Cronky

Always wondered how they'd do if Terry got injured for anything but a short spell, The test has now come. Silly comments by Mourinho. The only message that gives to Man U is that he's rattled.

Both were at fault for the goal. Pav should have given a call. In the absence of a call, Ramage should have taken charge of the situation. He was the man in possession.

Going by the Sky-lights - The last thing you need behind an inexperienced back four is a nervous keeper. Pav, lovely guy, but you were shocking today. Diouf is a shit. Trying to get Huntington sent off like that, rolling around in agony. I like the look of Huntington more in more, the way he looked those bully-boys in the eye afterwards. We were beaten (as usual) by the most street-wise team in the league, no surprise. Just dust ourselves off and get stuck in again.

He looks like a good all-round striker, but I haven't spotted anything exceptional about him. At the end of the season, we'll (hopefully) have Martins, Owen, Shola and Dyer to choose from, so in order to improve that range of options we need to look elsewhere.

I don't fancy this one. Bolton are strong in the air from crosses and set pieces and we're not. Defensively, they're very streetwise. What we have going for us is that, for once in this fixture, we'll be going in an underdogs. Still think we'll lose though.

The back four is playing so much better as a unit since Pearson arrived. The line that they've kept when playing for offside has been impeccable. Taylor has grown up and lost that hesitation. He's making his own decisions, including ones where he charges forward very effectively. His decision-making still needs to improve, but he's now imposing himself on the game, rather being dictated to. Ramage reads the game brilliantly, but I'm still not convinced that he's strong enough in the air. We still look weak defending crosses and set pieces, and that may get found out against Bolton. Huntington I'd agree looks to have the potential to be the best of the three. He's got a good professional mentality already - either the ball or the man gets past me, but not both.

Going by the Sky-lights programme, I thought Jol got it right. The difference between the sides was spirit and determination. We looked like we wanted it that bit more. The players are trusting each other a lot more, running into positions to receive the ball rather than holding back. They're also showing the nerve to work short passes to keep possession rather than hoofing it.

Linesman didn't raise his flag niether It was that T*** Foy again wasn`t it. What a pathetic excuse for a Ref. I'm not too sure. If you look, after the striker goes past him, Konchesky's left leg flicks up a little to take the striker's back leg. Can't be 100% sure, but it doesn't look like a natural follow-through. Afterwards, Konchesky looks more intent on saying that it wasn't a goal-scoring position rather than saying it wasn't a foul. His team-mates were a lot more angry than him. Barton's was a crazy challenge. You can't jump at an opponent like that and hope to get away with it. It's the sort of incident that's holding his career back. As for the Heskey goal, on a moral level it should stand because he wasn't ahead of the defender. But I don't know whether the rule book covers situations where a player leaves the pitch like that. Any refs out there?

Letting Bramble go for 500T would be a stupid decision that is well down to Freddie's usual standard. He's a far more useful player than most fans give him credit for. I do get the feeling that if it was left to Roeder, he'd get a new contract and rightly too.

A free role just behind the striker. His stamina is phenomenal and he's best in a position where he can do as much work as possible.

Only seen Sunderland once this season, but I was impressed. Keane has got a group of very ordinary players playing decent football. He's one to watch, I reckon.

I thought that, but then, would SBR be taken in by it? Would he want Shep to get the cache? It puzzled me a bit as well, but Sir Bob isn't one to bear a grudge. I think Freddie's quite clever at pinning the blame on others, and I'd defy anyone to read the events in Sir Bob's biog, and not conclude that Freddie was keen to get rid of him.

I may be a miserable old cynic, but that looked like a PR gesture on Freddie's part. He's under fire and he probably thought it wouldn't do any harm to be seen to be chummy with Sir Bob. It follows on from that Daily Mail article from Sir Bob, which hints that the Halls are the problem, not Freddie. I'm not buying it. Shepherd out!

...........James Neville....Terry....Vidic.....Evra Essien...Scholes...Gilberto...Giggs .........Drogba...Rooney Would have liked to have found room for Adebayor, who looks like another real find by Wenger.

I think some of the expectations of Sibierski are now way too high. He's done a decent job for us, but there's nothing in his game that's going to worry the really top sides like Chelsea.

I agree with the gist of this. Butt on form does get the ball moving forward more quickly than Parker and is more decisive. He's playing like he did for England in 2002 - very tidy and playing the simple balls well. Parker has the talent but he seems to lack confidence at the moment. He doesn't seem to want to play a pass unless he's 100% sure that it will reach it's target, and when he gets the ball he runs round in a few circles to make sure that he's not going to be tackled. The result is a lot of negative play. As I've said before, he reminds me a bit of Batty, who started his career as an attacking midfield player and ended up in a purely defensive role, as a result of an over-cautious attitude. Last night, I thought Roeder got the shape of the midfield right, but didn't give the players the right roles. Emre was given a free role around Martins, but tended to drift backwards to receive the ball, and often ended up as the playmaker. As a result, Parker seemed to be crowded out in the middle and couldn't get involved. I thought Dyer should have been given the free role, with Butt and Emre in the middle as normal, and Parker wide right. Not his best position, but the best use of our available resources. The best managers are no respecters of reputations and pick on form and performances. Roeder has to have the courage to drop Parker if that's what the team needs.

I thought the free role behind Martins should have been given to Dyer rather than Emre. I was expecting Given to save that free kick, but he just didn't get a strong enough hand on it. Not what you'd call a mistake, but most of the time he does better. They won because they had better players. We put up a good fight, but we really needed to take our chances when they came. I'd like to have seen Martins hit that chance that he had in the second half first time. Shearer had the right idea - hit it early and hit it hard. What a shot from him in the first half though. It was just a swing of the leg, no body weight behind it at all, but he managed to get a lot of power into it.

There was a question about Douggie, but it wasn't phrased in quite that way. It was a written enquiry about the whole Gibraltar operation, and DH's role. The reply was that it was the base of 'Newcastle International', a sub-division that was set up to promote the club overseas, and that DH was very involved with this. I almost leapt to the conclusion that he was only jetting around the world, having a great time at the club's expense, but I'm sure that's not the case. As for me being a Yank, why??? For info, I was born in Newcastle, but live in London.

Not a lot to report. Freddie was given an easier ride than I expected, but there were one or two points of interest. He confirmed to a written question that Belgravia had started making enquiries in August, but had not yet made an offer. I asked whether anyone else had shown any interest, and FS said that they get about ’10 enquiries a week’, and nearly all of them were unrealistic. This threw me a bit, but fortunately someone then asked if Polygon had shown an interest. He confirmed that they had, but that the accounts that they had seen were the same as were available to all members of the public, and that they were being treated no differently from other enquirers. For whatever reason, he was keen to downplay this whole issue. Another thing that shone out was his hopes and expectations of Michael Owen. He seemed very proud of his capture, saying that he was Shearer’s replacement, and that ‘England’s No1 goalscorer’ would continue the Shearer tradition. It confirmed my impression that his understanding of the game is quite limited. I don’t think he understands how players blend as a team, and seems to pin his faith on individual star names. Douglas Hall sat at one end of the table and said absolutely nothing. I’d been to an AGM previously and it was the same story. For the principal shareholder, that’s not good enough.

I'll be going. I'm sure it'll be a bit more interesting than the last one I went to. Sure, I'll report back.

It didn't look like a foul at first, but on the replay, it's clear that the player was backing into Given before the ball had reached him. A definite foul, but a very hard spot.

I think Pearson's influence is telling on the defence. They keep a much better line when playing for offside, and the communication looks better. Taylor's starting to use his strength more. Of our three young defenders, Huntington may turn out to be the best of the lot. I don't think Roeder should be criticised for the selection and the formation, because there weren't many alternatives available with all the injuries. I think Dyer's at his best when given a free role behind a striker. It's hard on Sibierski, but I think Martins and Dyer look our best partnership.

A reclusive owner who shuns publicity will be a very pleasant contrast to Shepherd. Likewise his intention to appoint the best available people and let them do their jobs. Getting rid of Roeder at this stage would be a mistake though IMO. I'd look at the situation at the end of the season. Not giving Roeder a chance feels like a vote of no confidence in the players as much as anything. Our position isn't the same as West Ham's. It occurs to me that there's going to be a few clubs intending to spend in January. Competition for only a limited number of available players might be quite fierce.

I think it was my article that did it. :winking:

Taylor has improved this season, and physically he has what it takes. I still haven't yet seen him produce the kind of assured, dominating performance that really gives you the belief that he's arrived. Maybe that'll come soon. Ramage I see as a player who reads the game very well, but I can't see him becoming a top grade centre back because he's not good enough in the air. Huntington - seen very little of, but he looks like a strong character and my hunch is he'll make the grade. Edgar - never seen.