This sums up the way we think as Newcastle United fans | OneFootball

I was in the pub on Friday night with the usual people, a group of mates who are all Newcastle United fans as well.

No surprise then that whilst other stuff gets a mention, such as family and work, the vast majority of the time we are always talking about the team, our club.

We’d all watched the Champions League match together on Wednesday night but of course that didn’t make any difference, as we endlessly discussed and dissected the result and performance, reliving the key moments.

Naturally, thoughts then turned to Sunday and this Forest match.

We all agreed what a massive result it could be if getting this win in the Premier League as well especially as we then immediately go into an international break.

It’s amazing what a difference it makes to your mood for the next couple of weeks as you endure the international matches. Go into the international break on the back of a win and nothing’s a bother, all your NUFC thoughts are positive. If Newcastle lose, that fortnight is simply torture, as you wait for the next game to hopefully get us back on track.

Anyway, when I started quoting a few statistics that I had read on The Mag and looked further into them myself, their reaction simply summed up how we think as Newcastle United fans. I am guessing many other fanbases think very similarly.

When I mentioned that Nottingham Forest hadn’t kept a single clean sheet in their last 18 matches, the reaction of my mates wasn’t this is a very positive thing how bad Forest’s defending has become. Instead the reaction was…typical, they are due a clean sheet and you just know that is what will happen on Sunday!

I then pointed out how truly woeful Forest’s results have been for over six months. Nottingham Forest haven’t won since the opening day of this season (home to Brentford) and since 1 April 2025, they have played 18 matches in all competitions and won just three of the 18, that Brentford one and in the final couple of months of last season Forest beat Spurs and West Ham (who were both terrible last season). Only three wins in 18 games over the course of more than six months, surely this is a team we must have every chance of defeating? Instead, my NUFC mates are convinced that on the balance of probability, Sunday’s visitors must be due a win!

Maybe the best one of all, is when Newcastle United fans are looking at the next match and it has former United players set to turn out for the opposition.

Now my mates went into overdrive, imagining what Wood, Anderson and Sels are all but certain to do to us.

I love all this, the selective memory stuff. All Newcastle United fans remember the times that former players end up scoring against us, playing blinders etc etc. However, the numerous matches where ex-players don’t perform, are conveniently ignored.

This Nottingham Forest match a prime example.

Under Eddie Howe, Newcastle United have played Nottingham Forest seven times, Howe’s team have won six of the seven BUT which one did my mates want to talk about? Yes, the 3-1 Boxing Day defeat when Chris Wood got the hat-trick.

In the other six games, all of them victories and Newcastle scoring 15 goals in these half dozen matches, never failing to score at least two in each of the six. Yet it is Wood and the one defeat in seven that my mates wanted to talk (and worry!) about.

Every match is a one-off and Newcastle United still of course have to go out and perform against Forest on Sunday.

However, you also at the same time factor in things like performances and results when looking at your next match.

If you were at the races and when you looked at the form, you saw a horse that hadn’t won for years and indeed had been well beaten in its last however many runs in similar races, you wouldn’t think…that has a great chance of winning!

Some people might still back it but not because they thought it had a great chance of winning, more a case of it would be such massive odds you could get, you never know this might be the day it bounces back to form despite all the evidence.

It isn’t impossible at all that Nottingham Forest could cause Newcastle United problems today BUT our players can make sure that this doesn’t happen, that there is no huge shock result and Forest romp over the winning line.