Fatwax

Only reason we waited 5 minutes to find that out was because Blatter was furiously crossing out current rules and scribbling some bollocks about identity in the margins.

That'd be classed as violent conduct I believe.

I'd say you need to read it, watch the replay. It's not a red. It's a bad challenge, but it's not worthy a red. Any other player and it would've been a yellow, or nowt. He went in with two feet, which can be classed as either violent conduct or serious foul play. That's a red card according to the book I got when I qualified as a referee. You're right that some would have got away with it and the fact that it was Barton didn't help much, but according to the rule book the ruling was correct.

Blatant red. Read the rule book.

Say what you want about Nicky Butt, but he's resilient as fuck. I just wish some of our better players were as tough as this fella.. and as professional. Saying that, he is total dogshit.

I knew Benayoun would score.. looks offside, but it was tight.

I think Jonas and Owen will be making an appearance come 60 minutes.. or at least Jonas. Could be effective and it's one of the only times I've been happy with him being on the bench.

So we're hoping to play the counter-attacking game. Fair play.

That's the problem basically. Unlucky/ridiculous injuries and average to poor quality throughout the squad hasn't helped much either. How many games did it take Keegan to get us a win last year? It was quite a few, like.. I reckon Shearer would be the same. 8 games isn't enough. Owen is probably dropped so he can be saved for the 'winnable' matches btw.

Loads of players still do it.

God forbid they should pronounce a foreign teams name right Dave. It's pronounced seveeea phonetically speaking, due to the double L.

Completely different.

You for real?

Why was this cunt wearing a red tie tonight? Does he honestly have no idea?

Nice to see Harper passing out quickly.

The midfield really lets that team down. I really would love Smith to come good for all the shit I give him. Nice to see Nolan dropped too.

Loads of people have different thoughts when it comes to Michael Owen.. like his ability as a goal scorer, where he would be best played etc. and this has sparked off many lively debates. We can all agree on one thing though, he's one hell of a boring fucker.

That mic isn't plugged in. Stupid girl.

Woah woah woah.. Miranda Taylor is on facebook. I'm going to pull this slice of hideous cake.

Assuming Boro stay where they are. Anything can happen.

Long for the return of Shepherd? Who is longing for the return of Shepherd? In comparison to Ashley, YES - and I have heard many mention that they'd prefer Shepherd, yes. In comparison to nearly anyone else, an emphatic NO But would you want to continue with a man who gave the job to an ill man who couldn't get a job with Div 1 or Div 2 sides ? Of course Glenn Roeder never happened. Slightly different though, Roeder would never have got the job full-time if he hadn't have somehow got us to finish 7th and beat the mackems 4-1. He was just a suitable caretaker manager who was already at the club and had given us a string of good results. Kinnear offered nothing to validate his appointment a) in the first place b) and then until the end of the season and c) be supposedly offered a 2-3 year contract. Both situations are farcical either way, but one of them at least had a skewered logic. I remember a few people at the time thinking we should have given Roeder a year long contract, but I just wrote them off as idiots.

N'Zogbia needs to exploit N'Zogbia's pace.

What a goal from Gosling!

Fantastic goal from Alonso, that. Probably not a freekick though, heh.