Lenny

We've all seen how good Cacapa, Faye and Roz have been, but today was the first time that Enrique, imo the best prospect out of our new players, showed that he's very solid. His positioning defensively was very very good. Marked Malbranque out of the game (one quote from a Spurs fan 'was he [Malbranque] even playing?'). He's got some meat yet at the same time is quite agile and pacey. Looks very good. His attacking game is also quite good, passes don't seem to go too astray too often, and also has a good cross. The best thing is that he seems to be a complete fullback, not like Olly Bernard who was only good going forward. Just looks like someone who will only grow and get better with every game, especially if he gets a continued run in the team with Zoggy in front of him. Our left side is fannnnnnnnntastic Our left side does look pretty good, although I can see why Allardyce took N'Zogbia off yesterday because although he was playing quite well going forward, he wasnt providing any protection to Enrique which meant a lot of the time he had no choice but to play the ball long up to Martins. Im sure it will start to work in time but I think its something that they will work on.

Emre is on tiptoes congratulating Martins

christ!

Its refreshing to see the talent we know we have actually performing together in the same game rather than just 1 man at a time for a change!

you cant judge Barton at all from that, we were seeing the game out for the majority of the time he was on. He made a bad pass granted, but its gonna take a while to get him fit.

Pretty much my opinion of him as well. MOM for me though :S

I thought Owen's link up play today was very good.

I thought our entire back four played very well, there is obviously always room for improvement but to say anyone on the pitch in a Newcastle shirt was awful is laughable, no, pathetic! Beye was probably the worst of the lot but still played well, made one mistake of note that he got straight back for.

whateva!

I see where you're coming from because I think Milner gets too much stick as well, but he has come in field quite a bit more than Milner would, which is probably more beneficial to tonights line-up. Also, I think Milner has been due a rest, hasnt been playing to his best lately.

I think he's done alright, and it wouldnt suprise me if part of our game plan is to bring the ball in rather than crossing it anyway. He's looked very composed on the ball.

Quite a lot of the half it seemed like he had nothing to aim at in front of him, although N'Zogbia has been in the game and done alright. Not a fan of Butt, but he's done well. Emre has been busy. The defense has looked very confident, one of the highlights for me is how many times the ball has been hoofed towards our back line and the defender has chested it down and played the ball out. Too many long balls from the full backs though, especially early on.

Realistically 12 points from those 4 fixtures is not an impossible target, I reckon we'll probably get 8 points though: Spurs: D Reading: W Pompey: W Mackems: D

Cant see both Emre and Barton starting this game although it would be nice. I always have a bad feelin about playin Spurs cos my best mate supports them. Probably interchange between: Given Given Beye Faye Cacapa Enrique Beye Faye Cacapa Enrique Geremi Butt Emre Nzogbia Geremi Butt Emre Smith Owen Owen/Smith Nzogbia Owen/Smith I reckon it'l be either 3-2 or 2-1.... to us.

I can see the logic in that, one of our potential star players starts to near a return and our manager says we dont want to rush him back, so fuck it lets get rid of him...

I live in the southeast so have only seen us play twice, my first was Newcastle 4 - 0 Olympiacos for my 21st Bday went with my brother and dad, was a brilliant day.

Unfortunately for Ameobi he just doesnt have the talent to be in our team, he's gonna have to go unless hes happy being a 5th choice striker. I think that this season we are going to see Taylors true colours because its the first time since he's come through to the first team he's really gotta work for his place, he'll either do what N'Zogbia did last year or work hard and make himself a better player and force his way into the team. If he does do what N'Zogbia did it wont work out like it did for N'Zogbia because there wont be a new manager here this time next year to give him another chance.

I actually think that would be a brilliant idea. I think that would be as bad an idea as there possibly could be. When, at the 10th attempt, they eventually managed to beat Arsenal's Under-11s in the final the clamour for them moving down here would be even worse. They are shit and should stay where they are. I dont think that any of them should join our league, but I think that a British cup would be a good idea. Each country still has their FA Cups, it could just replace the League cup.

I actually think that would be a brilliant idea.

They were reasonably decent at the time.

erm.... sorry but I dont agree with that,IMO this past week has been as big a confirmation as your going to get this season that the positive/negative posts are almost completely based on the back of our previous result. We lose to Derby, and the pessimists are crying about how bad our play is, then we beat West Ham and the optimists have their say. We then lose to Arsenal and its the turn of the pessimists again. I dont think having guts has anything to do with it, and there are more than enough doom mongers around for negative thinking not to be considered "popular opinion".

Is this sort of thread gonna crop up every single time we lose from now on then?

Just having a look over this thread and the shortsighted-ness of some of the comments is just unfucking believable. Commenting on the back of a win I admit is the easy thing to do but regardless of that, although people say that they are willing to give the manager a chance, this just shows a lot of people really aren't. There ain't gonna be a quick fix, the shit results will pop up on occassion, but the difference is that we'll probably learn from them this time around as everyone gets to know each other. Coach HTT's thread on the marking of Ashton highlighted a very good point that shows we are identifying problems and adapting to suit. Allardyces analysis is that in-depth that most errors in our play will not go un-noticed and we will learn from them. In my opinion, Im optimistic that I'll be reasonably satisfied come the end of the season. For people to be going on about floggin' two talented 21 year olds that are only going to get better and getting rid of a proven quality manager after just 6 games (who has made our best start to a season in years, without really getting any decent performances out of the team as of yet) is just absolute bollocks!

My lineup is of the assumption that Cacapa and Viduka (and Owen but I would have dropped him anyway) are injured.

Id go with: Given Beye Rozehnal Taylor Enrique Milner Butt Geremi N'Zogbia Smith Martins *Emre instead of Butt if fit.