BlueStar

I saw a grand total of 2, both being held by the same idiot at the end.

Mate of mine was sitting right near Ashley and said some bloke was giving him shit most of the game, saying how the performance was shit, how he needed to sort it out etc. Great crack on the coaches giving the mackem bastards some shit. Banged on the window at some fat bloke and he opened his shirt to reveal a toon tattoo in the midst of all the mackems in their tops, what a guy. Song of the day had to be "4-1, even Chopra scored" when we were cueing at the turnstiles.

Well I've just got back and I#m pissed off my titts. Got to say I'm happpy with a draw, like. Noticed they'd bought their jiffy bags with "TO SAM" and "BUNNG" on just in case we didn't get the joke. Some sad mackem bsstard tries to brick our coach as well but they missed the windaz-obviously didn't have abything bettr to do!

It's alright, if Smith plays he'll be sent off in the first half. Well lads, it's derby day. Just got up with a horrible hangover, off to see some strippers in half an hour apparently. Howay the lads!

dance of the nights or summit Cheers I'm being a bit nosy like, but any particular reason? Maybe he needs it for his ringtone cos he's sitting in the home end. I wouldn't like to be in the midst of tens of thousands of frothing mackems on derby day and have Local Hero start blaring out my pocket.

If only Paddy bookmakers weren't beyond reproach in that respect, they could have borrowed some off them. I still don't get this sudden Irish fan connection with Keane by the way, didn't his little tantrum cost them the best stab they had at getting anywhere in a major competition for decades?

I wasn't at the last one but the one before that (Solano's late penalty). There are police swarming about everywhere, you would struggle to get near the mackems if you tried. Basically everyone gets herded onto something like 70-odd coaches and buses forming a massive long convoy and given a police escort into sunderland. I remember there was a late kick off because a few dozen brave/mad Geordies decided to travel on their own and take the metro to the ground. Trouble obviously kicked off at the other end so the police had to escort them through. You'll be fine wearing your toon shirt, just make sure you get on the coach/bus back. Cheers, thought so. Not getting the official coach, but I'm told the one we're getting on is joining the convoy anyway, so should be alreet.

Get in, hope Ashley gets a round in Starting to shit it a bit now like. Meeting the fellas I'm going up with at 7 tomorrow for a drink so hopefully that'll calm my nerves. Be a lot happier coming back when we've got 3 points in the bag. Couldn't go to the last one, presume we'll have enough legions of coppers around us 24/7 to be alright wearing a toon top, ie I'm not going to take a wrong turn out the turnstiles and end up surrounded by the great unwashed?

Rafa's Liverpool have rarely had a problem pulling out a fucking cracking performance when they desperately need it, that's why they've done so well in the Champions League and cup competitions in general. It's the fact that, unless the situation does it for him, he can't motivate his players to beat the likes of us or Birmingham with any degree of consistancy, and that's why Liverpool can't win the premier league. Last night doesn't really change that, it shows that Besiktas are a fucking woeful team by Chamions League standards and that Liverpool are more than capable of beating them blindfolded - but Rafa couldn't get them to get the job done without it being a crucial make-or-break match.

Until players really start to shine or otherwise we could always just work with what we've got We think, he may Turn out to be OK Habib Beye, Habib Baye He runs more than the rest, At least he tries his best, Al-an Smith, woooaaahh, Al-an Smith, woooah We're not sure of the reason, He looked canny pre-season, Could his muscles be torn? Hope he regains his form, Walking in a Geremi wonderland

Aye, when we were scoring goals for fun and sitting top of the league we were a lot louder as well, and the creative juices were flowing a lot better in terms of making up songs an all.

We've played two decent teams so far, Pompey and Man City, and both of them have embarrassed us.

As well as the obvious ones like the 2-1, sitting in the pissing rain in the car afterwards going no-where with "Why does it always rain on me" on the radio, turning up for a semi final and apparently playing for a draw, there's a few to come to mind that were disappointing for me personally - Derby away this season because I was really looking forward to seeing us win away for the first time in ages and it pissed all over my giddy optimism about a fresh start and brought us down with a bump about how much work there's still to do. Frankfurt away, simply because it was a cracking holiday with 90 minutes of piss poor football in the middle and no goal to celebrate. Saying that, it was a good experience and great atmosphere in the stadium (from the home fans at least)

Quick delivery but not well packaged and quality is suspect. Would not read again.

"Right, remember lads - keep it in single figures" Seriously though, I'm not going to slate Sam yet until he shows he's never going to learn from mistakes like yesterday.

An N and a E and a wubble-u C.

Fingers crossed Sam will have learned his lesson and will start with Zog and Milner by the time the mackems come around. The thing I don't understand is, they're not even luxury players - they put the work in, track back etc. It's not like the decision to play a Ginola or a Robert away from home.

Can't understand playing Geremi and Emre out of position and leaving Jinky and Zog on the bench till it was too late (I assume that's how we started, was at work and just caught the last 20 minutes on the wireless on the metro home.)

One of the best things about having this kind of decision to make is that you can make the decisions based on form. I think that's what Sam's going to do. When we've actually got several premiership quality partnerships we can play I don't think it's very helpful to say who we should be playing every match. Obviously you're going to want different players for different situations, but let them play for the shirt next match. And if someone's out through injury or because of a dip in form let their replacement have a go at keeping out their squad on their return.

My Spurs fan mate was telling me it was a boring game yesterday and that we were poor but they were just worse. I agree we've yet to face a decent test like.

The Micheal Owen song (to the tune of nah nah, nah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, goodbye) was an unusually original chant compared with the usual "There's only one..." Reckon we could get some milage out of it by changing it to Micheal Ashley is he really does deliver long term.

Are we not 3th?

Not sure about his fitness, he looked shattered last time I saw him.

I find it hard to consider myself "entertained" when leaving a match we've lost. Watching an exciting match as a neutral is entertaining, watching an exciting match your team loses is just fucking annoying. The fact it was a good match to watch is a rather minor consolation. It certainly doesn't match the feeling of satisfaction of a job done. Or of going to meet your Spurs mate in the pub afterwards. Playing exciting football and winning is a canny bonus but fuctional wins will do me very nicely for now, ta. Not that I think we're particularly boring from a toon fans point of view anyway, especially not last night. And who gives a fuck if Setanta pundits enjoy it as much as us anyway?

Aye, probably the most enjoyable match I've been at so far this season.