The Prophet

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.

orly? Bristol even. And yeah Pilko, if you could hoy my rattle back into the pram too that would be grand.

Bristol humping Leicester, I'm not sure whats worse, the fact Neil gives the worst betting advice ever or the fact I stupidly listened to him. Would be revelling in the glory of Leicester and Porto being two up right now. He better hope they both collapse or I'll set his room on fire.

Thought Porto were brilliant value but stupidly let some footballing retard talk me out of it.

Post bets before they "go in" or it didn't happen Neil can verify it.

Had another crafty bet, if I win I'll post it.

Jesus... good luck! Wolfsburg should win, they have everything to play for and Man Utd will mainly play reserve players and many out of position... Wolfsberg should be under "inkonsequent" in the dictionary this year. For an example they are a shadow of the team they were last year see thier no show against Freiberg at the weekend. They're very much capable of turning Man United over tonight, but they'll have to play a hell of a lot better than they've been doing in the league recently. They are by no means certanties.

Jason Roberts is out of contract with Blackburn in the summer, would take take him in a flash.

Despite having no back four still fancy Man United tonight. Got on: Maccabi Haifa v Bordeaux Wolfsberg v Man United Marseille v Real Madrid Chelsea v APOEL Nicosia Swansea v Plymouth Leeds v Kettering Pays £102.25 Found a bit of betting form recently, this more a bit of daft to make the night interesting.

Is this a Tuesday or a Wednesday night kick off?

Don't be daft, Nolan central midfield in a 4-4-2?

Sorry GG but disagree with just about everything you have to say there. I could probably only name a handful of games where I can say we've gone out, blew the other team away, and throughly deserved to win. For a large number of games we have had spells where we're on the back foot but that's natural isn't it? Look at our midfield, the primary reason we were relegated, we are not a team built to play attractive football, other sides are bound to enjoy spells of posession against us. However what we do have is a a solid defence and team that can seemingly grab a goal from anywhere. Those qualities are qualities that win you games. I don't think you'd speak to many Newcastle fans who thinks this side is good enough to survive in the Premier League, the midfield would get ripped to shreds and we'd struggle to score goals, just as it did last year. However it's undeniable on paper we are much better than a majority of sides in this divsion. When we play badly we'll get beat but when we're on form sides struggle to cope with us. On Saturday, yes Watford enjoyed some decent spells but you didn't score, you were beaten fair and square. Good luck for the rest of the season.