Heron

Lascelles for his organisation, desire and leadership as well as being a relatively competent defender. Merino because he's a class act With regards to a few others people have suggested: Shelvey is one of our most talented footballers but has a lack of self discipline thus making himself a liability (not always it must be said). Gayle has been excellent in terms of form recently but isn't PL level unfortunately. Dummett for NUFC is probably the most reasonable shout I'd say. Simply because his defensive ability makes our defensive unit considerably stronger. He has nowt going forward but for a team of our level that's not a major issue. Atsu, not quite PL quality for me, largely down to his decision making

https://twitter.com/magpiechannel/status/939811566404489216

Lascelles and Merino

Nonetheless, thank you for all the positive comments lads and lasses. It makes it worthwhile when you know your fellow fans appreciate it.

I appreciate the sentiment but this probably isn't the case. Opportunistic thieving little cunts. Nowt to do with my or the group I'm involved with but the same has applied to some of our missing flags. Shit heads will thieve and do so for a buzz. It's the law of averages.

Rafa isn't so godly that he cannot be criticised. However, he is also in a different solar system to some of the shit we've put up with in the last ten years under the same cancerous owner. So hmm make a judgement call on that...

Tomorrow is so much more than a normal game. When the 150th celebrations come around its likely a lot of my match friends of an era might not be around. It's likely my mates will have a new generation carrying the torch and hopefully some of my own. Fuck the result. Let's do what we've always done. Be proud to be a Geordie.

Whatever happens people. Let's celebrate. THIS CLUB IS OUR CLUB

I could be totally wrong but I suspect the apple cart has been upset with using various methods to raise cash which directly oppose those of TF. Just my personal opinion of course. Politics for those with egos. Making a difference to the atmosphere for this without...

Perfect timing before two big home games. We need positivity to be swirling.

Losing to Coventry and aal. Coventry is a shithole

We've lost 5 of our lost 6 and conceded 14 under Rafa I cannot stand Pardew either but it wasn't an iconic moment

Huge respect and thanks to you all mate, genuinely. It makes sense in regards to the 125 years thing. I was just seeing that article in isolation and wondering what was so iconic about it. I can see how it works in context more now though. Missed that narrative at first. Above offer still stands though. I appreciate and understand where you're coming from. Obviously with art it's each to their own taste and style and the message that also comes with it as so often is the case with regards to the football. So trust me when I say that despite the fantastic artwork and displays that we've done we do the always agree 100% in the group at the beginning or even middle of each project. Even to the point that that this one on Saturday has been the subject of great debate. However, we democratically vote it out and then the group lay down their swords to ensure whatever wins gets 100% backing. Nonetheless, we trust our designer to use his creative edge and to be honest he has made a fantastic job of all our stuff thus far in my opinion (despite being biased). Saturday will be another example of this. On the other hand, we're always welcome to contributions whether they be artwork, funds or mucking in. So if you'd like to see anything on a banner feel free to PM me or alternatively send it to our web address. I'll try and add it into this post once I find it.

It turns out more information is now available on the net. I'll let y'all find it for yourselves if you cannot wait until Saturday.

The theme is 125 years of history but obviously that we also still exist and have a future despite what Ashley does at the club. "This club is our club". The idea is that we incorporate some memorable moments from our history and in general more recent history with regards to the headlines. As you can see one is being held up and another is on the floor. That's not to say we only have two... We intend for it to showcase snapshots of our history but to be generic enough to be able to reuse some items. More of our plans will of course come to light following the fixture. However, 2 of the banners have been hand painted by members of the group and the headline ones have all been funded by the fans as well as a centre piece. We're attempting to put the professionally made ones in particular to good use. Especially the centre piece as a reusable item as well as the two hand made banners. As for the headlines we have different plans in place. I don't want to give too much away. But tonight there's been 15 of us in St James' (with some still there now) preparing for the display. I truly believe this could be our best one yet so long as our fans do their bit on Saturday. Especially in the Gallowgate. We couldn't have done it without you providing us financial backing but believe me when I say some lads literally spend like 10/15 hours a week on this. It's all our choice like... But I'm in awe of some of the group and their dedication. Hence why we get so defensive... Ultimately though, we hope everyone enjoys it on Saturday and the lads get 3 points for us. Cheers again.

Is this televised

Whilst Rafa shouldn't go without criticism he is by far and away the best we can have and probably will have for at least another decade. We've been screwed down into the ground for the last 10 years and that cannot be undone in like 2 years work. The only reason we're 12th and worrying about this is because we have the bloke because otherwise we'd quite easily have been in a similar position to Sunderland. So whilst he can come under criticism unless people can provide worthy and reasonably achievable solutions I don't get why this negativity is creeping in. We've had dozens of players who don't give a shit and have used us as a stepping stone and we now have players who give a shit and play for the shirt and the fans. They just aren't quite good enough in the majority. Which I'd prefer to having mercenary twats putting half arsed shifts in. I think people are forgetting Shelvey has been completely unreliable from a discipline point of view and has picked up needless Red and Yellow cards through sheer stupidity. Mitro has come on the pitch and has moaned and whined about every time he has been touched - thus making himself a less considerable option. Rafa has to look to improve these players for the good of the club and the individuals concerned so what benefit is it to a multi-millionaire youngster continuing to play them when actually that's what hits and hurts them most (dropping them). I agree, that's not best for NUFC but it's not without reason. The issue there is the strength in depth of the squad. Merino has had injuries as has our captain, our arguably best LB and Gayle for the early parts of the season. Our squad wasn't strong enough for the championship and whilst our first 16 was, behind that wasn't. So we already have more than the sum of our parts. We haven't even financially competed with like Huddersfield and Brighton man... So okay, we lost to Bournemouth at home. Other than that a draw away at West Brom isn't terrible, a defeat away at Burnley isn't all that good but is somewhat understandable given their form and defeats at the hands of last years champions and potentially this year's aren't exactly a surprise. The one game I'd give any of the critics the acceptance of was Watford which was the one game where actually everyone had a bad day at the office...including the fans. We knew where we'd be this season, in and around relegation. Yet, with 4 games to the halfway mark and some winnable games coming up people are going over critical when we're 5 points from the relegation zone and up in 14th. People wanted 442 but were toothless in attack so we were opened up and destroyed. So we revert back to type and people complain again. Okay - I'll accept that we did 442 in the wrong games but we also don't have the squad or options to make it work it's as simple as that. It's almost as if Benitez hasn't won cups virtually everywhere he has been. Honestly man, what do people expect? Then people spout the line about "had it been Pardew we'd have wanted him sacked" and shit like that. These people should have a fucking word with themselves like. Jesus. Best thing we can do is focus on getting behind the team whilst all this background shit goes on. If we go down (or even if we don't) and more importantly, aren't sold, this could very well be the last season we have any hope for a long while cause Rafa could walk. Then what's our options?! Fuck me man.

Aside from laughing at the SMB, this is somewhat of a larger issue in my opinion. Far too many divvies getting absolutely shit faced on probably more than alcohol and a reduction in self policing in the crowd compared to years gone by. Where were his mates or his parents? Why didn't someone close by stop him?

We miss him massively. Top captain and top lad.

We could really do with around 30more people helping us but if more than that can that's even better and it means we can do things more comfortably, possibly going even bigger.

So the flags that we were getting done professionally arrived today and are now at the ground. They look awesome but they'll look even better next week once they're all up together. Thanks for your support and donations chaps and chapesses.

Yeah as horrific as he is he will keep them up this season, then it will obviously turns to shit ofcourse, but that may not help us. Exactly. He might even keep them up at our expense yet...

Save your laughter people.

0-0

Why do you need new flags every 2 weeks? Just fly the same ones and rotate them from game to game. Better to keep the consistency and brilliant atmosphere generated by you lot than to lose momentum. I was just being overly defensive. Apologies. We are going to be rotating the banners a bit more I suspect and they will feature regularly. We're just planning and doing a lot of fundraising stuff at the moment so decided to keep yesterday low key.