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In a period when fixture scheduling has repeatedly raised concerns, we go into this one just 3 days before the next fixture. I bet amongst fan of other clubs we are still the more despised club, but the Saudi’s investment in the Magpies is reason enough to absolutely detest them. They’ve gotten into bed with a human rights-abusing oil-wealth inflated band of cunts, no matter how much the bean counters of the PL want to bury their heads in the sand and believe the club ownership is entirely separate from the regime itself. Such is the absolute control of regimes like the Saudis that any claim that the ownership is a separate entity is utter bollocks. The PL, UEFA, FIFA and co will do sod all because they cannot afford to be tied up in legal knots by less wealthy sovereign Arab states like the UAE or Qatar, so they’ve got almost no chance to going toe to toe with the Saudi royal family. Bravery. Liveliness. Accuracy. Class. Know-how. Attitude. Nerve. Drive. Work ethic. Heart. Intelligence. Tactical flexibility. Energy. Speed. Heads screwed on. Ingenuity. Tenacity. Electricity. I don’t ask for much. Last season’s fixture at Anfield was typical for an Anfield fixture against a Steve Bruce side. We didn’t play particularly well but dominated. We took the lead but failed to add to our total. They profited from their one and only foray into our penalty area. OK, it wasn’t quite their one and only foray when the Geordies equalised deep deep DEEP into stoppage time, as they’d had one ruled out by VAR only a minute earlier, but it was still a result that did not paint a true picture of the match. We did not manage those last few minutes well at all, having failed to add to Mo’s tidy finish only a few minutes into the game. Points dropped. We were far sharper and more clinical when the Geordies visited Anfield post-Christmas in 1987. This was the era of Aldridge, Beardsley and Barnes in attack, with McMahon and Houghton in top form behind them. Gazza was still a Newcastle player back then, but he could do nothing to stem the tidal wave of Red. It was a comfortable 4-0 romp thanks to Macca, 2 from Aldo and one by Ray. They’d already been ripped apart at St James’ Park earlier in the season when Stevie Nicol got a hat-trick. You can see photos of the 4-0 win in this video around 45 minutes in. Oddly, there doesn’t seem to be any footage of the game. Never mind,you can enjoy a review of the entire 1987/88 season anyway. The big post-Christmas film in 1987 was Three Men and a Baby, directed by Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, and starring Cheers star Ted Danson, Magnum PI star Tom Selleck, and Police Academy smug bastard Steve Guttenberg. Three bachelors are left to look after a little baby girl that is the product of a one night stand for Danson's character when the child is left outside their door one day. Cue loads of twee moments as the three reluctantly embrace the task at hand, gradually warming to and eventually not wanting to give her up. The plot also involves some drug dealer shit to add a dose of peril to the baby’s safety. Apparently it’s based on a French story written in the 30s, but America in the 80s loved this sort of thing. Grown-ass men forming a bond with widdle baybees also led to Look Who’s Talking and its sequels. I have actually seen both this and the sequel Three Men and a Little Lady (the baby is all grown up) but I can’t recall anything about them. Probably for the best. A hectic fixture schedule for Jurgen to manage, so I’d imagine he’ll make more changes for this one. There’s not much point over-exerting just for the sake of it, but at the same time there should be no let-up with the players’ attitude and application. We ensure those are right, get the job done and grab the 3 points. Newcastle have been crap all season. Let’s show why that is.