Highs and lows elicit any emotion you'd care to mention, but they're all matter of fact. They go into the record books, and in 100 years time they'll still be there, completely unchanged, for you happily or therapeutically reminisce over. But the near-misses, they come only with a thick fog of interpretation that means they'll be debated for as long as arguing in pubs is considered a valid use of one's time. All without an definitive answer ever being found. With perhaps the exception of general elections and ex-girlfriends, nowhere are these oh-so-nearlys quite as extensively poured over as in the world of football. For a club like Newcastle United, whose realities seem to defy belief at the best of times, who knows what the present might have held if the past had only panned out slightly differently. Namely, if a few games had finished with more favourable results, and specifically these attempts on goal had somehow made their way into the net. There could have been titles and trophies of course, but entire chapters of the club's recent history have been set in motion by something as variable as which side of a post a ball rolls over. Click "next' below to get the ball rolling...
WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine
