Small Newcastle crowd at Goodison: effective anti-Ashley strategy, or shortage of welcome mats in Everton district of Liverpool?

A couple of goals at Goodison Park for the Magpies yesterday and the determination of Tottenham to win the Championship next season have, for the time being, allowed Newcastle to leave bed number one in the Premier League intensive care unit. But that doesn’t mean angry Newcastle fans are quite ready to take a fresh look at Mike Ashley’s management skills just yet. Indeed, some are even more inclined to make him pay for the eccentric route he’s currently taking the club in search of glory.

On the forum pages of today’s Newcastle Chronicle, the Geordies were discussing why there were only 900 travelling fans at Everton yesterday, to which one “Supamac” said:

Another top player displays temperature issues

We’re barely ten days into the new season and already the weather is playing havoc with the ability of some of the more sensitive stars to perform their duties satisfactorily. Vidic says it’s too rainy. Savage says its too cold. Now Newcastle’s not-for-much-longer midfielder James Milner has joined the list.

Although he left Coventry’s Ricoh Arena with the Man of the Match champagne in his handbag on Tuesday, Milner wasn’t having anything to do with reporters eager to discover who he might be planning to share it with. Why the silence? Could Milner be another victim of this season’s weather madness?

In Lee Ryder’s Blog on the Tyne in yesterday’s Newcastle Chronicle, he describes a similar episode