Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer believes the team's start to the season sums up the life of a Magpies supporter.
Steve Bruce's side have drawn criticism for their style of play and poor performances in the defeat to Brighton and the smash-and-grab draw at Tottenham.
But despite these critics, United currently sit ninth in the Premier League table and have a Carabao Cup quarter-final against Brentford to look forward to.
The highs of the opening-day victory at West Ham and the seven-goal thrashing of Morecambe have very quickly been extinguished by the reaction to disappointing displays.
Bruce has admitted his side remain a work in progress, and former number nine Shearer is confident there will be an "improvement" for the Magpies.
However, United's record goalscorer has perfectly summed up the drastic highs and lows of being a Newcastle fan in his assessment of the season so far.
Shearer told the Athletic: “I think there will be an improvement. But — excuse the pun — everything up here is black and white.
"In people’s eyes, we’re either brilliant or we’re s***. No in-between.
"After winning at West Ham, we were this team that was invigorated with a centre-forward who was going to give us a much better chance. People were talking about top half of the table.
"A week later it was all doom and gloom again. ‘We’re as bad as we were last year. We’re in a relegation battle.’
"Then we beat Morecambe in the Carabao Cup. Then we get battered by Tottenham but got a point late on with the penalty.
"Then we struggled like hell against Newport but got through on penalties and then we’re in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals and we beat Burnley and people are starting to get excited again.”
You can read Shearer's full interview with the Athletic here.
