HE DID IT!!

Glorious Nicky!! I knew he would!! A brilliant, lovely, fast-paced bicycle kick right down the ole pipeline and past another-player-I'm-not-supposed-to-like-because-he's-not-a-Geordie-but-I-like-him-anyway, keeper Maik Taylor. Dropped just past Goldilocks on the way in, which was also beautiful, sniff, Goldi just sprawled on the ground in frustration and all. That makes 22 goals in league play, 27 overall. And a beauty at that.

Brucey's post-match comments were adorable as he wasn't thrilled that his team saw a lead become a draw at the hands (foot) of Nicky, a former teammate and one he tried to sign last season. But he had to be wrong when he said he'd never seen Nicky score a goal like that. Nicky has at least one other very famous bicycle kick goal and Brucey had to be there at the time, so maybe he was injured or something. I'll have to check the dates, now that I'm curious.

So congratulations, Nicky, you beautiful boy! You're on the score sheet for your new squad after only 7 matches in the northeast, made Team of the Week on both SkySports and ESPN and howaythetoon named you their Man of the Match for the second time in 7 outings!!

Can't wait to see what you do to Wales on the weekend!! Show Lampwick how it's done, lad. And why you've consistently been England's first-choice cmf for three years and counting.