Ground number 381 (382 including Motspur Park, Fulham from ootside)
Date of First Visit: 12th August 2026
Murrayfield, Edinburgh, Scotland
Everton 3
Newcastle United 1 (Harvey Barnes)
Attendance: 22,982 (At least 10,000 NUFC fans and less than 5,000 Everton fans)
Friendly fixture
“AN ECLIPSING NON EVENT!”
Another new groond to add to the list and the 3rd one in Edinburgh, alang with Easter Road (Hibs) and Tynecastle Park (Hearts)!
We caught the 11:12 bells train from 'The Central' (station) and arrived in the Scottish capital one and a qwaataa hours later!
We then had to wait for a number 1 bus on Princes Street for half an hour to take us to the west end of Edinburgh for the pre match 'gargels', which took another half an hour! (Nearly az lang az the 120 mile train jorney!)
The forst 'port o call' woz ⬆️ The Corstorphine Inn where we partook in a couple of pints of 'Twisted Thistle' booze,
before heedin to 'The Terrace', ⬇️ not far from the tram stop to take us to Murrayfield!
The tram jorney took less than 10 minutes and there were large queues to get in the Toon end---and we soon foond oot why!
When we got to the tornstiles 'Blokey', had wor 4 tickets on hiz telling bone and when he tried to scan them the phone wouldnt connect and there woz a circle on the screen that just went roond and roond---In other words it wouldnt doonload wor tickets to get in!---Panic stations!!!!---Eventually the gadgy on the turnstile saw wor problem and eventually let us through, ððŧ az we'd tried for 10 minutes with nee success, az the queue grew longer behind us! (Modern technology?---Bring back paper tickets and you wouldnt have this problem!--Thats wot I say!)
Anyway, we just made it for the '5:15 bells' start and foond wor seats behind the goal! It had cost us a mind bogglin £65.40 includin £10 bookin fee and admin fee from Ticketmaster, az we bought the tickets when they forst went on sale, with nee consessions for oldies, like us!----Dynamic pricing then came in coz the tickets wornt sellin and they eventually dropped to £25 for the same section of seats!---In other words, if we'd waited, we could have saved £40 each! (For Ticketmaster read RIPOFFmaster!)
The top decks of aall of the stands were completly empty (suprize!--suprize!) so the crowd woz well under half of the 67,000 capacity for Scottish rugby internationals! At least 10,000 plus were NUFC fans and 5,000 or so were Evaatin fans behind the far goal! (The crowd woz later given az 22,000, meanin that it woz in fact anly one third full!)
The game kicked off az The Toon attacked the 'Evaatin end' wearin wor horrible new lilic thord kit (Nearly az bad az wor 'liquorice allsorts' home strip)
Yoane Wissa had a couple of chances orly on when he tried to lob ower Evaatin keeper Travers and then had a shot that skied the bar!
Anthony Elanga then had a shot on target, but Travers saved it---The anly time in this half that we actually did so!
WE never looked like gettin a goal back and it woz still 2-0 to them at the break!
New manager Matt Jaissle then took aall 10 outfield players off and replaced them with 10 new ones for start of the 2nd half!---With anly goalie Hornicek retain hiz place for the restart! (see below)
It made nee difference at aall, az we struggled to get oot of wor own half az Evaatin went for a 3rd goal!---It came in the 74th minute when George sent a shot which went just inside the post, to give wor goalie nee chance!
A consulation 'tap in' goal by Harvey Barnes came in the 85th minute from a Jacob Murphy cross, but nearly half of the 10,000 plus Toon fans had departed after Evaatin's 3rd goal and never saw it!
Near the end on a very hot summers day with the sun shinin brightly in the evenin sky, it got dark aall of a sudden (see pictures) when there woz a 90% eclipse of the Sun, by the Moon!
And on the pitch 'The Toffee Noses' had completly 'eclipsed us' az the game came to a dark ending, in more ways than one! (sic!)---Play like this against The Liverbirds and Spursy in wor forst 2 Premyaa Leegue games and there will be anly one outcome!--And it won't be 6 points!
NUFC need at least 4 new players before the proper season starts, or else we will be in BIG trouble!
We heeded back to Waverley station to catch the train yem, but not before the final ‘port o call’ just ootside the station to drown wor sorrows!
It woz then homeward bound with a vodka and coke in forst class to while the time away az we crossed the border back into England!
