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Personally, I thought he covered well in defence and releases the ball to the right players. Seems a bit slow when actually releasing it but at least he's not doing spins or passing it backwards all the time. Our whole attack was usually defence -> geremi -> wingers and then move on from there. Since our attack was good today, Geremi deserves some credit.

My ratings from seeing the game on the TV. Harper - 7. Composed. I don't feel as secure as when Given's in goal but it's getting better. Zoggy - 8. Magnificent. Raped them down the left wing. Enrique needs to be played and him moved up to midfield asap. Cacapa - 7. Another solid game. Very tidy and releases the ball very quick. Rozehnal - 8. Composed. That's the word that best describes his play. Great signing. Taylor - 8. I reckon he should keep his place. He's very solid, and actually contributed to our attacking play today. He's also a danger from set-pieces which is something that will benefit us. Milner - 7. Very productive first half but faded a bit in the second half when they double-teamed him on the left wing. Smith - 6. The game seems to pass him by atm. Obviously not in his best position and people shouldn't criticize his play but surely we have better options (Martins for one). Geremi - 8. Takes his time with his passes but he's solid enough and was a central part to our attacking play today. Butt - 7. Solid performance again. Should have probably scored but he's everywhere. Owen - 8. Should have had a hat-trick which says more about his positioning, anticipation than it does his finishing atm. He'll get his goals and we'll get the points, just like we did today. Good to have him back. Viduka - 6. Good half from him. Hopefully will recover in time for the Derby game. Ameobi 6. Was actually involved and didn't try to bully players. He has to realise he's not Shearer and must let the game come to him, which he seemed to do today. Martins - 6. Fantastic cross with his right foot. Contributed more than Smith in the 20 or so minutes he was on. Needs to be on the pitch Overall a really excellent performance. Wigan weren't bad defensively yet we had something like 19 shots on goal. The goals will come. On another day, we would have had the penalty, the Owen goal would have been given and Owen himself would have finished at least a couple more chances. This lack of 'creativity' might be overrated. Certainly we'll be better, or at least we should, when Barton returns, but we'll be good enough for the time being

We've been playing really well. Milner's been excellent, so has Zoggy. Viduka's been more involved than he's been in any game this season and Owen should probably have had a hattrick already if it wasn't for a wrong decision by the linesman and a brilliant save by Kirkland. Seriously, this game should be over. All Allardyce has to say is 'continue what you're doing' because there's no way we're not winning this game. We don't need Martins, Shola or anyone else at this time. We just need a bit of luck. Should have had a penalty. Should have had a goal. Never seen Owen miss an easy chance like that in ages. I still believe we'll win this. Great performance so far though, a big change from the past few games.

Harper starting? Would prefer Given.

Eh? When a player shows commitment to his country (Owen), he gets slated for not caring about the club. Now when a player cares about his condition because he wants to perform well for his club, he gets slated as well. Baffling.

Bring them fuckers on. A chance to knock out one of the teams who's record in the comp is pretty good, and it'll be a major confidence booster if we do. If we don't, not a biggie because everyone expects us to get knocked out. Silver lining if we lose is that Allardyce will get more time in training to drill in whatever he wants (4-3-3). We can do them, even at the Emirates.

Any official team news? Anything SSN has reported as 'likely'?

I'm sure Beye, Roz and Cacapa can communicate together in French. Only problem with communication would be Enrique.

Wonder what brummie thinks... 'Who the fuck?'

Hopefully we've stuck some sort of sell-on clause into the transfer because Leeds won't have paid us much for him at all.

Imagine all the load of crap i've been getting latley, even my dad who never follows football calls me going "Why are you supporting a club with racist fans" "Fuck off. Dad"... Wouldn't an explanation have been better than a 'fuck off' to your dad?

What a fucking tit. There's a new article up on the site btw. I thought this one was better than the last one (hard, I know) and although he's still a tit, he's made a couple of good points.

How much do you think he's worth nowadays? I say 5m max considering he'll probably be really slow in a couple of years.

Just an observation after seeing the highlights from last night's game: Owen doesn't seem to have that much power in his legs atm. The acceleration was there sometimes and not at other times but he doesn't have the power to strike a ball like he used to. This is most probably down to lack of fitness, timing and sharpness. I reckon if Owen was fit, the chance he had in the first half would have been in towards the bottom corner. When you're able to fully control how you strike the ball, you can still generate power and keep it low. On that particular occasion, Owen went for power and because he still doesn't have the strength in his legs, he couldn't keep it low. This is also noticeable in his goal. Maybe it's a bit of over-reading but in a few weeks the ball would be almost lofted over the keeper in into the goal (if Owen shoots with the same body rotation and angle). Last night, probably down to this being his first start for us in ages, tiredness would have affected his concentration and how he usually strikes the ball. Anyhow, like I said, it was one thing that came to my mind when Owen was involved.

LOUD NOISES!!

Have people forgotten about Villa at home and Boro away?? We're still unable to play some solid football when the players are put into a 4-3-3. And if Sam's going to stick with this, then we shouldn't be expecting 10, 11 or 12 points from the next few games. We're a team in transition, a team concentrating on getting points on the board, not going all-out for wins. 8 points from the next 4 games would make me a more than satisfied fan.

I think the curly c in Spanish/Portuguese is pronounced 'ss', like Barcelona. In Turkish though, the c becomes a 'j' sound. Can see why it would cause confusion.

Hopefully Owen gets off the mark, Emre and Zog give good performances in midfield to cause a selection headache for Allardyce and lastly for Enrique to do well on his debut, which hopefully accompanied by a decent performance by Zoggy, would give Allardyce some food for thought about whether to go with the 4-4-2 this Saturday.

Is there? That, the video from the Blackburn game away last season and several other anecdotes from a few people on here would suggest that there is. Surely you could say that about any group of supporters of any team in the world, though? Personally, I won't deny that I know/know of plenty of bigoted/racist/sexist Newcastle fans, but the same applies to fans of other clubs that I know as well. Yes you could. But the point is that there is an unpleasant element out there and is something the club should probably take a look into.

Is there? That, the video from the Blackburn game away last season and several other anecdotes from a few people on here would suggest that there is.

www.livescore.com

We already know that. Not that it's anything to be proud of. And I'm brown btw, if that will make a difference.

I've noticed that our defence seems to be backing off the ball so much more so than they've done in the past. Hopefully this is something that's meant to happen and not them being afraid of being told off by BS after getting skinned by the attacker or something equally dodgy.

RIP.

Would trump everything Manyoo's done in the summer with one move Go on, get him in. Would love to see him in the Premiership.