Heron

It never fails to amaze me how critical people are of our Strikers and Defenders, but never our Midfield. If we had a decent midfield we would be in a far better position. This will tell when the likes of Barton, Jonas and the likes get fully fit again.... The likes of Geremi who is past it in our starting line up is the problem, not that I think he is dreadful but he isn't good enough. Everyone always overlooks are midfield though, always have done, probably always will.

Ameobi was the better of our 2 strikers last night for the 3rd consecutive game.

Aye right, so if Owen rushes back and tears his hamstring and is out for the remainder of the season. Just for the sake of him starting against them instead of Shola. That makes a lot of sense to me like.... As much as I want to beat them there will be far more important games over the next 6 or 7 months.

62pages on Andrei Arshavin? Am I missing some sort of excitement here..... Is this about people actually shaving their arses or something?

With respect what the rest of the midfield did is irrelevant IMO. All he had to do was effectively run around like a headless chicken for 5 minutes, closing down and preventing their back four having time on the ball to pick out an easy pass. It required zero footballing ability, just a bit of effort and desire to help out his team mates who had run themselves into the ground for 85 minutes playing with 10 men. He demonstrated not an ounce of any of that. With slightly less respect, that's nonsense. The second goal came about because we sat far too deep, as we did for the last 20 minutes. What he's saying is that the midfield's performance had no relevance to Carroll's non-performance. The lad looked like he'd just run a marathon! In addition to that...how the fuck do you expect a team to push up if an extra 3 men are attacking you from their defence, making it 9 vs 8 in the last third, in their favour. When it simply could have been 8 vs 6 in our favour if he had have ran about. Defence starts from the front whether people like it or not. I don't have any big problem with Carroll I think the lad needs a bit more time to try and shine, but his effort last night was shite. When you're down to 10men, and have been for a good 80minutes, when you come on for 10minutes you could at least do your bit...especially if it's the club you love and always have done.

Starting to look forward to this now. If we show the same passion and commitment as last night we definately have enough quality to beat them. Their spirits are high as we all know, and to be fair this is probably as good a chance as they ever had of beating us at home, but as usual their hopes will fade and die when we twonk them.

Bang on.

Even though its not my favourite place in town, City Vaults was a brilliant place to watch the derby last season. Great atmosphere although getting served was a bit of a hassle. Beer shower!

As far as i'm concerned Shola scored and is fit, so why rush Owen back in for the inbreds? Just have him on the bench as an option for the scum. If anyone else other than Shola scored last night people would be saying "he's a striker, he scored, why take him out?". Shola was probably our man of the match last night, him or Coloccini. He ran the line superb and our performance as a team notably dropped when he went off, obviously tire dlegs played a massive part too.

Alot of these new songs get published in every new edition of The Mag, in the Toon Ultras section. It's usually us making up and singing the new songs, people tend to clap too much and sing them too fast though. Obviously not all the new songs are made up by us before we get accused of being super-fans. I know what I want to point out about the Toon Ultras too but I cannot because we'll get branded as the ones who think they are superfans.

Why not?

Man of the match last night, I never doubted him...ever.

This binge drinking confession session amuses me.

So why aren't you called Gateshead Mag? Felling is in Gateshead. Im from Gateshead by the way. My bad. I thought Felling was a new area. And there is no option for Felling. Why arent you called Heron09? So I could hide my identity. These Newcastle Onliners can be a nasty little bunch when they get going. Now they know my true name I will forever be hunted until my dying day. Cock. How was your little trip to Edinburgh btw? It was great thanks. Work all through the day and out Friday & Sat night. So it was tiring but good craic. Sounds snazzy, you saving for Sunderland away now? Could be a long day!

I would rather be relegated than win something the way Chelsea have...

When's the enxt edition of The Mag out, do you know?

a love it down that way Loch Lomand is canny lursh like.

I think I am going to coin the term "Secularisation of Soccer". (Not that I'm a fan of the word soccer like.) I think a lot of the problem is that fans no longer feel the national pride they once used to when watching England. The fact all the games are played at Wembley, the squad consists of players mainly from the top four (which is kind of obvious and good), but the lack of good facilities and talent coming through at grassroot level is appalling compared to that of the likes of France. If people could get more involved at a young age and could see their country play closer to home for cheaper prices maybe, just maybe, we'd have more players who cared about playing for their country. The extremely high wage bills have turned soccerstars into superstars, and unfortunately the motives for playing football in this country have completely changed.

So why aren't you called Gateshead Mag? Felling is in Gateshead. Im from Gateshead by the way. My bad. I thought Felling was a new area. And there is no option for Felling. Why arent you called Heron09? So I could hide my identity. These Newcastle Onliners can be a nasty little bunch when they get going. Now they know my true name I will forever be hunted until my dying day. Cock. How was your little trip to Edinburgh btw?

So why aren't you called Gateshead Mag? Felling is in Gateshead. Im from Gateshead by the way. My bad. I thought Felling was a new area.

Good comparison. This NUSC malarky doesn't really bother me either way. It's something I think I may look to in the future in order to progress my own thoughts, ideas or opinions. Wouldn't mind seeing it a bit more in depth to make a dcision on it like, but it's not exactly on my high list of priorities.

I know what you mean, everyone seems to have a binge drink don't they.

So why aren't you called Gateshead Mag?

Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne 6. Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne 7. Is it?? I assume you meant postcodes? If so I live in NE7 yes. Manor Park is NE6 though I think if that's what you meant... I was rudely butting into what you said without reading the jist of it... Not rude at all, thanks for joining in. It is interesting that my old school (Manor Park School) dipped off the radar many years ago ('new' people had not heard of it, after it became called 'Heaton Manor School') now that Manor Park School has been demolished and replaced by some new houses called . . "Manor Park" - people have suddenly heard of it again! I always thought that the Heaton area of Newcastle was 'Newcastle 6', along with Byker and Walker?? I'm not sure. I was always of the impression that each area at least had its own code. I have a mate who lives near the Tyne Tunnel and his starts with NE28. So surely Walkers must vary from a few numbers as well as Heatons and Bykers. Maybe High Heaton is NE6 and other areas of Heaton are 7,8,9, etc? I live in Cochrane Park. A lot of people seem to think that isn't Heaton but it is. I never went to Manor Park, I was in year 9 when they knocke dit down so just missed out on it, apparently it was a shithole fo a school in it's last years like.