The Prophet

Agree with some of that but we are posting on an internet forum. You’re going to meet the intelligent, the dumb, the reserved, the kneejerk, etc and therefore encounter a wide range of opinions some you agree with, some you don't. Now I'll admit I was one of those who got carried away with our start to the season, but I still feel it is my right as a fan to complain when the manager gets it wrong, or when the players can't be arsed, or when we get thoroughly underperform for several games in a row. I totally agree someone coming out with "I'm not supporting this club anymore, we've lost to Scunthorpe for fucks sake" is a complete moron but he has every right to express that view no matter who idiotic it is. Knee jerk reaction is part of football. Despite Benitez taking Liverpool to second place and two Champions League finals I highly doubt their fans will be sat there saying "We've lost five in a row but that's football". Liverpool do not have a divine right to win a majority of their games and neither do we, if we get outplayed we will get beat, but you can't tell me there will be one body of football fans who would be happy with four games without a win whatever their situation. Our current form is set on a back drop of very negative circumstances. Extreme negativity is going to be a theme in a lot of opinions at this time. Similarly if we were sat in say Spurs position at this time I'm sure we'd see a lot of over-positivity on the forum, its human nature. So four wins without a defeat is simply going to exacerbate negativity, especially when that source of negativity is constantly lingering in the background. So yeah football has it's cycles and during those cycles opinions change to the extreme sometimes. Maybe we have been spoilt but surely it's only natural for fans, some of whom, have paid their hard earned money to go and watch eleven men being paid over thirty grand a week to jog around like they don't give a crap to show frustration. I'm not a fan of the constant whinging either but you’re on an internet forum your going to read opinions you dislike and strongly disagree with.

Didn't actually see your post there Dave but I'll take it.

Is Coloccini fit?

Newcastle's owner is called Mike He tortures the fans out of spite So they sat on NO And reached a new low By drivelling utter s****

On paper at least this group of players should be good enough to win the Championship but as we're all to painfully aware it doesn't work like that. I think the quality is there but the players are failing to produce it. A difference between the last few games and the matches at the start of the season is motivation. There were games we didn't deserve to win at the beginning but we came out of the dressing room looking up for the fight, now we're lucky if they've woken up by half time. The motivation of the players has visibly dropped, we're slipping in the gear we so often found last year and it isn't good enough. For me the depth of the squad is poor. We lose Taylor, Smith or Ameobi and frankly the fill ins of Khiz, Butt or Harewood don't look good enough, not even at this level. However when you are low on numbers it is important you get your tactics spot on, something Hughton hasn't done. We've seen a switch to the long ball game, our best delivery of a ball in full back, a striker who can't play on the wing being played on the wing, central midfielders out wide, two big front men with no width. The list goes on. I think we have a group of players not good enough for the Premier League but who should be finishing in the top two of this league. However what I think we need is a) A manager who can uncover the best of their abilities and stamp out complacency and; b) A bit of luck with injuries.

Agreed but having Taylor and Coloccini meant we had a half chance of keeping a clean sheet. Them being injured has also meant Hughton has dragged Simpson central where he's been utter shit. He's dropped Taylor, our delivery of a cross into full back and played two big men up top who miss the delivery from Taylor. It's really knackered the whole balance of the side. Mind you Hughton has made matters worse with his tactical choices and his lack of any form of game plan.

This is the first time I could be arsed to construct a lengthy post in ages, the rage has been simmering for a while.

I'll admit I've given my support to Mike Ashley. I was supportive when he bought us from Shepherd, I refused to admit his transfer system was all bad, I even remained neutral through the Keegan debacle but there comes a time when every man has to scream "GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR CLUB!" The so called take over is tedious, is it on? Is it off? Quite frankly I couldn't give a fuck anymore. It's becoming ever more apparent our paper thin squad is going to struggle even at this level. Yet the fat bastard fails to see come or go investment is needed. Barry Moat might not be able to afford the club but yet his potential reign looks like a dream, albeit a distant one. He may not have the resources but at least he will have an ounce of common sense and who knows? The integrity our current owner so inherently lacks. His stupidity is so overwhelming I'm even starting to think conspiracies. Is he doing it out of spite? Surely no one is this dumb? I couldn't believe my ears when he let his so called transfer team recommend a player they'd only viewed on Youtube, you just couldn't make it up and yet that's just one of succession of fucking beauties we hear about day after day in the press. I'm even starting to believe Llambias ran bollock naked across SJP. By his own admittance he does not know how to run a football club. Well why the fuck is he still here then? His latest decision looking like appointing a manager on the back of a poor run of performances. This is a man who fell woefully short in the Premier League and I know, he's a likeable chap, but going by the player's motivation alone it's looking like the early season magic is rubbing off by the day. I've always accepted Ashley made mistakes but I always thought he could redeem them, oh how I underestimated his idiocy. The man is a fucking disaster and great news it looks like he's hear to stay, pass me a bloody noose it's going to be a long season.

Carroll was no better, if not worse at the weekend.

Aye nothing to do with injuries, Hughton's tactics and a general lack of desire to win, it was Marlons fualt.

I feel sorry for Hughton. We've had a fantastic start to the season and deserves credit for turning it round. Unfortunately sooner rather than later I, like most, would like to see a manager appointed. The guy is an innocent party in what has been an awful year, he's done his best, but will his best be good enough? Don't forget this is the man who showed he was woefully short of managerial class in the Premier League. The case for Hughton is strong one. The man has managed to get a bunch of wasters who did nothing but feel sorry for themselves into a team that is sitting in the automatic promotion spots despite the negativity surrounding the season. For that the man must be given praise, he thoroughly deserved his manager of the month award. He's also a likeable chap. After the antics Of Billy Bullshit it's nice to see the bloke retain his dignity in such a well reserved manner. Although on the face of it his team selection has been poor of late it's also worth noting the absences of Coloccini, Jonas, Barton, Ameobi and now Taylor have hindered his chances of selecting what would be his strongest side. However it is difficult to ignore some of the mistakes he has made. Take yesterday for example, why did we go with two big men up top then select a midfield that lacked any form of width? Why is Lovenkrands consistently selected to play on the left when by his own admission he can't play there? Why with ten minutes to go did he take a forward off for another forward, surely that's the stage of the game where you throw caution to the wind? It's been because of these mounting mistakes we haven't pulled clear at the top. This is before you mention the players who have been leaving the dressing room with a complacent attitude leading to slow starts that we simply cannot afford. We have games coming up against Scunthorpe and Doncaster. For me we simply have to take at least four points from these matches with the away fixtures we have over the coming month, yet I'm not confident when I feel I should be. Aye Hughton has done well with what he has but with a mounting list of injuries and what is looking like a penniless January on the horizon we need someone who really knows what he's doing, someone who will select the correct eleven, who will make the correct substitutions and someone who will not tolerate complacency. For me that is why it has to be a thanks but no thanks to Chris Hughton.

It is absolutely imperative if we're going with two big men up top we have Taylor on the wing.

WE WERE RELEGATED. Of course we should see an improvement, Jesus wept. Have Middlesbrough improved? I don't think so, so relegation doesn't automatically mean improvement. Oh deary me, he's actually deadly serious too. Put it this way, if we were still in the Premier League now the improvement would be so great that we'd still be getting beat week after week. Yeah we've had a good start but people are clearly getting carried away. Of course i'm serious, and who's getting carried away. We havn't played that well all season and have been lucky to get some of the results we have. But try and be positive instead of constantly griping. Yeah sorry I constantly gripe, I'm not sure why I'm so negative about an absolutely magnificent performance. We were truly unlucky that our dynamic midfield and shit hot strikers didn't blow them away. It's similar to the last couple of games, that's why we're still well clear of West Brom despite dropping points today. The glass is truly half full.

WE WERE RELEGATED. Of course we should see an improvement, Jesus wept.

His worst performance of the season to date I'm afraid. Started well in the air but then turned into a bit of a square head, some of his attempts looked like defensive clearences. On the ground he was awful, oh when he wasn't on his arse of course.

I can't believe some of the shite I'm reading. The first half was a lazy, lackluster, non- performance. Forest could of been a couple up at the break had Blackstock put his chances away. Simpson in particular was all over the place, out muscled, out of position and constantly troubled by Blackstock. Our set pieces were sloppy up both ends and was there a midfield on the park? Smith was the best of a bad bunch. Second half saw a marked improvement but it still wasn't good enough. The midfield lacked creativity, the strikers were sloppy and reserved. Yet after all that we still probably deserved a point, does that not highlight the quality of the opposition? Today the tactics weren't good enough and at times the players looked like they were on their summer fucking holidays, sort it out Chris.

Fuck off Lyon, what an absolute piss take.

think your being generous with Harewood,Enrique same,Ranger not long enough on pitch, Harper saved our bacon Thought Enrique had a good game, defended well and got forward with a bit of purpose. Harper made one very good save and yeah, Ranger was pretty shit. At least Harewood had the courage to shoot unlike any of his fellow attackers.

The top two losing in France? Surely a sick joke?

Harper 5 - Alright I suppose. Taylor 6 - Steady away, put the odd good ball into the box. Simpson 4 - All over the place at times, certainly doesn't have the positional awareness and strength to play centre half. Khiz 5 - Decent on the ball, so very very slow off it. Enrique 7 - Our best player by a country mile. Guthrie 5 - Not a winger, didn't get into the game at all. Smith 5 - Put himself about, switched off at times, nothing special. Nolan 4 - It's a good job the lad can finish because he offers little else to the side. Lose some weight. Lovenkrands 3 - Just awful, for the love of God the man cannot play on the wing. Harewood 5 - Probably our most threatening player, doesn't say much. Carroll 4 - Does he actually have a square head? When he wasn't making defensive headers he was falling over, invest in some new boots. Subs: Jonas 5 - Oddly made things happen but so very very wasteful. I mean shooting from there? Come on. Ranger 4 - Got into the correct positions but his poor touch and inability to finish kind of countered that.

Seven added minutes at the Stadium of Light, bloody hell.

Heard a couple of people out and about make comments such as "Ah, at least Croatia got there comeuppance" or "Glad Croatia got knocked out", why? Yes, how dear such an inferior team come to England and beat us in our own back yard. It had nothing to do with the fact we were awful and had an incompetent manager, it was the fault of those dirty Croatians.

Is the man actually a complete fucking numpty? (Daft qurstion I know). Say he keeps the club until the end of the season to double his money. He keeps virtually the same squad bar the odd change and we some how scrape over tahe finish line. Then what? Some potential buyer is going to turn round and say: "Oh look there's a club that isn't in the best place financially and has a playing squad likely to get relegated during the following season, I'll pay £200 million for it". Not only is every potential buyer going to run off at the sight of such a ridiculous price but we're likely to be in for another season of disaster on the field. This team has already proven it isn't good enough to stay in the Premier League and no amount of team spirit is going to improve that, unless Hughton recently learned how to perform miracles. The building needs to start in January. Not only will this freshen us up for the remainder of this season but it will give us a platform to build on in the summer. Oh I give up, rant over.

Oh no, if bottom of the football league, facing possible liquidation, playing in a ridiculously oversized stadium, Darlington FC are backing Sunderand's world cup bid I don't know how they can be rejected.