Benwell Lad

They've been doing it from the day he signed for us. Making up stupid stories about him, bending the truth and talking absolute bollocks just to try and convince themselves that he's a shit manager. It's hilarious to watch. The years may come and go but the petty jealousy and obsession that mackems have for their neighbours never changes. The burden of that massive chip they carry on their shoulders will weigh them down for eternity.

Forest were truly abysmal and we were far from great. Hope we can shake things up a bit in the next few games and get some fluency back in our game. Many are saying the sending off changed the game and was the reason we won. No, it was a piece of sensational, sublime finishing by a striker at the very top of his craft.

Spot on.

If you're looking for like for like with Shelvey then there's only little Vurn who comes anywhere near the range of passing skills.

I think Rafa might ?

He's been lucky, not good. In 3 of their 4 wins they were still 2nd best team. I thinks he's currently squeezing the most he can get out of a very meagre bunch of players through a very unambitious style of play. None of their recent victories were particularly convincing displays and on Saturday they performed to their optimum and just scraped a fortunate win against Watford. There will be occasional wins but not many playing that way, however the teams around them who are playing more adventurously won't get many either.

Yeah, most people thought yesterday was going to be difficult and so it turned out. Therefore another very good 3 points.

Stadium looked half empty on MOTD, must be struggling to even give tickets away nowadays.

Shambolic AFC.

Did they not give away all the free tickets when they were in the Championship ?

waiting for the white FTM to get delivered with them, Genuinely wouldn't put it past them There'd only be one result if they polled their fans about it (paying ones that is, not the free ticket mackems)

For most clubs we're the biggest game of their season, but this is arguably the biggest game in their history, so I'd expect their players to raise their game accordingly. Expect a much better game than last night with them having really having a go at us.

We should have given them 2000 like they gave us and we should reduce Leeds' numbers as well! Definitely! Clubs giving us small allocations when they're nowhere near sold out and then us giving them 3,200 when we have sold out is just wrong.

It seems to be the only way they set up at present. Much like when San Marino or Gibraltar occasionally keep the score down when they play a big nation. But fitness and organisation can only take you so far. Converting that gallant 1-0 defeat into a win requires a huge step up and credit to the other lesser clubs in the league, Bournemouth, Burnley, Swansea, Watford and even Hull who at least look like they're trying to have a go.

I would happily take second place if it meant Chris Hughton smacking Pardew upside the head with the championship trophy as he slopes off to the job centre. I genuinely don't get the hype about Pickford. Admittedly I've only seen him in a full match once when they were being dry-bummed by Arsenal, but he was mediocre at best and a rabbit-in-the-headlights flustered mess at worst. The fact the mackems are bandying around a price second only to Buffon is the true definition of delusion. Moyes is looking increasingly like a man who has been sold a pup. Publicly declaring a relegation battle 2 (TWO!) games into the season, and loudly mithering his lack of funds a month early, these are not the signs of a confident set up. I wonder if he could have done better for their goal last night - decent strike but by no means unstoppable from that position? Also spilled/parried a couple of their efforts back into the danger area that a half decent keeper would have held on to. Seems to do occasional Hollywood stuff which catches the eye but lacks in the basics. Only seen one replay of it from behind the goal but didn't the shot pretty much start just outside the post and bend inside it? Pretty tough to stop. Not saying it was soft or anything, just maybe a better keeper would have got to it. So perhaps he's not quite in the 25M category :-)

Our apparent lethargy may have been a consequence of the lack of intensity in the game. It's hard, even for good players, to raise the level of their game much beyond what is required at the time. We would probably benefit from a game where the opposition are coming at us in a more positive way and we have to start slugging it out with them. Re the Wigan fans, actually feel sorry for them. No home goal since September and it's not like it is up here when it's shit - i.e. it's in the blood or just part of a great day out in a buzzing city. Credit to those Wigan fans who are still turning out.

9.5

I would happily take second place if it meant Chris Hughton smacking Pardew upside the head with the championship trophy as he slopes off to the job centre. I genuinely don't get the hype about Pickford. Admittedly I've only seen him in a full match once when they were being dry-bummed by Arsenal, but he was mediocre at best and a rabbit-in-the-headlights flustered mess at worst. The fact the mackems are bandying around a price second only to Buffon is the true definition of delusion. Moyes is looking increasingly like a man who has been sold a pup. Publicly declaring a relegation battle 2 (TWO!) games into the season, and loudly mithering his lack of funds a month early, these are not the signs of a confident set up. I wonder if he could have done better for their goal last night - decent strike but by no means unstoppable from that position? Also spilled/parried a couple of their efforts back into the danger area that a half decent keeper would have held on to. Seems to do occasional Hollywood stuff which catches the eye but lacks in the basics.

Has it what? Pegged/Sussed http://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/i-await-the-negativity.1307934/#post-24443729 Thread seems split between the clappers who thought they were great because they had a chance in the last minute and the wetters who thought they were crap and Chelsea should have hammered them. Could be letterboxes at dawn.

Six goals at home so far this season may say otherwise

The Alan Pardew thread on here must be the most embarrassing thing on the Internet. It's probably on about its 4th incarnation now after constantly hitting 1,000 pages. Sad thing is it generates far more interest than the Rafa Benitez thread, our current manager, whereas Pardew has been gone for 2 years and is currently making a pigs ear out of it at another club, which certainly isn't our problem. I dont really give a s*** what Pardew does but I sure as hell understand why people have this so called "obsession" for him. He ruined the love of football for many people, he consistently chastised the fans, spouted s***, and made people want the club to lose, to want to see that t*** fail is normal. As for the "most embarrassing thing on the internet" tag, have you seen Reddit? At the end of the day talking about our local Rivals (Just not RTG links every other post) and an ex manager is completely fine. The only thing that annoys me personally is that people seem to like to use attendance figures as a justification for slating an entire fan base, and acting like Newcastle fans are superior, when most definitely are not. We should start up a Graeme Souness thread whilst we're at it then. He did far more damage than Pardew did, especially considering his starting position of having a Champions League quality squad to work with. Pardew has gone, he's been gone for 2 years. His name being constantly at the top of this messageboard is an embarrassment. Are you just being ignorant for s***s and giggles? So you seriously don't see why people would want to talk about a manager that almost destroyed there love for football? And actively made them want the club to lose? Get a grip man you big daft tart The majority of people on here don't even go to the matches anyway so the worst he did was make them turn their streams off in the huff. Destroyed their love for football ffs man You couldn't have been watching NUFC all that long if Alan Pardew did all that to you. I didn't like the bloke, I'll admit it, but he's been gone for 2 years now and we now have one of the worlds great mangers running our club which is why Pardew isn't even worthy of a mention anymore. That may upset some of our self indulgent luvvies who think the world wants to hear about their feelings and how they have been hurt by the club or whoever.

Having been totally obsessed with attendances for decades and came up with the most bizarre reasons why we always get better crowds (North Sea, mortality etc, etc) they've finally decided, with the way it's gone this season, that they're not really interested in attendances and it's not important anyway

Normally about 5K allocation iirc. Hopefully the increased demand means less tickets for drunken dickhead charvers.

Rationale says another routine win against an inferior team. Ghosts of Wigan past says we always perform terribly and never seem to get anything there.