Paullow

Aye, they're points tally and league position will likely be as expected, but the problem was their excellent start where they got points from their first 7 games, and assuming they lose this, their last 19 games will be W4 D4 L11, currently -20 GD and only 16 points. Had those early wins been spread out a bit more then the situation would have been different, despite the same points return on paper.

I was reading the Darlington Twitter replies and it seemed almost universally popular. Good luck to him.

Spennymoor's interim manager Lewis Dickman has now left the club. Their away match at Chorley was abandoned today after 70 odd mins. John Askey has left Hartlepool as well, so 5 of the 6 NE clubs at steps 1 and 2 have had a change of manager this week, and the other (Gateshead) has an interim manager.

Who's whinging about Howe? If you're referring to me, then it's a bit of a strange comment because I've done nothing of the sort. I'd like to see Sunderland lose 4 or 5 on the trot (and be in bad form), I'd like to see them struggle in the bottom half, but I'm simply stating their recent form is OK, nothing more, nothing less.

We're a league above them, we have better players, we should be better than them, we should be beating them, if we don't it will be an upset, that's common knowledge, even if they won 6 on the spin, but the point was they are supposedly in shit form, when the reality is they are simply not. 1 point from 1 game 4 points from 2 games 4 points from 3 games 4 points from 4 games 7 points from 5 games 10 points from 6 games Unbeaten in 2 away games, so their immediate form is fine, and Rotherham beat Boro at home 3 days ago. Slightly longer term 10 points over 6 games is like 77 points over the season, and pretty much always enough for the playoffs. They would be expected to finish somewhere between 6th and 10th at the start of the season, they are currently in and around there, 'form' is often 5 or 6 games, especially if it's over a 3 week period, and whilst they've clearly had a couple of poor results, they've also had three very good results and are generally doing as expected, whereas we are currently doing worse than expected, especially since the turn of December, so despite playing at a different level, which is common knowledge, our respective form is not the same, theirs is as expected, ours is poor. We are indeed going round in circles, but I'm happy to continue

But they're obviously not going to win every game. They're 7th in the league, albeit very tight, but their form is OK - they've beaten WBA, Leeds and Hull this month, unbeaten in 2. They are doing OK in the 2nd tier, they're not in terrible form, like what we are. Had they had like 4 points from 6 or 7 games or something, then fair enough, but it's unfortunately not that bad.

It's not really comparable to be fair, Our league record over the last 3 weeks since Dec 7th is P5 W1 D0 L4 GD-6 PTS 3, plus going out of the League Cup and out of Europe completely. Their's is P6 W3 D1 L2 GD-1 PTS 10, they've beaten the current 4th, 5th, and 6th placed teams in their last 6 matches.

We do need to look after ourselves first of course, and try and stop the rot, but we're obviously not going to catch Arsenal, and even if some are confident of catching and passing West Ham, them getting a bonus 3 points in a match where they were 8/1, and one of the hardest fixtures of all 38, can never be a good thing. I'd say we will probably be within 5 points, either way, of them come the end of the season, so them getting a very unexpected win isn't ideal.

Aye, good start for them. they could have been ahead a few mins ago, but for a(nother) fantastic save from the Spurs keeper.

I was just going to ask, are more people hoping for a Spurs win or a draw? A few weeks ago, Spurs winning would have been the worst result, so it's amazing how quickly things can change, but top 5 does feel a bit beyond us when we're getting 0 points from Luton and Forest, as well as heavy defeats this month to Everton and a supposed 6 pointer with Spurs, plus the forthcoming fixtures.

Crazy that on Sun 3rd Dec after us beating Man U the night before and Villa drawing against Bmouth, we were just 3 points behind them, our next 2 games were Everton and Spurs, they had Man City and Arsenal, so at that stage a real chance we'd be at least level with them, or maybe a point clear two games later, but 5 games later we find ourselves 13 points behind them in the live table and they feel well out of range now.

It's good how there's a slight overlap in these final 2 TV matches. Think I'll mainly watch Ipswich, but will watch the PL match at half time, and the final 15 or so mins. Are people wanting a draw in the Man Utd vs Villa match? I do, but at this stage, a Villa win will likely be best for us.

I don't think anyone, or certainly few, would be happy with 9th or 10th, clearly not at the start of the season, but after months of adversity and general tough times, some would think OK, don't finish any lower than that, regroup in the summer, and hopefully not finish that low for the foreseeable. The Premier League is very competitive now. You have your usual 6, us, Villa, and Brighton who would all hope to finish in and around the top 6, but one of those will finish 9th at absolute best, another will finish 8th at best, positions that would generally be considered mediocre to most of those teams, perhaps with the exception of BHA, but some will have to finish in those positions at best. Chelsea, with all their recent accomplishments and resources finished 12th last season, and probably won't be that much better this season, Spurs were 8th last season, Man Utd currently in 8th with a -5 GD, Arsenal had recent back to back 8th placed finishes - if things don't quite go to plan, and you face some unfortunate and unforeseeable circumstances, then it's very easy to quickly occupy an unwanted league position. We're only 2 years into the takeover, there's still a lot of squad filling dross in the squad that need upgrading, and it's easy for those (not dross) players who have been playing above their usual level to drop back off if the better players are out of form, or are massively fatigued. The likes of Almiron, Longstaff, Lascelles, Burn etc. will have only finished in the top 10 of the PL once in their entire career. Still time to turn this season around and finish in and around 6th, but at the same time, we could easily be in the bottom half come February given our next 3 games, and if so, even the easier looking fixtures after that suddenly look much tougher.

Aye, wasn't a fan of the draw at the time, but it was made on Sunday 3rd December, the day after we had deservedly beaten Manchester United, but since then: Everton 3 Newcastle 0 Spurs 4 Newcastle 1 Newcastle 1 Milan 2 Newcastle 3 Fulham 0 (but not sure we'd have won had Jimenez only been booked) Chelsea 1 Newcastle 1 and out on pens Luton 1 Newcastle 0 Newcastle 1 Forest 3 Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong since the draw was made, has. Disaster of a December.

Regional battles in the NPL Division One East today: Ashington 4 Hebburn 0 (569) Dunston 2 Newton Aycliffe 1 (233) Stockton 3 Consett 2 (993) Current top 4 in that league - Stockton, Hebburn, Consett, Dunston 4,201 at Alex Bruce's Macclesfield in the league above.

Aye, they've had a very miserable 2023. I knew they ended last season badly, but just having a look and they were 3rd on Feb 4th and just a point off top spot, but went on an awful run and ended up missing out on the playoffs. They ended the season with a record of 2W 7D 8L and this year it's 4W 7D 12L, so in their last 40 league games, 6W 14D 20L, 32 points. Must be shit to have hopes of making the National Premier (if they were allowed) to facing a return to the Northern Premier League in 10/11 months.

Great win indeed for Blyth, but it's going to shit a bit for South Shields, who were very near the top not too long ago, but now find themselves in 8th place and outside the extended playoffs. They've lost 4 on the trot, 3 of those at home, and 3 matches to sides who were near the relegation zone. Just 1 win and 4 points from their last 7 games since Nov 11th and out of the FA Trophy as well. I suspect the club being up for sale, and all the uncertainty that goes with it has played a big role there. It's going even worse for Spennymoor in that period, they've also now lost 4 in a row, and only one point from their last 6 and also out of the FA Trophy. They are now nearer the relegation zone than the playoffs. South Shields aforementioned solitary win came against Spennymoor.

Mackems winning and have instantly gone from 10th to 6th in the live table.

I think I'll watch Ipswich-Leicester tonight over Man Utd-Villa. It's got to the stage where a Villa win would probably be best for us, and not sure I can cheer them on to the top of the table . Southampton now within 4 points of Ipswich in the race for automatic promotion.

Bring back the top 6 o meter!

I'd still back him even if we finished lower midtable, and hope the club sticks with him, but January does feel like a massive month. If we get 0 or 1 point from the next 3 league games (1 point would probably be optimistic), plus a cup defeat then questions will obviously have to be asked with the way football is. Would be a big shame, but not massively unexpected, which would have sounded crazy only 6 or 7 weeks ago.

Absolutely ridiculous.

It's strange because it's obviously not, but the season kind of feels like a write off. We're still in a half respectable league position (although that will get worse in the coming weeks), have only played half the matches, games will now be more spread out, maybe a signing or two next month, and hopefully more players coming back, but it just feels meh and get it over with. I'm not even massively annoyed that we're losing at home to one of the worst away sides in the league, because there's just a bit of an inevitability about all of it. Strange times.