PM

BBC Newcastle claiming it too.

He's freelance now so does some work for IMG (who produce the BBC's Football League stuff)

Dirty Dirk will undoubtedly bury a 2-yard tap-in tonight

Meh

Yakubu subbed Unbelievable. Why are they still playing for nils?

Bad weekend.

Trying to be positive!

Ryan Taylor out injured according to his Twitter.....surely HBA's time to shine.

The Caldwell OG was later given to Shola by the Dubious Goals Committee.

Krul and Colo!

Pens live on the radio, BBC Newcastle.

What an awful game. We spent all day at work building it up and then that

Bale having an absolute mare prior to his hat-trick on Saturday

Horrible tackle

They are indeed. The problem is that it has been so long since any of them were applied properly, that any referee who did his job would be crucified. It's like when a penalty is given for holding or a push - you hear "if he's given that you'd get 10 penalties a game" - well, if they started being given then you wouldn't, because people would sharp realise that it's not acceptable and stop doing it. Krul (and he's by no means the only one) was taking 11-12 seconds to release the ball on Wednesday, which is great when you get away with it, but it is getting a bit out of hand at times. A mate of mine actually gave a free kick for it twice in a game earlier this season, and predictably there was uproar (he was being assessed like). There are many frustrating aspects of top level refereeing at the moment but until we get hi-tech robots doing the job, it will always be the case. Plus there aren't enough of them in the PL.

Agree with this. It's so rare that a tackle in the box is reckless or cynical and worthy of a yellow card (although there was one at Norwich the other week that could've been red IIRC)

On 3rd March the International FA Board holds their AGM, and will discuss proposed changes to the Laws of the Game. As ever, some of these are dull, and centre around changing words here and there to clarify a pointless rule. But there are a couple of more interesting ones this time. The biggie proposed by FIFA is to make a change to the Denying an Obvious Goalscoring Opportunity rule: If a player denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity outside the box, he will be sent off If a player denies a goal or goalscoring opportunity by handling the ball inside the box, he will be sent off If a player denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity by holding or a tackle from behind inside the box, he will only be sent off if he is deemed to have no opportunity of playing the ball This would remove the triple jeopardy scenario whereby red card + penalty (and therefore a likely goal) and latterly a suspension result from what may be a legitimate attempt to win the ball which is just slightly mistimed (or even where the referee makes a mistake - see Beye v Man City the other year). Was just wondering if anyone cares/has any thoughts on it? There's been great clamour for it for quite a while now. (Full agenda is here. Another one proposed by FIFA is to allow the use of a 4th substitute if a match goes to Extra Time.) Arguably NWOAT like but whatever...

The African Cup of Nations Better than the last World Cup

Never thought I would ever shout in joy at an Equatorial Guinea goal Mental

YAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO!

Dzeko is horrendous

The keeper Jesus wept