NEWCASTLE UNITED are never far away from the headlines. Despite having won nothing of note in over 35 years, the club continues to hog the back pages, and often the front pages, of not only local but national newspapers. It may be difficult to pinpoint the reasons why the club is in constant focus, but it is even more difficult to decipher the effect that this media spotlight has on the players on the pitch, and on the reputation of the loyal fan base who follow those players home and away.

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Newcastle supporter Craig Doyle writes in with his thoughts on the whole away day experience of following the Magpies in Oslo.

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Very rarely have I seen British newspapers across the political spectrum so united but I suspect the unity in tearing Sven apart at best has more to do with the need to blame someone for our painful defeat and at worst borne out of the fact that Sven’s nationality does not start with “E” than an actual fair judgement.

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United ensured a comfortable route into the UEFA Cup Second Qualifying Round with a 3-0 win over in Norway today. Shola Ameobi came into the side in place of the injured Albert Luque, and gave us the lead just before the half hour after Fredrikson could only parry N’Zogbia’s powerful free kick. Stephen Carr then sent skipper Scott Parker away down the right, and his brilliant ball across the 6-yard box was put away by Shola for our 2nd goal, which left the Norwegians needing 3 to progress.

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The referee for the 2nd leg of our Intertoto clash with Lillestrom SK will be Stanislav Sukhina from Malakhovka in Russia. He is 37 years old, and has held a FIFA badge since 2003. He hasn’t done any European matches worth writing about, but averages 5.6 yellows and 0.6 reds per game in the Russian League.

The last time we had a Russian referee was in the 1st leg of our UEFA Cup Quarter Final against Sporting in April 2005, when Iouri Baskakov oversaw a 1-0 win at St James Park. Prior to that, Valentin Ivanov was in charge for the goalless 1st leg of our Semi Final tie against Marseille in April 2004, and also that season Nikolai Ivanov oversaw a 5-0 success against NAC Breda in the 1st leg of the 1st round tie.

The aforementioned Baskakov also took charge of our 3-1 Intertoto Cup 2nd Round 2nd Leg victory over 1860 Munich in August 2001, yet again at St James Park.

Newcastle’s most important game of the season is about to come much sooner than any of us expected. It is only mid-July with the Toon facing their second game of the season and they are already facing a make or break clash when they play in the Arasen Stadium in the second leg of their Intertoto tie with Norwegian outfit Lillestrom on Saturday afternoon.

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NEWCASTLE UNITED are never far away from the headlines. Despite having won nothing of note in over 35 years, the club continues to hog the back pages, and often the front pages, of not only local but national newspapers. It may be difficult to pinpoint the reasons why the club is in constant focus, but it is even more difficult to decipher the effect that this media spotlight has on the players on the pitch, and on the reputation of the loyal fan base who follow those players home and away.

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When I continue to see the name of Nicolas Anelka being thrown about the gossip columns, being linked with a move to us, it turns my stomach. Looking at the fact that Shola Ameobi, loved and loathed by the Geordie public, actually has a marginally better career goals-to-starts ratio - you can see what I am getting at.

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United make their 4th backroom appointment of the season today - appointing Joe Joyce as academy director - which follows Lee Clark’s move to reserve team coach, Kevin Bond’s arrival as assistant manager and Terry Gennoe’s return as goalkeeping coach, completing Roeder’s team.

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When Roeder came out last week and slammed fat cat millionaires who join clubs just for money, people automatically thought that was directed at rumours linking us with Saviola but I don’t think that was the case, the rumours linking us with David Beckham would probably be more like the reason for his outburst and I also think it was a slight message to Freddy Shepherd not to pursue that kind of target under his nose because let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the first time that Freddy Shepherd has taken transfer dealings into his own hands.

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Newcastle-Online.com hooked up with Lillestrom fan Egil Sande to get his post-visit views on the trip he and his fellow fans made to Newcastle over the weekend.

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Once again, the Premiership season is upon us, and once again, the formality that is Chelsea have already strengthened to ridiculous proportions the side that so comfortably waltzed to the Premiership title last season. Bearing in mind that the rest of the league is yet to make any substantial signings, where does this leave everyone else?

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A rather different type of Toon player ratings than previous efforts, with an overall look at the game and opposition with detailed match analysis.

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The referee for the 1st leg of our Intertoto clash with Lillestrom SK will be Joeri Van Der Velde of Belgium. He was in charge of Liverpool’s 3-0 success over TNS in last season’s Champions League Qualifier, and also when England U21 met Austria at Elland Road last year, with Mags James Milner and Steven Taylor in the England line-up that night.

His asistants, also Belgian, are Vincent Despiegeleer and Denis Bruggeman. The fourth official is Chris Sarginson who, as you can probably guess, is not Belgian, but English, and is a Premiership Assistant Referee, from Staffordshire. We had a Belgian referee in last year’s Intertoto Cup, the 1st leg of our tie against Deportivo in Spain was refereed by Serge Gumienny.

While Bahrain is only a fairly small island off the coast of Saudi Arabia they are crazy about their football here. Almost every day for the last 6 weeks, sometime during the day I have found myself discussing the merits of 4-4-2 over 4-5-1 with Mohammed, the office runner. As with many people of a similar age born in the region, Mohammed and education were never introduced to each other, as a result his English is extremely poor.

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