Nobbs says “too many draws” held Newcastle back last season but they are not hiding their ambitions this time around after a busy transfer window.

Under boss Tanya Oxtoby, who previously managed Northern Ireland and worked with Emma Hayes at Chelsea, Nobbs believes they are improving.

“I know we said it last season but I’ve always said things don’t happen overnight. We had a lot of changes,” added Nobbs.

“But [promotion] is our goal and you have to say that out loud. A lot of stuff we did last season, we don’t want to go too far away from.”

Nobbs is also embracing her responsibilities off the pitch and says her team-mates joke that she is considered a “legend” in women’s football.

“I try to still be myself but obviously give as much experience as I can off the pitch. I’ve played a lot of games now so you do want to listen to that,” said Nobbs.

“The girls straight away made jokes about me being a legend so they kind of made it a nice feeling rather than a pressure thing.

“It just allowed me to step into that type of role. There’s a balance of not being too over the top because I’ve still got to perform.”

Newcastle’s season kicks off at home to Wolves on 6 September (14:00 BST).

PHILADELPHIA — There was no music in the victorious clubhouse after the Phillies finished their 10th game in 10 days. They went almost three months without playing an extra-inning game, then endured three of them in five days. There are four more games, including a day trip to Iowa, before a day of rest. If it felt like the Phillies had lost Sunday after a 7-6 win to salvage something against the Toronto Blue Jays, that is because the entire team is gassed.

Interim manager Don Mattingly glanced at a water bottle he carried with him afterward.

“It feels like this should have tequila in it,” Mattingly said.

He should save the liquor for his relievers, who have reached a breaking point. The first casualty: Caleb Kilian, the team’s biggest bullpen addition at the trade deadline, suffered an injury to his right side that could sideline him for a significant amount of time. He was pitching for the fourth time in six days.

These Phillies, time and time again, have made it harder than it needs to be. This is how their last nine losses have gone:

• A blown two-run lead before losing in extra innings
• A one-run defeat that ended with them stranding the bases loaded
• A six-run 11th inning
• A blown two-run lead in the seventh inning
• A blown six-run lead
• A 1-0 loss
• A walk-off loss in which their star closer allowed runs for the first time in 48 days
• A two-run loss after the game was tied until the sixth inning
• A 1-0 loss

Kyle Schwarber connects on his second homer of the day. He leads the National League with 35. (Hunter Martin / Getty Images)

It wasn’t all dour afterward. One of Kyle Schwarber’s teammates had printed copies of Schwarber’s high school football headshot and plastered them around the clubhouse after he snapped a 17-game homerless streak with two dingers.

That drought was a grind for Schwarber. It’s a grind for everyone right now.

“I feel like it’s going to be really helpful for us as we keep moving through this and get to where we want to go,” Schwarber said. “Just try to find a way to win a game at the end of the day. That’s all it is.”

A smattering of other things I think I think after 10 hours and 43 minutes of Phillies baseball over the weekend …

1. I think the Phillies have no choice but to eat it Monday by using only Andrew Painter and Alan Rangel to pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals. If they don’t, they are further risking their unstable bullpen.

Orion Kerkering, pitching Sunday for the sixth time in eight days, saw a sharp decrease in his velocity. He recorded the first two outs, then allowed three bloop singles and a double. Toronto scored three runs to tie the game in the eighth inning.

Jonathan Bowlan, the usual eighth-inning man, was unavailable because he had pitched three times in four days. José Alvarado, who has struggled to throw strikes of late, was unavailable because he had pitched three times in four days.

Closer Jhoan Duran, who has only one save since the All-Star break, pitched for the fifth time in seven days and somehow escaped a jam without surrendering a run. Tim Mayza, pitching for the third time in five days, prevented the automatic runner from scoring in the 10th inning. So did Brooks Raley in the 11th; he, too, was pitching for the third time in five days.

Mattingly has managed his bullpen with a heavy hand. It’s a confluence of factors; the Phillies have played a ton of close games.

“Part of this, I don’t want to make excuses, but we’ve been leaning on these guys,” Mattingly said. “They’re pitching on short rest, not truly full tanks out there. It’s where we’re at. It’s what you do. We have to get over it. … But it comes from all areas. We’ve had a little stretch where we haven’t gotten as deep into games as we’re kind of accustomed to with our starters. When that happens, within a short period of time, the bullpen gets taxed. The bullpen gets tired. Overuse. Then you see things like this.”

The Phillies recalled Rangel on Sunday because Chase Shugart had been used a lot in recent games. Rangel can soak up innings. It’s probably wise for Mattingly to stay away from his best relievers Monday. They need a break.

Then again, Mattingly outlined his philosophy before Friday’s game.

“I’m trying to win every night, honestly,” he said. “If we have a chance to win a game and those guys are available …”

So maybe someone has to step in.

2. I think it makes too much sense to tab Alex McFarlane as the bullpen replacement for Kilian, who did not travel with the team to St. Louis. Maybe the hard-throwing McFarlane won’t throw enough strikes to be a high-leverage reliever in the majors, but the Phillies do not know that for certain. And, right now, they are desperate.

Maybe they catch a wave with McFarlane, who has eight strikeouts and two walks in 4 1/3 innings since being promoted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

3. I think Bryson Stott might be the most underappreciated player on the team. Here’s a sequence from Sunday’s sixth inning: Stott drew a one-out walk, his 14th walk in the last 11 games. (He has not struck out in those 11 games.) As Brandon Marsh struck out, Stott stole second base for his 22nd steal in 22 tries this season. That allowed him to score on a two-out Alec Bohm single up the middle.

Stott has a .755 OPS, the highest it’s been since the third day of the season. He lashed a game-tying single in the 12th inning before Derek Hill walked it off.

Bryson Stott is 22-for-22 on stolen-base attempts this season. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)

His best Luis Arraez impression might be even better than Arraez. Stott is the first player with at least 14 walks and no strikeouts over an 11-game span since Barry Bonds in September 2002. And Bonds’ streak included a bunch of intentional walks. The only other player with an 11-game stretch like this in the last 30 years was the Detroit Tigers’ Bobby Higginson in 2001.

Oh, and Stott has sharpened his approach at the plate all while changing positions in the middle of the season. He’s played a fine third base in the first six games of that experiment.

4. I think Bryce Harper likes Arraez hitting behind him. Harper has hit .263/.517/.474 in 29 plate appearances since Arraez joined the Phillies. He has walked 10 times in those six games. He’s displayed better patience in this arrangement.

The Phillies, as a team, have raised their on-base percentage to .308. That is the highest it has been since April 17.

5. I think it’s hard to overstate the impact of Aidan Miller’s season-long back injury, which has cast doubt on everything about the former top prospect’s future. The Phillies have yet to concede that Miller will not play this season, but it’s obvious he won’t; Miller has not swung a bat in more than six months. There is about a month remaining in the minor-league schedule.

Miller has participated in some light baseball activities in recent weeks at the team’s Florida complex. Little has changed regarding his status.

Miller’s absence has dictated so much. Had he been anything close to competent in the minors, he would have forced his way to the big leagues in 2026. The Phillies might have been more decisive in how they handled Bohm this season. They might have been more willing to part with other prospects at the trade deadline if they had known Miller would be a contributor for the foreseeable future.

That loss felt especially acute last week when George Lombard Jr. debuted at shortstop for the New York Yankees. The 21-year-old prospect provided an immediate jolt. Lombard was selected with the 26th pick in the 2023 MLB Draft. Miller went 27th. The Phillies had considered Lombard with their pick before New York drafted him.

Nothing was guaranteed for Miller before the injury, but the Phillies thought he could infuse some newness at some point in 2026. Now, no one knows. The Miller injury has long-term implications. It will affect how the organization approaches the offseason; the Phillies can’t assume Miller will contribute in 2027.

It is an unfortunate situation for everyone.

6. I think it’s odd the Phillies and Minnesota Twins will play a game this week without the same rules as everyone else. The two teams will not be able to challenge ball-and-strike calls because the league’s Automated Ball-Strike technology is not installed for the Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa.

The two clubs were made aware of the situation well in advance, said two league sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. The same protocol was in place earlier this season when the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres played two games in Mexico without ABS.

It’s not ideal for two teams fighting to make the postseason; the Phillies’ and Twins’ fates could come down to one game.

This is a Minnesota home game. The Phillies will fly from St. Louis to Dubuque, Iowa, on the morning of the game. (It’s a 40-minute drive from Dubuque to Dyersville.) They will not spend the night in Iowa; the team has a postgame charter flight to Minneapolis.

The Phillies and Twins are each permitted an extra player for the game, but it cannot be a pitcher. As collectively bargained between the league and players’ union, every player on the active roster for the Iowa game receives a $20,000 payment.

7. I think no ABS for a night in Iowa might not matter, because the Phillies have refused to use the system like other teams. They entered Sunday with the fewest challenges from their catchers (96) in the majors. And they have the second-best overturn rate on challenges by their catchers.

J.T. Realmuto has caught the second-most innings of any player in MLB. He entered Sunday with the 32nd-most challenges among catchers.

It’s a conservative approach that has cost the Phillies pitches. That, by August, has a cumulative effect. The Phillies have encouraged Realmuto to be more aggressive with his challenges. It hasn’t happened.

UEFA, Concacaf and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) remain steadfast in their position that Gianni Infantino should resign as FIFA president.

On Monday morning, UEFA, the European confederation, Concacaf, the confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean, and the AFC joined together to release an open letter, critical of Infantino and signed by the president and general secretary from each organisation.

This comes after FIFA, world football’s governing body, released a statement on Saturday that hit out at what it described as a “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine” Infantino and the organisation.

The failed FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) plan, which has heaped immense pressure on Infantino, would have seen FIFA make stakes in its commercial and event operations, including the World Cups and Club World Cups, available for private investment.

Following a crisis meeting of select members of FIFA’s management in Morocco on Wednesday, Infantino, who apologised with Mattias Grafstrom, FIFA’s secretary general, for the FFE proposal, received the “full support” from his senior leadership team.

The open letter from UEFA, Concacaf and AFC read: “This recent meeting, where a select number of members of the FIFA Management Committee — not the full Committee — were summoned abroad, rather than leadership going to Zurich to address the heart of FIFA, its staff, only reinforces these concerns and represents a continuation of the very pattern of conduct that brought us to this moment.

“It is not the conduct of a custodian of the game, but of one who believes the game is answerable to him. There is silence where there should be accountability, distance where there should be openness.

“These are not the qualities football deserves in its leadership. That is why we have taken this stance: not lightly and not alone, but together, and out of duty to the game we serve.”

Last week, UEFA doubled down on its threat of European member associations boycotting future men’s and women’s World Cups.

“UEFA made it abundantly clear in its statement on Saturday that it has lost confidence in Gianni Infantino’s presidency,” a UEFA spokesperson said on August 6. “That position holds.

“Yesterday’s announcement that some people employed by the FIFA President (and whose careers depend on his favour) agree with him changes nothing.”

A source with knowledge of the confederations’ thinking, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, has said that, despite Infantino’s public statements and apology, they have now embarked on early conversations around developing a new tournament.

Following the meeting in Morocco, FIFA added that “a review will now be conducted, and a report will be presented to the FIFA council at its next scheduled meeting”.

However, UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC have made clear that they do trust FIFA to oversee this review, and have instead called for it to be carried out by an independent party.

“FIFA has also committed to presenting a full report on these events to the FIFA Council, once again failing to recognize that proper governance in the face of such a profound lack of judgment would require that such a review be conducted by a fully independent third party, not by FIFA itself, its staff, or by any stakeholder within football,” their letter added.

“The FIFA administration should play no role in conducting the review.”

FIFA has been approached for comment.

Although UEFA, Concacaf and the AFC have outlined their position on Infantino, their view is not shared throughout the game.

Infantino has received support from individual member associations, including the Argentine Football Association and the Mexican Football Federation (MFF).

The MFF’s endorsement of Infantino comes at the same time as their confederation, Concacaf, has called for the 56-year-old to go.

And in a statement on Thursday, the African Football Confederation (CAF) said that it “unanimously reconfirmed its support” and that it was committed to continuing to work together with FIFA.

Also on Thursday, CONMEBOL, the confederation for South and Central America, spoke of “its concern about the repeated unilateral actions taken without resorting to dialogue or the institutional mechanisms” in a statement and called for “unity of the football family” before FIFA’s presidential elections, which are set to take place in March.