merlin

I think it depends on our performance - if we play well and only lose by the odd goal, people will accept that it takes a while for new players to bed in but if we lose badly and play poorly with lousy subs etc, there will be more rumblings from the fans - Pardew has to start delivering and that means at least some attacking football at SJP and no meek surrenders. I reckon Ashley will also be thinking this way....

You are never going to get football mercenaries from another country feeling the same about NUFC as NE born players, or even other Brits....both Supermac and Rob Lee have an abiding love for the club despite being southerners. They might tell a few home truths about the club but so what ? They gave 100% whilst playing for us and were great players who were a credit to the club. Ba, and indeed, all the other foreigners will not feel the same and we should not expect it...its just a job for them.

Very sad to hear that this is happening - he could have been one of the best English players of all time and in my view, a far greater talent than the over-hyped Beckham. Unfortunately, there are echoes of George Best in this saga - Gazza never had as many women, but he certainly seems to have matched Best for drinking and that looks as if it is going to take him to an early grave. Will never forget seeing his debut against Spurs when he forced their keeper into a brilliant save from his first real touch of the ball, a direct free-kick which he bent over their wall. A silly lad who made an ill-advised marriage and wasted his fantastic talents, but who had no malice in him....if only he had been managed by Clough or Ferguson in his early days he would probably have never come to this.

Pretty much this - we spent more than they probably wanted to, but it was do or die...sitting on the money until summer was not an option if they wanted to stay in the PL. Still light up front and badly need pace there, but we should have enough to stay up. If we only just manage it, I reckon Pardew is toast in the summer.

Could be either, could be neither. He has done a good job in this window although it was that or relegation ; we need another decent striker, preferably one with pace, and if it was one coming in and one player being sold I would be quite happy with that. Tiote would be the most likely to go of the top players, with Santon next. Simpson is also a possibility.

good move for both sides imo. they desperatly needed a quality CB. Agreed - he's a good CB and could be the signing that keeps them up, even though they are payinga fortune in wages.

With a better manager, I would reduce my forecast to 5 mainly because of the new signings. As it is, with Pardew in charge and Reading getting another good point last night, I'm sticking with the original 7 until I see concrete evidence that the players are going to be used properly.

Nice post, I agree about giving him until the end of the season, Some of the subs baffle me but as you say he seems to have the support of the dressing room which is a major plus. Hopefully this could be the result that kicks our season into gear?!? You cannot keep quoting last season's results to defend a manager - Pardew has form with other clubs that indicate he has initial success with a club then it all goes pear-shaped...why does anyone believe it will be different at NUFC ? I know for a fact that the Southampton Chairman warned that this would happen when he joined us.

I'm going to quote that again because it's just hilarious and frighteningly true at the same time. All true - Pardew has Plan A...then he has Plan A.

Dear "Derek", your mate Pards is putting too many square pegs into round holes and has been doing for some time. Cisse on the right wing, Mbiwa in midfield, Ameobi in midfield, Anita at right back Demba Ba stuck out on the left etc etc.... the list goes on and has done for months now. His tactical nous is also highly questionable and he has form for doing well in his first full season at whatever club he is at and struggling after that. Check his stats...... These things are contributing to the fact of why we are getting "knobbed on a regular basis" by supposedly inferior teams. Have a nice day! PS/.. Man United do not replace attackers with defensive midfielders when they are chasing a game unlike a certain somebody does at Newcastle United. You might be on to something here, Wally - I asked last week whether this guy could be a board troll... Nail on head.

He would want another striker, but he would make a brilliant side out of the players we have now.

For a penalty to be awarded 1 or more of these should happen. The ball or player must be travelling/facing towards goal. There is a goal scoring opportunity. A deliberate hand ball. If there is a foul in the box and non of those situations apply then it is an indirect free kick. Rule 1 in Refs handbook - 'the referee's decsion is final'...Pat Partridge confrimed that...

... Gouffran? He doesn't look like Supermac Mk 2 to me...!

In 1972, we lost to Non-league Hereford, then beat Man U at OT the follwing week... That's the Cup. Incidentally, that was the last time we beat Man U at OT......

Utter Utter Utter Garbage We held on after being under the cosh, having gifted them a goal - if Simpson had done what Debuchy did he'd be getting crucified on here, Krul actually made some saves for once. We won away from home, Cabaye and Sissoko were excellent until they tired. We won after a team came back at us, previously a team scores and we fold, this time we didn't. Laugahable !!, when we lose it's Pardew's fault, when we win it's despite Pardew. WE WON A GAME, AWAY FROM HOME, NO LESS !!! If winning 4-0 is your benchmark of acceptability, you may as well pack in and start watching basketball. Confidence is an incremental thing and I'll quite happily take some scraped results whilst it builds. Either you have as much comprehension of tactical changes as Pardew has or you never actually watched the second half. Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were a professional coach, which club do you work for ?? BTW - Yes we were poor second half, but we hung on, Debuchy doesn't have a brainfart and they would have fizzled out. Them scoring early combined with our lack of confidence meant we were on the back foot. Agree with the changes or not - we held on, and we won, ergo the substitutions worked. Do you have a problem with people passing an opinion that doesn't go along with yours ? What makes YOU think you are in a position to use your pathetic attempt at sarcasm by asking another poster if they were a qualified coach ? You lost any credibility when you started quoting Talksh--e - those people are living adverts for the lousy standard of the UK media, and as for the BBC...doesn't that stand for the Biased Broadcasting Corp ? IF you want to judge any situation properly, you try to get as much info about it as possible....you claim that you want to give Pardew time - have you studied his record with his previous clubs ? Has it occurred to you that there may JUST be a pattern there...? If you are a Pardew fan that's fine....just don't expect the rest of us to take the sort of crap you are dishing out in his defence if we disagree - and the percentages of voters who either have lost faith with him or didn't have much in the first place far outweighs those with opinions like yours. You can freely discuss your views about the majority when you meet with those who think like you in a telephone box.....

Debuchy has shown good attacking skills in his games so far, but is unconvincing when a quick forward takes him on for pace in defence. This could well be that he is used to more time on the ball and to be able to support attacks in the French league and that is not available to him in the PL. He is a quality player, but it may take him a while to adjust...look at Colo's first season...

Basically this - we were lucky to win this match, Krul saving our bacon in the second half with at least 3 great saves....all caused by handing the initiative to Villa, who, thanks to Lambert's HT reorganization, really put us under the screw. They went for it with 3, sometimes 4 up front and with Gutierrez having a nightmare second half, our m/f couldn't cope at times. Naturally, we reverted to hoofing the ball forward once Shola came on, and needless to say, he lost it more times than not.This is Pardew's favoured tactic. Pardew had millions of pounds worth of talent in the side and still managed to make us look worse than Villa in the second half...their side cost a fraction of ours. We have some great players but we are never going to see the best of them under this man...some may disagree, but that's my opinion. do you not think sissoko and cabaye had crap second halves ? Yes - but to try to use that as an excuse for Pardew is ridiculous. Sissoko will take a few games to get up to the speed of the PL game and Cabaye is still a bit short of proper fitness - do you not think that they both did enough to win us the game in the 1st half and then the manager did his best to muck it up with the usual subs and hoofing balls up to Ameobi ? And what about Jonas' hopeless contribution in the second half ? No wonder Cabaye and Sissoko were finding it tough.....

It was a clumsy challenge by Debuchy - he didn't even need to try to tackle at that point as the player was going away from goal. He caught him without touching the ball so it was a pen....we probably wouldn't have been awarded it, but that's what happens in away games.

We had a bad run under KK during the promotion season, but the team never lacked confidence and Keegan never let them.... Its up to the manager to take the pressure and sort out the team...whether in their heads or on the training ground.

We almost threw this game away after dominating the first half. The crucial moment for me was N'Zogbia's shot hitting our post when we were 1-0 up - a goal for them then could have changed the whole game. You wouldn't have thought so until you saw the abysmal second half performance, assisted once again by Pardew's subs and his inability to deal with a rival manager's tactical changes. Had Krul not been on top form we could well have lost and that would have been criminal after gaining such a good advantage in the first half.....he made at least 3 top class saves. Sissoko was the stand out of the new signings with his first half display and great pass for Cisse's goal. Another brilliant strike from Cabaye and his all-round committment gave us a solid base to win the match - we then proceeded to attempt to throw it all away. Colo was a rock in the second half and I stick to my view that if we lost this guy before May, we would be a favourite to go down because it will take time for Yanga-Mbiwa to adjust to the PL. Jonas was awful in the second half and he is surely coming to the end of his time with us now....his disappearance meant that our flanks were constantly coming under pressure . Why they shoved Anita up front was a mystery to me but then again, we lack pace up front. Cisse is not slow, but it is his anticipation which is his biggest threat...he is not fast over a distance. As for Shola...no words needed apart from the fact that his presence was our cue to begin hoofing..... Relieved that we got the points but we are not out of the woods yet and NUFC fans could well win the prize for the most bitten finger nails by the time May arrives with Pardew in charge. We have some excellent players but we are never going to see the best of them under this guy.

IF we had some pace up front I could see us getting a result of sorts in this game because we could put some pressure on the weakest area of their team. As it is, I can't see us getting anything although I suspect the m/f battle will now be a lot closer than it would have been before Sissoko was signed. We need a striker with real pace in order to make the best of our m/f...neither Cisse or Ameobi are blessed with it although Cisse's anticipation off the mark is what makes him damgerous.

Sissoko had a decent debut...brilliant pass for the Cisse goal. Looks mobile and strong but faded in second half - will be a big asset once he gets some proper direction....don't know when that will be though..!

Basically this - we were lucky to win this match, Krul saving our bacon in the second half with at least 3 great saves....all caused by handing the initiative to Villa, who, thanks to Lambert's HT reorganization, really put us under the screw. They went for it with 3, sometimes 4 up front and with Gutierrez having a nightmare second half, our m/f couldn't cope at times. Naturally, we reverted to hoofing the ball forward once Shola came on, and needless to say, he lost it more times than not.This is Pardew's favoured tactic. Pardew had millions of pounds worth of talent in the side and still managed to make us look worse than Villa in the second half...their side cost a fraction of ours. We have some great players but we are never going to see the best of them under this man...some may disagree, but that's my opinion.

The problem in Oz is that youngsters are directed towards Oz rules once they get past 10 or 11 but there are loads of kids playing the round ball game and an Academy set up there would have enabled us to grab the best ones and improve them. Once players show talent and potential, they are usually snapped up by overseas clubs as happened with ourselves and Curtis Good...Rojas will also go soon and Dutch/German clubs seem to find it easier to get round Work Permit rules than English ones. England is not producing good players because PL clubs can buy foreigners cheaply but that has not always been the case - before the PL began, it was a regular thing that top clubs bought players from lower league UK clubs ; Kevin Keegan was bought by Liverpool from Scunthorpe and Supermac first started his career as a FB at Fulham before Alec Stock saw his potential and took him to Luton where he became a 30 goal a season striker that cost us a massive(at the time)tranfer fee of 180,000 in 1971. The Charlton Bros, Colin Bell and Howard Kendall were all NE boys who went on to play for England, the former in the side that won the WC and Bell in the team that defended it in Mexico, so we have produced top players....there is a problem with schools not encouraging sport as much now and the French are only producing good players because they set up their main Academy in the early 90s after years of second-rate football - I saw England beat them 5-0 at Wembley in 1969 but whilst they have concentrated on bringing through good technical players, the English FA have made a hash of the whole thing and too many kids now play with computers than with a football...

The calls for Pardew's head began LONG before this match - a bad result here would simply be fuel to the existing flames...