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Opinion

Apologies to the Denton Burn boot boys

9 years ago
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Well beforehand I would have probably taken a point, the thought of a smug Pardew tasting victory over the Newcastle fans would have been a little painful and cringeworthy.

What was disappointing last night though, was the way we surrendered to settle for a draw, removing Cabella and Cisse for defensive players was a very grim message for us.

When John Carver got the job he reiterated over and over that he would change the way we play to a more exciting variant, well the Stoke and Palace games have completely contradicted that, boring self-contained mediocre football

(To feature like Brian, send in your articles for our website to contribute@themag.co.uk)

Earlier this season we beat Man City at the Etihad, grabbing an early lead before soaking up the inevitable pressure and hitting them on the break, each time we went forward it looked like we could score, did we have a goal threat in the second half last night?

Last night at half time and we were winning 1 – 0, talk around me was of going for it second half, possibly bringing on Obertan and use his pace to run up the wing against tiring legs, opportunities would surely come. Instead we tried to hang on for a 1 – 0 win.

Of course we would have been delighted to win the game but inevitably the ‘let’s shoot ourselves in the foot again plan’ resurfaced. From then on Carver lost his bottle and reverted to a standard 7 – 2 – 1 formation, if Palace had got a second there was no way back.

Only a fine Tim Krul save from free transfer Brede Hangeland left us with a share of the points, oh did I say free transfer Brede Hangeland? When we needed a centre-half we did not look at him once and the fact is he is a fine player and a threat at set-pieces, clearly not in our remit!

So we have a week off as we again declined our invitation to participate past the the 3rd round of the FA cup. So let us hope one or two can be refreshed, Ayoze Perez springs to mind because he puts in solid shift after shift, topped with sublime skills.

Earlier this week I did a piece reminiscing of the old Leazes End and I thought the comments that people attached to the article were excellent and I thank you lot for that. For me sitting in the ‘A’ wing paddock looking up into the giant cavern and its goings on is a memory never to go, I must offer apologies to Denton Burn boot boys for not including them in the article!

If anyone has any tales of Leazes End adventures then I am all ears, I know the antics continued in ‘the corner’ and ‘the scoreboard’ but without the roof it somehow lost something, I now await some keyboard bashing from Gallowgate End stalwarts.

Changing the subject, one of our former players Joey Barton continued doing what he does best, winding up Sunderland fans. I don’t care what anyone says about Joey but I like him and I was disappointed when he left us, despite all his baggage he is a fine footballer who should have played for England many times. My best memory of him is first game back in Premier League up here and hitting a rasper past Aston Villa to set us on our way to a revenging 6 – 0 victory.

Talking of Villa, they are next up here and it was delightful to see them slide into the bottom 3, It would be joyous to see both they and their loyal fans slip from the premier league.

Do I hold a grudge from a few years ago? Clearly yes, however I won’t be painting any taunting slogans onto bed sheets, quite why they did is still a little beyond me?

Their suggestion of Ant and Dec as our new messiahs can’t be reciprocated because I can’t think of any celebrity Villa fans, apart from some spotty bloke who plays a fiddle or something.

So in conclusion, John Carver tells lies and has no bottle , the Old Leazes End was great, I clearly have a strange love for Joey Barton and I obviously dislike Aston Villa!

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