Agreed, he’d be lucky to make the squad of the best players in my lifetime (not that long), but in terms of his achievements this season (dragging us forward in every game, digging us out of every hole we find ourselves in, leading the team from the front) he is at least a cult hero and very likely legendary if we stay up this season. It’s been a staggering effort from him.

We are basically a one-man team. He is a hero, a giant of a 5’7” man, truly a fucking legend of this club at this stage.

He is, but he’s got other good qualities. We’d be much worse without him, in the main.

Gallagher has disrupted three or four promising moves today by being extremely poor. There is no recognised striker in the bench.

Technically, but I wouldn’t include the Newcastle game either way, was an “achievement” that leads to nowt. I’m conscious we’re still in the “FFS, give him time” window, but we really don’t have time for this kind of thing, if we want to stay up. He simply has to find a way to get points quickly and - honestly - I don’t think he has anything in his locker that says he can do that. Not really his fault that he hasn’t parachuted into a club to try and pick them up before, or that things are massively going against him, but I still think he takes us down this season. Not really seen what he’s trying to do on the pitch, it’s just a mish-mash of ideas. Waggott making the call creates the extra bit of confirmation bias in me to think so. First to admit that Tuesday suspended all disbelief on my side as it looked like he’d managed to get a grip of the mentality and instil some belief, but the work since then has clearly left us extremely exposed to a loss. Worth noting that we had a coherent strategy on Tuesday, which we executed well. What are we even looking to do today? How are we planning to get at Swansea? What was the team selection looking to do, except reward one good performance from a few players?

More to do with urgency to get back and cover, as well as trying to play positively, I meant. He’s got his technical and physical limitations, but his attitude is a lot better and some stuff is coming off for him today.

1 point above the drop. If we cannot beat these on their patch, we’re going to struggle. If we cannot get a draw against these, we’re going down.

Brittain having a better game today. Dolan execution is off, but constantly active and looking for the ball. Maybe needs a word to keep it simpler.

It’s Moran, for me. He’s not cut out to receive the ball in his own half, with a press on him. Needs time when receiving the ball/fewer consequences if he loses the ball. Basically still playing kids’ football.

Cannot believe this is the same side (basically) as Tuesday. Chrisene cannot have been the difference-maker.

There are a few that you can see work their socks off and find the quality within themselves regularly, but there are a good few more than that who aren’t. You can forgive a lack of talent, you can’t forgive lack of effort/fight.

Swansea can put this to bed, here. One more and they’re out of sight and can rotate some minutes on/save some legs. We’ve got to pull at least one back this half if we have any desire of coming away with much-needed points.

Well, I’m looking forward to the “no excuses” explanation for going two down inside 20 minutes against a Swansea team who really are no better than we are.

Scott Wharton had to bypass them then to get something working. I like Scott, but even he would admit that we shouldn’t be relying on him to get the ball to the forwards.

Buckley and Moran playing today as we predicted they would on Tuesday. Absolutely nothing happening there.

Buckley corner that floated out of play, leading to a smart and quick goal kick. Andy Moran lets his man float by him before a bit of a calamity at the back meaning the one man in the box gets a scuffed finish past three men around him, including the keeper. Three really poor actions in a row, leads to a goal.

Good hold up play from Gallagher there. More of that.

Could scarcely believe how much application was on display in the middle, barely a foot wrong against - apparently - “world class” players. Absolutely buzzing, I’ll barely sleep tonight. I’ll be honest, post-January, post-JDT and some of the struggles recently, I’d really been struggling to find the desire to watch the rest of the season. I’m an idiot, so I always will do, but I am fully looking forward to it after that performance. There’s desire in that squad, which we’d probably all wondered about recently.

Haven’t felt as positive after a defeat in a long while. Newcastle did basically very little for a team assembled and financed to their level. We occupied them, they had little by way of an answer. They were lucky to be in it by 90 mins. Smashing, though, great performances across the park. Players deserve an extended rest to recover and we have to us this as a galvanising moment for this season.

Fully aware. He’s now chuckling away. Hope he enjoyed his day out at the only place he ever really achieved anything!

Alan Shearer sulking. Quite enjoying that, weirdly enougj

Where is Pickering?

Taking this lot to penalties, from where we are in our season is as good as a victory. It’s basically chance and negligible fluctuations in talent and composure at that stage. Extremely proud of this performance, cannot say it enough.

You should get one more in Extra Time.

Chrisene for Pickering. Have to.