Cut Nick some slack - we've become the smotherers and not the entertainers

AND A DEARTH OF CROSSES DOESN'T HELP

- JOHNGIBSON

PERHAPS it is hardly surprising when one of the greatest defensive barriers ever erected, Hadrian's Wall, still survives across our green grass. Newcastle United have, this new season, built their own last line of defence, which Premier League teams find almost impossible to penetrate.

United’s only three away league games this season have all ended 0-0, and in four of their five domestic set-to’s they have kept a clean sheet.

Terrific, because if you do that you can’t be beaten. But it would be even nicer if the Mags could score at the other end. If this is not the entertainers then it is the smotherers!

Bournemouth fronted us up with an impressive array of statistics. They had picked up nine points from a possible 12, winning three on the spin since an opening-day defeat at champions Liverpool despite their defence being asset-stripped over the summer by a host of Europe's biggest clubs.