Hovagod

Middlesbrough on the first midweek was pretty special.

Unless I’ve missed it, it’s interesting that no games from 95/96 have been mentioned. Is that season All Pain in our minds now?

Yeah, on sky. Hughes got the first I seem to remember. And you’re right about Dyer’s- it was a beauty.

Away wasn’t it?

Few mentions of the 4-3 at Leeds. The 3-0 there the year after was also superb. We truly felt like one of the big boys that day. Utterly dominant. I loved the game when we beat them 3-1 at home and Mills got sent off too.

Yeah, that's the one, Saturday evening

An obscure one I suppose, and not exactly my favourite, but after a fucking awful summer in 2009, shola scoring a well worked third against Sheffield Wednesday. I specifically remember a woman lifting her kid up in the front row to celebrate. It was such a wholesome image and the whole mood seemed to have lifted as we realised it might be a piss easy league after all.

If anything they should be rewarded

Newcastle played at Ewood very close to the end of the season. May Day I think. Blackburn were visibly nervous and we should have won, but they scraped a 1-0. Some bloke called Shearer scored their goal

Yeah, which was pretty terrible in fairness

Think Jones deserves a bit of credit. People forget that we had basically written off the games against Palace and certainly Brighton, who were going great at the time

A little early for that, no?

They are truly awful

Was in the home end that day. Realising their late equaliser had been disallowed before they had was the type of moment that reminds you why you bother with football. I got to tell them, and of course made a big show of being as gutted as they were

They would also be a new club, which is always nice until November, at which point it becomes boring.

I think I said yesterday that sky stuck with it too, seemed to stay with the lap of honour for a long time. Haven’t really noticed them do that before, looks like they’re buying into things. A good Newcastle United is good for them too I suppose

Yeah, you get the perks of Sunderland- nearby- without the stress of being really that arsed if we get beat against them. It can’t just be me that has never met a single of their fans. Would be quite happy to see them promoted.

Yeah, very happy about that. Hope she enjoyed it

I had sky today but only the pictures. Was there any particular reason they showed him afterwards for what seemed a long time? Kept expecting them to cut away. Is it just because of how lush and mint he is?

Love when companies that exploit and profit from addiction act like we’re all great mates on social media.

Just me completely okay with this now? I’m even looking forward to watching them toil in the Championship. The trajectories of both clubs are just so far removed from the other now.

I was in London- was it the hottest day of the year? As a show of how disconnected I was, I saw the news on the BBC website. As well as the horrible sting of disappointment there was also, as the day went on, something like relief that I could take that news like a bullet before moving on with the rest of the day spent with my mam and brother. I was out.

Good.

Imagine how excited we will all be going into the start of the season in August. Will be Coventry ‘95 levels of anticipation.

What did he say?