Mick

I wonder if the fans are rewarded by freezing ticket prices for next season or lowering them like some have done?

That doesn't mean he was OK-ish, it means he didn't have the chance to screw up, that's slightly different. Still, it doesn't look as if Carr will be fit for Sunday so we can relax on that one, I hope I'm not tempting fate.

I would go with that starting 11, the middle is as boring as hell but the wings should offer something going forward. I guess that the left will be totally different once the tactical genius gets his team on paper, he’ll probably find a starting place for Duff and Babayaro. He can't use giving Milner a rest as a reason for dropping him, this is a big test for Roeder, the fact that it's at home will probably see him through, that and Boro being shite most of the time when they come to Newcastle, it's probably an inferiority complex.

It might rain still but the roof covering all sides of the ground hasn't been in place for that long.

That was probably the game I've enjoyed the most, the whole ground was singing for Andy Cole while bouncing up and down for what seemed like hours. The Wembley Semi was good, I went ape s*** when Rob Lee scored and ended up right at the front, I have no idea how I cleared the seats without touching any. After the Leicester game, we were stood singing on stools, tables, all sorts, in the 3 Bulls for long, lomgh after they stopped serving ale and turned the lights off. Class

That was probably the game I've enjoyed the most, the whole ground was singing for Andy Cole while bouncing up and down for what seemed like hours. The Wembley Semi was good, I went ape shit when Rob Lee scored and ended up right at the front, I have no idea how I cleared the seats without touching any.

The 10,000 before Keegan mentioned amongst the comments there belongs to that old addage if you tell a lie and keep repeating it then people start to believe it. How many pre-Keeganers here remember us pulling in crowds of 10,000? I'm pre- Keegan and I don't remember crowds that low. I think there might have been one or two games in the Jim Smith period when we were playing appalling football where things dropped as low as around 12,000 - but only a few games, it wasn't a regular attendence. And I seem to recall a game against Oxford where we might have got 10,000 but I remember that was due to bad weather - it had been pouring down all day. It was an evening match and Tyne Tees and Metro were saying the game was off. We hung on at home to see what Look North were saying. They said it was still on, so we went up. But crowds of 10,000 were certainly not regular occurances by any means. I remember standing in the Gallowgate on a Wednesday night, I was probably one of less than 8,000, I'm sure we were playing Wrexham which is hardly a game to set the pulses going even without the bad weather. It rained so much the game was abandoned because of the state of the pitch, it's the only time I've ever been happy that a game was called off.

We shouldn't settle for mediocrity, if we do that then we'll really have the piss ripped out of us by the club. Going on about things on here probably doesn't help much but I'd rather do it than just except anything as being good enough.

Roeder has had the chance to drop players before and hasn't taken it, the players he normally drops are the easy targets, those unlikely to complain. He had the chance to drop Carr the last time he returned from injury but instead of dropping him he found a place for him on the left side of defence against Fulham, look what happened during that game. Roeder even moaned when Carr got injured while away with the Irish, most of us celebrated. He wouldn't play them if he didn't rate them, he does have options but doesn't use them, they may be limited options but he's got them.

What will make Roeder any better at picking the best team when more players are fit when he can't do it now with the few he has? He's not picking his strongets team on merit, he's picking certain players who are not good enough, Carr is the best example of this. The bloke doesn't know what he's doing and that isn't going to change now, he is what he is. Edited to remove typo, I had pickling instead of picking.

From Sky Sports http://home.skysports.com/matchratings.aspx?fxid=313462&clid=4&cpid=8 Shay Given, No fault with goal and made a couple of good saves 7 Steven Taylor, Tried his best 6 Oguchi Onyewu, Lacked composure and conceded too many fouls 5 Titus Bramble, Shaky 5 Paul Huntington, Okay 6 Nolberto Solano, Missed penalty and did not do enough 5 Scott Parker, Steady 6 Nicky Butt, Never gave up 6 Damien Duff, One great cross for Martins, but did not offer enough 5 Antoine Sibierski, Not his best day 5 Obafemi Martins, A willing runner 6 Charles N'Zogbia, (Sub) Tried hard 6 James Milner, (Sub) Worked hard 6 Andrew Carroll, (Sub) Late entry 6

I feel gutted more for people like you who spent good money and time going to watch that today, I almost went but decided that my limited time at home was more important, it was a cracking decision.

We'll have to just agree to disagree, nowt wrong with that.

A 40 game winning run, as if. Do you think we should be bigging the players and manager up this season?

The booing when we finished 5th makes me embarrassed, especially when the same people stayed back and applauded the team that finished 14th, pathetic.

I don't agree with booing but they don't usually boo for nothing, it's usually because we've been crap.

I hope you're right about beating them home and away but I'm concerned that they didn't lie down when two goals behind and we're not brilliant at holding onto a lead.

I'm not sure we did deserve to beat Bolton, we had the first half and lead through a penalty, my memory is of them pissing all over us in the second half. Fulham was probbly one that we could have won but it was too easy for them to get the points in the end with two soft goals. When Roeder has all of the players back he'll probably have Owen in the team and I wouldn't put it past him to bring Carr back, who else? I'll give him credit where due, well done for bringing in Martins and well done for bringing in Sibierski on a free, I'm not sure how much of that was good planning by Roeder or just luck that his agent contacted us when we were getting nowhere on deadline day, after that I'm struggling.

Fener played really well on Thursday, they took a 2 goal lead yet AZ Alkmar came back at them, they didn't give up. I don't think we'll beat AZ if they play like they did on Thursday. We beat Liverpool who went on to beat Barcelona, it doesn't mean we'd beat Barcelona.

You're right it was the cup game.

They came back well against Fener on Thursday, they can give us problems.

Souness didn't have the second best win percentage of any Newcastle manager though. A disappointing result today but hardly time for the manager to be sacked, it's ridiculous. Edit: the second bit aint aimed at you. Souness probably had the highest win percentage during his first 8 or 9 games, it didn't make him any better than he was. Roeder has a lot of wins against nothing teams in Europe, games against teams that would struggle in a good local league. We raped Spurs and could easily have been slaughtered, we were lucky against Villa and lucky against Liverpool, all games that we could have lost and that sort of result has been typical this season. We played well enough last season but that was as much because of the lift we all had from seeing the end of Souness, everybody from the fans to the players received a massive lift from Souness leaving, Roeder played players where they were best suited to play and most of them responded, they were picked on merit, this season is totally different. Players are just turning up and getting picked, just because they seem to be the chosen few. Am i right in thinking we've only won 2 games this season by more than 1 goal? Hammers away and Spurs at home? Pompy and Villa?

Souness didn't have the second best win percentage of any Newcastle manager though. A disappointing result today but hardly time for the manager to be sacked, it's ridiculous. Edit: the second bit aint aimed at you. Souness probably had the highest win percentage during his first 8 or 9 games, it didn't make him any better than he was. Roeder has a lot of wins against nothing teams in Europe, games against teams that would struggle in a good local league. We raped Spurs and could easily have been slaughtered, we were lucky against Villa and lucky against Liverpool, all games that we could have lost and that sort of result has been typical this season. We played well enough last season but that was as much because of the lift we all had from seeing the end of Souness, everybody from the fans to the players received a massive lift from Souness leaving, Roeder played players where they were best suited to play and most of them responded, they were picked on merit, this season is totally different. Players are just turning up and getting picked, just because they seem to be the chosen few.

Edgar would have been a much better choice to play on the left.

Dyer not playing probably wasn't the fault of Roeder but it's funny how his sore leg has now become flu, he could have been rested on Thursday, the same as Milner could have if needed. We missed Dyer but could have made up for that by having N'Zogbia and Milner playing on the wings, N'Zogbia must have been fit or he shouldn't have been on the bench, if he's fit then he should have started. These two players would have provided something that we didn't have without them, pace in the build up and a bit of flair needed to change a game. We'll not win a cup this year, of that I'm sure, we're not good enough. I don't think we'll get past the next round so it's very dangerous staking our whole season on the UEFA, our season will probably be over during March, I'd love to be proven wrong but don't expect it. As for supporting Roeder just because he's the manager, no thanks, I was told the same about Souness. I don't want him sacked because I know we'll not get anybody better, that doesn't mean I have to support him when he gets things so wrong so often.