afar

Last night's win for Brighton doesn't really change anything in terms of promotion obviously, but you have to admire the way they seem to grind out these results. They rarely seem to win by a big margain but almost always just seem to do enough. If we want to win the title, think we are going to have to win down there, will be tough.

I have no idea who this guy is. Never heard of him before we were linked, if it's either him or Townsend then I would favour the known commodity (to me).

If and it's still a huge IF, he were to come back, where would he and Ritchie play ? Ritchie to the left, him on the right ? Wasn't the biggest issue at Palace all because he was asked to play on the left, where his favoured cutting inside was negated ? How comfortable would Ritchie be playing on the left, or does one of them go into the 10 role ?

If we would be getting the Townsend we had at the end of last season, 13 million is an absolute no brainer. It's unsure though if he's still that player after Pards has had his mits on him. Loan to permanent is the best option for us, but if the price dropped to 10 million or so, you should open the wallet and not look back.

That was a terrible penalty by Ritchie, but fortunately the keeper dived out of the way.

I'll be disappointed if we don't get through now, the league game was one of our most dominate home performances. With a favourable draw in the next round we have a chance of another little run in the cup, and Shelvey is back, thank god.

That's good to hear, thanks for sharing. I agree with him on those players being poorly managed, by and large he's identified some really good players but we've not had the coaching staff to extract the best out of them or give them time and the tools to adapt to the English game. He'll be proved wrong on Murphy though I feel, he could prove to be a priceless signing in the current injury plight. He's already scored two important goals that have almost repaid the small fee (by today's standards) we paid. Rafa is in charge of this thing right now, unless we see evidence to the contrary people need to relax and enjoy it.

The player that left us, is better than what we have currently. If we can get on loan with option to buy, it really should be a no brainer. Just strikes to me as something similar to the Routledge signing during our last promotion year, that was vital to us and ensured promotion. Adding Townsend's quality to the group could have a similar effect.

Pleased for the lad, can't be easy sitting around waiting for your chance but proving a more than capable back up, that was a tremendous header.

I don't understand how he can go from being one of the country's most promising players to the obvious pile of crap he is today just because of a stupid greedy move to Man Shitty bench (mind you on hindsight he may have known he wasn't really a footballer and a big money move was a really smart idea).

We've been crap at home and against teams at the wrong end of the table. Derby won't need any more motivation. Don't think those games are a given 9 points at all, both Rotherham and QPR have picked up of late and won at the weekend, Derby had been on a great run until the game at Leeds.

There is not even a "source close to the owner" quote in that article. Really not worth worrying about unless some evidence surfaces, such as lack of activity in the window or Rafa speaking out.

They always survive. They are in a better position to survive this season then they have been at this stage in previous seasons, how anyone can say that they are down is beyond me. better position? they look shocking, are you serious? They are 1 point behind Palace. They have looked shocking and easily the worst team in the league for years but always pull it out of the bag. With them only being 1 point behind they have every chance of getting out of it, all it takes is a little bit of luck for them to turn things around and these f***ers have a leprechaun supporting them. Normally 1 point a game is relegation form this season 21 points has you in 15th place and 5 points clear of the bottom 3. They are lucky as usual that this season they have the easiest job to survive despite them having, even by their own very low standards, their weakest squad. They shouldn't even be close to staying up, but they have a great chance of doing so, especially with their history.

Getting Shelvey back but losing Hayden therefore Colback continues We've struggled most against teams at the wrong end of the table. My glass is still half empty at the moment, still at a 7, if we can string a few wins together amongst all these injuries then I may move up the scale, but sounds like today's win was a major struggle, we need to get moving in the transfer market, not sure why we are dragging our feet.

I don't think, I would want this. Pardew has a knack of starting off well at clubs, it's only after his influence has started to take effect that things go downhill. The status quo is fine for now, thank you.

Any link for those living on Forrin shores ?

I was listening to the end of this on the way home from my son's footie class. Nervous as hell, sounds like we got some luck with the ref there, leveling out some of the decisions earlier this season. Vital 3 points but at what cost ?

Nice seeing this sort of post after 10 minutes of play.... The whole point of the phrase "written all over it" is that you think this is the likely outcome. Reading comprehension ftw.

This has Blackburn again written all over it. We really don't make the most of our possession in games atm.

That whole midfield 5 with the exception of Hayden is pretty meh, we need to invest in better players for that part of the pitch. No problem with the defence (although I would go with Lazaar for Dummet) and Gayle up front, it's the midfield though where we are very weak.

Good for you, have a cookie.

You've got to be joking, like. They weren't great but we basically had 2 chances and took them both. Leeds missed theirs. FFS they had zero quality, not about us about them. They were rancid.

Leeds were one of the worst sides we've played all season, not sure how they are so close to us now.

Isn't this the time in games where Reading and Brighton usually get two goals to win them ?

They reckon we'll win all of our remaining home fixtures apart from one, which we'll draw. Yeah, ok. They've obviously not seen much of us at home, our form at SJP has been the biggest surprise this season for me. I thoroughly expected us to end up with a near perfect record at home and our hopes for promotion would lie in how well we were able to do on the road. Couldn't be further from the truth.