James

With regards to Geremi's awful set pieces, it's been just as bad with Emre when he starts, or even Robert when he was with us. Any proffessional will tell you that as a game progresses, it is much more difficult to take a decent set piece due to either physical or mental fatigue. It can't really be said that Geremi or Emre are particularly fit, so that would probably explain why we become increasingly frustrated with the quality of set pieces as the match progresses.

At best, Capello will tell Stuart Pearce to tell Steven Taylor that he needs to work on a certain aspect of his game if he wants to make the final 23 man cut.

I think it is now possible for U21s to get called up to the provisional 30 man senior squad, then get demoted back to the U21s a few days later. I'd be interested to see why Capello picks 30 players when he doesn't get to do any training with the seven players that don't make the final cut.

My opinion of him right now as I've probably already mentioned is that historically, Beye, Faye and Cacapa have all been preferred to him at other clubs with other managers, so he probably isn't any better than what we've already got.

Are you his agent btw?

Given that former team mates Faye, Beye and Cacapa have generally been picked ahead of him, I hope not.

I thought that about Burley too. Blatantly a Scottish pact. The worst bit was when the commentator said that Newcastle hadn't won at Birmingham since the 1970s, and Burley responded: "even Ipswich have won there since" I thought he said that Birmingham hadn't beat us at home since 1970... I may have misheard.

I thought that about Burley too. Blatantly a Scottish pact. The worst bit was when the commentator said that Newcastle hadn't won at Birmingham since the 1970s, and Burley responded: "even Ipswich have won there since"

Gerraway man. Is it fair to look at the performances of individuals in those games, when the whole team was shite? Particularly unfair on a team reliant player such as Owen I'd say.

If you take out games against the big four (ie opponents so good that they weren't allowing us to create chances) since Keegan, Owen has scored 3 in 5. That is pretty much the goal ratio associated with him when he signed for us.

Should have more given his miss tonight and against Blackburn. There was one awful miss at Blackburn, but the other misses were no worse than Martins' miss leading to the goal. With Owen, I'd be more worried if he wasn't getting the chances, and he's showed that apart from in the games against really good opposition (ie most we've played since Keegan), he can still worry defences. Hopefully Martins can also get more involved now, decreasing our reliance on a player who has pretty much been our only goalscorer recently.

Whatever people have to say about Michael Owen, he has still scored 3 of the 4 goals scored under Keegan.

FYP

Viduka, 3? I should add that I missed the first 30 mins. If he was good during that period, he can have a 5.

Harper 7 Beye 5 Taylor 6 Faye 5 Enrique 5 Geremi 6 Butt 7 Barton 3 Martins 7 Owen 6 Viduka 3

Agreed 100% Every point counts. Behind the scenes, there has been talk about wanting 4 points from this and Fulham, we are half way there.

I have this feeling that Smith is going to win this one.

KaKa - he's up front - are you even watching the game?

Doing better this half....

Regardless of how good the players are, the formation isn't working. Birmingham are able to bypass the midfield by playing around it, while we are unable to get behind Birmingham.

Birmingham want to win more than we do. Apart fom Martins, they've all been lazy fuckers.

COME ON!

Barnsley should sign Foster.

Given that you are nervous before all games, I reckon you must be at the epicenter of a powerful earthquake right now.

Although I dont want us to get relegated, we'd be in the best shape out of all the clubs that have ever been relegated from the Championship.