Mattoon

Won't be long until Armstrong gets a shot in the first team, seems like a neat little player, fast on the shoulder of the last defender and took his goal well.

What is he supposed to do like? There is very few keeping the ball for Arsenal and when he gets it he keeps it. Switch cazorla with ozil and arsenal might stand a chance. Exactly, playing him on the wing is borderline Pardew

Gutted for them but they played well. Chelsea are the holders no?

"That wasn't that bad he clearly tried to get to the ball" fuck off he went right through the back of him!!

Balls, it's all gone to shit now

Glad to see at least one Newcastle team is showing passion and determination in a cup! Good game so far.

2-1 Armstrong, awesome back pass there

Only problem with it being Chelsea TV the commentary is obviously insanely biased. Armstrong has looked dangerous though.

7:05PM

Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to hope we'll perform differently without him there ultimately he still picks the team, tactics and formations, coaches the team all week and you'd have to be pretty gullible to believe he won't have anything to do with half time team talks.

What times kick off? Worth a watch I recon.

The lads was unable to do good cuz I couldn't give them the shake up at half time theys needed.

Expected to take roughly half a day so expect news late afternoon.

He'd better make the most of that feeling. surprised he turned up tbh. He took the Nissan Micra, the Jaguar is, erm, in the garage for repairs.

Well that was slightly inappropriate if a little ironic. I just clicked a link for caughtoffside on newsnow about Remy and got a pop up add on my iphone.... The one on the tv "sex with someone who doesn't want to is rape" ... Awkward!

The FA could be particularly vindictive here, knowing we don't have much to play for, either suspend the sentence until next season or ensure the sentence overlaps into next season. Whatever they do you can be assured it'll be unprecedented as we're not one of the media darlings, you can bet we'll be made an example.

The long ball stat in isolation does look impressive, but it doesn't show the full story. We don't exactly play possession football, we soak up pressure and hit on the break. That stat of 55 long balls needs to be shown as a percentage to have an accurate idea of our game, we wouldn't be second bottom though I can assure you that!

Since this post we beat Leeds at home, so it's gone up to 12 wins in 7 seasons, 10 of those against lower league sides. Our record against premier league sides (who are all resting players to the same level as we are of course) is: P12 W2 D1 L9 Translated to league form over a season = 22 pts Yeah. We try just as hard as everyone else. I'm not sure how people can say we rest just as many players as everyone else, or we take it just as seriously as everyone else either. There's no proof for this, it's simply finger-in-the-air stuff. What gets me is certain people trying to defend the clubs AND Pardews stance on the cups, at least one of those is responsible for that woeful record. Iyam they're both complicit in our total disregard to cup competition. That record is indefensible, but aye we put in the same effort and rest the same players as other teams.

Usually the final desperation of a manager trying to save his job, which more often that not precedes his sacking (unless you're Pardew)

This years kit is the first one I haven't bought, not even tempted at £16 it looks bad enough in the pictures but ive never seen something so cheap and nasty irl. Hands down the worst kit we've ever had, and that's before you slap the shitty Wonga logo on it

Total ban from football! No input at all into formations, tactics, training or substitutions?

Having spoken to friends at work (none of them Newcastle supporters btw) they're all surprised he wasn't sacked, to them it's just funny, in a "did you see what that dickhead did?" Kind of way, which just typifies the feeling of embarrassment he brings on the club.

The one thing I would change with ANY other club in the Premiership is an ambition and desire to do better, willingness to spend the money in the bank and being able to dream about winning something without the realisation kicking in that we won't because there's no profit in it. As such has been said it's the flagrant lies that are bought about our Premiership existence, too many supporters skip along behind the pied piper, singing Ashley's little tune. The cups have died for us and during the sugar daddy era the cups are the only hope for most clubs outside the 'big 4'. Such sad times!

I think the main reason for his disappointing performances this season has definitely been a lack of movement around him and with Remy's pace, LDJ popping up all across the front line spreading out play and now even Anita getting into forward positions this is the perfect time to get him back on the pitch. If anything it'll put an end to the argument on whether it's HBA's commitment/ability that has caused him to stall or the tactics/formations that have stifled him. Just once Pards, just try it ffs!

The Goufran/Sissoko combination does have its advantages and they've done an admirable job but there's no excitement there, it's not exactly swashbuckling football, they're just reliable workhorses (Bar Sissoko's last performance). There's definitely an argument to play that formation in some games, undoubtably, but against the lower clubs I'd love to see what an attacking unit of Remy, HBA and LDJ could do You can guarantee that's how Keegan would set us up. Now is the best time to try, we're safe ffs.