Mick

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.

Skirge, Today wasn't a one off, it was par for the course. It is the job of the manager to make sure we play with our strongest 11 whenever possible and that these 11 players are comfortable with what they are asked to do. They should play as a team, they did this for a few games when down to the bones and young kids had something to prove and ran themselves into the ground for each other. If this lot are playing for Roeder then God help us when they have an off-day against a team who really go out to win. It was only weeks ago that Roeder tried something similar to what he did today and it didn't work yet he's done the same thing and we got beat. You would think that he might remember something that was only a matter of weeks ago.

We had a 2 away goal lead against part timers, does Roeder not have faith in the teams he puts out? He could have put players on the bench on Thursday as insurance in case something went wrong, he didn't have to start players who needed a rest.

It wasn't just through the middle, it was also on the wings, I would have started both Milner and N'Zogbia and then made changes if necessary. Duff might have done better playing against knackered players rather than fresh players at the start.

The selection was pretty much correct for today's game. He couldn't have done a huge amount differently tbh. The thing he did wrong was start Milner the other night. And you know this how??? We're you in the dressing rooms? It's half the players' job to motivate themselves. Why should he have to do it all? You're defending somebody who is beyond defence, his selection was wrong and he clearly is not motivating the players, that is plain to see from our displays against teams thought to be below us, lesser teams. Why should he have to do it? It's his job, the job of every manager in every walk of life to make sure they get the right people for the job and to get the best out of them, motivation is a massive part of that, Roeder is not doing it.

Roeder is beyond defence, again. He picked a better first 11 on Thursday in a game which was all but won, even if we lost the home game we were never going to go down by more than 1 goal. He played Milner on Thursday then dropped him today to give him a rest, personally I think "the rest" was an excuse to drop him. If he was needing a rest then any manager worth that title would have rested him on Thursday, I'd love to see somebody try to defend that decision. Roeder didn't have the balls to drop a senior player so he shuffled the pack to get the three central defenders in, he does the same to accommodate Carr, he's a joke of a manager. The players should be motivated, self motivated, we all know life isn't that simple, sometimes it's the job of the manager, in this respect, I've yet so see any evidence that Roeder has done that this season. The players we have on the pitch should be good enough to beat Wigan, Sheffield United, Charlton, Fulham and Birmingham 9 times out of 10, it's the managers job to make sure this happens, it's his job to make sure the players are up for it and that they are the best players at his disposal in every position, he doesn't do that and I think it's because he doesn't have a clue what he's doing and that assessment isn't knee-jerk, I've not changed my position on him since he was appointed. I hoped I was wrong but so far it looks like I was right. You don’t fail as often as him at previous clubs if you’re good at your job. Roeder isn’t good enough, that isn’t going to change. I don’t really blame people for defending him, we all want things to go well, the trouble is that by defending him you’re accepting the shite that was produced today and nobody should accept that today was good enough. It wasn’t even a one-off it was typical of Newcastle this season and I think it’s going to be typical for as long as Roeder is manager. If the players need some help from the management then they are in trouble because the management isn’t up to the job.

Those same players win games when motivated, they don't beat teams like Wigan.

You might get stick from some but in reality you're not far wrong, he's clueless about most things that are important to managing a team. He doesn't seem able to motivate. Team selection is crap when he has to make decisions. He's got blue eyed boys who he seems unable to drop when fit. He's got no idea about tranfer windows. I could go on. What is he good at?

From BBC Sport: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/6371353.stm Newcastle boss Glenn Roeder: "It was a nailed-on penalty and if we'd taken the lead then, we'd have gone on to win as we were on top and Shay Given had little to do. "But we just didn't take the chances we created, or made the best of the good positions we got into. "The second half wasn't a great spectacle, but it should have been all over by half-time."

I don't want to listen to him at all, he's out of his depth.

It looks like we'll be 11th after today, we've got very little chance of Europe.