Notes from the Reading match – devoid of any formal introduction or lead-in: Jones; Hoyte, Wheater, Grounds, Pogatetz; Robson, O’Neil, Franks, Arca; Killen, McDonald Brad Jones back in goal – they say it’s to punish Danny Coyne for a dodgy performance at Derby…doesn’t it just really punish all of us? No Mick – he took ill prior to [...]

Feel the heat in the following notes. The Derby live blog was a sexually liberating experience, just like we’d always imagined. Men openly loving men, achieving emotional nirvana…this is who we are, and we’re okay with that. Barry Robson invoked it. It’s not his fault though, with the tackling, passing, commitment, deathly frozen stare – [...]

Outstanding. Terrific. A Real Treat. Call it what you will, just don’t call it a crucial victory in a palpitating parochial derby. Another late match lapse – the first in some time – confirmed the postulations of Gordon Strachan: this squad is nowhere near finished or to my liking. This is a big project. It [...]

No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones. The Long And Winding Road we were forced down has morphed into the Road To Nowhere… The run up to the next installment of the Tyne-Tees derby evokes unconceivable pain. Newcastle is going straight back up to the Premier League, rendering all the pleasure and consolation derived from mutual [...]