Ciao

Disappointment and disgust at Saturday's defeat was naturally tempered somewhat by West Brom's 3-0 victory over the Mackems (which not only featured a debut goal from Stephane Sessegnon, formerly of the Dark Place, whom Paolo Di Canio had been slagging off all week, but also a late strike from Romain Amalfitano's older brother Morgan) and the fascist sympathiser's subsequent confrontation with fans and sacking. So that meltdown I predicted came before the derby, sooner than anticipated - more's the pity that he earned himself the boot rather than us handing it to him on a plate.

Di Canio was a crazy appointment in the first place - placing a naive, inexperienced egotist with zero man management skills in charge of a bunch of highly strung Premier League footballers was always going to end messily. Ellis Short and company compounded the mistake by allowing Di Canio to completely reshape the backroom staff and spend £19m in the summer before giving him just five games of the new season. It's as though they've taken a look at goings-on on Tyneside and decided they can trump Jabba and JFK for mind-boggling idiocy. Fair play to them for giving us a good laugh, though.