Paullow

Still 1-0 at OT, but looks like MU are absolutely dicking on Brentford.

If we only sign one player in the summer, it has to be a top LB.

Argh, unlucky. Would have been a great goal.

I'd be tempted to get Joelinton off now to be honest.

I never do like fannying around at the back.

Getting 21 points from 11 games, almost 2 points per game, better than what we have for the season, and an increase of +9 to our GD when we still have to play Arsenal, Chelsea, Brighton, Spurs, and some tough away matches at big traditional grounds is NOT being fairly negative .

Could be squeaky bum time for South Shields - they lost to a last minute winner to 2nd place Bamber Bridge on Saturday, and BB have just beaten Morpeth tonight (who look in trouble at the other end of the table). The lead is 6 points, basically 7 with goal difference, and both have 4 matches left. They should still be absolutely fine, but they have had previous for blowing great positions.

Brighton winning was annoying, and Villa too, to a lesser extent, but I think Liverpool not winning was the most important result this evening as they are still 3 games away from us. https://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/top-4-finish Brighton's top 4 odds are coming in a bit, Liverpool's are drifting, but Liverpool are still more likely to finish top 4 than Brighton according to that, and after Arsenal they do have a reasonable run of fixtures, 6 of their last 10 are at home, a few more players will return, and they have no other distractions for a rare change, so them only picking up 1 tonight, 1 over the last few days, and 1 over their last 3 matches is a big bonus. It would be good to have a remaining fixture list of the current top 9, and possibly Chelsea too (because they should really be better than where they are, and can still be a threat to any side on their day)... It'll feel poor / annoying now, but in a weird way, the likes of Brighton and Villa winning might indirectly work out with some positives. Obviously not if one of them go on to string like 6 wins in a row in the coming weeks and pass us, but more teams in and around, but still at relative arms length, and picking up points off the other top teams in matches that feel 'bigger' might actually benefit us in our current position. It's quite hard to explain , but it's making a bit of sense in my head, but not sure if it's coming out that way on here, haha.

Yep, and unless Sheff Utd won the FA Cup, that would be some form of European football guaranteed next season. *unless West Ham potentially winning the ECL and qualifying for the Europa took a European place from the league - I haven't looked that up.

They've got Man City at home to be rearranged as well. Tough run no doubt, and obviously some will be dropping points when it comes to those directly near us.

Villa with a likely winner. Just need a similar Liverpool one and then will be a poor night all round. Mind, the results have gone pretty much perfectly for a while for us.

Class that Havertz lad! Always rated him. Edit - he's fucking shite.

Huge chance there for Lpool. Was sure it was going in.

Yeah, about right. Fulham's season is pretty much done anyway, especially after the way they unravelled in the FA Cup. Just 8 points from their last 9 league games, always fairly likely to slip away, won't go down even if they lost every game, won't get into Europe, so just really a top 10 place at stake. Great first season back for them though, and a lot better than most would have expected, but will probably be a boring end to the season for their fans.

I think you could stick Lopetegui at Wolves down as well, more universally a few weeks ago, but in his 14 games they have won 5 and drew 3, so 18 points which is pretty decent - 1.29 points per game, far better than their 10 in the 15 before he came (0.67 PPG). A couple of poor losses at home to Bmouth and Leeds recently, but the other defeats were us, Man City, and Liverpool all away and Man Utd (in the middle of their great run). Should be just about fine to stay up, and probably had a few costly decisions go against them.

If we have a great win I always spend ages trawling through other clubs forums , even the odd foreign club one. Can literally spend hours on it, haha.

I guess age will probably play a part here as well. I'm at the perfect age where I was just getting into football in the 1993/94 season and can remember just about all of the 1994/95 season, so there won't be a PL era player that I didn't see play for Newcastle. Whereas while we weren't as good, had the PL started in 1984 or so, before I was born, then I would probably have been less likely to include players from before my time, unless absolutely obvious. Pretty much every Newcastle fan, whether 19 (and never saw him play live) or 79 would include Shearer in this, just because of what they have heard / read / saw in video, but those under 25 might be more likely to include your HBA's, Cabaye, Solano etc. than your older Beardsley, Ginola types. Would have been better on a more popular thread, as it would have been interesting to see who more people would pick.

------------------------Given----------------------------- ----------------------Woodgate-------------------------- ---------------Bruno---------Beardsley------------------- ----------------------Shearer------------------------------ Felt far too early to put anyone who hasn't even been here a full 12 months. I was thinking the same for Bruno, but he's now been here pretty much the same time as Woodgate. Felt a bit strange picking Woodgate with him not being a club legend, and largely not having great words to say since leaving, especially with being from Boro, but in his 15 or so months he had, he was absolutely class, and we haven't been blessed with amazing defenders in the last 30 years. In a year or so I'd imagine most would include Botman. Thought about having Trippier, but wanted a centre half in there.

Yeah, that's the kind of points total that I'm thinking. 5W 1D 5L, 4W 4D 3L, or possibly more likely in line with our season 3W 7D 1L would generally / normally be a fairly disappointing return given our form since Jan 2022, but I think it's kind of par with the pretty tough fixtures that we have remaining. The next 3 (away) games will be crucial - if we get 6/7/9 points then we should really hit 70 points quite comfortably, but if it's more like 0/1/2/3 then it may be a struggle to even get 66. We are around the 6/5 to beat West Ham and Brentford (no odds for Villa yet, but will probably be a bit closer I think), so we're considered the more likely of the two to win, but at the same time, not odds on, so there's more chance of us not winning than winning (West Ham double chance would be around 4/6). If we do end up with 70 points then I'm pretty sure we will finish in the top 4. Spurs would need at least 20 points from 9 games, Liverpool would need 28 from 11, Brighton would need 27 from 12, and I wouldn't even consider Brentford in that scenario. Teams can put runs together, and Liverpool did a few years ago to salvage their season, but I think the league is a bit different now. There's too many better teams now. Chelsea have struggled, but could beat many on their day, we are much stronger, and games against the Brighton's and Villa's are much tougher now, so it's really hard for a team (not named Man City) to string 8/9 wins out of 11 or so.

You can tell the big wigs at Sky have blatantly briefed their employees about the whole 'United' thing. All this United vs United in the League Cup build up, and pretty much the same advert before the recent match. Neville there saying 'United' then quickly said 'Manchester United', and made sure he said 'Newcastle United' as quickly as he could . 3 of the League Cup matches had to be, but West Ham will be our 16th match in 2023 (11 league, 4 LC, 1 FAC) and every single one of them have been on TV (14 Sky, 1 BT, 1 BBC). Brentford on Saturday will be the first one that isn't, but the 3 after that Villa (BT), Spurs (Sky), Everton (BT) will be televised, so that will be 19 out of 20 .

Can't believe I've actually screamed out loud for back to back late Everton equalisers now . This one obviously far more important than Simms equaliser. Please hang on here...

GET THE FUCK IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, at least it's 67 mins and not 87 mins from a hoping they drop points perspective, but then again, more time to boost their GD.

Mind, Everton of course went down to 10 at home to us last season...