The Prophet

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.

What's shocked me most is the work ethic, effort and improved team spirit of the side. Hughton deserves a lot of credit for picking the useless bastards up from last season.

If Ashley stays and fails to invest in the next two transfer windows I really fear for us wether we are promoted or not. The current crop of players wouldn't cut it in the Premier League, if we are promoted without spending I can see nothing more than a throughly humiliating season. On the other hand you only have to look at the likes of Sheffield United and Reading to see what a couple of years without significant investement does to you in the Championship. You'd hope he'd of realised that by now...

I think people are still expecting the worst because that's generally the route the club has gone down in recent times. Last night's results means a win tonight could provide us with a decent cushion after ten games, a cushion that could be vital later in the season if or when a blip eventually comes. I have a feeling tonight's game will be similar to the Leicester game in that the opposition will create the odd chance and won't roll over and die like Ipswich did at the weekend. In spite of the current list of injuries we have a group of players playing with condifence and a manager who has finally realised the correct formation for them, add to the equation we generally have more quality and the backing of the home support and I'm going for a narrow home win.

Yes we should close it down. In fact why stop there, we should start a smear campaign to ensure they can't get another job for the rest of their talentless lives. Should of done the same to the seniors when they were turned over at Blackpool. There's no place for losers at this club, we need to make examples of them.

Aye I'm in.

I'm not sure what to make of him. He puts himself about, holds the ball up well and has a bit of pace to burn. However he drifts into the wide positions and doesn't really take up goal scoring positions. When he does get himself into a goal scoring position he seems worryingly reluctant to pull the trigger. Having said that the lad has never really played in a 4-4-2. It will be interesting to see how he plays off another striker such as Carroll or Ameobi where he won't have the need to drift out wide so much.

Got off the mark for the season today. Newcastle Leeds MK Dons Bournemouth 9/1

22/09/2009 Llambias: Derren responsible for stalemate. Derek Llambias has launched a scathing attack on Derren Brown after claims the showman’s attempt to control the nation saw the progress of Newcastle United's sale come to a grinding halt. "It's just not on" claimed an angry Derek "Mike (Ashley) can't even move his arms, how is he supposed to sell a football club?" "The progress was slow going as it was, now it's come to a complete stop." "Derren has got a lot to answer for, if Mike remains in this state then the club may never be sold, we may even have to start legal proceedings."

Blackpool have made themselves difficult to beat, losing only one of their opening games, having said that they've drawn four. Unless we do something drastically wrong they shouldn't have too many goal scoring threats it should be a case of whether we can break them down or not. Losing Smith is a worry but given his technical ability it shouldn't be too much of blow, we'll miss his energy more than anything. Think I'd go with the five man midfield again due to our lack of forwards though. Although a lead at the top of the table would be nice it's only early days, a draw wouldn't be an absolute disaster. We're inevitably going to drop points at some stage as are West Brom and Boro. I'm going to go with another narrow win tonight due to our extra quality in midfield.

I know where your coming from Binnsy but not sure I entirely agree. We didn't defend that well today. We gave far too many free kicks around the area, got sucked to the ball far too much and it was only because of the lack of quality up front that Cardiff didn't score. It didn't help we didn't keep the ball as well as we have been doing today. We did in parts but far too often we just smashed the ball up field and invited pressure back on to the defence. One of our best qualities this season has been our work rate off the ball, that wasn't there today, we inivited pressure and we didn't defend from the front. Don't get me wrong I'm happy. We didn't play well but won a game at one of the toughest places to go in the league. I just think we need to improve before we meet a team that actually burries a couple of these chances.

Harper 5 - Nothing to do for large parts but flapped at some pretty standard crosses, considering how solid he's looked in the previous match it was a pretty nervy performance. Simpson 6 - Steady again, nothing special but did a job. Taylor 6 - Will get stick for the hand ball but though he was alright, pretty solid for the most part. Coloccini 6 - Very good performance for the most part but made too very unnecessery and rash lunges towards the latter stages of the game one of which put Smith in a situation where he got himself sent off. Enrique 6 - Alright at the back seemed hesitant going forward. Taylor 5 - Did a lot of nothing really, decent ball in for the goal. Barton 5 - Poor again with the odd flash of potential. Smith 6 - Put in another important shift in but needs to calm his ass down. Guthrie 4 - Was he on the pitch? Really need to get him central. Nolan4 - See Guthrie minus the excuse. Ranger 5 - Held up the odd ball but drifted off far too much and is the guy really that afraid to have a dig? Jesus. Felt sorry for him playing up front with no support but he showed absoltely no strikers instinct today. At times balls were coming into the box and he was no where to be seen. Overall average performance today to say the very least but it's three points in the bag. We need to improve.

"Ghosted in" - No one in their right mind would use it outside football surely? "Oh look who's just ghosted in" you'd look like a right tool. "Tucks it away" - Would make sense but you'd probably get some funny looks. "Piledriver" - Sounds wrong on so many levels. "Screamer" - Guess it could work in some context... "Cuts inside" - Doesn't make sense in any context. "Curls it in" - Curls it out perhaps, curls it in maybe not.