Recently in Newcastle United Category

Dare I do it? Do I risk falling flat on my face into a big pile of rotten eggs? Yeah, alright, I will do. No point being safe and boring all the time is there!

Presuming Newcastle United go up - and we cannot presume anything at the moment despite that wonderful 6-1 thrashing of Barnsley at the weekend - how many members of this squad would you definitely keep in the Premier League?

If Alan Smith owned a handbag - and I cannot say for certain that he doesn't - he would have hit Mike Williamson with it at Watford. To describe the altercation between them as a fight is like describing Great Britain as a heavyweight contender at the Winter Olympics.

However, the sight of two Newcastle players screaming at each other after conceding a goal in injury time in a comfortable away win is refreshing in its own way.

To coin one of Chris Hughton's favourite phrases - no not Re: - it shows this "group of lads" don't just care about what happens at Newcastle this season, they have professional pride in the way they do it.

When Shay Given left Newcastle United last year it was a devastating blow. One of the best goalkeepers in Europe, the loss of the Irishman was profoundly felt.

Given was Newcastle's Mr Reliable, and arguably their best player. When he decided to leave, we knew there was something going badly wrong behind the scenes under Joe Kinnear.

Few blamed him for wanting to leave, even if he effectively went on strike to ensure he was allowed to leave, but has he swapped one basket case club for another one by moving to Manchester City?

He is still on the rotund side, he has still got blood on his hands - metaphorically speaking - after relegation last season and he is still a Cockney in the loosest sense of the word, but is Mike Ashley still a hate figure on Tyneside?

I doubt Newcastle United's owner would win any popularity contests and I doubt very much whether he would be welcome in any Bigg Market drinking establishments anytime soon, but has outright hostility now given away to begrudging acceptance?

It says much about the success of Newcastle's season that, at the very least, Ashley's presence at St James' Park no longer tops the agenda.

I wouldn't say I was an expert on women's football and I'm still puzzled on a regular basis by matters relating to members of the opposite sex, as my wife would wholeheartedly concur if she ever bothered to read this blog.

I've never seen Sunderland or Newcastle United's female teams play, although I did watch a bit of the Women's World Cup and I did interview England's third choice goalkeeper a couple of years ago.

But I don't need to be an expert or an aficionado on the fairer sex's football exploits to realise the decision not to have a North East team in the Football Association's new Super League is a disgrace.

After the high comes the low and Newcastle's performance against Derby was like cold turkey after a crack cocaine binge against Cardiff.

Sometimes it does not matter how many times you warn footballers - and I'm sure Chris Hughton tried to hammer home the message - it just doesn't get through to them.

I would like to say I saw this coming, but I didn't. To put it plain and simply, I thought Newcastle were absolutely superb against Cardiff managing to be both exciting and resilient.

It was the perfect tonic to the insipid performances which had previously characterised 2010 and has given me renewed confidence in their promotion push.

I wouldn't say I had begun to doubt the team as such, but I had begun to despair at the lack of quality in their football. There are only so many grinding out a result weekends you can take.

My first emotion at the close of the transfer window is one of relief because the whole thing is just a month long hype fest, artificial excitement for armchair fans sitting in their pants in front of Sky Sports News.

Come on, let's be honest, the only people who enjoy the transfer window is Sky Sports News. It is tailor made for a 24 hour news channel because it actually gives them something to talk about all day rather than just filling time with the same bits of news on a 20 minute loop. It makes them look important and exciting.

Is it just me or have Newcastle United actually been fairly efficient during this transfer window? There is a first time for everything and it seems as though Mike Ashley has finally realised how to operate in the transfer market.

Allow the manager to identify the players he wants within a workable budget and then make sure everything possible is done to get them without being held to ransom by anyone. If deals fall through, move quickly on to other ones and repeat until squad is up to required strength.

There are times in this job when you write things on the spur of the moment, caught up in the emotion of events, when everything is raw and sore and your judgement is clouded.

It happens in arguments, particularly when alcohol is involved. Something which seemed a complete injustice, an outrage, the worst insult ever, a shocking turn of events can quickly become something trivial by the time the hangover has arrived.

I feel a bit like that after my Crystal Palace match report. Newcastle were poor, sloppy and slapdash. They were lucky to win and they won't go up playing like that for the rest of the season.