O's are still in Toon

OUR trip to Newcastle obviously dominated my week and I'm happy to say we're still in with a shout for tomorrow's second leg.

On the field we did exceptionally well to hold them to 2-0 but I take away with me several memories of the whole experience.

My biggest disappointment is not getting one of the Newcastle players' shirts afterwards. This was for no other reason than there wasn't anyone near me when the final whistle went.

Kieron Dyer's No8 is the one I've got my eyes on when they come down to Brisbane Road and maybe he'll want mine in return - to wash his car with!

Poor old Dean Smith also got bombed out  he spent the whole game chasing Alan Shearer and when he went to get the great man's jersey after the match he was informed that Richard Garcia had already asked for it before the kick-off.

Our whole routine was completely alien to anything we were used to but the nerves didn't really get to me. When we arrived on the Tuesday afternoon we had a late training session at a local school to get the journey out of our legs.

I was expecting a bit of a turnout from eager youngsters wanting to meet some pro footballers but the weather was absolutely minging and obviously no one up there wants an autograph THAT badly.

That night I went with Matty Joseph, Iyseden Christie and Scott Barrett to watch Sunderland play Luton at the Stadium of Light. I thought that would give us an idea of the atmosphere we would expect the next day and it really was a good experience.

I was hoping to see my old QPR team-mate Daniele Dichio at the game but he was suffering from a touch of Worthington Cup second round flu!

On the day of the match the lads spent most of their time in bed. Whiling away the hours can be pretty tough at a hotel but at least we had the Olympics on the box. Otherwise, we would have been stuck with This Morning and that would have been hell.

The game itself was an interesting affair.

It was hard because I felt like I was chasing shadows all night but then I learned a lot about what it's like at the higher level. For me, the biggest difference was the pace of every Newcastle player. They were lightning quick over the first 10 yards and that is a very handy weapon to have in your locker.

Following many congratulations we boarded the coach for the long journey home and were met with the smiling face of Barry Hearn. He had a grin on him like the Cheshire Cat.

Knowing that the tie's not over has prompted Bobby Robson to admit he'll bring a full strength team down to East London, and for Barry that means bums on seats.

After a quick stop at a service station with a load of O's fans, who were superb all through the match, we finally got back at around 4am. My old man was just on his way out to work so it was a quick 'See you later' and I crashed out until the afternoon.

When I did materialise from my bed I went with Scotty to see the unveiling of the new Mercedes C-class. The showroom had put on a right spread - champagne, buffet and red carpet for some mysterious celebrity guests.

A limo drew up and out stepped Lily Savage. Then two minutes later Will Smith showed up. He was followed by Naomi Campbell, Diana Ross, Prince Charles and Prince William. Well, at least they looked like these people from about 200 yards away and behind tinted windows!

Up close they looked nothing like who they were supposed to be. All this fanfare and the best Mercedes could come up with was this. Tacky doesn't even come close to describing it.

For a second I pondered putting a deposit down on one of the cars but I was #30,000 short of the #32,000!

On Friday it was training as usual and then Saturday could not have been more like after the Lord Mayor's Show.

Lincoln were the typical Division Three team  launch it long and hope your strikers can get on the end of it. Welcome back to reality.

We got the win we needed thanks to a goal by Sniffer Griff and now we turn our attentions back to the Geordie boys.

Training has been no different than normal except that I was picked out for a random drugs test on Monday  must have been my super-charged display at St James' that looked suspicious!

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2000

Answers

I wish wor lads would pen something like this. It just shows, the gulf between the EPL and the Nationwide is more than just on the pitch.

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2000

I want to see us put 8 past this lot tonight. They may be nice lads at Orient, but if Bradford can get 7 against Darlo, we've got to stuff this bunch good and proper.

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2000

Apparently Darlington fielded a team of reserves in the Worthington Cup last night in order to save their first team for the promotion campaign!

I still hope we put at least five past them tonight.

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2000

I'll be happy(ish) if they don't put 3 more past us than we put past them :-(

-- Anonymous, September 26, 2000