The Prophet

If we have made contact with Leeds over Beckford I would ask about Snodgrass too, providing they're not asking for something daft he could do a job on the right. Doubt they'd want to lose their two top players on the cheap though.

Unless someone has a serious panic on I can't see a Premier League club suddenly becoming interested in the lad because of a goal against Man United. I'd be more concerned about Leeds holding out for a silly fee.

Paul Merson. As an example just how dumb he is he was talking about Beckford earlier, the conversation went something like this: Merson: "I saw him against Liverpool, he had one touch of the ball, he's not good enough for the Premier League" Stelling: "You can't judge a player on one game." Merson: "When you paying three, four, five million for a player you can." Stelling: "Newcastle were told to double a 1.25 million offer earlier in the week." Merson: "In that case Arsenal should sign him. They create so many chances he'll be good back up." Also saw was having me morning coffee and saw Jamie Redknapp patronising the fuck out of Bristol City. Cringe worthy stuff.

West Brom - Forest on Friday too, a win wouldn't go amiss.

Yeah, because if it happens it's obviously because he WANTS to lose his best striker. Nothing to do with us having literally no money to spend and tons of debt. so you sell to your biggest rivals and risk relegation? If saha is for sale, there would be more then Liverpool interested. He can walk for nout in the summer.

Priorities in January: 1) Keeping hold of everyone. 2) A midfielder that can actually pass a football (too much to ask I know). 3) Defensive cover. 4) Striking cover. 5) A quality right winger.

Alan Stubbs lobbing his own keeper from forty yards.

He'll get on well with Nolan and Shola then.

Bah, not an ideal result but still better than the Wednesday performance. Derby have one of the weakest away records in the division but bar some sloppy finishing and a bit of bad luck we could have been taking three points. We set a good pace in the first half and we created a couple of good opportunities and while things expectedly dropped in the second we still carved out two very good opportunities. Derby also deserve a bit of credit too. We did create chances but on the whole they defended well. They also moved the ball competently and put a couple of good crosses into the area but like some many teams at this level lacked cutting edge.

Harper 6 - Made a couple of good saves, didn't cover himself in glory for the second. Simpson 5 - A mixed bag, some good play and some sloppiness. Coloccini 6 - Did well but needs to stop pratting round in his own area. Taylor 6 - Solid. Enrique 5 - Below bar, sloppy on the ball. Guthrie 6 - Clearly our best midfielder, why is playing out wide? Butt 5 - A mixed bag, does well to win the ball but usually gives it straigh back. Nolan 6 - Did well for the goal but pretty quiet on the whole. Jonas 5 - Average shift. Shola 6 - Scored but contributed little else. Harewood 5 - See Shola minus the goal. Hughton 3 - Poor team selection, average substitutions and shit long ball tactics.

s*** result, s*** performance. Ref should never be allowed near a professional game.

I'm in.

The trains are going to be an absolute ball ache, if on at all.

Off the top of my head: Freidel Shawcross Skrtel Collins Faye Cana Palacios Dempsey Pienaar

Sarcasm surely?

Choose Butt, choose 4-5-1, choose the ong ball game, choose Chris, choose Sports Direct, choose the cockney rapist, choose relegation, choose disillusionment, choose Newcastle United.

The spawny bastards always used to get lucky breaks against us, hope we twat the bastards.

It still doesn't change the fact Guthrie can't buy a game in the middle despite being our best player in that position.

The problem is now players have to dive to win a penalty or free kick, honesty gets you nothing. I remember watching a Championship game last season where the defender came ploughing into the striker completely missing the ball. The striker stayed on his feet and got the shot away but the ref didn't award a penalty.

Does it all the time. Yep. Arsenal at home and one match last season where he dived meaning he missed the Manchester derby just off the top of my head. The one that really sticks out is when he lunged over Campbell's leg to win a penalty and effectively ended Arsenal's unbeaten 49 game run.

Good day for the bookies.

The daft thing is that we keep playing Smith, Butt and Nolan who are never going to play in the Premiership and win games. We're not in the Premiership but we look like we're going to be in it next season so we should be looking to develop what we have. We've had opportunities to balance the team and play some adventurous football and we've failed miserably because we haven't tried. Results wise, we’re doing all we can really ask of the club but that shouldn’t be seen as the holly grail because if that’s the limit of our planning then we’ll be back in this league the season after next. We’ve got a great opportunity to see what we can do with what we’ve got and we haven’t got the balls to try anything different, even though we have players who are match winners in this league, even when coming off the bench if something is going wrong. Why play Harewood who is almost certainly going back to Villa when we have players who need to gain experience? Why play Pancreas when we have players who we need to gain more experience? Why play Butt and Smith together when we have players who need the same? I’m not suggesting for one minute that we should drop everybody, that would be suicidal. We do need to plan for next season and we’re missing our chance. Kadar looked an excellent prospect but was dropped as soon as Taylor returned, Hughton could have put Taylor on the right and allowed Kadar to carry on gaining experience which will prove invaluable in future but the manager drops him straight away. Nolan was given a ban which should have allowed us to see what Guthrie could do in his preferred position, Butt came in so nothing was learned. Shola, Lovenkrands and Ranger have all scored in the last two games and yet Carroll who was in a cell less than a week ago is brought straight back into the side, it doesn’t make sense. Spot on. Sometimes we win in spite of Hughton rather than because of him. For example, if Enrique is carrying an injury Kadar should slot into replace him but we all know fine well he'll pick Khiz even though he has looked shockingly off the pace and will be back with Blackburn in January. Guthrie is our best central midfielder, he has to play. Smith has been excellent this season, not technically, but he puts himself about. Nolan can only operate off the striker and Butt is dreadful yet the best Guthrie can get is a spot on the wing, its ridiculous. So yeah I agree. Hughton deserves praise for the position we're in but at the same time he does make some daft tactical decisions, decision that would get punished at the highest level.

Does it all the time.

Good to see refs clammping down on diving this weekend, long may it continue, not that it will.

We've been very lucky on a lot of occasions this season, both home and away. I don't think we're getting the best out of what we've got and I only say that because it's a s*** league. Completely agree. If we even attempt to set up the way we have being away from in the Premier League we'd get ripped to shreds, the fact half the teams in this league lack cutting edge is one of the reasons we get away with it. I'd really love to see us set up 4-4-2 and have a go every game, I think we're good enough to do it but while Hughton is winning games its diffcult to be too upset with how things are going.