After a fourth successive defeat, a lot of people in the North East are talking about Newcastle's plight and understandably so because they are seemingly in free-fall.
Spot on
I went along to another struggling club last night - Southampton - where Mark Clattenberg made his refereeing return.
The first thing to say is that I thought he had a fine game even though he got a fair bit of stick! I'm sure the two managers will both disagree with me, but I thought he got all of the big decisions right.
Under the circumstances it might have been easy for him to bend a little bit towards the home crowd but I thought he was spot on.
It was certainly good to see him back but I was surprised to read in at least one report that he received a standing ovation from fans. If he did, then I didn't see it!
Voting
On the subject of performances, I went along to the X-Factor this week. Let me explain...
I popped along after receiving an invitation to be a guest on the
Xtra Factor and while I was there I learnt that one of the downsides of appearing on the
X-Factor is how much weekend football the contestants miss because they are either rehearsing or performing.
To be honest, I was surprised at how many football fans there are on the show.
Dermot O'Leary, the host, is a massive Arsenal fan; Olly Murs, one of
Xtra Factor hosts, has a box at Manchester United; James Arthur, who is my favourite to win it, is a huge Middlesbrough fan; Josh, from the boy band Union J, is a Chelsea fan.
When I turned up one of the first things they all wanted to know was how their team was doing because they hadn't seen them for so long!
So if you support any of the teams above, you know who you should be voting for...
Jeff's Gem of the Week
I'm not messing about this week - it's Swansea beating West Brom. All of the stories we heard about disharmony under Michael Laudrup have disappeared as quickly as they emerged. His signings, pretty much without exception, looks as though they are coming off, in particular Pablo Hernandez, who has been a revelation in the past few weeks.
Swansea were impressive against Liverpool last week but they destroyed West Brom in that first half with some fantastic football. They've got some exciting players and aren't going to be a soft touch for anybody. I can certainly see them finishing in the top half.
