OpenC

No, you didn't misunderstand the ownership thing; the difficulty getting to the game; the flat atmospheres and moaning fans in the concourses when you do; the megastar dramas. It's not all down to Newcastle though; the league we play in and the VAR and randomly applied financial nonsense that's slowly killing it aren't of Newcastle's doing but they take the edge off it further. Modern top level football is just a more difficult thing for me to really enjoy. It's good to see them doing better than they have for two decades, of course, but honestly I feel next to nowt for them these days, no real attachment at all. It's mostly my discovery of non-league that's really done it, in all probability - just feels like a more honest and more sporting competition.

Ah right, was just received wisdom from Alnwick that Wallington always win I only started going last year. Loved their setup though, and there was a great community feel there.

Aye, Alnwick ended up going up by default rather than on merit. Apparently Wallington win it every single year but that's literally just a field in Scots Gap so they're never getting promoted

I enjoyed going to Percy Main with Alnwick last season. Proper club with proper oldschool infrastructure. Only problem with it is that you can only watch from that small area, but there's literally not a metre to spare in there.

I suppose it comes down to aspirations and expectation. To a degree I can understand it; whenever I heard Klopp or Pep trotting out the No Easy Games line I always felt like they were really just saying it out of a sense of humility more than anything else, because it was the right thing to say. They would never go to Bournemouth, however tough a game, and be truly satisfied with a battling point on the road. When I hear anybody from Newcastle say it, it still feels like a way to excuse a crappy performance We're a long way from city and libpewl and I've never felt so distant from this club as I do now, so I agree that it's a tough league with few obvious weak links - I see 'no easy games' as a realistic appraisal, but I suppose for a fair few expectations have been raised these last two sessions.

Can't get today unfortunately, but I might get to a Tuesday or Wednesday evening game in Grantown or Keith or similar I stay in Kingussie who are apparently the finest shintiers/shintists/shintographers in the world so I'd been hoping they were playing at home this week but it's near enough impossible just to find the fixtures and as I say it's rained for the last week so the pitches are off. This appears to be Kingussie's football pitch

Missing Alnwick back in the vase this afternoon by virtue of being 200 miles too far north. Was hoping to take in some Shinty as a substitute but all the pitches are unplayable.

My favourite bit was towards the end where he said he was going to have to go and would be back when he was in a "sayin stayit of mind"

Almost at the level of Roeder running the rule over Dirk Kuyt but hasn't quite reached that stage for me just yet

I'm not one for criticism of spelling and always feel like as long as the meaning is clear it doesn't really matter that much, but 'bamkruptt' is tremendous

It's the bloke applauding just behind him that always does for me

Can never find it when I need it. One of my favourite football pictures of all time I was in the middle tier right behind the goal. It's actually not as easy a chance as I had thought, by the time he catches up with it

'cast here' = 'on this site' rather than 'at this location', I see Location was, I reckon, Aln Valley Railway

That doesn't link anywhere, looks like you need to be logged in. I'm assuming it was just down the road from me in Alnwick. Looked like it anyway

Well, that's been done to death on here I'm sure; I make no judgement on that side of it and Glory Hunter is just the accepted term I know for someone with no connection to a team following them simply because they win stuff, or have done. I find it a pretty alien concept but folk can of course support who they want. I just can't help but think that when he goes to watch them and tells people he's driven four hours to get there, most of the fans would, rather than thinking he's one of their own, wonder why he's not at SJP watching Newcastle. I really don't see what he gets out of it, but the story was less about people following non-local teams and more to highlight this lad pointing out the supposed troubles he's gone through as a Liverpool fan the last four decades your saying that Manchester United 'have been crap for years' suggests to me that we're perhaps coming at this from very different angles, though in the grand scheme of English football, they've hardly been objectively crap

Bad times, man

Love a bit of short-sighted football 'woe'. There's a lad at work late 30s, Northumberland born and bred, supports Liverpool. Says he has since he was young and when it gets pointed out that a lot of people glory hunt successful teams when they're younger but generally eventually grow up and follow their local team, he tries to justify his continued adult support with 'I've stuck with them through the bad times'

Moving to Castle Leazes wouldn't be the end of the world for me This is what I'm saying though, I find it hard to believe they'll go so far as saying We Want To Build On Leazes Park Or Castle Leazes without already having sorted it - I just don't see them making the mistake of going public then being beaten by the Fenham Grass Fanciers Brigade like what happened last time. If it's as imminent as they're making it sound, I would have thought that public consultation would already be done and out of the way but I just don't see how it could be done and kept quiet. The other scenario of course is that it's not actually that imminent

Could the council and freemen do it unilaterally without consulting on planning though? Wouldn't have thought so, but I might be wrong

I don't know, I just feel like if that was going to be the option and an announcement is 'imminent' then we would, one way or another, already know by now that they had been seriously considering it.

I'm not sure it always does, honestly

Do we not have to work on the basis that if Leazes Park or Castle Leazes was going to be the option then the consultation would already have been done? Find it hard to believe that they could keep it quiet, and equally hard to believe that they're going to announce their plan only to be potentially stymied by Ethel and Wilbur subsequently complaining about green spaces

Alnwick unexpectedly turned over Ryton and Crawcrook Albion today, scrappy game but took the goal well when the chance came. Looking comfortably mid table now. First home win which was starting to feel important.

In the financial environment we're in and where the amount of money involved is getting on for the value of a couple of proven decent performers or prospects it's surely not that surprising that some people aren't completely sold on this one. It's not like we're chasing somebody who's universally acknowledged as one of the finest centre halves ever to grace the league.

I know what Eddie's saying about elite players being a small pool to fish but honestly, last two bids just look a bit desperate and increasingly pathetic to me