Paullow

Quite surprised, thought there would be an issue with the dew or something, plus no lie ins . Mind just seen your Prudhoe's derby with Ryton is kicking off at 10.30am on Boxing Day.

There's loads of local fixtures in tiers 6, 7, and 8 over the coming days. 3pm unless stated. NATIONAL LEAGUE NORTH (tier 6) Boxing Day Darlington vs Scarborough Spennymoor vs South Shields NYD Scarborough vs Spennymoor South Shields vs Darlington NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE - PREMIER (tier 7) Boxing Day Stockton vs Hebburn 1pm Blyth vs Whitby NYD Morpeth vs Blyth 1pm Hebburn vs Workington (Workington are at home to Morpeth on Boxing Day, but a bit of a stretch including that). Whitby vs Stockton NORTHERN PREMIER LEAGUE - EAST (tier 8) Boxing Day Heaton vs Ashington - 11am apparently - that can't be right, surely? Dunston vs Newton Aylciffe 1pm Bishop Auckland vs Consett Monday 30th December Ashington vs Dunston - 7.45pm Newton Aycliffe vs Bishop Auckland - 7.45pm New Years Day Consett vs Heaton Saturday 4th January Bishop Auckland vs Ashington

Looking grim for Blyth Spartan, lost 3-1 away at Hebburn in front of 660. 11 points off safety and unless there's significant changes somewhere, pretty much nailed on for a second successive. relegation Heaton continuing to struggle in tier 8, but a great win for Ashington. With 4 going down this season, it will probably be hard for both of them to stay up. Consett moving in the right direction. Not sure what's going on at Redcar Athletic in tier 9. They were well fancied and absolutely flying at the start of the season, but they've lost 4 of their last 5 league matches, as well as 2 recent cup exits, and suddenly that league is looking tight. Could still get a Blyth derby in tier 8 next season, but Blyth Town were battered 0-5 at home to Shildon today, and Blyth are also not in great form with only 5 points from their last 6.

They still managed to get 23 points from their final 23 games last season, so even if they had another mega marra mackem meltdown they would still probably just about sneak into them, but here's hoping.

Extremely likely they will get at least a playoff spot now. It's usually around 70 points for 6th place, so they'll only really need to average not much more than a point per game in their final 24 matches to get there, but at least there's a few other sides doing well, and if they did finish 3rd to 6th then more chance than not they wouldn't come up.

Up the Cumbrians though.

Good start to this Palace Arsenal game. 1-1, no idea what result I'd prefer

This would be City's 6th defeat in 8 league games, and annoyingly for us, 4 of those have come against Man Utd, Villa, Tottenham and Brighton, probably the 4 teams we will be sharing 5-9th place with. Could probably just about add Bournemouth to that list as well.

Not if we're 4-0 down from the away leg without Schaar and Bruno. Could argue it would be better to get the home leg first in this instance.

I'm not fussed about this draw to be honest. There's not an obvious more difficult draw IMO. You'd probably say Spurs would just about be easier, but that was probably the worst we played against all 3 of them at home this season, and another day could have been a heavy defeat. Plus I haven't looked at the schedule, but Spurs will probably be taking it the most serious of the 3. There's also no obvious advantage of playing home or away first. You'd usually like to play away first and then have the 2nd leg at home, but if there's no ET then that negates that, although pens would be more beneficial, but in our case, without Bruno and Fab, we could well be 2 or 3-0 down from the away leg and the tie effectively over before they are back, whereas it might be better to lose them for the SJP match and then have them back with a more poised first leg. 2 years ago you had Southampton (who we obviously got) and last year Middlesbrough made the semi final, who most would have liked, but this year, there's not an obvious tie you'd like to get.

The crowd may well be shite, but the coverage won't help. It just feels well off and well out of sync. Good that it's being covered, but very much the short straw tonight.

It's good that it's at least on TV, but you can tell it's a budget service. Felt like it took an age for them to realise it went in. Doesn't feel fully in sync.

I always think this, but it probably would have been better for Martin to have lost the playoff final to Leeds last season. They'd be winning more games, towards the top of the table, playing good football and probably under minimal pressure - doubt he would have got much of a pay rise either, but as it is, much tougher job, always likely to be in and around the bottom 3/4, and under constant pressure and scrutiny.