Ashley17

I'm not ashamed to admit that I love the FA cup, but this year it's going to be weird. With us not a top flight club, we could be drawn at home to say Wolves and if we win it's a shock However, I fear Hughton and co. will play the kids in the cup, which I know is probably for the greater good but I don't like seeing this cup being played down. What does everybody else think? Do you give a shit about the cup? Would you even give a shit if we were in the Prem and, for example, midtable? The draw for the third round is tomorrow (Sunday) after the Kettering/Leeds game on ITV. We're ball number 25.

Ronaldo picking motm today

Very stale second half, make some subs man.

Krul on for Harper

WBA winning Harper struggling with a back injury

Jonas cross Lovenkrands header. The world is going to end

Well I never.

Right fuckers, here's the team from Radio Newcastle: Harper, Simpson, Enrique, S Taylor, Coloccini, Nolan, Smith, Guthrie, Jonas, Lovenkrands, Harewood. Carroll out with illness

Wonder who'll be the first to ask "really?"

Knowing the way Hughton works, anyone with a minor doubt won't play. So I'd expect the team to be minus Carroll, R Taylor, Shola and probably Simpson.

Koumas has a long standing hip injury, when you see he has 33 caps* and is 29, well it speaks for itself. Short term loan if necessary. *As of the date the below article was written http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/league_of_wales/7978228.stm

£5m!! Isn't his contract up in 6 months?

I fear this will be similar to QPR game, their young quick team passing the ball around our old cripples with ease - and we still arguably should have won that game. Although we did have Nolan, Butt, Smith and Guthrie in the narrowest midfield of all time that night, so as long as our team selection is sensible we should win. Narrowly.

In what way is Danny Wellbeck on the cusp of an England squad place?

CL goes on head to head, not GD

Once the seedings and the draw have been made it'll be easier to pick some shocks, everybody backed Ivory Coast to go far in 06 then they got drawn with Argentina and Holland, which was a shame. Considering South Africa will be one of the top seeds, that should make at least 1 group a bit random, especially as they are toss.

What the fuck? If he doesn't want to go to the pub to watch the game then that's his choice, it doesn't make him any more or less of a fan. Odds are in the pub you'll have some gobshite syaing how shite Benfica are this season and some cock will stand in front of the screen for bits of the game, and ultimately if you don't buy a drink in the pub you're just scrounging their television really. Kezman, didn't you work as a steward on a match day? How's that supporting your fucking team, you're supposed to stand with your back to the pitch.

Not mine but my Dad always goes mental when a player is standing to take a throw in then decides to give it to someone else, makes me laugh anyway

I didn't think we ever finished in the top 4 whilst Woodgate was here? He signed in January 2003 and that year we finished 5th. Signed in January 03 and we finished 3rd. First full season (2003/04) we finished 5th. Then he left.

Eduardo will be fucked over the Christmas matches, he can barely go a week without getting a knock, 2 games in 3 days will probably kill him. Any chance Arsenal will get a loan striker in January? Huntelaar? Ruud? (Although he'd probably never play for Arsenal after what happened when he missed that pen)

Since 96, we've had a bit of a mixed bag: 1998 - Hoddle's England really played quite nice stuff iirc, 3-5-2 was brave but we played it a fair bit. Two major factors here were the emergence of Beckham and Owen. Unlucky to lose to Argentina on pens but realistically, the Dutch, Brazil or France will probably have done for us at some stage. 2000 - A bit of a mess. I love Keegan but his England team just never worked. 2002 - Went into the first game with Heskey a "guaranteed" starter on the left with Vassell and Owen up front. Brilliant. Trevor Sinclair was awesome Played well for 45 minutes against Denmark and grafted against Argentina in the groups, think the heat did for us. 2004 - Rooney was awesome, Scholes hadn't scored in about 10 games but the real standout was the defence. Campbell, Ashley Cole and Gary Neville in particular. Pens to Portugal 2006 - Sven gambled on Walcott and never picked him. Taking 3 strikers, one of which was Owen who'd played 20 minutes since the turn of the year, and an unknown quantity in Walcott, was always going to be daft. Hargreaves did well once he got in the team, but IIRC we played Carrick in holding midfield instead of him against Ecuador.

Insulting Coloccini around Ronaldo is worse than insulting Macgyver in front of Patty and Selma

Liverpool finished something like 3 points behind Man Utd at the end of last season. Chelsea are currently top with Arsenal second. Could you point out which 2 of the 4 you're referring to? Which two teams have won the Premiership for the last I don't know how long. Even if you include the big 4 then, the Premier League is twice the size of the SPL so instead of having two big teams you have 4. There is no real difference. When was the last time Rangers or Celtic didn't win the league? f*** it, when was the last time they weren't the top two? When Fergie was around in the 80s? 05-06, Hearts came second. They probably would have won it if their owner hadn't gone batshit insane. Otherwise, I agree with your points.

Eh? Shamehe has to retire like. Can;t even remember SWP's tackle on him that caused it tbh. It was in an England training session

Jonas' run was class, but I don't think he shot, their defender got a block tackle in and it came off Jonas' shins and went in. Deserved a goal though and he's off and running at last