The Prophet

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.

For me it should be Lovenkrands. Carroll, ranger, Shola and Harewood while all slightly different have the same primary role. Big, strong lads, half decent in the air and capable of holding the ball up. Lovenkrands adds a completely diffrent dimension. As well as worrying defenders with pace he has a canny knack of getting into goal scoring position that the others don't. When everyone is fit Shola and Lovenkrands should be up top every time if you ask me.

We're going to drop points at some time and at least we didnt get beat. The form of Barnsley over the last 10 games is higher than 9th too since they changed their manager. Could have won it on another day but could also have lost it if Harewood hadnt got that second goal. Sense of perspective required. When I said 9th I should have added bottom to that. This game was just like so many before, our midfield is overrun on a regular basis and we started the game with Smith, Butt and Nolan which has as much pace as a two legged dog which puts us under so much pressure. That's the way our away form has been though. We sit back and absorb pressure then attempt to nick a goal at the other end, it's not ideal but it has been effective for the most part. I think Hughton does this because he knows we struggle to play football. Our midfield, the key reason we were relgated, has barely changed, only Guthrie can pass a football consistantly. While for the most part we get away with this at home, away teams will have a go, consequently they'll enjoy long spells of possession. Luckily for us most teams at this level don't know how to capitalise, today Barnsley did. While it's frustrating Hughton chooses to play this way we've managed to win six out of eleven games on the road, which when you consider our home form is a very good return. If we went two up top and had a go I think our away form would probably look even better, but while we're top of the league with an eight point cushion it is difficult to complain.

Just a few thoughts really: It's frustrating how Butt is keeping Guthrie out the side. The lad is one of our better distributors of a football, Butt isn't. While Butt isn't to blame for us conceding two today I can gurantee having two technically poor central midfielders in the middle didn't help, we were really under the cosh at times in the second half. Which brings me to Hughton. I'm not going to slate the guy who has just lead a team to seven wins on the trott but its strange how his mind works at times. We were really under pressure in the second half and we needed an outlet. That is why taking Jonas off and failing to use Lovenkrands was disappointing. Kadar isn't a great player but he's still better than Khiz who looks woefully off the pace, I can see why he went for experience under the circumstances though. I'm uncertain why he is so reluctant to stick two up front away from home, if he tried it I think we'd see less pressure being exerted by the opposition. Overall I'm happy with the result, Barnsley are starting to hit a bit of form under Robbins and we took a point from a game we were throughly outplayed in at times. The run was always going to come to an end and its really positive the players looked so disappointed at the final whistle. The way we play means we are going have to ride out luck today and while there were elements of fortune about Barnsley's first they throughly deserved their point. Two home games coming up next so hopefully we can build on the cushion we've built over previous weeks.

Not a bad result, slightly annoyed we were in front twice like.

Bent tried his best to claw it off the line but couldn't quite manage.

As much as Barnsley deserve to be in this game we've had chances to put this to bed.

f*** off Chelsea, f*** off Leeds pai of bottling c***s. Thart is all.

Aye, Chelsea concede against FC Kebab, pretty much ends the dream.

Come on Leeds man.

It's on *prays* Oh aye and Milan are f***ing up t'other one I couldn't be arsed to post. COME ON MAN UNITED YOU UTTER BASTARDS

Three word I never want to say again... HOWAY THE MANCS!

I thought, well, haven't backed Boro this season; maybe a 5-1 win against a very good QPR side could give them confidence. Stupid logic. I thought, well, Wolfsburg needs to win against a poor, unmotivated Man U team. Stupid logic. I thought, well, Milan should be able to beat Zurich, even away from home. Stupid logic. I thought, well, WBA should want to bounce back after those lost points at the weekend, and should win at home. Stupid logic. I thought, well, Real Madrid should have the quality to beat Marseille. Stupid logic. I thought, well, Bayern Munich have talked themselves up quite a bit before the game against Juve, and should be well up for it. Stupid logic. Are they all part of the same bet? It's only half time a couple of them might turn it around. Good luck anyway.

It's on *prays* Oh aye and Milan are fucking up t'other one I couldn't be arsed to post.