Journal Live - Blog Central

What does The FA really stand for?

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 09:14:34 +0000

I'm afraid you're going to be subjected to another ranting monologue from me. If you want to picture me standing on a soap box, shaking my fist, be my guest. Unless you've been living under a box, you will know that the FA staggeringly took the decision NOT to punish Callum McManaman after his challenge on Massadio Haidara at the weekend on some weak technicality. Pathetic.

Assault at the DW

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:53:02 +0000

I haven't done one of these in a while. A combination of laziness and football being an incredibly mixed bag in recent months. You have the highs of last Thursday night, with a last second winner (literally) that had 45,000 people who would never normally tap their feet to Status Quo go absolutely crackers to it. Then you have the lows - where you watch one of your players blatantly assaulted by some two-bit clogger from Wigan Athletic.

Fat Man Football rip Cricket Club to shreds (not literally)

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 12:09:24 +0000

And so it was - the now annual football match between Gateshead Fell Cricket Club and Fat Man Football. What better way to run off that post-Christmas booze, turkey and mince pies than running around a wet 3G surface at Gateshead Stadium. It was a great day for all associated with Fat Man Football as they ran out comfortable 4-1 winners.

Victory

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 09:29:30 +0000

Relief. Probably the one word that was flying around the watering holes of NE1 on Saturday evening. It was 90 minutes of dross with one touch of glass that ultimately decided where the points were headed. The one disappoint was that I couldn't use my "genius" headline if we hadn't won - Ba Humbug. Clever eh?

Same old

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:26:34 +0000

I'm getting bored of writing about defeats. It's all I seem to do this season. I still can't work out how we have gone from Champions League contenders to relegation fodder over a summer period. We can point the finger at a lack of signings in the transfer window, but that doesn't really explain our huge fall from grace.

99 Problems

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:05:58 +0000

We never do well at Craven Cottage do we? I'm struggling to think of a win down there other than the one when Santiago Munez made an appearance in Goal. When we scored, I really felt we were going to get something as we were on the ascendancy in the second half. Alas, no.

Relief

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:44:50 +0000

Thank Shola for that - after a barren run (I'm all about understatements this morning) we finally put a win on the board after what feels like an eternity since we last picked up three points. West Brom wasn't it? I'm putting the win down to Shola's presence on the bench. Master tactician.

How do you solve a problem like NUFC?

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 11:22:11 +0000

What's gone wrong? What has happened to one of the most effective units in the league? This makes for depressing reading, so if you've already got the Monday Blues - look away now or cheer yourself up with a bit of Radiohead.

Rush of blood to the head

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 09:53:52 +0000

I've no idea what it is about Anfield. We always seem to crumble when we step onto that pitch. This was comfortably the worst Liverpool team I had ever seen, and we allowed them far too much time on the ball. We made them look a lot better than they actually are.

Marching on in Europe

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:05:12 +0000

It wasn't quite as comfortable as Bordeaux, but it was straight-forward enough in the end. The game was decided by a fine, fine goal from Obertan (fresh from filming the latest Argos ad) and some tremendous build up play from Ameobi Jnr.

So close

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:28:04 +0000

It's difficult to know how to sum up my feelings after the derby game at the weekend. Pre-match, I had the same train of thought that I have before every derby - "I'll take a draw". So you'd think that I'd be pretty chuffed to come away with a point, and maintain a pretty healthy record in their back yard.

Normal Service Resumes

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 15:30:44 +0000

Well it wasn't to be. As I arrived in town on Sunday, I amused myself by gawping at the coaches carrying "United" fans into our fair and noble city. In my short amble towards Pink Lane, I saw one from Surrey, two from Scotland and another from Cardiff. We stupidly got ideas above our station and some of us genuinely felt we could take something from this game - it was effectively over after 15 minutes.

Playing poorly but picking up points

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:15:11 +0000

The performance against Norwich will not go down in the field marked "vintage" - nor will it be remembered beyond this week I feel. However, the main thing is that we got three points on the board to take us onto eight after five games. Not bad really.

Relief

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:11:14 +0000

How long has it been since we last played? Feels like forever ago that we were royally tonked by Chelsea. I've kind of got that back to school feeling where you forget how to write after 6 weeks off - so expect this to make even less sense than it does normally. I might as well write in Klingon. If I knew what Klingon is. Some space nonsense....anyway...I digress.

Europa, Transfers and matches

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 11:40:47 +0000

It's been a strange week and a half or so. Depending on how you look at your glass, we've done well not to lose any of our proper players (TM Graeme Souness) or we've dropped an almighty clanger in not adding to our ranks this summer.