Alright so this morning I grabbed my phone and coffee thinking “let’s figure out this Wolves and Newcastle lineups mess”. Felt like cracking a damn code sometimes.
Setting Up My Workspace
Plonked myself on the couch with my tablet open on one side for official club stuff. Had the TV playing Sky Sports News muted – just wanted the rolling team news bar at the bottom.
First Thing: Went straight to Wolverhampton Wanderers’ official site. Their “News” section is annoying, always mixes match previews with charity events and rubbish ads. Scrolled forever finding their predicted lineup post. Useless. Said “expected to start…” – yeah thanks for nothing. Should just say it!
Meanwhile on TV: Those Sky Sports presenters yapping about transfers. Pointless. Stared at that ticker tape like a hawk. Finally… “NEWCASTLE TEAM NEWS IN…” and it cut to ad break. Almost threw my coffee cup. Hate that crap.
Phone Time: Pulled out my phone – opened the BBC Sport app fast. They usually drop lineups sharp. Wolves first – saw Kilman, Neto, Ait-Nouri starting. But Hwang? They had him listed on bench. Thought “nah, surely wrong”… Double checked on Twitter by searching #WWFC. Fan accounts buzzing with pics from stadium screens showing Hwang IS starting. BBC screwed it already? Annoyed as hell.
The Proper Deep Dive
Took a breath. Went old school.
Step-by-Step:
- Opened Newcastle’s official site AND app. Needed both – app sometimes updates faster.
- Pulled up Wolves forum for whispers – some guy claiming “Pedro Neto tweaked ham in training”… bloody hope not.
- Cross-referenced 3 journalists live blogs – Lee Ryder for Newcastle, Liam Keen for Wolves. Saw some disagreement on Guimaraes playing.
- Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Fingers hurting.
Finally the flood: official images from both clubs pouring in. Trippier starting for Newcastle? Thank god. Gordon fit? Phew. Then Wolves – massive surprise seeing Gomes instead of Sarabia on the sheet. Thought “Gary O’Neil’s lost the plot?”
Bench Duty Detective
This part? Always chaos.
- Scan bench names fast – check spelling! Misspelled “Botman” once… never again.
- Saw Dubravka sitting for Newcastle. Made sense with Pope back.
- Wolves bench looked thin – bunch of kids and Doherty. Worrying.
Slammed my notes together – finally had both starting XIs and subs. Took bloody ages to be sure. Posted it online saying “got it from the bloody source mate, after triple checking!” because people online love arguing “that’s wrong!”. Couldn’t be bothered with lazy idiots today.
Finished my cold coffee. Felt decent about it. Until someone inevitably points out an injury I missed 5 minutes before kickoff. Typical.
