Wallsendmag

Amazingly this will be the first match we've played this season where we won the corresponding fixture last season.

Looking at our likely XI tonight I can see our 3rd defeat on the spin here.

Pardew rages at Ray Stubbs: http://www.journallive.co.uk/nufc/newcastle-united-news/2012/02/01/pardew-unhappy-at-ray-stubbs-over-yohan-cabaye-incident-61634-30239579/ Ironically when I phoned Sky to cancel my ESPN subscription once I found out that Cabaye had been charged I gave Ray Stubbs as my reason for cancelling when the wifey on the other end of the phone asked me. Whether he deserved to be charged or not is a matter of opinion. Maybe he did but then when you look at other recent incidents which were far worse than what Cabaye did (Lescott, Crouch & Van Persie) maybe he can count himself a little unlucky. What you cannot have is a television presenter, someone who has never played the game before, demanding that the FA look into it, "The FA have got to look into that, surely" was the phrase he used on more than one occassion. He's there to present the programme and ask the opinions of the 2 professionals alongside him, not to ask the FA to look into specific incidents.

I thought he did well enough against Blackburn in the cup once he settled into the game. Wouldn't have any worries if he was thrown in on Wednesday.

I honestly wouldn't know. Better things to do with my time then spending it trawling mackem messageboards.

ESPN were absolutely desperate to get him banned with the amount of times they replayed it and then Ray Stubbs saying the FA had to look into it. I've just phoned up Sky to get it taken out and i'll walk down to the local to watch the Spurs match instead. Aye ESPN are a joke like, there's no way they would have emphasized it that much if it had of been the other way round. If that match hadn't have been televised, ESPN hadn't shown it about a dozen times, and then Ray Stubbs hadn't have stuck his orr in where he more or less demanded the FA take a look at it the incident wouldn't have even been looked at.

ESPN were absolutely desperate to get him banned with the amount of times they replayed it and then Ray Stubbs saying the FA had to look into it. I've just phoned up Sky to get it taken out and i'll walk down to the local to watch the Spurs match instead.

I would put them both in. They've played less than they would have had they been here and the thought of seeing Shola or Best up front on Wednesday isn't one I want to contemplate.

I'd rather go with a not 100% fit Ba and Cisse than go with Best and Strolla again.

Think it's a nailed on defeat today. Too many key players missing, plus they are very strong at home, plus it's a ground we hardly ever seem to do well at. Think we'll be overrun in midfield.

Try to get to a Bundesliga game at least once a season. Been to see Eintracht Frankfurt v Hertha Berlin which was one of the best atmospheres i've ever witnessed in nearly 30 years of watching football and last season I went to see Bayer Leverkusen v Mainz (decent atmosphere but not anything special) and the day after that Schalke v Nurnberg which we had standing tickets for, which cost the princely sum of €13. 61,500 at that match, great atmosphere but I was suprised at how much they pack the people in behind the goal. I literally couldn't move my hands from by my sides and you had no chance of getting a piss or a pint at half time. Going to watch FC Koln v Stuttgart in April.

It is just so Sunderland though. There's people on there will come and pick you up if you're interested in going. With all the freebies and cheapies they must have a really low receipts versus attendance ratio as well. Their gate reciepts were less than half of what ours were when both clubs revealed their last set of accounts (£16m for them and £33m for us iirc).

Oh Dear: ALS has been informed that ticket sales for the Blackburn game on Sunday have been much less successful than the club had hoped. At the last count there were 37,000 tickets sold. Taking into account that Blackburn have sold less than 300 of these it is understandable, had we been playing someone like Machester United with a big away following then we would have broken the 40,000 barrier with ease by now. Many people said they would never return while Steve Bruce remained in charge, well now he's gone and been replaced with one of the best managers in the country. We know it's a Sunday, we know it's on TV and we know it's an early kick off...however, Martin O'Neill will have been sold a vision of SAFC and what is possible to achieve here...lets not get it off to a bad start. If you can afford to go, if you can't decide whether to make the trip or not please consider that first impressions are lasting... There is a deal available for season ticket holders to purchase two extra tickets for £10 each which may help make the game more accessable for some. If you know a season ticket holder and would like to go on Sunday, why not ask them to help you out if they can? We hope that Sunday can be a great occassion and a fantastic welcome for our new manager. As supporters it's our job to make that happen. Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=652481#ixzz1g2vX2eJg

All of a sudden things just seem to be conspiring against us. Atkinson has been a terrible ref for us. Man City away last year went way beyond incompetence.

mackems, Man City, Villa, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Stoke in that order.

Remember we did it for the games v Watford and Crystal Palace in the Championship. It's a canny offer and the timing is perfect for Christmas.

To any Everton fans complaining about not being given a penalty for the handball think back to the game against us at Goodison last season when the same ref refused to give us an even more blatent penalty for the foul on Nolan.

Best needs dropped until someone can explain the offside rule to him. Very frustrating watching him yesterday.

Thought we made hard work of beating Fulham. Krul played a blinder in the 2nd half.

I just paid £25 for the seat in the Gallowgate but that was off my ST and I think it's a quid more on general sale. The cash turnstiles tomorrow in NW Corner are £20 for adults which is very reasonable. You couldn't get into many (if any ) Championship grounds for that price. Cheers. Really tempted to drive up for the game now. Get yersell up for it man! Playing some great stuff at the minute and £20/£25 to watch the likes of Coloccini, Cabaye, Tiote, Ben Arfa etc is a bargain! It's great leaving the pub at 2.45 with a spring in your step really looking forward to the match instead of going as a sense of duty when you'd really rather just stop in the pub. Long may it continue!

I just paid £25 for the seat in the Gallowgate but that was off my ST and I think it's a quid more on general sale. The cash turnstiles tomorrow in NW Corner are £20 for adults which is very reasonable. You couldn't get into many (if any ) Championship grounds for that price.

It's just for the NW Corner for seats they don't put on General sale for reasons known only to themselves. It's a good idea letting fans in early for a fiver less because they'll make the shortfall back in beer sales. Bought an extra ticket off my season ticket earlier for a mate who's decided to travel down from Scotland for it and the rest of the stadium looks almost sold out. Couldn't get him a seat anywhere near mine. Even with Wigans tiny following I think we'll see our biggest crowd of the season tomorrow.

Tickets are £26 in the Gallowgate (£25 for members). Wigan won't bring many but surely if the turnout of home fans is really big and the away support is poor they can just move that Sports Direct Divide further along the Leazes End unless they won't do that because L7 seems to be a closed shop these days unless you have a season ticket up there. Edited to say you'll have been quoting student prices no doubt

Last season was similar. We had some low crowds by our standards earlier in the season (43k v Villa, 41k v Stoke, 41k v Blackburn and a couple of 44k crowds) but then as the season went on the crowds grew and grew and after the West Ham game just after the New Year we never went below 47k for the rest of the season. If our good form continues, or even if it doesn't but the football is still good to watch, crowds will rise throughout the season just as they did last year and we'll still end up with an average of over 47k. Think we'll see a good turnout on Saturday as well. Wigan will only bring a few hundred but with it being a Cat C game a lot of home fans who didn't go to the Spurs game because of price/live on Sky will go to this one.

My team: ----------------------------Krul------------------------------ R.Taylor---------S.Taylor-----Collocini---------Santon Jonas---------- Cabaye-------Tiote---------Marveaux -------------------------Ben Arfa--------------------------- -----------------------------Ba------------------------------ Got a feeling this game won't be as straightforward as some are making out. They've got a canny record up here and this is just the sort of game where we tend to slip up. Crucial that we get the win on Saturday with the games we've got coming up in the next 6 weeks so i'd be delighted with a scrappy 1-0 win. 19 points after 9 games would just be unbelievable.