magorific

NUFCfans.co.uk ‏@nufcfans 6m Ben Arfa has a strike which is going wide, but Cissé gets a head on it to nod it past Speroni and win it for #NUFC! 1-0.

He probably performed better than at any time this season in a game when he was taken off (cheers Pards) - second half against Man City - as one of a three rather than two. I'm sure we'd have got something from that game if Butthead hadn't pressed the panic button by hooking Vurn for Cisse.

If they lose the final and go down they will not have had a better season than us. I still fear that they will both win the final and stay up, but at the moment I would say the odds of that are fairly short. Do you mean the odds are fairly long (ie it's unlikely)?

No man, it's because they didn't try hard enough for a guy that unceremoniously dropped one out of the team and unceremoniously dropped the other out of the squad altogether. Until the transfer policy and club structure he backs dropped him in the s*** of course (though without Europa League this season I'm not sure how this is possible) and he needed them. Exactly. What sort of manager brings a player not so much out of the cold as out of deep freeze and expects him to be s*** hot?

"There are people within the Football Association who think he has potential to be England manager one day.." :laugh:

Absolute bollocks. Bollocks indeed. A: the media have got the knives out for him - he treated them arrogantly when the going was good and he's since colluded in the local paper ban, so he has zero leeway with them now. B: finishing eighth or ninth with the quality of players he has and no Europa League to contend with is - at very best - the absolute least he could be expected to do.

What a fantastically sorry piece that is. He's forced to compare FA Cup attendances with the Coppa Italia, which has never been any more important in Italy than the Johnstone's Paint Trophy is here. Imagine - just imagine - if it was us getting 16k in the fifth round. Odds on him being "bored" by attendances then...

By many estimates, we took almost as many fans to Tottenham in the fifth round in 1987 (when we were in the bottom three of the top flight and odds-on to lose) as Wembley-bound SAFC mustered at home at the same stage today...

Written by Ray Ryan. Formerly of the NotW. Next...

In our recent-ish history our defence has been blamed a lot when the midfield was the actual problem. Agreed, and indeed up front. Too often we've had an unbalanced midfield and attack. We let in 4 goals last night but they walked through our midfield time and time again. Not even the best defenders in the world will keep the door shut when that's happening, especially as often as it happens with us. Alarmingly, the manager actually sets us up to contain and to defend first yet we have been on the end of some really embarrassing scores, home and away. To lose 4-0 in isolation isn't earth shattering, it can happen even to the very best but to repeatedly succumb to big scorelines is evidence of some huge and major flaws in the way we approach games, how we are tactically and the selection of the players. As soon as I saw how we both lined up last night I just knew, if they scored first, we were done for and would lose by 2 or more goals. The manager, as much as you excuse him, is losing us games by these margins with his tactics, his team lineups, his subs and his whole ethos of how we should or should not play. We are a defeated team before we take to the pitch far too often to ever become anything more than what we are at current. As for Pardew himself, he needs everything to go his way for us to win games and even then we often scrape wins and perform abjectly. For us to win games under Pardew he needs his best players on the pitch, for the refereeing decisions to mainly go our way and for the individuals in our team to do their bit. Cabaye and Remy have been those individuals, the 2 players who have scored the goals and grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. A decent manager can manage around their losses, but Pardew has no answer. Well he does, but its always the wrong one. We lose Cabaye and he reverts to hoof-ball. One player?! Thankfully, simply from a spectator perspective, I dont think he will be our manager come kick-off next season. I think Ashley has had enough and I think he has too. From what I gather, he threw his name into the hat for the Palace job but they wouldn't pay the kind of compo we would demand and while he's not wanting the sack, he would be delighted to be offered another top-flight job to get him out of his current role here where his hands are tied when it comes to purchases and sales. Keep your eyes peeled on WHU next season as Big Sam will be sacked once the season is over, whether they stay up or not and Pardew is still highly rated there. I can see that one happening. Not ITK or anything btw, just second guessing... Great post, but I disagree re the prospect of Pardew going back to West Ham. The fans don't remember him kindly and the West Ham mafia in the press are generally none too keen. Karren Brady (already a Sun columnist) is likely to be even more sensitive to the opinion of the press right now....

What do they talk about? I was told Ando's highlight last night was when he questioned if Remy, Colo and Tiote "would get back in this team". Anyone confirm?

It actually would have been eye opener for not only Taylor but also the club who probably thought he was one of the crowd faves. They clearly picked a player they thought could carry a Q+A, they were very wrong, so wrong. Not like us to be lacking when it comes to social media monitoring. He's only been getting slagged to high heaven for weeks. Even by their PR standards, it was a 40-yard volleyed own goal by the club.

Agree wi this. The players deserve huge stick for their utterly shyte performances today but the way we were set up was utterly appalling. Played right into their hands. Pardew bottled it -purely and simply. He reverted to type cos he was scared of losing this one and it backfired spectacularly. And the only ones to suffer are us. You think he or the players are going to have a sleepless night tonight or wake up tomorrow with their heads in their hands as the events of today replay over and f****ing over in their heads? Not a f****ing chance. Correct. He pressed the panic (Shola hoofball) button too early in the same game last season (half-time). F***ing off the map to repeat the tactic from the off today.

Dear oh dear. Your opening line....

Where? You're joking, right? Could you imagine someone pointing out 'Where is Shearer' in a Shearer family photo? There's now way you can't not pick out Shola in that photo, unless you simply have no idea who Shola is Genuinely skipped past that post and didn't see the comment Brett. The_Optimistic could just be really f***ing thick. From the post above yours, it seems like he/she is. Grade A moron or WUM. Same difference, really.

Leicester fans I know don't particularly rate him. Danny Drinkwater, on the other hand...

Far better than their main match report. Stupid mackem bint. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/12/newcastle-united-alan-pardew-apologises-manchester-city-manuel-pellegrini

Really think we would have equalised had he stayed on. Cisse coming on for him (along with the Nasri injury delay) cost us momentum.

That Australia kit is just last season's Brazil kit. Fact.

Magnifique.

The press DO already pay to cover NUFC - all papers pay an annual accreditation fee (per reporter) to the Football Data Co - a Premier League-run cash cow.

We are ok, but we make Man Utd play like Stoke City. Pardew correctly anticipated that Moyes would opt for counter attack and decide to control the possession and wait for chances. His plan worked again. Just ok? Wow.

Have to disagree. Very good in the championship. Good in his first 2 years in the prem. Tragically bad last season to the point where his manager simply referred to him as "the other guy" . Now he's sort of back to how he was in the 5th placed season. this, he did after all play most of the season in the 5th place season and our strongest point in that season was defending. Getting to the stage if he keeps this up that Hodsgon will have to have a look given theres not many english cbs atm Whoaah there. Let's not rewrite history. We defended well at the start of that season but ended up conceding more goals than all but one top 10 team and 5 more than the Mackems. Williamson played a part in that - he was particularly abject at Fulham and Spurs. Huge credit to him for recent form, and there's no doubting his attitude. But he's a player who when the wheels cone off, they FLY off.

yes, there's a lot of conjecture on your part, it's true but don't beat yourself up over it Quiet, ultra-professional 30something performs consistently as well as any other keeper in the league over more than a decade. Wins f**k all. Sees SBR go. Sees GS, GR and SA come in. Sees KK walk. Sees JFK come in. And yet the notion he is leaving because he knows he'll win f*** all - ever - with us and City are seriously on the up carries more conjecture than the notion he simply left for more cash. Aye, right...

Did I say I saw it as ok? No. I said I was willing to acknowledge first the service he gave us. I didn't think it was ok for Shearer to blatantly look after No 1 - no matter the consequences for the club - at several key times either, but I'd never begin to write off what he did for us as a player because of it.