After being taught a footballing lesson by Sven and his boys last weekend, we entertain an Everton team this Sunday fresh from their midweek adventures in Ukraine, I caught up with Newcastle-Online’s own resident Scouser 1878 to find out his opinions on the match…

How has your season been going so far?

Pretty much as expected really… 5th in the league, one away from last seasons finishing position and through to the next round of the Carling Cup and UEFA Cup. Although our performances in the latter competition don’t give me much hope of a trip to Manchester in May!

And what about your new signings? How have they been performing?

Leighton Baines has been fantastic. I’m actually surprised at how good he is, I previously just thought of him as an above average player and that’s about it. I’ve now seen that he is stronger defensively than I thought, an excellent attacking outlet down the left and a fine crosser of a ball. Everything you want in a full back.

Jagielka is basically Phil Neville without the Frankenstein features & Man Utd media training in how to be a gobshite. Yakubu is the African James Beattie at twice the price. Stefan Wessels seems a reliable second choice keeper with the added bonus of unintentional comedy hair. He’s very… German.

Joey Barton - misunderstood or your typical scouse arsehole?

He’s not misunderstood, he’s just an idiot with a mouth and a temper he can’t control because his ego won’t allow it. Sometimes he actually speaks sense on football but it’s almost always inappropriate. The kind of thing I’d want my mate down the pub to be saying, not what I’d want a highly paid player from my club to be spouting to any media outlet that will listen.

As for the Scouse bit, I am positively charming so we’re not all bad.

We beat you to the signing of Alan Smith in the summer, how did you feel about that and what’s your opinion on him as a player?

Without gloating too much, I’m delighted you “beat us” to his signature. A striker with no real pace, no technical ability and no goals wasn’t high on my agenda this summer.

Actually, I’ve just described Yakubu there haven’t I? Shit.

So where do you think Everton will end up in the league at the end of this season

It’s pretty tough to call with many evenly matched teams from about 6th-12th in the table.

I’ll predict that the extra UEFA games will see us a couple of places worse off than last year- 8th.

And Newcastle? Where do you think we’ll end up?

As a wild guess, 9th sounds about right. I think you will miss out on Europe this year but will be in a good position to push on next season.

What are your opinions on the changes that we’ve seen at Newcastle over the summer?

Well, it’s positive all round as far as I can see. Quietly spoken chairman with sensible financial management and significant funds replaces a chairman who was disliked by the fans, loved getting his fat face on the TV to some embarrassment and often resembled a kid in a sweet shop when it came to managing your transfer dealings.

I don’t really need to comment on why Allardyce is better than Glenn Rodent.

Would you welcome a Mike Ashley type figure taking over Everton?

Without getting into the fine details of boardroom politics and financial statistics that none of your readers will care about- yes! I would welcome any takeover that comes with some financial muscle behind it.

However, I think we will be waiting a few years for that day to come. Bill Kenwright will sell up when he has moved the club to a new stadium in Kirkby and the share price has rocketed.

What do you think of Moyes as a manager?

I think Moyes has done a good job in rescuing us from the dark days of Walter Smith and making us a respectable outfit again. He’s also unearthed some gems that fans will talk about for years to come such as Cahill, Arteta and Lescott.

However, I don’t think he should remain here long term. His style of play is drab and tactically I don’t think he can cut it at the highest level. The bad performances in Europe where we played caveman, route one stuff that’s about 20 years out of date was just downright sad.

Not one quarter-final appearance in 5 years and counting isn’t anything to shout about either.

What about Allardyce? How far do you think he can take the club?

At first glance, I would be thinking that if he can take Bolton to having some realistic thoughts about sneaking a Champions League place then why not Newcastle, right?

However, there’s a bit more to it than that. How will he perform in the transfer market when he has bigger sums of money to invest in players? There are examples of other managers who have performed wonders on a tight budget then not made the grade at bigger/richer clubs.

His Bolton teams were often a collection of talented misfits paired with limited grafters & athletes, assembled for a low cost and getting by on team spirit and percentage football. Will the Newcastle fans accept that situation? Does Allardyce even intend to replicate that or try something different making use of his greater resources? There are still lots of questions unanswered… it’s really just a waiting game for your fans to see how his plans unfold over the next couple of transfer windows. Sam Allardyce’s Newcastle team will not just appear overnight.

My guess is that he will bring you European football regularly given time. Unfortunately for you it will be of the UEFA Cup variety, not Champions League.

Who are the dangermen we should watch out for on Sunday?

Well it’s got to be Lescott hasn’t it? Top goalscorer this season, he’s a massive threat at set pieces which is invaluable in a tough away game such as this when Moyes will be banking on getting some joy out of corners and free kicks.

I suppose the more obvious candidate is Mikel Arteta who is very influential for us. If he doesn’t play well then we usually struggle to create anything of note. McFadden has also been in good form recently, he finally looks to be getting some consistency to his game.

And who do you fear out of our current squad?

On his day, Martins can be brilliant with his raw pace and eye for a spectacular goal although he’s very erratic. If the real Obafemi Martins turns up on Sunday then he’ll be the biggest threat to us.

The only other player to catch my eye this season is N’Zogbia, obviously he hasn’t been the most solid defender being played out of position at left back but going forward he looks as good as ever and has bagged a few goals. If Enrique is fit to play at full back and N’Zogbia can move into the midfield then I feel that will be a big boost for you.

Finally, a prediction for the game.

My heart says we can get a result but my head is telling me that sooner or later we won’t continue to scrape results with the crap football we’re playing. Add in the extra midweek game and the long travelling time to the arse end of the old Soviet Bloc and I think Sunday will see our 3 wins on the bounce come to an end.

2-1 Newcastle.

Thanks to 1878 for his thoughts.