Rich

Whereas Big Sam has just said on NUFC World that both are fit to play. Interesting. Unless he just meant they'd be fit for Arsenal (a), as he went straight into talking about the upcoming week. Glad that they'll be involved from Wednesday at least, personally.

I certainly think he should have played more than he has so far. Always likely to make something happen. Hopefully after Monday we won't see Shola being picked ahead of him again.

Enrique damaged his hamstring, it's not simply about match fitness. He's been properly injured.

Enrique has a hamstring injury and Emre got injured while playing for Turkey. They certainly haven't been involved in much training recently.

Forster is massive and he has the face of a caveman.

Seems the squad of 16 will be what I expected it to be, so I'm sticking with the 4-3-3 with Owen, Viduka and Martins up front. Geremi, Faye and Milner in the midfield. Will be very surprised to see it happen, mind.

Fair play to him. Refreshing to hear a footballer speaking openly. More evidence against the way this club was run under the previous regime mind, if it was ever needed. At least now we know it's definitely not a mistake to have sold him, he was simply fed up and wanted to go despite the offer of a chance from Allardyce.

NUFC.com's Derby match report.

4-3-3 Given Beye Rozehnal Caçapa N'Zogbia Geremi Faye Milner Owen Viduka Martins Bench: Harper, Taylor, Butt, Smith, Ameobi. Things obviously change if Emre is fit for selection or if The Duke doesn't make it, but I can't see Enrique being chucked in after an injury and there's nobody else to return. If Viduka doesn't make it, replace him with Smith and bring Pattison onto the bench.

Another good one today! I'm not happy with myself, though, got them all within a minute and then got stuck on one for another 3! 4:11:83

Agathe played there often under O'Neill, as far as I can remember. More usually in the 5-3-2/3-5-2 they'd play, but it was usually him at RB, or McNamara. I don't think they had an out-and-out LB that season until they signed Michael Gray from Sunderland for 4 months on loan, hence the reason the latter was playing there. Gray was only there from September-January and didn't play much according to the 'net. The midfield is obviously a bit odd as well because of the 4-4-2 instead of the usual 3-5-2, but Thompson did play centre-mid a bit as well, usually with the Lennon and Petrov with Agathe/Gray/McNamara as the full-backs. I think the main team Celtic used in that season was something like: Douglas Valgaeren Balde Varga/Laursen Agathe Thompson Petrov Lennon Sutton Hartson Larsson

I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised to see us get some more if there is scope for it.

Hamstring trouble, forced him off at half-time in the last home game against Wigan.

No need man. Respect it for what ut is. He wasn't on about that. The winner of that tie (Leicester) play Villa in the 3rd round.

Steven Taylor is not a left-back. No shit, Sherlock. If Enrique isn't fit to play, though, who is a better alternative? Taylor has played there before for us and done alright, nobody else in the squad has bar N'Zogbia. We surely cannot play another game with Smith - Butt - Geremi - Milner as our midfield, the best solution to that in my eyes is to move someone else to LB and push Charles to LW, while bringing in a more attacking RB (Beye) to balance it out a bit.

Rozehnal and Caçapa again, with Beye in at RB and Taylor switched to LB in order to allow N'Zogbia to play LW.

i'm currently on 10+ minutes and have only two players filled Boo, spoilers, edited them out of your post! I did follow Celtic a bit back in '03, though, so I had a bit of a head-start.

Good one today as well, managed it in 3:40:08, not great. http://www.skysports.com/fun_games/missingmen/0,20922,,00.html

Didn't have much choice last night, in fairness. But that's as far as I'll defend that team selection. 8 players out injured by my count, half of them probable automatic choices. Doesn't help. It's accommodating Owen in there that caused the problem, if you ask me, as we simply don't have the players for 4-4-2 at this moment.

2:15 without cheating - not happy. The last one I got was Solano - disgusting! "Silvio Maric" was obvious, but very fucking stupid.

The Cottage is just simply too small for a Premiership team IMO, and they don't even sell it out most of the time. Vagabonds.

I love that, personally, gives it a lot more edge.

Newcastle - Obviously, we'd win all the cups as well. Sunderland - My second team, bizarrely enough (family loyalty). Aston Villa - Quite possibly the only team in the league I can't think of a reason to dislike off the top of my head. Man City - Their fans deserve some success again, much like the three teams above them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Liverpool - Always admired Anfield's atmosphere, but if they're not in the Champions' League then it'd be good news for us. Arsenal - Wouldn't want a team of Arsenal's history/current quality to fall too far away. Chelsea - Would be nice to see how they'd cope with coming seventh. Man Utd - The UEFA Cup would be interesting, to say the least. Don't have too much against this lot bar 95/96. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everton - Never liked them, but my feelings are waning with the quality of the squad that they're building. Good fans/ground. West Ham - A proper club, but a bit of a bunch of arses. Blackburn - Good manager, good strikers, good wingers. Savage is a negative. Shit fans, as well, pushing their luck. Reading - Don't really mind them too much, my only complaints would be Andy Hunt's hair and Coppell being the most boring sod alive. Portsmouth - Not a big fan of 'Appy Arry', but I like quite a few of Portsmouth's squad, bell ringer sees them lower down. Derby - Nothing against them, yet. Bit of a rubbish club at the minute. Fulham - Rubbish ground. Bit of a non-entity. Birmingham - Steve Bruce and Steve Bruce alone sees this lot down here. Tottenham - Most loathsome team in the world. Arrogant fans, desperate accents, they do play nice stuff - their only saving grace. Wouldn't want them to go down, though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wigan - Feel guilty doing this to Le Sib, but they're not a proper club. Can I have Sheff Wed, Leeds and Forest back, please? Bolton - Tin pot club that I wouldn't miss at all. I'd feel good if they fucked right off. Middlesbrough - Plastic team, rubbish fans, rubbish kits, rubbish accents. Get out of the big league you runts. Barring Newcastle, Sunderland and Tottenham there aren't many clubs I really care about, though I would like to see the Premiership be contested by the 20 most "historical" teams in the country if possible (longest/best history, most fans, etc.). Hence getting shot of the three that I have done.

Celtic. One of my mates supports them and I got well into their UEFA Cup run under O'Neill when they were cheated out of the final by Mourinho's Porto. Couldn't give a toss about Rangers either way, but was impressed with their fans when they came up here for a pre-season friendly a few years ago.

Goal at Sunderland! 2-0! Fair play.