The FA Cup draw was a bit of a let-down for us at Darlington. I was sat at home watching the draw hoping we would be paired with a Premiership side but it wasn't to be.

One of the Big Three in the North-East would have been great for our supporters and a great experience for the young lads in the team.

Farnborough will be a tough game, but if we approach it with the same attitude as we did against Stevenage on Saturday we will go through then hopefully pull out one of the big boys.

It's great as a Newcastle fan to see Alan Shearer still banging the goals in for the club. I was at the Everton game last Sunday and I just couldn't see Newcastle scoring as Everton had defended so well for most of the game. Then, out of the blue, he comes up with one of the best goals I've seen at St James' Park in all the years I've been going.

I have been fortunate to play against Alan for Middles-brough in his Blackburn days and funnily enough he scored on that day too. Hopefully I might get the chance again in this year's FA Cup.

Last week I was suspended for the Southend game and I got my first taste of sitting on the bench in a coaching capacity. For 88 minutes I enjoyed it but the last few minutes were very stressful as the lads battled to hold on to their 2-1 lead.

Talking of suspensions, I bumped into former referee, George Courtney, at the Newcastle game last week and he agreed with me that a little bit of common sense rather than flashing cards about is needed from referees. In his day he said a quiet word was always the way to go rather than brandishing cards and I know most players would agree with him.

The young lads in our team continue to go from strength-to-strength and it was great to see three of them commit themselves to the club for the next few years. One of them, Clark Keltie, took over the captain's armband in my absence last week and took a bit of stick for his penalty miss. By all accounts the armband was a bit too heavy for him and it was weighing him down when he took the penalty.

On a serious note, he has got a lot of ability and I'm sure he will go on and play at the highest level. If and when he does, I'm sure it will be mainly down to mine and Mick's coaching ability.

Finally, I enjoyed a couple of drinks with my mates Micky Barron and Steve Howard on Saturday night in Chester-le-Street. It's great to see them doing so well with their respective teams. Hopefully if we continue to improve as we are the good times won't be far away at Darlington.

Published: 10/12/2002