magvicar

They certainly won't forget this. It's going to happen, I can feel it in my bones.

I have absolutely no worries about the Sunderland game. I absolutely and honestly believe we will get the job done with relative ease. Why do I think this? Because when we get drawn against lower opposition we tend to struggle because we take the games far too easy and appear to think we only have to turn up. Added to that is the minnow team's die for the cause attitude. This game will be different for us because we will be going there fully focused and under no illusions because the local lads will absolutely spell it all out for the rest. They know the minnow team (Sunderland) will die for the cause just like all the other minnows but Goliath (Newcastle United) will slay little David (Sunderland) when David (Sunderland) realises a tiny pebble in his sling will simply bounce off Goliath and the return swat of Goliath's will put David to sleep for good. The result will be Sunderland 1 Newcastle United 7. End of story. Save this post and see if I'm right.

In Eddie I trust.

I never had an issue with Alan Pardew. I think he did a fairly decent job for us and had his hands tied after finishing 5th.

I can't stand people that talk over each other. It spoils any decent conversation.

I think Dubravka has to be given time. It's a gamble but it's one where we have little choice unless we opt for Karius who is also just as much a gamble. We can't do anything till January anyway so we just have to hope Dubravka finds his form and our defence gets back to brass tacks. De Gea in January would be fine as a stop gap but I hate his wages and would hope the club don't bow down to that kind of ask. I think we can assume Pope's out for the season and I'd rather he was just so he can fully heal and recuperate. Anyway only a loan keeper would suffice for me, whoever that may be because I don;t want a top keeper here who would oust Pope whist Pope still has a contract with us.

Let's be clear. We got beat by mistakes which can happen to any team. We've lost to an Everton team that are focused on battling like hell for each other. We've had some great results with the same team and a very inexperienced bench, in the main, not to mention 26 goalkeepers. Sometimes this kind of result offers up another kick up the arse to focus for the entire game. Dubravka coming in is a big change for the players and he's looked ring rusty. Everton's crowd won the day along with their hyped up team. Anthony Gordon tried to quieten them but ended up a bit rattled. Not too many players had a good game. Miley and Joelinton did fairly well. I think Miley was my man of the match for us. We're going to lose more games and draw more as well as win a fair few. We'll just have to wait and see if we get the rub of the green with comeback injuries and January team fillers to carry us to the end. Keep the faith and put that game on the back burner where it belongs.

I think loan deals would be the way to go in January, unless we have one major player identified on a permanent.

Gareth Bale. Galen.

Strange sacking with Bristol Rovers being close to the play offs when you take their two games in hand. Or has he done something bad at the club?

Fabian Schar for me has been pound for pound the best signing this club has made. He only cost us about 3 million.

Most are just a bunch of hypocrites but to be honest, most people are in all walks of life.

I'm sure the key players may get some game time but I think that'll depend on their physical state for the game and for the games after. There's a lot of tough games to play and the squad will have to be carefully considered as far as I'm concerned. But as you say we can agree to disagree and it's all about opinions and none of us has a crystal ball.

I'm not suggesting he will play a second string. As I explained before, the players coming back from injury are far from second string. The days of second string players in terms of woeful weakening are over with. We have two teams of quality and I believe some of those playing all the games up until that game , will be rested and the team Eddie puts out will be far from weak and more than capable of putting Sunderland to bed, quite comfortably, assuming they're not complacent, which I doubt.

I'll hazard a guess on Paul Heckingbottom.

I understand Howe hasn't sampled a north east derby and I'm sure he will field a strong enough team, but I'd be surprised if he puts out a starting line up similar to what he's using right now. And I also don't expect him to field a second string, as such, because we do have a lot of quality to come back and when they do, they'll be fresh. Botman?, Krafth, Dummett, Hall, Burn? Ritchie, Longstaff, Miley, Anderson, Willock? Barnes, Jacob Murphy, Wilson. There's a full team and all are fairly regular and only a few are classed as second string. Then you have Alex Murphy, Ben Parkinson, and a good few up and coming young kids for the bench. I certainly wouldn't call that a weak set up. Can you imagine of we fielded the team we see and so many get battered about from over zealous Sunderland players wanting a scalp and we end up with key players injured just for the sake of this game, regardless of it being a derby? Many managers might play their entire key players in this situation but I think Eddie Howe's a more measured manager. We will see. I'd rather he changed a lot and rested key players and if we got beat I wouldn't be critical unless the players didn't try, which I doubt will happen.

Robert Madley, I think.

It is when you have much more bigger fish to fry for those regulars. I'd rather not risk injury or extra burn out to key players if we can field a strong enough back up, which we will be able to by the time of the game, hopefully.

I think this game will be Eddie Howe's opportunity to fill the team with Geordies and young up and coming players, along with a few well seasoned and fresh quality players who are injury recovered who will be well up for it and well capable of doing a job.. Eddie Howe's not silly and he knows what it means to Newcastle fans and the entire city. He also knows he can use the game to rest key players who may end up on the end of a few well aimed kicks from over zealous Sunderland players, likely wanting a scalp. I personally think we will absolutely bulldoze them. It'll be interesting to see what they come up with, with banners and chants and whatnot.

Anthony Gordon terrifies defenders. The lad is absolutely class and his engine is fantastic.

He's not built for speed. His game play makes up for anything he lacks in the pace department.

The difference between us scoring 3 or 4 last night was Maguire and Shaw, plus Onana. The rest were basically bulldozed into submission. If this game was a boxing match the ref would've stopped it in the 3rd round. It's not that Man Utd are not a quality team, it's a case of a quality team being made almost irrelevant by another quality team (Newcastle United, obviously) who just won't back down and who puts them to the sword. I bet Maguire and Shaw had some choice words to say in that dressing room at full time.

I'm sure Dubravka will have learned a lot from Pope, being in training with him with regularity. I have little worries with Dubs. It's obviously never ideal when anything like this happens but this shows the strength we do have in terms of players busting their guts to stay relevant.

Cracking post.

Definitely the Liverpool games by a country mile.