LoveItIfWeBeatU

Let's hope a lot of the Premiership teams get knocked out of the FA Cup in the next round. Clubs would be much more likely to loan out players if they are only in one competition.

Not on Sky TV anymore so we might actually win.

I'm not saying Sels will turn out to be a good buy, I'm saying our fans give some players next to no chance before they make their minds up while other players get a lot of slack.

the ball Must have been a wet leather caser from back in my school days to do that damage.

Was that caused by someone's studs or blades?

David de Gea made a lot of mistakes in his first season in England. Man City's new keeper has dropped a few bollocks this season. I'm not saying Sels will ever be as good as any of them but we tend to write players off very quickly here.

Surely we must be a pretty attractive team to come to for a Premiership player on the fringe of the squad. I guess any Premiership clubs knocked out the cup won't need their fringe players so we might be able to loan players. Everton for example.

The replay will probably be cheap tickets due to the short notice and it being a midweek game. Hopefully we'll have some decent players loaned in in time.

I'd have preferred to predict the correct lottery numbers rather than Rafa's team selection.

Amazed how close I was to the starting line up!

This will never be the line up but: - Play Haidara and Lazaar on the left (either can play left back and left wing). Murphy and Mitrovic up front (if it must be 4-4-1-1 then play Murphy behind Mitrovic). Give Hanley a run out at CB. Yedlin at right back (or right wing with Anita behind him). Centre Midfield is a real problem due to who is available. Colback (who hasn't been playing well), Tiote (who hasn't played for ages), Hayden or Anita (I'm not a fan of Anita in midfield) seem to be the poor options unless players like Ritchie or Gouffran are played out of position.

Well Rafa is going to have to come up with a new plan now we're without Shelvey and Diame for the next few games. Perez and Colback certainly aren't like for like replacements.

We must be able to loan better players than we've currently got in the squad. All Championship teams loan plenty of players from the Premiership. Get some goal scoring and creating midfielders in.

NUFC always lose on Boxing Day and the day before I go back to work after New Year.

NUFC.com mention in their match report of the Nottingham Forest game that Gayle was limping at the end. Hopefully he'll be fit for Blackburn.

With Shelvey suspended and Diame and Atsu going to the African cup of Nations, NUFC will be desperately short of attacking midfielders in January unless replacements are brought in early in the transfer window. There's no cover for the wings and ironically, after being overloaded with players who play the number 10 role last season we'll only have Perez who hasn't performed well this season.

According to the following article from last season, there's no limit to how many players a club can loan but only 5 can be in a match day squad. http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/coventry-city-how-many-loan-10461342

There's got to be some quality players not getting games in the Premiership that we can loan. The African cup of Nations will be a problem though as players who weren't getting games probably will if they have teammates going to the African cup of Nations. I'm not too worried about squad building for the future. We need players good enough to get us promoted now. I thought having Rafa as manager would have meant we'd have a better choice of player to loan at least. Being on target for promotion will hopefully make us an attractive option for fringe players at Premiership clubs.

You can always rely on NUFC to ruin Boxing Day.

The BBC Sport website seems to love Allardyce for some reason. There are 3 stories alone about him on the main page. Also this piece from their chief sports writer saying how wonderful Allardyce is: - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38408288 This is my least favourite part: - Well I remember the song during his reign was "we're shit and we're sick of it". You'd be hard pushed to find any Newcastle fan who wasn't happy to this day that Allardyce was sacked by NUFC. Looks like it will be another miracle job when he keeps Crystal Palace up even though nobody thinks they should be down where they are with their current squad anyway.

That would be the ultimate "guess who wins again" for Mike Ashley if he sold NUFC for £810m. Total bollocks rumour of course.

He turned down a transfer here twice. It was a case of third time unlucky for all concerned. He never really wanted to come here. Rafa had a look at him but let him go on loan with an obligation to buy. He's not coming back.

Sloppy play from both sides.