Ohh and I know it's a week late, but I've not been here, R.I.P Sir Bobby Robson. Some papers and websites etc. have said that he finally lost his battle with cancer, but to put it in a better perspective, he actually beat it 4-1.

It's official now, "The 25-year-old has joined the Reds in a deal reportedly worth £20m."

I had a dream last night that we beat Tottenham 3-0 and Aquilaini got a hatrick... lmao must be an omen then.

He wont be playing in that game.....Hoping he gets paraded at anfield today though.

In the kop Should be a decnt game today.

Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the Newcastle West Brom game. It was pretty much end to end stuff, duff was delightful to watch as was smith and carroll who I thought all gad very good games, even Barton when he came looked very good. Some of the passing albeit a little lackluster at times was very impressive especially the goal! Lets not forget the hero of the day Tim Krul whos future is certain to be that of a good one.

As for WBA it's not they didn't play well I just thought overall Newcastle were better.

Seemed like Hughton was happy with a draw when not only did he take off a striker, he took Carroll off (Who defenders will hate, hastled them all the time he was on) and left Strola Ameobi on (Who defenders will love to mark and his only inputs were skying a half volley when un-challenged and almost knocking our keeper out! Can't stand him!

Have to agree with you about Duff and Smith, mind you, considering the last couple of seasons they've had, it may just mean that they're simply Championship quality players.

And of course, Tim Krul cannot be forgotten, had a class first team debut 3 years ago, and had a class league debut as well! Might've been better if he didn't get his chance for a few weeks though 'cause he'll probably be snapped up by someone else now!

On the whole, though, I think that if Ameobi wasn't a Newcatle player and we started with Ranger/LuaLua up front alongside Carroll we may well have won it.

Oh, and the more I watch Gutierrez the more I dislike him. He seems to add nothing, running into no-where then diving at every opurtunity, and on the few occasions he does get into a decent position he messes it up!

Almost?! Harper has a slight concussion and as for Gutierrez I wish he'd hurry up and score so he can do his spiderman celebration so Newcastle can be done with him and he can go else where, because lets face it it's all you bought him for!

cracking goal from nani

carvahlo! classsssss

not to bothered about losing to chelsea
only community shield

evra's penalty was poor
rooneys goal was great, as was the pass from giggs
good game all in all

lol

I also lol at this.

People who see that as bitter do not understand. The community shield is a pre-season friendly, the only purpose is to get fitness and raise a bit of money for "the community" and the best way of doing that is to get the title holders and the FA cup holders at Wembley.

It is overhyped by Sky to the point of embarassment. Why people would want to flock to Wembley to watch it is well beyond me, but then again, not far to travel for United and Chelsea fans so its understandable.

I actually didn't know it was on today. was channel hopping and it was penalty shootout.

Edited at 20:50 Sun 9/08/09 (BST)

To me that's a load of rubbish, it's a trophy to start the season with, it'll bring in financial rewards and will boost team morale a lot for the winners.

The fact that people do flock to Wembley to watch it shows that it isn't just a "pre-season friendly".

Every Man United 'fan' will be unhappy that they lost the game today, yet pretty much all of them will be saying that they aren't bothered about it 'cause it's "only the community shield".

It's just like when teams get knocked out of the FA Cup and Carling Cup and certain fans say they're happy they're out 'cause it's just an inconvenience, yet all of them would be feeling jealous that it wasn't their team walking out at Wembley.

Looking forward to another season of Tom's and the two Mike's posts Although Tom's will mean little

I think I should just have my own thread to come back from every match and rant about the players, manager, owner, physio, stewards and bar staff.

I was loling at the fact he wasn't bothered about losing to their bitter rivals.

But yeah I'm looking forward to stes blue nose biased posts too

Mine was a bit of both really, wether they were beaten by Chelsea or Fulham in the final they still aren't going to come out not bothered about the fact that they lost in the 'final' of a 'competition'.

1st para - No it brings in exactly nil financial rewards, and will not boost moral one bit. It proves nothing, it will not be peraded, celebrated, cared about by any of the players today.

2nd Para They go to Wembley cos its a day out at Wembley, if it were at Old Trafford for example they would struggle to make 10,000. The attendence was rubbish this year as well.

3rd Para Trust me Tom it is only the community shield, I think the season will be judged on trophies other than the community shield which is IMO in need of being scrapped.

4th Para, I do not care about the Carling Cup and the Charity shield. When your playing in Europe, challenging for the title and wanting win the Fa cup, sacrafices must be made. Probably why you rate both "trophies"

Mike, I rated the League Cup when Newcastle were in the Champions League, I was never happy for us to be knocked out. As for the Charity Shield, well the only time we were taking part in that in my lifetime was when I was 4, so can't really comment on that.

Maybe I was wrong about the financial rewards, I just thought that would be the case, but it will improve morale. Winning in pre-season friendlies will improve morale, so when they've won something from it it's going to be even more so.