Spider Jerusalem

As I've said before, he showed a lot more heart and commitment to the cause in the relegation season than our so called captain at the time. Could never fault his attitude while he's been here and was never going to be good enough to keep a regular place in the team at this level when we made it back up, but understood his place in the squad and never went to the media for a cry, and was disappointed for him that an injury finished his last season off early so he couldn't say good-bye in the shirt. Wish him all the best for the remainder of his playing career and beyond.

All that highlight reel needed is Cech going 'FUCK!!!'. What's he going to do next though? The goals just seem to be getting better and better.

I apologise for everything I said about him up until after the Norwich game. Pardew did well by bringing him on for ten minutes here and there and his confidence looks like it's grown and he has become an asset to the squad. Another excellent performance tonight. His improvement is one of the highlights of the year for me.

Blew a 13 point lead against The Arse a few years back as well didn't they?

Going to stop the cunts in their tracks. OOOH YEAH!

It was Europa League followed by a Van Damme movie last year. Stick with what they know.

Even if we have relied heavily on the same 4 or 5 creative players up front that makes us different to just about every other team in what way? Just another bitter fucker that's upset that we've 'invaded' the top levels of the league and trying to find any little 'fact' that they can to try and tear us down.

These fucking cunts are going to rob us of that Euro place aren't they

Using that ITV mock up as proof is a bit of a joke though. The left foot that he clears the ball with is dead on the line and is the definition of a perfect last ditch clearance. ITV have the ball being a foot away from the line. Unless he's wearing some highly illegal boots with foot long studs they've just made it up themselves. It almost makes you miss Sky and thier cameras everywhere approach to coverage.

ITV's 'proof' there astoundingly shit.

I think it was either an 'imaginary offside' or for a foul on the keeper.

Poor game, but by Lucifer's Beard what a great bit of skill to make everyone forget the diabolical football that came before it.

Looks like Mancinin is feeding Balotelli to the media, giving him up as a scapegoat to try and deflect away from his own shortcomings as to why the richest club in the world have failed by a massive margiin under his watch. Can see Balotelli being referred to in the same terms as Asprilla was for us in the media over the next few years.

Of course, but if we went into it with a similar squad to what we started this season then we would be struggling. We are just about running on empty now. I wouldn't want to be next years version of Stoke, who gave up after a 1-0 defeat in the first leg and played a weakened team in the next to 'save' thier players, or Villa when O'Neill had them there and he disrespected the competition in a similar manner. If we do qualify then we want to compete, not just give a half-hearted attempt at bringing up the numbers.

In good company with Keane and Bruce then.

Got to say, pretty much spot on. Let them play themselves into nowhere and catch them on the break. Didn't play ourselves into the ground and conserved energy to play on Monday. The possession stats will show otherwise but this was a game that from the point where Cisse scored the first goal we were always in control.

Post of the year quality that. Almost as irrational as that Mackem getting his child-creature to swear at NUFC birthday cakes in ASDA.

Can't see us keeping a clean sheet with the defensive staff we have left and have that horrible feeling in my bones that Carroll is going to batter them into submission and nick one or two. Or maybe it's just that horrilbe feeling in my bones that comes from falling asleep on the setee on a Saturday night / Sunday morning?

I've given him enough (deserved) stick for some abysmal performances last year, so have to give credit where it's due. He has put in some excellent showings since the Norwich game and hasn't really been caught out since. Put in one of the better performances today within the team and in the second half seemed to be the clear head when all others had lost theirs. One of the contenders for Man of The Match - Keep it up.

O'Neill pulling the third official between them looks even worse from that angle.

Aye, enough to cover the wages of approximately two and a half more players under the current wage structure.

The Mackem Slayer strikes again! He's far too inconsistent for a regular start but puts in a decent shift when he's used sparingly. The filthy two-headed inbreds must be shitting themselves waiting for the day when we've got two Ameobis on the field against them.

I thought that the whole coverage had a mackem-biased view toward it. Not a mention of any of our other penalty calls in the summing up, ridiculous amounts of coverage of Tiote's reaction, Martin Keown asking if the FA should look at Tiote's over-reaction, failing to notice that Mike Dean had given just about every 50-50 decision only one way and saying he'd had a great game amongst other shite.

Brilliant news, getting two of our best performers tied down for a number of years and rewarding them for thier excellent work. If we can get Ba's release clause out of his contract then we can look forward to a summer transfer window where we just supplement what we have and replace what is released.