Before I begin this latest piece about Newcastle United, I would like to pay tribute to our recently deceased former player and manager Willie “Iam” McFaul. The Coleraine native, whose cousin I went to university with as a matter of fact, was the first NUFC keeper I can remember, though recollections of his career (Hereford and the 1974 Cup final apart) remain sketchy as I was only 10 when he finished playing. I do remember his managerial stint with great affection though. In the generally grim post Keegan era back in Division 1, McFaul took over from Jack Charlton in 1985 and did his very best in the role, despite the incompetence of the board at the time, overseeing a particularly enjoyable 1987/1988 campaign that saw us reach the dizzy heights of 8th place. Sadly, that was as good as it got and, a week after overseeing a magnificent 2-1 away win at Anfield on his birthday at the start of October, which I missed after falling asleep in The Cooperage, waking at 3.30 and having to walk home exhausted, consequently missing my lift, he was dismissed following a catastrophic 3-0 home loss to Coventry. It was a sad end for a great club servant. In August 1990, I met him in the departure lounge at the airport, waiting for a flight to Belfast, and we exchanged a few words. A nice man. A great club servant and one who was shamefully underappreciated by the club who neglected to have a minute’s silence or applause before the Forest game. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam, as I doubt his family would say.
So,
another seven games have taken place in the window of opportunity between the
international breaks and being honest, it has been more good news than bad for
Newcastle United. David “Hoppy” Hopkinson has taken up his role as Newcastle
United’s Chief Executive Officer, immediately winning a sartorial thumbs up
from True Faith, who’ve always enjoyed mixing with the club elite since
the days of Chris Mort’s tenure, for attending the Wolves game in an elegantly
cut business suit. After all, that’s what it’s all about. Isn’t it?
Never mind rummaging through your wardrobe for a nice silk tie, the build up to Wolves was predictably challenging. Both Ramsey and Wissa were ruled out through injury, with the latter not expected back until November now. Even though he’s not kicked a ball for us yet, I reckon he’s still done more for his new club than former Brentford associate Mbuemo has for Man United. The first 20 seconds against Wolves was a hair-raising opening, but we settled in well, won the game courtesy of a brilliant Woltemade header and really were in cruise control until about 65 minutes when we ran out of ideas. A clearly jetlagged Bruno really ought to have been hooked in retrospect. I was delighted Ben got a ticket for this one, while I enjoyed it from the comfort of TCC pavilion, after incessant rain had brought about the premature curtailment of the final cricket day of the 2025 season. Ben informed me of the presence of numerous day trippers in the crowd which, on the back of the Dundee High School Barcelona fiasco, is something Hoppy should turn his attention to with great rapidity. Once his whistle and flute is back from the dry cleaners of course... Incidentally, I’m delighted that NUST are forensically examining data provided to them by supporters about ticketing problems. This is excellent news and exactly what the group is supposed to be doing. Although I’d trust they are keeping a weather eye on the quality of attire sported in the boardroom.
Next up was Barcelona and the start of the Champions’ League campaign. As I’ve not got Sky or a firestick and didn’t fancy being squashed into a sweaty pub, I went to the gym instead, as I had done for the Liverpool game. Same thing happened. I walked down my street just before 8pm, hearing the roars of the crowd and the walk-on music drifting on the breeze. Stirring stuff. Should I have watched it? Well 75 minutes later, 525 calories burned, and 15 kilometres moved, probably not. I’d a feeling we’d get beat, especially with the side we put out lacking any real strikers, but it was a decent effort and not the 4-0 thumping I’d feared. With this new format of the CL to contend with, we basically need to focus on finishing between 9th and 24th, to have a shot at a last 16 tie, as the top 8 is probably beyond us. Consequently, the Barca result wasn’t a disaster, though it would have been if we’d not taken anything from the away trip to Bournemouth, remembering how they’d wiped the floor with us at SJP last season.
Thankfully, this didn’t happen. In fact, nothing really happened in our third, sterile 0-0 away game of the season. Truth be told, it was a desperately poor spectacle that befitted the presence of Joe Willock on the pitch. We could have had a penalty for a shove on Woltemade, Thiaw was class, but could have been sent off, and Pope made a decent save from a Kluivert free kick. That was about it. In fact, the major talking point on Tyneside was the vicious falling-out between Anarchy and Wylam breweries, as regards the beer brewed as a fundraiser for Wor Flags. Now my take on this is that I much prefer Wylam’s hideously expensive brews to Anarchy’s, which I’ve always found bland and flavourless. Wor Beer isn’t anything to write home about, and I’ve only ever drank it to show support to Wor Flags. The unseemly shouting about trademarks and intellectual property rights does nobody any good. It’s about time they both stopped playing wor.
And now we come to the Bradford game, which I managed to get a ticket for. I’ll admit that a did get very anxious in all the crowds before and after the game, but it was good to talk to Glenn, Helen and Jack at various times during the evening. They may not realise it, but they helped to calm me down and ground me. It is a big irony that in a crowd of 75 at Percy Main, I know far more people than one of 52k at SJP. Anyway, once I’d got inside (thanks to Ben for the spare phone with Google Wallet installed, as my faithful old BlackBerry is no longer compatible with the app), I had a great view from the Leazes East Stand corner. From that vantage point I had a perfect sight of our new kick off routine; one straight from the John Beck School of Total Football, whereby the ball is launched straight out of play near the opposition’s penalty box, which we then swarm before the throw in is taken. It isn’t pretty, but in this strange new era of long throws and route one clearances, it seems to be what Pep, Arteta and that Baldy Fraud at Anfield are going all in with. To be honest, it was a stroll in the park once we’d gone ahead. Thiaw and Miley both impressed me tremendously and Woltemade’s sparkling cameo allowed me a chance to see his twinkling toes at close quarters. He’s going to be some player. Nice that lifelong NUFC fan Andy Cook scored a raker for Bradford, even if VAR would have chalked it off for handball. Raucous support for The Bantams from their sizeable travelling contingent as well. A club I’ve always had a soft spot for.
That is not something I could ever say about Arsenal. Despite their long and distinguished history, I hold them in contempt, mainly because of their insistence on appointing snidey little narcissists with a persecution complex as managers. I really can’t stand Arteta and the worst thing about the deserved loss to them was how happy it made him. Anguish and disappointment was engendered because of their goals coming so late, but if they’d scored after 66 and 74 not 86 and 94 minutes, nobody would have complained about the outcome. It was a crushing blow because of context not performance, and that’s why it was time to step up. One win in 6 league games and three home defeats in all competitions is not good enough at the end of September. Yes, there have been many mitigating factors. The writing-off of August’s games because of Isak’s petulance is one excuse. The injuries that plague us constantly, with Tino added to the list of those missing after this loss, is another. Another thing that has to change is me going to the gym when we’re playing at home, as this has, perhaps coincidentally, been where I’ve followed our losses to Liverpool, Barca and Arsenal.
I really wish I’d been able to go to RUSG in Brussels, but that was always a non-starter, so instead I went to Ben’s for my tea and enjoyed both a lovely pasta and broccoli dish and our most pleasing performance thus far. It has been a decent while since Newcastle United walked all over the opposition and, frankly, I could happily watch more of this. It was a dominant performance from first whistle to last, with the added bonus of Elanga and Gordon finally finding their rhythm, though every player put in a great shift. Never have I been happier to see us sitting comfortably in 11th place after the games were over. I was also delighted to hear that our fans had an excellent trip over there. Now we need to bring that level of intensity and ruthlessness into our league form.
Guess what? We did against Forest. Alright so the first half was a bit sluggish, but the unchanged team after Wednesday stepped it up after the break and won with ease. Forest are a shadow of last season’s outfit with Postecoglu in (temporary?) charge and didn’t really lay a glove on us. We scored two absolute belters, with Bruno’s strike a beautiful finish and Woltemade’s penalty a serious contender for Goal of the Month. To be frank, it is a shame we’re heading into an international break. Bruno himself admitted as much, just before jetting off to Seoul and Tokyo to play in a couple of mindless friendlies for Brazil. Let’s just hope he comes back unscathed and in better form than last time. I wish the same to all our players who are away. Roll on Brighton on Saturday 18th at the unheard of kick off time of 3pm. Let’s see what Hoppy autumn casual threads look like that day when we hopefully play out another 0-0 draw.
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