Monday, 3 November 2025

THE JELLIED EELS MOB OF WEST HAM 3. THE TOON 1 *** 2025-2026

 Posted from 1.00pm bells' onwards Munday 3rd Novembaa 2025

(Will be updated with match pix pub crawl pix later and details of wor exhaustin’ jorney to east London and back!) 


“THE CURSE OF THE GREEN STRIP!” ๐Ÿคข

One things for certain!  It won’t take lang to write this match report!—Will take much langer to write how we got to London and back, however!

Az soon az aa saw the startin line up for NUFC and strip we would wear, aa woz in dispair!



The startin line up before the match showed Dan Burn wearin'  wor green away strip!—Honestly I 'Fink' we are cursed when we wear it, az we have done for 4 of wor 5 away Premyaa Leegue games this season!

We wore green at Bournemoooth and drew 0-0

We wore green at Villa and drew 0-0

We wore green at Brightin and lost 2-1

We wore green at West Ham and lost 3-1

The anly away Premyaa Leegue away game this season that we didn’t wear green iz when we wore wor blue 3rd strip at Leeedz and drew 0-0

Indeed, the anly time this season when we wore wor famous black n white stripes in an away game and won, woz at USG in The Champions Leegue, where we triumphed 4-0!

In wor recent history we have worn black n white stripes against aall the above teams in away games apart from Brightin who play in blue stripes!— So why can’t we wear WOR stripes when thee isn’t a colour clash?

The answer of course iz ‘strip sales’, meenin that nearly aall wor away games will be in change strips! (100% so far, domestically!)

Anyway!---enough of that!---to the match!



The alarm ⏰ bells started ringin orly on when 'The Jellied Eels Mob' hit the post in from of the 3,000 Toon fans in the away section behind that goal in the 4th minute! (Jellied Eels used to be a favorite delicasy in the east end of London)

Almost imediatleee we responded when we raced up to the other end of the pitch where Jacob Murphy hit a great shot across the box to put us 1-0 up!

TOON FANS CELEBRATE WOR GOAL!—HOWEVER!๐Ÿ˜ฑ

But thats az good az it got az soon after West Ham were awarded a penalty when Thiaw woz adjudged to have fouled Bowen in the box near the touchline!---Luckily for us, the ref oweturned hiz decision after a lenghty VAR check and chalked the goal off!

This woz just a reprieve az the home side pounded wor goal with every Toon player on the pitch havin a nightmare game!

The equaliser woz comin and when 'The Pope' in The Toon goal punched the baall oot, instead of catchin it, Paqueta woz at hand to hammer the baall straight back and into the corner of the net! 1-1

5 minutes of stoppage time woz added because of the VAR check and just when it looked az though NUFC would gan in level at the break, disaster struck when West Ham's Bissaka crossed the baall and somehow Sven Botman managed to put the baall into hiz own goal at the near post ๐Ÿซฃ to put us 2-1 behind at the break! 



The 2nd half woz even worse az Eddie Howe made 3 changes at the break, substitutin Waltermade, Gordon and Krafth for Osalu, Schar and Ramsey! (Aall 11 could have been substituted, we were THAT bad!)



Despite dominatin this half, we could hardly muster a shot on goal az we attacked 'wor end' of the groond!---It woz aaful and wor misery woz completed deep into 2nd half stoppage time when Soucak scrambled the baall ower the line after The Pope fumbled the baall๐Ÿซฃ, to put the final nail in wor coffin!

In Eddie Howe's time az wor manager, this woz the worst performance aa can remember---and for the forst time aa thought that hiz job could be on the line if results divvint improve!  It woz like gannin back to the days when Broken Nose Bruce woz wor manager!—Horrendous!

Az we are progressin in The Champions Leegue and Leegue Cup hiz job iz safe for now, but the PIF will NOT be happy with us langushing in 13th place in the table, with the gap between Champions Leegue qualification next season widening az the games pass!---Even qualifyin for the lesser European competitions looks a long shot now!

FT 3-1 to them!

Thiz woz the forst time that West Ham had won at home this season after sufferin 4 previous defeats and 1st home win in 9 months and WE made it '8 in a row' failures to win an away Premyaa Leegue game since beatin' Leicester last April, some 7 months ago! (We played in aall white with green trim that day!)

The curse of the green strip continues!

Attendance given az 62,441 but this must have been on ticket sales az there were loads of empty seats!

3,000 shell shocked Toon fans, who thought we would win easily!

The complicated return jorney to Tyneside woz another reason for wor misery!  (See below for details later!) ⬇️

“TRAIN ๐Ÿš‚ TERROR!” ๐Ÿ”ช 

To get to this game, we had to get the train to Darlo from’The Central’ ( station)the afternoon before the game (1.03pm bells ๐Ÿ”” train 20 minutes late—30 minutes jorney)

Get a bus from Darlo (Darlington) to Donny (Doncaster) (2 hours)

Get back on the train at Donny (bus parked a canny walk from the station)  

Miss wor connection by 2 minutes (because of the above!)

Wait for another train, got to King’s Cross in London (2 & a half hours)

Tube to Highbury and Islington (10 minutes)

Overgroond train to Hackney Central (20 minutes)

Arrive at hotel and dump bags at 8 bells ๐Ÿ””—7 hours to get there!

Heed for local boozers to find oot that 2 hours after wor train from Donny to London, that 10 passengers had been stabbed on the train near Huntington! (Lucky we were on an earlier train I thought)

Gan to match on Sunday 2 stops in overgroond from Hackney Central, then after game, same carry on back on Sunday neet!) Got to Central at midneet and just missed last bus yem £12 in taxi)

Including match ticket, train tickets, hotel, tubes rides and taxis —-£230 altogether —-plus food and booze on top! Ny on £300 spent to watch ๐Ÿ’ฉ! 

(Most expensive London trip in 57 years, since mee 1st visit—-to Arsenal in 1968!)

PUB CRAWL REPORT* 7 DRINKIN DENS VISITED ⬇️

THE PENBURY ARMS,HACKNEY, LONDON

THE COCK TAVERN, HACKNEY, LONDON

THE OLD SHIP, HACKNEY, LONDON
BAXTERS COURT, HACKNEY, LONDON

BEER MERCHANTS TAP, HACKNEY WICK,, LONDON


BETJEMAN ARMS, ST PANCRAS, LONDON


THE DALESMAN, DARLO, (WAITING FOR TRAIN BACK TO THE TOON!)


PS: It wasn’t aall doom and gloom for Tyneside teams in London ower the weekend az non leegue Gatesheed won 2-0 at Wimbledon on Saturday in the FA Cup 1st roond!

The draw for the 2nd roond haz The Heedbangers at home to Walsall!๐Ÿ‘



Friday, 31 October 2025

IT’S HALLOWEEN FOLKS! ๐ŸŽƒ

 Posted ‘4.00pm bells ๐Ÿ””’Halloween Friday 31st Octobaa 2025

A WARM WELCOME AWAITS YOU AT GEORDIE TIMES HQ!

We are off to a hotel in Hackney in London tomorrow afternooon the day before wor game v Jellied Eels Mob of West Ham at London Stadium at ‘2.00pm ๐Ÿ›Ž️s’ on Sunday!

The main reason we are gannin doon to London a day orly iz because the forst train from The Toon on Sunday iz at 8.00am ๐Ÿ”” s’ and then a dreaded replacement bus between Darlo (Darlington) and Donny (Doncaster) and then we have to get back on the train to King’s Cross!  Tooo late to make the kick off az it will take five and a half hours to get to London!—and then 2 tubes to Hackney Wick, near to the groond! (Another hour, includin the walk to London Stadium!)

So Saturday it iz!

West Ham are in turmoil at the moment and there gannin to be a fans protest after the game, when they will stage a ‘sit in’ for 45 minutes after the game haz finished!

They sit 2nd bottom of the table and are in a relegation battle for certain!— This can anly mean ‘good news’ for NUFC, coz IF we can score orly in the game, then the atmosphere will become toxic! ☠️ 

Hopefully we can get the 3points to move up the Premyaa Leegue table!

Match (and booze!) report on Munday!

Meanwhile, back at Geordie Times HQ ⬇️




Thursday, 30 October 2025

THE TOON 2. THE SPORZYs 0 *** LEEGUE CUP 4th ROOND

 Posted ‘high noon ๐Ÿ•› bells’ ๐Ÿ”” Thorzday 30th Octobaa 2025

A minutes silence!—We will 
๐ŸŒบ remember them! ๐ŸŒบ 

“HEEDS YOU WIN!” 

NUFC went into this game aiming for a ‘hat-trick’ of home wins in the space of 8 days!

And we weren’t to be disappointed!

8 changes were made by ‘us’ from the startin line up on Saturday, when we beat Fulim 2-1 (Sporz made 4 changes)

Orly on az we attacked the Leazes goal, both Jacob Ramsey and Harvey Barnes had chances that went close, az we dominated the possession!



The breakthrough came in the 24th minute, when a Sandro Tonali corner foond the heed of Fab Schar—-and he sent a powerful heeder past Kinsky in the visitors goal—-az the Sporz players protested that one of their number woz tyin hiz boot laces, which they said, should have delayed the corner!

The ref woz havin ‘non of this nonsense’ and pointed to the centre spot! 1-0 to us!

Sporz then had a couple of really good chances to equalise at the other end, but their ‘star man’? Richarlison could’nt get onto the end of crosses into the box!



Harvey Barnes then had a spectacular owerheed kick, which rebounded off the crossbar to safety!

HT 1-0 to us!

Az we attacked The Gallowgate goal in the 2nd half, Joe Willock missed a great chance orly on, sendin hiz close range heeder wide of the mark!

He made up for that however in the 50th minute, when he crossed the baall and ‘The 2 Metre Messi’ Nick Waltemade rose above their goalie to send a looping heeder into the net, in what looked like slow motion!         2-0 to us!



The near 5,000 Spurz fans in the top deck of The Leazes End had sung “No noise from the Saudi Boys!” orlier on—and the Toon fans replied “2-nil to the Saudi Boys!”

Aaron Ramsey who deputised for The Pope in goal, made 2 fantastic saves to keep wor visitors at bay!

4 minutes stoppage time woz added at the end, but we held on for wor 4th victory in a row ower Sporz at SJP!  AND  Sporz forst away defeat in any competition!

This woz aalso wor 11th home win in a row in the Leegue Cup! (This includes the 0-0 draw v Palace when we won on penalties in the 1st game of this sequence!)


We watched the draw for the qwaataa finals in The Bodega on Westgate Road and it woz very kind to us, giving us a home tie v Fulim, which will be played in mid Decembaa!



Attendance:51,216 (4,900 from ‘norf Landan’)

*





Wednesday, 29 October 2025

THE TOON v SPORZY *** LEEGUE CUP 4th ROOND

 Posted '6.00pm bells' Wedinzday 29th Octobaa 2025

MORDEN STREET IN THE HAYMARKET AREA OF THE TOON

The Forst team games are every 4 days apart at the moment, in a hectic period! Tooneet we play wor 3rd game in a row at SJP when we take on Sporzy at SJP in the 4th roond of the Leegue Cup for a place in the qwaataa finals!

If the scores are level after 90 minutes, then a penalty shootoot will take place to decide who progresses!  There will be 4,900 Spozy's in The Leazes top deck!

Sven Botman iz doubtful to play, but hopefully aall the rest who played in the Fulim game on Saturday will be available!

For future reference, aall domestic Cup game tickets will automatically be downloaded to Season tickets! (But NOT for Champions Leegue games)

The draw for the qwaataa finals takes place after the game iz finished!

A match report will appear here sometime on Thorzday!

Az per usual---"Watch this space!" 


 

Tuesday, 28 October 2025

376 gander green lane, sutton (v palace u21s)

 Ground number 376 (377 if you include Motspur Park from outside) 142nd ground that has staged League football 

Date of First Visit: 27th October 2025

Gander Green Lane, West Sutton, London

Crystal Palace U21s 0

Newcastle United U21s 2 ( Munda, Brayson)

Premier League 2

Attendance: 700 (estimated) (100 Toon fans---mostly locals)

5 NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers who had travelled from the North East


“GANNIN FOR A 'GANDER' DOON GANDER GREEN LANE!”

To avoid an owerneet stay in London , it woz decided to travel in ‘Blondie Alan the Morris Dancers’ ‘jam jar’ to Donny (Doncaster) and get a train to King’s Cross and then onward on another train to West Sutton, where the game woz bein played at Sutton United FC

The reason to take a car to Donny, woz because the 11.31pm train back from King’s Cross terminated at Donny! thus avoiding a hotel stay by taking a car doon to drive back!

My jorney woz a train to Durham where Blondie Alan picked me up, a train from Donny to London---Another train to West Sutton, which woz 18 stops and took ann hour!

Anyway! In total the jorney time doon took ower 7 hours in and we arrived at wor destination some 2 hours before the ‘7.00pm bells ๐Ÿ”” kick off time! (Left Toon at ‘10.30am ๐Ÿ””s’) )

We heeded for the nearest boozer which woz caalled The Gander Inn, where we met fellow ‘mad-sad groundhopper’ 'Alex of St George' (Middleton St George near Teesside Airport) 



I needed a ‘gypsies kiss’ in ‘the toolshed’, but the sign on the door said ‘Toilet out of order’! I asked the barman where there woz another toolshed and he just told me just to use the one that woz out of order? “So why’s the sign on the door if it iz OK to use?” I asked him!

OOT OF ORDER—-BUT IT’S NOT!???

“The toilet’s in use now, but we just keep the sign up!”, he replied! (Make sense of that IF you can?๐Ÿค”)

It woz soon time to heed for the floodlights which were glowin in the dark in the distance and in the clubhoose there were more Toonhoppers in the shape of ‘Glennn from Ashington’, ‘Biffa the Beer’ and Toon fan caalled Dale who lives in Fulham in west London!







The game kicked off and there woz the usual 500-700 in attendance that you get at these games!—(Selhurst Park iz some 8 miles north of here!)



The Toon were on the front foot from the start az we attacked the right hand goal from where we were at the front of the old lookin main stand!  The rest of the groond had smaall covered stands and it looked like a typical smaall club setup!



We had quite a few chances, before taking the lead in the 20th minute when Anthony Munda opened the scorin with a fine heeder from a Alex Murphy cross! That’s the way it stayed til the break! 

Seung-soo Park had came close before that with a fine shot that woz saved by Lee in the Palace goal!

At half time aa heeded back to the clubhoose for some more ‘liquid lubrications’ and a Toon fan who I’d never met, enquired “Are you the famous Glenn?” ((Glennn from Ashington) Quick az a flash, I replied, “NO, I’m the famous Fink!” (Or should that read infamous Fink?)

Anyway! I foond Glennn and introduced them!  He lived not far away in Carshultan and woz soon ‘christened’ ‘Carshultan Mick’ by me!






The second half woz well underway and like the forst half wor U21s ran the show!

Wor U21s doubled wor lead through Joe Brayson (son of ex Toon player Paul Brayson) who hit a fine shot into the corner of the net from a Neave pass!


The teamsheet says that the game iz at Borough Sports Groond, which iz a misstayk

That’s woz the final goal of the match and then we faced the complicated retorn jorney, eventually  arriving back yem at ‘3.00am bells’ where motorway closures near Selby on the A1M added to wor travel sickness!

Another groond off the list and mee 25th in London!



We managed to dee 4 drinkin dens on the way to the match and back!
The Leopard, Doncaster on the way doon!

The Gander Inn, West Sutton, London

Rolens Bar, (Sutton United clubhoose)

The Barrel Vaults, St Pancras, London, on the way back



"WE WOZ THERE!"---THE PROOF!

GANDER GREEN LANE UPDATE

 Posted ‘7:07pm ๐Ÿ”” bells Tuezday 28th Octobaa 2025



Grovelling apologies for not deein the match report from Crystal Palace U21s v NUFC U21s at Sutton United FCs Gander Green Lane last neet in south London!

Because we didn’t get back til 3am ๐Ÿ”” this mornin ,aa woz completely’cream crackered’ and ‘under the weather’ and have been in bed most of the day!

I will endeavour to dee the match report where NUFC won 2-0 with goals from Munda and Brayson tomorrow dinnatime!   And then a review of wor Leegue Cup tie v Sporz at SJP, which kicks off a ‘8.00 bells’ tomorrow neet!

Watch this space intentleee!

It woz an horrendous jorney by train, car, train and train to get there —-and the same back!

Monday, 27 October 2025

LETS HAVE A ‘GANDER’ TO A NEW GROOND!

Posted ‘9.00am bells ๐Ÿ””’ Munday 27th Octobaa 2025 ๐Ÿชฟ 

“A GANDER TO THE GREEN!”

We are off to Sutton United FC tooneet, where wor U21s play Crystal Palace U21s in a Premyaa Leegue 2 fixture at Ganders Green Lane! (Palace’s Selhurst Park iz 8 miles away!)

The reason for the visit of course, iz because it’s a new groond for ‘The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers’ and this will be mee 25th London groond to see The Toon! (If aa get there? ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿป)

Bein an ‘old timer’ it’s costing the princely sum of ONE QUID for me to get in, but to get that £1 ticket aa had to create an account to join the Palace ticket scheme, to get one downloaded onto mee telling bone! ๐Ÿ“ž What a carry on to get tickets these days! (For some of these games you MUST buy a ticket online, or you won’t get in!——-Crazy!๐Ÿ˜ต‍๐Ÿ’ซ)

The travel plan iz!—-Get the train to Durham where ‘Blondie Alan the Morris Dancer’ will pick me up in hiz ‘jam jar’ at 11.00 ๐Ÿ””s’ (He lives not far away in Langley Park, where Bobby Robson came from) and from there we drive to Donny station (Doncaster) and get the train to London King’s Cross —and then onward to Sutton in south London from St.Pancras, (next door to King’s Cross), for the ‘7 ๐Ÿ””s’ kick off! —-After the match we dee the same 2 retorn train jorneys back to Donny, arriving at ‘1.30am ๐Ÿ””s’

That’s az far az the train gans, hence leaving the car there!—Drive back from there and get back in the hoose at aboot ‘4am ๐Ÿ””s’—Blondie then haz to drive back to Langley Park and he should end hiz jorney aboot half an hour after dropping me off!

Hopefully it will be worth it with a favourable result!?

Match report sometime on Tuezday! (Allegedly!?)

Sunday, 26 October 2025

THE TOON 2. THE COTTAGE PIE BRIGADE 1 *** PREMYAA LEEGUE 2025-2026

 Posted ‘high noon ๐Ÿ•› bells’ ๐Ÿ””’ Sunday 26th Octobaa 2025



FOR A CHANGE, A WINNER AT THE DEATH!”

Followin wor great 3-0 win against Benfica in The Champions Leegue on Tuezday, it woz vital that we kept up the momentum against Fulim yesterday!

They’d lost 3 in a row in The Premyaa Leegue, so we were odds on favourites to collect the 3 points!

Of course this doesn’t aalways happen with NUFC and it looked az though we would have to settle for a 1-1 draw!

However! it didn’t pan oot this way and the sequence of events were az follows:

3rd and 5th minutes: Both Nick Waltemade and Jacob Murphy had efforts that hit the frame of the goal az we attacked The Leazes goal!



18th minute: The breakthrough!---Jacob Murphy races past the Cottage Pies defence (their nickname iz The Cottagers) and he faces a 'one to one' with Fulim goalie Leno and hits a precision shot, which went in off the post! 1-0 to us!

We really couldnt get oot of 2nd gear and struggled for the rest of the half az wor visitors tried to level things!

40th minute: Jacob Murphy haz an identical run to goal and again faces Leno in a 'one to one' , but this time its the goalie who comes oot on top az he deflects Murphy's shot, which went oot for a corner! HT 1-0 to us!

Like aa say, we werent at wor best in the forst half against a poor Fulim team who actually started to dominate the 2nd period!

They had quite a few chances and of course the invertible happened!

56th minute: Jiminez hits a shot that ricoshades of the crossbar and in the melee that followed, Sven Botman got clattered and ended up in the back of the net with the baall! 1-1

The 1,700 Fulim fans high up in the Leazes gods, rubbed it in by singin', "No noise from the Saudi Boys!"

After lenghy treatment for a cut to the heed, Botman leaves the field with concusion, holdin a bandage to the cut! (Replaced by Fab Schar) 



64th minute: An unmarked Bruno haz a glarin miss at The Gallowgate End, when hiz heeder gans inches wide, az we groaned in dispair!

90th minute: Just when it looked az though the game would end in a draw, super sub Will Osula latched onto a Sandro Tonali pass and hit a sweet shot which woz parried to Bruno by Leno---and wor captain had the easy chance of firin' the baall into the net to send the vast majority of the crowd into raptures! 2-1 to "The Saudi Boys!"๐Ÿคช๐Ÿ‘

6 minutes of stoppage time for Botman's treatment woz shown on the 4th official’s board, az the crowd whistled for the ref to blow for full ttime! Nerves were janglin and finger nails were chewed az Fulim tried in vain for a very late equaliser!---The ref who woz crap again, actually played 9 minutes stoppage time, before finally blowin' for full time, to the relief of the faithful! (Makes a change from the very late home defeats to Livaapoool and The Arse!)

The win lifted us to the top half of the table briefly, but later on, a 'smaaller club' from west London caalled Brentfaad beat Livaapoool  3-2! (minus 'yee naa who' through injury) Az they say: "Instant karma's gonna get you!"

*(Livaapoool manager Arne Snot had said through the week that NUFC were a “smaller club’, and implied that to woz ‘wor fault’ that Isak wasn’t fit!—He went on strike, remember!— Hardly wor fault!)๐Ÿฅถ)

That result meant we slipped to 11th place in the Premyaa Leegue table! 



Attendance: 52,152 (1,700 Cottage Pies who were 'pie eyed' after wor late goal!)

*Happy fans leave the groond!⬇️



 Honestly!  How iz this not a foul on Waltemade?  The ref waved ‘play on’? ⬇️๐Ÿฅถ



  


Friday, 24 October 2025

THE TOON V THE COTTAGE PIE BRIGADE

 Posted ‘high noon bells ๐Ÿ””’ Friday 24th Octobaa 2025

THE MAGnificent MILBURN STAND FROM BARRACK ROAD

After wor great 3-0 win against Benfica on Tuezday neet, we need to keep the momentum gannin when we play Fulham at SJP tomorrow afternooon at the unlikely time of ‘3.00 ๐Ÿ”” bells’! (That’s 2 Saturdays in a row we have had a ‘3.00 ๐Ÿ””s’ non televised ๐Ÿ“บ kick offs!— when woz the last time that happened?)

In complete contrast, in the next 7 and a half weeks, we have TWELVE live games on the telly, startin with Sporz next Wedinzday, 29th Octobaa—up til Saturday 20th Decembaa, when we play Chelseee!

We desperately need the 3 points to climb back into the top half of the Premyaa Leegue table after slipping into the bottom half after wor 2-1 defeat last Saturday at Brighton!

Sandro Tonali iz still doubtful, but Jaamal Lascelles iz likely to feature!

The Cottage Pie ๐Ÿฅง Brigade (They play at Craven Cottage) have lost 3 games in a row and we are hopin that that will be extended to 4 come ‘5.00pm ๐Ÿ””s’ tomorrow tea/beer time! They have sold 1.700 tickets!

Hopefully wor players are ‘up for it’, but az we aall naa from past experiences, it sometimes doesn’t gan to plan!-We are NUFC after aall!

This iz the 2nd of 3 home games in a row in 3 different competitions (Champions Leegue, Premyaa Leegue and Leegue Cup v Sporz next Wedinzday)

Sandwiched in between the next 2 games ‘The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers’ are off to Sutton in south London for wor U21s game v Crystal Palace at Ganders Green Lane!—An ex Leegue groond that we have never been tee!—hence the visit!

A match report on the Fulham game will appear here sometime in Sunday and a match report from Sutton will appear sometime on Tuezday afternooon!

APU “Watch this space!”



Wednesday, 22 October 2025

THE TOON 3. BENFICAA 0 *** CHAMPIONS LEEGUE GROUP STAGE GAME 3

 Posted ‘1.01pm ๐Ÿ”” bells’Wedinzday 22nd Octobaa 2025


NEE EXPLANATION NEEDED!⬆️

“THE STADIUM OF DELIGHT!”

“IF YI NAA—YI NAA!?”๐Ÿค”

After wor poor showing at Brightin on Saturday it woz vital that we retorned to winnin ways in this crucial Champuons Leegue fixture!—And oh boy we did!

A midfield change of Lewis Miley, Jacob Murphy and Jacob Ramsey, replaced Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Elanga, who dropped to the subs bench, made aall the difference!

The forst half woz nowt to write home aboot, apart from Anthony Gordon’s goal, which he hit from inside the box from a pinpoint Jacob Murphy cross at The Leazes End in the 32nd minute!



Bruno and Dan Burn ๐Ÿ”ฅ aalso had efforts which went close to scorin, az did Benficaa, who shaved the Gallowgate post to give us a wake up caall!

The main action happened in the 2nd half az we pounded the Gallowgate goal and after a tactical substitution in the 63rd minute when Harvey Barnes entered the fray, replacing Jacob Murphy, we doubled wor lead, when an outrageous lang throw from The Pope in The Toon goal, foond Barnes who hit a sweet shot across goal, which went in off the far post to the relief of the vast majority of the crowd, just 7 minutes after he had come on!

The 2,500 Benficaa fans in level 7 of The Leazes End had been in brilliant voice up til this point, but fell silent after this goal!



It woz soon 3-0 when Barnes again ran through from a Gordon pass in the 83rd minute and hiz shot went through legs of Trubin in the visitors goal, to give The Toon an unassailable lead!

In total 3 penalty appeals were waved away by the same Polish ref who gave PSG a very dodgy penalty against us 2 years ago in Paris!

Gordon and Barnes were fouled in the box, but the most blatant woz on Bruno, who got rugby ๐Ÿ‰ tackled by a Benficaa defender!


More chances went a beggin through Willock, Botman, Joelinton and Burn, but we had to settle for 3-0 which moved us up to 7th place in the 36 team Champions Leegue table, for the time being at least, above the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and LIVAAPOOL! (Who aall play tooneet, so expect NUFC to drop to at least 10th)


Updated 10.00pm bells ๐Ÿ””’
*After Wedinzday’s fixtures, NUFC drop to 8th, with anly Real Madrid gannin above us! 
The top 8 automatically qualify for the knockoot stage!
9 to 24 gan into the play offs!
24 to 36 are eliminated! (ie: They don’t drop into the Europa Leegue, az happened in previous seasons)

Benficaa holds a special place in my heart, az this woz mee 300th groond watchin a Toon team at the PROPER and ANLY Stadium of Light, in Lisbon!— (See top photo!) 
It woz aalso grandson Jamie’s 16th birthday yesterday— A game he will now never forget!๐ŸŽ‚ 

Happy days are here again in wor see-saw season!



Attendance: 52,073 (2,500 from the Portuguese capital)๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น 

*It torned oot to be a very lang day, az wor lass had to be at The Freeman hospital in the east end of The Toon for ‘7.30am bells ๐Ÿ””’

She didn’t get oot til ‘5.20pm bells ๐Ÿ””’ and by this time the rush hour traffic woz horrendous!

It took 1 hour to drive yem (normally 20 minutes!) and by the time aa dumped mee canny tranny, jumped on a bus and got to the tornstiles with just half an hour to kick off —-and massive queues to get in az well!

Thankfully aa made the kick off, just in time to hear The Champions Leegue music blasting from the loudspeakers—and the rest, az they say, iz history! ⬇️





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