themanupstairs

This has gone about as well as we could have hoped.

 

Why? Am not watching.

 

QPR lost, and Fulham were outplayed in almost throwing a 3-0 lead away whilst picking up a red card for one of their first teamers.

 

Cheers. Was hoping for a Berbs knock to top it off.

 

They way he play's isn't really that conducive to picking up knocks unfortunately.

Bottom line is that I can't wait to draw a line under this season, hopefully with our Premier League status intact and thinking optimistically we may have progressed further in the Europa or at least not shown ourselves up against Benfica.

 

I don't think there's much chance of next season being anywhere near as bad as this season, whatever happens.  I'd imagine if Pardew stays it will just be bang-average, with poor performances and mid-table results.  An opportunity lost in other words, but I don't think we'll be in serious relagation trouble 2 years running.  If that's what people are happy with then fair enough, because I'd be fairly surprised to see us attacking the top 6 again with this guy in charge - it seems like his luck's ran out and what he did last season was built on sand, in terms of footballing ethos to see you through whatever rub of the green you might be experiencing.

 

The style of football has a big bearing on things, it would be far easier to sympathise with Pardew if he wasn't responsible for making your eyes bleed once or twice a week.

That is a top post.

Lee Clark, Steve Watson and Terry Mac on the touchline side by side 

Lovelypants coming on as well.

Penalty to Birmingham now.

It's tough for me to call because I've always been quite big on the cups, but the position we're in I'm pretty concerned.  Annoying that it's came to this.

 

I'd personally just play our strongest team, there isn't much evidence for resting players doing us much good this year anyway.

 

Absolutely. If our players can't play a couple extra games per month (having also bombed out all the other cups very early) then there are serious problems with fitness.

That sentiment is right. Absolutely. Just not when we're in a perilous position in the league! I'd want to wait to see if we beat Fulham and then give it a right go in the home leg.

Brum 3-0 down at HT.

Ferguson not in the game so much apart from rattling the post with a good freekick. Lee Clark's side are set up to pump long ball after long ball towards Zigic and then roll the dice. Utter wank. Having said that, Zigic himself could have had a couple of penalties. The Wolves centerhalves pulling and shoving him all over the place and he's had nowt from the ref.

Kevin Doyle still a standout performer at that level. Stephen Hunt looks like the ultimate anti-footballer. Paul Robinson IS the ultimate anti-footballer.

PS: Not sure why the detailed commentary tbh. Probably just boredom on a bank holiday monday.

Canny return for a midfielder.

Yup. Lampard territory that. 

He should have walked for that.

In other news, Jack Butland is fucking shite! Just gave away the most blatant penalty.

3-0 Wolves now. 35 minutes played.

Fergie's just hit the post from yet another direct free kick. Unlucky!

An anti-facist or anti-racist banner at SJP for the derby would stir the pot nicely.  Obviously not explicitly directed at Di Canio, just fiegn ignorance and say it's our own version of their Nelson Mandella day or something.  Would goad him or their fans into kicking off about it and make them look even worse 

Best stay out of that iMO. Just batter them on the pitch and in the stands (figuratively), and move on.

Watching Birmingham-Wolves. Still can't figure where Fergie's playing. LB one minute, LM the other.

Redmond is fast as f***.

Paul Robinson (the defender)

Edit: looks like he's out wide and not in defence.

Edit 2: Ravel Morrison with RAVEL on the back of his shirt

There's no two ways about it. Priority for me is 6 points in the next two home games. Benfica is nothing but a mere distraction at this point. If by some insane miracle we manage to fluke our way past Benfica having won our next two home games in the league, then we can begin to dream.

I sincerely hope that Pardew isn't looking at it any other way. He simply can't. I'd set us out simply to not get embarrassed in Lisbon, and see where we are from there.

I think we'll get a point off Fulham and 3 off the mackems, after that I'm struggling to see where we'll get any from.

Reckon we'll get a point each at WBA and WH, and possibly at home to Arsenal if they have secured CL. Agree though, we'll win once more this season and that will either be Fulham or the mackems.

Worst I've seen us this season was at Norwich. Still can't believe we got a point. Chrissy Hughton must have felt bad for us.

What Alan seems to be forgetting is that we only played 2 domestic cup matches.

 

Spot the odd one out:

http://i.imgur.com/tKZsirb.png

 

Does that mean the horrendous injury record we have & have had throughout the season didn't happen?

 

Pretty irrelevant but the squad - until January - wasn't fit for purpose. It's easy to make a bad decision when all you've got on the bench is Shane Ferguson and Nile Ranger.

 

 

 

Newcastle United 1 - 1 Aston Villa

Newcastle United 0 - 1 West Ham

Newcastle United 1 - 2 Swansea

Southampton 2 - 0 Newcastle United

Stoke City 2 - 1 Newcastle United

 

The squad was fit for purpose to win more points in these games.

Add Reading at home. For me our worst result this season by a mile.

It's all been a mixed s*** bag for us this season no matter which way you look at it.

Pardew is to blame only for the management issues. He couldn't have legislated for the injuries, the lack of squad strength and Ba's departure. He has had a miserable season on account of his shocking team selection and apparent inability to finish teams off and/or win at home when you'd expect us to. Add to that the defeatist mentality when we play away and you have a potentially disastrous outcome.

Fate has conspired against us from all angles, and surely we have to recognize that it's been several factors that have contributed to our current league position, and not just the manager alone. Having said that, Pardew has shown nothing in the way of being the right man for the job going forward.

Hadn't realized Wigan have SIX away games out of their remaining 8!

 

They play away at 2 relegation threatened sides (QPR and to a lesser extent West Ham), and are home to Villa in the last game.

 

They are also away at Man City, West Brom, Swansea and Arsenal.

 

Home to Spurs in the other one.

 

That is grueling any way you look at it.

 

If Fulham beat QPR tonight, then IMO it will be between Sunderland and Wigan for the final relegation spot.

 

Wigan only have 5 away - the Swansea game is at home. It was wrong on the graphic from the Daily Mail, I had to check earlier as 6 away out of 8 just didn't seem right!

Bastards. Well there you have it. We're gannin doon

cheers for clearing it up like. did seem rather strange, but I thought it was a bunch of rearranged games piling up due to their involvement in the Fa Cup.

Hadn't realized Wigan have SIX away games out of their remaining 8!

They play away at 2 relegation threatened sides (QPR and to a lesser extent West Ham), and are home to Villa in the last game.

They are also away at Man City, West Brom, Swansea and Arsenal.

Home to Spurs in the other one.

That is grueling any way you look at it.

If Fulham beat QPR tonight, then IMO it will be between Sunderland and Wigan for the final relegation spot.

It's quite unreal how many mackems are happy with this. They really are a different type of person, we've all known it for years but the rest of the country are starting to realise how disgusting they are.

 

One good thing that'll come out of this is they'll ruin themselves over this doing silly things like doing that salute to him, singing fascist songs in support of their new leader and after the fines and uproar the dust will settle and no serious manger, player or sponsor will go anywhere near the club again. 

 

Parky might say at this point Short is doing it on purpose, he's damaging the club as much as he can before cutting the adrift. Nothing else makes as much sense 

They have no choice IMO. They are desperate for something to go their way. They want their club to stop up, and it's more a case of them being blissfully ignorant than malicious. Some of the rhetoric on RTG is way over the top that's for sure, but it stems from their desperation for this appointment to be "the one".

At the end of the day, we're probably paying Di Canio too much respect by even having a serious discussion about this.

 

He's most likely just an attention whore who thinks associating himself with Mussolini makes him look hard or something.

Exactomundo

How the fuck is porky Dowd still a ref man

I'm with PhilK on this one tbh. I don't think he's belittling the history of fascism or condoning Di Canio's views. For all I care he's an attention whore (Di Canio that is), and gave the salute to Lazio fans because he played for them. A lot of people declare themselves one thing or another when in the spotlight to generate PR. The "confession" could well just have been a stupid way to save face (better of two evils so to speak).

What matters to me is that he's the mackem pied piper now and I want him to fail purely on that basis alone. Having said that, as long as we get 3 pts against them I don't care if they stay up or go down.