Chris_R

Which is why he'll never cut it as a manager. (Not suggesting I would mind!) My worry is if that's his mentality playing against Plymouth and every other twobit team in this league, what the fuck kind of formation is he planning to play away to Man U next year? Assuming we go up of course.

Back from the game a couple of hours ago (Moved down to Bournemouth last month as I've said in the pre match thread). Anyway, my take on things with particular reference to a few key protagonists: Krul had nothing of note to do, can't remember him being forced into action at any point. Kicking was erratic, flapped at a couple of high balls under pressure and got generous free kicks from the referee. Kadar looked impressive, tidy game at the back. Didn't really put a foot wrong so that's a positive. Pancrate I can't defend. I've seen it said that he was "feeding on scraps" so it's hard to judge him. Well I'm going to: His first touch was s***, he couldn't pass water and he seemed completely unable or unwilling to run at his man when given the opportunity. His one chance to put a cross in resulted in him shanking it off his foot and it went virtually straight forward, rather than 90 degrees across his body and into the box as intended. The only positive I could give was that he turned up. Normally I think Nicky Butt should be burnt at the stake, but today he looked reasonably competent. Of our midfield, he looked most composed, picked out some good passes and had a couple of good shots. Yeah, there were the occasional "Oh, FOR f***'S SAKE!!" moments with him, but no more than the rest of the team and far less than normal from him. Ranger and Ameobi got little or no service, unless you count balls punted forward to them either in the air or along the ground which they could do nothing with. Ameobi did look more useful, able to hold the ball up better and more able to run at his man. However the support from midfield when he did manage to hold the ball up was shocking. Our general play was awful, with the us getting possession in midfield then the ball often going sideways, sideways, backwards, sideways, backwards, WELLY! towards Ameobi and Ranger. They'd clear it back to our midfield and the cycle repeats. It's something we're all familiar with I'm sure from this season. The midfield are incapable of supporting the attackers (Nolan apart), and we have no width at all other than Jonas and Pancrate yet Hughton seems unable to play both together (I know this was the cup and we're not bothered about it, I'm talking generally), leaving us with only one outlet. The opposition know this, so they just stick 2 men on our only winger and crowd him out. Guthrie is not a winger, he's put some good crosses in from there that have created goals but he drifts inside for 85 minutes and offers no width to our play. I don't know if that's Hughton's instructions or Guthrie just doing it but it needs to stop if he's to play there. I've no idea when Barton's back, but a midfield of: Pancrate Nolan Barton Jonas Would absolutely piss this league if we can keep the rest of the squad together and fit. Unless Pancrate's s*** (Jury's still out for me), in which case let's get another left winger in as a priority over anything else this window. And yes, I do mean left winger, because Jonas should not be allowed to play on the left. He's right footed, and has demonstrated time and again that he can't cross with his left. Sure, he's had a couple of assists there but if I had 500 crosses with my left foot I'm sure one or 2 would by chance find a teammate. I'm just rambling now so I'll shut up, or I could go on all night.

Just seen that on .com, delighted that we've sold out. I'm driving over with the missus from Bournemouth and it'll be the first match we've been to since we moved south in November, really pleased that there'll be good backing and from what Hughton says they'll be taking the match seriously too. Next one I'll probably be able to make it to is Bristol City in March.

Jonas /obvious

Dyer and Cole were quite nippy.

1) and 3) in the OP is Barton for me, at least if he can get some fitness and form back. If he's motivated, he should piss this league. I'd love to see us get people in, but the priority has to be on not letting anyone go.

Got tickets for this for me and the wife, looking forward to it as it's the first game I've managed to get to since we moved to Bournemouth in November. Hope we put a decent team out and hope there's a good few Newcastle fans make it down. I'd love it if we beat Plymouth and got a draw against a mid-table Prem team, it'd really show us where we're at and what we'd be looking at next year if we go up without reinforcements.

No Nicky Butt Only one winger

Bugger, already got a betfair account.

Fucking get in!

Utterly baffled by the lineup. Of course we could well still win, but if we do that won't justify this team selection. We're top of the league, won 7 in a row, and we should be making other teams worry about us rather than the other way round. 1 up front is a joke, especially as it's Carroll Smith and Butt in the middle is a joke We need to start thinking like a top side.

Shame for the lad, always thought he was a good player. Wish him all the best in whatever he does, provided it's not suing SWP as that would just be silly. Football's a contact sport, and we don't want defenders worrying about law suits every time they're faced with a striker bearing down on them.

David Kelly's back? f***, we must be hard up!

The man has scored so many goals on my manager mode on Fifa, he's awesome. Fairly rubbish on FM though.

Luque never, IMO, got a proper chance. Was never given a decent run in the team. Sure, he did fuck all. But it's hard to do anything when you're in the reserves. Owen gets this one for me. Spent 95% of his time injured or shit, cost us tens of millions, left for nothing and we ended up relegated (Count that into the cost as well? ).

Not sure why we need a 35 year old centreback who hasn't played for months when Taylor and Coloccini are doing so well. Campbell wouldn't come unless he thought he'd get first team football regularly and would want big wages. Given our recent transfer dealings, I'd worry about our intentions regarding Colo and Taylor if we were to sign Cambell.

Man City.

£8m for Carroll? You're on glue mate. I neither suggested he was worth it or that we'd be able to get it. I'm simply saying that at this point in time, whilst we're having a push for promotion, he's our player, is under contract and I think there's no way on earth we should sell him. Offer us silly money (ie £8m) and he can go, but offer us what he's worth (£4m perhaps?) then we should hang on to him. No way should we sell players for their market value when we're trying so desperately to get out of this league.

No way would I sell for £4m. If we were offered twice that, 100% cash up front, and Ashley swore on a stack of bibles that we'd be allowed to spend all of that (Sod that, he'd still change his mind. Make it he's got to put the money into a seperate bank account that only Hughton had access to) and if Hughton then actually spent it wisely on a few good players in key positions (Esp the wings), then and ONLY then would I think it's a good move. Otherwise, fuck off West Ham, you snivelling cockney wankers.

The worst thing about the football league show is that they always leave our match until the end, presumably to keep viewing figures high until the end. If you only want the Newcastle game, there's sod all point watching it until the last 10 minutes. As for being in the Championship, the worst thing for me is getting access to the games. I've just moved to Bournemouth, so although I can get radio links easily enough, it's much harder to get any kind of stream as we're simply not televised. If we were in the Prem, that wouldn't be a problem.

No... It's probably disintegrated after being put through the washing machine so many times since he last wore it.

Any legal, UK-based radio links that'll have the match on? I've just moved down to Bournemouth last week so can't tune into local radio anymore (Or get to the match, for that matter!).

This. More chance of finding rocking horse shit though.

Whilst Ryan Taylor is far from being the solution to our lack of a right winger, he's a hell of a lot better there than Guthrie, who I predict will again spend the whole match drifting far too far inside to be of any use at all. We'll therefore have no option but to play everything through Jonas, Peterborough will recognise this and will stick 2 or 3 men on him. He'll therefore create nothing at all, and we'll all slate him saying he's s***. Guthrie will also be slated for doing nothing. We'll win 2-0 despite playing awful again, with goals from Harewood and Taylor.

Worst idea ever. Crap sides should be relegated, if that includes us (Which it did last year) then so be it.