Stu

agree with all, although I thought Cabaye had a brilliant first half dictating the play.

Bit of glossing over IMO; it's not all down to Pards and he has had some more challenging off-field issues to contend with. Anyways, a great game today, lets hope it sets up nicely for QBG to have his best.weekend.ever

You can have concerns about him and give credit where credit is due. The whole Pardew get's a win so everyone who ever had any concerns is a cunt craic is incredibly tiresome. He did his job today and got us a home victory, he hasn't made up for the preposterous position he's gotten us in yet. Bit strong, non? Non. The fact that we've even been concerned about relegation is a joke. In what way? We've had a woeful combination of poor management decisions, lack of squad investment during the summer and a squad incapable/unable to perform at the required level across three competitions for 4mths. All of these have been woefully underestimated by the club and some of us on here over the summer - thankfully, the situation seems to have been addressed for two of the factors and that should be more than enough to turn things around. It's happened to other teams on numerous occasions, some have gone down, some have stayed up, some have improved immeasurably for the experience.

There's only room for one of us under this bridge.

You can have concerns about him and give credit where credit is due. The whole Pardew get's a win so everyone who ever had any concerns is a cunt craic is incredibly tiresome. He did his job today and got us a home victory, he hasn't made up for the preposterous position he's gotten us in yet. Bit strong, non?

No, you won't. You'll look like an utter bellend.

Almost set up Cisse for the winner with his first contribution excellently played. Only question that came up for me: how does he ease MVM into the team?

At least we can put to bed two of the stats that keep getting wheeled out: - not come back to win for 834703402 days (Hughton) - not scored on the counter for 294304days He's not perfect but things look a lot better with 6pts added to our total

PS: Nice work Minhosa, saw that bet earlier but had forgotten about it in the delirium of goal number 5

Today's selections: Blackburn Blackpool Newcastle (and Newcastle -1) Reading (and Reading DNB) Arsenal Melbourne Hearts Blackpool, Newcastle-1 and Hearts didn't come in. Bet365 seems to have imploded.

The BBC have been littered with comments that I do not believe Garth Crooks got right. worra cunt.

Makes early subs = disjointed performances Leaves team to get on with it = spirited comeback Not as simple as that, but.

Top bombing!

Very good first half, think Gouffran has shown some intelligent movement. Jonas has worked his socks off (literally). Cabaye is oozing class though.

Is he feeling good enough to start today? Would only want him at his best

How old is this Warnock picture?

No Williamson?

would have been amazed if they had suddenly backtracked on the self-sufficiency message they've been preaching for the past 4/5 years for the sake of 6mths. If that was the case, they could have matched QPR for Remy.

I do try As long as they're not sent to the fuckin' granite city, eh.

Hear that Tiote has had his head turned by Chelsea - good riddance, I'd true

Aye your right sorry, because being positive towards your team who have just won and who are fighting like fuck is shit support. And because Villa have been beaten by lower league teams, they were going to show absolutely nothing here and roll over despite getting a foothold with 40 minutes still to play. Aye shit, forgot football was that simple. it's like I have a second account

some salient points there; are you being contrary for the sake of it though?

All players being fit and in a reasonable shape to play - would opt for this too. Maybe swap Cabaye and Sissoko during the half (to give one of them a breather/change things up). Similarly, Gouffran and Marveaux to roam in behind Cisse and feed on the through balls from Caboko. Optimistic we can get all three points from this; crowd should be in fine voice and the home debuts for 3 (if not 4) players; Chelsea being without the likes of Cech, Hazard, Obi Mikel, Moses, Luiz and Romeu and their hectic fixture list (they're already whingeing about playing every 3 days). HTL.

While I understand where you're coming from I can't give him and credit for the way he's been using excuses as if they were being plucked from "Excuses for Dummies." You've mentioned injuries and we have had some, we've still had enough to get something out of West Ham, Swansea or Southampton instead of 3 league defeats off the bounce. Tonight he's used Ba leaving as an excuse for heads dropping, Ba was here for those games and he just used a different excuse. Towards the end of last season i thought I might have been wrong about him, even though large parts of last season wasn't as good as the results might suggest. This season though, he's dropped more bollocks than a doctor in a vasectomy clinic. He doesn't only drop bollocks which most people recognise, he repeats them and that to me is beyond being accidental, it's a major flaw and one that he's unlikely to put right at his age and after managing for so long. Last season was as well as we'll ever do with him, I don't think we'll qualify for Europe again if we keep him and if we accept that then we probably are accepting mid-table. On the other hand, last season's success was attributed (in part) to how well organised the team was with the team spending 4 days defending and 1 day practicing worldies* - a coaching strategy that apparently got waylaid with the Euro adventures. So a season without Europe in 13/14 should see a substantial improvement over the points picked up over this season - as I said to Disco in an earlier post, it's up to the evolution of Pards and the club to ensure we can cope with the workload in future seasons (should we make it back to Europe). I can see why the 'post-match excuses' would irk people - they are horrendously clichéd - but at the same point, I know there's still a lot of people who just don't like HIM (regardless of the results) and another set who flip and flop depending on the result. In a disappointing season, his quotes have been scrutinised and dismissed a little more than last season - a symptom of the poor performance/results IMO. My concern isn't with the shit excuses but the shit results when teams were there for the taking - Swansea, Reading, West Ham. If he's propagating the same shit to the dressing room, then we have a serious problem but I suspect this is something he's trying to emulate his idol with.

Do you think Pardew is doing a good job? In the short term (I.e. last match) - he sent out a starting XI and tactics that did enough to win the game in the first half, unsure about his second half adjustments but got the 3points. Good enough for a win. In the medium term (I.e. last 3/4mths) - has had a difficult season in terms of performances AND results; some of it self-inflicted (like trying to shoe-horn Cisse out wide to accommodate Ba's goals, always trying to defend a lead rather than push on) but he's also had other factors to deal with which perhaps aren't directly his fault (lack of suitable playing squad for 3 competitions leading to overplayed players and out of form players, directly resulting in a bigger injury list particularly key players). Don't think he's done a great job of grinding out results, but has previous of this last season so not going to write him off just yet. In the long term (I.e. last 18mths) - the awful Autumn run has taken some of the shine off what was a swift progression for the club on and off the field. Think he overachieved last season and will probably admit at the end of this season that he got caught up in all of the hype and excitement at finishing 5th (talk of top 4, etc). A mid-table finish and some signs of progress on the pitch would restore my belief that last season wasn't a one-off. Nevertheless, he's also shown that he understands his role at the club and how the owner wants things to work, so that's another tick in the box as far as I'm concerned as I'm sick of changing the manager every other season. That's not to say I'm happy with a manager for the sake of continuity, but he's still in credit after his first 18mths for me.