Paullow

Ralf will be buzzing that Wood scored

Didn't take Chelsea long to take the lead away at Norwich. Not too bothered about Norwich, but I was interested to see how the earlier news would have affected Chelsea. Possibly not in the way some would have expected.

But just three of those were away, which is a smaller sample size, plus one of those was obviously against 10 men for 80 minutes and that becomes a completely different match (even if we did start brightly).

It's the type of match where at home I'd be hoping / half expecting to win, but away, I'd be delighted with a point. They are 10 unbeaten at home, winning 5 of them (12 and 7 if you include the FA Cup where they recently beat West Ham). I can see a 3-1 Southampton win, unfortunately.

There's some questionable noises coming from the crowd in the Hartlepool match https://twitter.com/search?q=hartlepool&src=typed_query&f=live

Hartlepool vs Rotherham getting underway on Sky in the semi final of that Pizza Cup. Winner plays Sutton united in the final at Wembley. Two local lads were highlighted as the ones to watch on either side - Ex Sunderland player Luke Molyneux of Bishop for Hartlepool, and ex Newcastle Dan Barlaser from Gateshead for Rotherham. I'll see how those goes for the first 10-15 mins and might switch to PSG- R Madrid.

Yeah, that was my main concern. I definitely didn't want to be in the same league as them next year, although that is looking a lot less likely now, on both fronts (certainly more than it was at Christmas). I always said if we push on, and get back towards where we were mid 90's and early 00's then I wouldn't mind them doing what they have for the majority of their time in the Premier League (and what we have for the past 14 years, give or take a year) - ideally us challenging for top 4 and them battling for 17th, and in those days, we would also have the upper hand in the derbies, but now, I'd still like to see them do another couple of years in that league. Top 2 looks very much beyond them, and you'd think one of either Wigan or MK Dons would be pretty much guaranteed a playoff spot, but then 7 teams battling for 3 spots after that. If they do make the playoffs then hopefully Sheff Wed and an inform Ipswich or Portsmouth are the other two to fill up the remaining spaces.

Yep, we're still not in a position to be picking and choosing who we want to go down, so for now, I'll be hoping for every external result that benefits Newcastle (this season) than any personal preference. If we were to only get a point or so from the next 4 tough away matches (which is very feasible) then we could just be 2 or 3 points clear again by the end of that sequence, putting massive pressure on the more winnable games against the likes of Palace, Leicester, Wolves at home and Norwich away. If we beat Southampton on Thursday to reach 31 points with 11 to go, and a few of those 11 better on paper, then I may start to want Burnley and Watford to win to appease my personal preferences, but until then, I want everyone from 15 down to lose to everyone from 13 and above - so come on Arsenal.

Finally a win for him at the 15th time of asking this season. Decent weekend for him with only Middlesbrough winning of those who started the weekend between 4th to 10th, and while Boro may probably be a more realistic playoff candidate, that was against Luton who started the day 2 points ahead of Boro, so WBA are now within 2 wins of 6th (although it will take more than 2 matches to get inside the POs). Nottm Forests last second equaliser against Sheff Utd last night was good news for him too. WBA play the current top 2 in their next 2 matches, so hopefully they, or rather 'he', are on the losing trail again soon enough.

Happy with either a Norwich win or a draw, but would prefer the former.

Haha, and a minute later Leicester take the lead.

Leeds have been the far better team here, but still 0-0. The game is definitely there for the taking.

Not sure how relevant it'll be, but we play Everton on Thursday 17th and they will have a winnable FA Cup QF match on either the following Sunday or Monday. Even if they win their next 2 matches and Burnley lose theirs and the picture is looking a bit better for them, they obviously won't be resting players against us, as the league is more important if you are still in relegation contention, but it might be a little distraction for them.

Forest have put out the last two winners in Arsenal and Leicester (both at home), so if they get past Huddersfield on Monday, then they will have a decent chance to add another scalp, especially if Liverpool make multiple changes again. I think it's probably the best draw on paper from the 8/10 teams available.

Well, I thought it was pretty good anyway . It's a lot better than if all the 'big boys' were at home. Southampton vs Man City looks good, given the formers home form.

Really good FA Cup draw. C Palace vs Everton / Boreham Wood N Forest / Huddersfield vs Liverpool Middlesbrough vs Chelsea Southampton vs Man City Bar the first one which is arguable, all the stronger sides are away, so still the potential for some heavyweight semi finals, but tricky tasks to overcome first. Tonight's match would have been a lot more interesting if the non leaguers were at home.

Chelsea and West Ham equalise almost simultaneously.

It does feel very strange having (different) football matches on BBC1 and ITV1 at the same time. The only other time that may happen would be deciding group matches at the World Cup or Euros, but even then, they would tend to be on ITV1 and ITV4 as opposed to the 2 main channels.

I can remember as a young 7 year old listening to the match on the radio on our last trip to KR in 1994 - a 2-0 loss in an FA Cup 4th round replay. One of my earliest football memories, I was devastated.

10 changes for Liverpool, 7 for Norwich. Hopefully no E/T for Norwich - I'd like to see them win on Saturday. Southampton vs West Ham just getting underway on the red button.

It didn't go great for him at Sunderland, and that, at the time, was a pretty big job (one of his 3 more higher profile roles along with us and Villa). We had just got back into the Premier League, and as a fan for like 27 years or so (as of now), I think that's the only period where I would consider they had a better squad / team than us - they had a fair bit of investment, had Bent, Gyan, Henderson, Mignolet, Welbeck, Sessegnon, Malbranque and a few other decent players, and in late January 2011 they were 6th in the league, and were only a point off 4th place after 24 games: https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/22-january-2011/ They then only gained 1 point from their next 9 matches, and going on an infamous / trademark Brucey run. They did win 3 of their final 5 matches, including their last match of the season which, along with us being pegged back from 3-0 to 3-3 at home to WBA, meant they leapfropped us (and a few others) and finished 10th (ya kna) - only their 3rd top 10 finish since the 1955/56 season (that's crazy - 3 top 10 finishes for them in 67 years, and obviously counting). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–11_Sunderland_A.F.C._season#Premier_League The season after they only won 2 of their first 13 matches, 11 points, and he was sacked - so in 2011, his league record prior to his sacking was P27 W5 D6 L16 PTS 21 which was awful for the squad they had, and they were massively calling for his head. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–12_Sunderland_A.F.C._season#Premier_League

In League Two, Anderson played 70 mins in Bristol Rovers 1-0 win over Barrow, but he was subbed prior to the winning goal. Also great (for me) to see Carlisle record back to back wins and pull further away from the relegation zone. They brought Paul Simpson back as manager a week ago, and he's off to a cracking start. In League One, not the best collective results for Sunderland. Wigan won so any tiny hopes of automatic following their big win the other day look even smaller. Sheff Wed and Wycombe both won as well against lower teams. Oxford lost, but that was to Portsmouth who may still have half a chance of sneaking into the top 6.

Good stuff.

Ian Woan, that's a blast from the past. Palace ahead now, so looking like potentially 4 away games in a row after Saturday, as it stands. Just turned it on to the Palace match after HT in the Boro match, and it's 1-1 now.