Jayson

Probably our last hope this game. If we can win this, i think we can stay up. The positivity from a win would lift their confidence/ability a lot at this point. Its been so long, only a real win will give them the belief they need.

Add in martins handball that would have been ball to hand anywhere else on the pitch v portsmouth. Exact same thing happened to two man united players yesterday, hits 2 of them in the arm & gives them the advantage of controlling the ball so that they could clear. Hits martins in the arm giving him the advantage of controlling it only to score after & no no its a free kick. Complete joke. Probably endless examples from this season.

Would play edgar over duff at the back, bar that looks a good team to me.

Think hes doing a good job, whether i agree/disagree with everything he does. He seems far more in touch with the general consensus of the fans also which is a nice change from endlessly sticking to your guns with pure failures. Cant really blame him for playing butt/smith when realistically we just have no one better. Even guthrie didnt look that impressive when brought on v portsmouth...so cant say he isnt trying things. Just hope it works out. I like him as a manager.

Just watched the goals what a joke. First one debatably offside. 2nd one Beye was obstructed. 3rd one nicky butt/whoever else were being twats and clearly playing them onside like morons. Embarassing goal. Still havent seen bartons foul

If he loves us so much he'll help us get promoted back into the prem then

Owen will be back & itd be insane to leave him out again tbh. Aslong as viduka stays fit we'll do alright. Gotta play guthrie in midfield.

It's better than being smashed in the face with a hammer a hundred times. Lots of variables id say, what if its one of those inflatable rubber hammers

And on a related note, can we list the positives of being punched in the face a hundred times ?

Hes completely right. Dont agree with feeling sorry for Ashley though, i fee; sorry for us that this guy who "doesnt know much about football" decided to take on the task of owning Newcastle. You dont just go buy a business you've no understanding of, hire people you dont know much about.....or whether they're any use....and just hope it all goes well. Completely moronic. Its his fault at this point. for hiring that shit.

Still think Guthrie> the rest of our central midfielders. Thats the one area i have a gripe with, Al clearly sees him as not being experienced enough. But he has to give up on the rest of them.

Christ, we need a lot more than that! IF we are to stay up which I would say is 20-80 at the moment then I would hope that everyone at the club is willing to make HUGE changes. I'm talking about trying to offload most of the first team and taking a chance bringing in new young blood. Owen, Viduka, Loven, Barton, Butt, Smith, Geremi, Nolan, Taylor, Ameobi, Duff and then the likes of Martins and Colo if we were to get decent money for them should go. If you're looking at our performances, it is our midfield letting us down every game. You dont need to look much further, we still have ability in other areas of the pitch. The players you dont think aren't very good isnt really of much concern. We wont replace the entire team. Owen, Loven, Nolan, Duff, Martins, Colo should stay. The rest we can lose sure.

The only positive you can take is that it should be far worse for us than it currently is. Portsmouth hitting the post, how many off the lines v tottenham, 3 off the bar today against pool, stoke missing sitters..... We're getting the luck we need to stay up, we're just not doing our part yet/atall.

Relegation can never be a positive though as people have said so many times, regardless of whether we put together a new team. Newcastle will be a worse team as a result of playing a lower standard of team each week. Even if our best players stay...which a lot wont...you dont want them getting used to that. Then when we go up, we'll be able to buy/replace very little as people will see us a side that could go back down easily again. Our Owner clearly doesnt have the money to bring in real quality. Our reputation will go down hill. None of its good. We go down, it'll be far more likely we'll be fighting relegation everyseason from then on IF we made it back up. Far more than now with this current side even.

Realistically we just need a new midfield. We have butt, Smith & geremi representing us there. Guthrie still has loads to learn & is currently learning off these clowns. And Barton the only lad with some ability would probably be a better kickboxer. Bar Guthrie, we replace them the team improves. Its simple. We've been saying it for years...new midfielder. We now have 7 strikers instead, with duff playing up there to & ranger coming through. It couldnt be more moronic. Didnt see the game today yet, but i still wouldnt blame Martins for missing even after his crap season. When you're under pressure as we are & your strikers dont get many chances, theyre going to miss when they do. Its no suprises really.

In the positive, we have our most winnable game all season coming up next week & if we win it we might actually stay up still. Im amazed that we've only conceded 3 today. We've had a lotttttttt of luck these past games, everyone one of them could have been far worse.

It can be done in the prem man, the last thing you want is a relegation. Which team has previously done a complete squad clear-out & replacement whilst staying in the PL (without the need for a mad billionaire to bankroll everything)? what happens after the clearout? we suddenly have better players? all that will happen is the best players leave, we're left with the s*** we can't sell and we fill the rest of the squad with crap championship players. rather than a 'clear out' you should call it 'replacing the players we have now with worse players'. Quite a few of the players are as bad as they are because of our position. It cant be a coincidence that under keegan half of them turned decent again, dont think theyre showing their true level of performance at this point. If we stayed up & had a fresh start, take the pressure of relegation away & quite a few of them would more than likely improve. Shame that seems unlikely now. There are still some players this season who have simply been out of it from the start though, no excuses there.

Cant believe Barton got sent off, what a twat. He could have been very important for us aswell, endless individual errors

he lost it a godo while ago, hes not that fast anymore tbh. Just quite quick feet.

No doubt people will still manage to blame this loss today on michael owen, how brilliant

Only games that really matter to us now are sunlun & hull's. Dont see us catching anyone else.

Our midfielders are absolutely useless on the ball. We play 4 at the back and 5 in midfield we'll spend the entire game lumping it up to the front man, losing the ball & trying to stop them from scoring. No one will be capable enough to track gerrard, alonso etc so we'll just get cut through and lose well. I still think we've a better chance if we attack, cant see us stopping them scoring. Go for something like 3-4-3 and maybe when we lump it up we'll actually get the odd chance ourselves.

If we drop a foward for an extra midfielder we're done. We've been shite at defending all season, our best form of defence is our attack simply because the ball stays further away from our goal. If we just try to take pressure, we'll get severely battered.

Well i dont think he should be captain either. But what you're saying isnt very true. Your most likely thinking of times where hes gone for a long ball and been outmuscled by the defender, then comparing that with players who gets the ball at his feet. If you cannot see that tevez has a bigger frame than owen you're blind.

Uh Viduka = tall and strong Carroll = tall and strong Martins = pacey off the ball Owen = runs through the defence requiring accurate passing Now work out which one might struggle in a side that plays long balls & inaccurate passing. Regardless, Martins doesnt touch the ball barely any more than Owen he just holds it for longer when he drops deep. What is particularly alarming is how physically weak Owen is when challenged for the ball shoulder to shoulder. He loses it every single time in this instances. It's why most of the time he passes it before any of the opposition get anywhere near him. It seems his legs are well and truly shot as he just doesn't have the ability to put himself between the ball and the defender and get low with a wide strong base and just hold them off when under pressure. It's all about balance and leverage and not size. We see the likes of Tevez and Defoe do it all the time and as a little guy you just have to be able to do this to some degree. Owen just seems completely gone physically. He doesn't do anything that looks remotely sudden or explosive or powerful. We all know pace goes eventually, but he is no longer able to jostle with anyone or shoot with power or anything ... It's just a sad sight really. Tevez has a big frame, defoe doesnt do it anymore than owen. Owen did exactly what you're claiming hes no longer capable of in the game against portsmouth whilst being "useless" and setting up guthrie for a chance on the edge of the area.