Noelie

eeeeh aa knaa, an drippin' samwitches fer bait wer a treat. Seriously, is anyone old enough or can even remember the 'cinder pitch'? also known as the 'red pitch'. It was next to 'Huwoods' mining machinery factory on the Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead. If you were going down Bensham Road heading to Lobley Hill it was right there on the left next to the road right next to the Huwoods factory, in fact I think it belonged to Huwoods. There wasn't many places to play footie when I was a kid during the war, most schools that had playing fields had them made into garden allotments. Used to play a lot on the North Durham Cricket Ground during the war, weren't supposed to but it was in awful shape and the pavilion had been gutted. Played on that pitch a lot as a kid and had the cinder burns to prove it. It was a small pitch and I'm not sure if it was cinders or gravel but it certainly wasn't grass or dirt, and it was red in colour. Not joking, and believe it or not, but I saw Hughie Gallagher kicking around on that pitch when he worked at Huwoods.

Aw Tom how the world has changed, I remember "Clarkies" transport to away games was the back of a covered lorry with wooden benches for the players to sit on. Very relaxing on cobbled streets.

When I saw the photos of him on Sunday, and having watched my wife slowly die of cancer last August, I knew Bobby was not going to be with us much longer but in less than a week came with a great sadness. He was undoubtably a big asset to football in general and especially to Newcastle and England and I had the good fortune and honour to meet him, hold a short conversation with him, and shake his hand. He was a gentleman, a man among men, and my heart goes out to his family.

Whinivver aa git ower hyem aa aalwus gan past yon Hall on me way to or from Seaton Sluice, gorra 'ave fish 'n chips at the Waterford Arms ye knaa, like.

As much as I admire Keegan and what he did for us both as a player and a manager I can't help but have that niggling little doubt that he's capable of walking out of the kitchen when it gets unsuitably hot for his liking. He has a track record for doing that so I will go with Shearer. New blood, new broom, new league, new start, and maybe Shearer could bring to the Toon what Keegan did in his first shot at management after an illustrious career as a player.

Clarification please chez, in America fanny is at the back, in England fanny is at the front, so when you say you are a bit of a fanny man yourself is it safe to ass-ume you mean from the front.

How so? in what way? for the better or worse? As I recall, my folks never went to a swimming gala to watch me compete, never saw me play water-polo in the then Northumberland & Durham Water Polo League, and never ever saw me play football and I played a lot, school football, Gateshead boys, Clarke Chapmans apprentices. Supported me in their own way, bought me anything I needed without question, but were never spectators.

In my day there was what were known as 'street gangs', not gangs as they are thought of today but lads in the street who played and knocked around together, I was a member of the Claremont Street gang. Funnily enough all the lads in my gang gravitated towards swimming and water-polo and spent most of their time at the baths whereas I was the only one who loved and wanted to play football. Actually I tagged along and was into the swimming & water-polo thing but kicked a ball around every chance I got, even mingled with other gangs if they were having a kick-around. Used to get on the Windmill Hills on Saturdays and kick-around all day, Bobby Pattinson used to kick-around there too. Wasn't unusual to to be kicking a tenny on the way home from school and many's the time I've played with a tin-can as a ball(mam used to get mad at the scuffed shoes) I think the telly began the downfall of kids playing footie.

If you are referring to Ashley as the fat cunt I would suggest you direct your anger elsewhere on this occasion. The fat cunt had nothing to do with this atrocious result. It had everything to do with the players on the field and gawd knows there were enough of them out there, and the jokers who put them out there who obviously still don't have a clue as how to field a winning line up when your only absentees are Bassong, Ameobe & Rtaylor and you're playing a League 1 team. Nolan as centre-forward? gimme a fucking break.

Raised up in Bensham and at an early age was a Gateshead supporter until I switched to the Toon. Never ever heard anything about a Newcastle vote being responsible for sinking Gateshead into non-league football. No old Gateshead supporters can forget that Cup run in 1952-53 when they put Crewe(2-0), Bradford Park Avenue(2-1), Liverpool(1-0), Hull City(2-1), Plymouth Argyle(2-1) to the sword. Sadly losing to Bolton Wanderers(1-0) on a Nat Lofthouse goal.

Shearer for me. Experience? ...not much by any standards but the last 8 games of a relegation season is tatamount to on the job training on the fast-track. Experience? ...look at the likes of Keegan, Ince, Keane, and others who did well in their first management job.

Well I'm 76 going on 93 and I've only been in Roker Park once, aye once, and that was to watch Georgie Best & Bobby Charlton and the Man'ure team that wasn't disliked then as much as it is now.

If Ashley or his advisors had any sense at all they would hire Shearer as manager right now so he could start some damage control before the season opener is upon us and it's too late to stop the downwards spiral. The longer Ashley continues down this path the less chance he has of getting the Club sold for what he is asking, he's either going to take it off the market again or make a panic sale whereby he'll lose more than the shirt he has already lost through his stupidity. Even if it were on a short-term contract like his last one it couldn't hurt, in fact his appointment could be deemed as an asset by potential buyers who in all probability would appoint him anyway. A team in such disarray and with no manager to boot is hardly a good shop-window display to tempt in buyers.

Possibly but not necessarily. For some reason the brain seems to be an easy target for things other than cancer.

Scary stuff indeed and to learn and understand stuff about cancer can be overwheming. I'm far from being an authority but have had two associations with the Big C and know a little about it. Brain cancer is rarely the primary source, more often it has metastasised from some other primary source in the body. (I had a brain tumour in 1993 and it was primary, didn't come fom somewhere else and didn't go anywhere else) Most cancers can and often will metastasise to the brain.(my wife died last year from breast cancer which had found its way to the brain. Brain cancer is often miscalled, if you have breast cancer, lung cancer, or testicular cancer, and it travels to the brain and you die you have not died from brain cancer, you have died from the primary source. Cancer which has travelled to the brain is not easily treated with chemotherapy as there is something known as a 'blood brain barrier' which stops chemicals from being able to pass to the brain. The brain is somewhat of a safe haven for cancer because of this barrier. Testicular cancer is sensitive to, and easily treated with chemotherapy but if it travels to the brain that's a different story.

I think the same way on that point, I think the majority of new young players who are first team possibles need to be given a run of games to see if they are any good for us.

Porribly, but certainly not Wok on, wok on wiv hope in yer 'eart.

I'm one of those who believe a bad referee is better than no referee at all so I would have to think that a new owner would have to be better than an owner who has fucked-up, and thinking that the new owner would endeavour to give it his best shot and hopefully not have the same disaster occur on his watch.

How aboot Robson Green? he must have a few bob. And wot aboot Whately and Nail? they must be flush as weel.

Not bothered, cancelled after the Villa match and doubt I will renew as they didn't show many championship games anyway.

I didn't know they made them out of marzipan

They say marriage is an Institution. They say crazy folk are put in an Institution. So you've been committed eh?

I believe it was purely a business venture which he thought could be made profitable in conjunction with his other sports related holdings and something he could use for personal pleasure. Unfortunately he was oblivious to how a football club was ran and obviously did not surround himself with the right people. The hiring of Keegan appeared to be a business masterstroke but to bring in Wise was an incredibly un-wise business move and Ashley did not seem to have enough business smarts to shuffle the deck and deal a winning hand. Too many jokers in the pack and not enough ace advisors.

Shepherd on the bridge, Shearer at the helm, and perhaps an able-bodied crew aboard, doesn't sound too bad for the lower deck now does it? Shepherd did some bad things but he was instrumental in bringing Shearer to us in the first place wasn't he. He's a Geordie, he bled Black n' White, maybe he's learned from his past mistakes and could prove to be the right one. I don't like what he did and how he conducted himself but I'd give him a second chance if it came down to the wire.

I'm glad you mentioned that. I can't help but feel that the longer the negotiations take the less chance there is of Shearer being hired.