Newcastle (2-0) - 14th August 2005

Thanks to those lovely chaps at Sky we have the traditional curtain raiser of the new season at 1.30 on a Sunday afternoon. Just great - we have to get up much earlier on a Sunday morning, the pubs don't open until 12.00 and we only have an hour to drink pre-match. The Bailey (I'll cover this later in the season) is, as usual, awash with barcode supporters - it is a regular away haunt for them. So I disappear with 2 mates to Lily Red (ex-wig and gown) - not a great place BUT the cricket is on - August 14th, first game of the football season and we're only halfway through the most intense Ashes series in living memory. The back pages of the tabloids still have shrek on the back pages though!

Oh the game - 2-0 (Henry -pen & RvP), not inspiring but a good way to start our final season at Highbury and I did see the first (or maybe I just can't remember any before) streaker at Highbury that I've ever seen. Here's the view from my seat in the Lower East stand - you can (or could if I had a taken a higher res shot) the new stadium in the distance.