oldtype

That's the spirit, f*** the 6 games to play, the ship has sunk, what hope is there, the other teams are all in brilliant form and will in no way slip up. Which statement is more pessimistic?

The sad thing is, during his brief productive patch under Kinnear he was good in the air, held up the ball well, and actually did work his socks off. Somehow since coming back from injury he's managed to unlearn all of those positive attributes.

A really, really top class header by the way. Just like his one against West Ham was.

By the way, I think somebody in the match thread mentioned that he'd deleted all of his friends on Facebook who were Newcastle fans? Think that makes it pretty obvious where his intentions lie...

Nothing to smile about really. We can call it a "frownie" instead.

He'd probably refuse because the seats on your car weren't cushy enough

Martins' first touch + Owen's injury proneness + Viduka's work ethic + Smith's goalscoring ability = http://www.goal.com/resultsimg/3983.jpg You know what? We need an Ameobi smiley.

All very likely to be gone. I wouldn't dream of saying no to being shot of Ameobi or Smith, but we're going to need to be striker shopping before we start tearing up the squad.

When in the past three years have we ever been favorites against Spurs? Yet we've beat them every single time. In with a chance.

Big and knows how to stick it in the back of the net. I don't care if he has 0 "footballer" skills, those two qualities alone make him important for us next year no matter what league we're in.

It's Spurs. We'll win. I flat out refuse to succumb to reality and think otherwise until the shit actually hits the fan.

two points off the Mackems, Hull and Blackburn still in touching distance... hope is very much alive.

Even if he did feign injury, we'll have to deal with it in another way. We just can't afford to lose him now. Bullshit we can't. If he plays again after feigning injury and destroying our tactical shape, that would seriously undermine Shearer's leadership. What does the club need right now? Our pride (and Shearer's), or players capable of making a difference? Are you sane? What kind of message do you think it sends out to the players if Shearer says "okay Oba, you feigned injury but I'm going to start you every week anyway because we've got nowt better." Is everything painted in black and white for you? Its called player management - obviously Shearer isn't going to say that, but he certainly shouldn't be letting Oba rot in the reserves. The players are nothing but resources, and its how we manage our resources thats going to get us out of this rut. I'd have no qualms if he was shipped out at the end of the season but this just isn't the time for that. Fucking hell man, he's not Fernando Torres. There is absolutely no need for the entire club to bend backwards to accommodate him despite his idiocy. What kind of message does it send out to the squad as a whole if Shearer is unwilling to stamp his foot down on this?

Q: How do you know when Shola Ameobi is at full match fitness? A: When he goes and gets himself injured again.

Even if he did feign injury, we'll have to deal with it in another way. We just can't afford to lose him now. Bullshit we can't. If he plays again after feigning injury and destroying our tactical shape, that would seriously undermine Shearer's leadership. Beg your pardon but...Shearer's what? Shearer's leadership? Are you sure about that? I think you were trying too hard to be snarky there that you forgot to say what you were actually trying to say.

Dropping Ameobi and Butt. Jesus, this "test" is about as difficult as second-grade arithmetic. Why the fuck do our managers consistently manage to fail it.

Even if he did feign injury, we'll have to deal with it in another way. We just can't afford to lose him now. Bullshit we can't. If he plays again after feigning injury and destroying our tactical shape, that would seriously undermine Shearer's leadership. What does the club need right now? Our pride (and Shearer's), or players capable of making a difference? Are you sane? What kind of message do you think it sends out to the players if Shearer says "okay Oba, you feigned injury but I'm going to start you every week anyway because we've got nowt better."

At least he showed up to play.

The Owen/Martins debate is moot now that Martins has most likely played his last game for us. Care to explain? If he feigned injury to get out of the match, he should never wear the shirt again. If he's actually injured, he'll take too long to get back to fitness to make an impact.

Even if he did feign injury, we'll have to deal with it in another way. We just can't afford to lose him now. Bullshit we can't. If he plays again after feigning injury and destroying our tactical shape, that would seriously undermine Shearer's leadership.

The Owen/Martins debate is moot now that Martins has most likely played his last game for us.

I can understand how he can be shit, I just can't understand how he can stop trying.

No doubt we'll all be listening raptly to Shearer's comments on the situation in his post-match interview. If we indeed were forced into that bastardized 3-5-2 because Martins was feigning injury, he should be training with the reserves until the summer and shipped out to the first club of asking. Could have sent us down today.

He's just stupid, has no footballing brain and doesn't understand why he won't get to play. Could be any number of things. Could have been pissed off by Shearer's clubbing ban. Could have been pissed off by Shearer saying Owen would start every week. Could be that he just feels that we're going down and thinks he can get a big money move in the summer by staying away from injury. Most likely some combination of 1, 2, and 3.

They get an undeserved draw at our place, we get an undeserved draw at theirs. Fair enough. Alright Alan you've learned your lesson. No more 3-5-2 funny business, no more Shola. Guttierrez and Carroll to start every week. Two points off safety still sounds a lot better than three. We can still do this.