Abacus

The response in that BBC article is pretty shocking, like. It starts off saying the EFL have full confidence in Wednesday's safety procedures, before stating; ... Bob Eastwood said blaming dangerous overcrowding was "premature". Speaking in front of MPs at a committee meeting about safety at football, Eastwood, the head of security operations at the English Football League (EFL), added: "The club have done a very quick debrief of their operation and have already instigated a number of measures in order to reduce some of the issues that caused some concerns for some fans, which didn't amount to overcrowding At this moment in time I think it's a little premature to agree with media and social media reports that there was overcrowding." I wasn't there and don't much care about Wednesday one way or the other (quite liked them with Waddle in fact so no axe to grind), but that response makes no sense. 1. We have no concerns. 2. Let's not be premature about having any concerns before we've had a full investigation. How can points 1 and 2 be squared? 3. Ahead of a full investigation, the club have done a very quick debrief. 4. There are already a number of new measures in place as a result of that Why put in new measures as a result if there was nothing wrong to start with? Why conclude there are no issues on the basis of a quick 'debrief' - is that not also premature? In fact, does it not suggest that "some fans" had a legitimate point? Also, "some of the issues", "some of the concerns"? That's infuriating. So, they acknowledge they haven't even addressed all the points in their "quick debrief", despite already apparently making several changes that presumably weren't even needed. And why say that this "didn't amount to overcrowding" definitively - before you've checked properly? Is that not totally premature? Whereas people's real experience that there was overcrowding in real time is dismissed as being exactly that? I know which response is more potentially dangerous. Any Wednesday fans using that to reflexively defend their club need to give their heads a shake, because whether there was overcrowding or not, that explanation is nonsense.

Can't imagine he'd have given too much thought to the "what if" scenario for a ridiculous bid for Chris Wood, though. It probably features a unicorn, father Christmas and a leprechaun.

Light show What they need is one of these.

£30m for Madueke to Chelsea. Trolley dash Todd has now spent nearly £450m since taking over there, I get the feeling this will end in tears. But a word of warning, be careful if you go out to play 5 a-side this weekend in case you end up at Chelsea.

What a let down! I really wanted to see what a mess they were going to make of it, would have been peak Sunderland, to start with a crap idea and then encrappen it.

I see there's a new thread, worrying that in February there's a Newcastle game being televised at the same time as Sunderland. He excitedly speculates that there might be 'bother' in pubs in 'mixed' areas (a rare admission that everywhere outside The Strawberry isn't actually 99% Sunderland then). Very much looking forward to their Mag In The Pub tales if it happens.

I wonder why Leeds have generated more and come in above us? It was an interesting point that Darren Eales (I think it was him) made about there being no race to sign huge new commercial / sponsorship deals, since there was already huge potential to grow existing revenues. I guess this confirms it. I guess it goes all the way back to when Ashley was praised in the press for the 10 year season ticket price freeze. It had me worried then, because it seemed to me that it was also committing to a 10 year ambition freeze. I wouldn't have actually minded a small increase each year, just to keep the club's spending level with inflation. Though, I didn't know how bad it would get.

Or Joey Barton

Thought you should have won it - it was one of those scratchy games where you're on top and you just need to see through, but that was a hell of a free kick. Even though I thought Casemiro should have been sent off, I can't deny he's excellent and has made a huge difference to your team.

My point is, being off the ground means he's out of control. At that point, being studs up makes it a red whether he makes contact or not. Put another way, if a red was given, I don't see VAR overturning it.

Off the ground, studs up, no attempt to play the ball. Should have been a red.

A good professional, not a bad word to say about him personally and hope it works out. Those goals last season were critical, and he's a nerveless penalty taker, even if it didn't really click with him here. In the future, you can't see him being much more than a defensive / injury sub for us, just as he was used during the Arsenal game - so probably best for all concerned. In which case, I take it all back and all hail Shola, hi-ho the loan-arranger!

Not born in the North East or even interested in football, till I moved to Newcastle as a kid. And then, football was everywhere and something you couldn't avoid even if you wanted to. Pretty sure I'm not a glory hunter though, since I was going to matches under Smith and Ardiles. And then of course Keegan arrived and before long I couldn't get a ticket anyway. I only rejoined as a season ticket holder much later under the Ashley years, worse luck. But once you support a club, I think you're locked in through good and bad. Having moved around the country for many years in between, I do think different cities support their teams very differently. Here, football is the whole rhythm of the city - everyone knows when we play, if you want an easy conversation, everyone will have an opinion. In a lot of other cities, it's just a pastime/ distraction. Sure, there are lots of fans no different to us everywhere. But equally, I remember starting up plenty of conversations in pubs or in taxis elsewhere where plenty of people had no idea about or no interest in their local team. No problem with that at all and some people might think that's healthy, but having grown up here it just felt alien to me. It's much more all consuming in this part of the world, I think. Having been away with work for a number of years and used to not really talking about football, when I moved back, I got off at central station and straight into a taxi. The first thing the cabbie said was "What about that xxxx ref, eh?", and straight away you know you're back home.

Brought in Joelinton too. Well, according to him at the time it was his choice, even though it very clearly wasn't to anyone with eyes as he didn't know anything about him at all, including how to play him. So imagine trying to claim credit for any successful transfers now. Because he had no say in transfers at all, that's even what some of his defenders in the press said as well. And we know this to be true, because otherwise there'd be no Joelinton and Hamza Choudhury would be in midfield instead. We only got Wilson because of his injury record. Ashley would never pay full price for anything, hence us hunting around the bargain bins, to unearth the occasional gem by accident. Also, his claims of going to war with Ashley? I assume he now says this because he knows he's hated as a quisling. But nope, not having that. This pretend Newcastle-fan lickspittle was told exactly what it would be like by his pal Shearer before he joined and he did it anyway. And of course Ashley loved him compared to his predecessor for not rocking the boat - hence his ridiculous contract. He never once raised a word against Ashley in his time here - even Pardew did with his comment that Ashley didn't understand football. His attempts to rewrite history are comically inept, just like his management was. Literally my most hated manager in living memory and he forever will be for his abysmal conduct both during and since his time here.

Haha, I'm obviously now going to claim the "and" in my sentence was very important. I.e. in the play off spots and 3-0 up tonight. Yep, think I got away with that.

Very poor from Wolves. Time wasting from Liverpool too with a player jumping back onto the pitch to be injured, surely not? Not sure it was needed, time seems to have slowed during this game anyway.

West Brom currently 3-0 up and in the play off spots. What on earth can have brought such a turnaround?

It's hard to disagree with his basic point that if only Sunderland had been Newcastle instead it would have been much better. And that if Newcastle had in fact been Sunderland, Newcastle would have been much worse. Since the boot would then be squarely on the other foot, I'd concede.

Weren't we already looking for a midfielder once Shelvey got injured? Maybe I imagined that. Definitely need someone else creative in the middle in the squad and we probably already did even before this, as hard to replace as he is.

Get in! That co-commentator virtually crying he's so unhappy

You're not responsible for RTG or every Sunderland fan's behaviour I know Teddy. But on their 'bother' thread here's this about their teenage hooligans; They split into two groups surrounded some Swansea lads who had been chanting stuff about Adam Johnson ... They’re young and on their Todd could get knocked over by a feather but they’re game, organised and a mob. Much more dangerous than the crew that had Deer stalker hats and hung around the Roker Pie shop back in ‘84. Love the detail about some Roker Pie shop hat wearing idiots from 40 years ago But the stupid thing is, by glorifying it in this way they encourage it. We'll equally have knackers that love this stuff don't get me wrong, as does every club. And yeah, championship refs were routinely dreadful when we were there. Not really sure what you do about it, though. It's not like they were biased, they were just rubbish.

Was chatting to an Everton fan the other day who was keen to bring Allardyce back. Not heard his name mentioned in a while, so presume he's properly retired (unlike Brucie)? Fine, that's a sample size of 1 fan, but it seems to be only them and the real mackems that would want him back.

BBC Final score was staying what an amazing job Corberan had done at West Brom, getting them into the play off spots with 9 wins out of his 11 games. No mention of the disaster-bag who had won something like 2 games out of about 15 before that, with the exact same squad. The most important English manager of the last ... 100 years!

Absolute joke ?

Yea but we were away then, against the league leaders having massively over-performed and it seemed that everyone outside Newcastle spat their dummy out about it. A few years ago, we set up to defend and block at home to pinch a point vs City, when were genuinely a relegation candidate under Rafa and City were in their pomp. Nothing but criticism. In this match, City have just had a bit of a wobble and Man U, at home, with multiple times money in the playing squad, were being praised for sitting back and doing very little.