Pilko

He's slumming it in this division.

Bollocks, it's a great win considering who it's against.

Fair play to Thick Mick.

What a ball.

Harper 7 - Made the few saves he had to quite well. The way he managed to nose the freekick rebound with his nose onto the post and catch it was quite impressive. Decent in the box also on crosses. Simpson 6.5 - left Lita unmarked from that early corner and also got booked and made one or two poor tackles, on the whole did fairly well without setting the world on fire and was relatively steady, particularly second half. Coloccini 9 - total colossus at the back, Lita hardly had a kick all game. He certainly looks like the £10m defender that we bought, and has also learned Jose's knack of shadowing the ball out and using his strength. Better in the air than last season too. That instance in the second half when he sprinted half the pitch to keep the ball in, then skinned the player running towards him was great. Taylor 8 - quieter than Coloccini but did quite well. Lots of pointing, "come short!" motions with the hand and pulling Frankenstein faces. Class handball also which for me made up nicely for Wintergate and Fat Eddie Murphy all them years ago. Enrique 9 - brilliant in both attack and defence, crossing was hit-and-miss but supported attacks excellently. Also has the strength of "the bull" he is named after. He really is slumming it in this division. Guthrie 7.5 - not a winger but did better than usual out wide, and what a ball for the second goal, total peach of a cross. Good for him to get 90 minutes under his belt and show his credentials. Set pieces on the whole good also. Nolan 7 - some cracking tackles and the usual drifting into the box late. Distribution still leaves a bit to be desired but a good performance here imo. Seems to have shed a tiny bit of weight, also. Smith 6.5 - few of his customary dive tackles early doors and kept things ticking along nicely until his departure in the second half. Almost scored too, surely it can't be long now! Jonas 8 - won loads of free-kicks and lifted pressure from the back four by running with the ball. Much improved performance, and his link-ups with Enrique are divine. Hope he doesn't leave in January. Ameobi 7.5 - Shola man, stop wrapping your hands around the bloody centre half! Did well holding the ball and won a few headers, obviously assisted the goal (well disguised foul btw) and scored that header. Harewood 7 - Easy finish and could have had another. Seemed to try a lot harder than he has of late, but for me is worth his place in the starting 11 at the minute for his goalscoring. I've slagged him off as much as everyone else but I'm willing to admit he's beginning to win me over. SUBS: Butt (for Smith) 6 - Mixed bag. The overhead kick, wtf but just ticked things along nicely. Canny few good tackles too. Ranger (for Harewood) 6 - Decent hold-up play and a good run to set up Nolan late on. Still learning certain parts of the game, but another canny little cameo from wor Nile. Pancrate (for Ameobi) n/a - No time to make any real impact

way to make excuses for him.

NUFC: Steve Harper, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Danny Guthrie, Alan Smith ©, Kevin Nolan, Jonas Gutierrez, Shola Ameobi, Marlon Harewood Subs: Tim Krul, Peter Lovenkrands, Ryan Taylor, Fabrice Pancrate, Nicky Butt, Tamas Kadar, Nile Ranger MFC: Brad Jones, Justin Hoyte, Tony McMahon, David Wheater, Emanuel Pogatetz, Gary O'Neil ©, Rhys Williams, Isaiah Osbourne, Julio Arca, Leroy Lita, Dave Kitson Subs: Danny Coyne, Chris Riggott, Mark Yeates, Marcus Bent, Jonathan Franks, Andrew Taylor, Luke Williams

What did I ever do to you? That idiotic "OFF!!!! to the match" thing above.

£2 on Shola first goal = £20

Who's on the bench?

Get in, Butt out and Guthrie back in, albeit wide right. I'm OK with Harewood's inclusion tbh.

.com says it is, and so has Radio Newcastle in the last hour.

If you want, I'll leave my blinds open and you can squat outside my window and watch it. Might even stretch to a cup of tea and a biscuit, although not a Twix or a Tunnocks wafer, it'll be Tesco rich teas.

Dinho lad - I hope you slip on the ice and break your fingers.

Hughes' main signings: Jo £18m Tal Ben Haim £5m Vincent Kompany £6m SWP £9m Pablo Zabaleta £7m Robinho £32.5m Wayne Bridge £12m Craig Bellamy £8m Nigel De Jong £17m Shay Given £5m Gareth Barry £12m Roque Santa Cruz £17.5m Carlos Tevez £25m Emmanuel Adebayor £25m Kolo Toure £16m Joleon Lescott £22m How many of those could you say were 'value for money' or 'good signings'? The signings of Santa Cruz, De Jong, Toure and Lescott all horribly overpriced. Robinho hugely overpriced, and Jo the biggest waste of money in the last 5 years easily.

this

Yay, hope so.

He wouldn't be my first pick by any stretch but I'd have him here ahead of Hughton.

John Still.

Mamady Sidibe

no

What a ball by Huddlestone Crouchy also copying Drogba's finish at the Emirates.

McShane given the runaround there for that second goal, made him look like a right carthorse.

Craig Fagan is a little fucking shit, isn't he?

MOTD just advertised the game so obviously no news yet.