David Icke - Son of God

can't have that tbh, krul, colo, taylor, simpson, santon, anita, marveaux, cisse, hba/ba...basically having sammy and bigi in the squad 'outdid' us? the team we had out should have been enough to be at least 2 up by half time, regardless of hba being on or not. Meant that more for the substitutions and the change of tactic in the second half... That's a real issue at the minute. We don't have a game changer on the bench which means when we try and change things we don't really change things.

So would a change of manager solve our injury problems and swap that tough run of fixtures for a newer, easier run?

This talk of him losing his job is frankly ridiculous. Not a month ago he was Pardiola, the fanny rat who could do no wrong and now his job's at risk? Behave you daft shites We are on a poor run, there's no doubt about it. Pardew needs to shoulder some of the blame for allowing certain bad habits to fester while positively encouraging others, however he can rightly point to an absolutely ridiculous situation with injuries that has been ongoing for some time now keeping the spine of the team off the pitch and a lack of investment contributing to our form. After what he did last season he deserves time to get it right, time to get his first XI on the pitch and playing regularly.

I'd have thought given our recent history with signings our fans would know better than to write someone off after a handful of games in their first season. Berks.

Krul Simpson - Saylor - Willo - Santon Anita - Tiote - Jonas* Marv - Cisse* - Ba * if fit We've just got to go for it. No point in fucking around feeling sorry for ourselves. Our best available players in their best positions in our best formation.

I do think it's daft to talk about relegation at this stage. There seemed to be a desire to go out and stick a couple past them but at the same time we were very aware that a draw would do, particularly once HBA and Cisse had got injured. Even at 1-0 up we looked like we'd settle for 1-1. The performance was awful mind. We're just completely lacking a game plan at the moment. Injuries have played a huge part and most teams would struggle when they're down to their third choices in a number of positions but it's basic stuff like set pieces, which are absolutely diabolical at and have been for ages. Sitting off players until the enter our 18 yard box is another habit which we've gotten into and needs sorting out.

I thought Anita had his best game for us. Easily MOTM.

Two thirds of that article have been copy and pasted from one they wrote last season

HOOOOOFFFFF!!!!! It shouldn't be. All three are very tidy footballers on their day.

I'm taking my boots on Saturday. I'll get a fucking game at this rate

I don't see the problem being with Cisse, but the problem being with the system we're playing. In fact I think it explains our troubles this season full stop. We're very static and we're playing 442 without any genuine wingers, much of the play is taking place in-field and consequently everything is getting very squeezed in the middle. This hampers players like Cabaye and HBA, who are struggling to find gaps through which to thread their passes, so we're reverting to this fucking hideous "lump it long, try and win the second ball and hope to God if you do you find yourself in a position to start an attack" style of football. Teams know they can pack the middle as all of our wide men (Fergie aside, but he's barely featured) will cut in rather than get to the byline to put a cross in. This style of play means our strikers aren't getting the chances they are last season but worse for Papiss is that unlike Ba and Shola he isn't a player who takes well to having the ball belted at his head by Mike Williamson/Danny Simpson/Tim Krul. How many decent chances has he had this season? You could probably count them on one hand.

I'm of the same opinion. Shame Herbert has gone off the deep end over this Clattenburg shite. Accusing Chelsea of being part of an institutional cover up is borderline mental. They wouldn't have made the initial complaint if that was the case

The Championship season was brilliant. Once I'd got over the heart break of the actual relegation there was the novelty aspect of playing new clubs in new grounds etc. Then by the time that wore off we were tonking teams on a weekly basis so the experience was even more enjoyable. It was such a welcome relief after the shite the year before.

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/2898/davidvaughan.png I didn't know you could buy Space Raiders with a touch of Downs.

David Vaughan?

That big screen was ripe for abuse. Managed to get a tweet up declaring that one of the lads I was with was in fact a whopper. When you're off your tits that sort of shit is really very funny.

Can we get back to laughing about O'Neill not being the messiah they craved and leave this tedious fucking discussion behind?

a former proven recipe? lol oh please, demba played out wide in a handful, two handfuls of games at most, and those limited games got us to 5th? have a longer memory. we played the majority of our games last season in 4-4-2 dont forget. i personally am a big fan of 4-5-1/4-3-3 but you put your most effective most potent scorer out wide. You must have freakishly small hands.

Aye. He was there for hours. Some lad went up to him and gave him a kick just before the game kicked off and was told to fuck off.

If that's the only reason we're not doing as we were last season (and I fear it is given our complete change in tactics and the constant chatter about keeping him happy) then Pards wants shooting with shit. No player should dictate to the manager. He can leave if he's not willing to be part of a team. And don't get me wrong, I love Ba. He's an absolutely magnificent footballer and he's scored some very important goals for us but we were a brilliant side when he played on the left. Not only that he played bloody well for the team too! No amount of media claptrap from pundits will tell me he was anything other than a bit out of form in front of goal. He had chances, but he just wasn't taking them as well as he was earlier in the season. Playing on the left had nothing to do with it. What I do find bizarre is that at times Ba was practically playing a holding midfield role today he was dropping so deep to come to get the ball, yet he's allegedly unhappy at playing much further up the pitch on the left.

Davide Santon aside I thought we were pretty fucking awful today. The worst performance of the season which is saying something. Bar a short burst immediately after they went ahead and straight after half time we never actually looked like scoring. I can't work out how we've went from playing the football we were at the end of last season, which was lovely to watch and highly effective, to this long ball shite that's been served up now. I mean it's not as if there was any major rebuilding done on or off the pitch. Whatever Pardew's logic it seems very flawed, however the players need to shoulder some of the blame too. Whenever we get the ball there is absolutely no movement, no one offers anything and that makes us extremely easy to mark and slows the pace of the game right down as we try to look for a pass. This is having an impact on the players who were carrying us earlier in the season, like HBA (who is wasted on the wing but that's another story), as teams realise quite quickly they can whack an extra man on him and crowd him out forcing him to run in circles looking for someone to fucking pass to. Don't even get me started on the long balls we played today. Whose idea was it to try and out Fat Sam a Fat Sam team? We struggle to win the second ball at the best of times let alone against a side which is built to do such a thing better than anyone else in the league. And if I see another set piece aimed at Williamson's head I'll windmill someone. I know for a fact that we spend ages practising set pieces and yet we are absolutely diabolical, genuinely the worst I can remember from an NUFC side. I can't believe I ever used to slag off Barton's corners. I know it'll be derided as simplistic, but we need to go back to 433 and find some form. We've got what would usually be described as a decent run of games over the next few weeks, go back to the tried and tested formula and try and get some fucking results under our belt. If we keep playing this brand of football it's going to be a very long, very frustrating season.

O'Neill refused to criticise Celtic fans for sectarian chanting when he was their manager. He's got a history with this sort of thing. To be fair I don't wear a poppy, but that's not because I'm an IRA sympathiser. I just don't care for the emotional blackmail that accompanies the appeal nowadays. Prefer to respect them in my own way.

Both McLean and O'Neill weren't wearing poppies.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151072833446895.421349.51628526894&type=1 Great album by a photographer who made the trip over. EDIT: There's a couple of N-O faces on those images