Benwell Lad

I'm glad you had a good time! I've never seen Hertha come back from behind, ever. Saw St Pauli come from behind and beat Hertha 4-3 in the DFB Pokal a few years ago. One of the best matches I've ever been at. Tend to find that the only people who don't like Germany are those who've never been there.

Did they really ditch Sessegnon and keep Cattermole, Vaughan and Gardner ? Long live Di Fanti !

W4 D1 L1 Liverpool Mackems Man City Chelsea Tottenham .. is a harsh run that could do for him. 5 points would be a good return. Given that we're not judging him on the Man City game surely it's not fair to judge against any other good sides either? Just the sh*t and average ones. Everyone pretty much accepted our season started after the Man City game. He wasn't going to be sacked off that result or anything. I said he has 8 games after it that will tell us if we're relegation bait or not. A decent haul against West Ham, Fulham, Villa, Hull, Everton & Cardiff would suggest we're not going to be struggling in relegation places all season. Which would be enough to keep Pardew in his job. For better or worse. However, with that draw in the league cup we now have 5 games following that are all REALLY difficult. Whatever has happened in the 8 preceding games, if he were to lose 5 on the bounce, there would be hell on, irrespective of the opponents, and the #Pardewout might get their wish. It turns out though that Man City weren't that hot at the start (lost to Cardiff and drew with Hull) it's just that we soooo bad that day. As the season's started now though and teams are finding their rhythm surely it's unfair to judge him against the other top sides? Like Liverpool, Man City (again), Spurs, Chelsea, etc. Because they'll be firing on all cylinders now. Great point for Hull that like. Brucie would have been delighted.

Yip, thought Ginola v man United as well. Shearer v Chelsea was way further out than that and he also backed Dessailly a good 10 yeards back as well. For a turn yer man and shoot, Shola Vs Chelsea was pretty damn lovely. Funnily enough both the Ginola ManU and Shola Chelsea goals came to mind for me. Was an absolutely beautiful strike whatever.

Baines. Lukaku. Can we just not shut the fuck up for now, have a nice weekend and save waking up in a cold sweat for Sunday night.

Some circles saying that PDC wasn't responsible for the mass recruitment over the summer and that their DOF/Agent was. Logical I suppose. If true, then considering that the new recruits look pretty awful and Catts/Larsson/Gardner etc seem to be back in the fold, while top target Huddlestone ended up preferring Hull, the mackems might be doing themselves a favour by running him out of town too.

Mick may come across that way but deep down he's a canny lad and his heart is in the right place. Thanks, I think. First part was merely an attempt at a joke mate, as his post (inadvertently) came directly after yours. Second part is the truth.

I wouldn't, the same was said about defenders last season and more often than not somebody would come in and people wanted them out next game. Dummett looks good but he's got a lot to learn before he should be willingly thrown in against Premiership teams. Spot on.

Mick may come across that way but deep down he's a canny lad and his heart is in the right place.

All the time mate. The home tie ended up looking OK for the closing stages of the game after we scored but we were lucky not to have conceded before then, we let them have the ball to attack us at will for nearly 3/4 of the match. I never meantioned anything about the first game, I thought we looked great especially in the first half and were obviously unlucky not to have taken the lead a couple of times. I preferred that mentality much more than I did the one at home. An all out attacking mentality at home when you are two goals down, but have the advantage of an away goal doesn't make much sense though. Especially if the team opposing has the quality of Benfica. I agree with Pardew's approach, but due to our personnel and his failings elsewhere, we didn't have ability or intelligence to play well enough on the counter while completely shutting them out. Still, it did work for all intents, and the introduction of a half-fit, slightly fat Hatem did change things. I never said that we should have went all out attack? We're definitely the only side I've ever seen go into the 2nd leg of a cup tie with the intention of sitting on a 2 goal deficit for 70 minutes, though. Irrespective of it's contextual accuracy that really is a cracking line.

He looks like a left back and does the things a left back should do quite well. Good positional sense. Really seems to have stolen a march on Shane. Is it Santon - Haidara - Dummet - Ferguson, in the pecking order now ?

Are they a decent Championship side? Their results have been fairly mediocre as far as I know. They were quite tidy on the ball and organised at the back. A couple of decent efforts but there was a visible gap in class to ourselves, as you'd expect. Difficult to gauge the Championship but I don't think they look top 3 material yet but could have a chance of the play-offs if they can add goals to their organisation. It was a decent game and great atmosphere. Really pleasing to see such a top quality goal which was "made in Newcastle" with two of our academy products looking like they have the potential to be very good players.

Dead right. You put it a lot better than they did. Guess that's what happens when you let bean counters out. They should be kept in small offices at the end of the corridor and not let out in public.

What? You mean exactly the same as we have always done under previous regimes and managers and every club has done since the start of the Premier League ? Surely not ? I think it's only NUFC and the present regime who would admit that the league is priority.

It depends what you mean by highly rated. Is he considered as highly as Rafa benitez or Gus Hiddink? No. Of the cheaper options for clubs that don't want to invest in an expensive manager, I would say yes. One Brighton fan's opinion doesn't really tell us much in isolation. I wasn't suggesting it told us much, I was just intrigued to see if he was talking shit Tbf, the only reason I thought he'd be a good appointment was on the basis of a couple of games against us. They looked far better organised defensively, they had a good work ethic and they showed good movement and passing when they had possession. Hopefully it was just a one off and he will prove to be shite after all. Well let's face it if he's not as good as Benitez or Hiddink and that tosser Pardew has beaten both of those recently, Poyet must be really fucking shite.

Tron rates him. Have to say, my experience talking to Brighton fans has been along the same lines as yours. But as said, worth a gamble considering the position the mackems find themselves in. A few on here rated the di Canio appointment too, reckoned it showed ambition and we should be doing the same. Quite funny looking back like.

Aye. "Sadly because of the way that Sky money controls football, cup competitions are not the priority of Premier League clubs" would be a lot more accurate. "Newcastle director gives honest answer to question" could be another. 'Premier League is priority' FFS man, any PL club would say the same. A constant whinge on here is about lack of honesty from the club. They get an honest answer - and a pretty obvious one - cue more whingeing.

Aye. "Sadly because of the way that Sky money controls football, cup competitions are not the priority of Premier League clubs" would be a lot more accurate. "Newcastle director gives honest answer to question" could be another.

I assume all those who see winning tonight as "essential" will be making the effort to be in the ground doing their part for the cause. Whingeing on an internet forum is no place to be when there's essential work to be done.

Lee Clark 66/1 on Bet Fred, same odds as Sir Alex Ferguson. Way ahead of Shearer at 150 and Keegan at 200/1. They aren't the daftest names on the list either. The bookies must have a great laugh when they're doing next manager stuff.

The way this sacking came about, which is extraordinary even in the volatile world of football has put them in a very difficult position. They are not an attractive proposition and choices will be very limited. No one mentioned so far stands out from the mistakes they've appointed previously and with a very poor looking squad it will be hard to save them.

Equally it could be said that Pardew has done both Hiddink and Ferguson in recent times. Impressive but hardly indicative. A popular call but ultimately a bullshit one.

Well said Bimpy ! Now we should just conclude the most boring, going round in circles thread ever, and all agree that a lot of people think Pardew is a cunt but some think he's ok. However, I've got a feeling that 100 pages from now it will be the same old drivel day after day and that no one will think differently.

Sure, but I think it was a very significant result and one which will have done Pardew no favours whatsoever with his boss. Ashley would have been seething, as if expected we'd beaten Hull and gone second it would not only have bought good will from the fans, but with what's going on down the road it would have stopped the north east press criticising anything going on at SJP for a while. It was a big loss.

It's a decent point, like. I genuinely can't remember Wullie ever being happy. Crazy eh, what with all the ambition we've shown and success we've had in recent times. Seemed to be happy enough to me when Chris Hughton was being left alone to run things. If so then good. He would have been in a small minority, along with myself, who rated Hughton both as a person and a football man when he was given the job. If my memory serves me most on here absolutely slated the guy, dished out the usual gratuitous and vitriolic insults and generally considered him to be Ashley's poodle and a non entity.