stozo

Good team though considering who's fit.

No Hatem on bench.

Is this from today? Could be a fitness test?

Frustrating but we were just unlucky with a few individual errors. Just got to make sure we go at them at SJP now.

Don't panic - he didn't actually score from open play, it was a penalty.

You'd leave Sissoko out for Perch then? On this occasion yes. Don't get me wrong I think Sissoko is a far, far better player than Perch but I don't see a lineup we can put out tonight that will outplay Benfica so I think a defensive and physical XI is our best chance of getting something.

As limited as the bloke is I actually think tonight could be a good night to play Shola. I'd go something like Krul Simpson Taylor MYM Santon Marv Cabaye Perch Jonas Cisse Shola

Really? You need to lower your expectations. To be fair we've not played anyone this year who we couldn't have HOPED to get something from - even if we weren't favourites.

That is what i was thinking , like to think we can get a few of the kids to step up . He's a left back so I'd doubt that he's a direct replacement for Simpson. Going to be tough for him to get ahead of Santon and Haidara so perhaps he'll go out on loan again (maybe to the Championship).

Great news that McManaman is getting banned. Deserves more than 3 games for a challenge like that.

From the Uefa text feed: The first legs of the quarter-finals will be played on 4 April, when Newcastle's Vurnon Anita will celebrate his 24th birthday. Hi team-mate Nile Ranger turns 23 on the day of the return fixtures - 11 April. Who wants to break them the bad news about Ranger?

Have to say I love the odd person in the past few pages slagging Pardew/NUFC off for rushing him back. They're probably the same people who were going ballistic every week he wasn't in the squad. Fingers crossed he's healthy again soon!

Advice to the people I've seen on here wanting to go in the Gallowgate and waiting for cash turnstiles - I wouldn't wait. Looks like they're opening up the remaining blocks in the Gallowgate and they're selling out pretty fast - there's also pretty much nothing but singles anywhere else in the ground.

Especially when the going rate for the player in question is likely to be £15-20m

And that was against the bottom team in their league. Had a strong XI: Gabulov, Logashov, Ewerton, Spahic, Zhirkov, Diarra, Boussoufa (Carcela-Gonzales, 46), Shatov (Smolov, 46), Jucilei, Eto`o, Traore. I see Willian didn't even make the bench. Do we know if he's definitely out of the game on Thursday?

Has to start at LB on Thursday for me with Santon at RB.

Reckon he'll get on tonight. Pardew quotes in the Chronicle seem to suggest that Shola will have a post-match reaction to the plastic pitch which will rule him out of Sunday and with Cisse having a virus I'd imagine Pardew would want to give Campbell some minutes on the off chance he's required to play on Sunday.

If it's 7 weeks his season is pretty much over - he'd make it back for last 4 games at best and probably more realistically the last 3 games.

That has to be the most pointless injury ever. Kinda wish he'd just tapped it out for a corner now.

Anyone know if the ITV4 stream on the ITV website will work for the game? Seems fine now but know with these things there can often be restrictions on live broadcasts etc.

Right decision but what an utter waste of talent. Really thought after the Championship season he could be set for big things.

I'm with GG on this. Don't see that Watford are doing anything wrong.

It's interesting the fine margins we're talking about here between Pardew being considered successful (or not). Forgetting about injuries etc. I'd say we only had four very bad games in that run (West Ham, Southampton, Fulham and Reading). Swansea I didn't think we were great but I thought we were unlucky to be hit on the break for the second goal when we were really pressing them for an equaliser, Stoke we were OK and got caught by two late goals, City always going to be tough, Man U we played some great stuff but then got beat in the last minute, Arsenal we again played some great stuff for 70 minutes and then unfortunately fell apart (can be partly attributed to Arsenal not playing on Boxing Day I think) and then Everton not amazing but beaten by 1 goal by a top 7 team. Am I happy with what happened during that run? No. But I do think that Pardew probably wasn't far off picking up a few more points during that run.

Why do people post this? Aside from it being blindingly obvious that it's what you'd 'want', it's near enough the least likely thing to ever happen. Just picture people posting it, then reclining and thinking to themselves, 'Yeah, I've made my point there. This is how shit's going down.'. All with a smug, self appreciating grin on their face. nailonhead.gif Absolutely. It's a pointless debate we're having here as there is virtually no chance Pardew will be leaving in the short-term (I'd say October/November this year would be the earliest his position will come under scrutiny and that would only be after a calamitous set of results).

Obviously sold the shares so he could free up cash for a cheeky bid for Bale in the summer...