MOAN U U23s v THE TOON U23s *** TOMORROW NEET IN LEIGH!

Posted '12:52pm bells' Thorsday 9th January 2020

A POSTER FROM THE BLEAKBORN GAME IN 2011

Before wor forst team game v Wolves away on Saturday, wor U23s have a game at Leigh Sports Village, in deepest Lancashire, where we are takin on Moan U U23s.
The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers have been here before in 2011, when we played Bleakborn Rovers resorves, who were the resident home club back then!
Leigh RLFC aalso play here!

A Geordie Times match report on that game nearly 9 years ago iz printed below!

278 leigh sports village stadium blackburn

(GROUND NUMBER 278)
DATE OF FIRST VISIT: 11^th APRIL 2011
LEIGH SPORTS VILLAGE STADIUM, LEIGH


BLACKBURN ROVERS RESERVES 4
NEWCASTLE UNITED RESERVES 4 (Phil Airey(2)(1pen), Ryan McDonald, James Perch)


FA PREMIER RESERVE LEAGUE
ATTENDANCE: 416 (at least 150 Toon fans)




"WOT'S THE SCORE---LIKE!?"

The 'batmobile' left Tyneside at 'one thorty bells' with meesel and 'The Caped Crusader' on board and wor forst 'port o' caall' was 'The Farmhoose' boozer at 'Middleton St George' near Darlo to pick 'Alex of St George' up. After a 'swift gargel' in 'The Farm' to lubricate wor tonsils!, (Er!-not! 'The Caped Crusader'---he waz drivin'!) it was off to the 'A64' slip road on the 'A1' to pick 'Dave from York' up to complete the 'fab foursome'?


Thankfully this game wasn't behind closed doors like the resorve game at Great Barr six days orlier against West Brom, so we didn't have to mek 'prior arrangements' to get into this one (see ground 277 )
On wor way ower the 'M62' Alex spotted seven tower blocks in a town on the right hand side of the motorway and asked where it was. "Rochdale!" aa replied as we sped past at 90 mph.
Dave then butted in!----"I once had a weeks holiday in Rochdale when I was 17!", he said, as a deathly hush desended ower the car.
"ROCHDALE!"---we aaall said in unison after a short interlude!—and then he explained?
"A mate of mine back then (many many many moons ago!) had an auntie who lived in Rochdale and as he was gannin' to visit hor for a week, he asked me to gan to keep him company and so I did!"



"Wish you were here!?"

Nuw divvint get me wrang!---a'v never ever been to Rochdale in mee 'natch' and I'm sure it's a very nice place? , (or NOT as the case may be!) and aa must have past it a thoosand times travellin' back and forth across the M62 through work and futbaall--- BUT!--- to ADMIT! gannin' there for a WEEKS HOLIDAY???
(A message to 'Dave from York'!---you should never had told me this!---now 5,352 people (last coont on the page views) in 84 countries across the globe from Rochdale to Reykjavik and Rawalpindi to Rio, naa aboot this, through 'The Geordie Times' and I naa a 'very good' psychiatrist if you need one, who does a 'great line' in straight jackets!)


ANYWAY!---enough of that!---we sped on to Leigh and after getting' lost a couple of times (aa was the navigator!) we eventually foond the groond by followin' the signs to 'Leigh Sports Village' (would you believe!?)
After parkin' up we made for the ticket office where we purchased wor 'prized bits of paper'? and made for 'The Legends Bar' which was built into the back of the main stand and it opened at '5 bells' which was good timin' by us as we arrived just as they were aboot to open the doors!


Dave (now known az 'The Rochdale Cowboy'!) asked for fower pints of Tetley's Bitter as there was a notice pinned to the waall which said that there was a 'four pints for three' offer. The barman said that the notice shud have been taken doon as this was a 'happy hour' price but promised us that we would get that deal as long as we stopped there. He then took the notice off the wall so nebody else could get the same 'deal'!
("cheers mate!")
The fact was that it was virtually desorted outside until an hour before the desegnated kick off @ '7 bells' when, forst, 'Glennn from Ashington' torned up and then his 'sidekick' 'Byzy' appeared a few minutes later and the forst thing they did was complain aboot the price of their pints (ower three quid!)
Wors on the other hand worked oot at just ower TWO quid a pint with the discount!




"er!-aa foond this one on the floor!"

To compensate for this they nicked two posters off the waall for souvenirs which advertised the match and they carefully rolled them up, so as not to 'damage them' and put them into a carrier bag! (it's gettin' REEELY SAD NOW!

<--isn't it!?)

As it torned oot nebody else came into the bar, which is sommik that a'v never seen before and in total we had 18 pints between us! If we hadn't been there the bar takins would have been ZERO!
It was nearly kick off time so we left and heeded for the tornstiles a few yards away---no queues—nothin'!


Opened in 2009 by hor majesty 'The Queen' ne less!, 'The Sports Village Stadium' which is home to 'Leigh Centurions Rugby League Club' is quite smart with red covered seats on three sides and a covered standin' terrace behind the left end goal from us with an electronic scoreboard tucked into the far corner of the groond.
My estimate of the crowd was around the 350 mark, with at least 150 Toon fans present as the game kicked off, and they were dotted around the main stand which was the anly stand open.
Blackburn is some 17 miles distant from Leigh with Wigan and Bolton and Manchester much closer, so a low crowd was always gannih be the case as this isn't their 'territory'


The Toon took the lead in the 20^th minute when Ryan Donaldson was shoved ower in the penalty area and Phil Airey convorted the resultin' spot kick (1-0 to us)
The lead anly lasted anly 5 mins though, when Rochina chipped Tim Krul in the Toon goal (1-1)
The home side went forther aheed when Diouf rounded Krul to sidefoot into the empty net (2-1 to them)
8 mins into the 2^nd half Blackburn increased their lead with a dubious 'was it ower the line'? goal from Rochina (3-1 to them) and at this point the tannoy announcer telt us that ---'Rochina was the goal scorer and that NEWCASTLE! were nuw 3-1 up!', much to the merriment of the crowd.
(Aa wonder if this is anythin' to de with the fact that Leigh's stadium manager is called 'a' Mr TOON!)◄(honest!---it's true!)
To forther confuse matters the scoreboard operator gave the score as 2-2! on the electronic scoreboard! ("HELP!----a'v had too much to drink!") This was corrected to '3-1' to Rovers 5 minutes later to ironic cheers from the crowd!




"KINDERGARDENHOPPERS RULE OK!"

"THE FRIENDS OF NEWCASTLE UNITED!"

Ryan Donaldson then pulled one back for us in the 70^th minute with a mazy run from his own half before pokin' the baall past Kean in the Blackburn goal (3-2 to them)
The equaliser came in the 77^th minute when Phil Airey got his 2^nd as he turned the baall in from a centre by Tavernier (3-3)
This goal was greeted with high pitched shrills from a group of nursery kids who for some reason had just appeared in the corner of the stand and they started singin' in ear splittin' tones, "NEW-CAS-EL" ---"NEW-CAS-EL!" (aahh the little darlin's!)
Divvint ask me why they were supportin' 'The Toon' as I divvint naa the reason and aa havvent got a clue why??? (perhaps they were the members of the NUFC Kindergardenhoppers Branch!?)
An amazin' last few minutes saw The Toon gan into the lead when James Perch heeded home from a few yards oot to surely win the game! (4-3 to us!)
But NO!---the home side were not to be denied when Potts 'potted' the baall with a 20 yard curler to end this pulsatin' eight goal thriller in Leigh (4-4 final score!)


Just to summerize ---the score sequence went as follows (deep breath!) Newcastle score forst: 1-0 1-1 1-2 3-1!? 2-2!? 1-3 2-3 3-3 4-3 4-4! ("Er!---aa think that's reet!??")


With 'the batmobile's' 'rocket boosters' on full power we heeded back ower the 'M62' and sped past 'Dave from York's' ("er!-sorry!"-'The Rochdale Cowboy's'!) favourite holiday resort?  once again and were back yem 'before we knew it', with another groond chalked off the neva endin' list!


©Fink™ (the mad-sad gr☺undh☺pper!)




Footnote: for 'Geordie Glossary of Terms' 'click' on right hand side bar ►

ITS THE ROCHDALE COWBOYS NEXT TUESDAY NEET!

Posted '6:35pm bells' Tuesday 7th January 2020at Trowell services truck park,M1 south!
Updated Wedinzday at 'high noon bells' (on Tyneside!)

Comin' soon to SJP!

Its finally been confirmed that we will play Rochdale in the FA Cup 3rd roond replay at SJP next Tuesday neet the 14th January at '7:45 bells'
The game is NOT on the telly and the winners will progress to the 4th roond where they will play Oxfaad at home at the end of January!
'The Cowboys' have been given 5,000 tickets for The Leazes End level 7, but we still expect a low crowd of roond aboot 20,000.
Ticket prices are less than half of wot Rochdale charged NUFC fans last Saturday and are £10 for big kids and a fiver for sprogs and zimmerframeites ('Big kids' were charged £27 at Rochdale!) 

If we can't beat 2 Leegue One clubs at home, to reach the 5th roond, then we NEVER will!

It is now 14 years since we got past January in the FA Cup!
Since 'The Fat Controller' bought wor club in 2007, we have NEVER got past the 4th roond!

"February!--February! here we come!???"😳

FA CUP 4th ROOND DRAW TOONEET

Posted '12:45pm bells' Munday 6th January 2020
Updated '9:01pm bells'

SIXFIELDS STADIUM, NORTHAMPTON---POSSIBLE NEW GROOND!

NUFC are very lucky to be in tooneet's draw for the 4th roond of the FA Cup, az The Rochdale Cowboys missed a very easy chance at the end of Saturday's game at Spotland to win it!

We are baall number 7, so lets hope its a 'lucky' home draw when the baalls are picked oot of the hat at '7:35 bells' tooneet (live on BBC 1)

The Rochdale replay will take place next week on eetha Tuesday or Wedinzday. (for live telly nee doubt!)

MEMORIAL STADIUM, BRISTOL ROVERS---POSSIBLE NEW GROOND!

We've had a look at the teams we could face in the next roond and the bad news for 'The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers' iz that anly TWO teams are left in the draw who's groond's we have nevaa been tee---namely The Memorial Stadium, Bristol Rovers (who drew 2-2 with Coventry) and Sixfeeelds, the home of Northampton Toon(who won 4-1 at Burton), shud we get an away tie!

Indeed!---after wor forst ever visit to Spotland, there are now anly 8 leegue groonds that we have still to visit watchin The Toon----and they are:
Northampton, Bristol Rovers, Forest Green, Newport, AFC Wimbledon, MK Dons, Salford and Fleetwood Toon!
The latter 6 are oot of the FA Cup and so they are "no go!"

The Geordie Times will of course bring yoo news on the draw and replay date az soon az we find oot!
Az per usual---"Watch this space!"

Updated '9:01 pm bells at Redditch in Worcestershire

UNIVORSITY CHALLENGE

IT'S OXFAAD,THE TEAM FROM THE UNIVORSITY CITY, IN THE 4TH ROOND AT SJP IF WE BEAT ROCHDALE IN THE REPLAY (NO DATE FOR THAT YET?)

346 spotland, rochdale

Ground number 346
Date of First Visit: 4th January 2020
Spotland (aka Crown Oil Arena), Rochdale

Rochdale 1
Newcastle United 1 (Almiron)

FA Cup 3rd round
Attendance: 8,593 (3,200 Toon fans)

VIEW FROM ROW 'J', SEAT '93' OF THE WILLBUTTS LANE STAND

"OH NO JOE!--I DON'T 'FINK' SO!"

After many years of hopin' that one day we would get to Spotland in Rochdale for a game, it finally happened in the 3rd roond draw of the FA Cup!
A leegue groond av wanted to 'tick off mee list' for many a year, had finally happened, but az wor record in any of the domestic cups iz woeful against lower leegue clubs (23 defeats against lower opposition since world war 2!) I woz excited, but apprehensive aboot yet anothaa 'disaster day' to add to the record books!

Aalso, on my part, a'd never been to Rochdale on any occasion before, so to get a chance to visit new boozers woz aalso an added bonus! (a'd actually passed through it a few weeks ago on the train on the way to and back from Bornley for a Premyaa Leegue fixture!

We arrived in Rochdale at 10:00 bells after leavin 'The Central' at '6:55 bells' and heeded for a real ale bar which we'd been told aboot, called The Flying Horse where we had a 'nose bag' (brekkies) washed doon with a pint of the local brew!

We stopped there for the duration and left 45 mins before kick off to catch a bus to the ground which iz 3 miles from Rochdale toon centre in the suburb of 'Spotland' (Hence the groond's name!)

Actually, its now caalled 'The Crown Oil Arena', but I like to gan by original names, so 'Spotland' it iz for me!
We had the entire Willbutts Lane Stand on the side of the pitch, which held 3,200 enthusiastic Toon fans!

1st HALF ACTION AZ 'THE ORANGEMEN'

 ATTACK THE RIGHT HAND GOAL!

Can yoo spot the Rochdale mascot on the far touchline?
Its Desmond the dragon!!!
(Looks more like Bugs Bunny to me!)

Playin' in wor aall orange change strip, we went for 'the jugular' straight away, az we attacked the goal to wor right and had several chances to take the lead and finally the breakthrough in the 17th minute, when Miggy Almiron fired home a left foot drive to send the Toon fans into rapturous over the top celebrations! (we were anly playin a Leegue One club after aall!)
Instead of killin' the game off, we missed chance after chance to extend wor lead, most notably, wor 40 million poond number 9 Joelinton who missed at least 3 glorious chances to double wor advantage!------Somehow Rochdale survived and they went in just 1-0 doon at half time!

2nd HALF 

Again, in the 2nd half we went 'for broke' and again Joelinton missed chances to add to hiz one solitary goal in 22 games!
The frustration from the Toon fans woz loud, az he lumbered aboot!

The turnin point came with just 11 minutes left on the clock when Joelinton lost possession and the home side raced doon the pitch!

The baall fell to 40 year old Rochdale forward Wilbraham and he made nee misstayk from close in with a left foot shot, which beat Dubravka in the Toon goal!
Disaster had struck and az the Rochdale fans celebrated the Toon fans torned on Joelinton and he got some horrendous stick for hiz blunder and oweraall performance!---We'd finally 'snapped' and 'Joe' woz the scapegoat!

The home side then went to win the game and if it wasn't for Dubravka makin' some heroic saves near the end, we would surely have lost this game!
Loud boooing and heckling from the travellin' contingent followed at the final whistle, az we left the groond to drown wor sorrows back in Rochdale toon centre! 

In the end, we were lucky to get an unwanted replay, but should have sown the game up lang before half time!---Humiliation and disaster once again, but not az bad az the 3-0 hammerin' by Leegue One Oxfaadd  3 years ago!--(Thank god for smaall mercies!)

We then caught a train to Leedz where several more 'sustenance' in the followin' 3 'liquid lubrication locations', before heedin back to The Toon via York!

"WE MADE A 'PIG' OF WORSELS IN THIS BAR!"

Team line ups and more pix later az its time to 'gan on the hoy' in The Toon for a few 'liquid lubrications'!

Toon team: Dubravka, Yedlin, Krafth, Ferandez, Hayden, Atsu, S Longßtaff, M Longstaff, Almiron (Ritchie 64),Muto (Ki 53), Joelinton


Attendance:8,593 (3,200 exasperated Toon fans)

"WE'RE ALL GOING ON A SUMMER HOLIDAY!"

"ROCHDALE!--ROCHDALE---HERE WE COME!"

On a lighter note, many, many years ago, when he woz anly 17, septuagenarian 'NUFC mad-sad groundhopper' 'Dave from York' went for a weeks holiday in---wait for it!---ROCHDALE!

Hiz mate's family lived there and he woz invited to stay for a week in this bleak and desolate toon, with its smoked filled cotton mill chimney's pollutin the atmosphere with thick black smog and grime!

A'v said to him 'many a time', that if we ever played in Rochdale, he would get some horrendous stick in 'The Geordie Times'!

Surely Rochdale would be in your top 10 list of places to send your muthaa in law for hor holidays, behind that God forsaken place, pennywell in sun'lind, the acrid smelling chemical works in middlesbro and central Beirut!

"AALTOGETHER NOW!"

"We're all goin on a sum-mer holiday!
No more workin for a week or two!
We're off to Roch-dale for our summer holiday!
Smoke poll-ution for a week or two!
For me and you!"

"We're goin where the sun don't shine!
We're goin where its cold and blue!
We've seen it on Crime-stoppers!
Now lets see if its true!"





  

THE ROCHDALE COWBOYS V THE TOON *** FA CUP 3RD ROOND TOMORROW

Posted '12:55pm bells' Friday 3rd January 2020

8 OF 'THE NUFC MAD-SAD GROUNDHOPPERS' WHO ARE 

VISITIN' ROCHDALE FOR THE FORST TIME EVER!

Tomorrow 'The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers' will break new groond when we visit Spotland, in Rochdale!

'Yours truly' haz passed Rochdale a million times or more (slight exaggeration!) on the A62/M62 in visits to other groonds in this area since the 1960s and in mee job az a truck driver since the 1970s

We actually passed through it a few weeks back on the train on wor way to and from Bornley for a Premyaa Leegue fixture!
I've wanted to cross this groond 'off mee list' for years az it woz the anly Lancashire Leegue groond at the time where a'd never seen The Toon play!

Since then 2 more Lancashire clubs have been promoted from non leegue in the last few years, namely Fleetwood and Salford, but Rochdale is the one for me!---and at last I will get the chance, come the '12:31 bells' kick off time for live telly!
NUFC have sold wor entire 3,200 ticket allocation for The Willbutts Lane Stand which runs the full length of one sideline

We are on the 6:55 bells' train to Manchester in the mornin' and then onward to the delights of Rochdale train station (and the surrounding boozers!)
Az it's a orly kick off we wont have much time for 'tonsil ticklin' before the game---but plenty of time afterwards!🍺

At the time of writin', we have 11 crocked 1st team squad players, so a few reserves and kids, might--just might, make the starting line up!  (I am sure aall Rochdale fans will be delighted by this!)
In wor U23s game at Little Benton this afternoon (Won 3-0 v Fulim U23s (Longelo, Toure, Fernandez), we have left oot strikers Tom Allen and Elias Sorensen, plus defenders Lewis Cass and the delightfully musically named Ludwig Francillette (Nee relation to composer Ludwig van Beethoven!), which meenz they could be included in the forst team squad at Spotland!

FACTFILE: NUFC have never played Rochdale in a competitive game, mainly due to the fact that we have never played lower than the 2nd tier of Inglish futbaall and Rochdale have never played higher than the 3rd tier!
We HAVE played them in  Wartime Cup games in 1941, when we lost 2-1 at SJP, but won 3-1 at Spotland---Yoo would have to be at least 85 years old to have been to these games, which in effect were friendlies!
CONCLUSION: Not ONE of the 3,200 Toon fans who will be there tomorrow, will have been there before to watch us!

A full 'Geordie Times' match report on the game and 'booze cruise' pix will appear here sometime on Sunday!

Let's hope we are in the draw for the 4th roond, but as NUFC have lost a staggerin' 23 times to lower leegue and non leegue sides since the 2nd World War, divvint haad yet breath!😵

THE TOON 0 THE BASIL BRUSH BRIGADE 3 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2019-2020

Posted just after 'high noon bells' Thorsday 2nd January 2020

"TRUELEEE SHOCKING!"

The new decade didn't start off well, with wor thord defeat in 7 days, in wor worst performance of the season---so far!
The catastrophic 0-3 result, meenz we have fallen from 9th place and 10 points clear of the drop zone on Xmas Day, to 13th place and just 5 points above the drop zone on New Years Day!

THE TOON ATTACK THE LEAZES END! (1st half)

Add to that the fact that we sustained FOUR injuries durin the game, meant that we played most of the 2nd half with 10 men, az (of course), anly 3 subs are allowed in any game!
(Both Willems (groin) and Manquillo (hamstring) were crocked before half time and Shelvey failed to retorn in the 2nd half (hamstring again)---then Schar got a hamstring injury az well at the start of the 2nd half and had to come off, leavin us with a man short and aalmost certain defeat!)

Lejeune, in particular had a shocking game az he woz responsible for 2 horrendous passes to Lestaa players within 3 minutes of each other, which resulted in 2 goals for wor visitors in the forst half----one scored by ex Magpie Perez, who celebrated in front of The Gallowgate End! 
Perez had intercepted Lejeune's suicidal pass across the box for the forst goal---and did virtually the same for the 2nd goal, this time passin to an unmarked Maddison who made nee misstayk in the 39th minute! 

Reeely--it woz over at this stage az wor powder puff attack? didn't get anywhere near a goal in this period, with '40 million poond man' Joelinton, messin' up a chance at The Leazes End in the 24th minute, when he failed to control an easy baall! (aalthough wor manager, 'Broken Nose Bruce', in hiz post match comments, seemed to 'fink' that we did? have 'good' goalscorin' chances!)

NUFC ATTACK THE GALLOWGATE GOAL (2nd half)

Aaltogether we have ELEVEN senior players on the treatment table and a 'scratch side' will surely be sent oot in wor 3rd roond FA Cup tie at Rochdale on Saturday! *(Yet anothaa 'cup shock' waitin to happen!)

By the end of the game and 0-3 doon by this stage the 'alledged' 52,000 plus crowd (inc the 10,000 'freebeez'), woz doon to less than 15,000 az the game finished, including the 2,500 Lestaa fans, who (of course) stayed til the bitter end! to cheer their team on!
It doesn't get much worse than this (honestly!) and if new 'bodies' arnt fothcomin' in the January transfor window, then a lang hard winter of fan discontent, will surely ensue!

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" ("NOT!")

Toon team: Dubravka, (Manquillo (Krafth 45), Schar, Fernandez, Lejeune, Willems (Yedlin 45), Hayden, Shelvey (S.Longstaff 46), Almiron, Joelinton, Muto

Attendance: 52,178 (2,500 Basil Brush Foxes)
The game woz a selloot thanx to the 10,000 free half season tickets again, BUT there were quite a few empty seats az the game kicked off----and thoosands by the end! (see pix below)

EVERY PICTURE TELLS A STORY!
(The photos below were take 3 mins before full time)

THE LEAZES END!

THE GALLOWGATE END!

THE EAST STAND!

ROW 2 OF THE MILBURN STAND BALCONY!

The decision by wor owner 'The Fat Controller' to give 10,000 tickets away for every game til the end of the season to fill the empty seats, to give the impression that everything iz rosy in the NUFC garden, badly backfired yesterday! (He wasn't there eethaa, of course to see the fans reaction to this trueleee shockin' show!)
"LUCKY HIM!"

THE TOON v THE BASIL BRUSH BRIGADE *** NEW YEARS DAY 2020

Posted 'high noon bells' New Years Eve 2019

The games are comin' up thick and fast and on New Years Day we face 'The Foxes' of Lestaa at St. James' Park in a '3:00 bells' start!

With 2 defeats on the spin in a (less than a) 3 day period,we reelly need to get sommik oot of this game, or else we will be sucked doon into the relegation mire, for certain!

With so many games in such a short period, its hardly suprizing that injuries rule oot Lascelles, Clark, Ki, Saint-Maximin, Ritchie and Dummett, while there are doubts aboot Joelinton, Manquillo, Lejeune and Schar!

It will be a tough game anyway, especially since Lestaa's top goalscorer, Vardy iz back in their squad aftaa missin the 2-1 win at West Ham, coz hiz 'better half' woz droppin' a sprog!
He iz the top goalscorer in The Premyaa Leegue az well, with 17 goals!
Wor bggest defeat and probably worst performance of the season came away to 'The Basil Brush Brigade' when we lost 5-0 with 10 men in September!===Aalso they beat us in a penalty shootout at SJP in The Leegue Cup in August!

A full Geordie Times match report will appear here sometime on Thorsday---az per usual--"Watch this space!"

*The 'teens' decade woz one of the worst in wor history az we never got past January in ANY domestic cup competition, exitin the FA Cup in eethaa the 3rd and 4th roonds every year from 2010 to 2019 and we never got past December in the Leegue Cup eethaa!
We aalso had 2 spells in The Championship az well!

So lets hope that the '20s' are much better!---However az lang az wor beloved owner? 'The Fat Controller' owns the club, then we wont fare much better, az simply survivin' in the top flight, iz sadly hiz main 'goal'! 

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

THE TOON 1 THE TOFFEE NOSES 2 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2019-2020

Posted '11:11am bells' Sunday 29th December 2019

VIEW FROM ROW 2 OF THE MILBURN STAND BALCONY

"CHRISTMAS CRACKERS!"

The last game of 2019 woz not a happy one for the Toon faithful, az we lost for the 2nd time at SJP in a Premyaa Leegue game this season (3, if yoo include Lestaa in the Leegue Cup!)

With a near full hoose because of the 10,000 half season tickets giveaway, we were on the backfoot from the start az Evaatin attacked the Gallowgate End.
NUFC did have a chance very orly on at The Leazes End, when Almiron went doon in the box, but after a VAR review the claim woz torned doon!

1st HALF ACTOIN AZ NUFC ATTACK THE LEAZES GOAL

And it woz Almiron who gave a free kick away at the othaa end just outside the box (which looked a harsh decision) in the 13th minute and the free kick woz lobbed into the Toon wall and the baall eventually fell to Calvert-Lewin, who had the eazy task of stabbing the baall into the net from close range. 

And then after 30 minutes play Almiron hit the post and the baall fell nicely to Andy Carroll on the goal line, who banged it into the net!
Unfortunately, Andy woz offside and the goal woz disallowed and we went in 0-1 at half time!

6 mins into the 2nd half NUFC got a free kick, which Andy Carroll heeded doon for Fabian Schar to volley into the net to give the (alledged) 49,000 Toon fans some cheer!

THE TOON ATTACK THE GALLOWGATE GOAL (2nd half)

However--- that's az good az it got---and a missyayk by Andy Carroll---when he lost the baall on the halfway line, had 'The Toffee Noses' on the attack and Richarlison ran doon the line and crossed to Calvert-Lewin, who bundled the baall into the net to win the game for wor visitors in the 65th minute and send the 3,000 Evaatin fans in Level 7 of The Leazes End into ecstasy!

We just didn't have the fire power to hit back and the game woz lost!
A message to wor beloved owner? 'The Fat Controller', who wasn't there again!
We need a PROVEN goalscorer in the transfor window, or else we will be hoverin' just above the drop zone for the rest of the season, for sure (7 points clear at the mo!)

Toon team: Dubravka, Yedlin, Schar, Fernandez, Lejeune (Atsu 74), Willems(S. Longstaff 85), Hayden Shelvey, Almiron, Carroll, Joelinton (Gayle 74)

Attendance: 52, 211 (3,000 Toffee Noses az mentioned)
*Despite the 10,000 tickets giveaway, there were still empty seats in the groond---I woz taalkin to one season ticket holder who got a 'free ticket' and he told me that he couldn't give it away!  

"WOR SEATS ARE AT THE TOP OF THERE, SOMEWHERE!"

(200 STAIRS TO CLIMB!)

Yesterday woz wor last game of the 'teens' decade!
In total we have played 447 COMPETITIVE games from Jan 2010 to Dec 2019

Jan-May 2010   25 games played    
2010-2011         42
2011-2012         43
2012-2013         54
2013-2014         42
2014-2015         43
2015-2016         41
2016-2017         53
2017-2018         41
2018-2019         42
Aug-Dec 2019   21

From Jan 2000-Dec 2009 NUFC played 502 COMPETITIVE games, so if yoo include games from the start of the 21st century, then the runnin total iz 949, after the Evaatin game.
The reason we played 55 more games in the forst decade of the century iz because we were nearly aalways in European competitions and progressed forthaaa in the domestic cup competitions!

Oot of the 949 games played so far this century, 'The Geordie Times' haz been to----949! (it shud be noted that we didn't get into 2 of those games til half time, due to an air traffic controllers strike in Greece v Panionios in 2004 and traffic problems in London v Fulham in 2006)
"Aaltogether now!"--- "We're anly 'half-time' supporters!"

THE TOON V THE TOFFEE NOSES THIS AFTERNOOON!

Posted '10:43am bells' Saturday 28th December 2019

VIEW UP BARRACK ROAD FROM THE MILBURN STAND CONCOURSE

(THERE'S ANOTHAA TIER OF SEATS ABOVE THIS LEVEL!)

We've hardly had time to take in the defensive/midfield horror show from Boxin Day at Moan U---and here we are just 2 days later with a home game against a rejuvenated Evaatin side, who won 1-0 v Bornley under the leadership of Carlo Ancelotti, who took the reigns a few days ago!

With the gap doon to 7 points between us and a relegation place, we reely must get sommik from this game to keep us az far away from the mire az possible!

We fully expect that Jonjo Shelvey and Andy Carroll will be in the starting line up after their mystery absence at 'The Theatre of Muppets'?

A full Geordie Times match report will be forthcoming sometime on Sunday mornin!
Az per usual, "Watch this space!"

*PS: Wor 4-1 defeat on Boxin Day sent us doon to 10th place in the Premyaa Leegue table---however!---The SMBs fell to 15th place in Leegue One, makin the gap between us and them 49 places, one better than before Boxin Day!  Thiz iz the biggest EVER margin between the 2 clubs, gannin way back to the 19th century!---
"LANG MAY IT CONTINUE!"

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