ChrisJbarnes

Just got back from the Britannia and I think a lot of people need to get a bit of perspective. I'm gutted with that result, and so were the rest of the Geordie crowd, of which there were a fair few and we provided a great atmosphere for 90 minutes. However, we were extremely unlucky not to win overall. The last 10 minutes were tragic. For 80 minutes, we were the better side and put in a thoroughly professional away performance at a place where it is difficult to pick up any points, let alone play good football. I went into the game expecting an abject performance, and us to not even show up, so any performance whatsoever exceeded my expectations. The manner in which we lost was galling, no doubt. 80 minutes, we are 1-0 up having generally controlled the game and restricted a tough side at home to a couple of chances. After what looked like a blatant penalty to me, we should have been 2-0 up, home and dry and celebrating 3 points and a professional away performance. 2 defensive mistakes in the last 9 minutes gave Stoke the points, after most of the ground thought we would get away with it. We may not have set the world alight today, but I think the players and manager put in a good shift overall tonight, and I've no complaints with individual performances except for Williamson. Tactics were as good as you can expect, effort was there. Confidence seemed to be returning, until the mistakes at the end. Its painfully obvious to me that the main reason we are struggling is the lack of depth in our squad. Look at Stoke's bench (a lower mid table team) vs ours (a European team). They were able to bring on some players that we could use in our squad in terms of depth. Jones and Jerome enabled them to change things whereas we had no options- Marveux perhaps but there might be good reasons why Pardew didnt play him. Take Coloccini and Tiote out of our team and we've not got the reserves leading to our current slump. Williamson is obviously short of what we need, as is Simpson. Retaining Leon Best, signing Debuchy and another centre back, we'd be several places above in the table now and the prize money would increase accordingly. Point your fingers at the beancounters at the top as to why this is not the case. Although I'd obviously have liked significantly more points and performances from the last 4 games, we've hit poor form, and the XI we've put out isnt that great. Pardews obviously not a Mourinho or Guardiola, but he was deservedly manager of the season last year. Since appointed, he's done a sound job, and sacking him would be madness. There's no-one we could get that would be a step forward, and we'd lose the recent stability and credibility that the club has had. It was obvious that with the system we've got, Pardew is the man and he's not going anywhere. Players and manager left the field to sympathetic/ grateful applause from everyone at the Britannia, and Pardews name was sung a few times throughout.

Just got back from the Britannia and I think a lot of people need to get a bit of perspective. I'm gutted with that result, and so were the rest of the Geordie crowd, of which there were a fair few and we provided a great atmosphere for 90 minutes. However, we were extremely unlucky not to win overall. The last 10 minutes were tragic. For 80 minutes, we were the better side and put in a thoroughly professional away performance at a place where it is difficult to pick up any points, let alone play good football. I went into the game expecting an abject performance, and us to not even show up, so any performance whatsoever exceeded my expectations. The manner in which we lost was galling, no doubt. 80 minutes, we are 1-0 up having generally controlled the game and restricted a tough side at home to a couple of chances. After what looked like a blatant penalty to me, we should have been 2-0 up, home and dry and celebrating 3 points and a professional away performance. 2 defensive mistakes in the last 9 minutes gave Stoke the points, after most of the ground thought we would get away with it. We may not have set the world alight today, but I think the players and manager put in a good shift overall tonight, and I've no complaints with individual performances except for Williamson. Tactics were as good as you can expect, effort was there. Confidence seemed to be returning, until the mistakes at the end. Its painfully obvious to me that the main reason we are struggling is the lack of depth in our squad. Look at Stoke's bench (a lower mid table team) vs ours (a European team). They were able to bring on some players that we could use in our squad in terms of depth. Jones and Jerome enabled them to change things whereas we had no options- Marveux perhaps but there might be good reasons why Pardew didnt play him. Take Coloccini and Tiote out of our team and we've not got the reserves leading to our current slump. Williamson is obviously short of what we need, as is Simpson. Retaining Leon Best, signing Debuchy and another centre back, we'd be several places above in the table now and the prize money would increase accordingly. Point your fingers at the beancounters at the top as to why this is not the case. Although I'd obviously have liked significantly more points and performances from the last 4 games, we've hit poor form, and the XI we've put out isnt that great. Pardews obviously not a Mourinho or Guardiola, but he was deservedly manager of the season last year. Since appointed, he's done a sound job, and sacking him would be madness. There's no-one we could get that would be a step forward, and we'd lose the recent stability and credibility that the club has had. It was obvious that with the system we've got, Pardew is the man and he's not going anywhere. Players and manager left the field to sympathetic/ grateful applause from everyone at the Britannia, and Pardews name was sung a few times throughout.

0-1 Williamson to score from a floated set piece. Pardew to be hailed as a tactical mastermind.

So glad I've got a ticket to this- the footballing dream of "a cold, rainy November night in Stoke".

I genuinely wish I had cataracts

http://www.mtnfootball.com/content/newcastle~1.jpg http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/nechronical/feb2012/4/8/newcastle-united-strike-duo-papiss-cisse-and-demba-ba-388711192.jpg http://xalimasn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/ba_cisse-298x295.jpg http://thinkfootball.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/demba-ba-papiss-cisse-360.jpg Looks like they hate each others guts to me

Birmingham v Aston Villa in the carling cup 2 seasons ago. I live in Aston and had to walk to St Andrews, both areas are absolutely shite. Not nearly enough policemen, dark and cold evening. You could tell it was all going to kick off before the game, and I was sat in the small section of home fans next to the away end. The villa fans were kicking down the intersection between the sets of fans and came and smashed up the toilets and started fights. Blues fans getting involved as well. We saw a Birmingham fan say "wait here" to his kid whilst he went and got involved in the fight. Stewards weren't interested in doing anything and the police couldn't organise an orgy in a whorehouse. Full scale pitch invasion at the end with flares being thrown between the sets of fans and Villa fans ripping seats up. Wall to wall scum and both sets of fans disgraced themselves. Never seen anything like it, the whole ground might as well have been a holding pen for the Jeremy Kyle show, cant have been more than 2 or 3 surnames in the crowd that night!

4-3-3 and we'll play like Barcelona. WBA are more matalan than catalan.

GW3: 1. 0-1 2. 2-0 3. 3-1 4. 1-1 5. 0-0 6. 3-0 7. 1-0 8. 2-0 9. 1-3

1. 2-0 2. 1-1 3. 2-0 4. 2-1 5. 1-1 6. 1-1 7. 2-2 8. 0-3 9. 3-0 10. 1-1 11. 2-0

Not long til we're wearing red and blue stripes tbh

This is my local team. Paul Scally is a proper arsehole of a man, but I'm really disappointed to hear about this.

Put it into perspective with what ISN'T taken to court. This is nothing more than bloody name calling, and pandering to a pack of self-serving politically correct types. Even Ferdinand wasn't too happy about it being blow up in the manner it has been. There are people who have been TERRORIZED in their homes and the ones doing it haven't been taken to court. This is a mockery. A turd like Terry is even being held up as being victimized himself - where does it end ? "He THOUGHT in a racist way" ? He "looked at me in a racist manner" ? This kind of thing makes the worst kind of creep into a victim. This guy was the England captain, and a high profile player within an industry where a lot of similar problems have occurred. By spending time and money prosecuting Terry, if he is convicted, this would show people that racism in football isn't going to be tolerated. I think the captain of one of the largest teams in the country, and formerly the national team of all people should be expected to set an example and at the very least, not commit criminal offences on the pitch. If he doesn't, he should be made an example of in order to deter other footballers who think they are above the law and decency.

Just keep going until one team scores a goal. Imagine a cup final involving Stoke and an Allardyce team. Deary me.

Supposedly been playing well for MK Dons towards the end of the season. I always said that he just needed a run of games to show what he's capable of, and it's a shame he didn't get a proper chance to turn his career around here. There's a great player in there, with grit and determination and most importantly, experience. Just the sort of lad we could do with in our dressing room really, all the best for the future smudger.

It's Paul Merson's absolute holocaust of an article on sky sports. Kammy (who I like) wrote a similar but a bit less severe one.

I'd love to sit down with the four people who've appointed the new England manager and ask them: "What are you thinking?" The whole country - and I mean the whole country - wanted Harry Redknapp. I'm even talking about Arsenal fans who don't normally have anything nice to say about a Tottenham manager. So why have these four people take no notice of the whole country? Apart from Sir Trevor Brooking have the others ever actually played a game of football? I just can't believe the decision they've made. Hodgson: Merse feels he'll be up against it from the start I hope this isn't sounding disrespectful to Roy Hodgson because I'm a big fan of his. He's a lovely bloke, he's a top manager and he's got loads of experience - but he's going to be up against it straight away because everyone wanted someone else. I said on Soccer Saturday three weeks ago that I couldn't see Harry getting the job. It had gone on too long. If he was going to get it he would have got it straight away and I just felt they were waiting for the bandwagon to slow down and then pick someone else. Who do these four blokes care about? Do they care about England and their fans or do they care about themselves? They're not listening to the country - otherwise they'd have given the job to Harry. Paul Merson Quotes of the week But I still couldn't believe it when it came up on Sky Sports News on Sunday evening that they were approaching Hodgson. I thought I was seeing things. Who do these four blokes care about? Do they care about England and their fans or do they care about themselves? They're not listening to the country - otherwise they'd have given the job to Harry. I've played under Harry and I know he would have been perfect for the job. Firstly, he's brilliant with the press and you need to be able to have a laugh with the journalists. If you stand up and walk out of press conferences like Steve McClaren did then you're behind the eight-ball straight away. Secondly he always goes out to win football matches. It's very rare that you see a Redknapp team go anywhere and not have a right go. I played for him at Portsmouth and he always told us to go out and play. Also, all the players want to play for him, so I can't believe the decision they've made. I just don't get it, I really don't. Glutton You can't turn the England job down, but Roy Hodgson must be a glutton for punishment. He took the Liverpool job when the fans didn't want him because they wanted Kenny Dalglish instead. Now he's in the same situation with England and Harry. I don't see too many England fans who want him. So I think he's going to be up against it straight away. Every time he makes a decision, people will be asking if it's what Harry would have done. With Redknapp in charge there would have been no pressure on England at Euro 2012. For the first time in years nobody was talking the team up and nobody was really expecting us to win (although I actually believe we have half a chance). If Harry had got the job it would have been a great opportunity for England. But now there will be so much pressure on them it's ridiculous. If Hodgson doesn't get the results straight away the fans will be straight on his back. If they don't win the first friendly 3-0 or 4-0 there will be uproar! I've met Roy a few times. I've played against his teams on many occasions and just before Christmas I bumped into him in a restaurant and we stood outside and talked for 10 minutes. He's a really nice bloke and a top manager. But I feel really sorry for him because I don't think he's going to be given a chance. Money I hope this isn't about money. We've thrown enough money down the swanny with England managers over the years, especially with Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello. Why shouldn't we spend that sort of money on a top English manager? It seems to be frowned upon if an Englishman earns good money, but when it's a foreigner nobody says a word. Paul Merson's Twopenneth: "Hodgson has been an international manager before, but I don't see how that puts him ahead of Harry. He's been around for a hundred years working with international players. His son has played for England and he's been with top-class players all his career. I feel absolutely gutted for Harry. When any Englishman starts a career in coaching his dream is to manager the England football team and Harry is English through and through. I'm gutted when I play Championship Manager and I don't get offered the England job, so I can't imagine how he must be feeling. Seriously though, I'm devastated for him - and I feel sorry for Hodgson too as he's in a no-win situation. I hope he does well. I want England to win tournaments - and I'm sure Harry Redknapp does too - but he's going to be up against it right from the very start.

Hodgson, unlike Redknapp has international pedigree. In all honesty, I don't see Hodgson setting the world alight with England, but it'll be the players that are the reason why we continuously fail. English football, the national team, coaching and attitudes need a total overhaul before we will ever acheive anything as a footballing nation.

Apparently Cisse has either scored or got sent off in each of QPRs games that hes played in!

I think RDM will take off key players at half time and rest them for us, shut up shop in anticipation of the next few games. Shame QPR couldnt have at least given them a game...

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After Wigangate, we're still 4th in the league and we've just lost a point on Arsenal. Avoiding defeat will be key here but we'll need to dig very deep for a win against either Chelsea or City now, and against Everton. 3 tough fixtures, will need 7 points.

1-1 Drogba, Ba

watching this Man City game, they dont look the sort of team we should fear. Wolves having a fairly good go, considering they're 20th.