James

Barnsley vs Cardiff Portsmouth vs West Brom Typical of Portsmouth to get the difficult semi, means Wigan have a good chance of 3 points against them.

The FA Cup might have presented the Premiership relegation battle with some unexpected side effects. Portsmouth play us and four of our rivals, and these games all immediately follow or preceed key FA Cup fixtures for Portsmouth. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/fixtures/default.stm The West Ham game will get moved for the semi, and we are the game immediately after the semi. Just to make things more difficult for us, the West Ham game will likely be moved to a midweek and give one of our rivals a fitness advantage. Otherwise, you don't know how the Portsmouth players will react - they could play every league game like a Friendly, or they could all be very confident and determined to win their place in the Final assuming they get there. Worst case scenario is that they switch between the two, and come out all guns blazing against us, and uncompetitive against our rivals.

Optimistic. We'll stay up, get rid of a lot of people and build a better team worth supporting. Or we'll go down, get rid of a lot of people, then come straight back up with a team worth supporting.

Use the scouting network to find younger players who can do well in the Championship and develop into good Championship players. The first thing we should do is tap up Scott Sinclair. Even though we were in the Championship, I'd be happy to pay up to £10m for him.

Why do you think that? I think that as well because:

Yes, but maybe a couple points better by playing the players for his system.

What's with all this pettiness?

Of the six left in the competition: West Brom - Last won 1968 Portsmouth - Last won 1939 Cardiff - Last won 1927 Barnsley - Last won 1912 (vs WBA) Middlesbrough - Finalists 1997 Bristol Rovers - Never reached final.

Woodgate could regret leaving Middlesbrough so that he could have his cup final glory. One uncle has a Bristol Rovers season ticket, the other has a West Brom season ticket. I'll need to start butterring one of them up after tomorrow.

Just to put it in writing, the teams that could win the FA Cup are: Portsmouth Middlesbrough West Brom Cardiff Bristol Rovers Barnsley Lucky bastards, the fans of one of those teams

£6.5m for two seasons.

This thread has a few thoughts on this issue (not suggesting a merge BTW): http://www.newcastle-online.com/nufcforum/index.php?topic=50613.0

Leeds II wont happen because the club's debt is £0.

Martins Geremi We did better than West Ham midweek are the only positives from the game, and all very meh positives.

As I could be doing an MSc at Newcastle next season, I'm hoping people don't (regardless of whether we are relegated or not) so that I can get one.

9 games left 4 are six-pointers. We can win them if we match our performance vs Blackburn. Of our three remaining trips down south, it is possible to nick a win at two of them, as other clubs have shown. Of our final two games, our opponents will have either nothing to play for or everything to play for, and the result is dependent on who has to play for what. The hope is that by then, one of the participants in both games have secured their objectives. The points we need are still there for the taking, but we have to have them over the next 7 games.

Geremi doing what Geremi does best - getting our attacking players on the ball in attacking positions.

We've looked much better since Martins has come on and Geremi has moved into the centre.

For those that want a description of the Martins goal, it was a forty yard powerful half volleyed bending lob on the turn.

Definitely his fault like. Ignore the consistent onslaught due to our midfield and forward players being unable to pass a football to each other without shitting themselves when they get it. 99 times out of 100, that ball goes out for a goal kick. Enrique has been run ragged by Pennant, Gerrard and Torres being allowed to attack in his zone, but it is the fault of what is in front of him.

Players today from best to worst so far: Beye Faye Harper Taylor Milner Owen Duff N'Zogbia Enrique Smith Butt

I was going to say exactly the same thing, the player who ran away from the ball was Butt. He should be shot for that, that was one of the worst pieces of football I have ever seen inthe top flight.

As the majority of these threads have been done by me this season, right to left is the regular method

Second week in a row I've done that. Last week went completely unnoticed until HT.

One bit at a time Dave....