ikri

That's the worst Arsenal have looked since Wenger took over. The type of game that Sunderland player today, quickly closing Arsenal players down in numbers, used to benefit Arsenal since they had players able to quickly pass their way out of trouble and always had players running into space. Closing players down en masse like Sunderland did today would have seen that team annihilated a few seasons ago. Then there's the attacking players always looking for the pass instead of looking to make a shot, they looked like they were scared of shooting today.

Are the rules different in Scotland? In England "footballing" creditors are the priority and HMRC have to fight for the money with the rest of the normal creditors, it's why Portsmouth escaped liquidation since they were able to pay pennies in the pound for their major debts.

Woeful performance. Utter garbage from start to finish.

Disgraceful performance.

Fucks sake. All because Guthrie decided he was Messi and Perch found a nice warm spot in no-man's land

What the fuck are we playing at?

Sky Sports @SkySports Our sources understand Guus Hiddink is interested in becoming England's next manager following Capello's resignation. More to follow... Would be an outstanding choice. So, no chance it'll ever happen.

Good result & a great goal to win it. Now if Man Utd can just win 11-0 against Chelsea we'll go 4th.

SJH thought that Keegan's appointment might be just enough of a boost for the players and fans that, with a little luck, we could survive that season. He didn't believe that Keegan would be successful in the longer term and was probably one of the most surprised when it turned out that Keegan was more than a short-term gimmick.

No idea how we managed a clean sheet there, not a pretty performance at all just glad that Blackburn are rubbish. Still, we're up to fifth and that's all that matters.

He really has no clue what's going on around him on the pitch, giving them free kicks for 50/50 challenges, a penalty for a nothing challenge and a free kick for a blatant dive. We should probably learn from it though and start rolling on the floor every time a Blackburn player breathes too hard.

Disgusting, pathetic, cowardly display

I think there's some weird restrictions on the players that Darlo can field in the next few games. They can only sign players who haven't played in the last 2 seasons or something like that, wouldn't be an issue for a number of our youngsters who haven't kicked a ball in a 1st team game yet but would prevent us from sending them Alan Smith (besides, they've probably suffered enough already).

Brum rejected our bid as I recall, pretty sure there was talk of him putting in a transfer request that was rejected by Brum too. Missing out on Bruce probably did set us back a few years. Nothing to do with him mind, but the guy who said yes was Souness who really did set us back 5 years.

I always feel like I need a shower after reading anything written on that cesspit of a site

It's never been the players, or lack of players, that's screwed them over. They've got players comfortably capable of playing in League One/Two. That massive, useless, pointless stadium is what has screwed them. It's miles away from the town centre with crap parking and it's stupidly expensive for the level they're at. If you're a casual football fan, you're not likely to go there too often. The last 2 or 3 owners have all said the same thing, if the council would lift the covenants on the land that the ground is on so developers could build shops, a cinema, etc. then they could probably make it a success. But they knew that wasn't going to be allowed when it was being built but it seems they built it anyway with the expectation that once the stadium was there the council would recant and allow the rest of the development - like building an extension to a house without planning permission and hoping that once it was done they'd be allowed retroactive planning permission, sometimes it works, sometimes the council turn up to demolish it. Move the club back into the town centre (Feethams is still there, lying derelict), drop the ticket price and get fans back in the ground. If they do that they'll stand a chance of survival. Even if they find investment to see out this season they'll be back in the same position inside a couple of years, without investment they'll be starting next season as a new club right at the lowest tier of English football (and they'll probably be better of for it).

Fucking brilliant.

Partly to do with ticket prices. Darlington tickets start at £18 for adults, for us it's £26, at Sunderland it's £25, at Boro it's £24. That's not a huge difference in ticket prices to see local Premiership or Championship football.

They have no assets and no cash. Their players have apparently been paid up to the end of December (done just before going into admin) but there's no guarantee they'll even be fielding a team at the weekend. Many of their fans aren't talking about administration any more, they're talking about liquidation. There are plans to form a new club if Darlington FC fail completely, they have the money already available and agreements on ground shares, etc. Whether the current clubs will see out the season is unknown but there will be a Darlington Football Club in some guise next season.

Think they'll buy some 'former stars' like they've done during the summer with Wright-Philips. What they need is a former England international who can cover a number of positions and who can't get a game at his current club.

It's the apparent lack of a Plan B that worries me. Against Swansea it was pretty obvious that the starting tactics, get the ball to the wingers & have them swing in crosses from the by-line, wasn't working. They were playing pretty deep and our crosses were generally poor (as ever). He could have brought HBA on (even Vuckic too, not sure if he was on the bench that day) and pushed Cabaye further up with instructions for them to start hitting shots from range. Sooner or later you're going to get a deflection or lucky ricochet. Alternatively, Jonas, HBA and even Obertan are decent dribblers, why not have the wingers start cutting inside and running at the defence? Swansea were well organised but Jonas and HBA are experienced international players, they'd have won free-kicks and created more chances than just hitting poor crosses in all the time. Pardew's Plan B against Swansea was to do exactly the same thing that wasn't working but this time with players he didn't think were good enough to start the game. Against West Brom it was clear that we were getting screwed by pace at the back and by playing so far up the pitch we were creating our own problems. Why didn't he instruct the defenders to sit further back so their quick players had no space to run into? Again, Pardew's Plan B was to do exactly what we were already doing but with different personnel. Liverpool was the same, the tactics weren't working. Plan B was to swap personnel like-for-like and continue doing the same thing that wasn't working. Whilst he's been willing to change the starting tactics in a few games, he seems incapable of changing tactics once the game has kicked off if it has become clear that the initial tactics aren't working. Most of our problems have been of our own making which gives me hope that with work on the training ground we can improve but Pardew needs to start learning from mistakes and not simply try the same thing over and over when it's clear it isn't working.

Crap non-clearance for their equaliser Gave away a dodgy free-kick for their 2nd Played Simpson into trouble who then lost possession in the lead up to their 3rd He gave away possession cheaply throughout the game His performance today was worthy of Nicky Butt.

Pathetic defending costing us points again.

pathetic

Scott Brown's agent? Mr Willie McKay.