ANOTHER rollercoaster season of covering the North-East’s big three clubs is at an end. There have been plenty of highlights and lowlights – rather too many of the latter, if truth be told – so here are some end-of-season thoughts on the last nine months


BEST NORTH-EAST PLAYER

The Northern Echo:

Newcastle dominate the candidates for this category thanks to their success in clinching the Championship title. Jonjo Shelvey and Dwight Gayle were consistently excellent, while Matt Ritchie combined talent with commitment throughout the campaign.

Ben Gibson shone at Middlesbrough, but despite their struggles at the foot of the Premier League, it’s Sunderland who contribute the winner. And for once, it isn’t Jermain Defoe.

Jordan Pickford was a revelation this season, forcing his way into Sunderland’s first team at the start of the campaign and rapidly establishing himself as the best young goalkeeper in the country. It is just a shame he will almost certainly move on this summer.


BEST OPPOSITION PLAYER

The Northern Echo:

I was hugely impressed with Joshua King as he helped tear Middlesbrough apart with Bournemouth recently, and Eden Hazard turned in two or three superb displays against North-East opposition this season.

Marcus Rashford stood out as Manchester United cruised to victory at the Stadium of Light, but the award goes to Fulham’s Tom Cairney. The midfielder ran things as the Cottagers beat Newcastle on the opening weekend of the season, and was even better as they triumphed at St James’ Park in March. Little wonder Newcastle are seriously considering signing him this summer.


BEST GAME

The Northern Echo:

There aren’t many Boro or Sunderland matches that are worthy of consideration here, although the latter’s shock 4-0 win at Crystal Palace was certainly the season’s biggest surprise.

Newcastle were involved in some crackers, and while September’s six-goal demolition of QPR was the best performance by a North-East team this season, the best game came a couple of weeks later and saw the Magpies score two stoppage-time goals to turn a 3-2 deficit against Norwich into a remarkable 4-3 win.


WORST GAME

The Northern Echo:

Right, now we’re getting to the nitty-gritty. There have been plenty of shocking performances from North-East teams this season, but they don’t necessarily make for shocking games.

The worst games tend to be the dullest, so Boro could stage this category on their own. The Teessiders were involved in seven goalless draws this season, and October’s 1-0 defeat to Watford was especially mind-numbing.

But for a game that lacked both quality and entertainment, you can’t look beyond April’s Tees-Wear derby that saw Boro beat Sunderland 1-0. It was two bad sides, playing badly.


BEST GOAL

The Northern Echo:

A couple of bizarre goals are worthy of a mention here, with Mo Diame scoring one of the strangest goals you’ll ever see in Newcastle’s win at Brighton and Wahbi Khazri scoring direct from a corner against West Ham.

However, in terms of sheer quality, you can’t beat Gaston Ramirez’s sensational dribbled effort in October’s home win over Bournemouth. Starting in his own half, the Uruguayan danced through the opposition defence before curling home. It’s just a shame his season rapidly descended downhill from there.


BEST GROUND VISITED

The Northern Echo: Tonight's game at the Amex Stadium will go ahead, Brighton have confirmed. Picture: Action Images

The usual candidates feature highly once again, with the likes of the Emirates, the Etihad, Stamford Bridge and Anfield always a pleasure to attend in a working capacity.

I’m going to go slightly more leftfield this season though, and choose Brighton’s Amex Stadium. A smart new ground, in picturesque surrounds, with superb press facilities. It also helped that the Seagulls’ home game with Newcastle featured one of the best atmospheres I experienced all season.


WORST GROUND VISITED

The Northern Echo: Vodafone backs out of deal to sponsor West Ham’s London Stadium home

This normally goes to Stoke, but this year, there was a new entrant that blew everyone else out of the water. West Ham’s Olympic Stadium is an abomination of a football stadium, completely unfit for purpose.

Terrible viewing, shoddy segregation, half-finished rooms that don’t seem to serve any purpose and stewards that don’t seem to have a clue where anything is. October’s game between West Ham and Boro was nothing short of a disgrace, with the home fans attacking the visitors’ buses after the game. It is to be hoped that lessons have been learned for next season.


BEST PRESS FOOD

The Northern Echo: A more typical roast dinner Credit: Carpenters Arms

Right, time for an important one now. As a journalist covering a football game, you’re looking for three things – reliable wifi, a TV screen with replays so you can get at least half-an-idea of what’s been going on while you’ve been glued to your laptop, and a decent bit of pre-match grub.

The Premier League tends to outperform the Championship, although an honourable mention should be made here for Derby and Norwich, who tend to punch above their weight.

The big boys dominate in the top-flight, with Manchester City’s fried breakfast for a lunch-time kick-off and Arsenal’s free Haagen Dazs ice-cream having achieved legendary status. The best of the best though is Chelsea. Prawns and cold meats on a buffet platter, Korean chicken burgers, bread and butter pudding. The only problem is the need for half-an-hour’s sleep before kick-off.


BEST INTERVIEWEE

The Northern Echo:

We’ve got a good bunch of players up here at the moment, and whereas there is still the odd player who thinks they are above giving interviews to the local press – Victor Valdes has left Boro, and I still don’t think I’ve ever heard him speak – most are only too happy to give their time.

Rob Elliot, Karl Darlow and Jack Colback are especially personable up at Newcastle, while George Friend, Ben Gibson and Adam Clayton are always a pleasure to deal with at Boro.

At the top of the tree, though, stands Jermain Defoe. Plenty of us North-East journalists had pre-conceived ideas about the striker before he signed for Sunderland, and he has shattered each and every one of them. It’s hard to imagine a more humble, approachable and thoroughly likeable man.


MOST MEMORABLE PRESS CONFERENCE

The Northern Echo:

There have been a few, and they weren’t always the most comfortable from a journalistic perspective. David Moyes was clearly unhappy at having to answer repeated questions about his threat to “slap” a female reporter, but as reporters, we were merely doing our job by trying to pin him down.

Moyes’ admission that Sunderland were “in a relegation battle” from the word go was something of a bombshell moment, but it was nothing compared to Aitor Karanka’s strop at the end of the January transfer window.

Railing at Boro’s failure to land any of his targets, Karanka questioned the club’s ambition, challenged Steve Gibson’s approach to transfer dealings and described recent purchases Patrick Bamford and Rudy Gestede as “players who couldn’t even get a game in the Championship”. It felt like the beginning of the end – and it proved exactly that.