Benwell Lad

Eh ?? Have I missed something ? I can think of several reasons why Pardew's position may be in jeopardy, but it may well be support from the dressing room, not lack of it, that keeps him in his job. He has clearly lost the dressing room. See Liverpool game, and recent reports of unrest. Utter nonsense. Even if he had "lost lost the dressing room", there's nothing "clear" about it. Liverpool was a diabolical, humiliating performance but had Ferguson, Lambert, di Fascisto, etc etc "lost the dressing room" prior to similar results ? Recent reports ? Aye let's believe the scurrilous Luke Edwards rather than anyone who is actually in the dressing room such as the club captain who's just said "The manager and the players are together. People can criticise when they want, but we always give our best on the pitch and on the training ground.” There's plenty of scope to get at Pardew without having to make s*** up to validate the criticism of him. PS "lost the dressing room" is such a stupid expression, I can only assume it was someone like Lawrenson who first used it. You lose your fuckin keys not a building with showers and coat hangers. So if he's not "lost the players" and they are trying their hardest in training and on the pitch then surely that intimates that there are fundamental problems with the coaching and tactics, which essentially also lies at the feet of the manager. It's clear from previous games and the reasoning behind buying these players, that they are a lot more skilled than recent performances have given evidence to. In your frothy haste to reply you seem to have missed my point which is that he has not "CLEARLY lost the dressing room". Apparently the opposite in fact, if people inside said dressing room are to be believed. For the sake of balance however, I broadly agree with the two highlighted points you've made.

Eh ?? Have I missed something ? I can think of several reasons why Pardew's position may be in jeopardy, but it may well be support from the dressing room, not lack of it, that keeps him in his job. He has clearly lost the dressing room. See Liverpool game, and recent reports of unrest. Utter nonsense. Even if he had "lost lost the dressing room", there's nothing "clear" about it. Liverpool was a diabolical, humiliating performance but had Ferguson, Lambert, di Fascisto, etc etc "lost the dressing room" prior to similar results ? Recent reports ? Aye let's believe the scurrilous Luke Edwards rather than anyone who is actually in the dressing room such as the club captain who's just said "The manager and the players are together. People can criticise when they want, but we always give our best on the pitch and on the training ground.” There's plenty of scope to get at Pardew without having to make shit up to validate the criticism of him. PS "lost the dressing room" is such a stupid expression, I can only assume it was someone like Lawrenson who first used it. You lose your fuckin keys not a building with showers and coat hangers.

No other player has the impact on our team and performance that Colo does. He even makes Taylor look decent.

Eh ?? Have I missed something ? I can think of several reasons why Pardew's position may be in jeopardy, but it may well be support from the dressing room, not lack of it, that keeps him in his job.

Yep can't stand him. I used to like him but his recent antics with that tackle and he massively went down in my estimation. Absolutely ridiculous way to carry on in the face of such a shocking tackle by one of his players. Martinez can fuck right off too with his behaviour. Always find it difficult to understand the fawning love in for the little weasel. Can only assume his eloquence during interviews (aka bullshit) convinces people, rather than performances. Behaved deplorably regarding the MacManaman tackle and but for a blatant piece of cheating for the goal which won that game they'd be down already.

Not when it's so utterly small time It's a shot across the bows. I think you can legitimately argue we've been a soft touch in recent years, we've let these stories slide which is why we're always good for copy "in a crisis". Not anymore by the looks of things. We've been a soft touch from top to bottom for years. About time we started letting those who treat us as such know that we'll counter them full on.

Was talking to a rather mild mannered and totally neutral bloke from the south of England and conversation got to my grave concerns for our survival prospects. Almost out of character he said that they all hope it's Sunderland who go down after appointing a fascist scumbag. The North East press may be kissing his arse and the Sunderland propaganda machine doing their best to silence any critics, but it seems that as witnessed at Villa the other night, the average working class football fan still knows a little bit about history.

Yes. We'll be in the bottom three this time next week.

If it's a tension thing go. I find being at the match much better than TV, radio etc for stress levels. If it's just apathy then don't really know. If you do make it please don't let anyone boo Carroll or Nolan, we really need to be nice to them.

Harry'll drop all of the mercenaries, get a team together playing for their futures at the club, and beat the s*** out of us. That's what I'm thinking. He'll play the players that are actually going to stay, you'd imagine. That could be good or bad, still unsure which. Probably bad Wouldn't be the first time that a team finds it's best form of the season after they've been relegated.

To those advocating a positive line up, it certainly makes us feel better but positive approaches at ManU, Arsenal,Swansea and Spurs resulted in nothing more than gallant defeats (if that). Results wise, setting up to win or to not get beat makes little difference to us, either way we're a soft touch and have been for some time. We certainly don't look like a team who can cope with a dirty relegation dogfight.

Conceded six, had a key player sent off for a daft tackle and firmly back in the relegation shite. Sounds pretty familiar.

I find the reassurances from fans of other clubs eerily reminiscent to three seasons ago.

Please explain how you achieved this ? I've been trying to become a more sane, rational person where NUFC is concerned for decades, without any success whatsoever Try thinking of Ashley and Llambias trousering your hard-earned dosh...and Pardew being paid with it... If those really were the criteria for ending an obsession wouldn't it have been possible acheive that decades ago and long before those three were ever heard of ? What has kept me going is the rather negative idea that the minute I abandon them, the bastards will start winning trophies. Change those two words for "die" and that's about the way I feel

Please explain how you achieved this ? I've been trying to become a more sane, rational person where NUFC is concerned for decades, without any success whatsoever Try thinking of Ashley and Llambias trousering your hard-earned dosh...and Pardew being paid with it... If those really were the criteria for ending an obsession wouldn't it have been possible acheive that decades ago and long before those three were ever heard of ?

It's like a slow lingering wait on death row. Why did this season have to go on so long, can't they just shoot us now? That cheated handball goal at Wigan could be the most costly refereeing mistake in the history of English football. If we had a decent manager and people at the top who knew what they were doing, the Wigan hand-ball wouldn't have mattered one bit... Using this as an excuse for being relegated is REALLY grasping at straws.... I wasn't using it as an excuse, you've just conveniently read that into it. It was however an extremely significant incident. If you weren't using it as an excuse, I wouldn't have to have 'conveniently' mentioned it . Your choice of reason why we might get relegated, not mine - are you seriously saying that the Wigan hand-ball goal is the main reason we could be relegated ? What about Ba's hand-ball goal at Reading which got us an undeserved point ? What about Pardew's stupid substitutions and what he laughably calls 'tactics' ? What about giving away a lead at home to - excuse me while I laugh if it wasn't so serious - Reading and lose the match..? Don't you think that those - and a myriad of other reasons - are why we are in this position ? You really are twisting things for some reason But I'll answer the question you pose. Yes I probably do. I will however re-iterate the point I made, which was that the dreadful decision at Wigan could prove to be very costly. If you need it spelled out, 1-1 draw would now have us 8 Points clear of Wigan with three to play. Pretty significant I'd say, but please explain if you don't think it is. It's a reference to an isolated incident not a fucking excuse for why we are where we are.

Please explain how you achieved this ? I've been trying to become a more sane, rational person where NUFC is concerned for decades, without any success whatsoever

Don't see that as any kind of great support for Williamson, just an indication of how bad Taylor is. Alongside Colo, Taylor, like the rest of them, looks ok. When Taylor tries to be the main man in defence it's dangerously bad. A few centre halfs have floundered alongside him and once you see through the local lad passion he's really no better than Williamson.

Under the new "regime" do they get paid off or just shot at dawn ?

It's like a slow lingering wait on death row. Why did this season have to go on so long, can't they just shoot us now? That cheated handball goal at Wigan could be the most costly refereeing mistake in the history of English football. If we had a decent manager and people at the top who knew what they were doing, the Wigan hand-ball wouldn't have mattered one bit... Using this as an excuse for being relegated is REALLY grasping at straws.... I wasn't using it as an excuse, you've just conveniently read that into it. It was however an extremely significant incident.

It's like a slow lingering wait on death row. Why did this season have to go on so long, can't they just shoot us now? That cheated handball goal at Wigan could be the most costly refereeing mistake in the history of English football.

I hope no macums read this and come back down to planet earth just yet. The current levels of new manager euphoria/optimism/delusion seem to have soared way above even those which greeted messiahs Keane,Bruce and O'Neill, and should ensure great entertainment when it all inevitably goes tits up.

Great post. The media have definitely backed away from the story which Milliband's resignation prompted. Lazy journalists and the bullying censorship approach evident from di Canio's first press conference, have succeeeded in putting a lid on the bigger story. In their current hedonistic, euphoric state they won't realise it, but flushing their club's working class traditions down the shitter by appointing a fascist to run it will come back and haunt them eventually.

I think the recent appointment of a self confessed fascist upset a lot of people across the NE, an area with a mining, shipbuilding, industrial heritage, which lost a lot of people fighting against fascism. Feelings were perhaps running high and the Sunderland fans throwing smoke bombs at disabled fans during the game probably made things worse, but no excuse for the embarrassing argy bargy which took place after the match. I think NUFC were correct to make a statement and we'd hope that Sunderland may show a similar level of responsibility concerning the smoke bombs.

The irony. Capital "M" - he really means it.