This is the thru black and white eyes archive. Each week, when the new load of self righteous waffle is added the the site the old version will be available here. Feel free to use this section to point out any hideous errors or terrible predictions that may have occurred since it was penned...

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	A TASTE OF HONEY Five consecutive wins with only two goals conceded over that winning run have settled the nerves after the defeats away to Scunthorpe and Forest. There is a growing belief we are well on course to get back into the PL at the first time of asking though it would be utter folly to believe it is there on a plate for us. Complacency is not something anyone at Newcastle United can afford.
	ALL THINGS MUST PASS Wasn't that a moment of complete and total unbridled joy when Mark Viduka marvellously backheeled that return ball into the path of Damien Duff who finished beautifully at the Leazes End to send most of SJP into a rare moment of ecstasy and give us a much needed home win and a boost in our battle against relegation? I couldn't help but reflect as well that even though Ashley, Wise and Llambias have brought the club into disrepute and we are a complete basket-case, well, as narrow as it is, we're going into Christmas ahead of those er, well-run, stable clubs down the road at the Village of the Damned and Beastville. 'kin hilarious eh?
	ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES Has there been a worse person ever to own a football club than Mike Ashley? Has there been someone so utterly clueless and wrong headed with the responsibility for a major football club than the dork whose mismanagement has brought our club to its knees? I really do think if we are stuck with this useless bastard for another season there is every chance the CLOSED signs would go up at the House of Pain on Barrack Road.
	ANGER IS AN ENERGY The defeat at West Ham was entirely predictable. We are a ship without a rudder. There is a complete and total lack of leadership at the top of NUFC and those allegedly providing the stewardship of our club not only look recklessly incompetent, they look wilfully negligent with regard to the entire football operation of Newcastle United. That’s just my opinion of course.
	AWAY FROM THE NUMBERS In the general scheme of things, a home win and an away point with no goals conceded is something to view as a good contribution to the points total we need to get back in the PL. Hats off to Derby Co for their derby win over Forest at Pride Park which set us up for our trip to the Walkers Stadium. Four points ahead with a game in hand is a position every other club in the promotion pack would want. However, the performances against both Palace and Leicester left much to be desired, the latter causing much Mag angst that our side couldn’t break down a ten man Foxes team over an hour. We were devoid of craft, guile and surprises.
	BABYLON’S BURNING! - 23/NOV/08 Nils apiece at Chelsea eh? Having seen several shite teams battered at Stamford Bridge this season and going there on the back of disappointments at Fulham and at home to Wigan not many Mags had much confidence going into this game that couldn’t be discounted as straightforward Barrack Road bravado. Well, just like the trip to Man Utd on the opening weekend of the season (doesn’t that seem an eternity away now?) the lads defied logic and eked out what at the end of the season could be a very useful point.
	BAD MOON RISING Last week was yet another when Mags despaired at the rubbish written about Newcastle United and we its care-worn followers. Anyone who has been paying attention knows the tale - Simon Taylor, Chelsea’s Head of Corporate and Social Responsibility, whilst interviewed by The Guardian claimed there had been demonstrations against Andy Cole becoming a Newcastle United player back in 1993. Taylor further claimed when Cole scored a hat-trick for his new club on his debut, this put an end to any protests. As you don’t need me to tell you - all of this was absolute tripe. Factually incorrect.
	BEING BOILED (Editorials) You might not like this but here goes... What has taken you so long? So long to become angry, raging and wanting to do something about it? You weren’t that arsed when we got relegated, you weren’t that arsed when the KK verdict was made public and Ashley, Mort, Llambias and Wise were exposed as liars, soiling the name of the club, besmirching the reputation of one of its favourite sons and taking the piss out of all of us. Its all in a name so it seems.
	BREAKING INTO HEAVEN A good week off the park but another bad week on it! The succession of home defeats at the hands of Man Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea punctuated only by a point away to Hull may have been predictable but they are nonetheless disappointing and now leave us 3pts adrift at third bottom of the table and looking up at Portsmouth and the Mackems with seven games remaining and aways to Stoke, Liverpool, Spurs and Villa amongst them. If we do manage to stay up it is going to be by the narrowest of margins. This is where Ashley has brought us and we should not allow Alan Shearer’s decision to step into the dug-out for a couple of months to cloud the issue. Mike Ashley is a fucking disaster for Newcastle United. The man is clearly all over the place and hasn’t got a clue how to run a football club.
	BRING ON THE DANCING HORSES It’s been neck and neck in the Knobhead of 2010 (Press Awards) in the last few weeks. Heavyweight arse-wipe Rod Liddle has shown some customary flourishes whilst there was a real return to form for The Guardian’s Wheyse Keyes Louise (Taylor) as United clinched promotion. But Mick Dennis of The Express has made a late surge for the line and is now in poll position for this year’s keenly fought title. Dennis has impressed judges with dubious research, bigotry, bizarre use of statistics, general all round ignorance and of course labelling Mags as deluded whilst taking pay-cheques from The Express - a newspaper which claims itself to be the greatest in the world (it isn’t).
	BUMMED I had wanted to come to this week’s stream of Mag consciousness with a bit of a mellow vibe. Man! After all, we know there are currently accountants from interested parties preparing to go through the club’s books with a fine toothcomb and by all accounts there is no shortage of potential buyers interested in getting hold of Newcastle United Football Club. If they have sight of the money thing and then proceed then at least we’ll know they know exactly what they are getting into. Newcastle United expects. Cautious optimism that a corner may have been turned and we were a day closer to Ashley being fucked off out of our club. That may or not be the case but until that is known for certain, we have a job to do.
	CHEAP TRICK So then, that’s your lot. Not one single penny of supporters’ money has been invested in the players we need to support a return to the Premier League. Instead for a whole close season Ashley has variously sat on his hands and then latterly began to flog anything anyone would buy and we are left with a painfully thin squad which will do very well to be in a promotion spot come May 2010. Of course, there is the remaining possibility of some loan deals but I suspect they may be thin on the ground due to the budget for salaries being cut to the bone as well.
	CLIMBING UP THE WALLS - 13/Oct/08 Firstly, apologies to the tf groovers out there for our radio silence for the last few weeks. The site has been on the blink for a couple of weeks and we’ve not been able to put it right because our main man has been indisposed and basically without our web-tsar we’ve been knackered. He’s back now so hopefully normal service will be resumed in the next week or so. A few concerned e-mails have dropped into the tf in box asking what’s been happening but all is well in the tf bunker – everyone is present and correct so no need to worry about anyone keeling over etc.
	CLOSER In a rare moment of clarity, one of my Mag comrades made a good point sitting in a half decent hostelry ahead of the Peterborough game - if this team had gone to Villa Park on the last day of last season looking for a point to stop up they would have had a better chance of getting it than the gutless cowards in our B&W shirts who went through the motions in that gut-wrenching second half in Birmingham last May. We may wear a yellow away-shirt this season but last season some of those who have now happily left our club were yellow to their core. Cowards to a man. You know who I mean.
	COME TOGETHER Forest at SJP on Monday night is one of the most eagerly awaited fixtures of this campaign. It could be a pivotal encounter in our bid to return to the SKY League. If we win, we’ll be a clear 13pts ahead of Forest in third with seven games or 21 points to play for. That’s as strong a position as we could have dreamed at this point of the season. Its all there for this “group of lads” © to go out and get us promotion.
	COME TOGETHER! Newcastle United won’t be relegated because we lost at Anfield on Sunday. We will be relegated if we fail to beat sides like Boro at SJP just like we will be relegated for failing to beat Stoke, Wigan, Sunderland, Hull and Blackburn at SJP. Losing so emphatically at Anfield has become a habit just as it has at Stamford Bridge, The Emirates and usually Old Trafford – for the last few seasons under Shepherd and now Ashley we have become point fodder for those clubs who enjoy substantial investment and good management. They are the only two ingredients, which separate us from successful clubs.
	COMMERCIAL ALTERNATIVE Another week of the close season gone and absolutely no further forward in strengthening the squad ahead of next season. The tale is we are no different to a lot of other clubs in the PL who are being careful ahead of the new cold wind of austerity blowing through the game. Well, there is some truth in that but you don’t have to look very far to see that several of our competitors are setting up deals and will be ready to close them imminently. We are nowhere.
	CONFUSION - 2/9/2008 (Editorials) First of all a big true faith welcome to our (fingers crossed, I hope this is right, its been a long day) signing Xisco from Deportivo La Coruna on a five year deal and the Uruguayan International midfielder Nacho Gonzalez from Valencia on a season long loan. Obviously we wish them all the very, very best for their Newcastle United careers and hope they are happy here.
	CONTROL So the tale from Hughton is a deal is being prepared for Steve Taylor just as one is being prepared for Andy Carroll. Except nothing has been done yet with Hughton giving the boys on the local papers some flannel how we’re no different to other clubs in not doing any business just yet. That’s rubbish of course, there are clubs doing and preparing plenty deals whereas we’re doing the sum total of sweet FA.
	COUNTERPOINT Coming back from 2-1 down at Boro and 2-0 down at Bristol certainly shows the resilience and determination of this “group of lads” © not to lose football matches but …. We should have added to the six away games we have racked up this season and made life a hell of a lot easier for ourselves. In the second half of the season we are playing better football at SJP but we aren’t following it up with wins on our travels with the vast majority of our successes on the road racked up between August and the beginning of November.
	CRIES AND WHISPERS – 26/Jan/09 Another crazy week in the history of Newcastle United! And probably another one to come! Following the sight of Barton having a little bit more than a pop at Enrique for his lackadaisical defending on the pitch at Blackburn as we surrendered without a fight, Kinnear up in front of the FA for yet another bout of referee-related stupidity, we had news of want-a-way Charles N’Zogbia and the Bensham Van Basten Andy Carroll going bang at it during training – in full view of visiting Carlisle United players, at least one of whom, blabbed to the press. Predictably, the fight is being glossed over as “handbags” – the catch all term for any brawl that does not end in someone in A&E. We’re led to believe the pagga led to the cancellation of training but that there was afters in the changing room and in the car park.
	DAMAGE It now seems abundantly clear that for Mike Ashley, getting out of Newcastle United is the only thing he is interested in. So focused is Ashley on getting back some, any dough for the club he foolishly bought just over two years ago, is blinding him to his responsibilities for his stewardship of the club. Though terms such as “responsibility” and “good stewardship” are probably as alien to him as the mysteries of advanced mathematics are to me. The basics of management are being neglected at a football club, which seems intent upon publicly disembowelling itself.
	DAYS It’s got to be this week. If it isn’t then we can all really start panicking. I mean, really panicking – running around, waving your arms in the air and letting your tongue roll around like you are talking in tongues kind of stuff. The club has to move from Ashley’s grasp because he has neither a clue or appetite to be leading any kind of club, let alone one as demanding as Newcastle United FC.
	DEATH AND NIGHT AND BLOOD Is it already too late for Newcastle United? Is it already too late for the complete overhaul to happen and for NUFC to resemble a half decent club capable of mounting a serious promotion charge this coming season? Certainly not if the views of the die-hards I bumped into on Saturday down at Darlo are to be accepted. People who its my privilege to know and who are Newcastle United to the absolute marrow, leaned back amongst the 4000+ who made the journey to the Darlington Arena and quietly and soberly concluded our team – whatever it is – would do well to avoid another relegation this coming season rather than mount a serious promotion charge. Who can argue with that sentiment?
	DO NOTHING Are you as fed up of reading us ranting on about what we reckon is all wrong at Newcastle United as we are sick of writing it? Having to sit down and summarise, as we see it, the inexorable decline of our football club under Ashley, Wise, Llambias and Kinnear isn’t something anyone associated with this daft little fanzine relishes. Every single one of us would love to be drafting something positive, being optimistic, hopeful and generally full of the joys of spring about Newcastle United Football Club. Honestly, every single one of us. We aren’t really anti-Ashley! We are just pro-Newcastle United. And that much desired state of happiness isn’t predicated upon us pushing for silverware every season, having Kevin Keegan as manager or having the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres in our line up. Really, we know NUFC has missed the boat for the foreseeable future. We can’t compete with Man Utd’s power and resources and we can’t measure up to Roman’s roubles at Chelsea. Arsenal and Liverpool have the benefits of consistent and professional management as well as the money that comes from consistent Champions League football. We are well off the pace of the top four. We know that. We know it would take long-term stability and prudent investment allied to excellent management to get us even into a position where we’re knocking at the door a la Aston Villa. Some reading this may think we’re defeatists. Fair enough. We prefer to regard it as realism.
	DON’T MAKE PROMISES And so back to the football. Obviously this is an important week for United as we look to rack up as many points as possible as we prepare for a demanding Christmas / New Year programme. If we go into the New Year in a strong position at the top of the WTCTSDTD then we’ll be ready to kick on towards an instant return to the PL. We’ll have plenty of time between then and now to speculate what kind of club we’ll be if and when we get back to a division that misses us as much as we miss it. But we where are we are and Hughton and the players have to deal with that.
	EMOTIONAL RESCUE There is no question Andy Carroll’s equaliser at Stoke keeps the lights on for us this season. The impact of a defeat at The Britannia Stadium didn’t bear thinking about and if we had failed to get something on a day when results were good to us, our slim chances of survival would have become positively anorexic. There were other elements to Carroll’s game which encouraged and they were in our box where the Gateshead lad was making the kind of defensive challenges as we resisted set pieces that seem not to be on Shola Ameobi’s CV.
	FAKE PLASTIC TREES I wouldn’t have been the only one who shook my head at some of the thick reporting of Michael Owen’s performances following his return from injury with some so-called football journalists slaughtering our No.10 after his quiet game at The Beasts last week. Okay, Owen wasn’t at his tip-top best at Boro and the game at Chelsea was hardly one where we’d be using his attacking skills very often but Jesus, for some of these mugs to queue up to stick the knife into one of the best strikers in the country just says everything about the insight they have of the game. Owen back at SJP against Stoke in the first half showed what he’s all about – he got two chances and put them both away – he came alive within a team, which was attacking with verve and gusto. Class is permanent etc.
	FALLING APART - 19/Jan/09 Where do we go from here? Things are getting worse and the noise coming from the confused flap of Joe Kinnear about a new 2-year contract for him are simply sending thousands of us into absolute despair. If Kinnear is the answer then what is the fucking question? Until now Kinnear has been tolerated by supporters - but if this is going to be a permanent arrangement then the future is postponed.
	FALLING APART – 19/Jan/09 Where do we go from here? Things are getting worse and the noise coming from the confused flap of Joe Kinnear about a new 2-year contract for him are simply sending thousands of us into absolute despair. If Kinnear is the answer then what is the fucking question? Until now Kinnear has been tolerated by supporters - but if this is going to be a permanent arrangement then the future is postponed.
	FIVE YEARS This last week, we had the NE media event of the millennium – Derek Llambias, Newcastle United’s Managing Director, spoke to a couple of local journalists. Gasp. The whole thing had been built up into something, which might be on a par with a “I Have A Dream” type significance but actually told us nothing we didn’t pretty much know already and left us frustrated at what was missed and with the hump at some of the stuff which was quite simply wrong.
	FOOL’S GOLD? Those of us who repaired to the shabeens of NE1 after the win over Reading and luxuriated in the first hat-trick of Shola Ameobi’s first team career can, I think, be forgiven for enjoying the winning feeling again. Reading did well in this division last season and although having recently lost a couple of their better players, provide an accurate barometer of what will be in front of us this season. Similarly, the point last week at West Brom - strongly tipped to be a leading contender to win promotion has generated optimism that this season may not be the disaster many of us, myself included, have been fearing.
	From Safety To Where? Well, our unbeaten run continues and whilst we couldn’t preserve the lead at Barnsley and were suckered by ropey defending for their second goal, no-one is doing better than us in this division. The challenge now must be to get prepared for the Placca Derby with The Beasts at SJP early next Sunday and give Strachan’s men a good cuffing. It will be interesting to see how much of their allocation they manage to shift for a fixture which traditionally means more to them than it does to us.
	GETTING NOWHERE FAST! If there ever was a metaphor for the whole load of crap that is the Mike Ashley reign at Newcastle United it is Claudio Cacapa. Like Ashley, superficially, Cacapa should be good. Let’s start with the obvious, Cacapa is Brazilian (okay forget Fumaca for a second) and that should be a decent foundation shouldn’t it, given Brazil is the most successful football nation on earth. Ashley is a billionaire or well, he was. Cacapa played successfully for Lyon and even got a few Champions League games under his belt into the bargain. Ashley has made pots of money from his Sports Direct empire! Decent credentials.
	GIVE 'EM ENOUGH ROPE It is no coincidence those people who come to Newcastle United and do a good job are well liked and well respected. It is no surprise that those people who come to Newcastle United and are fucking hopeless are absolutely reviled and treated with contempt. Take Ruud Gullit. An imperious footballer with AC Milan and Holland and unquestionably one of the finest of his generation. A sublime footballer.
	HAPPY HOUSE Not for the first time under the ownership of Mike Ashley we’re looking at each other and wondering what the fuck is going on? The squad has been absolutely threadbare all season and it seems Ashley is prepared to allow that position to continue with the club teetering on the brink of a complete meltdown. Am I going over the top? Maybe – but I’d let you consider the evidence. Michael Owen, bought for £17m in 2005 and our best player, is now on the verge of leaving the club. Noone really believes he will be at NUFC beyond the end of the season and there is substantial reason to believe he may be away by the end of the month.
	HAPPY TALK Memories of the gnashing of teeth which followed the depressing stalemate with Leicester a week last Saturday were washed away at a bouncing SJP Friday gone as the lads set about Cardiff with the pace, power and aggression we’ve been longing for all season. This was easily the best performance of 09/10 and has set us up for an intense and pivotal period of the season. But before we ponder on the challenges to come it would be wrong to skim over what was as good a performance and result as we’ve seen on Barrack Road for many a season.
	HEART AND SOUL We all got a horrendous glimpse into a no-football future when the Reading game was called off on Saturday As predictable as it was for Mags to be trudging along to the shops like the troops of a surrendering army, so it was the usual whoppers were out in force asking for a winter break. Fucking hell, they are off most of the summer and now they want the winter as well? Too hot, too cold? You know where I’m going with this don’t you? Bah!
	HOPE IS IMPOSSIBLE Losing to Bolton should not have come as a great surprise. Although Megson’s men are rank and barely watchable we are hopeless on the road and with wins only at an Adams led Portsmouth and a seemingly doomed West Brom, we can state fairly that once we get over the Tyne Bridge, we are usually on a hiding to nowt. For Bolton read Wigan, Blackburn, Fulham, Sunderland and other shit clubs. We have shit away form because by and large, we play shit away from SJP and over any kind of period, we’ll be shown for what we are – by and large, a shit away team. Harsh? The facts speak for themselves and anyone confident looking ahead to Hull and Stoke knows something I don’t.
	HOW SOON IS NOW - 10/08/2008 (Editorials) These pre-season games at SJP may be an unwanted drain on the wallet but it’s still nice to amble up through Gallowgate with your mates and talk shite for a couple of hours whilst watching Kevin’s lads go through their paces with some very good pre-season opposition in PSV and Valencia. As I’m a miserable bastard addicted to whingeing I do prefer the Mags to be resplendent in B&W stripes, black shorts, black socks with the white band around the top whenever they are running around the grass oblong bit in NE1 4ST however.
	I PREDICT A RIOT (Editorials) There have been so many mental episodes in the history of Newcastle United that we could have been forgiven for imagining we’d seen it all before. We hadn’t. Last week NUFC reached a point where it has never been before and from which it might never recover without the departure of the clowns currently calling the shots at NUFC.
	INNER CITY BLUES (MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER) - 17 Nov 08 Having sat through what was almost 100% unadulterated garbage, the Wigan game was entering its final stage when somehow we looked like we’d rescued a very fortunate three points. And then we blew it with a complete lapse in professionalism that on so many levels encapsulates exactly where we are at the moment. I think we’ve all slunk away from games down the years with that gnawing disappointment in the pit of our guts but those of us who kid ourselves we’ve developed an immunity to NUFC-related fuck ups were left completely bereft at the final whistle. Wigan was a huge kick in the bollocks.
	IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? In this last fortnight Chris Hughton has asked us to trust him. Most of us will have shrugged our shoulders and thought its not him we’re worried about - more Llambias and Ashley who at any moment could shaft their weak manager by selling anyone they choose from underneath him. There’s not a thing he would or could do about it.
	IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? (Editorials) An hour gone at SJP v. Doncaster and 1-0 down watching players in B&W shirts on salaries out of all proportion with what they were delivering, being out-played by a team on a fraction of the reward our lot are on, in front of a staggering turn-out of almost 44,000 at a club run with a stomach-churning incompetence, I couldn’t help wondering what the future held for Newcastle United.
	ISOLATION Football journalism is something which has excited the opinions of many Mags over the last few years and I couldn’t count the letters we’ve published online here at true-faith.co.uk concerning the rubbish spouted by too many half-wits too numerous to mention as well as full features in the fanzine. Fundamentally, football journalism is not something vital to the overall happiness of humanity and frankly if it stopped forthwith (and I include fanzines and their ilk) nobody would much notice the difference. The lifetime’s career of a football journalist (or fanzine scribbler for that matter) isn’t worth a day in the life of a nurse, Doctor, social worker or anyone providing vital services that real people rely on.
	KEEP IT MOVING Disappointing as though the performance and the result was at Spurs, we have no time to rake over the embers of yet another defeat. The manager, coaches and players simply have to get on with it and start preparing for an absolutely vital PL game a week on Monday night at home to fellow-strugglers Portsmouth. The Spurs game has gone. We can’t get it back and try again. Its finished with. There are five games left, five games for Newcastle United to preserve its PL status and we just cannot indulge in any hand-wringing at this moment in time. Players need to be prepared and focused on getting 3pts next week against Portsmouth.
	KNIFE SLITS WATER So that’s that then. Another Ashley transfer window over and another empty feeling at the pit of our stomachs. Another sign we are on the road to nowhere. Lovenkrads (free), Nolan (£4m) and Taylor (£2m) in for a total of £6m and Given and N’Zogbia out for £13m-ish. This is called strengthening the squad apparently. You can only speculate whether we’d have spent as much had Barton not been injured so seriously as he was last week at City.
	LET'S GET IT ON - 18/08/2008 (Editorials) Ecstatic is the only word to be used the mood amongst the B&W throng that left Old Trafford in the sunshine after the first game of the season. Some of the pampered day-trippers from every lonely bedroom from Surrey to Norway might be bewildered at the joy amongst the travelling Mags at getting a draw but that’s because as a collective entity we have been battered and bruised over the last few years and after an opening display rich in promise we now have something to cling onto. Hope.
	LIAR Where do you start?
	LIVE WITH THE SEASONS The closing of the summer transfer window last Monday evening brought with it a mixture of emotions. There are those who feel the club has done better than expected (not difficult) and point to the arrival of; Perch, Gosling, Tiote, Campbell and Ben Arfur as evidence of Hughton given a decent break as the club attempts to get back on an even keel after the greed and incompetence of the Hall-Shepherd years, some maniac decision-making in the early days of the Ashley regime which culminated in a disastrous relegation at the end of the 08/09 season. A relegation we will take a while to recover from.

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