Mick

You're right.

His first touch was his third last.

I've had plenty to say about him spitting his dummy out but I'd have him back if I knew he wouldn't do it again, he's still a good manager.

I should have also added that N'Zogbia cleared a ball off the line.

They usually do.

That is brilliant.

Our starting 11 could beat Stoke 5-0 or lose 1-0.

Given - 8, did everything asked of him. Beye - 7, I can't remember him doing much but he produced 1 brilliant tackle and clearance in the 2nd half. Colo - 7, he had very little to do because of Bassong but did what he had to. Bassong - 9, he had almost a perfect game. Enrique - 5, wasn't bad at defending but his passing was a joke. Jonas - 7, not bad and again showed some excellent close control. Guthrie - 6, he probably made the best run of the game when he virtually went from our box to the Boro box. Butt 5 - 6, nothing spectacular and horrible on the eye, he could have won it from a free-kick. Owen - 3, that's about a point for every time he touched the ball. Martins - 6, he looked the most likely to do anything up front and taking him off showed that Kinnear picks players on reputation. NZogbia - 7, I thought he did very little wrong and needs a few more games, he made one brilliant pass inside at the beginning of the second half which should have brought a goal. Viduka - 6, he could have scored, I hope he stays fit. Kinnear - 7, picked the right starting 11 but bottled the substitution.

That's none of your business.

I'm surprised that you award anybody less than Owen, for me he was the poorest player on either side today.

I think it's a pity that Gonzales has been injured because I thought he had something about him against Hull.

N'Zogbia played some excellent passes, especially in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.

Replace Butt with a Patrick Vierra type of midfielder and we'd do very well, and yes I know, that type of player doesn't grow on trees.

I had problems with it taking ages to load pages (shut up dave) at times but that may have been because I was using my bandwidth for other things. And before GM mentions it, my firewall was disabled.

My take on the game was that Given and the defence played really well, Enrique really does need to take passing lessons as it's letting him down and puts us under pressure. Butt and Guthrie are too alike and when played together don't offer what we need as they are both fairly static and rarely if ever make a killing pass. I thought both wingers did well without actually creating too much but I'm not too sure how much our forwards were at fault for that. Martins looked the most likely to do anything of our front two who started and I can't work out why he came off and Owen remained on the pitch unless Kinnear thought he'd done so little it would be like having a fresh player on anyway.

I agree, we still need creativity in the middle.

Any threat we had up front went with Martins, Kinnear must have been blinded by the smog.

No, we only moved up 1 place.

Owen must be numb with cold, he's hardly moved today.

Owen has done nothing.

Crazy from Kinnear.

If Viduka comes on it has to be for Owen.

We've started the 2nd half well.

We've had the best two chances so far and Given has had it easy.