afar

never going to sore there

One goal will win this, we just need a break in the penalty area. They've set themselves up as the away team, just happy to hold out for a draw and try to snatch a goal like they did at SJP.

Reading getting beat and Brighton struggling, we have to take advantage.

They are there for the taking, we have to put a bit more quality together in the final third in the second half and we will win easily.

This is encouraging elsewhere: It's fair to say Brighton have their backs against the wall at Fulham this afternoon, but thanks to David Stockdale's penalty save they are still level. bbc.com I'm sure they'll do their usual and get a late penalty or Fulham will get a player sent off, they've gotten a lot of breaks this year.

We lack so much in a creative aspect, it needs to be addressed. Shelvey is our only creative outlet.

Feel like a goal is coming soon but not sure which way they look like they could steal something on the break.

That is a pen

expected him to score there

awful corner, we've been crap at corners for a while now

Poor start, not keeping the ball well at all.

I agree, would be a very sound move, remeber we are in the championship and he's more than good enough for that division, I believe he's proved that in the past too.

All the best folks, hope 2017 brings joy to you and yours.

He's been outstanding, I thought we well over paid for an average player when we bought him, happy to admit I way way wrong, proving to be a steal even at 10 million, if we go up, his goals would have been a big part in that.

I think in many respects he's been let down a little by his players available to him in his pivotal role. Despite that we are top of the league. Perez and Diame over the course of the season have not contributed enough, Diame has improved of late though. The flanks have offered little in terms of creativity also, with Ritchie being bang average and practically nothing coming down the left. That's why the loss of Shelvey appears to be hitting us hard, we don't have enough of the other players setting up chances for Gayle. Having said all that, we really don't have too much to grumble at on 52 just past the halfway point, still on course for the main objective.

Were you at the game ? Ando and that opther guy made it sound dreadful despite the win, in fact only reason we got the three points according to Ando was because of the sending off. Was Ando just being his usual miserable self ?

At half time tonight I'm down to a 7, it's very worrying that we can not put teams like Forest to the sword, not sure if Rafa has the answers here without Shelvey.

Last time in the championship we didn't have Colback in midfield. Aye, we had Alan Smith Unfortunately for us right now, Smith back then is a hell of a lot better player than Colback now, and Smith was certainly no world beater.

It's a smart bet tbh.

Might switch this off, only going one way this game, not sure whats happened to us, yes we've lost Shelvey but we still should be head and shoulders above anything else in this division, not showing that right now, against one of the teams in the worst form in the league.

A win tomorrow is essential imo, otherwise doubts will begin to become serious, in fact a nice run of 5 or 6 wins on the bounce is what we need right now to settle a lot of nerves.

Still a 9 for now, but have a bad feeling about our form right now, 6 defeats in the first half of the season is not good enough for champions, Brighton when they win today will deservedly be top at the half way mark. Witht he squad we have we have to do better in the 2nd half of the season, if we want to win the division, we are firmly on course though for promotion, Reading worry me though with the gap cut to 6 points now and on yesterday's evidence Sheff Wed could be a big danger. If 96 didn't happen I would be a lot more confident, but when you are 12 points clear and lose the title in the end by 4 points, you shouldn't take anything for granted again, that's a 16 point swing from around this time in the season, we were 9 points clear this year of 3rd but now only 6, we've still got a lot of work to do and to be frank I'm concerned about how we are playing right now.

Had a bad feeling about this one, people thinking we don't need to worry about Reading are off their tits imo, we've got to cut out these losses if we want to go back up.

That's the thing that pisses me off, the Mackems even by their standards, have an awful squad and are pretty dire and perhaps their worst group of players in all these near escapes but this year there are so many teams that are just not capable of staying in the division that they will survive, Moyes is a good second half of the season manager. They get through this year still in the PL and my worry would be that Moyes will do what he did with Everton and turn them around. If this had been the standard of the PL last year we would have comfortably survived even with McClaren in charge.

My wish list in order of preference: 1. Us to get promoted 2. Us to win the FA cup 3. The Mackems to drop 4. Fat Sam to get relegated 5. Us to get to the final of the FA Cup 6. Us to win the Championship. 7. Pardew takes over at Mackemville.