The Fish

That's about 5 higher than I was expecting from you.

Not criticising him, he's been all right and done what we've asked. That said, he's fluffed a few good chances and is a pretty stationary targetman which likely wouldn't have worked out well against Brighton's two monoliths.

Don't you bloody dare... Trying to get credit for Fishtradamus' predictions!

My bed is positively arid.

This totally happened in real life.

To be honest, after the Brighton game I'd be confident of all three points from anyone aside from Huddersfield (or a team in their form at least). But we're without Gayle, we're still playing Jack fucking Colback and we're still making daft mistakes at the back. Huddersfield are in great form, they're set up in a way that could undo Benitez's available options. Huddersfield have; lots of movement, lots of pressure on the ball, lots of possession. I'd be more confident if Mitrovic and Murphy looked assured up front, but they don't.

What's with the 5+? it's 4+! Are you trying​ to ruin my spreadsheet?

Hence our frankly offensive GD. Even when we do lose a league game, we're rarely spanked. In fact, we've only lost by more than 1 goal once, against Wolves.

One thing I don't get is their claim that the only reason they don't have comparable attendances to us is that we're a one club city. Villa have a huge catchment area (Birmingham Metropolitan area population = c3.7m ) from which they can claim a core Aston Villa fan base? Even if you permit that Birmingham City, West Brom, Walsall and Wolves eat into the available population, those clubs aren't exactly flooding their stadiums either. It's not competition that's keeping people from Villa Park, it's a lack of interest.

8)

I want Rafa as DoF and me as Head Coach.

I like the concept of a Director of Football; someone who can mould long time strategies in the boardroom, in the transfer market, in the stands, in the community and on the training grounds. Unburdened by short term views of results on the pitch and who can plan for the next step, a good example of that is Southampton replacing Adkins, who did well to get them into the Premier League, with Pochettino who kicked them on a level. Aston Villa should stick with Bruce, as he's likely to get them up soon, but already be planning for life in the Premier League.

1-1 to Huddersfield I reckon. NUFC to Score 0 - 1 - The Fish, Park Life, Rayvin, Renton, David Kelly, OTF, Holden McGroin, Kevin Carr's Gloves, wykikitoon, tooner, Kitman, acrossthepond, barnabox, @yourservice, Happy Face 2 - rogerbarton, TheGingerQuiff, MiddleAgeCool, StoneColdStephenIreland, Lackie92, strawb, ohhh_yeah, Ant, LooneyToony, Tom, ewerk 3 - Dr Gloom, Howay, Andrew, zico martin, Anorthernsoul, Dougle, scoobos 4+ - NUFC to Concede 0 - rogerbarton, Howay, David Kelly, OTF, StoneColdStephenIreland, Holden McGroin, Kevin Carr's Gloves, wykikitoon, Ant, Happy Face, Tom, scoobos, ewerk 1 - The Fish, Park Life, Dr Gloom, Andrew, TheGingerQuiff, zico martin, Lackie92, tooner, strawb, Kitman, acrossthepond, Dougle, LooneyToony 2 - Rayvin, Renton, Anorthernsoul, ohhh_yeah, barnabox, @yourservice 3 - 4+ - MiddleAgeCool

Noelie's pessimism is forgivable, Trooper's... not so much.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/newcastle-natter-nufc-podcast/id567766877?mt=2

Maybe. Putting every prediction into a chart is the laborious part, after that, it's just messing around with tables and whatnot. Although @yourservice's name is a pain in the arse.

Majority of the listeners seem to come from abroad, so a lot of my horseshit slips by without too much scrutiny

@@Happy Face That reminds me, do you have a spreadsheet with the fixtures and predictions on it, of have you just eyeballed it?

End of the season (if I've time) I can probably calculate how that would have affected the final table. Can also work out our average scoreline and see who deviates most from it, and so on.

I honestly think I do more research for my unpaid, ramshackle podcast than these professional pundits do for their actual job.

on any reference to their Beach Ball goal "No where near as lucky, no matter how many times you mags trot it out. A shot on target, hits a big fuck off balloon that's in front of the goal and goes in. Yours was a mis hit shot that is going for a throw, that then hits another player that then deviates it onto another players heel and it then loops into the only place it would go in."

He wasn't wrong.

I should get points for predicting the opposite scoreline. I'm not above pity points.