Having spent the last few days putting some Germolene (other antiseptic based creams are available, I just don't know any) on the wounds from a frankly awful night next to the Mersey, we've got Everton here within a few days to open them all back up again in what could be the most “Everyone else is playing in Europe, which poor saps with decent fanbases can we put on Monday night football?” game since Sky got involved.
Have you got the stomach for this? You better have. Yes, you will have to work all day, it will be late and all of that stuff, but it's going to be Wissa up against Tarkowski and hey, there might be a fight, or Pickford might do something. He might, you never know.
Is this what the premium Premier League product has come down to? The selling point being whether Pickford does some gurning or not. Dear me, Don King has not long had his 95th birthday and he would need all his bravado and chutzpah to get the neutral into this.
Except we aren't neutral. This is vital for us.
It seems like every week it's a fork in the road for our season. Win and we move into the top seven, lose and we are in trouble. It's not a position we like in any season - we are shit when the pressure is on. Always have been. So, throw the flakiest United squad since the last one into the mix and a head coach who we don't know yet whether he's philosopher Homer or cartoon character Homer, and you simply don't know which way it's going to go.
All I know is, it has to be better than Thursday night. It can't be much worse. Can it?
Fans of both sides have been saying in the aftermath of the Cup game, where did this rivalry between the sides come from? Well, I call it ‘two baldy men fighting over a comb syndrome’.
Let me ask you this, did anyone mention or get annoyed with Everton when we were beating PSG or winning the League Cup? Or alternatively for older readers, do you think Everton fans gave a toss about us when they won the title and Cup Winners Cup? The teams at the top no longer care and you try it on with anyone close.
Luckily those paths have aligned with Everton and Newcastle. Throw in Pickford and a strange Sunderland love-in, which has to be the weirdest since Geri Halliwell and Chris Evans announced they were in love the week her debut solo album came out, and here we are with this sad existence. Most Everton fans were great down there last week. Maybe it's just idiots online.
After the Coventry debacle, we've all seen the Monday night stats. Twenty defeats over 24 years. I can remember very few of those being at home however.
I can remember one game where we played and beat Wigan, who brought tiny support on a baltic night and it was the quietest St James’ has EVER been. We need to avoid this tonight.
The atmosphere home and away has been poor this season. Call it what you want, the ticketing system etc, but I'm putting it down to having no more heroes. Formulaic players assembled from standard parts don't get songs. Unless it's ironic, which doesn't even seem to work this time. We need some new heroes.
Step up someone, please. This is an official SOS to someone in the squad before the atmosphere gets really moribund.
Duncan Ferguson was an Everton legend and history has warmed up his lukewarm Newcastle career after people found out he sorted Ruud Gullit out. Did you see this week he's entered the fray of the Northern Irish premiership and all that entails by becoming Glentoran manager? What could go wrong there.
Really, if you want box office, this could be our place this year. His x-rated response at not being able to move from mobile wifi to normal wifi this week live on camera hasn't dampened my enthusiasm for this appointment either. They play Linfield on Boxing Day. Stuff charades, get the in laws watching that.
He won't be getting into my combined Newcastle and Everton five a side team, however. Too much hassle and you can't play above head height. These next lot do though.
Keeper is tough. John Ruddy was on both teams’ books, but hardly played for either, so I will go with David Lawson who once signed for Everton in a world record fee for a keeper but didn't play once for us. Told you it was tough.
Paul Bracewell will be doing the defensive work this time while capable of powering on if the ankle allows. But he might not need to, as we unleash the best attacking five a side combination in a long time, as we throw Gascoigne, Beardsley, and Ginola at the startled opposition.
The bench is packed. Speed, Sheedy, Gordon and Neil McDonald all desperate to get on if Gazza goes walkabout.
That's another Special done then. This is simply the way we do it every game. Preview. Special. Report. Ratings.
A warning. The worse we are, the better a read they are. Newcastle United giving writers plenty to go on since 1892.
Scott
## TF Preview - Everton (h), 2 Nov 2026
True Faith
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Nov 1
TF Preview - Everton (h), 2 Nov 2026
St James’ Park, 8pm, Monday 2/11/26
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## TF Match Report - Everton 3-1 Newcastle Utd
True Faith
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Oct 30
TF Match Report - Everton 3-1 Newcastle Utd
Fleetwood away - at that point, you might as well have just saved yourself the time and bother tonight.
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Whitworth St, Manchester
## Review - Juve! - Herbie Sykes
True Faith
·
July 30, 2025
Review - Juve! - Herbie Sykes
This is the perfect football book. It has everything. It is obviously a history of one of the world’s most storied clubs and an Italian institution. La Grande Signora is European football aristocracy whose past is inextricably linked within the history of Italy over the last century, politically, culturally, economically and socially. Want to know about…
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U-21 Derby Win Highlights
IT Crowd
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The Special is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend and ally Glenn Ashcroft.
Art work by Peter Willis.