Recently in Newcastle United Category

Last week I wrote of my despair at what football has become, how I'd lost faith in managers, players and football club owners, how I'd fallen out of love with a beautiful game turned ugly.

But on Saturday, at St James' Park, a little of my faith was restored. Not all of it, but enough to make me remember why I fell in love in the first place and that is a start.

Surely it is too early in my life to feel so disillusioned? I'm too young to be cynical, but I've been bruised, battered and spun around by events at Newcastle United to the point where I think I might have fallen out of love with football.

It isn't just what has happened at St James' Park since I became a sports reporter ten years ago, although that clearly hasn't helped, it is everything the game has become. From Sepp Blatter and Fifa to the conniving, money grabbing agents who get rich off the talent of others.

From the hype and hyperbole of hours of Sky Sports coverage, to the constant failures of England's preening, pampered stars. From greedy, arrogant and selfish players to dishonest owners, via self-serving managers and deluded, irrational armchair fans.

For 90 minutes on Saturday I allowed myself to think the unthinkable. Admittedly it had been a long night on Saturday and I had that mild sense of euphoria you get when you realise your hangover is subsiding and you are not going to throw your lunch up all over the journalist sitting next to you.

But, as I watched Newcastle soak up Tottenham Hotspur's second-half pressure and consistently threaten to score a second goal on the counter-attack, I began to contemplate the Magpies returning to European competition.

Due to a poorly planned holiday to America I missed the Sunderland vs Newcastle derby last weekend, but what did I actually miss out on?

I missed a combustible atmosphere which threatened to ignite into a blazing inferno after the final whistle, I missed the idiotic Sunderland fan who shoved Steve Harper in the back, I missed Steve Bruce's wild man celebrations and I missed the Black Cats rescuing a point in a game Newcastle thought they had already wrapped up.

I missed out on Kevin Nolan's fourth goal in a Tyne-Wear derby (an impressive ten for the season), I missed the drama of Asamoah Gyan's fortunate (you make your own luck in this game, whatever that means) late equaliser and I missed out on Darren Bent's final appearance in red and white stripes.

It has been a long time since the North East could boast two of the most coveted players in English football, but the real question is how long will Andy Carroll and Jordan Henderson remain here?

Nobody has been the subject of more transfer tittle tattle over the last few months than these two, but no matter how many time you are told they are off to this club for that much, and that club for this much, rest assured the pair are here to stay - at least for now.

The great thing about having a blog is you can get a few things off your chest and for once I have been annoyed by the comments left on the stories I have written about the sacking of Chris Hughton and the appointment of Alan Pardew.

It rarely bothers me if people slag me off, my job is to report information and opinions, to spark debate and to deal with the facts. Where necessary, I offer my view as well. But this time, you've managed to get a bite out of me!

So let's get a few things straight. I did not agree with the sacking of Chris Hughton and I said as much to the United hierarchy this week. I have even argued with them about it.

The departure of Chris Hughton hurt me on a personal level like no other since Sir Bobby Robson suffered an equally shoddy fate six years earlier.

I was not friends with Hughton, we didn't go drinking together and we didn't chew the fat for hours on the economic policies of the Lib-Con coalition, but I did respect him as a man and I appreciated the job he had done as a manager.

He was a good man, a likeable man and an honest man. His treatment this week was a kick in the teeth for those who like to see good people doing good things in an ugly business.

There were a few things which worried me about Newcastle United's defeat at Bolton Wanderers and I'm not even talking about the result because that was, ultimately, due to the things that worry me!

There was an air of arrogance and complacency about the Magpies at the Reebok Stadium.

There were plenty of players walking around with their chests puffed out at the weekend with that unique, peacock strut professional footballers have, but there was nothing to back it up.

This is starting to feel like something exciting is happening at Newcastle United. It may be more by luck than design, it might not last, but rarely can United fans have been more pleasantly surprised by their football club.

If the 5-1 thrashing of Sunderland was a once in a lifetime opportunity to revel in the demise of their local rivals, the 1-0 win at Arsenal was just as rare and tasted just as sweet.

I don't think I've ever seen a Sunderland side play so badly under Steve Bruce and I'm hard pushed to remember a better Newcastle performance under Chris Hughton. It was an amazing derby clash that is assured of a prominent place in Magpie history.

Kevin Nolan obviously walks away with the man of the match award, but there were so many candidates in the United side. Nobody put in anything less than an 8 out of ten performance which says everything about how dominant they were

For anyone who predicted a Black Cats victory - and that includes me - there is plenty of egg to wipe off, but I still can't quite believe the Wearsiders were as bad as they were.