Matt

I was in Lancaster this weekend and got up to find a good 2-3 inches of snow. Trying to get out from the street I was staying in was fun, I turned left and the car faced left, but then glided gently to the far side of the road- Thankfully there was no oncoming traffic. It's absolutely covered across North Lancs and though the South Lakes. M6 by Shap was extremely dodgy.

Obsessed!

I should be there at some stage pre-match. Post match not sure.

Forget wives tales, get some of them Lemsip direct powders. You eat the stuff like sherbet. It's not very nice, but it does the business. Have a load of them and you won't be conscious enough to feel ill.

Possible for a quick hello, not totally sure though.

See you there!

Keane: "You can't tell at all boss, honest. Look, I'm sorry, I won't put Viagra in with your Tic-Tacs again"

God help those of us in employment who are unable to make a banner and camp out for 3 days in advance.

Next week we'll be finishing a project at work, so we get to go out for a meal. Now I've been charged with fixing it up for next Wednesday (so I won't even be able to go due to the Charlton game). My knowledge of the Newcastle restaurant scene is pretty scratchy given that I live 8 miles up the road. It needs to be somewhere relatively nice without being super-pricey- there'll be 12-15 of them in total, but work pays. People haven't decided what sort of cuisine- obviously choices are indian or chinese but just say whatever you reccomend. Ta.

Mick Lowes went off on one about it this morning. But then, the way he seemed to force O'Neill onto everyone made him sound like a right cockend.

With the exception of the 'down south' bit, that's exactly the sort of article written about him in his early days up here.

He'd be able to chat to Luque easy enough then.

Apparently he can speak Swiss. That's how clever he is!

It was worth it just for the definition of the Dirty Bristow.

Maestro.... Count me in.

Infinitely better this season than last. By his own admission he wasnt training as hard as he could have been but this year he's given it a real go and it's starting to show on the pitch. In an interview the other week he said he's now enjoying his football for the first time since he was at Villa. Not scored many goals, but weighed in with a 30-yarder the other week.

Played pretty well, actually. He's not been playing reguarly of late so came off after about an hour- he looks knackered. There are some handy footballers in the Blyth side at the moment and yesterday saw some long-overdue shexhy football.

He's not short of a few bob. He was on something like 10k a week, basically on the back of his one good game that you mentioned.

I always thought he looked like a non-league player when he turned out for us, so it'll be interesting to see if he can cut it in the Unibond league.

I'd be interested. I play best where minimal movement is involved. I'm the white Amdy Faye.

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/newcast...-name_page.html Perfect scenario. Moore is offered the chance to play for Australia if he goes upstairs and agrees to terminate his contract.

Plenty of businessmen would not take out the level of dividends that our lot. I don't have the figures to hand, but over the last few years only Man Utd have paid out more in dividends, with Old Trafford having been a cash-generating machine for years. I just think it's a little excessive. I wasn't thinking of 'chairmen' as a category as you would 'left winger' but more a general business sense. I can't comment on our chairmen past as they're before my time, but I can see why Shep and Co seem like saviours compared to their predecessors. Equally, we could have someone like Doug Ellis or Malcolm Glazer.

Plenty of chairmen would have done better, but then I can think of more than a few who would have done far worse. Shepherd, while using the club as a source of his disposable income, is controlled by the fans. Without the ticket sales, his empire is torpedoed. Which is why he in turn controls the fanbase with regular star signings and any positive spin that bums on seats on a season-by-season basis. The club should not have paid the level of dividends they have given the respective profit figures- but that is the choice of the people who own the club. It's their money either way, just a case of which account they're keeping it in. For all his faults, I'm not going to blame Shepherd for the Souness debacle. It was Hall who wanted Robson sacked and it's not as if Souness was our first choice. Or second or third of fourth for that matter.....

I'm sick of exams- won't finish my last one until 2007, having started the 'exam phase' in 1994. It has to end some day, doesn't it?

Hardly a groundbreaking study, all you need is a decade worth of Rothman's Annuals and an Excel spreadsheet. They must be handing out PhDs for fun these days. To suggest Southampton may have stayed up if they held on to boot cleaner Steve Wigley is madness.