Wullie

He didn't though. That's kind of the point.

I don't remember us ever playing them in an evening game. 1-2 mate. Gullit benched Shearer and we lost 2-1. It was one of the most pivotal derbies in the last 20 years. How has it slipped your mind? Was a Wednesday. Thought you were being sarcy.

Used to love him at Pools.

I don't remember us ever playing them in an evening game. The game in the pissing rain under Gullit? Duh, of course. Can't imagine it ever happening now given the big fuss the police make about the kick off time.

I don't remember us ever playing them in an evening game.

My missus has got her little cousin here, if I relinquish control of the TV now it'll be fucking Youtube make-up videos through the Chromecast. He's considerably the lesser of two evils.

David Kelly.

Jonathan Greening's still playing for Forest?! Jesus, no wonder they're getting their arse handed to them left, right and centre.

He actually fucking said that. Thank God he brought Shola on today.

Nah, gotta be Rodgers for me. It's a fair argument as he's worked wonders but in terms of what I thought they'd do, I think Hull have further overachieved. Thought they'd have been well down already plus the cup joy they've had.

Nah, gotta be Rodgers for me.

Absolute insanity. Built their club over ten years on a platform of continental passing football then suddenly appoint a journeyman Football League centre half. I know he's been there through all of that period but that doesn't mean he'll be able to do it himself any more than Wayne Rooney will be the next Alex Ferguson.

Should have had him on for the whole thing tbh. I like the concept. Loads of celebrity football fans they could get on.

People moan about every misplaced pass and poor shot where I sit. It doesn't matter who does it. As an extreme example, I imagine Real Madrid fans have higher expectations of Ronaldo and they do of a lot of their other players. Newcastle fans don't have many creative players to cheer so when Ben Arfa has a less than good game it stands out more. If we had a few creative players there would be less pressure and expectation on Ben Arfa. Gouffran's spell of goal scoring is probably what has kept him in the side. He doesn't really have any competition for the left wing. Is Ronaldo dropped often when he loses the ball once or twice? Gouffran never went anywhere near the left wing today. Haven't a clue where he was meant to be playing, wherever it was he was ineffective. Not worth his place, certainly not ahead of Ben Arfa. When you've got a player like that, you don't just find a place for him, you build the team to get the best out of him.

Course it is.

They've got one winnable game in their next six. Two at a push if you count Everton at home. Not that preposterous. Their run-in is scarily similar to ours when we went down. We had some stinking games before finishing with 2 or 3 home games you'd have thought we'd have won. Depends on your definition of "winnable" given that they won at Goodison Park.

Proper weird like, the way they always do that.

Terrible example picking Shola. How many people rate Shola? People have low expectations of Shola. People have higher expectations of Ben Arfa and get frustrated when he doesn't reach those standards consistently. People know Ben Arfa can provide the quality, we'd all like it if he did it consistently, even Pardew. Anyway, we won the game and Ben Arfa provided the assist. Be happy. People trying to point score off it isn't good. Why don't they get frustrated with those players who don't ever produce those standards? Let's be honest, if Ben Arfa could produce his best consistently, he'd be alongside the best players on the planet, given his talent. I'd take an inconsistent Ben Arfa every day over somebody like Gouffran, unless you're in a specific situation where you need someone to run a bit more and make a nuisance of themselves. Palace at home isn't that situation.

One win and they're out of the bottom three so statements like "I think they're gone" are fairly preposterous.

A few years ago, there used to be a website that kept a league table of which players in Europe lost possession the most. Top of the league, every year, was always Messi.

Yeah if I think they're shit I do.

Claiming that he wants to be in Europe when he knows we've got no chance now, having previously made it clear how much he did not want to be in, is utterly insulting.

His best performance in a long time. Obviously he missed the sitter just before the goal and the header in the second half from Ben Arfa's first cross, but to get his two shots on goal in the first half showed tremendous technique. First to wriggle free onto his left foot and secondly to get a volley on Sissoko's cross. It was a crap ball, far too much power on it, and in real time, I thought Cisse did sensationally to direct it goalwards.

Generally I don't like criticising players, especially when they're still adapting but I thought he was awful. Cisse completely put him to shame.