Wullie

Fuck off nicking my team.

Harper, Beye, Capaca, Faye, Enrique, Milner, Geremi, Emre, N'Zogbia, Martins, Viduka.

He can't do anything when a striker is breaking through into that much space and all Bentley has to do is pick his spot with 60 yard to aim for.

Good. Some daft fucker might still buy the useless arsehole.

Surprised at the heavy voting for Harper over Given. I voted for Harper though.

This is pretty funny, but not half as funny as the defence the bloke got in this thread. i don't have a problem if people stick up for our players, even if i don't rate them, but it IS funny when they're so obviously shite. it's like the people who thought Ramage was mint when he first broke through, even tho he was struggling badly from game one. If I was really into "I told you so" I bet it would be a laugh to see who poured scorn on the people who knew Alan Smith was absolute wank when we signed him.

I was a critic of Shearer when he was getting on, but comparing him to Smith...

FYP.

Viduka in a coma and on a life support is more likely to finish a move off with the corner of his bed than Smith is with 8 legs.

Those matches will be won by the sides who can stand strong and united under pressure. Which is why I'm worried. We did that today. Only by the Grace of God and the ineptitude of Duff and Owen did we not beat Blackburn out of sight.

Didn't Jon Stead manage one for the mackems in the last or penultimate game of the season? If we get a penalty in one of them (and we're safe), we should let the keeper take it, just so we can say that he scored more than our striker.

He said the same about Ameobi and binned him. Hopefully now Martins is back, Smith will be shot out of a cannon.

Apart from Viduka against Boro, it took until October for us to score a goal that didn't involve either Charlie or Martins. That's with Charlie playing at LB for the majority of the season, before and after and Oba being fucked about in midfield by Allardyce since. The pair of them are quality and need to play.

He didn't buy them though did he? Plus... judging by the reports I have heard today, getting them to play better and getting them to create more chances. We tore Blackburn to fucking shreds today. As I said in the pub afterwards, biggest footballing robbery since 1-4 against Fulham when Crossley looked like Schmeichel on acid.

I wish.

He didn't buy them though did he?

Absolute rubbish. Honestly.

It's 1 from 7. Reading, Fulham and the mackems still to come at home. That's what will save us. That's not to say I'm not bricking it though.

The fact is one of them has to start, preferable with Viduka or Shola, & of the two Martins offers more. Owen is a player who thrives in a team that creates loads of chances & where he can afford to miss. We bought him to take chances & the fact is he has missed an awful lot more than he has taken. He has scored half chances & headers; he has missed chances that quite frankly I would have taken in my Saturday afternoon footballing days & chances that I would have been dropped for if I'd missed. I might sound full of shit but I'd take myself on against Owen with 10 1 on 1's from a 25 yard run in on the keeper. The fact that I can even say that is frightening. I can probably think of 10 chances for Owen this season that I would expect to see buried at Hartlepool. Three today, two against Wigan, one piss easy chance against Man City, one against Arsenal, there's definitely more. He's finished. This "he'll score if we create" myth just doesn't wash anymore, especially not after today.

Have a word with yourself Madras; he missed them both so he didn't do everything right. Like he also missed against Wigan in the same position (& Everton? too when he came on as half time sub with his first touch). Take a look at the goals he has scored of late, fox in the box or headers, decent chances on the deck & he has missed. The real sad thing is that Martins is no better at putting that type of chance in. the header was aswell hit as he could have,the side footer was as ronaldos last week in the same position...if harper had saved that you'd have wet your knicks. f***** up for the one in the first half like i said. The header was looped & didn't have the power to go in, but it was a far better effort than his piss poor shots. The side foot was nothing like ronaldos (he scored for a start) & I would have expected Harper to have read the fucking match program & still saved it. Look at previous games, keepers do, MO with a 1 on 1 coming in from the left of the box = open your body up & shoot weakly to the other corner. Time & time again. The chance in the first half was no where near as good as the one he missed in the second. Dunno like, his first half chance was excellent. Did well to get round Friedel and would have buried it if he'd shifted onto his right but his left foot is like a feather trying to push a boulder uphill.

Have a word with yourself Madras; he missed them both so he didn't do everything right. Like he also missed against Wigan in the same position (& Everton? too when he came on as half time sub with his first touch). Take a look at the goals he has scored of late, fox in the box or headers, decent chances on the deck & he has missed. The real sad thing is that Martins is no better at putting that type of chance in. Tell you what, last day of the season, 1 on 1 with Howard to keep us up, I'd pick Martins and, yes, even Shola ahead of Owen to bury the chance. With the ball at his feet, Owen couldn't hit a barn door. A few of us have been saying this since that Wigan game when it was bloody obvious that his legs had gone but we were shot down by the people still living in 1998. One more goal and he's on par with Martins for the season. This after coming back from a long lay-off. Clearly Martins is immense and Owen is a has been. Let's just ignore the 2 goals he's put away in the last 4 games while we were getting raped. We weren't getting raped against Boro or Villa when he scored actually. The trouble with Owen is he cannot score with the ball at his feet. He can only score when his movement gets him a touch on a cross before the defenders can react. His movement is still pretty good but his finishing is absolute shite. Maybe this would do but he's about 5'6" meaning most of the time, his movement is totally nullified by the size of the defenders who will get to the ball before him. We can't rely on him week in, week out in the Premiership. He's neat and tidy but not much else.

Have a word with yourself Madras; he missed them both so he didn't do everything right. Like he also missed against Wigan in the same position (& Everton? too when he came on as half time sub with his first touch). Take a look at the goals he has scored of late, fox in the box or headers, decent chances on the deck & he has missed. The real sad thing is that Martins is no better at putting that type of chance in. Tell you what, last day of the season, 1 on 1 with Howard to keep us up, I'd pick Martins and, yes, even Shola ahead of Owen to bury the chance. With the ball at his feet, Owen couldn't hit a barn door. A few of us have been saying this since that Wigan game when it was bloody obvious that his legs had gone but we were shot down by the people still living in 1998.

He had another shot! Two in two games!

Who Duff? Hit the first man with 5 set pieces in the first 9 minutes an didnt improve thereafter. Don't forget the simple chance he missed because he couldn't bear to use his right foot. You and I have been saying this for over a year now. A winger who starts regularly without one league assist or goal this season. It'd be funny if he didn't "play" for us.

I am now officially worried. If we play like we did today every week, we'll stay up no bother. But we won't.