Sifu

Oldham did beat them last year tbf.

Professional as ever.

Reasonably satisfied with that I think.

Home tie.

Here we go!

Typical.

Massive, massive credit to Pardew for yesterday. He set us up in a way that we would dominate the midfield and got us to play as an organised and cohesive unit. 41 and a half years without a win at Old Trafford and Pardew achieved a moment of history with the win yesterday (pretty much in the same vein as the Chelsea win at Stamford Bridge 2 seasons ago).

*Fistpump*

(Didn't see that youtube video above when I posted; now I feel like a dick).

What a perfect day yesterday turned out to be. Our performance was absolutely top notch and it was the very definition of the "perfect" away performance imho - that is, we battled until the very end; we looked organised and cohesive as a unit and we defended rather strongly against their attacks (silly fouls outside the box aside). Pardew deserves credit for the way he set us up yesterday - the key was always winning the midfield battle and to essentially play 5 in midfield worked a treat - Tiote, in particular, was beastly and was a main contributor to us dominating Man U's midfield. Defensively, we were really sound with the back 5 performing their roles admirably especially Williamson (all credit to him as well btw for stepping up to the level he's playing now, from a lowly 4th choice CB to basically first choice is no mean feat). Can't really find many faults with any of our players yesterday though admittedly, I was pretty much nervous as f*** after we scored but I suppose that is a reflex reaction. All in all though, no complaints whatsoever. Another thing I'd like to add from yesterday was watching the game in a Geordie friendly pub in Manchester - I narrowly missed out on tickets for the game but the pub was more than an adequate alternative - it did have Man U fans watching too but that didn't stop me celebrating like a madman when we scored and mocking the Mancs when they had their goal disallowed (in fact, think there were more NUFC fans than Man U fans there!). There's literally nowhere else in Manchester where I could get away with that. Lovely stuff. Also won £430 in the weekly poker tournament I go to on Saturdays (the first time I've cashed out on a Saturday too!) so aye it was the perfect day yesterday :indi:

Why am I not surprised that Taylor's decided to dress up as the Joker. Those eyes...

Forever embedded into history

Credit where credit is due. A much deserved award for Pardew, no-one would have expected us to go through the whole of November on a winning streak so he deserves praise for that like.

24 June usually ends in tears when England play if past history is anything to go by Yep, true. Obviously I hope it doesn't happen this time round and with it being Costa Rica, it should go okay for England.

24 June usually ends in tears when England play if past history is anything to go by

Of course, France gets a nice, easy ride.

Urgh.

I think so.

Group E

Here we gan.

Get the fuck on with it.

Do something please.

PNE away or Middlesbrough away (purely down to my workmates being fans of these clubs).

I could see what our gameplan was (to attack Swansea on the break) but we executed it rather badly. Pardew's attempts to change things around didn't work either (for instance, the swapping the wingers around tactic again was a waste of time) and our play lacked that extra bit of urgency. We gave Swansea too much time on the ball and gave them too much respect and that cost us in the end.