357 days - the gap that seperates footballing seasons 06/07 & 05/06 of English Premiership football, with this year's season ending 1 week earlier than tradition so as to allow the Germany-bound players to get ample rest in time for the World Cup. However cramped this season has been or however long the gap has been between the 2 seasons, this year's was no less nail-biting and exciting than last year's...

Flashback to last season when 4 teams - Norwich (33pts), Southampton(32pts,44 goals scored,), Crystal Palace(32pts,39 goals scored) and West Bromwich Albion(31pts), all seperated by 1 point each, were battling to avoid being 1 of 3 teams that will be relegated to the English Coca-cola Championship(formerely known as the Nationwide Division 1)..all their matches were played simultaneously and live updates of the matches were flowing in through handheld radios brought by the fans of the 4 teams..fast-forward to 82 minutes & Crystal Palace thought they'll be the lucky one to avoid relegation as they were leading Charlton 2-1 at the Valley, while any lingering hopes Norwich had were vanquished by a 6-star Fulham, who were leading 5-0 then, only to increase it to 6-0 on the stroke of full-time. Same fate went to Southampton, who by then were losing 2-1 to Man Utd..which leaves us, the ardent football fans, with West Brom, leading Portsmouth 2-0 and seemingly bowing out to Palace by the solidary point.

But remember remember, the defender Jonathan Fortune. Cometh the hour, cometh the man..Jonathan Fortune scores a header from a Jerome Thomas free-kick to level the game, and to condemn Palace to the Championship.....

FULL-TIME came, and The Hawthornes erupted into a frenzy as emotional scenes of a pitch invasion of ecstatic West Brom fans were beamed to the whole world watching. Bryan Robson had done it - the great Houdini act that Paul Jewell did back in 2000 with Bradford, saving the team from relegation right at the death!!


However, this season was not to be for Robbo as he, along with Steve Bruce and his injury-savaged, woeful Birmingham side, were relegated on the 2nd last day of the season after Harry Redknapp came back to Portsmouth in controversial circumstances to steal the magic from Robbo and perform his very own "Harry Houdini" act, hitting championship-winning form as they earned an outstanding 20 points from their last 9 games - a feat that neither Midlands team could achieve. Bruce saw his side failed to beat a lacklusture Newcastle Utd at St. Andrews, while Robbo & the Baggies, already relegated after Portsmouth defeated Wigan 2-1 with a late Matt Taylor penalty to secure their Premiership status, were unable to end their season on a high after losing their fixture that week, 1-0 to West Ham, as well as drawing with Everton 2-2 on the last day of the season.

BUT, that wasn't all for the last day of the season...A few matters have yet to be tied up, mainly:

1. 2nd place and an automatic Champions League spot with it (Teams contesting: MaNure & Liverpool..seperated by 1 point)
2. 4th place and a Champions League 3rd Round Qualifier spot with it (Teams contesting: Bitter North-London rivals ARSEnal & Tottenham Hotspurs..seperated by 1 point)
3. 7th place and an InterToto Cup spot with it (Teams contesting: Newcastle United & Bolton Wanderers..seperated by 1 point)

Arguably, points 1 and 3 weren't of that much significance to ardent football fans unless you're a Devil, a Scouser, a Trotter or a Geordie...point 2 grabbed the world's attention as it wasn't just the Champions League spot that seperated the Gunners and the Spurs..throw in a bitter North-London rivalry between the 2 and you'll get an inkling of how important it meant to the different set of fans, and neutrals worldwide.(if you still can't visualize it, think Liverpool vs Everton 04/05..same situation, different teams)....

What made matters worse was that prior to their match kick-off, VS West Ham, in the afternoon, approximately 10 Tottenham players came down with food poisoning and a stupid,yet still-issued-nonetheless option to delay kick-off for a mere 2 hours was subsequently rejected by Spurs manager Martin Jol....ARSEnal on the other hand, had just about a full squad to choose from VS Wigan Athletic, save Alou Diarra who suffered a broken ankle when he was caught in a challenge from Sunderland's Kevin Smith a week ago....

ARSEnal's game was see-saw all the way though..The Gunners taking the lead through Robert Pires after defensive slip-up in the Wigan penalty area. Wigan Athletic pulled 1 through Austrian international Paul Scharner, after hard work from David Thompson, and surprisingly went ahead after that through a David Thompson(remember him, Pool fans?), yet again, free-kick that deceived Jens Lehmann..ARSEnal procedeed to level things up after Swiss international Reto Ziegler, who coincidentally was a former Spurs player, loss possession in the middle of the park to Robert Pires, who then released Henry to slot past Mike Pollitt in the Wigan goal to level the scores. After that it was ARSEnal all the way, Thompson unfortuanetly spoiling his day of good work when his poor back-pass to Matt Jackson went untouched by the latter and Henry sneaked in to round Pollitt and.....make it 3-2, before he converted a penalty to send the home crowd into ruptures and wrote himselves into the Highbury record books as the last player to score a hat-trick in the ground before it gives way to the new Emirates Stadium ARSEnal will move into next season...4-2 it finished to the Gunners

"What about Tottenham Hotspurs?" you all ask...well they went behind to a Cral Fletcher scorcher early in the game, Paul Robinson seemingly flapping at the shot, before Jermaine Defoe levelled things up for them in the 30th minute region with a well-taken goal...After the break, it was West Ham all the way as they were even able to scorn a penalty chance through former Spurs favourite Teddy Sheringham(favours for old club anyone?), only to score late in the game through a superb Yossi Benayoun goal..2-1 to the Hammers at full-time...

This result effectively dumps Spurs out of the Champions League no matter what happens in Paris on May 17th, the Champions League Final between ARSEnal & FC Barcelona.

Spurs were actually confident of pipping their bitter rivals to the 4th spot as well as knocking them out of the Champions League running until this slice of bad-luck hit them. With this, Spurs' wait of wanting to finish ahead of the Gooners in the League goes on for a 16th year. A kick to the guts for them and a very bitter pill to swallow, considering that bad luck only hit them at the penultimate game of the season, when it really mattered the most. However, in all fairness, ARSEnal produced arguably the performance of the season, surpassing the Real Madrid & Juventus games even, as they ran riot on a Wigan side, winning their final game at Highbury in style.

On to Point 1 & 3...MaNure and Liverpool, Newcastle & Bolton all seperated by a point from each other...MaNure defeated Charlton, still reeling from the fact Alan Curbishley won't be their manager come next season, COMFORTABLY 4-0 while Liverpool defeated Portsmouth, who had absolutely nothing to play for but pride, 3-1 at Fratton Park. Newcastle saw off Chelski 1-0 with a Titus Bramble scissors kick that ensured they finished ahead of Bolton, who beat already-relegated Birmingham 1-0 through a Ricardo Vaz-Te goal...so the end-of-season table for 05/06 looks like this...

(Copyrighted and credit to www.nufc.com, Newcastle Unofficial Fans' Collaboration)

Final words from arguably 1 of the biggest Newcastle fans you'll find around town...I'm elated at our end-of-season position, we've jumped arguably half-a-table in terms of position, going from a dangerous 14th position when bloody Souness left the club and us in total disarray and lots of trouble, to a impressive 7th with an Intertoto Cup place(and potentially, a place in the UEFA Cup if we win 1 of 3 InterToto slots) and a manager who, in my opinion is not the best manager for us in terms of tactical decisions and trophy count, came in after Souness and stabilized the ship, while earning the respect of the dressing-room. Not to mention he's a former captain of the Toon & loves the club just as much as Geordies will tell u about...he is, former West Ham manager Glenn Roeder...

Though not my first choice as manager, but as long as he loves the club and is able to take us to a certain placing for now..I'll be supporting him all the way. 7th place this season....4th or 5th next season with a full squad to choose from(as compared to this season when we only have half a squad at most), coupled with Roeder's signings and hopefully Luque coming back as a prodigal son...things are definetly looking good for us next season..Howay the Lads...have a happy World Cup season football-sph3r3 fans out there...and for the gals, just help your BF enjoy it aight?

I'm out......