7 minutes? Warnock time.

Newcastle United 3 Crystal Palace 3 I watch the Crystal Palace match at a social club, whilst sitting next to one of those fans we’ve all met before. So irritated by every little thing and who spouts out nothing but nonsense throughout the 90 minutes. “Bring Shola back, eh?” From the 2nd minute, at 1-0 down, until the 37th, when Janmaat became the unlikely first toon goal scorer of the season, it was great to watch Newcastle play with a sense of urgency. Yes, the final third was lacking somewhat, most of the many corners we took barely caused Palace any problems and whatever link-up Pardew had planned (as well as what I had hoped for) between de Jong and Riviere did not come together. But, we still pressed and I caught myself thinking that, perhaps going 1-0 down with only 30 seconds on the clock might not have been such a bad thing. “Shoot!” my viewing partner shouted at Jack Colback, who duly obliged and aimed for row Z. The second half, again, wasn’t free-flowing stuff from either side, but, it was entertaining. It was another sucker-punch when Jason Puncheon drilled home Palace’s second, to put them back in front, but the introduction of Rolando Aarons was a great move from the manager. With all the signings NUFC have made over the summer, it is this young lad from the academy who had looked the most promising in pre-season. In this match, he lived up to that promise. He introduced fresh impetus to NUFC’s play, even though the man next to me hadn’t heard of him, stating that Gutierrez might as well have come on. As for the rest of the match, with Mike Williamson putting us in front and Wilfried Zaha pulling them level in the 5th minute of the remarkable 7 that were given (I still don’t know where they came from), it did leave a horrible taste in the mouth. With a few hours to reflect, I think a draw was probably the fairest result. But, I also feel that, despite only having 2 points from the opening three matches (two of which were, on paper, winnable), this match did feel like a nod towards more the entertaining days of Newcastle United Football Club. Or am I just being unrealistic? Whatever you think, the bloke next to me got one thing right: “With Newcastle, it’s never smooth running. It’s always up and down”. True, and, don’t we just love it?