Mick

Pretty much yeah, that's the reason why you get Liverpool fans and politicians saying this idea is a disgrace. They hear that standing is being brought back and instantly point to Hillsborough. Might sound pedantic but the minority who are against the idea of safe standing are against it due to ignorance, there's a huge difference between what terraces were and the safe standing models being suggested. Cheers I'd prefer terraces as well, but safe standing is the safer, more sensible way forward. There's basically no sound argument against it, imo. Hillsborough wasn't caused by standing, it was caused by too many people in a small area and nowhere for them to go because of fences to both sides and to the front.

I feel the same way about people who only follow for the results.

The big difference for me is that the two you mention were much more relaxed on the pitch, Ben Arfa always strikes me as a player who feels he has to do everything on his own and is always playing under pressure. I'm not sure he has the level of self confidence that the other two had but he's got the skills to match them.

Today was one of the most bizarre games I've ever seen. 2 sending off's, 1 I agreed with the other I didn't, a manager sent to the stands, a blatant handball in the lead up to a goal, a possible ball out of play for one of our goals but I thought it was just in, we could have and should have had 4 penalties. I've probably missed other things. Other than that I thought Cabaye, Debuchy and Ben Arfa all had good games and Haidara was probably our biggest threat once he came on. I thought that we missed Tiote in the middle, especially when it was 11 v 11. Gouffran and Remy didn't do much in the first half and Williamson was passing the ball as well as I've ever seen, maybe he is gaining some confidence and others may be gaining some in him as they were willingly passing to him, something which hasn't always happened. I'm not sure why Anita was brought off and Shola is still a plank, how the hell does he make a living from football in 2013 from anything other than doing the laundry?

We'll never know what would have happened if it had remained 11 v 11, my guess is that we wouldn't have got 3 points and would have struggled to get anything from the game. This place would have been up in arms if we'd had a player sent off like they had for the first and the hand ball from Williamson was as clear as you'll ever see. Having said that, Pardew kept stopping Ben Arfa from dropping deep in the 2nd half, he kept telling him to drag his defender away from the centre of the field where things were getting a bit tight, even against 9 men.

I'm not sure why it will not work, they should have plenty of movement and defenders hate that.

Stoke have the smallest away following of the season so far.

Half of the pitch is covered in ice, the tight bastard need to put the heating on.

Merry Christmas everybody, I hope everyone gets everything they want, mainly good health for yourselves, family and friends. Anything more than that is a bonus as far as I'm concerned although a trophy for us all would be nice.

Merry Christmas all. and I hope the haters can find a bit of cheer at this time. 3 spliffs later.. the typo police are oot in force.. take a fkn day off man He's not very good at his job, he missed one.

I'm sure they've only had better crowds than us over a season 20 times or something like that.

They're still harping on about the 9-1 win, they don't do 'aye...and?'

On average 250 posts a year on here v almost 200 in just over 4 days, we're clearly obsessed.

How is 288 pages over 300 pages?

The prick mentions 1992, 3 posts after another one of them mentions Mirandinha who left in 1989, they're as thick as they are envious.

wasn't that the one with a lot of "go left" in it ? and wasn't it echoed ie other people singing the same words ? You're being pedantic, I meant unlike repeating Howay the lads for up to 20 minutes.

That must be one of the longest football songs ever without having to repeat the same words.

Whatever.

Especially how he manages to get his foot so close to his chest.

He's still making excuses for last season.

Mmmmm relevant.

You need to get out more.

I was suggesting that players who have ambition will want to see the club show some ambition. Cabaye wanting to go was the player I was referring to and we don't know how the other players feel as it was an offer for him which started everything off. Many people think we get players here on the cheap because they want to use us as a stepping stone to a bigger and/or better club, I don't see why we can't become that club.

The Andy Cole song v Leicester when we were promoted, the whole ground was singing it and jumping up and down.