Neil

I was gonna mention the central midfield problems but it'd deviate spectacularly from the point of this thread. Hope he keeps up this sort of standard consistently.

His performace today just goes to show that a generally very good defence isn't that far away. The back 4 have all sometime or another delivered excellent performances, its just getting them to do it at the same time.

Can't really criticse the lad. It's obvious he's a limited player and normally wouldn't be in the first team but he was asked to do a job, won a fair few balls in the air and put in a good shift, so you can't really ask too much more.

I think he was trying to search out Ryan Taylor, who could take the ball, run backwards 10 yards, win a free kick, and curl it past Harper.

He's not your best defender BUT if he gets some confidence, i.e. the team does, then I can see him and Bassong forming an excellent partnership. He's a bit like Ferdinand to Vidic (Bassong) (as a vague comparison of how I would see them work).

I must have been watching a different game.

At least with Man Utd, you actually get some entertainment value because usually they're good to watch. My thoughts about Liverpool and their fans are previously documented I think. And if not, I'll bring out a f***ing dissertation.

Harper 6.5 Taylor 6 Colo 4.5 Bassong 7 Enrique 7 Duff 5.5 Butt 5 Nolan 5 Jonas 7 Carroll 6 Ameobi 5.5

I'll be cheering Newcastle on in the Crow's Nest. "F***ing students!"

Can see us getting comfortably beat later tbh. I think we'll be running on empty, possibly with an eye on Wednesday and combined with Man Utd's unerring form I can only see one outcome.

Not really was it Manuel Fernandez that Everton got on loan and he was in that bracket Plausible no, possible yes! Oh come on, now you're just listing Portugese midfielders we f***ed up trying to get :-[

Scoring close to 10 goal a season back then, would have been delighted to get a midfielder who was up to that much in the scoring stakes. Done nothing this season. Would be interesting to know why Bolton are allowing him to leave so easily? Answered yourself. And, apparently, done next to nothing for a couple seasons now.

You could take our approach of consistently offering lower than what the club wants, in the hope they'll suddenly go "Ahh go on then!" Edit: And then spend a higher amount on a different player.

Tbh if we're just considering the wage bill, there's people in front of him in the "gtfo" queue.

Tbh the £800,000 thing sounded like bull. Something like £2-£2.5m is what he's worth in today's market imo.

What a daft signing. Steve Bruce has already set Taylor to permanently destroy Newcastle. Expect curling 30 yard own goals.

I wish I could laugh but I know exactly how that situation feels :-[

Is that you Jeff?

At a guess, £6m for the fee. Higher? Lower?

Aye, I just hope that it goes that way... I've seen it happen before when the chips are down. It might actually be a blessing that it's the derby and the hatred will be directed against the mackems. A good way of looking at it. Hopefully the passion shown from the crowd will at least semi-motivate the players to get/jump/hop/samba/crawl over the finishing line.

Friedel, Jagielka, Jones, Park, Ireland and Derbyshire to name a few imo.

I take pleasure in this, I'll be honest. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1130055/EXCLUSIVE-Clattenburg-sacked-referee-told-career-breach-contract.html

From the outside though the key thing is in the past, Newcastle have got through this game, not usually with a performance but with a bit of passion, be it snappy tackling, a quick start. I'm not as certain that this passon will be there on Sunday. Hope I'm wrong.