbites out of Frank tonight and bait managers. Howe the other day looked desperately sad. These may or may not be great managers but they're certainly trying and at times it's nothing short of bullying how folk go on. Granted - they get paid the big bucks and get another job of similar stature if they fail like, but aye...not sure there's the need sometimes. Anyways...back to Spurs...they really are in a relegation fight and really are likely to go down imo. They just have the worst attitude of the teams down there. They look void of ideas and void of confidence and their leader is getting suspended when they have endless injuries.

Unpopular but as someone who played CB most my years I'd prefer the offside rule to be returned back to its original format. Defending is slowly losing all of its art.

Thought Gordon did well tonight. Pressed at the right times. His acceleration is probably his best trait - causes real issues when utilised properly.

Was excellent for us tonight again

Sorry like but I think it's more "One day of drizzle doesn't make a flood". He's done nowt but excel himself since her arrived here up until this season and even then we're only two thirds into it. Another cup semi final. CL playoffs. Within touching distance of Europe.

My God that at the end has got me like. Seeing Eddie Howe pushed forward into that away end was delicious. Absolutely delicious.

Is there a similar one for Villa? That'd be interesting.

I haven't really been reviewing the results all that much as it's not me handling it from the group. We're going to be having further discussions with the club that I'm sure will be revealed in time but the response has been fantastic with over 4.5k completing the survey and we're expecting almost 5k by the end of tomorrow.