Benwell Lad

It is just so Sunderland though. There's people on there will come and pick you up if you're interested in going. With all the freebies and cheapies they must have a really low receipts versus attendance ratio as well.

Are the many "geographic" Geordies who follow Sunderland going to be welcome in the stadium of light, or will they still be made to feel unwelcome even after Bruce has gone ?

Decent article. http://www.regista-blog.com/2011/12/interview-with-brentfords-marcel-eger-record-shopping-politics-and-fc-st-pauli/

Must be back to normal now. Had a look on there the other day and it was all sunshine,roses and bonhomie. In fact there were some on there so desperate not to see a half empty stadium, if you'd displayed any interest in going they'd have fixed a cheap/free ticket for you and travelled half way across the country to give you a lift if necessary.

Some focking salesman Ashley like. No wonder he had the helicopter revving up and waiting to go.

I'd been talking about this earlier in the week Bob, i.e. that in years gone by when squads were very small is wasn't unheard of for a CF to play CH or vice versa during an injury crisis. The game is a lot faster and more technical nowadays and I'm not sure a successful switch like we once saw could be replicated. It's hardly been mentioned so far but I wouldn't be surprised if Pardew is considering a role for Smith this weekend if the situation is absolutely dire, as he may be looking for leadership in the absence of his central defenders. I hope this doesn't happen and it wouldn't be my choice.

Their current points to games ratio would have them on 29.8 or lets say 30 points over 38 games. Lies, damned lies and mathematics.

His body language yesterday did not look particularly positive or happy. I'm not sure the yank has thought this through particularly well in his haste to make a populist appointment in the wake of the locals turning on Geordie boy Bruce. Looks like Quinn was back involved again as well. That's Quinn who's last big shout was to give Bruce a long and very well remunerated contract extension not long ago.

Most dangerous crosses they put in will be corners or free kicks, minus Taylor we lack a defender to attack the ball with his head and I'm sure Pardew will play one of his big forwards for defending set pieces.

Aye, possibly Colo-esque for them. He looks like the cement that holds us together to me.

When Colo went off on Saturday the atmosphere noticeably nose-dived,was horrible. I'd struggle to think of any individual in the PL who is as important to his team as Colo is to Newcastle. 52,000 people probably thought the same thing at the same time.

Just took a look at the piss poor RTG site. It's the most excited they've been since Bendtner signed. Almost on a par with the rejoicing which greeted Lawrie Macmenemie's arrival all those years ago.

we heard him crowbar a link with Brian clough in Wonder what kind of daft price is available for him to be gone before the end of the season, a la Clough and Leeds United............

I'd take him on loan no problem, but no way pay a fee or give him a long contract. Not unless he proved to be brilliant again during his loan that is.

About 10 minutes before he came off he came to the bench while we had a throw/corner and lifted the right leg of his shorts and and was desperate for someone to treat the top inside of his thigh which could be classed as his groin. Our bench were as slow as f*** and he was losing it with them for taking so long to spray it with something and was pointing back at the 18 yard line telling them it was as result of a challenge on our 18 yard line with i think Sturridge. He was still keep lifting that leg of shorts and stretching his leg all the time until he was taken off. I was also surprised how long it took for them to get a bit of spray on him.

Took me a while to figure that out but worth the wait.

What with a very expensive but mediocre squad of players, lots of Bruce's cronies to pay off and having to resort to cheap/free tickets to pad the stadium out a bit, I found myself humming the tune "Let's face the music and dance" as I read this. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/f...-6272747.html?

Me too, but not sure he'll get back to the level he was at during the first half of last season. Agree that he'd have carried on playing well for us too. A serious jolt to his momentum that transfer fee was.

I do so hope you may be right. It would be against the odds but he does seem to be an incredible specimen both mentally and physically. We will miss other key players but no one as badly as Colo who is absolutely irreplacable. If he was to recover in time I'd have no fear about his partner, Perch,Kadar or anyone else. Colo's very prescence makes the other defenders better players.

A year is a long time in football, and while I think AC still has something to offer, watching the game last night I thought that if I was a manager I'd prefer to have Leon Best in my team and would expect more from him than Carroll. A year ago that would have seemed like utter madness.

Worrying. Did he say if he'd be fit for Swansea? Head will be on the bench for Norwich. Full torso back for Swansea.

I couldn't see it. They were awful in defence and Brown and O'Shea look like they could become very expensive liabilities. They had one good midfielder and nothing up front. Wolves were about as bad as anything I've seen in the PL and yet they still managed to beat Sunderland from being a goal down.

I know we use this thread primarily to take the p*ss out of the poor fockers down the road but yesterday I watched them play for 90 minutes for the first time since the derby and I'd like to (as best I can) give an objective analysis of what I saw. Their goalkeeper was good - certainly looked a lot better than the Scotsman Quinn and Keane splashed £10M plus wages on. However a tip for him - don't make a big appeal which distracts your concentration when the opposition have the balll in your box. Play to the whistle. Richardson surprised me and looked decent at LB - their other 3 defenders are woeful and Brown's positional sense is very poor. Cattermole actually looked OK but his violent tendencies seem to have him perpetually on the edge and as such is a bit of a liability in the modern game. Sessegnon looked good as well - the other 2 midfielders bring very little to the Premiership table but don't tell Larsson that, he struts around like he's David Beckham - he's actually very average, at best. The Korean kid would struggle to be a regular starter for Hartlepool or Carlisle and Bendtner - although obviously talented - really just looks like he doesn't give a f*** and indeed probably doesn't. The game itself. First of all what a contrast to the game I'd watched 24 hours earlier. OK we had a really bad result but the pace and movement and ball retention seen in a top of the table game was a stark contrast to what was on display in this relegation battle. Neither side seemed able to string 2 passes together or create anything at all. They scored a fantastic goal - great build up and finish and at that point Wolves were so woefully poor it should have been game over. I can not see 3 worse teams than Wolves in the league and both Blackburn and Wigan looked better than them when I saw them. However somehow they let Wolves win the game and frankly if they can lose a game against a side as bad as Wolves from the position they were in then they really do have problems. They'll probably pick up a few points on the back of the initial surge and hype the new manager factor will create, but once it settles down they're really going to struggle with those players.

Aye, it has somewhat taken a turn for the worse over the weekend Having all 3 senior central defenders knackered is pretty calamatous and I reckon Saturday's referee has a lot to answer for rather than just fate. I will stick by the original point that although no where near a champions league squad we did start the season with as much quality in reserve as any other non-European side and as much as we had in our better teams of years gone by - which was the point, I certainly wasn't saying that we could breeze through a period without our 3 senior centre halfs. Anyway the misfortune we have suffered gives the wrist slitters an opportunity to get back on the board for a bit of long overdue moaning.

Sorry if SEB but wasn't larsson great today. M'on get out of our club you fat Irish bastaad. FTM.