Pilko

Seriously, don't start drinking if you're going to drive. Stick to Toblerones, they're much safer.

Pards needs a new hair gel/wax, the side of his hair was blowing around quite a lot. This was his biggest mistake on a night where nearly everything went to plan for him.

Think it was Wullie who said it first and he's right - he seems to view us winning in a game as an excuse to give the shit players a runout.

http://www.myfootballfacts.com/1026.jpg "I think Stoke will turn over Newcastle, 2-0."

He was excellent. If there was any fixture I'd expect him to be ineffectual and shit in, it'd be this one - so fair play to him.

That header reminded me of a similar goal he scored for West Ham last season, when he threw himself through the air in a near identical fashion to bullet the cross in. He directs the ball absolutely expertly into the opposite corner, it's an overall class goal that totally takes the piss out of Stoke seeing as it's their type of thing.

Spot on cross for the first goal. His pace was dead useful tonight; his ball retention whilst still not perfect noticeably improved imo.

Slotted in fine apart from that naff tackle, I thought we'd crumble when he replaced Cabaye but we didn't.

Excellent performance, even a comedy cameo and faster than Smudger booking from Perch. Two daft penalty awards that cancelled each other out, and we were pretty mint. Even Simpson, Obertan and Guthrie were surprisingly effective tonight, fair play to them all. And also, wp Pards.

Sammy ahead of Lovenkrands on the bench is very encouraging.

On the plus side: Lovenkrands and Smith banished from the 18

Simpson, Obertan and Guthrie.

The Kevin Nolan duck sauce song was the icing on the cake that night. Superb.

Have a little patience.... ok

Should fine him. I know Digital is popular on Halloween but we've got a match for christs sake.

Where is the lineup it's nearly 1hr til kickoff

Let's have a game of "What's Tony got under his cap?" I'll go first - a fifty pound note, a copy of razzle and a Lion bar.

Soderberg was recalled from Darlo cos Elliot apparently tweaked something during the open training session.

HT Stoke, FT draw @ 15/2 S.Taylor FG (each way) @ 40/1 Might put 1-1 on as well, gonna shop around for the odds.

What are people going with on the NUFC game tonight? My initial thought was 1-1 and maybe Ba to score within that.

I swear there's an article every 6 months titled "Shepherd is still a Newcastle supporter".

We'll not announce this until the window opens I bet. The Abeid signing was common knowledge for about a month and we didn't announce it till his contract at his previous club had officially ended, even though he was already tied up with us.

football is officially fucked

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/4070/travelator.jpg Mag on a travelator

Hopefully they can stay up this season.