Three Bulls Heads, Newcastle Upon Tyne

In most ways, a typical city-centre boozer, refurbished in a semi-modern style to eliminate any character within, and nowadays in the tender care of Stonegate. However, despite this, it does have a reasonable cask ale offering from the five handpumps, including Bass and Dragonfly from Pennine (£4.15).

Situated close to the football stadium, this pub gets pretty popular on football matchdays and we duly visited immediately after a game, when it was packed. The ground floor space is large with a central island bar. There are TV screens dotted around showing live football. Upstairs was equally busy and there seemed to be even more TV screens, also showing football. The pub had never come across my radar before, but I wanted to give it a try as it now appears in the Good Beer Guide. Although, I'm not sure it particularly deserves its entry. Bass is the regular ale. Guests were Sharp's Doom Bar & Anarchy Blonde Star. When we arrived, Pennine Yorkshire Greens also had a pumpclip displayed, but we were quickly told it was off. Without that, the beer range was fairly ordinary. Lilley's Mango Cider could also be found in the fridge. With the only space being standing room near the entrance and with nothing to tempt us at the bar, we soon moved onto the nearby Wobbly Duck, a much safer option.