Benwell Lad

See it's become another demographic study and "why do most people in Durham support the mags?" thread. They regurgitate the same old shit every couple of days.

Why not? They are bottom of the form table with an absolute stinker of a run-in. I see at least 39/40 points being needed this season to ensure 17th. However a lot of people seem to think 35/36 will do. I suppose the number of "dog eat dog" fixtures at the bottom will have a bearing ??

It's really quite sad that they so desperately want us to hate them but we just can't bring ourselves to take them that seriously.

Tell them that I said that they're idiots. Just reading Magpie's post again. It's so ludicrous it's untrue. So it's not even that they don't rate him. They actually hate the guy. There are people out there who can actually go to watch a Newcastle game, and see the performances Gouffran has had, and come away hating him as a player. What a world we live in. Fortunately it would appear that 99.99% of fans at SJP and beyond rate this guy very highly and apprecate the skill, work and team ethic he displays.

There seems to be a widespread assumption that the difference between the MON they have, and the one Villa had, is the absence of John Robertson, as if he is the missing piece of the jigsaw. He isn't. Robertson would do even less than Walford at Villa - it was described, by someone who knows, as "standing on the sidelines, smoking, and shouting at people occasionally". Down here the players nicknamed Walford and Robertson "Bibs and Cones", to reflect their input on the training ground. If the return of Robertson is what they're waiting for, they are barking up entirely the wrong tree. The one difference between what he is doing there, and what he did with us, is money. Here, he had shed loads of it, year after year, and just bought enough players until - by weight of numbers, and probability - he got enough of them to be able to do something. At Sunderland, he's got a much poorer choice of players. People forget, when he came to us, he had Sorensen, Mellberg, Barry, Cahill, Laursen, Agbonlahor and Angel. Not world beaters, but at the very least the spine of a reasonable side. All he had to do was throw millions and millions of pounds at it to make it start to work a bit better for him. With us, the endless giving it to the wingers and getting it into the box was helped by the fact that Ashley Young and (at the time) Stewart Downing were decent wingers who could deliver. At Sunderland he's pinning his hope on Adam Johnson, who really isn't very good, and, I suspect, Larsson, who is nothing like as good. That isn't working at Sunderland, so you'd expect him to move to Plan B. The problem is, the only Plan B Martin has any knowledge of is the one you see on MTV. On top of that, the football world has moved on even more. Setting his team up to play exactly how they did at Leicester in the 1990s was already showing its age in 2006 when he joined us. Nowadays, it is ancient history. Great post, the antithesis of the macum head in the sand attitude which still generally prevails. Robertson is just another excuse along with Bruce etc etc which keeps them in denial of how limited a manager O'Neill really is. Robbo is a top bloke, a "jack the lad" as a player and thereafter, a trusted mate and confidant, but he brings no more to the table than say Terry McDermott did (if that). If they wish to progress they need a complete overhaul and restructuring of the coaching and scouting part of their club.

Only three points seperate us and them at present, so on the surface it appears to be very little. However in the next season or two we could be in very different places.

Aye, the fact that it would take Carroll type money, we've already stung them once and his recent injury record make this very unlikely. In fact Dave's Simpson/Suarez theory is probably as likely.

I was kind of looking forward to seeing him operate as the central striker yeterday if Cisse hadn't made it.

In some ways relegation could be a blessing for them. Go down, take stock and regroup. Another year of Marty blowing Short's money and getting relegated anyway, which I think will happen next season, could be terminal.

Mental that like. Taylor's game has been much better since Pardew came to Newcastle and it's no coincidence.

Gonna miss his post match interviews, they tended to be intelligent and cliche free.

Aye, they've reached the post-derby depression point before the derby. It's all Brucey's fault though nowt to do with Marty

Aye and probably accentuated by yesterday's opposition.

Was definitely a moments pause. Never in the history of football can such a clearly onside goal have looked so offside

Really like the kid. Excellent handling under pressure yesterday and can't be paid a higher compliment than to say we've hardly missed Timmy.

You and 50,000 others It was a remarkable piece of skill.

Pulis is queuing out in a sleeping bag to be first in there tomorrow.

Great result. Rotten conditions for playing football which helped them and their horrible style. Quite reassuring that our predominantley foreign team can grind out a victory in the worst of English weather, against the team probably most suited to them.

mmmmm..... the mackems may have had reasonable numbers since the Stadium of Spam was built but they are notoriously fickle - even the late Tom Cowie, Sunderland born and club chairman, said that. They also top the table for most empty seats per game in the PL - above QPR, Wigan and everyone else. Granted they have had a lot of shit to endure and some of their fans are top class but they're nowhere near being the "best" fans in the country. From a broader national/European perspective Cascarino may have a point.

There's been a nuclear blast of reality in Sunderland today, as they finally realise what most people in football already suspected. Martin O'Neill is way past it and their players are shite.

So funny but so true

Never seen such levels of bile and vitriol over on RTG and that's really saying something. The knives are out for Marty big time. Personally I'm ower tha moon, had 50 on QPR at 11/8 - bit of a steal really. Couple of pints on Marty and the boys tonight

Arguably, in fact probably, the worst team in the league. Certainly the worst squad and manager.

Wouldn't disagree with that but its also worth remembering that we have given both Chelsea and Spurs a game fairly recently. If we were free of relegation fears (big IF granted) and able to turn out something close to our strongest eleven by then, I'd relish the prospect of Spurs or Chelsea over two legs. Just a little matter of beating a very good Anzhi side to consider too, of course.

We may have given him some stick over the years but what a fantastic footballer and striker Kevin Phillips is. I bet they wish some of the ridiculously overpriced, disinterested, long term contracted, shite they've had since would give them just a fraction of what he did. Even at the age of 39 he'd still be first choice striker down at the Stadium of Spam.