afar

Simpson more to blame for giving the corner away, Harper was being impeeded, but that's not to say he couldn't have been a little stronger in there. What a load of garbage, Harper is the keeper and as soon as that ball goes in the 6 yard box he should be pushing people out of the way to claim the ball, not just standing there hoping for the ref to blow up, the useless tool. Aure you insane ? Are you 12 ? Are you just on drugs ? Watch the fucking game and don't come back with stupid remarks. I never said Harper couldn't have done more, just should never have been a corner in the first place and the defender was stopping Harper moving out, good play but still impeeding him.

All Sheff Utd atm.

No it's not, awful first half.

Simpson more to blame for giving the corner away, Harper was being impeeded, but that's not to say he couldn't have been a little stronger in there.

They haven't won away for 4 moths, we haven't lost at home all season, typical Newcastle.

Needless corner conceeded, bad goal.

Poor start, Sheff Utd started very strongly, pressing us all over the pitch, can they do that for 90 mins though.

Woot Promoted !!

Are you guys all high ? Of course we should not want Forest to win. The sooner promotion is secured the better, there will be a grest atmoshere if were up already going into it.

LOL just saw the Leeds result, I was keen to see them back in the Championship next year before they got arsey about Beckford, now funny as hell that they may have to rely on the playoffs despite holding onto beckford to help them get up, they'll lose him on a free now and hopefully not get up

Not wrong at all, based on the crap at the bottom, but if all we achieve is retaining our PL status by the end of next year then we should not be too disappointed.

3 for me Based on the rubbish that's at the basement of the PL.

Not sure there's an awful lot wrong with that piesce to be honest.

Absolute no brainer for me, Saturday, the sooner we are confirmed the better. Got a sneaky feeling it will be 15 pts ahead of Forest with them only having 5 games left to play though.

LOL, I just clicked on the link on the Beeb site for the Nottingham Evening Post's match review, here: http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/sport/Report-Newcastle-2-Forest-0/article-1953477-detail/article.html Talk about a homer, did he watch a different game to me, did he see the match stats ? IT was unfortunate that, on a night when they tasted what life might be like in the Premiership, Nottingham Forest saw their chances of earning a place in the top flight, at least through automatic promotion, become a little more remote. The intimidating surrounds of St James' Park, packed with more than 45,000 fans, did little to deter Billy Davies' side who, for long periods, looked as thought they might become the first team to depart the stadium with a full quota of points. They can, in fact, feel a sense of injustice that they returned south with nothing to show for their efforts. It may have been their seventh straight away defeat in the Championship – but it was hardly deserved.

And that's a very good point, just because you perform at this level is no idicator that you can step it up at the level above. Beckford may be too much of a gamble even on a free, so perhaps we go in a different direction, I can't see Hughton going far from home with any of his signings however.

Not a lot. You could just about come to the conclusion that without strengthening, in a league of two, we'd beat them to the top spot on goal difference? A league of two with three teams in it. Going back to the original point you can't really isolate it like that. Next season we'll beat some teams we shouldn't and lose to some teams we should beat. That's just football. You've got to look at the whole body of work, we've been comfortably the most consitent force in this league and we are more ready to play PL football than those two teams. West Brom's defence has been pretty awful for a team at the top of the table, it'll get steamrolled next year as it did last year, unless they significantly buy. Wigan, West Ham or Hull, Bolton, Sunderland (who minus Bent are a really poor side) and Wolves, have nothing for us to fear. Even when you go to mid table teams like Blackburn, Stoke and Birmingham, should we be intimidated by them ? Mid Table is more than a realistic targetr for us next season, even with modest outlay.

I would probably look to rotate the 3 strikers, with Shola and Ranger filling in when needed. Don't see why all three of the main guys can't play with alongside each other.

To be honest I hink our current squad is better than 4 or 5 PL teams. The problem though is our big support, lends itself to the players feeling more pressure to perform. So we still have to invest in order just to stay up. I'm not concerned about the budget, more concerned that we address the areas of the team that need strengthening. We did a great job of that in January, the signings of Routledge and Williamson (particually the former) had a huge impact on our late season form. People on here hate Simpson, that's pretty clear from just a cursory glance at most threads, so I'm sure a lot would like to see us buy another RB. Personally, I'm not that concerned with him. Can Carroll and Loven do it at the top level or do we need to bring in a striker with a bit of pedigree ? Can our central midfield compete, or do we need to freshen it up ? Can Kadar be the 4th CH or do we need another ? This is what I would do: Sell: Nolan Smith R Taylor Barton That would bring in some cash but more importantly significantly reduce the wage bill. Buy: A young right back with a lot of potential A creative midfielder A defensive midfielder A young right winger A left footed left winger A goalscoring striker (get Beckford on a free)

I think people are being way too harsh on Taylor here, people tend to forget how solid we were early season and it was only when the Colo/Taylor partnership was broken up that we went through a rough patch. Williamson to me is a strong, kind of old fashioned centre back, who does the basics really well. But I can't get over the feeling that he is too ponderous both in body and thought to make it at the next level. Taylor despite what others on here say, has proved he can handle life in the PL. For me, he and Colo remain our first choice, with Williamson filling in as and when necessary.

Agree 100%. I was singing his praises after that PNE match, but he genuinely shouldn't be near the first XI. http://web.mlsnet.com/images/2007/12/05/7HJCpY6K.jpg would be good right back like, even gets forward more tbf Agree. Would much rather him at RB. We'll see... I might get some stick here, but this was the first chance I really got to analyse Williamson for a full game. To me he seems a little ponderous and slow, he's big strong and physical and easily good enough for this division, I would worry though next year when he comes up against the likes of Tevez, Rooney and Torres.

Just finished watching the game, thought we totally controlled it, we had to wait for the goal but really never in any danger from Forest. Disappointed with Forest, got to say, they did defend well for the early part of the game, but seemed to tire and from an attacking point of view they were atrocious. For a team that really needed to win to keep up their chances of auto promotion, they didn't do anywhere near enough, seemed intimidated and had virtually zero creativity. I've been saying all week to anyone that's wanted to listen to me that if we beat Forest we are up, I think we are now, even though the mathematicians disagree, huge win in promotion terms, lets seal the deal in the next couple of games.

Waht about Hughton to Celtic ?

I agree, I was hoping too that we would see more of him. Hopefully he's not been learning from the likes of Shola and Barton, it'll be tougher for him to break into the team next year.

It's been a stroll, we could easily lock up promotion with around 5 or 6 games still to play, to describe it as anything other than that would be to completely flatter the crap in this division.