Paullow

Good game this. 2-1 Watford, another good goal.

Yeah, Spenny were disappointing, and Shields were by far the better side and could have been 2 or 3 up at half time. I did think their keeper looked good in that he was comfortable with the ball at his feet, and was good at rushing out, bit was a bit baffled when he was given MoTM as it would imply he was busy, and he barely had a save to make. Rest of the results weren't great with the teams immediately around all winning Boston, Shields (obviously), Alfreton, Chester and Curzon Ashton, but a good chance to bounce back on Monday, but even to be in a position where the playoffs are a possibility is incredible considering where they were just 6 or 7 weeks ago. Good crowd. Think it was announced as circa 3,160, and someone said there was around 350 in the away end.

You here today @Chris L?

I see Boro are planning anew badge for the 26/27 season. I've said it before, but as someone getting into football in the mid 90s, I'd be much more bothered about the badge changing than the stadium potentially changing. I could possibly see a circular badge at some point, but I love the current badge, and given my age, it's obviously all I've known.

Got a ticket in the away end, just by myself, getting the train from Hexham to Heworth, and then the Metro is just 4 stops after. Looking forward to it.

Nice one, didn't think of that, I've never been past Newcastle on the Carlisle line, but seems there one every hour, so will definitely look into that if I can't get a lift in. Weather is looking a lot better than it was earlier in the week, and certainly a lot better than Monday (if I was going to go to Spenny vs Farsley instead).

I'm kind of friends of friends with the Shields Chairman's son, so a chance I might actually get to be in Geoff's box in a group, but waiting to see if that is confirmed. Hopefully would be able to get a lift in as honestly, I'm pathetic at driving in built up areas, and get easily flustered. Annoying about the Metro as 24 mins door to door would have been as good as could be expected.

Looks like the Metro is off all weekend, and there's a replacement bus service, but looks like a chew on (Jesmond to Heworth, and then Heworth to Bede). One of my Uni mates is from Jarrow, not seen him for like 5 months, but I'm working on getting him to go, saying he should go back to his roots this weekend, and can give me a lift, haha. Really interesting game though, both in great form, and the margins are so fine at this stage. Might be difficult for the loser to get in the playoffs, particularly if it was South Shields.

I'm looking into it now. I'd rather Spenny won, and would prefer to be in the away end, but would be happy enough in the home end and watching as a neutral. I'm looking at the metro now. I'd probably park in Jesmond and then it's just like 11 stops and 24 mins on the Metro, which is fine, but then, will services be running on Good Friday, and will they be limited? Are you Spenny?

Wales' first ever penalty shootout apparently.

Wales about to go to pens on Sky Channel 134, S4C. It's in Welsh, but I have it on pause about 40 seconds, on mute, and BBC Sounds comms on. Pens coming up...

They might have a point like...

Scunthorpe admin not happy.

Stunning turnaround. From 4 points above the drop zone and 17 off the playoffs, to now being only out on goal difference. Banbury are still on 37 points 9 games later

Spenny beat Scunthorpe 1-0 to make it 7 in a row, or 9 wins and a draw in their last 10 matches. South Shields win 3-0 to make it 4 wins in a row. They play each other on Friday and I'm so tempted to go, but will likely have to go by myself, and I'm a shit / nervy driver (coming from Hexham area), so would probably have to get the metro. I'ts MUCH easier driving to Spennymoor, so would have definitely gone if Spenny were at home. They play Farsley at home on Monday, so might go to that instead, but Shields vs Spenny is the much bigger match with the local edge and both in and around the playoffs.

It would be 9 defeats in a row for them. Don't know if there's any context, but their record was OK about 6 weeks ago, and this seems to have come from nowhere. They were above Spennymoor about 6 weeks ago, and could now be 27 points behind, given the two teams huge change of fortunes out of nowhere.

Obviously teams can have good and bad spells and rocket up and down the league, like Yeovil, Stockport, Oldham etc. but it's mad that this time 14 years ago we were in the same league as Scunthorpe and lost to them at the back end of 2009, yet, they are now in tier 6, playing the likes of Shields and currently losing to Spennymoor. They won't win the league this year, so the almost certainly the lottery of the 6 team playoffs for them.

Spennymoor have just taken the lead!!!! Looking for a magnificent 7.

3-1 Gateshead now. They should be fine as there's so many teams below them, and they may just need another 3 points in their final 6 matches, but Pools are bound to be looking over their shoulder a bit. Only 2 points from their last 5 if they lose this one, and 5 clear of the drop zone.

Didn't realise it was Gateshead vs Hartlepool today, 1-1 at half time. Shields (South) 1-0 up away at Banbury (who have lost like 8 in a row), and Spennymoor currently 0-0 at home to Scunthorpe. The 2 local sides meet at Shields on Friday.

Yeah, you just can't really look at any remaining games this season and think yeah, should definitely be 3 points there. Start of the season, or start of December, you look at the follow successive home fixtures: Forest Man City Luton Bournemouth And you'd think there would be half a chance for 10 points. Or if we lost to Man City, as most do, win the rest, or at the very worst, win 2 and draw 1, to pick up a minimum of 7 points. We couldn't win any of them and ended up with 2 points. 2 of the easiest games on paper of the 38 (in Luton and Forest at home), certainly both in the top 6 if you were putting all 38 fixtures in a list and ranking them. Now we have picked up some decent wins in that period, like Villa away, and you could perhaps argue the Forest away win almost negates the home loss, but with our injuries and inconsistency, there's literally no matches that look like bankers, perhaps Sheff U apart, as someone mentioned earlier.

It finished 5-3 to Sunderland. Quite entertaining tbh. Durham got it back to 3-3, and hit the post at 4-3, but were never ahead. Palace and Birmingham both won, but Southampton and Charlton both lost - the latter were a goal up after 89 mins, but conceded twice to London.

It's actually 2-2 now. I checked the score at half time and it was 2-1, so went back to having it on, and Durham have just equalised a moment ago.

They couldn't have officially secured the title next week with those permutations as they would have still needed Forest to drop more points against Derby next week to make it 100% official, but Forest's match with Halifax has been postponed, so that will affect things, unless it's rescheduled in the week, although I see Halifax already have a match in the week. It's crazy how in a 22 games season, WBA have played 19 matches, and 86.3% of their matches, whereas Halifax has only played 13 and 59% of theirs. Going to be a serious backlog for Halifax to get their remaining 9 games in, especially if there's a good women's match on TV that they want to watch instead Burnley are 1-0 down, but they are too far behind to be a threat IMO, but I guess would at least contribute to getting the title quicker, if they drop more points.

2-0 Sunderland Women now, so that's pretty much over and won't watch the rest. Still can't believe how close it is, they only play 22 matches, and plenty of '6 pointers' coming up. I'm not actively wanting them to lose, like I would with the men's team, but I do hope that they don't go up, as it would at least be a couple of big occasions next season, even if they would be the favourites. Newcastle vs Sunderland at SJP would be class. I'd like Durham to stay up as that would be another local derby, and 4 of the 22 league matches.