tmonkey

As you'd expect, they're all either crocks or useless now. Would say Hamann seems to be the best out of that bunch, would add strong cover and a solid passer in front of the defence, but no chance (and probably no need) of it ever happening.

Not again. For every Glenn Roeder, there's a ... erm ... Dirk Kuyt.

Still worried that Shearer is more of a Souness than a Sir Bobby. We won't know until he's given a chance though, and now is still a good time to try him out. Problem is, the exact same thing could be said about Houghton. He looked way out of his depth when managing us briefly in the Premiership, and he initially bottled the game against West Brom, settling for a draw when we looked like scoring a second, but maybe he's improving gradually, and it's a possibility that he could turn out to be a pretty decent manager. Most top managers were not great players, and Houghton certainly was not a great player. Maybe not having a big ego helps when it comes to management? And that's one thing Houghton clearly lacks.

As long as he's being signed on as a striker, then it'll be good news.

If we play like we did against Leicester in the first half, this is a nailed on defeat. Hopefully we'll have some new faces in by this game, especially a winger. We'll be playing with ten men if we have two from Guthrie, Barton, Geremi and R.Taylor on either flank, as one is bound to be utter s*** down the left, more so as we're away from home and under a bit of pressure.

We'd have killed them today if Jonas was playing instead of Geremi.

His experienced teammates are letting him down.

Nile "Tino" Ranger.

Nile "Viduka" Ranger.

Great goal from Guthrie. Good layoff from Ranger. Barton's shit performance has little to do with fitness imo. He's just being a prick and trying to take everyone on, as though the Leicester players are dogshit or something. He'd be passing first time if this were the Premiership against a decent side.

Barton has been playing like he thinks he's far too good to be on this pitch.

Big shame that the BBC are only showing 10 live games this season.

Bah, no way this shit team are going to score 4 against Everton. Need another 2 players sent off to get that many.

Everton playing away to Sigma (Czech Rep) on 5, leading 4-0 on aggregate. 6 minutes in, Hibbert gets sent off. Sigma hit the bar. Would be awesome if Everton somehow lose this, for no reason other than jealousy at them being in Europe.

That grin at the cameras immediately after the dive proved fruitful was awesome.

If Krul's shot stopping and relfexes are as good as they looked against Brom/Palermo, why doesn't he just stay on his line? Iker Cassillas used to do that when younger, and was great at it.

Awful lot of top corner screamers in this round.

£3m. What next, Kaka for £6m?

They probably didn't even need to add wingers to win the Premiership this year, as all they needed was Torres to stay fit the whole season.

You mean how he just ran back? You'd think it was his teammate (hands on head in the penalty area) who missed it. It was just surreal from start to finish. The run up where he starts with his back to the keeper and suddenly turns (bound to fool the keeper who must have thought he was walking away he has to take), the terrible shot that was screwed about 5 yards wide, the jogging away as though he had just done his job, the patting on the head by his teammate in a "well done lad" sort of fashion. You'd expect to see that sort of thing at a pub match.

That peantly from the Coventry player. Didn't even look as though he was suprised at the miss.

He looks a bit like a stretched Gianfranco Zola.

Great strike that with his left peg.

They all seem to think Smith was superb today. Promising. Most encouraging thing for me is that for several games in a row now, fans from the opposition teams who have been in this league for some years have all stated that our current first team is basically a top rate Championship side. Although sales may well happen between now and the end of the month, there is the hope that if they don't happen, a few more bodies come in, and a decent manager is appointed, we really will be strong contenders for automatic promotion.

http://forums.cpfc.org/showthread.php?t=189633 Post match on the Palace forums. Satisfying to read comments like: "Today looked like a team that will finish mid table playing a team that will finish top 2. No grumbles with the result, they were class at times and took their chances, unlike us." Hope we keep this up.