James

I'm dissappointed we didn't get a result. The players undoubtedly deserved it. Given - 7 - Made a couple of good saves Huntington - 7 - a good debut considering he kept Robben and Cole quiet for most of the match. Might have learnt a lesson from their goal though. Taylor - 8 - Defended excellently today Ramage - 7 - Solid shift Babayaro - 9 - Absolutely outstanding performance, tackled well and was vital in our counter attacks. Milner - 7 - Marshalled the right flank well Butt - 7 - Played an extremely intelligent and committed game which saw us boss the midfield in the first half. N'Zogbia - 7 - Helped the team move forward well on the counter-attack Rossi - 7 - Showed great enthusiasm, and passed the ball around very well. Created a good chance for himself. Sibierski - 8 - Imposed himself very well in the air, had some good touches leading up to counter-attacks and generally ran his socks off. Martins - 9 - Lacked support up front, but ran circles around the Chelsea defenders, frustrated them, and won numerous set pieces. My man of the Match Pattisson - 5 - Poor first touch and chased shadows. Him coming on allowed Chelsea to take control of the midfield. Luque - 5 - some good touches, but did not have any time to make a positive or negative impression.

WOOP! WOOP! THICKO ALERT!!! bluelaugh.gif gay.gif

Anyone remember when Duncan Ferguson bought Nobby Solano a llama for Christmas?

You are missing the fact that he plays the geordie card for the 1000th time, demonstrating that he is totally out of touch with the fans. Didn't Sir John Hall say the same ? See my post to jimmymag Whatever SJH said is irrelevent. It is the current chairman I am worried about.

You've completely missed the point! (Again!) This is another example of Shepherd voicing his small minded parochialism. Shepherd seems to believe that Geordies are a sort of super race much like Hitler believed that a pure German Aryan race would one day rule the world. He's on record saying that ideally he'd want a team of Geordies managed by a Geordie manager. It's utterly pathetic and continues to make NUFC a laughing stock! Its you that is missing the point. It is irrelevant. I don't consider we will be a laughing stock when we play in europe again soon - again. We were however a laughing stock when we spent decades struggling to even stay in the top league or the 2nd division, losing to utter shite teams that we shouldn't even be playing, selling our best players, and playing in front of sub 20,000 crowds. Oh FFS, it is you who has missed the fucking point. Answer this question - Do you agree with Shepherd's 'us and them' approach to the Geordie nation and NUFC?

You are missing the fact that he plays the geordie card for the 1000th time, demonstrating that he is totally out of touch with the fans.

Hard to single out individuals, as we'd need top players in several positions to win something, but I'll say Rio Ferdinand - excellent defender who can play football.

we are screwed.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_1771377,00.html He can't fucking help himself.

That was before Souness though. Shepherd has since gone off him.

Not off hand, but I know that Shearer and Van Nistelrooy were used as examples.

Players are something like ten times more prone to ACL injuries after a long spell on the sidelines, meaning that there majority of these injuries happen during preseason and shortly after injury comebacks. it is obvious that Owen wasn't fit enough from the step up from 5 months out injured to playing in the World Cup.

Shola would only be 50-50 by now if he had had the op in the summer - he would probably be going through some kind of preseason.

Thing is, of our current injuries: Bramble - took a knock, still in hospital with his injury. Dyer - Leg Gash Harper - Hernia Parker - back Duff - knee op, a few historical knee problems Moore - hamstring, old injury Bernard - arrived at the club as a dead horse Krul - knee op Carr - bruised toe aka cant be bothered Ameobi - long term hip problem that is brought about by a condition you are very unlikely to have at his age. Owen - Rushed back too soon by England Emre - victim of a bad tackle Butt - cold Solano - groin tweak Sibierski - cramp They are either unavoidable, caused by someone else, or really minor injuries that we are just unlucky to have had at the same time, or otherwise the player has history with said injury. Only Harper and Krul (who were both forced to play with injuries due to keeper crisis) could really be written down as avoidable

I needed cheering up - and where better? youtube?

:lol:

People in this thread were not here in the 70s and 80s what with McKeag and Lord Westwood. I do, I was there, I felt the ground tremble, and can I tell you that today is much better than the bad old days. Today, we average as the 5th best club in England and have signed several big name players. Has the club shown so much ambition in the past? I think not.

Why ask the question when you know the answer?

You can say that, but then look at how O'Neill has done a few small things, triggerring a massive improvement in the performances of what were considered as shit players.

Glenn Roeder should be sacked. But not yet. That is the stance I adopt, and would hope that anyone taking over the club would take the same stance. I would also hope that Shepherd would feel the same way, but that is unlikely. We look unlikely to get relegated, and we may even sneak into the UEFA Cup once more, but Roeder has shown himself as being out of his depth in the transfer market, and has often been outwitted during matchday situations. some of his matchday first team selections have been very poor. Fact is, he is not a good enough manager for a club with infastructure the size we have. I feel that our recent run has papered over several small cracks (I'm hoping that massive cracks wont emerge with the return of Carr and Parker, if there are massive cracks, we may be in trouble and Roeder would have to go sooner), and these small cracks wont go away without us employing a better manager. Better managers are increasingly unlikely to leave their jobs midseason, and with Curbishley going to West Ham, there is only Sven who is currently both unemployed and employable (ignoring Hitzfeld and Lippi who would probably be out of our reach in my opinion). Therefore, I would want to wait until we near the end of the season before attempting to secure a top manager from home or abroad. Until then Roeder is probably better than anyone we can bring in.

As I see it, we have Watford, followed by Chelsea in the League Cup after this match, we might as well rule out the Chelsea league fixture and play our youth team, and thus secure a decent fit bunch of players for the following two fixtures, rather than have to drag a group of walking wounded through the next three matches. Two wins and a defeat would be better than three defeats. Never know, maybe Chelsea will repay us by playing their youth team against us in the cup.

?

Dude, this is like your mate from Fulham all over again, not to mention that football scout guy you pretended to be once. Be prepared that if your information is made up, that will be your third strike, and no-one on here will believe any inside information you reveal in the future after that. If you have just made all that up, now would be a good time to admit it, as if nothing of that sort is in the Mirror tomorrow, you'll be looking very stupid.

I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks that by seeing someone perform a religious gesture, their life is being interfered with are absolutely moronic and dont deserve to be British.

Not a nice thing to do. Why not just boo Savage - much more fun.