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Wednesday                            Newcastle 

I was really looking forward to this game. I know that might sound daft to most folk that were expecting us to get a drubbing but that not only didn’t matter to me, I thought we were in a no lose situation.
Had we been playing Peterborough or Plymouth, the expectation levels would have been massive, as everyone would have DEMANDED a win.

As it was we had Newcastle.
Premiership club in waiting, no doubts about that and TBF everything pointed to us getting a right towelling today. So what did we have to lose?
The players couldn’t do worse than lose so they may as well give it a go and relax…well, not relax exactly but show us what they were made of…they didn’t let us down today.

I’d had a bad start to the day as we set off and got as far as Donny before I realised we’d left the season tickets behind and the wallet. Turned around and got back, only to realise we couldn’t actually find the season tickets.

We were now gonna be pushed to make kick off and I had Wyms tickets for him too…so he was gonna miss kick off too…We got Hoyland to queue up and get us a couple of tickets and we eventually beat our way through the traffic…on a day it seemed like every fookin slow driver in the world was out…FOOK!

We get parked up and start walking across the car park like a dog on lino….it was fookin deadly!
Icy as chuff.
You couldn’t get a bus ticket between the cheeks of my arse I was that tense walking over that ice and the young waint come anywhere near me. Fook that! She leaves her owd dad to tummell on his own…she doesn’t want me bringing her down with me.

Bassad!

I love it when Newcastle come to town…even on a day like this, shit weather, no public transport and not exactly a glamour tie these days, but they turn out in decent numbers and they make a lot of noise. I love it.

	We eventually got to our seats a minute or so after kick off so not too bad, just enough time to hand out the Darren Potter dodgy moustaches to everyone…mine looked a bit too ginger and a bit too natural TBH…I didn’t like it at all…. When Andy put his on he looked like Blakey off On The Buses and Stan looked like some criminal from Grand Theft Auto!
Grand Theft Auto		Andy

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THE MATCH
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I don’t intend to go into detail here as with it being on telly, most will have seen it but I hope everyone saw it how I did, as a cracking game and good bank holiday fare.

It was a smashing game of footy this between a good top of the table side and a side struggling at the wrong end…physical and skilful in equal measures. Newcastle have quality every fooking where and…well…so do we, but we’ve seen very little of it of late and the whole team had to work hard for this, but we DID get what we deserved…at LEAST what we deserved.

We NEEDED a good performance today.
The team needed to give the fans something, a glimmer of hope, something to cling to and they DID just that.
They fought for everything. They tackled, they passed, they ran and they worked for each other.
At last, at long last they showed they still had some fight in them, some desire…it was lovely to watch and the crowd responded to it.

We played well as a team today and that was vital. We’ve all seen many, many times the skills of various individuals but what we’ve lacked more than anything of late is a concerted TEAM effort and they gave us that and they gave it against a strong and skilful Newcastle side.

That back line for Newcastle, I love it…big lads, as they all seem to be throughout the team, but so skilful and and Coloccini and the left back Jose Enrique have a great understanding between them, lovely to watch at times… Up front, I know they aren’t to everyone’s taste but the likes of Carroll, Harewood and Ameobi may be big brutal buggers that take no prisoners but they’re exactly the sort of striker that will get you out of this division and I’d love any one of em at ours.

The Newcastle fans though…Singing like fookers at the start…sloughened when we scored….then raising the roof as they went in front…but when we equalised, they never said another word…not a peep.
And another thing….them singing ‘They’re here, they’re there, they’re every fooking where empty seats, empty seats’ and ‘your ground’s too big for you’
CHEEKY FOOKERS!
Did they actually see how many were empty at their ground earlier in the season?

I do love to hear em belting it out and I love to hear us do the same…we matched them on the pitch and off it we weren’t left behind either. In the second half, chuff me it was incredible, the noise at one point was as loud as I’ve heard it in a long while, proper fur up stuff. It just shows that the Wednesday fans don’t need a lot to get them going, just a bit of effort on the pitch and they WILL get behind the team.

So what were the highlights today then?
I’m not gonna point to any mistakes made by anyone today, there’s no need for that and there was plenty to really enjoy and like about the performance…

Varney seemed to have the full back really rattled and not only could he beat him, he was very strong against him, which he needed to be. He was excellent today, not just in scoring the first and making the second but he never stopped all game. The same thing applies to both Potter and O Connor. O Connor has been the player of the season for me and this showed up everything he does well. He works VERY hard for 90 minutes, none stop and his goal was just reward for that effort.

Today we saw the real Darren Potter.
Not just the great ball player, not just the passer and controller but the Darren Potter that showed he can knuckle down and get stuck in, chase balls, get some rough arsed tackles in and break up play, WHERE THE FOOK HAS HE BEEN? We need more of this version over the coming weeks.

The bit that stood out for me in the game was a wonderful bit of football…
When Tom Soares somehow dug the ball out on the turn in the box, which no one could have expected him to do, then lob over the defence and on a plate for Tudders to get a great head on and get what looked for all the world like a much needed goal for the lad…only to see an absolutely wonderful save from Newcastle keeper Harper.
It was wonderful football from start to finish it really…it needed a superb save to keep it out and it got one.
Great stuff.

Before kick off most of us were expecting to leave the ground well pissed off and wondering where the next point was coming from, instead we left full of cheer and with plenty of heart for the relegation fight ahead. We saw that the team still has some fight left in them.

I know there’s little bits we can pick holes in today and we can all blather on about the ref and linesman being poor, which they most definitely were but let’s fookin forget all that shit and just enjoy the moment. Both teams and both sets of fans played their part in this game today and it made for a very good day out. I’ll miss Newcastle though when they leave this division.

I loved today and I can’t wait for Blackpool now….

Cheers

Steve:Beastie
Owls Alive


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