toontownman

Perfect result that. Don't want QPR climbing back.

Confidence and form coming back nicely. Shame its taken so bloody long! His all round play is great..bar his horrible striker tackles when he tracks back. A lot less fluffs and offsides recently and the majority of chances he is getting is testing the keeper or the post. Hope the improvement continues!

Surprised by the negativity Menace. Thought he played well today and shouldn't have been take off. Would like to actually see him through the centre where he rates himself the best. He is a decent option for the wing though, engages his brain when playing and has pace. Miles ahead of Shola/Campbell/Obertan. Think he is just wasted a little on the wing.

Anita played there quite often for Ajax. Perch and Haidara might also be back.

Two very good performances in a row. Glad for him and us. Not sure I want him there (LB) for the Benfica game but might be our best option. Especially as we have to go for the win anyway.

Think your right on that. The break will only do him good tbf. Leave us in the shit though, hopefully Haidara is back for Thursday.

Performances will only grow in confidence and get more fluid. IF we still to playing like football should be played. Hardly a surprise we looked rusty considering it has been so long playing negatively and hoofing. Still so much to work on though. Set pieces might be a start. Also hard to determine whether it was a very sub par Fulham performance or if we really did control the game through intent. We certainly wanted it more than normal today. We looked good against Benfica in the first half because they didnt close us down. The likes of Sissoko, Guti and Marv were actually creating and running through players today in spite of opposition closing down which was good to see.

Has he trademarked that move yet? Needs his own bloody video game character with signature moves. - Taunt Keep - Headed lateral Ground Pass - Heart Attack dive

Pardew forced into playing obvious talented player he doesnt trust to start--> player performs well--> Pardew = genius for easing him into side. Marv has rarely let us down (has done once or twice), always brings something different to what we have. Should be starting every game without a doubt. Very similar to Pardew with Ben Arfa.

His biggest downfall is his stubborn attitude. Yet again we have had to learn the hard way by waiting near a whole season to play proper football just because he was so damn sure his negative tripe would grind out results like last year when we got super lucky most games. No different starting Ben Arfa, Santon and Marveaux. Desperately needs to stop trying to save face when its blatant he is wrong. Can't fault his passion though.

Beautiful scenes after the goal. Deserves kudos for actually setting us up properly for the second game in a row. Maybe he might convince himself we can win playing proper football instead of negative grind. Wasn't convinced by the subs at all, if anything they nearly cost us the game. Nice to see Adam get a run out. More of the same please Alan. The way you're going on we played some scintillating stuff at times which we certainly didn't. We got the three points which at this stage of the season is very much needed but don't try and gloss over the fact it we weren't exactly brilliant today. Nobody has said anything approaching scintillating football. He just set us up to play football and we looked far better for it. We passed well, on the ground and looked more fluid than we have in months if not the majority of games this season. Lacking edge up front but everyone worked for each other got into space to receive passes and used their brains. Scandalous that should even be a surprise given that is a basic expectation of playing football.. but thats how bad this year has been.

Agree. Beautiful scenes after the goal. Deserves kudos for actually setting us up properly for the second game in a row. Maybe he might convince himself we can win playing proper football instead of negative grind. Wasn't convinced by the subs at all, if anything they nearly cost us the game. Fresh legs were probably helpful. Gouffran looked far from shot though. Nice to see Adam get a run out. More of the same please Alan.

:anguish: Was that the foul throw? I didnt even see it properly there wasn't a replay. I thought the ref gave it to them because Jonas took the throw 5 yards too far forward to where the throw in was given. Stealing yards if you like. Their player then took it, doing exactly the same and the ref let that go. I didnt even know that was allowed! Unbelievable if true. Ref normally just makes them retake it in the right spot. Had to have been a foul throw surely. I think he stepped over the line while taking it, if I was reading the referee's signals correctly. http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/1328/nhlrefsignals.jpg

:anguish: Was that the foul throw? I didnt even see it properly there wasn't a replay. I thought the ref gave it to them because Jonas took the throw 5 yards too far forward to where the throw in was given. Stealing yards if you like. Their player then took it, doing exactly the same and the ref let that go. I didnt even know that was allowed! Unbelievable if true. Ref normally just makes them retake it in the right spot. Had to have been a foul throw surely.

On a side note.. what is this revolutionary tactic of having more than one set piece routine? MIND BLOWING Like the fact Benfica play adventurously... there was a time we used to take the word creativity out of the vault and try defining it on the pitch.

:anguish: Was that the foul throw? I didnt even see it properly there wasn't a replay.

Eh? They can't beat Basel in the second leg? Spurs scoring 3 away goals in a second leg game...Unheard of.

Got back well today IMO. Cost us a corner un-necessarily but he was near the back of the making mistakes crew today. Would like to think he would start against Fulham with Sissoko and Gouffers around him. We shall see.

They looked like they were bricking themselves at home today. If we can come out all guns blazing and get an early goal they will definately be rattled.

Coming back from injury..and we need him for the Fulham game. Annoying but made sense to me. Looks magic when he gets the ball. Still a few silly mistakes like not threading Cisse through for our second which would have killed the game. Will look back at that among many other things if we go out next week. Certain goal if he had just passed but he took it on himself against all odds.

Nearly brought me to tears that! Shame the law of averages and statistics show that we crumble ten times more often.. but sod it, the game is still certainly ours for the taking.

Pluses: Cisse - on fire and close to MOTM, great touches and set up play, linked up well with Moussa. Should have had 4/5 today. Sissoko - Back to form great working from him, faded when Benfica realised they had to close us down. Looks great when given space. Guti - Much better game from him, fantastic defensive performance as well. Krul - MOTM a barnstorming return, will be pig sick with the defence in front of him. Pardew - Setting up a side properly without negative intent. Negatives: Santon - Another game cost because of his mistakes. Has to pull himself together on Sunday. Dropping him wont make things better he needs to sort himself out. Mbiwa - Looked dodgy at times, going to chalk that up to not being used to Krul. Ameobi - Still deemed an option to bring on. Thought he was at Wrestlemania and if anything made things worse for us. Stupid errors - its holding us back and could be responsible for our relegation if we don't stop them. The likes of Cabaye and Marveaux had their fair share in addition to the entire backline. Momentous effort needed - We will go all out next week, but at what cost with a possible relegation decider the Sunday after. Much hinges on the Fulham game this Sunday...its a must win game for us.

Some great performances undone by a couple of suicidal ones. Hope haidara is back soon. Santon hasnt been at the races in months. Yet another poor mistake that loses us a game and quote likely the tie. I feel for him but only he can sort himself out. Absolutely shocking at present.

Ameobi does know he is at the Uefa cup not wrestlemania this Sunday

They had us sussed by the end of the first half. Lets hope its not another Pardew one half wonder and the other entire collapse. They gave us way too much space in the beginning of the first half and looked scared stiff tbh. Back to confidence and closing us down. We need to fight back and attack them otherwise we will have the same treatment as the last 15 minutes of the first half.. accept with Benfica growing in confidence with each attack. Credit to Pardew and the coaching team so far.. but I am not expecting anything other than a sit back and get raped effort this half. Hope I am wrong. Our closing down is nigh on horrific today btw.