FRIDAY - FOOTBALL

Still playing catch up.  Apologies for lack of comments. Feeling rather tired and worn out at the moment.  Would like to thank everyone who has commented and given stars and favourites over the past few days.

Had a mostly lazy day on Friday until it was time to get the bus into town to go to the match.  Newcastle were playing Wolves - 8pm kick off.  Match was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon  but was moved so it could be shown on Sky this evening.  Evening games are not my favourite.

When I got to town I popped into Waitrose first.  Got more shopping than I intended as they had some of their own brand cat food in stock.  Its Tino's favourite and they haven't had any for months so I got 4 tins.

Then I made my way to St James Park.  Capacity crowd of over 52,000 so the streets were very crowded and noisy - great atmosphere.  When I got inside the ground I could see straight away that there were flags being waved in all 4 stands of the ground.  And I was pleased to find a flag by my own seat.  Its a great feeling to be part of the flag waving supporters.  The flags are supplied by "  Wor Flags " and are placed around the ground before kick off.  They are supposed to be left behind when you leave so they can be used again but it seems like after this match a lot of them were taken home by the crowd.  Some of those who took them have had their photos posted on social media.  Hopefully this shames them into returning the flags ready for the next home game.

Newcastle were the slightly better side and scored a goal in the first half but it was disallowed so the score at half time was 0 - 0.   Newcastle played better in the second half and had some chances to score.  They were awarded a penalty in the 72nd minute and Chris Wood scored - his first goal for Newcastle at St James Park. The match ended 1 nil to Newcastle and the 3 points earned puts us 14th in the table - 6 teams are below us. Fingers crossed we can keep up the winning ways and not drop down the table again.

I left the football ground around  9.50pm.  The usual bus I would have caught to get home was one of the cancelled ones ( due to lack of drivers ) so I had to have a re-think.  Got a bus which went to the main street in the village and then I had a 15 min walk home.  Got indoors at 11pm.  Glad to get in the warm as it was a cold night with a chill wind.

After a day relaxing and going out on the boat Neil and Rachael have left the main group and gone by train to Miami Airport.  They are staying overnight in an airport hotel and in the morning they fly to Las Vegas to continue their belated honeymoon.

Steps today - 9,874