The Moustache of Teale

Is that you Doctor Who?

Were you manager of Schalke at the time?

Showing their class wherever they go

Sven Botman will be walking like John Wayne for a few days after today’s match. Watkins tore him a new one.

Outstanding today. On that form he must be horrible to play against. Literally here, there and everywhere, a constant menace. And such and intelligent player.

I preferred Midge Ure’s lyrics personally.

And Libor Kozak.

Leeds, Wolves, West Ham for me. Unfortunately I don’t think it will be any of those.

OXO mate. Different gravy.

Atmosphere’s absolutely rocking at this game. The animosity between these 2 west London rivals is palpable.

I’d say that the cultural mix of the cities, as @villa4europe alluded to, also plays a big part here these days. Birmingham is a very multicultural city, and quite a portion of the asian population, from my experience, supports the likes of Man Utd and Liverpool in particular. I’m not wishing to generalise here, I have a number of Asian work colleagues who are Villa fans too, but one of the reasons I hate losing to Man Utd or Liverpool is having to face their ‘fans’ at work on Monday morning. And I work in Birmingham city centre. Certainly, that’s the way I see things in terms of my own work colleagues and neighbours. When I look back to my childhood in the 1970s and early 80s, that wasn’t the case; the majority of people in this city supported Villa, Birmingham, or to a lesser extent West Brom, dependent on where in the city they were located. My wife is a Geordie and I spend a lot of time in the North East. Whilst things have changed a little, there isn’t the same cultural mix in Newcastle and the people there, and in the surrounding areas, are overwhelmingly Newcastle fans. Walk around the Metrocentre in Gateshead and it’s a shock to see a kid in a Man U or Liverpool top. Walk around Merry Hill centre and you’ll see kids in Wolves, West Brom and Villa tops, but just as likely Man U, Liverpool, and tragically now even Man City tops. So, in my opinion, that’s what makes someone from Birmingham more likely to support Man Utd than someone from Newcastle is. I hope that doesn’t come across as controversial or contentious, that was absolutely not my intention, but I do think it’s part of the reason as to why Newcastle, combined with its remote geographical location, has a loyal and partisan following within its potential catchment area.

SHA lost 3-1 and bin dippers getting humped. Party time

Looks like Gracia is about to be confirmed as their new manager. Can’t say I know a great deal about him, but his spells at Watford and Valencia were hardly impressive

From a Newcastle perspective, it’s unfortunate they’re playing Man U in the final. On Man U’s form, there isn’t a team I’d least rather be playing right now.

This is going well for Newcastle

Apologies if this has already been posted, but I’ve got a lot of time for Luis Miguel Echegaray and this tweet says it all for me:

Yes, can barely string two sentences together, and has got the IQ of an amoeba. Makes Agbonlahor look like Einstein.

@rjw63 put it eloquently in the match thread. I honestly don’t think this description of Grealish can ever be surpassed:

You really should become a writer for Mills & Boon

If they need help rolling wor sleeves up or pulling up wor socks, we know just the man for the job.

They’ve also added a couple of extra stages including chronic paranoia, and being self-entitled arrogant spunktrumpets.

Makes me wonder how we manage to make such hard work of playing this bunch of rectal prolapses.

I guess that depends on how big her Cazoos are.