Dan the man.Black and white, sitting on top, doing alright! That’s Newcastle United, after another win in front of the watching Sky cameras puts us in the driving seat after five games. Leicester City came to town and although The Foxes showed wily endeavour in the first half, it would be hard to argue that the result was anything but a fair reflection of the game overall.
Having secured some match company for a change, I managed to borrow a season-ticket from an old mate who couldn’t make it. He still sits in the same seat we secured when the Sir John Hall stand first went up and so it was a flashback to my younger years as my temporary match mate managed to buy a ticket for my old seat.
Managing to break the car parking ticket machine at Durham station, we jumped on the 18.35 train, hopeful that we wouldn’t return to a £60 fine. The train got us into town with plenty of time spare and by the time we collected his ticket and made our way to the Sir John Hall stand, we also thankfully missed the downpour that some unlucky punters didn’t!
A couple of beers and a pie later and we took our seats just below the Leicester fans and below and to the left of ‘the noisy section’. The atmosphere cranked up as the players lined up and with both sets of supporters in decent voice, everyone, including the players, seemed keen to defy the elements. (more…)
Nolan strikes again.I didn’t realise that I’ be travelling up from London to SJP to cover this match, so it was all a bit of a rush, and I felt a little disoriented to find myself back inside the mothership at such short notice after some time away. Observations on my return were that the mighty SJP can be a bit of a big, echoey barn when there isn’t a huge crowd in there, though of course, 20,000 plus (a rough guesstimate) is of course more than respectable for a Championship team in a midweek Carling Cup match. Returning old boy and ‘Udders manager, Lee Clark got a friendly reception as expected, and things seemed to be happy enough at this stage.
Nee Stevie Tayla, not even on the bench was the word when the teams trotted out, though the also absent Collocini received less mention, despite a decent performance last time out. The crowd sounded in fairly good voice anyway, despite the stadium being half empty. I was looking forward to having a look at Kadar again, in what was to be his debut start, along with wor Kazenga LuaLua. The much anticiapted young Slovenian destroyer, Haris Vuckic, who was rumoured to be playing a role tonight, was only on the bench though apparently. On a gossipy note, the latest ownership candidates, Barry Moat and latecoming Uncle Fester-a-like, Graham Sheard, didn’t seem to be in attendance this evening. (more…)
