David Kelly

Bowen isn't a striker anyway. Hopefully we've learned our lesson with Joelinton that it's not a good idea signing someone to play in a position he doesn't normally play in. I'm with KD, whilst I hate Ashley and what he's done to the club, I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to see us win and it seems insane for anyone to want Joelinton to fail. Mind it's harder to enjoy the wins when we've played utter shite in most of them. The odd win against the run of play is a hoot but when it's the majority of games it does bring the mood down.

Plenty of canny bars just opposite the station too. I've never been in any of them before or just after the match like but I assume they'd be decent and there's certainly a few that serve canny bait. The Strawberry and Rosie's are both good shouts for bars round the ground with a bit match day atmosphere. I'd throw the Trent House into that mix too.

I see Bairstow is taking his test form into the ODI arena.

The Lighthouse. Shite.

SA putting up more of a fight today than they looked like they had in them.

Our bowling got a bit ragged to the final pair there but it's been a superb test for us. Pope looks like he's going to be a real class player for us.

Not exactly exciting but our midfield is dog shit so he might improve it.

1917. Thought it was well made but the lack of any real story means it's only good rather than great imo.

You might not get all 3000 in one place like.

Don’t think there really is any away fan pubs in Newcastle. But there’s nowhere that will stop you from coming in just because you’re an away supporter. There’s thousands of parking spaces and hundreds of bars within a mile of the ground.

I've seen it, it's one of the best fakes I think I've ever seen. I was more impressed by the work that had gone into it than I was with the actual content

Spoilers man ffs.

Is creating anything for the forwards not a problem too? I'm well past defending Joelinton now but our midfield is absolute dog shit that never controls a game or gets the ball to our attackers in decent positions.

The Gentlemen. If you still want anything at all from Guy Ritchie these days, this is probably what you want. Gangster film in the same vein as Lock Stock and Snatch. Not as good as them but still a canny watch. I particularly liked Hugh Grant and Colin Farrell.

Can we not get him signed on for the Toon? Or perhaps get him to front a buy out?

Glad I've been off sick the last couple of days as it allowed me to watch five day test cricket in all its glory. Stokes is an absolute freak. To put in a bowling performance like that at the end on a dead pitch after being amazing in the field and lasing their bowlers all over the park was truly staggering. Good to see performances from Sibley and Pope too.

Really liked the new Star Wars, much better than the last one. Seen Jojo Rabbit the other day and thought it was excellent.

You think? We had 27% possession against an average team. They had numerous chances to score and it's really only Dubravka who prevented that. We only managed a couple of attacks all game. It could have easily went the same way as the Villa game imo.

We could have easily got no points from the last two games and it wouldn't have been undeserved. We can't continue to play this badly and keep winning games, our inspired manager needs to come up with a plan to put the pressure back on the opposition when we're playing the other weaker sides. That said a wins and win and it's difficult to be anything other than very happy with 7 points from the last three games.

I see tory boy has resigned.

Yeah I agree Shelvey doesn't help, I actually think Ki keeps possession better when he's on his game, which unfortunately isn't regularly enough. Getting the ball up to Rondon quickly might have made some sense but what are we doing now? Shelvey doesn't play every game and you can probably look over the last 3 seasons and we'll barely have a game that we had the lions share of possession. So if we have players capable keeping possession why don't we? Like you I think we need a good defensive midfielder.

I actually agree with a lot of what Wilder said. When he says it after his team didn't play to the whistle, something you're told to do at school let alone when you're a professional footballer, and they've thrown away a game, it just sounds like sour grapes. VAR is still shite and will kill the game.

I can't say that I've seen any evidence of our midfield being able to keep the ball mind. If they can why aren't they? Have Rafa's and now Bruces tactics been to purposely give away possession? Sean Longstaff maybe the one who could change this but not alongside Hayden.

Had he good sense not to support them though. RIP. Seems like he was a really good bloke too.

Aye Root doesn't seem to be a very good captain. Some of his field set ups and use of bowlers seems to be way off. It's difficult to imagine who else could replace him though. We've got quite a few players now (the openers, Denly, Pope, Curran, Archer) who are very inexperienced when it comes to international cricket and I'm not sure if any of them have ever captained a team. The leaves Broad who would certainly waste all our DRS appealing his own balls, Stokes or Butler as options. There's not an obvious replacement there.