thenige

Got to feel sorry for the lad given the injuries he's had.

I certainly don't feel Pardew is blameless, far from it. Everyone could see Shola was utter gash yesterday except seemingly him, but I think getting rid of him would be a recipe for disaster. Especially some of the names being banded about like Di Matteo and Poyet. I do think both managers have potential and prefer overall a better style of football (Di Matteo's Barca exploits excepted), but they've been allowed to do things their way, especially in Poyet's case who has dramatically overhauled his squad. Di Matteo failed at West Brom and got an incredibly strong Chelsea team into a poor run which cost him his job as it was made clear he was never first choice. Every manager seemingly has his ups and downs (except Souness, all down). We had the ups last year from Pardew in regards to clean sheets and final position, now we're clearly on the down. At least give Pardew this window and the preceeding few months to get it right. Getting rid now would most certainly make us that 'laughing stock' some of our fans fear we already are.

Would you really want the club to be a foreign owners play-thing? Have them come in and spunk loads of money on random players leaving the club soulless and without any real tradition or respect like Man City or Chelsea? I'd rather keep grinding and earn any glory than have it drop into our lap like a lottery win.

Laughing stock of a club? Give it a rest, the only reason we're anyone's laughing stock is because of some of the overreactions of our fans. Why the hell is it always sack the manager? Pardew almost got us a Champions League spot last year even if he did fail dismally in the cups. We're in a pretty dismal run and we've played some crap this season but there's been a lot going on. He's been dreadfully handicapped by players who clearly aren't up to it (Williamson, Simpson) players who maybe haven't been playing for the team (Ba) and a player he's been trying to fit badly into a system (Cisse - who as a £10m man has to start, as did Ba, and they both failed in a 4-4-2 which left fans crying for a 4-3-3). We know the board hasn't backed him as we'd have liked, but why not point the finger of blame at some of the players for once rather than always the manager? I'd love to get a manager in who wants to play good football the right way (O'Driscoll is available now) but if we're totally honest we just don't have the players capable of doing that. With Cabaye missing for large chunks Tiote has tried to expand his passing range with disastrous results, and with Williamson and Simpson playing it from the back it's no wonder we've played a direct style utilising Ba's presence and first touch to bring others into the game. Let's get behind the team and put all this bloody doom and gloom behind us. I have absolute faith we have the quality (if we sign a bloody CB to replace Willo) and the manager to turn this season around.

This. Love Cup competitions and the buzz you get as you progress through the rounds. Last few years has been pitiful.

If his weeks wages and appearance fee doesn't go to the fans who travelled I'm going to be disgusted. Captain ffs.

Who the hell has defended Shola? Does his Mum have an account on here?

One of the most depressing 45 minutes of a game I've ever seen. How I feel for those poor buggers who travelled at 1am for that shower. AND paid for the privilege.

Just send Nigeria a cardboard cut out of him for the ACON instead. Would get far more from it than the real thing.

Sadly the booze utterly ruined his mind. Best book about him I've read is 'Provided You Don't Kiss Me' by Duncan Hamilton (who also wrote 'The Footballer Who Could Fly' which has a lot of Newcastle stuff in there, especially on Wor Jackie), really very much worth a read for anyone who wants to know more about Cloughie.

To be honest as manager I think he's got enough to deal with his own team rather than worrying about having an encyclopaedic knowledge of every player in the game. That's pretty much what scouts are for. Can have a go at him for a lot of things, but not knowing Cabaye or Cisse particularly well isn't exactly a fatal flaw.

Bizarre we're selling our top scoring and I'm feeling quite positive about things. Hopefully in the middle Cisse can find his form and Danny Simpson fucks off to QPR and gets relegated.

Another game where we've desperately failed to put two halves of a football match together. Really disappointed in some of the goals. Teams just don't have to work to score a goal against us, time and time again it's a stupid mistake (Santon not reading the line, Simpson's awful throw, Tiote standing on the ball in midfield) and we're rightly punished. Desperately need a RB and CB and if he continues like that, a Tiote replacement.

Yeah so not a winger it's untrue.

Great attacking player. Doesn't track his man for shit though.

Our defensive is bloody awful, Pardew went for it last two games and all credit to him for that. Yeah the 7-3 feels pretty awful, but I'd rather we tried than thinking what may have been. And the fact our defensive looks so poor I don't think we could hold a lead had we been three goals up.

Don't always agree with Ronaldo but have to admit he's pretty much spot on here.

Outstanding today. How that wasn't a yellow card I'll never ever know. He should have had one about five or ten minutes before for shirt-pulling when we were breaking away. Now a player has been potentially seriously injured. A couple of shocking decisions.

Let down by some rather awful defending today. Wide players didn't offer a whole load of cover for the back four but doesn't help Simpson still thinks he has a contract for Man Utd. Some players ran their arses off though and defended from the front, others seemingly born lazy (Sammy's tracking after he came on was laughable).

Probably one of the worst full-back performances I've ever seen today. Positionally he just has no idea. The amount of times he gets caught inside looking lost is ridiculous, when he pushes forward he never tracks back and EVERY SINGLE time he gives the player three yards to cross the ball. Does he ever attend training? If so, are they not telling him these basic defending principals for a laugh? The amount of time he plays someone onside the stops as if to say 'well if I stop he must be offside' make me want to tear my hair out. And going forward I'd rather have Williamson trying to hit a cross. He's just utterly fucking useless. If he isn't replaced in January (I'd probably take a mannequin from John Lewis) after he moves to QPR for £80k a week then I'd be staggered. I'm amazed we don't have a 14 year old in one of the youth teams who isn't better than him. Just shit.

No, other way around - Everton won 4-3 on agg.

Tough-ish draw. Didn't they knock Everton out a few years back?

He's making a valid point in regards to some of the hoofball stuff we play. Thinking winning 3-0 against Man Utd was one of the worst 'positive' things we could have done last season. As we were so direct Pardew seems to think it's something we're really good at. Sadly as results have proven this season, we're really not.

Second half was encouraging Shola aside. We need to just start attacking teams and not on an all out assault to mess up their centre-backs hair.

First half an hour thought we'd signed Hangeland as we seemed determined to hoof the ball at him.