Jonas

Better looking teams with better records at this point have collapsed before now, so its not inplausible for those suggesting that it is/isn't though I don't expect it to happen in the slightest, the league is just too turgid now. Norwich and Boro's collapses in the mid 90s (Boro from 2nd) e.g. but you didn't have half a league of settling seat fillers back then.

Every job Souness had away from having 10x more money than the rest of the entire league combined in Scotland seemed to be difficult for him for some reason especially at places where he inherited strong situations like Liverpool, Benfica, Galatasaray and here. Got scammed into giving some nobody game time at Southampton because he claimed to be George Weah's cousin (like that was a qualification anyway), thought Brian Deane the sort of player Benfica should be signing and fell out with multiple player along the way. Always extenuating circumstances though, was never his fault

Tried doing a list of this ages ago but got a bit bogged down listing and placing every half decent goal for a top 100//1000. Wondering if some okay goal in 91/92 was better or worse than some okay goal in 97/98. Found the doc, the sort of thing I mean - the bottom four entries were: Carl Cort Newcastle v West Ham 00/01 (Solano cross) Alan Shearer Chelsea v Newcastle 96/97 Robbie Elliott Newcastle v Coventry 96/97 Rob McDonald Watford v Newcastle 88/89 Simod Shearer v Everton was top. Cisse at Chelsea inserted into second as its the only goal since 03/04 noted.

That end (terrace and seats) was gnarly as f**k and there was tension in the air that afternoon. If we didn't take so many away I'd not have fancied it. We were in the seats on the side (front row) and I remember their mascot going around and throwing walkers crisps into the stands but phoning it in passing the Newcastle sections, got some stick for it and started giving some out only for most to get hurled straight back at it. And coming out the ground with our fans in the terrace behind the goal chanting at us "rip the seats ouit for the lads". Nice homages to the previous seasons game.

Werid, same here - its a memory of mine that at the height of KK era mania, season ticket, most away games (going to Norwich in a few days), having just recieved one of our keepers shirts for Christmas, me and two mates (also Newcatle fans) were in the local mall and heard commentary coming from Clarks shoe shop as we passed, looked at each other and said "are we playing today!?" What a game to miss though. Was great in a way, 22 team PL and a deluge of games over Christmas different days and start times that you coud lose track. Match of the Day the following day covering it all felt epic.

From the opposite end of that scale I remember singing that (and just about the first time hearing it too) before Boro at their place in the League Cup in 92 and being 12 and in the middle of a 13 league game and two cup ties winning streak, wondered if maybe it might be true.

2 Champions League qualifiations and a cup win is better than 1 (about to be 2) Champions League Qualifications and no cup win. The folk that have been using them as a stick to beat us with for years would be exactly the same if they were Villa fans about us. In that greener grass their fans were morose about their prospects a few months ago, how it was all over for them at the top, how PSR had done them in how they were back to being the same old Villa.

Got a fireworks display out of that though, apart from qualifying for the Champions League twice and winning a cup, what have this lot done in the last 3year since buying some scorched earth from Ashley.

Said yonks ago, maybe even day one, that it would be like 97/98 - partly inspired by likening the Shearer/Isak situations hampering us. The league would be pointless and the cups would be relief. The regular punchless attacking performances weren't predicted but just add emphasis

My problem is that I can fully believe we lost to the point of annoying predictability. This is a typical standard performance and how we've played nearly every game this season especially away from home. They're at least no worse than us so losing was the natural outcome. I think most of us will have strongly suspected that was that once they scored which is new for us and highlights the obvious problem.

Best anybody's really said of him is "his best game so far" or "wasn't bad today" He's probably averaging around 5.5 which is pretty bollocks really. Like I said, Brian Kerr territory.

We eeked late but deserved victories against Fulham twice for example, but it was the same story.

Best manager for the job. Someone that can provenly elevate a team beyond their means into Champions League places, cup finals and cup wins. That's all we've got and all were allowed to have. All anybody else could do is hope to achieve the same so why bother with the upheaval.

Yep, Elanga gets the attention because there's more risk and room for error given his game and position. But man alive what has this guy actually got or done? You could have got these sorts of performances out of a youth player that's never going to make it but can fill in without being totally out of his depth for a few games. Brian Kerr.

I think its the same at home really, labour to score we just manage to force enough to cover for it but it takes ys a lot of effort pressure and time to do what takes teams very little to do unto us.

Completely standard performance. Neither good nor bad, just meh, if this league season was a player it'd be Christian Bassedas. "Powderpuff" as the bloke next to me back then used to mutter. Clear all season that we have an extremely blunt cutting edge. Its like missing Shearer for the first part of 97/98 and ploughing on with a striker, anything goals that do come feel like a bonus rather than inevitable. Special thanks football powers that be, that was by far the shittest boxing days football since I got into football rounded off by a poor game in a non-atmosphere between the teams/clubs that typically produce something this time of year and without financial restraints probably would have again.

From the people who brought you "I miss the derbies"

The Don Bradman theory. The worse players/teams have got better and the better teams/players worse. Except in regards to international football with far more teams now and all of them weaker than they were and many basically cannon fodder where once it was just Malta and Luxembourg.

No Adebayor/Speedie incident at Anfield then

Felt uneasy about the fee pretty quickly and that was when we were desperate, from this perspective it seems mad to even consider it. Wolves were never going to get a better offer but weren't to know he wasn't the difference between staying up and going down.

Since you mention it played for Newcastle bairns (Scored for us against Stoke in 1990) and coached at Sunderland. Played with and against ex-pros. Nut-megged FA Cup winners. You can get tackled from anywhere and not even see a challenge coming, e.g. whilst lining up a pass or shot to know whilst you're tumbling to the ground whether it was a foul or not, whether the player grazed the ball enough to get away with it. If someone bundles you over anywhere would you know how the action looked from a third person perspective?

If he got the ball he got it with his calf whilst not even looking at the ball (by accident effectively). The rest of the leg must somehow manage to not impede the forward despite that being a traditional way of tripping someone up.

A player wont always know if the ball has been taken or the challenge has been clean - in the same way that players genuinely call for fouls from legal challenges.

Playing the ball or not has to be the key factor in a challenge like that and it doesn't deviate in the slightest in fact, where the non-touch occurred is when the ball runs its most smoothly and if its "shoulder to shoulder" is the hooking with leg for good measure just ignored or seen as a legit action.