Having been succesfully wound up last night by two mackems about their wonderful season bla bla bla and how crap we are bla bla bla - I realised that their vast superiority totaled a massive 6 points.

Effectively two wins difference in a season blighted by injuries to key players. Our own acknowledgement of our sides shortcomings makes me realise just how easily satisfied our mackem friends are.

Massive club, best supporters my arse.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Answers

Our two games gave them 3 points more than us, we just need to learn to beat them.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

are you the only team in the country to suffer injuries? are you fuck! you are just whinging twats who need to relise that your squad is not up to it. as for us and injuries we lost sorenson for about 8 games from the 1st game of the season. mccann did not play until december. schwarz did not play until decemder. rae was sent off then injured from january onwards. quinn has been in and out all season. arca was not available until september. varga was injured for about 2 months after only his second game for us. but do we whinge about it? nope. YOU LOT ARE GOING TO HAVE TO WAKE UP TO THE FACT THAT YOU ARE SORE FUCKING LOSERS.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Your spelling is definitely improving SK, but you really do need to work a little more on that punctuation and grammar. Extra homework for you at school this week me lad!

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

do you think i feel the need to use the shift keys when i am pointing out nufc's obvious failings.so obvious that you lot still cant see them.as for punctuation i feel i am displaying all the signs of your average bloke who left school in 1985 ie i dont have to use it now. the same for long division/multipication. i work in a large factory so things learnt at school are not really that relevent to me now. therefore if you are able tp point out my grammatical shortcomings it suggests to me that you are infact a schoolboy. watch you dont injure your finger when typing in a reply as it may effect your clubs performance next season as well!

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

superkev,

You are welcome to participate on this board and to defend your team to the utmost - even if this involves running down the Toon. As some of us indicated several times, it is good to be able to have feisty debate with fans of other teams - as we do with Lancaster Red who is a Man U fan.

However, you must cut down on the four letter abuse. It really isn't necessary mate, so come on play the game, and just debate the issues.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Sometimes you need profanities to get your point across.I mean would beverly hills cop be as funny without the lingo? Then again it does nowt for Chubby Brown! And of course there is no way that you or your mates sing your version of daydream believer is there?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

"but do we whinge about it? nope", yet the other day we were told half your record number of disciplinary points were for 'dissent' aka 'whinging'.

I have to admit that you were very magminimous about the Liverpool goal when a lot of other fans would have complained. You took the late Palace postponement, and subsequent defeat without a hint of distress. Even gaining 13 points from the last 11 games and not qualifying for Europe hasn't even prompted you to bemoan what might have been by phoning up 606 and berating your chairman live to the nation.

I know this won't impress you at all but I'll go for it anyway. I think we have similar sized squads, nether of us is really able to say we have the squads to allow rotation in the way Liverpool Man U and Chelsea can. In the best Softie style ....

	NUFC	SAFC
30+	4	7
20+	4	5
10+	10	2
Under 10	8	10
Total	26	24

Your 7th highest number of appearances this season is from Hutchison at 30. (Which means he must never have been injured ?). Our 7th best is 23 from Acuna, which matches up roughly with McCann for you. You highlight McCann as one of your missing players, we look upon Acuna as a regular ! As for Quinn being in and out, well his 32 appearances, tend to make that look like a wee white lie ?

Have to admit that Sunderland are better at gaining disciplianry points than Newcastle. 72 to 48, and 6 red cards to 5. Well done, although you lost out to Boro on being the absolute worst.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Do you not think that the answer maybe that our players actually want to play for us? As for your table of statistics,what is the saying again? there are lies,damned lies and statistics.Your referral to them are a desperate act of a man who relises that the sun is not shining on him anymore and he cannot stand it that his nearest and dearest have taken over . I am fully aware that you will say that we have not actually won owt and indeed this is correct.But we will soon,i know that and you know that and you can't handle it! In my view the premier league is alot more competitive than when you were riding high.There are now better players and more clubs 'going for it'. Face up to it ,your day has gone and you are scraping around for excuses.Oh and i am sooooo jealous of your 'blue chip players'?!?!?! y'know these 5 shearer,duck(?) barton,speed,and fucking barton as my skunk mates refer to him.What do you mean thats only 4???????

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

I think you meant to include Robert Lee.

I find it strange that you finish 6 points clear of us and you are going on to win things as you "we will soon,i know that and you know that and you can't handle it".

I don't see much difference between the teams finishing 7th to 13th ... 9 points all their optimists saying "next year". 9 points covering 2nd to 6th all in Europe all pulling away, all wanting to be in the Champions League.

Last year you did very very well to finish 7th. If it was good for you last year, it must be viewed as good this too.

I think the Premier League is far less competitive than when we were doing well. In 1996 when we finished 2nd there were 5 teams who had won the title in the previous 6 years. This year there are two teams who've won it in the previous 6. No depth any more.

If they are our 5 blue chip players then no wonder we've missed out with the them only managing 81 games between them this season.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

How nice, a Mackem comes in here whinging about how they finished higher than us. You'd think that would be something to be happy about but these Mackems find something negative in every situation.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

SK, why is it that you come on this board to attempt a wind up and then respond in such a petulant fashion to the mildest of wind ups in return? If you can't take it marra, don't dish it out.

"I am fully aware that you will say that we have not actually won owt and indeed this is correct.But we will soon,i know that and you know that and you can't handle it!" Wrong, I can handle anything you care to throw at me - we are talking football here. Get things in perspective please.

"Sometimes you need profanities to get your point across." Only if your command of the English language is not sufficiently adept to do it by any other means.

SK this is a NEWCASTLE forum. Come on here by all means to voice your opinion. I'm always interested to hear an alternative point of view. Please stop resorting to the sort of incoherent ramblings we have witnessed above, however, just because we might not agree with you.

Have you considered therapy for your ailment?

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Strangely enough, we're reflecting on the season As a disaster, yet Mackems think it’s some kind of success to finish outside Europe. Not withstanding the reletive postitions, the great thing about us when we were riding high was the way we did it. Would we have rather won the league, I’m not sure if it would have given us as mush pleasure. The first season after promotion remains my favourite purely for the total football.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

This has the effect of the Mackems now stretching their unbeaten run in Europe to something like 28 years or so, a phenomenal achievement that we should applaud in my view.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Macbeth your reliance on statistics is quite astonishing.The fact that i missed out lee was 'cos yerman bobby said excatly the same thing on telly 5 days ago.Irony! Lets be fair here although i know fair is summit you struggle with,i was at sid james park in november and quite simply sherah did not scare me.He came across as a slow dirty player,nothing more.He doesn,t even have faith in himsell. Get a hold of the video and about 10 mins before 1/2 time you will seee him break clear of thome and makin. Instead of going for goal he dives and gets a freekick.why? The simple fact is we have been hearing for years that we were not up to it,now turn it around and try to be honest,name a safc/nufc 11. i'll start #1 tommy #2 barton/carteron-hmmmmm #3 gray #4 hutchinson #5 craddock #6 dabizas/thome/varga-to close to call #7 dyer-fullstop,no arguements #8 mccann #9 meseel-superkev #10 cort/quinn- youth versus experience???????? # arca............... no questions

i am sure you will find this interesting reading and i would be VERY surprised if you agreed but c'est la vie.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

Kevin, I have resisted answering to your posts for obvious reasons in the last few weeks , with the last one no foul language and at least an opinion of football in there. If you are aged between 16 - 28 as I suspect and never miss a match can I ask you a question that always worries me , `Why unless you play football on Sunday`s can you not get the boots on each Saturday`, its a great game you should try it, gets rid of a lot of frustration , there may be other reasons , medical,or your just not good enough, if so accept my apolgy.

In reply to your main question ie Newcastle/Sunlun team pick and and critism of Mac`s stats , well you pick a team very slanted to your own, okay your opinion , is that the height of your ambition for the club?, to be one point , three points , 6 points ahead of Newcastle ?

I have been involved in football over 50 years bonny lad , so lets get real , The only players that would get into the 6 yes six clubs ABOVE Sunlun in the final league placings are as follows -: Kieron Dyer of Newcastle Utd FC , Nolbert Solano of Newcastle Utd Fc. it`s a toss -up between yourself and Marcus Stewart of Ipswich . What do I base my opinion on , the teams in the top six and abroad who have expressed more than a strong interest in the two Utd players quoted , Philips has been press speculation. IMHO that both teams are crap this season , at least I know mine is , that`s the trick , unless you do not want real success !! It is more likely in the future to come to Newcastle than to Sunlun. I can expand on this just let say The Natural Born Replacement for Quinn , Koller,did he ??

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2001

The constant vitriol that passes between these 2 sets of fans is really stupid IMHO. Look at Bosnia, Rwanda, Northern Ireland and The Middle East to see where that kind of hatred and abuse leads.

The fact of the matter is that the 2 sets of fans are closer to each other in every sense than they are to any other fans in the country. Both speak the same accent (at least no Southerner could discern a difference), both are hugely passionate about 2 of the most underperforming clubs in the country, both come from the same region, a region ravaged by the decline of it's big industries and sorely neglected by politicians of both parties, so both share the same cultural, economic and social experience.

You won't hear me abusing Sunderland fans. As far as I'm concerned, they are excellent fans, and along with ourselves, the best in the country. Once again I'll plough my lonely furrow and say that friendly rivalry should be the order of the day. I think it would be wonderful if we could go to a derby at SOL or SJP with no segregation, fans mixing in the bars before and after and nothing more than friendly digs being made on both sides. Fat chance I know, but what a WONDERFUL advert it would be for the region if it could be achieved.

I know some of you don't like to hear this, but IMHO we are the same people so to call each other abusive names is completely pointless. The North East has suffered badly with the drift to the South. We have enough "enemies" outside of this region without fighting each other.

Love Thy Neighbour.

(Maybe I'll be crucified for this as well). :-)

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001

Buff you missed out Arca....i'd have him....although I'd make certain he was thoroughly washed first....

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001

It may be just six points, but in the Premiership that represents about 2-3 years' blood, sweat and toil to catch up.

You have 1 point less than last season, we also have 1 point less which suggests neither club has made any progress with respect to the other, but has very slightly dropped behind the pace of the division. Compare this to season 96/7 and you may have a more revealing statistic.

ML3

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001

Jonno, I think the older you get the more Sunderland tolerant you become. Five years ago I was a stand up if you hate Sunderland man. Now that I've reached 40 I'm starting to come round to your way of thinking.

Jonno, you are not alone.

-- Anonymous, May 21, 2001