If you come across any interesting items you'd like to pass on to other Toon Army supporters, send them to Gary.

With Harry Spall still away (where are you Harry!?) Mark Harper is stepping in to produce the 'Rant' for December 2003. Come back soon Harry - I'm sure that my predictable and opinionated waffle will become tiresome and mundane pretty quickly.
(Update: Harry expects to be ranting again by Christmas --Ed)

I actually started to write this newsletter on the eve of our game with Basle this week, but decided to wait as I had nightmare visions of another Partizan Belgrade disaster and going out under heart-breaking circumstances. The tone of this newsletter would have been somewhat different if Basle had converted two or three of those 1st half chances. Thank-you Shay Given! I'm not going to analyze the game at all, as I'm sure everyone had the chance to see it on TV, but it wasn't exactly a classy performance. Our defending must improve and that final ball into the box must be better against stronger opposition in Round 3. A special mention for Nobby Solano, who looked a different class when he came on for Kieron Dyer against Basle.

The draw for the next round is held at Uefa HQ on Friday, Dec 12th at 3pm local time. Looking at potential opponents for Newcastle in Round 3 the big guns that stand out are Barcelona, Parma, Roma, Bordeaux and even Liverpool. The Uefa Cup 3rd Round also sees the addition of those Champions League 3rd placed group teams. So potentially we may be paired with the likes of PSV, Marseille, Glasgow Rangers, Inter Milan or even Arsenal. The Group stages of the CL (Match Day 6) are concluded Dec 9th/10th when final standings will reveal the 3rd placed teams. These teams than slide over into the Uefa Cup. The Uefa Cup 3rd Round games are set to take place on Feb 26th & March 3rd 2004, respectively. Source; www.uefa.com

It has been a real rollercoaster month since the last newsletter with the League Cup loss at home to West Brom being of particular disappointment to everyone. Did Bobby show complacency in fielding an under-strength team in that game? Should senior pro's have started instead of being rested? Questions will remain unanswered, but this one goes down as another disappointing loss to lesser opposition, when silverware was within our grasp. Things didn't improve too much when Shearer missed a late penalty against Aston Villa in a 1-1 draw (when will be we a Brummie team this year?), but the 3-2 away win in Switzerland against FC Basle set us up nicely for what was our first real test since losing at Arsenal. However, against Chelsea we were not up for it and got exactly what we deserved - nowt! Some might say that key players were missing for this one (with Shearer, Dyer and Woodgate all out) but then the cynics amongst us would say we should be able to bring in squad players and get results against anyone. The doom-and-gloom merchants of the popular press again had the headlines written, but thankfully the lads put 3 goals past Kevin Keegan's Man City and kept a clean sheet in the process and we remain in touch, within the in the top ten in the League going into December.

The games now come thick and fast for Newcastle straight through to the Xmas/New Year period, with some big games being picked up live on TV;
Sat Nov 29th - WOLVES (A) * LIVE ON TV (7:30am [EST] KO)
Sat Dec 6th - LIVERPOOL (H)* LIVE ON TV (7:30am [EST] KO)
Sat Dec 13th - TOTTENHAM (H)
Sat Dec 20th - CHARLTON (A)
Fri Dec 26th - LEICESTER (A)
Sun Dec 28th - BLACKBURN (H)* LIVE ON TV (9:00am [EST] KO)
Sat Jan 3rd - FA CUP 3rd
Wed Jan 7th - LEEDS (H)
Sun Jan 11th - MAN UTD (A) * TV TO BE CONFIRMED
Mon Jan 19th - FULHAM (H) * LIVE ON TV (3:00pm [EST] KO)
(Be sure to check local cable/satellite TV listings OR www.soccertv.com/ http://canadatvsoccer.tripod.com/)

News this week that Alan Shearer is under-going qualification for his Uefa 'B' coaching license. This story, of course, adds fuel to the speculation that Shearer is destined to a coaching/managerial career at Newcastle. I'm not sure that SBR wants to give the reins up yet and to be honest the way Shearer is playing (top of the EPL scoring charts as this is typed) he may be tempted to go beyond his contract of May 2005.

Not sure if anyone else read the story doing the rounds about Peter Beardsley recently. Apparently Peter was doing a speaking engagement recently and hinted at the possibility that the Club are trying to ease him out. Of course, this is related to the allegations earlier in the year that he 'bullied' youngsters in the junior teams and this even lead to an FA investigation. The FA eventually adjudged these allegations to be unfounded and through the charges out. However, it appears that the damage has been done and Beardsley now finds himself out of favour and being pushed out. Peter has recently been linked to jobs at Hartlepool (where he played for a short spell) and Darlington.

I wanted to remind everyone that Gary Clementson has done a magnificent job of producing ToonArmy T-Shirts and Caps. These are available in both 'ToonArmyUSA' or 'ToonArmyCANADA' logos and would make a great Holiday gift for a loved one OR yourself. My order is already in! Support the Club and check out T-Shirts and Caps at this link; http://www.toonarmyusa.com/NUSC_Merchandise.htm

Sunday November 30th - LISBON. UEFA 2004 Finals Draw at 12:00 noon local time The draw is being staged at the Pavilhão Atlântico in Lisbon at 12.00. UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner and his successor, Lars-Christer Olsson, will conduct proceedings in front of 2,000 guests and the world's media. Source; www.uefa.com

Fri. December 5th - FRANKFURT. World Cup 2006 Group Qualification Draw at 5:05pm local time On Friday, 5 December, attention then turns to the Festival Hall (Festhalle) Frankfurt, where the Preliminary Draw for the World Cup 2006 will begin at 5.05pm in a live television broadcast. Two famous names will carry out the draw for each continental zone. The only exception is South America, where the qualifying competition has already begun using a league system on a home-and-away basis. The first draw conducted will be for the Asian zone, followed by Oceania, CONCACAF, Africa and finally Europe. Source: www.fifa.com

Mark Harper for Harry S
Editor-in-Chief
Harry's Rant