Gosforth Lad

It's staggering that a club at Championship level hasn't launched a kit before the season started. Piss poor organisation. I used to work in the NUFC store years and years ago and we'd have been lynched by fans if we did that.

Tremendous ? How old is he by the way? I've been thinking of taking my 5year old tomorrow but not.sure if it's a year too soon for him. 6. My 3 year old daughter is going too. Sitting in platinum club seats so if she wants to go inside with the wife she can and will be comfortable.

Was a little bit hit and miss in the Premier League before, but with a good season under his belt who knows what he can achieve this time.

Don't rate him at all. Bit of a cart horse I feel.

Taking my boy on Sunday to his first Newcastle game. Got him a top off Classic Football Shirts. It's a bit big and about 6 seasons old, but for a brand new (i.e. unworn) top a tenner can't be bad can it. He hasn't a clue it's not up to date. He doesn't know about this tickets; it's a treat for getting a good school report.

Tonight is probably a truer reflection of the Sunderland support, as allegedly Bain has put a stop to the doling out of free tickets en made. A shade shy of 30,000 is pretty good in all honesty, but the fact is it's always going to appear like a few peas rolling round an empty plate when there are 20,000 spare pews. As a town planner, I recall the original planning application for the Stadium of Light was 34,000. Had they built it that size, they could have packed it the last 10 years without having to prop up the numbers with great waves of freebies dished out to all and sundry. The irony is, had they done so they would have been praised for their crowds (full Stadium despite being utter shit year in year out), rather than criticised for significant empties, despite the fact they'd have been getting less punters in. Bob Murray was far too concerned with keeping up with the Jones' than long term planning however, and, as usual, his gaze was in the direction of NE1 4ST. Incidentally, the game was crap I thought.

Away kit isn't unpleasant but it isn't a classic. I liked the black NTL one from 2000.

12th - 16th. Benitez is not a miracle worker and the defence and strike force is not convincing at all. Clark the best of a mediocre bunch at the back, albeit the French lad has still to show his wares.

Typical of many a modern day player. Big, strong, quick, athletic, shite with the actual ball.

Is he still alive?