Neil

Priceless Bet you he'd say that "good teams deserves luck" if someone would ask him about their luck this season It's pathetic, and is one of the people in Premiership football that makes my blood boil to no end. Utter t**t.

One of the worst decisions I've ever seen, what a pathetic incident. Good swan dive from Gerrard though. Liverpool fan's (national media) reaction? "Oh, should have had one earlier". Conveniently forgetting the 2 Atletico should have had. It's getting beyond a joke now, what a farce.

Common sense prevails, but it has to be said Barton needs to be wary. Yes it was minimal contact and yes his actions will be exaggerated, but it's to be expected given what's gone before. Fairness is a bonus in today's world.

Any reason Everton aren't challenging for 5th, morgster89? If you forgot I'll let you off

Sorry, you're right: Turnbell Wheater Arca Alves I am indeed: Sorensen Higginbotham Delap Fuller

Ahem.

How many saves did he actually make? The only two Villa chances I remember were Laursen off the post, and Agbonlahor fluffing it. I can remember one shot on target - Young's turn and shot that produced an admiteddly smart save. Otherwise, Given could've nipped to Greggs for a crafty steak bake, bar a couple of hairy moments. Edit: On further reflection, the Guardian article isn't as bad as I first read it.

Must say the bulk of those 2 articles is biased crap. Particularly not fond of the clear reluctance to praise the second-half performance. Btw, Given MOM? Aye, Newcastle were under siege.

Anyone see those comments by Benitez, saying Tottenham have been lucky recently and Redknapp should be embarassed to win the game? I'm not sure whether embarassing, ironic, or comical is the best term to describe Benitez's comments. Never liked the man, absolutely no modicum of grace and refuses to acknowledge any sort of luck that goes his way (and my word there's been plenty). But I spose my opinions on RB aren't very valid are they.

Barton was one of many players amused at Riley's bizarre talent of writing without looking.

I'd expect Newcastle fans to be more confident about this than before tonight, but my question is, would you take a draw?

How? How? How? How? Who? This man knows. I was really disappointed with how we let the Everton and City games slip away from us. Everton have been nowt special this season and City have been beaten by Boro and Bolton recently. They were probably there for the taking. In fairness we saw Newcastle for the taking which is why were so p***ed off in letting the game slip ourselves. In other news, as I've said on the other thread, I'm yet to see a convincing reason why Kinnear shouldn't be given a chance of some sort.

How he didn't score the free kick or the effort from outside the area was beyond me, I mean come on, those were awful misses. I blame Dennis Wise.

Who the f*** cares about Setanta? f*** them! Errr, excuse me, you may not want to but I for one want to know what highly repsected footballing pundits such as Stan Collymore have to say!

I'm yet to see a convincing reason why Kinnear shouldn't be given a chance...

Don't say that :-[ Just proves how close the table is.

For what it's worth, he's my opinion Tonight proved what a simple game football can be. No matter the apparent form 2 teams are in, its 11 v 11 on the pitch, and tonight emphasised the vital importance of the 1st goal in a match. Whilst people may argue that the first goal was slightly undeserved on the balance of play up until Martins' great strike, there was no doubt that Newcastle were by far and away the better team after it. Jonas and Martins are, I feel, the 2 most important players in the team. By that I mean, when those 2 turn up, Newcastle will play well. And I felt this was the case tonight. Gutierrez's run for the second showed that he has that something different, the ability to easily beat his man through a sudden burst of pace. Martins was a workhorse all night, and deserved his goals. And at the back, I must say I haven't seen Newcastle defend so well for a long time. Perhaps the mistake by Colo for Agbonlahor's chance aside, it was a near spotless performance from the back, and this was complemented by a hard-working midfield. Whilst it was disappointing Butt's sensational efforts (!) didn't go in, I felt Barton optimised the team's general performance. Aggressive but fair, tenacious, and always looking for the ball. I couldn't really see a major weak link in the side tonight, and to criticise players using tonight's performances as a basis would be highly pedantic imo. Overall, great to see Newcastle do what everyone knows they can do - produce a hungry, highly motivated performance and deservedly get the 3 points they so desperately required. Well done.

I blame Nicky Butt/Mike Ashley/Dennis Wise/the credit crunch for this thread.

Is Carew even going to start? I thought he had been disciplined internally? iirc hes started the past 2 games from the bench.

Joe Kinnear to net the winner with a diving header.

I think that's a given. I wasn't as such referring to the top 4 but more to the league as a whole, the general feeling of having to work hard to beat any single team in the league.

Must say, one thing I've noticed so far this season is the competitiveness of it. Usually the table has settled down after 11 games but still, it's extremely close. A win for say West Brom in their next game would propel them from 17th to the top half, and Everton have done a similar thing in the past 2 games. Anyone else pleased to see the table still not quite settling down yet and for it to be so close? Makes it more exciting tbh. Plus, whilst there is never truly an easy win, I'm not sure if there is any game that you can say "yeah, there's a near-definite 3 points", this season.

I must say Stoke are pushing it. Thing is, opinions are often invalid, because the most negative ones are often from teams who've been rattled by Stoke? For me, whilst I love watching free flowing technically excellent games of football, I also love the physical, no-nonsense approach of some teams, and those sorts of games can be just as exciting. Regarding Delap's throws, I'm not sure it's the fact he actually does them to such a chaotic effect, but the fact Stoke seem to rely on it as their main weapon, that winds people up.

I'm actually close to giving up on any sort of betting. For the second week in a row, I stick 2 accumulators on, 4 on each line. Both weekends, 2 of my 8 in total don't come in. Unfortunately, on both occasions, they were each on a separate line Big, big sigh.

Just out of interest, and you might have mentioned this before, but is your dad speaking as a football fan, or is he actually a newcastle supporter/sympathizer? Passionate Newcastle fan. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, obviously he doesn't want that to happen but he can see the good in it if it does. Of course, there's numerous objections.