ikri

There used to be a website rightresult.net that showed what the league table would look like without the mistakes. I'm not sure if it is still being updated though, it's asksing for a username/password at the moment. The league table without mistakes in the season we went down highlighted how many decisions went against us that season, we would have stayed up by a few points but for crap refereeing. Sadly I can already see this season going the same way.

A fair indication that nobbling HBA was their top priority at the start of the game. No one has been able to get close to him in his previous starts, it was always a fair bet that other teams would try and take him out by other means. Yeah. It was what in American football would be called 'unnecessary roughness.' I presume he wasn't out to nobble the player, but I think it was designed to hurt and put him off. It was a similar tackle to the one that got Barton sent off against Liverpool, in that he allowed his trailing leg to follow through. De Jong was a bit more subtle. I disagree that it wasn't designed to nobble him. De Jong went in to hurt Ben Arfa, as other thugs do to players week in week out. Not for one moment saying he tried to break his leg, but the intention was to put the player out of the game early on. Shouuld be banned for the length of Ben Arfa's injury lay-off - same goes for the likes of Shawcross, Henry, or any other player who seriously injures a player through a foul challenge If the tackle had been made by some no-name British player for a mid-table team the media would be calling for his head right now but since the tackle was by an (alleged) cultured international footballer playing for a title-chasing club there's almost no chance that there will be any action.

Wonder how long it'll take for someone in the post match analysis to come out with the these decisions all balance out in the end line. They absolutely do not balance out & they played a part in getting us relegated last time around (non existent penalties, free kicks, corners, etc.). Considering who we were playing, £180m+ worth of players + a shit ref, we did well & were unlucky in the end. Jonas did well, Shola played his part as well as he could, the defence were well organised for the most part. Nolan was missing again for most of the game and if Carroll's poor performance against Stoke saw him dropped then Nolan's performances in the last couple of games should probably see him put down.

"Open to debate" What debate? Their pen wasn't a foul & was outside the box, our claim was a clear trip inside the box. We've been robbed by this clown of a referee

46 minutes & Nolan's name has finally been mentioned.

Great goal

Am I allowed to be devastated that for the first time in ages, I've lost all hope the the team I'm supporting might be more than a bunch of grafters holding on for dear life? Ridiculous foul by Williamson. What a worthless match this is shaping up to be. Won the ball as shown on the replays, never a pen.

These tossers on ESPN keep going on about how fair a challenge it was, but now they're refusing to show some of the replays due to how bad the challenge actually was.

Just bizarre. Carroll was poor because the entire game plan against Stoke failed. Plan A (get crosses into Carroll's head & hope for a flick-on or header on target) didn't work because the Stoke defenders were better than Carroll in the air and there was no Plan B. When we played the ball on the ground we looked comfortable in possession and we were always going to get chances from free-kicks around the box but we kept on persisting with the same tactics for 90 minutes even though it was obvious they weren't going to work after 10 minutes. If Carroll has been dropped because he was under par against Stoke what the fuck is Nolan doing on the pitch. Carroll's failure was down to the team & tactics, what's Nolan's excuse for his abysmal performance?

Our lack of a Plan B was what killed us today. Stoke beat us to almost every ball in the air, or where we did win a header it was inconsequential. When we played football on the deck they had nothing to counter us other than backing off some more, why we continued to pump balls up in the air even when it was clear that it wasn't working is beyond me. The best crosses for us today (other than the pen which the keeper would have claimed easily even if Carroll hadn't been fouled) were all below head height where Stoke's heading & physical wasn't as effective. That being the case, Hughton's subs were even more inexplicable. Taking off Ben Arfa who was forcing them back all the time on the floor for a winger (who is notorious for his bad crossing) to cross more balls into the box for Stoke to defend with ease & taking off Tioté for Ameobi to help fail to win a header where it mattered. I don't think Nolan should play at home, he looks far too complacent and is dead weight for the most part. The comparison to last week when he was actually quite effective away from home is bizarre.

Did I blink & miss the SSN highlights or have they just completely ignored the goals?

Ha! fuck you you cheating bastards!

The last time the BBC said anything critical about a team was when they criticised an England performance. The FA were so pissed off with their criticism that they ignored the BBC's bid for the next set of qualifying games & handed the games to ITV. Since then the BBC haven't had the balls to criticise teams in case the players and managers stop talking to them (like Sir Alex does & Redknapp did) or worse, the clubs get pissed off enough that the BBC lose the highlights package. Sky can criticise all they like as they're the only game in town, there's no one else to sell the games to right now but the highlights are a different matter with the BBC, ITV and Five all bidding for the rights.

Great win & great performances from Tioté & Ben Arfa

Wow

Broken collar bone?

I'd rather see us win games by playing great football, if that's not possible I want to see us win, if that's not possible I want to see us try. That's why I detest Allardyce. Playing bad football, losing and not even trying to win games.

Or them and Hartlepool could move in with Darlo. At current crowd levels you could easily seat all the fans from boro, darlo & pool in there at the same time with a few thousand seats spare.

Yeah all very interesting, but What does he think of appointing a manager who had won four titles with two different clubs and 3 manager of the year awards?

The last time anyone on the BBC actually said what they thought about a game the FA got so pissed off that they ignored their bid for the next set of Euro/WC qualifier games, giving them to ITV instead. Since then the BBC haven't allowed anyone to say anything that might be seen as critical of the FA or Premiership.

Typical sensationalist media spin here. Anyway: defies belief. Add that to what Taylor said about Shearer being the only manager who had every given him any 1-to-1 training in 5 years and you begin to wonder just what some managers actually did in training.

If Man Utd were to fall into serious financial difficulty there would be no need for the government to step in, the banks would do so instead since it is their money that's at risk - not the tax payer's.

Who to believe? Known liars Ashley & Llambias or known liar Paul Stretford?

Great header by Ranger to set that up

£16m + Ireland (who also got £1.5m from City to leave) + add-ons according to most reports I've read.