Novocastrian

Was over 18 months ago, we are in the big league now. No-one said it was going to be easy. No-one is faulting the effort.

Midfield 3 look off the pace, Big Joe and Longstaff look a bit sluggish.

He’s as fit as a lop.

Such a lack of urgency by West Ham. The initial ball out to Watkins was over hit but they allowed him to get to it and then turn and find a team mate unopposed. So lazy and punished for the lack of pressure on the ball.

Not downgrading addiction but a lot of footballers seem to do daft things like this due to boredom.

Just turned on, wish England and Italy would swap shorts.

Shame we couldn’t hang on but this unbeaten run has us back in touch with our rivals with a couple of weeks to get people fit. We are in a good place.

Flatten the stadium and rebuild on the approximate footprint. Consider turning the pitch round, re-routing roads, digging down, building over roads, moving a couple of hundred yards into Leazes park or whatever is required for a 65-70k stadium within throwing distance of the current ground.

Is he injured? Not training with the rest of the squad.

Wonder how much PIF have spent already?

I was at an England game at Wembley and he was a few rows in front. He was getting escorted out by police and stewards. I didn’t witness it myself but someone said he was shouting racist remarks.

Well this is fun.

Cancelled out the first goal for me.

Gordon needs to keep running at their RB. We’ve been in similar territory in other games and not taken advantage.

No idea how that stood but we don’t often get the rub of the green.

Not celebrating this yet.

We look very like the 2022/2023 iteration of us so far.

Grass is either very long or pitch heavily watered. Need a bit more weight on the passes.

I do want us to take the cups seriously but we can’t afford to drop too far behind the early pace setters in the PL. Spurs and Liverpool have difficult away games today. Three points keeps us in touch.

Will the real NUFC please stand up! We’ve got a squad to deal with this twice a week programme. Give the kids a game against City and play our strongest team today and then give them a week off before Burnley.

Would seem a bit counterintuitive if we were inviting rivals like Liverpool, Chelsea et al. to come and take our best player off our hands next season.

I think they are becoming increasingly used in the PL and they’ve been widely used in La Liga for years. It would be interesting to understand any clauses. Only CL teams? Exclude PL teams? Only Real/Barca?

Wonder how the release clause works? I honestly don’t think he’s got the physicality to play for a Real or Barca. Could Chelsea invoke it? Seems strange.

Got his massive swad on a few crucial headed clearances. Shanked the ball out of play a few times when making a straightforward progressive pass. Suppose we can’t have everything.

They’re not great but we look a bit flat and we are lacking any invention when we have the ball.