Rich

Being right down the front of the Gallowgate, I can barely see what the other teams are up to at the Leazes so it's difficult to compare, but it does strike me as being utter shite when your assistant manager (former player, no less) cannot kick a ball 45 yards (out of his hands) into a position for one of two players to head it - even if it is windy.

You could spot Bobby a mile off yesterday, from the front of "The Corner" the mop of white hair and the stone-grey suit were a dead giveaway... not to mention the fairly plump fellow with the receeding hairline he was sat next to being fairly hard to miss as well. I haven't really noticed him up there before, although I've later seen him on MOTD and the like. Was it not Douglas Hall who Bobby had his real bugbear with? Moreso than Fat Fred? Been a while since I read his book, so I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. At the end of the day it's just business isn't it? It's good to see that despite what happened, they can both be fairly decent about it, especially Sir Bob. Although he might have forgotten that Shepherd ever wronged him by now... too far?

Like it. On that topic: watching Lee Clark and Nigel Pearson standing round doing nowt before the game was supreme entertainment, surely they could be doing something useful while the fitness coach is working with the starting eleven? Then, when Pearson is called into action to "coach" Onyewu and Taylor with long-balls from the halfway line for them to deal with (replicating goal-kicks), his first one ends up in the East Stand, the next four towards Onyewu when the bloke was blatantly looking at Taylor after the first (one for him, one for you, etc.), then the rest of them drop about 10 yards ahead of the centre-halves, rendering the entire thing utterly useless, because the balls end-up with Onyewu after a few bounces. Then they stroll up to the halfway line and start passing it around, the whole thing seemingly nothing more than an utter waste of time, considering out of about 10/12 kicks, Onyewu got about 3 headers and Taylor got 1. The rest were off-target. Summed things up for me. The Bulut thing was also a complete waste of time, judging by reports.

1) To be fair to the lad today, when he did that bit of mindless barging he actually woke the stadium up, which could have led to us making a late charge for the win. It was fairly nice to see someone trying to take that game by the scruff of the neck, although I appreciate the method was a little bit crude. 2) Howay Vic, he's got away with one ridiculous one already this season, hasn't he?

He's too busy leading his one man crusade to save Scott Parker from the boo-boys, surely?

LMAO @ this whole thread. What a bullshit comment to make. It's debatable if he's even a consistant Premiership performer let alone making the lad club captain. He could go on to be the white Titus Bramble minus the fresh air kicks add red cards. Here man, the lad was being sarcastic you know? It's worrying when it gets to such a stage where people are taking comments of that nature seriously on here! Taylor was excellent again today and has really started to pull his act together after an under-par season so far, although it's impossible to predict how he'll turn out he does seem to have all the required physical attributes to be a good quality defender at this level, he just needs to continually strive for improvement within himself and mature on the pitch if he's ever to be as good as previously billed. No defenders in footballing history haven't made mistakes, I think we can allow someone Taylor's age the occasional let-off when he does make one... same goes for Ramage, I suppose. Are there actually centre-halves who are fantastic and practically faultless in every single game that they play? Even at the best clubs with the best team-mates? I certainly haven't seen them/heard about them, if so.

Don't hold back, Rabbi Paul, tell us what you really think. Howard Webb was utterly shocking, by the way, as per usual. .. i've seen several of Webb's games and i've always been impressed with his decisions and his behavior. i think he's one of the better english refs.. but yeah, today he made some really stupid decisions.. Agreed. There have been too many incidents over the years with Webb and Newcastle that have turned me off to the bloke, although I do appreciate that he seems to have a better reputation than most these days. Speaking as a Toon fan, though, he's not in my good books at all. EDIT: I should really note that the "as per usual" referred to him in Newcastle games, as this seems to be where the confusion is stemming from.

Don't hold back, Rabbi Paul, tell us what you really think. Howard Webb was utterly shocking, by the way, as per usual.

Have to say, reverting to the initial subject, that Oliver should praise Martins when he has a good game, just like he slates him when he doesn't. Nice to see his apparent vendetta against him isn't past the point of no return yet. Thing is, he was probably trying to subtley take credit for it after his recent criticisms of him. "Thanks to MY articles, Obafemi Martins played far, far better today than he has done for a long time."

Darn it. No more exclusives.

He's not wrong though. That's got more mince than a butcher's.

Don't think we have a say either way, they are coming up and I, for one, am fairly worried about it.

If I could be arsed to write much about that game today, it would sound extremely similar to that post right there. Maybe I'd say Duff was infuriating in the second-half and probably should have notched one of his "chances", that Emre offered us a good deal more from midfield than Parker has done for a while and that Nicky Butt was immense, apart from his fucking passing, as usual - never seen him win so many 50/50's and important challenges, though. Correct decision for MOTM in my book, but those stray, simple passes really wind me up - especially when it kills breaks. I should also point out that he's probably a worse passer of the ball than Parker (over short distances), amazingly - but that would surely open up a can of worms. Shame we couldn't nick it, because Arsenal were very, very poor and completely toothless. Dyer was fairly awful, but we didn't half go dead when he had to come off and Steven Taylor was fairly excellent, again. He (Dyer) is undoubtedly better on the right, which he's proven numerous times with numerous performances in that position over the years - but how can you drop Milner on his form? Thing is, we absolutely could murder teams if we had a striker who thrived on crosses/dangerous balls into the box, because Duff and Milner can provide them - but then we'd apparently only play "long ball football". Martins would be a lot better because of it, as well, at times today he had no choice BUT to be the one man band he gets slated for being. Ah well, that was more than I was expecting to write for such a "nothing" match - at least we didn't lose. Also, Jens Lehmann cursing at a ballboy in German... classy!

8th at best this season, I'd say. Still sticking with a prediction of 9th at the minute. Portsmouth's goal difference is 11 better than ours, I think, and they're 6 points ahead. Quite a tall order to topple with only 6 games to play. There is the danger that our lads will see the season as being done now we've staved-off any relegation talk, today will be a good measuring stick as to how the other 5 games will go. If we win today, we could definitely scrape 8th (Reading do have an "easier" run-in than we do and we have to go to their place, mind) - although there are still some testing games to come - and I have to say it would be a fairly decent achievement in the end after enduring a mammoth European campaign and an appalling injury crisis. I could be wrong, but if Man Utd/Chelsea contest the FA Cup final, then 8th equates to qualification for the Intertoto Cup, does it not? ...And, God forbid, would Tottenham winning the UEFA bump that down to 9th?

It will certainly be interesting to see if he's on the bench today, with Parker and Sibierski likely to miss out.

Physio 2008 is where it's at, man. As Derek Wright you must beat the opposition physio to the scene of the double-injury, in order to unlock a very special prize. Aside from that - couldn't you say this about quite a few injuries these days?

was nowhere for either of the goals He should have perhaps blocked Benjani from getting the initial strike, but howay man, the Big Rat deals with 99% of shots like that from outside of the area, Brown was probably happy to see him literally having a "punt" from there. As for the Ferdinand goal... crikey, if you're howking him in for blame with that then it's extremely harsh. Les had that situation under control, until the 'keeper made another rick and was caught in no man's land. Brown was outstanding in most areas of his game, unlike the apparently "world class" Heinze who was, yet again, extremely poor at left-back. He's probably a better centre-half and would thrive in a more cultured league, but he was off-form today and hasn't been much better on many other occasions where I've seen him this season. A desperate man trying too hard to make a player look bad after such a stupid claim! As you said the first goal should have been dealt with by the keeper and Brown thought what everyone else probably did "Will have that all day" and to blame him for the second is as desperate as you will get I suppose Brown could have anticipated VDS moving out of the way and run behind him I hadn't seen the posts where Nobby had been calling him as bad as Bramble until now... otherwise I wouldn't have even bothered commenting back to him.

Sparks take it from me it's true, whether that's good enough for you I don't know, but it is a fact. I tell you something else as well, Gary Pallister once held the title of the world's costliest defender as well. Barton was the most expensive defender on the planet when we signed him, wasn't he? I was 10 when it happened, like, so I could be wrong - but I'm fairly sure it was the case.

I'm not jumping on the bandwagon here because Manchester United have lost today, but last Saturday at 7:04pm, something happened which told me Chelsea were going to win the league. The played s*** against the worst side in the league but scored in the dying seconds. Yes, Man Utd done it at Liverpool, but since Terry came back they look much more solid, even Sheva is playing reasonably well. You hear the phrase mental toughness often in football, Man Utd have it, but Chelsea have it in abundance, I think they'll win the league again, in fact I think they'll do the quadruple. The key game for Chelsea to win the league in my opinion, isn't at SB against Man Utd, I think they'll win that, I think it's at St James', it's the sort of game which we usually get points, if they win that they're champions in my view, especially given the fact Man Utd have to go to City, and they play like they're on wizz whenever they meet at COMS. ps I implore everyone to read Invicta Toon's assessment of Jose Mourinho. Whenever you're feeling down just remember things might be bad, but at the end of the day you're not "Vic". I stuck a bit on at Betfair at 26/5, and it's down to 11/4 now. Not usual one for betting, but I couldn't resist this one.

Both are a fair whack better than what we currently have, I should add.

was nowhere for either of the goals He should have perhaps blocked Benjani from getting the initial strike, but howay man, the Big Rat deals with 99% of shots like that from outside of the area, Brown was probably happy to see him literally having a "punt" from there. As for the Ferdinand goal... crikey, if you're howking him in for blame with that then it's extremely harsh. Les had that situation under control, until the 'keeper made another rick and was caught in no man's land. Brown was outstanding in most areas of his game, unlike the apparently "world class" Heinze who was, yet again, extremely poor at left-back. He's probably a better centre-half and would thrive in a more cultured league, but he was off-form today and hasn't been much better on many other occasions where I've seen him this season.

The own goal was magic, but more the fault of vdS than Les. LuaLua looked triffic when he came on, as well, ran the show for them.

How the feck are we 4 points off 8th place!? I'm bamboozled.

Wayhey, I knew that dosh I stuck on Chelsea earlier in the week was a good investment - no doubt the odds on them doing it have been slashed now.

Fantastic today against Pompey, despite the result. Looked a lot more composed than Big Les alongside him.