Benwell Lad

So in conclusion Krul is a better keeper than Harper. ..........and in other breaking news...... bears believed to defecate in densely treed areas.........Pope believed to be member of a religion based in Rome........

Just further verifies what most people who follow English football already know Chris.

We're mags. There's a derby coming up. Of course we're bricking it. FTM. 1-9. STHT.

Despite our stuttering start we are still far better than them in almost every position if both sides had their strongest XI out. It's a fixture which if played 10 times I'd see us winning 5, drawing 3 and losing 2. Who knows what will happen on the day? Absolutely hate the games as we always seem to have more to lose. When we win it's just kind of expected, but with their small club mentality a victory for them will be lived off for the next 20 years. Oh and by the way to the OP, mackems does not have a capital letter. Careless grammatical error there.

Great call Mr.B. Being a dirty cheat and having a weasel like appearance surely make him a canditate for any Despicable XI. However, the fact that he already plays for one probably means he doesn't have to included in this "pretendy" one.

Good, honest, decent, no-nonsense pro of limited ability. Reasonable squad player who is playing far more games than he should due to first choice centre halfs being injured. Nowt else to say really.

Almost comparable to our national side for "despicableness" - I'm sure the addition of Rooney and Gerrard would tilt it. Wonder why so many have stopped taking an interest in England games over the last few years ?

Webb, and him being widely regarded as our top ref, is a damning indictment of just how inept, incompetent and embarrassing referees are in this country. I look forward to European games to see referees who are even handed and in control. We seem to be suffering from a generation of posturing, vain, "professional" referees like him, Probert etc who seem to think they are part of the attraction spectators have paid to see. Ironic that probably the best referee in the PL era has been David Ellery, a non-professional who was, and indeed looked like, a public school teacher.

Thread should be renamed "squalid shanty town vs big neighbouring city".

The lack of leadership in our team was noticeable yesterday. Keegan always said his great side contained 8 or 9 "captains". Don't like saying it as we HAVE progressed but in games like yesterday we would have benefited from Nolan/Barton type prescence.

Reaction to goals conceded from Harper's detractors are tediously predictable. Amazing how he has been solely to blame for every goal conceded since he came into the team. I guess by that logic we wouldn't have conceded any had he not been playing As a back 5 (including Harper) we were shambolic early in yesterday's game. Harper was not to blame for the goals, although trying to do a "Pav" past Wellbeck was a bad decision. Watching the Barca - Madrid game later made me think that Harper would have been roundly condemned for conceding at least 3 of the 4 goals by detractors on here. As Mick pointed out we had a "schoolkid" covering Harper yesterday . At this moment in time he's the best we've got. Please get well soon Timmy!

What a sad, sad man. I hope that relevant agencies are monitoring this weirdo. His behaviour is strange, insane and possibly dangerous. Is he safe to be walking the streets?

No one person ever makes a team, but this guy is just so important to us.

Although on here he seems to have gained the "protected species" status, I have to say I think (and quite a few who attend games agree) that he is becoming a liability to us. His aggression is not controlled, it's reckless and potentially costly. He over elaborates in the wrong areas and regularly loses posession through very poor short passes. When he went out last season most of us feared we'd suffer in his absence. Truth is we actually looked better with Perch playing the "holding" role in midfield as he was a better tackler, passer and seemed to play a lot more intelligently than Tiote. If there was ever any truth in the rumours about big clubs being interested (and I'm not sure there was) and a big fee being offered, I'd snap their hand off.

Getting at the opposition from the first whistle made such a difference compared to the lethargic starts and displays of late. We played very well, Bordeaux were better than some people are giving them credit for and their fans were excellent throughout. Have to echo .com's remarks about the knacker who came on the pitch. It's really not funny, in fact it's embarrassing for millions of viewers to witness it. That's two Europa games running now. UEFA will take notice and could take action which could even impact on ticket allocations etc, so please someone give a clip to any idiot who wants to show us up in future.

There is, but when you put the postcode into the sat-nav, you get to the destination only to find a derelict house in Pennywell. Then the sat-nav voice pipes up "I see you are still having no luck finding me..." :lol: brilliant!

I would very much like this stat as well. Think its 13 - 5 to the Big Sho at the current rate it will take over 100 years for SAFC to catch Shola ....and in the same year Shola's great grandson will score a last minute winner which condemns the macums to relegation........

I would very much like this stat as well. Think its 13 - 5 to the Big Sho Wow that's amazing! Just wait until Sammy get's started.

Thought he (Pardew) did very well in his selection tactics last night. An excellent result achieved very much with one eye on the next match. Well done.

Looked very good last night as he did in 2 previous games he played.

From goalscoring centre forward, to midfield to sweeper, a Shola masterpiece encapsulated in ninety minutes. Trust the Fenham Eusebio to wait for the Bordeaux game to show us that like good wine some things just get better with age.

So how many more goals than the entire playing staff of Sunderland, throughout their entire history, has Shola Ameobi scored in European competition now ?

Leazes/East corner I think. Same as the Atromitos game.

A set of fans deserting their team, before it was even half time, during a derby match was indeed a very strange thing to see in football.

Some of AH's best performances were in Europe when SBR sent him out to man mark the opposition's most creative player. Played that role superbly.