Fiftynotout

Back in the day, there was the Leazes End, Gallowgate End, Popular Side, The Paddocks and The Stand. You could avoid the queues for the Leazes by going in the Popular and paying a bit extra at the transfer turnstile under the bottom bit of the Leazes corner - an extra tanner (2.5p to you yunguns) I think it was! Happy days, no cover unless you were at the back of the Leazes, standing on worn out railway sleepers with cinders in between, piss and spew running down the terraces (watch your pockets), possible life theatening surges every time we attacked, never mind scored, mass battles with opposing fans or between ourselves if none came, no beer on sale in the ground, manky pies and Bovril, not knowing the other scores unless you bought a programme for the "code" used by the guy in the Scoreboard who loved winding people up, no clock, only the "Ten Minute Flag" in the Gallowgate corner. Today - it's a bit better but i still can't find out the scores because it is still impossible to hear the announcements at the back of The New Stand as thedudeabides' dad correctly calls it.

Benitez would want total control which was the main problem at liverpool - Ashley would not give him that so it won't happen.

Paid 5 Euros for a scarf in Lisbon - bloody robbed!

MON basically thinks they have too many crap players and will struggle to stay up

Our driver (Benfica season ticket holder) said that unfortunately the police often "just start hitting fans" in that end if someone says something! we had a canny view and it was not a "tactical manouever" it was a full on police charge and battens were being well flayed! Our police take some stick but the alternative is frightening

Was at the match and on the flight home, NO ONE repeat NO ONE could believe we were 2 goals behind at the end. We all thought that, had Marveaux passed to Cisse t make it 2 -0 they would have crumbled - their crowd was very dissatisfied and getting angry with certain players - their goal inspired the crowd and their team. Their defence isn't that good but they will probably score at SJP so we will need at least 3! Probably too much to hope for.

Its on .com that he's been sent back to Newcastle after suffering pains in the thigh.

Benwell Lad - was that the game when Alan Suddick got booked for pulling the guy's shorts down when the wall wouldn't go back 10 yards?

Yes - especially the brewery, wasn't sure what it was - knew the rest from home!

First game was in 1961, I was 6 but can't remember much apart from the smells! First game I remember much about was 1963, Grimsby, drew 0-0, I'm sure Jimmy Fell missed a penalty - floodlights were on! I was 11 months and 3 days old when we last won a domestic trophy and like many my age, I just hope I get the chance to see us do it before I join the great supporters club in the sky.

Nice midfielder Eysseric suspended for 11 games for a dangerous tackle on St Etienne's Clement - must have been a hell of a tackle! Anyone see it?

Well Slippery Sam, you should maybe open your eyes and see that it was often Sissoko who was furthest up the park with Shola dropping deep to counter the higher ball - or maybe we can't see other players losing the ball?

Some of the comments on here tonight are unbelievable! When we lose it's because of Pardew and if we win it's in spite of Pardew - the same with Shola, anyone with any sense knows that Shola did exactly what he was told to do and put in a shift. as for going negative after scoring, do people not realise that they needed 2 goals and started to throw everything forward. If we hadn't dropped off, Pardew would be accused of being niaive - we nearly hit them on the break several times, but heh, don't let the facts get in the way of your anti Pardew and Shola inbred views.

Top and bottom of it is that Celtic huffed and puffed but Buffon never broke sweat - only time he looked a bit bothered was the over head kick from Commons(?) that went just wide. Apart from that, the Juve defence just absorbed and cleared everything.

Good articles in the Journal about him - sorry can't link. This signing gets better every minute!

Surely if he just didn't want to come, he would have said so - just like he told QPR apparantly. So he must. at least, be a bit interested.

I remember him standing doing a tea-pot impression on the post at barcelona!

Watched The Big Match Revisited this morning on ITV4, Manu 3 WBA 5 from Dec 1978 - great game and what a team WBA had! Was surprised how shocked I was when Laurie Cunningham was booed for, as the commentator said, being black. Brought back many bad memories of how really bad it was and showed how far we have come - pity FIFA have done FA in the 34 years since.

Skirge - problem is that too many on here play FM and are experts at it. See how easy it is to sign players, their assessments of "linked" players, how easy it is to change tactics and how the "wrong" substutions were made. Go have a lie down, I'm going as well.

And does that bloke actually like Alladyce?

Big Geordie is right but the only people who will suffer, as usual, are the fans. The Premier League boys, players, F.A. big wigs will have all made big bucks and retired before the s**t hits the wotsit and won't give a f**k - we will be still be here but god kows what we'll be watching.

Lads, to be fair to them, their European win success % is much better than our's - I don't know what our's is but I doubt it's anywere near their 75% win!

The "United" debate - absolutely boil when TV or Radio do it (Townsend is one of the worst). Determined one day I'm going to ring one of the national phone ins to talk about "United" and see how long it is before the presenter realises what team I'm talking about - could be easily phrased to make them look completely stupid - after next week's game would be good, especially if we win!

I happen to think that Pardew simply answers the questions put to him and they consistantly refer to the possibility of our players leaving due to the media agenda. He responds by giving the same answer - if he refused to answer, it would be interpreted as being an indication that the player was on his way out and if he said no one was leaving (eg Carrol) and they did, he would lok,like a tit again. he can't win either way.

Journal reckons we will not be back in for him and we are only interested in a striker - says Dekka is going to the Europa draw on Friday (presuming we get through!) and do not expect any outgoings either.