Sifu

Another night of football neglected, another night of cracking games missed

One of the best days in recent memory More than cemented our proper return to the PL tbh.

I always feel safe at St James' Park but I do feel a bit uneasy on any away trip I go on (new territories and new grounds/not knowing what to expect kind of thing) - I usually settle down by the time the game kicks off and I'm amongst our lot.

Redknapp. I dont think he would come all the way up here to work in Sunderland like. Nor do I but tats the name that will be on everyone lips, who else is there? Curbs, erm PHIL BROWN! Detestable cunt managing a detestable club. Match made in heaven that.

Hmmm, I should have probably watched this game...

I like how O'Neill's brought a new brand of football to the mackems. Exciting stuff, oh wait. It'll be a matter of time before they start turning on O'Neill. Can actually see him walking at the end of the season.

Be prepared to be the only Newcastle fans in the place you're watching the game. Meh.

Not too worried about Marveaux as yet. I do think that (from what I've seen of him anyway) that he is a talented enough player so it would be an absolute shame if he doesn't get another chance this season (he should do though, with the amount of games we've got...).

Guess we should expect some sort of trial by TV/Sky on Sunday (like last season with the zoomed in Colo/Cabaye incidents).

he done it how many times ?, about as often as darren ambrose. He was pretty reliable in the 2006/07 season (his first season with us) imho.

My feelings exactly. The sooner he fucks off from the PL the better. His presence has really poisoned the league - I blame Dalglish and Rodgers for enabling him.

So Hansen's having a wank over Suarez. Quelle surprise.

Haha, fuck you Suarez.

Suarez: cunt at your service.

Very much so.

Well that was definitely a foul on Torres. Still though, Torres hahaha

Colin Murray time

Guess it's best if I don't watch that video then.

Ouch, burn.

Yet Ben Arfa himself has said that Pardew's the first coach who's truly "understood" him. Hmmm.

Could be that his mind's not in it atm. Didn't his bairn have some health problems a couple of months back, perhaps there's still some complications?

Now that he's (finally) got his first PL goal, it should be the stepping stone for him to achieve some good goalscoring form. Today's goal (despite it being a rather fortunate one) should improve his confidence and that should help him now.

Think I prefer the Europa League Obertan to the PL Obertan. We just need to get Derren Brown to hypnotise him to think that every game is an Europa League game.

Being subbed off on the hour mark should act as an incentive for him to up his concentration levels. His defending today was well below par especially considering that his defending is meant to be his best attribute of his limited ability. Delivered one good ball into the box though.

Right, after digesting that, my thoughts are as follows: I honestly thought we were decent enough in the first half, we deserved to be in front at half time. We played some decent stuff, it was a good mix between direct and passing along the floor imo - our directness got us the goal and thought we sufficiently controlled the game (bar West Brom's counter attacks). We needed to build on that first half and go for it in the second but unfortunately, that didn't happen. No-one really knew what they were supposed to do and you could definitely put that down to Pardew's instructions (or lack of). The midfield looked confused, the players simply didn't know which position they were meant to be holding, there was no movement - it was quite frankly a mess. Thank fuck we got that (undeserved) winner eh? Got to say though, at least we got a PL win - it has been a while. But again, we've got a lot of issues to address. Something's got to give eventually - I don't for one second believe that Pardew is a mug of a manager, he has shown in the past that he can get something right. Let's hope that he gets it spot on (or thereabouts) sooner rather than later.