DUNSTON 1 EMLEY 0 *** NORTHERN PREMYAA LEEGUE SEMI FINAL PLAY OFF

 Posted ‘high noon 🕛 bells’ 🔔 Wedinzday 30th April 2025

“BAD BLUE BOYS BLISS!”

O'DONNELL TRYS A SPECTACULAR OWERHEED KICK THAT WENT OWER THE BAR!

The Geordie Times entourage⬅️(We naa aall the big words!)met up at The Tudor Rose 🌹 boozer in Dunston for a few liquid lubrications, before heeding to Dunston’s groond a 10 minute walk away!

Az we approached the groond, cars were parked in every available space on paths and grass verges, which meant that there would be a much larger crowd in attendance than usual!

We paid in and heeded straight for the clubhoose, but the queue for the bar woz nearly oot the door, so we opted for ‘the can bar’ where there woz nee queue!

We managed to find a place on the touchline to watch the proceedings!

The game kicked off and straight away Dunston went on the attack az they played towards the ‘Tea Hut End’

They had several chances to take the lead but went in aall square at the break!

Emley were a bit better in the 2nd period and the game woz too-and fro and anybody could win it!

The game woz played in warm sunny conditions and the crowd woz at least 3 times the size of a normal Leegue game!

The Bad Blue Boys of Dunston (named after The Bad Blue Boys ultras of Dinamo Zagreb) finally won it when Dan Turner hit a low shot from the edge of the box, which unsighted the Emley keeper, to score a spectacular winning goal in the 94th minute to progress to the play off final, against Stocksbridge Park Steels back at UTS Stadium on Saturday!

The vast majority of the ‘huge’ 900 plus crowd went wild with delight az the Emley players fell to the groond in dispair!

To lose the game that late when extra time woz looming woz cruel to say the least, but it woz exxxxtaseee for Dunston az the entire team includin   Dunston's rather large goalie Dan Lowson, who ran the full length of the pitch to mob the goal scorer near the far corner flag!

That’s futbaall for yoo!

   Joy and dispair at every level of the game!

A rather less than pristine team sheet! (This IZ The Geordie Times!—Wot did yoo expect?) 

Attendance: 903 (aboot 25 Emley fans)

PS: The final iz on Saturday at ‘3:00 🛎️s'!—And guess wot? I’m booked on the ‘3:00 🔔s' train to King’s Cross on Saturday for wor way to Brightin for The Toon’s Premyaa Leegue game at ‘2:00 🛎️s' on Sunday!—(Its ny on impossible to get there on Sunday for the kick off time by train) So unfortunately I won’t be there to see mee fave non leegue team in the biggest game in their history!—Sods law!😬

(Davy the Silver Fox will keep me informed az the train heeds for London)

There's another 'play off' game on Friday neet at Newcasil Blue Star, when they take on Blyth Toon in the Northern Leegue Division One play off final, for a place in the Northern Premyaa Leegue East Division! (The Leegue Dunston are tryin to win promotion from)

'The Geordie Times' will be there az well and a crowd approachin a 'breathtakin' 2,000 iz expected!

It's a '7:30 bells' kick off and if yoo are gannin it would be wise to buy a ticket online from the Blue Star website!---or yoo might not get in!

DUNSTON V EMLEY *** PLAY OFF SEMI FINAL TOONEET

 Posted ‘2:49pm bells 🔔 Tuezday 29th April 2025

With nee NUFC games through the week, we are off to Dunston who play Emley from Derbyshire for a place in The Northern Premyaa Leegue East Division play off final on Saturday!

The prize for winning the final iz a place in the Northern Premyaa Leegue, Premyaa Division—-3 divisions below the Futbaall Leegue!

It’s a tenner to get in for big kids, six quid for zimmerframeites and three quid for sprogs!

Kick off iz at ‘7:45 bells 🔔’ for the biggest game in Dunston’s 50 year history!—- Come alang and cheer the ‘blue boys’from Tyneside to victory!

We will dee a match report on the game sometime tomorrow!

APU “Watch this space!”

THE TOON 3 THE TRACTOR BOYS OF IPSWICH 0 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2024-2025

 Posted 'high noon bells' Sunday 27th April 2025

"BACK ON TRACK AGAINST THE TRACTOR BOYS!"

After wor horror show at Villa last Saturday, NUFC needed to boonce back against relegation certainteeez Ipswich!

'Steady Eddie' woz back in the dugoot after missin 3 games through illness to huge applause from the crowd!

The game kicked off and within 2 minutes a misplaced pass across the box from Dan Burn, foond Delap who shot just wide at The Gallowgate End----"Time to wake up lads!"

Bruno then 'scored' at The Leazes End but woz deemed to have fouled Palmer in the visitors goal and so it woz chalked off! (A very harsh decision!!)

Ipswich's Johnson then got a yellow card for divin' in the box!

Isak then sent a heeder ower the bar and then a back heel a minute later went ower the bar az well, az the half dragged on!

Johnson woz then send off in the 37th minute when he held onto Isak on the Miburn Stand wing--- hiz 2nd yellow card--and so they were doon to ten men! 

Sandro Tonali then hit the top of the right hand post, az we laid seige to the Tractor Boys goal and we wondered if it woz gannin to be one of those games!?

Az stoppage time approached Jacob Murpy woz fouled in the box, but the ref waved 'play on'!

VAR got involved and told him to gan to the monitor to have a 2nd look!---20 looks later! and he eventually pointed to the penalty spot to the relief of the crowd!

Alexander the Great (Isak) took the kick and put the baall to the right of the Ipswich keeper, who tried in vain to get hiz hands to the baall! (Isak's 22nd Premyaa Leegue goal of the season!)  HT 1-0 to us!

The 2nd half woz played aalmost entirely in the Gallowgate End of the pitch az we looked to improve wor goal difference!

It finally happened in the 56th minute when Tripper sent a pin-point cross from the Milburn Stand side of the pitch and Dan Burn woz on hand to heed home from very close range! 2-0 to us!

The thord and final goal came in the 80th minute, when 'super-sub' Osula heeded into the net from a Trippier corner from the Milburn Stand side! 3-0 to us!---final score!---and relegation finally conformed for Ipswich! (Sven Botman had come on in the 83rd minute, to huge applause from the Toon fans after lang torm absence through injury!)

The plus 3 goal difference cancelled oot the 4-1 defeat at Villa and this woz wor 6th win in 7 games, to propel The Toon back up to thord place in the table with a goal difference of plus 22, which could be pivotal in the race for the Champions Leegue, with just 4 game to gan!

Attendance: 52,171 (Includin an impressive 3,000 Tractor Boys in level 7 of The Leazes End! The vast majority stayed til the bitter end to applaud their team and vise versa!)

Footnote: It's a funny old game!

In wor last home game we hammered Palliss 5-0 and then went to Villa and were hammered 4-1

Villa then went to Wembley yesterday to play Palliss in the semi finals of the FA Cup and (aye yiv guessed it!) were hammered 3-0!

"STEADY EDDIE IZ BACK AND READY!"

 Posted ‘high noon 🔔 bells’ Friday 25th April 2025 🫅

News that Eddie Howe🫅haz recovered from pneumonia haz finally reached 'The Geordie Times' (one day late via carrier pigeon!🠟🕊)

This iz fantastic news for everybody connected with NUFC and iz a major boost for wor Champions Leegue aspirations! (Although Eddie said that he still wasn’t 100%)

We play Ipswich tomorrow afternooon in wor last Saturday game of the season and 3 points would propel us up to 3rd in the table and relegate Ipswich in the process!

We need to boonce back from the 4-1 defeat at Villa last Saturday and widen the gap between us and them to the 5 points gap we had between us before that defeat!

Villaa, Man Citih and Forest are aall in FA Cup semi final action this weekend, so this iz a great chance to cement wor place in the top 5 and a Champions Leegue place next season!

The Toon beat Ipswich 4-0 at their place, orlier in the season, but az we naa in futbaall, anything can happen if we are not 100% focused!🔭 Plus wor visitors havvint won on Tyneside for 40 years!🍌

A full 'Geordie Times' match report will appear here sometime on Sunday!

APU “Watch this space!”

PS: Wor U21s are in action tooneet v The Arse U21s in the Premer Leegue 2 play offs at Boreham Wood FC’s Meadow Park groond in London! It’s a ‘7 🛎️ bells’ kick off and entry iz FREE!

The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers’ have been here before and we have got the ‘T shirt’ , so we won’t be there tooneet! (We don’t gan to these games if we’ve been to the groond before!)

But if yoo just happen to be in the London area today, ‘get yourselz doon and support The Toon!’

THE CHAMPIONS LEEGUE RACE IZ ON!*** 5 HURDLES TO GAN!

Posted 'high noon bells'🕭St.Georges Day 23rd April 2025 🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎

Villa'z 2-1 defeat at Man City last neet gives NUFC the chance to restore the 5 point gap we had on them, before they beat us last Saturday, IF we can beat relegation certainties Ipswich Toon at SJP on Saturday afternooon!---Aalso with 3 of the chasin' pack includin Villa in FA Cup semi final action ower the weekend, it gives us the chance to move back to 3rd place in the Premyaa Leegue table with just 4 games to play after the Ipswich game!

Its squeaky bum time, folks!

NEWTON AYYYCLIFFE 0 DUNSTON BAD BLUE BOYS 1 *** NORTHERN PREMYAA LEEGUE EAST DIVISION!

Posted '8:30pm bells🕭' Tuezday 22nd April 2025

"PREMYAA, PREMYAA, HERE WE COME?"

This game woz billed az a '6 pointer' coz if Dunston won theyd be certain to finish 2nd in the table and have home advantage in both the semi final and Final of the play offs, if they made it that far!

Ayyycliffe on the other hand would be just a point behind if they won, with just one game to gan after this!----So it woz a 'winner takes aall' into the final weekend of the season in the leegue!

We started of at 'The Clav' club in Dunston and 15 of us were booked onto a mini bus to take us on the half hour jorney to the game at The Moor Lane Sports Club groond!

A 73 seater bus from 'Stanley Travel' then torned up?----The driver said he had to drop us off and then heed for Seaham to pick a bus load of SMBs up and take them to The SOS where the mackems were playin Bleakburn in The Championship!

Thoughts of puttin some chewin gum on the seats crossed wor minds, but az we didnt have any, it woz a non starter!

The 15 of us had at least 4 seats each for the jorney doon to deepest Coonty Durham for this Easter Munday fixture!

THE ENTRANCE TO THE CLUBHOOSE?—OR NOT AZ THE CASE MAY BE!

The clubhoose woz open at '11am bells' for this '1:00pm bells' kick off and vast quanities of ale were consumed before heedin for the groond, which woz a 3 minute walk past a cricket groond!

A bumper crowd woz expected, and we guessed that there were aboot 400 inside the groond at kick of time! (400 iz a bumper crowd in this leegue)

There woz a bit of confusion at the start az Dunston fan 'Davy the Silver Fox' thought that Ayyycliffe's colour were yellow shirts!   But the two team ran oot in aall blue and aall red strips?  Dunston normally play in blue and at forst sight we thought it woz them!----But NO we recognised a couple of Dunston players wearin RED az the teams lined up

THE BAD BLUE BOYS IN RED!

The home side started off the better az they attacked the right hand goal from wor standin' position in line with the penalty area!

Dunston foond their feet in the 9th minute when O'Donnell had a shot from distance but it woz easily saved by Pollard in the NA goal!

Then in the 32nd minute Clarkson missed a great chance to put the home side aheed!

Then in the 37th minute The Bad Blue Boys in RED had a great chance to take the lead instead through Pearson, but instead of shootin' he passed to O'Donnell, who woz fractionly offside! HT 0-0

It woz time to heed for somemore 'liquid lubrications' back in the clubhoose, before retornin' 10 minutes late into the 2nd half!   Still 0-0, so we thankfully haddint missed any goals! ("hic!")

The big BIG breaktrhough came in the 63rd minute when Dunston's Richie Coulson sent a cross into the box and David Robinson woz on hand to send a powerful heeder into the net with Pollard unable to stop it!

It woz then a case of defend, defend from the visitors and there woz a nailbitin' finish az NA tried in vain for the equaliser!

7 minutes off stoppage time woz played and eventually the ref blew for full time, az the 40 or so Dunston fans and commitee celebrated the great win!---A win that meenz ‘The Bad Blue Boys’ finish in 2nd position in the table and will have home advantage in the semi-final play off next Tuezday neet against a possibility of 4 teams, includin Newton Ayyycliffe again!

History woz made az this iz the highest position Dunston have ever finished in the pyramid system!

Promotion to the Northern Premyaa, Premyaa Division iz now a very real possibility!

SORRY ABOOT THE CRUMPLED TEAM SHEET, BUT THIS IZ THE GEORDIE TIMES—WOT DID YOO EXPECT?

The official attendance woz given az 514, double their normal home gate!---so we were just ower a hundred under in wor estimation!

We DID INDEED travel back to Tyneside in a mini bus, but not after several more celebratory 'liquid lubrications' back in the clubhoose!

'Fink' (the mad-sad groundhopper!)

 

“HELLO! GOODBYE!”

 Posted ‘high noon 🕛 🛎️bells’ Tuezday 22nd April 2025

Championship results on Easter 🐣 Munday meenz that both Leeedz and The Bornlee Hillbillies are promoted to The Premyaa Leegue, while Sooothampton, Lestaa and almost certainly Ipswich Toon are relegated to The Championship!

The final promotion place in the play-offs iz between The SMBs, The Smoggies, Bristol Citeee, Coventreee, Bleakburn Rovers and Millwaall

Great news if you’re a Toon traveller to replace 2 lang distance away travels (Soothampton and Ipswich (750 and 650 miles roond trips) by 2 fairly local ones! (Leedz and Bornleee(180 and 220 miles roond trips)

Wor prefered option in the play-offs iz Sheff U coz its not too far and we definaltly divvint want the mackems or Boro in the top flight!

And taakin aboot play-offs, mee fave non leegue team Dunston Bad Blue Boys won 1-0 at Newton Aycliffe yesterday and will finish in 2nd place in the Northern Premyaa Leegue East Division!

This gives Dunston home advantage in both the semi final and Final (if they get that far?)

A match report on that game at Aycliffe will be forthcomin', sometime tooneet!

Meenwhile Forest’s away win at Sporz last neet meenz NUFC drop to 4th place in The Premyaa Leegue—and tooneet to 5th place if Man City draw or beat Villa or if Villa win!

A draw iz wor prefered option for that game, az both clubs will then drop 2 points each!

THE HAZBEENZ AND VILLIANS 4-1 THE TOON *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2024-2025

Posted ‘high noon 'bells' on the train back Sunday 20th April 2025

*”TYPICAL TOON!”

TOON IN WHITE SHIRTS AND GREEN SHORTS

*It took Villa a mere 36 seconds to open the scorin when a Watkin’s shot took a wicked deflection off Schar, which wrong footed The Pope in the Toon goal and ended up in the back of the net!—1-0 to them!  The 2nd time this haz happened in Birmingham this year, az Birmingham City took the lead within a minute in wor FA Cup tie there in January! 

It woz ‘even steven’s’ after this and we equalised in the 18th minute when Fab Schar heeded in a Harvey Barnes cross with the Villa goalie unable to stop in crossin the goal line! 1-1

That’s the way it stayed til the break!

Something had to ‘give’ az NUFC were on a 6 game winnin streak, while Villa were unbeaten in 15 home games!— and so it did in the 2nd period!—but NOT in wor favour!

Watkins played a through baall to Maatsen, who raced into the box and hit a sweet cross from an angle, with The Pope unable to stop it entering the goal! 2-1 to them!

Worse woz to follow a few minutes later, when, within 2 minutes they struck twice!

A Ramsey cross woz inadvertently deflected into the net by Dan Burn and then Onana hit a shot from the edge of the box to complete the scorin! 4-1 to them!

Villa had aalso hit the goal frame 3 times, while NUFC hardly ventured into their half!

3 games in a week with the same startin’ line ups!

It’s typical of us to play brilliantly most of the time, but az any seasoned Toon fan knows, there’s aalways a bad result every now and again aroond the corner! (2-4 at Brentfaad, 1-4 v Bournemooth, 0-4 at Man City etc!)

Still! 20 wins oot of the last 25 in aall competitions isn’t bad at aall! (5-0 v Palliss, 4-1 v Moan U, 2-1 v the champions elect at Wembley etc!🏆)

At the time of writin this we are still 3rd in the table, but aall that could change in the next few days, with Champions Leegue rivals in action before we play ‘The Tractor Boys’ of Ipswich next Saturday at SJP!

Attendance: 42,618 (3,000 shell shocked Toon fans!)

*THE USUAL DRINKIN DEN STATS ARE AZ FOLLOWS:

5 drinkin dens this time, aall in Birmingham, 2 of which we have aalready visited this season!

RUNNIN TOTAL OF DIFFERENT DRINKIN DENS THIS SEASON NOW 85

THE SUN ON THE HILL

THE SUN IN THE HILL

THE WELLINGTON.  (VISITED PREVIOUSLY )

WETHERSPOONS 

85 BAR CAFE TRAVELODGE (VISITED PREVIOUSLY)

*”IT WOZ JUST LIKE A LAUREL & HARDY SKETCH!”

(The circle line!)

We stopped at the Travelodge Birmingham International on the outskirts of Birmingham on Saturday neet, coz it woz half the price of the city centre hotels!

We ordered a taxi for ‘8:30 bells 🔔’ on Sunday mornin’ to take us to Birmingham International train station (a 7-8 minute taxi ride from the hotel—£10 fare!) We got there in good time for the train to Birmingham New Street (a 10 minute jorney) and the plan woz to gan to the Greggs shop in New Street station and get a couple of bacon and egg sarnies each, az we were clammin, before catchin the 10:50am bell🔔s’ train back to The Toon!

However!—the train from Birmingham International woz CANCELLED at short notice and we would miss wor connection if we waited for the next one!

PANIC STATIONS!🥶

BUT! there woz an express bus to Birmingham and so we caught that instead—and guess what?—it actually went back the way we’d come in the taxi and past a bus stop near WOR HOTEL on the way to New Street station!!!—By the time the bus got there, we didn’t have time to gan to Greggs and had to make a mad dash for the train!🚂  

“How’s the bacon, 🥓 did you say!?”

“YI COULDN’T MAKE IT UP!”🙈

 

THE HAZBEENZ AND VILLIANS v THE TOON *** SATURDAY EVENIN'

 Posted '6:00pm bells'🔔 Good Friday 18th April 2025 

"5-4-3-2-1"

In NUFCs last 5 Premyaa Leegue games we have scored 5 v The Palliss-------4 v Moan U-------3 v Lestaa--------2 v Brentfaad---------1 v West 'am and now we face Villa----6 perhaps?---or perhaps not!

Thats 15 goals scored in 5 games and anly 2 conceded! and a maximum of 15 points oot of 15 picked up!

We really are flyin high in 3rd place in the table and the amazin' form of Kieran Trippier, Jacob Murphy and Harvey Barnes inparticular, haz  been a major reason for wor winnin sequence! (6 in a row in aall competitions)

IF we play like we did against The Palliss and Moan U, then we have a great chance of pullin clear of the chasin pack for the Champions Leegue target!

We expect an unchanged startin' line up yet again!---Aall 3,000 away digital tickets were sold oot lang ago!

This game iz definatly a '6 pointer', for IF we beat Villa who are in 7th place, we will gan 8 points clear of them, with 5 games to gan!---and with a far superior goal difference! Aalso we will move within a point of 'The Arse', az they divvint play Ipswich Toon away til Sunday!

7 TEAMS ARE LEFT IN CONTENTION FOR THE TOP 5 CHAMPIONS LEEGUE HOLY GRAIL PLACES!  LIVAAPOOL OF COURSE, ARE CERTAIN TO BE IN IT! WITH 'THE ARSE' HIGHLY LIKELY TO QUALIFY AZ WELL, LEAVIN' 3 PLACES FOR 5 TEAMS!

We are on an orly train 🚂 to Bormingham New Street tomorrow mornin', with plenty of time to dee a Bormingham pub crawl 🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 before the '5:30 bells' 🕭 kick off!

A Geordie Times match (and booze!) report will appear here sometime on Easter Sunday! APU, "Watch this space!"

*

THE TOON 5 THE PALLISS 0 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2024-2025

 Posted 'high noon bells' Thorzday 17th April 2025

“FIVE STAR ⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ PERFORMANCE!”

Last neet the forst half display woz probably the very best this season az we trounced The Palliss 4-0 by the half time break! The  absence of wor ‘leader’ ‘Steady Eddie Howe’ haz galvanised the team to perform to the highest level—a level we reached in a breathtaking forst half! (Both Jason Tindall and Graham Jones were in the home dugoot again!) 

From the word 'go' we were up for it az we attacked the Gallowgate goal in the forst period!---

The main events were az follows:

Palliss won the toss and made us kick towards the Gallowgate End in the forst half!—A decision that backfired badly for them! (For those of yoo who divvint naa---If NUFCs win the toss we aalways kick towards the Gallowgate in the SECOND half!)

We failed to capatolize within 30 seconds of the kick off when we should have taken the lead!

Jacob Murphy punts a wicked baall forward, but it’s just aheed of Isak and Bruno and the baall runs ower the goal line to safety!

14th minute: Jacob Murphy runs doon the wing and from a very tight angle hits a piledriver shot into the roof of the net with their goalie well beaten, (reminisent of Tonali's shot v Brentfaad at the Leazes End!) A brilliant goal that had the fans roarin in appreciation! (Jacob's 9th goal of the season!)

36th minute: 'The Pope' gans up to punch the baall and collides with Richards and after a very lang VAR check (at least 7 minutes!) the ref eventually makes hiz mind up, after seein the replay aboot 25 times and points to the spot!

Ebe Eze took the penalty and did one of those slow run ups and delayed kick to hit the baall weakly to Pope's right and wor keeper easily saved the shot, to roars louder than for Murphy's goal!

Just seconds later on instead of 1-1 it woz 2-0 to 'us', az Harvey Barnes ran doon the wing and crossed the baall---anly for Palliss's Guehi to deflect the baall into hiz own net!

Tonali then played Barnes through and he raced doon the pitch to plant a great shot past the advancin Henderson in the Palliss goal, to make it 3-0 in stoppage time! (Harvey's 4th goal in 3 games!)

Not lang after it woz 4-0 when 'Fab' Schar heeded into the net from a Murphy cross in the EIGHTH minute of forst half stoppage time! (The extra time added coz it took SO lang to give the penalty!)

There woz nee way back for the 'Croydon Boys' az their 900 fans high up in the Leazes End, watched on in horror! HT 4-0 to 'us'!

The scorin woz completed in the minute of the second half when, just before the hour mark, Joelinton won the baall off Laxence and it ended up at 'Alexander The Great's' feet (Isak) and he hit a precision shot into the corner of the Leazes net from 25 yards oot and past the Palliss goalie to make it 5-0! ('The Great's' 25th goal of the season!)

There were many chances to increase wor lead, but in the end wor goal difference woz boosted by 5 to add to the 4 v Moan U at the weekend, and sent us up the 3rd in The Premyaa Leegue table, above Forest and just 4 behind 2nd placed Arsenil! (Wor goal difference iz now +21!)

THE RACE FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEEGUE AND A TOP 5 FINISH, IZ ON!

Wor SIXTH win on the spin, includin' the Wembley triumph---can we make it 'Seven Heaven' at Villa on Saturday?

Much more to follow---keep readin updates thoughoot the day!

Attendance: 52,197 (just 900 'anti Saudi' away followers, who, in fairness, stopped til the bitter end!) (the claimed 5,000 'human rights' protesters, who would turn up, proved to be a total fantasy!)

*

THE TOON V THE HOLMESDALE HYPOCRITES OF PALLISS*** TOONEET!

 Posted ‘2:00pm bells’ Wedinzday 16th April 2025

THE LEAZES END STAND FROM LEAZES PARK LAKE!

Eddie Howe iz still in hospital suffering from Pneumonia and will miss tooneet and Saturday’s game at Villa!—Hopefully he will be back in the dugoot very soon and we aall wish him well!  Meenwhile Jason Tindall and Graham Jones will be in charge at both mentioned games!

We ‘Fink’ that the startin line up will be the same that thrashed Moan U 4-1 on Sunday to move us up to 4th in the Premyaa Leegue table!

This iz wor game in hand ower the rest of the chasin pack and a win against The Palliss who sit in 12th place, will move us up to 3rd above Forest —-and 4 points behind The Arse in 2nd place!

It won’t be easy of course az we feel that they will put up a better performance than the Moan U Muppets! 

NUFC are lookin for wor SIXTH win on the spin, includin the Leegue Cup triumph at Wembley, while Palliss lost 5-2 at Man City last week, after bein 2-0 up!

A full Geordie Times match report will appear here az per usual sometime tomorrow!

APU “Watch this space!”

373 joie stadium (v man c u21s)

 Ground number 373 (374 includin Motspur Park from ootside!)

Date of First Visited: 14th April 2025

Joie Stadium, Manchester

Manchester City U21s 4

Newcastle United U21s 0

Premier League 2

Attendance: 1,000 (estimated)

5 NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers

THE ETHIAD STADIUM IZ IN THE BACKGROOND BEHIND THE FAR CORNER

“EAST MANC MISERY TOUR!”

The jorney doon woz anxious to say the least, the other 3 in the car had bought digital tickets online, (Glennn from Ashington, Biffa the Beer and driver, Blondie Alan the Morris Dancer) and I HADDINT!—I tried in vain to buy one on mee ‘telling bone’ 📱 but their website said ticket sales for the match had ended! 🥶

The fear woz that I would be refused entry and have to watch on from the bridge across the road! —and when we got to the tornstiles aa nervously asked a steward if tickets were on sale!🙏🏻

“YES!” he said, “the tickets office is around the corner!” PANIC OVER! 🤪👍 🎫 

I bought a concession ticket for the princely sum of one poond and heeded back to the tornstiles!

Once inside we bumped into Byzy who had travelled doon from Ashington! That made 5 NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers in total!

The mini stadium which iz used by their U21s and women’s team looked really smart and had cover on aall sides, with light and dark blue seats in the 2 side stands and standin terracin behind both goals— not sure of the capacity, but it looked aroond aboot the 8,000 mark!?

THIS WOZ THE ANLY STAND OPEN!

It took the home side, who were top of the Leegue just 5 minutes to open the scorin, when a Muir cross hit defender Cathel Hefferman’s foot and deflected into his own goal!🙈

1-0 to them!🥶

A minute later we should have equalised when a Sean Neave shot beat their keeper, but woz cleared off the line by Pusey!

On the qwaataa of an hour mark Man City increased their lead when Oboavwodou⬅️(hope av spelttt that reet?) spun aroond in the box and hit a shot past Harrison in The Toon goal! 2-0 to them!🥶

It woz virtually one way traffic when in the 28th minute they scored another, when Heskey foond Mubama who raced through unchallenged to plant the baall into wor net once more! 3-0 to them and we hadn’t even played half an hour!🥶

More chances were missed and somehow wor U21s went in just 3-0 doon at the break!

The 2nd half started off a bit brighter for us az Garung Kuol missed the goal completely, when he should have scored!

THE FLOODLIGHT PYLONS BEYOND ARE LIGHTING THE ACADEMY PITCHES WHERE GAMES WERE BEING PLAYED!

‘The Blue Moonies’ then got their 4th goal in the 56th minute when Mubama scored hiz 2nd goal from just ootside the box with a great strike! 4-0!🥶

The bar woz then rattled by McAdoo, but mercifully there woz nee more scorin from them!

We were completly ootclassed and were very lucky not to concede double the final score!

So, for the 2nd time in 2 months NUFC lost 4-0 in the east side of Manchester! (Wor 1st team lost 4-0 at The Ethiad in February!)

That ‘surrender’ woz just ower the road from Man City’s mini stadium!

The Blue Moonies win meenz they are champions, whereas NUFC U21s ended in the 9th ‘play off place’ in the Premyaa Leegue 2 table, so the 4-0 hammerin woz predictable!

This woz actually the 4th groond within qwaataa of a mile that we have seen an NUFC team play on—-believe it or not?

1:The Ethiad Stadium, groond 234 (Then known az The City of Manchester Stadium)

2: Sports City, groond 243 to the north of The Ethiad Stadium

3: City of Football Academy Complex ‘pitch 8’ groond 317 to the south of The Joie Stadium

4: The Joie Stadium, groond 373 to the south of The Ethiad Stadium

Add Man City’s old Maine Road groond (1st visited in 1969) and old academy pitches next to it caalled Platt Lane, meenz that ‘The NUFC mad- sad groundhoppers’ have actually visited SIX different groonds in Manchester alone, to watch us play Man City’s 1st team, Resorves and U21s!

Can’t see that ever bein’ beaten!

The pre match gargels took place in The Grove, aboot a qwaataa of a mile from The Joie.

The landlady woz a Man City fan and she shook wor hands coz we beat Moan U 4-1 the day before!

We had to park the car even further away coz of parkin restrictions in the local streets! Aboot a mile and a half from the groond, believe it or not!?

“WE WOZ THERE!”“I GOT IN!”