I’ve not written about Newcastle United for many years and never outside of NUFC forum. I don’t want to be a fan with a word-processor and NUFC has been too close to be objective.  It runs deep with my family. It was the thing I did with my Dad. But today I’m moved to comment with enthusiasm but I hope also with some objectivity.

I had to watch it three times to take it in. Then I watched it again.

Is there anywhere you would rather have been as a neutral supporter between 3pm and 5pm on 5 February 2010 than St James’ Park, Newcastle-upon-Tyne? A truly historic match that had everything and broke records; probably for both clubs, certainly for the Premier league. Before this Newcastle had only lost a 4-0 half time lead (it finished 5-5 in the old first division before the influx of overseas players improved the standard of football at the top level and there followed the current era of ‘four club dominance’.

Those Newcastle supporters who have lived rather a long time with mediocrity treasure days out of the ordinary. This season has had more than one. The 5-1 demolition of the shower from the Dark Place was clearly a special moment, but this comeback of all comebacks was a step above that. It might not be more than a day, but it is up with the great performances of any side – Arsenal, one of the two elite clubs to have played in the top division throughout their existence, don’t lose 4-0 leads, or rather they didn’t.

Eight goals of real quality, despite the defensive errors – you still have to beat the keeper and Steve Harper, though not great, is no mug either. An obvious penalty well taken, well-taken onside goal chalked off, a penalty that didn’t look like a penalty given. A sending off and a stand off that was ‘six un’ two threes’ (as we say), great individual performances from both sides (and that’s if they did nothing more during the game than we saw on the MOTD highlights), still 0-4 at 65 minutes and yet they still got a point. Regular readers know that I’m an exile Geordie in Reading, at one time I’d have gone back after University but jobs were hard to find then and the right opportunity never came along.

A few year’s ago I decided to watch football differently. To stop loathing the opposition quite so much (local rivalries excepted) and give a bit more credit where credit’s due – these days dislikes are more rational – Chelsea, never favourites, deserve continued opprobrium because they have distorted the league, but if Newcastle had that sort of money would I complain, I suspect maybe not. These days I prefer to admire teams who play good football.

I didn’t like the way Arsenal played under Bertie Mee or George Graham, I love the way they play under Arsene Wenger, watching them at Reading in the Premier League was pure pleasure. They have deserved more success and might have had it other than that they lost to really good sides and that they choked on occasion. They are also manifestly well-run financially. Probably the best in the league. That makes it a moral victory worth having – not because of an irrational view of those from another part of the country, but part of a perfectly rational desire for your part of the country to do well. Of course Arsenal blew it, but had Newcastle not come out for the second half and stuck with the game there was no chance of anything.

The other thing that made it remarkable was it was the end of the week that was where a repetition of NUFC history transforming to farce. And not for the first time.

It’s a daft story. ‘Wor No 9′, a special thing for Newcastle supporters, newly capped for England and what may or may not become a major talent is sold to a Premier League rival – with no replacement arriving. The rival in question is led by a former NUFC manager who, for reasons good, unfair and some I fail to get, was never popular on Tyneside. It’s more galling because the said Kenny was involved with something similar when ‘Sir’ Les Ferdinand was sold to Spurs (KD’s hand may have been forced, I don’t know). Sir Les seemed hurt to have been dumped. He was part of a goal-scoring combination that had delivered a runner-up finish despite Kevin Keegan’s departure in 1997. Who knows how Kenny would have been viewed had he not been undermined by the wholesale mismanagement of the club by the former regime, nor had not Alan Shearer shattered his ankle in a freak off-the-ball injury at a Goodison Park friendly. Two seasons back deja-vu squared as James Milner is sold with no replacement worth mentioning. The injury, at Craven Cottage on Wednesday after all of five minutes, to Shola Ameobi was deja-vu cubed! Shola, just as Geordie, and in the hearts of Newcastle supporters for a hatful of goals against The Team That Dare Not Speak Its Name, but still not as good as Caroll remained nonetheless plausible in the short term but his sidelining has left the forward line looking pretty thin.

KK also famously sold his Number Nine for a large sum of money which he described as good business. He was proved right the following season when, lets not forget NUFC was the best team in the land until they choked almost as dramatically as did Arsenal yesterday. KK was not the messiah he was just a very emotional bloke who, second time around, was found to have been constructively dismissed. Part of that “wholesale management” was the indulgence of KK in the transfer market. Had it not been that way there would have been no Alan Shearer. It was a gamble that very nearly came off and Shearer proved about as loyal as it gets in the football these days. Football management is full of gambles. The difference was the team had made a great start, was by then secure in the division and, crucially, there was no transfer window. Selling Caroll without a replacement was a gamble.

The outing to Fulham in which Shola kopped it was pretty unfortunate. I don’t often disagree with the way NUFC.com, a leading fansite, see the black and white world. They described it as “gutless, clueless and ultimately pointless”. My take is slightly different. I was there with my son, almost grown and apparently turning into decent bloke (a massive pleasure, as was taking him to his first game – I hope he’s with me at my last game as I was with my Dad’s) and Newcastle, though out of sorts, held their own in the first half.  Shola’s departure was central. As the game went on it became clear that the novice strike force was blunt the doubts creept into the heads of an already under strength midfield. Barton is a key player – he was off form, Tiote is important to the team, he was missing. Ben Arfa is still recovering from his ‘De |Jonging’, Guthrie isn’t good enough, Gutierrez flatters to deceive, Routledge is inexplicably out on loan and Nolan, playing in the wrong shape, found it hard to get into the positions here he is dangerous.

Give these players some credit for having half a brain cell between them. They know as well as anyone that selling Caroll was a gamble – a reasonable gamble maybe but still a gamble.  Needing twelve points from 13 remaining games to remain in the division – four wins you might reasonably expect, but once it gets inside players’ heads that their luck is out, it isn’t working on the pitch and confidence slips, 12 points becomes an altogether tougher ask. Then the find themselves four down in less than 20 minutes to the mighty Arsenal and still four down 25 minutes from time. No way back.

Just another week as a Newcastle supporter. But just when it can’t get more depressingly absurd there’s a push and a penalty…

The bigger picture. Even knowing how many Newcastle supporters feel, a few objective points should be made. First on Caroll,. To every neutral who I ask £35 million for a player barely proven in the Premier League, who appears vulnerable to injury and has off the field baggage seems like an awful lot.  Remarkable business.

Neither do I buy into all this “Fat Mike and the Cockney Conspiracy” stuff. I don’t think they have run the club well, it is obvious they have made mistakes and their PR is a train wreck, but they inherited from the former regine a financial record worse than reckless. Ideally I’d like to see them move on to make way for ownership that enables NUFC to compete, but to suggest that it is part of a deliberate plan cooked up in ‘Landan’ to run down the Geordie nation is up here with alien abductions. The trouble with Mike Ashley is he just has no class. There was an excellent if intemperate article in True Faith, an NUFC fanzine, that neatly exposed his lowest common denominator business strategy (sadly the article seem no longer to be online. In that respect the manor of the sacking of Chris Hughton, right or wrong call for the club, was entirely in the character of the Uber Chav.  No class, no style, no way to do business.

I also think a few words are necessary on Alan Pardew. The manner of Hughton’s departure and Pardew’s reputation for questionable loyalty and somehow being ‘one of them’ means that he has none of the credit with supporters normally granted to a new manager. His statements that Caroll was “not for sale” when any player clearly has his price haven’t helped his cause. However I expect Pardew wanted to part with Caroll about as much as KD wanted rid of Sir Les. Pardew’s reputation for disloyalty stems from his exit from Reading to the greener pasture of West Ham when his team were well placed to challenge for promotion. Like many in the transient world football he chose jam today. His treatment at both West Ham and Southampton was as questionable as Newcastle’s treatment of Hughton. He may have failed at Charlton when resources were non existent but Pardew is no a bad manager. I watched his Reading side play decent and entertaining football. He has walked into a situation that many other would have avoided, but supporters need to understand that the manager works for the board – they are the bosses, simple as that. It’s I fought the board and the board won – ask Keegan, O’Neil, Mourinho, Clough (were he still with us).

The comeback against Arsenal should give the team back their confidence and lift the air of doom that enveloped them at Fulham. It should convince that it is the service from midfield that matters more than the strike force. Maybe those four wins will see it OK.

Or it may be that one robin doesn’t make a winter, but for now we’ll settle for the moment – and what a moment. A moment we know we’ll see again and again for years to come. It’s the hope of experiecing such a moment that keeps most supporters – the ones who don’t follow the Manchester Uniteds or the Chelseas – turning up at places like Craven Cottage on a damp Wednesday night in February.