AyeDubbleYoo

Who was racist towards wor Sammy?

Just need to concentrate on beating Everton, then any points out of the Manchester and Chelsea games are a bonus. We could get something, but I won't be worried if we don't.

Also, the ball was in the air for about 30% of the game, so possession stats are a bit misleading!

Great little bit with Ba and Jonas as well: http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,,23396_7284406,00.html

I though the throw-ins they were skimming along the ground were quite a clever tactic TBH! Not football per se, but I was surprised by it.

He certainly addressed the poor way we usually start games as well tonight. Whether that was because Stoke are technically unable to control a game under pressure I don't know, but still nice to see.

I'd love Pards to have a long, long career with us, always like him even before he came here. Think in the right circumstances he could build an amazing career here. If he could only stay away from players' WAGs.

Simpson seems a really decent lad to me, want him to do well. He scares me a bit with his backing off at times, but you can say that about most defenders. If I had to choose now, I'd sacrifice Raylor for Santon soon. It's a genuinely hard one though, nice to have competition anyway and a good game from Simpson tonight.

Managers like Souness and Allardyce fail to realise that "psyching players up into battle mode" and "having a system that plays to your own strengths as opposed to your opponents" aren't mutually exclusive. We basically played like Stoke today when we didn't have the ball (closing down fast, plenty of tackles, high pressure, tight marking), but when we did have the ball we played like Newcastle, and we fucking caned the horrible bastards. The mistake managers often make is that they then think they have to play like Stoke with the ball too, and that's where they often slip up. Pardew thankfully didn't do that tonight, unlike last year's game here. Good point, I do think dogged closing down and disciplined defending is a bit different to just going out to have a physical battle, but I agree basically.

Did he see his coat tonight? Mourinho wouldn't have looked out of place sporting that number.

As with Wigan, in recent times we would have lost games like this. Pardew seems to be starting to banish the acceptance of defeats in these games, which is no mean feat. If we win against Everton it's dreamland time, I won't even be worried about the Manchester games.

Starting to think Pardew has a real something about him tactically as well. It would have been easy, and what a manager like Allardyce or Souness would have done, to just get the player psyched up into battle mode and send them out to get stuck in and go toe-to-toe with Stoke. But he didn't do that, he realised that if we pressed them from the start they wouldn't have the technique to play their way out. Spot on, great example of just tweaking his tactics to the opposition's weaknesses, without changing the basic shape or personnel.

Wanted to point this post out, as my life is in complete shambles right now, if it weren't for NUFC I don't know what I would do. Absolutely love Ba, Cabaye, Jonas, etc. Great performance, and a quality team. Should be a fantastic season going forward. I wouldn't get in the habit of expecting Newcastle to give you a boost like, but it's good they are at the moment!

The thing I was most pleased with in the first half was that you could see the game plan wasn't just to try and out-battle them. If we'd tried that we would have struggled. Instead we used incredible pressing to hassle their very poor footballers into a lot of mistakes on the ball. Even their long balls were misdirected most of the time, they were under such pressure from our midfield and forwards.

The midfield were bound to be knackered, it's only Jonas and Obertan's freakish stamina that allowed them to play on TBH. If Perch hadn't got himself booked the sub would be less attention-grabbing. Post-match he said he wanted to rely on his British lads to scrap and see the game out, and I sort of agree. Perch obviously isn't a great player, but I don't think he was particularly bad tonight.

Can anyone who was at the game comment on his technical area utilisation tonight? Can't really see it on Sky, did he stray outside the lines?

It's not as if we just 'out-Stoked' them tonight either, we showed them up to be terrible on the ball and totally reliant on long balls and throw-ins. Using the towels and that was immense though, I just wanted Pards to ask for one to nonchalantly mop his brow.

It's a shame he has to defend so much, but in games like this it's a god-send. Immense today he was, love the guy.

On another note, was he wearing eyeliner today? Halloween costume?

The fixture list stuff is bollocks as far as I'm concerned, obviously teams we've beaten are more likely to be in the bottom half anyway. Pulis talking some shite to Five Live as well, talked about the "soft penalty the referee gave them". Incredible.

Didn't think he was too bad TBH, the booking was nothing. He was just trying to show his commitment, since when was getting booked such a tragedy?

Man, I was trying to think of a post based on that after the Battlefield advert! Fair play to you sir.

Do wonder if narrowing the pitch actually helps Stoke, their wingers seems their only competent players.

Not really, it wasn't that bad. I know Perch is shite, but he actually did alright today. I thought Pardew was right not to expose HBA in particular to this match at that point in the game.