Getting to know Warsaw

Published on May 14, 2012 in Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Euro 2012 will be the first time that the Finals have been hosted in Eastern Europe and it is estimated that 1.4 million adoring football fans will travel to Poland and Ukraine this month for the 14th UEFA European Championships.  It is expected that a large number of them will descend on Warsaw during the course of the tournament and the excited buzz of anticipation has been gently building in Poland’s capital for months.  In mid-April, for instance, the Henri Delaunay Trophy arrived to much pomp and fanfare as it was given a colourful parade in the city before coming to rest at Plac Defilad for several days while scores of happy Varsovians filed past to be photographed with the famous prize.

Warsaw (PL: Warszawa) was established in the early 14th century but did not become the capital of Poland until 1596 when Zygmunt III Waza moved the crown from its ancestral home of Kraków.  Though often the city has experienced a troubled, turbulent history with invasion, occupation and partition, it has also given the world leading lights in both science and art.  The city’s darkest hour came at the apogee of the Nazis occupation when after the Varsovians rose up in bitter defiance, the German forces destroyed so much of the city.  In the aftermath of the World War II, conservative estimates suggest that over 85% of the city had been destroyed.  It is testament to the Polish people that they rebuilt their beloved capital into the thriving European cosmopolis that exists today.

Though often mistaken as French, it was, in fact, the Polish capital that gave the world of science the two time Nobel prize winner, Marie Skłodowska-Curie, most known of course for developing the theory of radioactivity and discovering both Polonium and Radium.  Arguably, however, the most well known Varsovian, though co-incidentally also often mistaken for a Frenchman, is Fryderyk Chopin, the romantic pianist composer – considered one of the greatest of all time.  Having recently celebrated the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death, the Old Town of the city is home to 14 musical benches that mark out important, notable locations of the composer’s early life.

Those not content with trailing around the Old Town searching for benches producing sweet, musical consonance can find many other things to do in the city during the latter weeks of June.

Copernicus Science Center (PL: Centrum Nauki Kopernik)
This very recent addition to Warsaw’s growing list of attractions is only 2 years old.  It stands on the West bank of the Wisła river and has a permanent exhibition of over 450 interactive exhibits that allows visitors to conduct interactive scientific experiments and enjoy the myriad of surprises that the laws of science afford us.  The centre also plays host to “The Heavens of Copernicus”, a modern planetarium showing much more than static images of the starry sky.  Other Planetarium shows include films regarding a variety of scientific fields such as enthnography or the natural sciences.

http://www.kopernik.org.pl/en/

Fryderyk Chopin Museum (PL: Muzeum Fryderyka Chopina)
Though there has been a Museum of Fryderyk Chopin since 1945, it has recently been renovated for the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birth and it has become a truly multimedia experience of the composers life and music.  Within the Ostrogski Palace there are many unique displays that will stimulate visitors’ senses including interactive exhibits and many opportunities to hear the music of the ‘poet of the piano’.  If more Chopin is needed, then a visit to Łazienki Królewskie park is required.  Every Sunday at 12pm and 4pm from May through to September, pianists from across the world visit Warsaw to play Chopin’s music at the side of the monument to the composer.

http://chopin.museum/en/

Nowy Świat / Old Town
Arguably the most visited tourist attraction in the city is the UNESCO World Heritage site; Warsaw’s Old Town.  Of course, given that the majority of the area was levelled by the Nazis in the wake of the Warsaw uprising much of it had to be rebuilt and it has been painstakingly crafted to represent the architectural style of the city through several centuries.  The dual focal points of the Old Town are Castle Square (PL: plac Zamkowy) which features both the Royal Castle and the Zygmunt III Waza column and the Old Town Market Place (PL: Rynek Starego Miasta) which hosts the statue and fountain of Warsaw’s symbol, the Mermaid.  Running south from the Old Town is arguably Warsaw’s most exclusive street, Nowy Świat which features an array of shops, restaurants and coffee shops.

Of course, this is all very interesting but what about the football?  Over 400,000 Poles play football regularly and millions across the country watch the sport, either attending matches or on TV.  Lechia Lwów, the country’s first professional club, was founded in 1903 and many more sprung into existence over the following years.  As Poland had gained recognition as an independent state in 1918, a national football team was formed and Poland’s first international match, a 1 – 0 defeat to Hungary in Budapest, was played in 1921.

Ekstraklasa
The Polish premier league, known as the Ekstraklasa, was formed on March 1st, 1927.  At present, the league is contested by 16 clubs with the champion being entered for the 2nd qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League while 2nd and  3rd placed teams qualify for the UEFA Europa League.  2 teams are relegated to the 1 Liga and 2 teams from that league are promoted to the Ekstraklasa.  A total of 78 clubs have played in the top league since its foundation and 16 of those have won the title.  The first champions of the league were current champions Wisła Kraków who also share the accolade of having won most championships with Górnik Zabrze.

Stadion Narodowy
Warsaw will host five games during the European Championship 2012 tournament, including the opening game, a quarter-final and a semi-final.  The games will be played at the newly constructed Stadion Narodowy (National Stadium) in the Praga district on the East bank of  the Wisła River.  The stadium, built to resemble a wicker basket and designed in the national colours of red and white, will have a capacity of 58,145 and has been built on the former site of the older Stadion Dziesięciolecia (the Tenth Anniversary Stadium).  When the stadium was inaugurated with a friendly goalless draw against Portugal, it became the biggest in Poland and it when the tournament ends, it will continue to host the home games of the Polish national team.

Notable Footballers
Kazimierz Deyna
Tragically killed in a car accident in 1989, Kazimierz Deyna is widely believed to be Poland’s most gifted footballer and to date holds the position of the country’s 3rd highest goalscorer.  An exceptionally talented playmaker, Deyna  was instrumental in the famous 1974 international victory against Brazil in the World Cup in West Germany.  He made 304 appearances for Legia Warszawa before moving to Manchester City at the age of 31.  Throughout his playing career he collected an array of medals including an Olympic silver and a World Cup bronze.

Jan Tomaszewski
Famously described as a “clown” by Brian Clough before a crucial World Cup 1974 qualifier with England, Jan Tomaszewski went on to heroically prevent an England victory which subsequently handed qualification to the finals to Poland instead.  Throughout the tournament in West Germany, Tomaszewski became the first goalkeeper in its history to make two penalty saves in two different matches.  Though he made his first league appearances with Legia Warszawa, Tomaszewski spent the majority of his career at ŁKS Łódź where he turned out 155 times and also scoring 1 goal.

Grzegorz Lato
Presently serving as the head of the Polish Football Association, the PZPN, Grzegorz Lato is arguably the most internationally well known Polish footballer after winning the Golden Boot in the 1974 World Cup in West Germany.  His award winning 7 goals pushed Poland to the semi-final against the hosts where they were unfortunately defeated 1 – 0.  Unabated though, he scored the only goal in the 3rd place match against Brazil winning his team the Bronze medal.  In his international career, Lato had a ration of 1 goal every 2 games.  He spent most of his career at Stal Mielec where he won the Polish Premier League in 1973 and 1976.

Teams of Warsaw
Many big cities across Europe have their footballing rivalries.  Glasgow Celtic have Glasgow Rangers; Manchester United have Manchester City; Inter Milan have AC Milan; Real Madrid have Atletico Madrid and Warsaw is no different.  Legia Warszawa and Polonia Warszawa are located on two opposing sides of the city centre and in between, there is a fierce rivalry.

Legia Warszawa
Legia, once the official football team for the army and nicknamed “Wojskowi” (The Military), were founded in 1916 and are undoubtedly the more successful of the two Warsaw clubs, the latest of their 8 league championships coming on 2006.  In 2011 they won the Polish Cup for the 14th time and have won the Super cup 4 times and the Liga Cup once.  They are better known outside of their native Poland due to repeated outings in European competition and their Stadion Wojska Polskiego has recently been redeveloped and now holds a capacity of 31,800 fans.  Legia’s fans are particularly loyal, devoted to their club and are often referred to as the ‘best supporters in Poland’ though like many Polish supporters they occasionally attract negative publicity for violent behavior.  The club have several rivals in Poland and alongside local neighbours Polonia, games against Lech Poznań and Wisła Kraków are also considered derbies.

http://www.legia.com

Polonia Warszawa
Founded 5 years earlier than their Varsovian counterparts, Polonia are the older but less successful club in the city.  Nicknamed “Czarne Koszule” (The Black Shirts) unsurprisingly after the colour of their home kit, the team have won only 2 league championships, the latest coming in 2000.  They have won the Polish Cup twice and the Super Cup and Liga Cup once each.  Polonia’s home, the Stadion Polonii, is considerably smaller with a capacity of just 7,000.  The smaller Varsovian club have spent a large portion of their history in the Polish second division but were promoted back into the Ekstraklasa in 1996.  Four years later they experienced their most successful year of their history winning a League, League Cup and Super Cup treble

http://www.ksppolonia.pl

The UEFA European Championship 2012 is an important moment for the city of Warsaw and as the tournament approaches, it is increasingly clear that excitement is growing.  For Varsovians, the month of June will be one of hope, expectation, enthusiasm and exhilaration all wrapped up in a simple passion for the beautiful game and an inherent pride in their city.  They can only hope that the Polish national team confounds expectations to make this a truly and undeniably unforgettable experience.

It all comes down to this

Published on May 13, 2012 in Football and Newcastle United. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

There is a tired old cliche in football that the league season is a marathon and not a sprint.  Each team must, logically, pace itself over a long 38 match campaign, lest they peak too quickly and dramatically fall away; something, you could argue, Sunderland are guilty of this season.  Weary as this cliche is, when it comes to the final match of the competition it does bear out.  On the final day, the culmination of 38 tough league matches often provides unbearable, incredible drama and the pinnacle of the 2011/12 English Premier League season did just that.

With television broadcast rights being a major consideration in fixture scheduling, match-days are frequently jostled around to accommodate Sky, ESPN, et al.  In the interests of fairness and in a rare nod to sporting integrity over commercial interest, however, all Premier League teams play their final match on the same day simultaneously thus avoiding any unfair advantage.  When the title race, European places and relegation spots go to the wire as they have done this season, this can prove unspeakably tense.

Before a ball was kicked today, the championship hung in the balance.  Manchester United’s 4 – 4 draw against Everton had handed a slender advantage to Manchester City and after the ‘noisy neighbours’ had beaten Alex Ferguson’s team at the Etihad and Newcastle United at St James’ the two Manchester teams rested on the same points but with their significantly better goal difference, City had only to beat QPR and the title was theirs.

At the end of a season that had surpassed everyone’s expectations, Newcastle United sat 5th in the table with a guaranteed Europa League spot and a slim opportunity of a 3rd place finish and guaranteed Champions League football.  With Arsenal 2 points ahead in 3rd and Tottenham Hotspur 1 point in front in 4th, for a 3rd place finish, Newcastle needed to beat Everton while hoping West Bromwich Albion and Fulham could overcome their respective London opponents.  A 4th place finish could still be achieved with a victory over Everton and a Spurs loss but this would only offer Champions League football only if Chelsea did not win the final of the competition against Bayern Munich.

Down at the bottom of the table things were even more tense.  With Wolves and Blackburn already relegated, the jeopardy of fighting to avoid the 3rd spot fell to either Queens Park Rangers or Bolton Wanderers.  Bolton had to win at Stoke while hoping that Manchester City would indeed win the title and beat their relegation rivals.

Within 10 minutes of kick-off, both Spurs and Arsenal were in front and it seemed that Newcastle’s Champions League ambitions had been taken out of their own hands.  The situation went swiftly from bad to worse when Everton scored 2 goals in 11 minutes.  Almost as if to rub salt in the wound, West Brom had simultaneously equalised, then taken the lead against Arsenal.  After conceding a 3rd Everton goal in the second half, other results elsewhere paled into insignificance and with Spurs running out eventual 2 – 0 winners over Fulham while Arsenal leveled then scored again to beat West Brom, Newcastle’s subsequent 3 – 1 defeat became nothing more than a disappointing way to end a glittering and delightful campaign.

The day’s high drama, however, was to be found at the Etihad Stadium where both championship and relegation could be decided.  In the North-east, Manchester United had taken a 20th minute lead against Sunderland.  Roberto Mancini’s Manchester City had to score.  To use a wonderful footballing term, QPR ‘parked the bus’ for almost 40 minutes before Zabaleta finally broke through.  With Bolton winning at half-time, if things stayed as they were, City would take the Premier League title and QPR would be relegated.  With only 3 minutes of the second half played, Djibril Cissé drew QPR level and suddenly the title was heading to Old Trafford.  Not one to, er, let the occasion get to him, QPR’s Joey Barton then proceeded to get himself sent off 5 minutes later and proceeded to assault Sergio Agüero and attempt to headbutt Vincent Kompany while leaving the field.  If that wasn’t mad enough, no more than 10 minutes later Jamie Mackie scored to put QPR in front.  Manchester City looked to have thrown away the title.

Things were not looking good for Owen Coyle’s Bolton Wanderers and with 77 minutes gone Jonathan Walters scored a controversial penalty to draw Stoke level and things began to look desperate.

As full-time whistles began sounding across the country, Manchester City had no more than 5 minutes of added time to overturn the 1 goal deficit or concede the title to a by now victorious United.  Though Bolton’s draw with Fulham sadly saw them relegated, QPR’s manager, ex- Manchester United’s Mark Hughes, would have urged his team to hold on to their lead despite their now confirmed safety.  As seconds passed like hours for Manchester United fans, the minutes must have felt like seconds at the Etihad.  With 2 minutes of added time played and all hope City fans must have had lost, Edin Dzeko headed a  powerful cross past Paddy Kenny to equalise.  Surely, it couldn’t happen, could it?  Surely this is just too much drama?  With only a minute remaining and with the tension at a weapons-grade level, Mario Balotelli slipped a lovely ball through to Agüero who stylishly slotted it home to win Manchester City their first title in over 40 years.

With such a magnificent, thrilling end to the campaign, it was no surprise that the social networks exploded with an abundance of football.  Most expressed an overwhelming love for football and after a day like that, who could possibly blame them?  An astonishing end to the 2011/12 season.

MiCoach, MiRules.

Published on May 9, 2012 in Football, From the heart and Miscellany. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Until very recently, you would have been more likely to come across a baby unicorn reciting Shakespeare than to see me running through the streets of Warsaw.  Before my aforementioned weight-loss and newly experienced fitness, the most you might have expected was a frantic, awkward jog towards the doors of an awaiting tram as they slid, defiantly, shut in front of me.  On those occasions where I did make the tram, I would often watch runners jog down the street with all the grace and apparent ease of an Olympic athlete, or at the very least the Commodore Amiga 500 approximation of one, and wonder what could possibly convince them that this was a more fulfilling pastime than, say, the Internet.

A recent twice-weekly return to the football field demonstrated an embarrassingly obvious lack of stamina though no evident loss of child-like enthusiasm.  Like an astonished puppy comprehending the pleasure of chasing cars, I charged around the pitch like I had never been away and twenty minutes in I wore the expression of someone just woken from a particularly unpleasant dream, probably involving sharks.  Or clowns.  Or clown sharks.

I needed to get fit and of course, running seemed like the simplest solution.  Not one to do things by halves, I went out and bought myself all the paraphernalia required to pretend I knew what I was doing.  I bought myself expensive running shoes, track-tops and an arm-strap for my iPhone.  I downloaded the Adidas MiCoach app for my phone knowing only too well that if there wasn’t some gadgetry involved I would be bored very quickly.

Like a schoolboy taking to the floor for that first, excruciating Christmas party dance, I set out on my first assessment run.  “Start at 5/10 effort”.  How in the name of all that is holy should I know what 5 out of 10 effort is?  “Increase to 6/10 effort”.  I’ve not worked out what 5/10 is yet!  “Increase to 7/10 effort”.  Ah.  Now I’m getting it.  “Increase to 8/10 effort”.  What?!  I was just getting comfortable.  “Increase to 9/10 effort!  Give it all you’ve got”.  Oh God!

Despite experiencing something akin to how I imagine being repeatedly run over by a tractor may feel, I had completed my first run and in doing so had established my MiCoach ‘zones’.  What next?  Investigating the MiCoach website, I found a ‘Soccer’ training routine and scheduled 3 runs per week separated by the two football matches.  Since then, I have diligently stuck to my routine and have found, much like I expect heroin is, it is dangerously addictive.  The endorphins released are quite something and I enjoy the time I have to think or to enjoy some music or podcasts.  there are also few things quite like that post-run shower.

Having the facility to track my progress as I go, using the MiCoach app on the iPhone is possibly what will keep it interesting for me in the long run (pun quite definitely intended).  I can see how far I have run; what my pace is; how many calories I have lost and using GPS it stores my route also.  Of course, all this running is a means to an end so not content with this already perilously high level of geekery, I bought myself the Adidas Speed_Cell.  Now I get to track my progress on the football field too, including the number of sprints, high intensity periods and distance traveled, which can only spell so much over-analysis like a disastrously dull and extremely niche Opta.

Football and film

Published on May 6, 2012 in Football. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

We live in an time where things are available to us on-demand.  Think of a song, any song?  Now go to Grooveshark; iTunes; Spotify; whatever.  Did you find it?  Assuming you weren’t searching for an obscure Bolivian folk-jazz odyssey, I would hazard a guess that you did.  The same is true for movies, TV, radio and books – though admittedly you may have to pay scant regard to international copyright laws to benefit from this abundance of digital information.  Youtube, for instance, is a perfect example of the on-demand culture that has grown up around us in the past 10 years.  Search Youtube for your favourite song? There it is.  Search it for that recent, hilarious, meme? There it is.  Search it for a clip from The Big Bang Theory?  There it is.  Search it for Grzegorz Lato scoring against Brazil in the 1974 World Cup.  There it is.

Youtube is a veritable goldmine for football fans.  From the oldest collection of goalkeeping errors through the countless uploads of the most recent refereeing mistakes to adoring compilations of the world’s most impressive flare-players’ skillful trickery; Youtube offers it all.  If you are unlucky enough to miss an incident during a match, fear not. Simply log on to Youtube that evening and it is likely that some enterprising soul will have uploaded a clip before you can blink.

This, of course, is a product of the proliferation of football in society and on our television screens.  With cable television and internet live-streams, you can watch a match almost every night of the week, every week of the year.  The latest televisual technologies provide us with almost every angle of almost every play of every game broadcast and the action is pored over to a microscopic degree.  For a football fan, this revolution is incredibly exciting.  For some loving relationships though, I’m sure not so much.

Before Youtube, before Sky Television, before “Fan-Zone” and before “Player-Cam”, there was football’s first Warholian moment and it came from a German film-maker, Hellmuth Costard, and the mercurial Northern Irish footballer, Manchester United’s George Best.  Fußball wie noch nie (Football as never before. 1971) takes footage from 8 separate 16mm cameras, each following the incredible Best as he runs out for Manchester United against Coventry City and the filmmaker creates a study of his performance across the 90 minutes of the match.  To focus on one United player for the duration of a match runs the very real risk of monotony but in practice the effect is hypnotic.  The film strips bare the off-field glamour and cult of the player to show a Best entirely immersed in and focused on the match and so cool under pressure.  Throughout the film, Best’s workrate makes a strong impression and he is seen both dropping back to his own half to retrieve an errant pass or receiving the ball in the final third and with a sublime change of pace, dribbling past the bewildered Coventry defenders, the ball apparently stuck to his foot.  It is quite something to see Best at the height of his career and as you watch the delicacy of his movement and the deft, skillful, touch, it seems to justify the old Manchester United epithet, “Maradona good, Pele better, George Best”.

Thirty-five years later, a French attacking midfielder of Algerian descent was being talked of in the same breath as the aforementioned legends of the game.  At that time, Zinedine Zidane had a starring role in Real Madrid’s waning team of Galacticos  and several years previously he had guided that team to a Champions League victory with a stunning shoulder-high volleyed goal at Hampden Park in Glasgow (If you’ve never seen this goal, you must – and you know where to go).  In 2005, Scottish film-maker Douglas Gordon placed 17 cameras around the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium – again, all focused on one, single player – Zizou.  The resulting film clearly takes its cues from Costard’s account and again is shown in real-time.  It shuns much of the chaos of the match to centre instead on one man’s solitary concentration.  To watch Zidane is to watch a true genius of football and Gordon treats us to close-ups of Zidane’s eyes as he searches for his next involvement and to an almost enigmatic physical tic when Zizou stabs the toes of his boots into the ground as he walks.  What is immediately surprising is how little Zidane spends with the ball at his feet but when he does receive it, he explodes into life with such grace and skill.  Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2005) is a beautifully poignant film which is augmented by the wonderfully apt soundtrack by Scottish Post-rock band, Mogwai.  Both the music and the tension on screen build to a cathartic conclusion and the film remains a captivating and fitting epitaph to Zizou’s career.

In contrast, Substitute (2007), a film by French former footballer Vikash Dhorasoo, is certainly very different in both tone and style and has been described by the BBC Sport website as a “deeply unconventional sporting film”.  During preparations for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, Dhorasoo, the former AC Milan, Lyon and Paris St Germain player found himself out of favour with the French national coach, Raymond Domenech.  After meeting with his friend, the filmmaker Fred Poulet, he began to record his thoughts and his feelings on a Super-8 film camera.  The footage is grainy, much of the sound is dubbed on in the editing room and there is very little match footage, however, it depicts a side of football that is rarely seen and even more rarely spoken of.  It depicts loneliness and rejection.  It depicts frustration and disillusionment.  It depicts one man falling out of love with the game.  Substitute is an incredibly honest film being both creative and sincere but does ask some very unsettling questions about the less glamorous side of the international game.

The subculture of football is such that clearly there are many, many other films depicting many sides of the game, from comedies and aspirational stories to dramas adapted from memoirs and fictional accounts of very real events.  Of course the selection will run the gamut from inspired moments of cinematic or arthouse genius to frivolous examples of badly advised whimsy.  It seems a fair bet though, that you’ll find clips on… well, you know by now.

Thunderclap Newcastle

Published on May 6, 2012 in Football and Newcastle United. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

When a day begins, so auspiciously, with a thunderstorm it is fair to assume it could get tumultuous before evening falls and so it proved.  Woken on the stroke of 5:30am by a crack of thunder, it was impossible to fall asleep again as the sound of the rain falling heavily outside was punctuated by further booming strikes.  Had this been the only thing on my mind, it may not have kept me from sleep but there was also a buzzing excitement in my head; an anticipation of arguably Newcastle United’s biggest match of the season at home to Manchester City.

Realising sleep was impossible, I got up, shook myself awake and left the flat for a run.  If anything might expel the excess energy it would be a run.  When I got home, I had fully intended to spend the next hours practicing piano before heading out to the pub to watch the match.  Well, you know what they say about good intentions.  After I returned and had a shower, I realised there would be no practice before the match.  There was little chance I could concentrate on much else.

Manchester City were to visit St. James’ park in a game that had huge significance for both teams.  City had to win to stay in front in the Premier League title race and Newcastle had to win to keep the pressure up on Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the hunt for a Champions League place.  Neither a draw nor obviously a loss were good for either team and so it seemed a great game in prospect.

Living in Poland has many advantages though unfortunately there are disadvantages also.  My brother was going to be in Newcastle for the match and I desperately wanted to be there with him but the costs can be too prohibitive.  As I sat on my computer following the build-up on Twitter and the club’s own news feed, Graham was down there enjoying it all.

Before the match, Newcastle unveiled the newest statue outside the ground, commemorating wor Sir Bobby and the photos posted on the club website were enough to bring a lump to my throat.

Suddenly, I was sitting in the bar with 5 minutes until kick-off of the biggest 90 minutes of our season.

The match began as expected; a tense though open affair with City having 77% of the possession in the first 15 minutes.  Newcastle defended well and, despite having set up to attack, struggled to get onto the front foot.  Cabaye and Tiote in the middle of the park did all that they could to assert some influence over the game.  It was with a great sense of relief that we went in at half-time level.

In the second half, Newcastle looked much more lively and the game flowed from end to end though it would be hard to argue that Manchester City were not the stronger.  Roberto Mancini made the decision to move Touré forward and it was the defining tactical move of the match as he scored twice to win the game for City; the first being a lovely curled shot from outside the box.

Though defeat has made it that much harder for Newcastle to achieve Champions League football with only 1 game to go, I felt the team fought hard and were certainly not defeated through any perceived lack of effort.

Despite the result, Newcastle fans should feel immensely proud of their team tonight as they faced the Champions elect and didn’t flinch.  Moreover, to look at the season we have had only 2 years after winning promotion back to the Premier League is to look at a team who have fought tooth and nail and deserve to be sitting in 5th position with guaranteed entry to the Europa League next season.

No matter what happens next week, I’m hugely proud to be a Newcastle United fan and I’m not the only one if you look at the lap of honour the players and management made at full time, on account of it being our last home game.  Emotional!


(Video from @thugzthrust)

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