Location – SJP   Kick Off – 3.00pm   Date – 19th August 2006   Tickets – On General Sale

To me its feels like a lifetime since we tearfully waved Mr Shearer goodbye at the end of last season. The waiting has finally come to an end and we can look forward to another eventful season of football with a possibility of four ways (well at least three) to bring the glory days back to SJP. I can here the anticipated buzz on the hallowed steps of the Milburn or the Gallowgate ringing through my ears!! so many questions still unanswer....come 3.00pm on Saturday hopefully most of them will be answered.

The new premiership season kicks off for real this weekend with the Toon welcoming Paul Jewels Wigan Athletic to the North East. With a trail of pie crumbs winding its way up the A1, the visitors are still unsure of the future of a couple of there first choice players but they bring with them a number of new players some of which will be very familiar, Kirkland (from Liverpool) Heskey (from Birmingham) and for those who followed the World Cup the Latics have signed the Ecuadorian midfielder Antonio Valencia (from Villarreal). Last season saw us lock horns with Wigan on three occasions and unfortunately we came off worst with them taking the applause on two out of the three.

Last Season (2005 - 2006):

Away (L) 1-0 (Roberts)

Away (L) 1-0 (Connolly)

Home (W) 3-1 (Shearer 2, Bramble) (Bullard)

Likely Squads:

WAFC - To Follow

NUFC - Given, Carr, Moore, Bramble, Babayaro, Ramage, Solano, Milner, Emre, N'Zogbia, Duff, Parker, Butt, Ameobi., Harper, Luque, Taylor, O'Brien.

Fitness News – With the Internationals all passing with the minimum of disruption we have Owen (Long Term), Given (Back), Duff (Groin) Dyer (who really knows) and if Bramble can keep his car out of peoples front gardens we should have a very similar team to the one that played away in Latvia.

Squad Additions – Advanced discussions with Martins, and two others but there still is a number of issues that need to be ironed out prior to an official bids.

With us currently clinging onto a great run of form, we are currently unbeaten in 10 games since we were beaten at the Valley this gives me a great deal of hope for the Roeder dynasty.

Preparations for the new season have been far from convincing with some reasonable results in the Inter-Toto and some high profile friendlies giving us a mixed bag of results. The only real transfer activity to report this summer was a surprising good piece of business from Freddy with the arrival of Damien Duff. We are still to welcome the arrival of a number of new faces on Tyneside but after reading a number of articles in the Sunday filth it leaves me a touch undecided whether they will be signed in time for the kick-off on Saturday. But let’s not panic just yet with the window due to close in around 14/15 days.

Everything is pointing at a great opening day, for the first time in a long time my faith in Roeder and his team deserve our whole hearted support.

ES