Sam Allardyce is a pragmatic man, he has made his career in the game as a sensible centre-back and he has continued his rise to the top by talking endless amounts of sense. He values the common sensical approach to the game as he values his data sheets and his ice-fridge. He has sensibly started building from the back, he talks a good game and he understands the motivational and communicative needs of the players, after all he has proper coaching badges - he even brings a glint to the eye of the FA when the England job is mulled. So as Toon supports we are just beginning to ask ourselves how and why he continues to mis-read the teams needs on the pitch away from home?

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Phil Dowd of Stoke-on-Trent will take charge of our game at the Madejski Stadium against Reading this afternoon. Last season he took charge of 2 of our games, defeats at Chelsea and Fulham.

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After a tremendous first top flight season where they finished in eight place, Reading FC are now facing one of the worst things in the world of top flight football. The second season after staying up. Reading have by many been tipped as a favourite for the relegation battle this season, or at best finishing with a mid-table position come May 2008. Though, with a decent enough start to the season seen with the eyes of The Royals, they find themselves in a 12th place as they host Newcastle this Saturday. Though, what have the Royals done before they got into the top flight? What are their achievements? Just who the f*** are Reading FC?
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After 3 away defeats on the bounce, we travel to Reading on Saturday looking reverse that trend and try to build on our good home form, I spoke with Newcastle-Online lurker Reading fan about his opinions on our upcoming game, as well as other goings on at the Madejski this season…

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Finally, our Prediction Panel are starting to get some predictions right. All they need to do now, is get near to getting the right score! Spurs came away from St James Park on Monday night with nothing as Newcastle United brushed them aside for the third successive year, by 3-1. Goals from Oba Martins, Claudio Cacapa and James Milner ensured victory for the Magpies and we got our Panel’s view as always on all things Black and White.

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Steve Bennett, from Orpington in Kent, is 46 years old, and takes charge of his 2nd Newcastle match of the 2007/08 season as Wigan Athletic travel to St James’ Park to face us in the Premiership. We have a bit of an unhappy history with Mr Bennett, who has made several controversial (but not necessarily incorrect) decisions against us in the past.
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Monday the 22nd October Newcastle will face off with an opponent quite similar to themselves in many aspects, that opponent is Tottenham Hotspur. The club that said before the 07/08 season that they would finally break into the top four. Things have not went as well as they thought though, and the match against Newcastle might either be the match where Tottenham turn things around, or the match where Newcastle make it clear that they are finally reaching what the supporters have wanted for quite some time, consistency. But I dare ask, just who the f*** are Tottenham Hotspur FC?

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The international break is over and it’s time to forget about the failings of McClaren and hope that Big Sam will make that pain go away. Newcastle host Spurs at St James Park on Monday night, live on Setanta Sports. With Owen and Martins set to partner each other up front, how will the Magpies do? We asked out panel as always.

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Monday night sees us entertain Spurs at St James’, thanks to those marvellous television schedules depriving us of a weekend match. We caught up with three Spurs’ fans, Mr Tea, Defoe8 and Lil Yiddo to look ahead to the game and find out what they make of Spurs so far this season.

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Finally, Newcastle are grinding out results. Against Everton last week, United came away with a 3-2 victory, despite it being 1-1 with 20 or so minutes to go. Later than usual, here are the views of our expert panel on how the Toon coped against the Toffees at St James Park.

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There has been a lot of conjecture of late, particularly in the printed media, about an alleged conflict of interest concerning Michael Owen and whether his priorities lie with his club or his country. Much of this is undoubtedly the press stirring things up in order to sell newspapers. In particular the recent articles in The Sun seem to have gone out of their way to drive a wedge between Owen and Sam Allardyce over the player’s participation in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. And, however lamentable its prose may be at times, it is still the best-selling newspaper in the country and is hugely influential amongst its predominantly male, working class readership.

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This player fancies himself as an international. He’s only with the toon for the money, in fact he’s a mercenary little b******. He rarely plays for us, he’s usually got some injury or other. He has no loyalty to the club, he’s more interested in swanning around with his international mates than playing for us. Since we signed him he’s done nowt for us, absolutely nowt. It cost us millions to sign him, millions to pay him and for what? An injury list as long as your arm, no longer the player he was, in fact he might be finished with his record. The best thing we could do is sell him now, to the highest bidder, and get him off the payroll.

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The defensive frailties of Newcastle United have so often been overplayed by elements of the national press, preferring to use clichés first mooted in the Keegan era over the cold, hard facts shown in the goals against column of the league table. That said, in recent years the backline has always had the tendency to self-destruct at crucial times, leading to our exit from many a competition. Now, on paper at least, the defence is starting to look good. With Beye, Enrique, Cacapa, Faye and Rozenhal adding to the potential of Taylor and bringing some much needed experience and quality to the United back four, there is some cause for optimism amongst supporters. So, where does that leave the other elements in the team live-up?

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Martin Atkinson of Leeds in West Yorkshire will take charge of our game with Everton at St James’ Park today. It will be his first Newcastle game of the season, with the last time he refereed us being our 2-0 defeat to Blackburn in the final home game of last season.