NSG

Hardly a reject, since Fergie is offering him an improved contract to stay.

Duff out with a calf injury

NUFC: To follow.... Faye, Beye and Geremi will be available for the last time before departing on Nations Cup duty, while Martins is expected to miss this tie as part of a deal with Nigeria allowing him to delay his departure until after the Man United away game. Given Beye Cacapa Faye Enrique Milner Butt Emre N'Zogbia Owen Viduka

Taking a guess at Given, Beye, Cacapa, Taylor, Zoggy, Faye, Butt, Emre, Milner, Duff, Martins.

The match ended in acrimony when Frazer Wright was sent off for a foul on Tim Krul in the Falkirk goal as he followed in on a Jamie Hamill shot. The big Dutch goalkeeper, who was stretched off the pitch, was red-carded for his reaction to the challenge.

2-2. City to boss it, us to scrape a draw.

Crumpy is usually pretty accurate tbh.

Get return of the Entertainers and Flying High

So much wrong for a short post Care to elaborate?

Viduka not even on the bench? It appears so Changed it so I have him on the bench ahead of Smith.

Given Beye Taylor Cacapa Enrique Faye Butt N'Zogbia Milner Duff Martins Harper, Rozehnal, Emre, Owen, Duke

No wonder he got it wrong. He's only about 5. Positives from the match: Given back on top form Faye was an absolute monster in midfield Martins played well Zog was immense going forwards

Journal reporting they think it's a done deal.

What are you on about? Trying to be funny, again. coming from mr personality, that hurt. did you see that referee not giving the advantage in the stevenage/cheltenham match? fucking hell!! whats his game!!

Just seen the free kick for the first time. Should have saved it, no question about it.

Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Makelele, Malouda, Cudicini and Carvalho confirmed out. Cole will be if his red isn't taken away. Cech a possibility.

Had a similar deal on last Christmas when I worked at the Monument Mall toon shop. Went back up straight after the sales. We'll release a 2nd and 3rd kit as per usual.

Cole will find out tomorrow whether or not his red card will be recinded.

Middlesbrough (H), Sun 3rd Feb.

Chelsea will score more goals from 20+ yards than we will have shots on target.

That award will be saved for: Chelsea (away) Post match thread

And when we lose Allardyce will be 'mystified'.

I'm predicting 3-0 Chelsea, minus Terry, Carvalho, Cole, Drogba, Malouda and whoever else.

He is right. Of our strikers, Owen and Martins are much better at converting chances when the ball comes from the right hand side, particularly with headers. Smith's pre season goal was from the right as well, in fact, the majority of our goals scored from crosses have come from the right. The exceptions of course are Martins' overhead kick versus Bolton, which doesn't really count as he was afforded so much time and space, and Viduka's brace versus West Ham. In fact, Viduka is the exception it seems, as he appears to convert more from the left from what I've seen both here and at Boro. However, there are quite a few times when we have made a good fast move down the left, that Viduka hasn't been able to keep up with. Therefore, there is no-one we can rely on to put the ball away when it is delivered from the left. Its not ideal, but for now, our best option is to always play Viduka, and get Duff to use his slow dribbling tendencies, or get Milner to waste time cutting back on to his right to allow Viduka to catch up when necessary. Of course, this also allows the opposition to compose themselves, so the cross, and the movement from Viduka would have to be bloody good. This is clearly a big problem. We may have plenty of very healthy sperm down our left hand side, but you need a good quality egg as well for there to be any potency, and this is not the case. Sperm count may be poor on the right, but there is still a much better chance of them finding the egg. Clearly we need to find strikers better at converting from the left, or preferably find players that can create from the right flank, even if it means sacrificing a very good left sided player to pay for it. Corner on the left, IIRC. As well as that, Viduka vs West Ham and Owen vs Everton both came from the left. This thread is just a poor excuse for why we're utter, utter shit.