Interpolic

I went to Notts Forest away in September which was obviously his first game back after the injury and that goal yesterday reminded me of a moment in the second half in that game and also what I posted afterwards, not knowing loads about the player since I don't watch much foreign football and mainly going off what I saw that night. That's really harsh and way off the mark. Definitely. I think Guthrie did alright last night, was more involved than Abeid. Impressed that he managed to put in 120 minutes after not having played for so long. Anyway it was a funny one last night. Goals aside you'd have to say it was a fairly drab match and there wasn't much pattern to the play from either side. Ben Arfa was brilliant, I really don't think I'm overreacting here () - he was quite quiet for the first 15 minutes but then he started getting on the ball a bit more. The guy is so comfortable on the ball, it always looks like there's nobody anywhere near him because he has such a confident air about him while in possession. There was a moment in the second half when he drifted past 3 or 4 players before encountering their last man - on that occasion he opted to pass (to Lovenkrands I think) but with a few more games under his belt I think he'll just go for it himself in situations like that. Another thing I liked was that he wasn't afraid to come deep to find the ball when he got fed up of standing and waiting for it. With a few players around him that have movement and intelligence (and we do have a couple) I'm just really excited to see this kid ingratiate himself in our side now. In summary, he's the fucking dog's bollocks. Ratings: Elliott 6, Simpson 6, Coloccini 8 (MOTM, looked solid and classy after an early wobble, kept Perch out of trouble, scored the winner), Perch 6, Ferguson 6, Gosling 5, Abeid 6, Guthrie 6, Marveaux 7, Lovenkrands 7, Ben Arfa 8 (subs Obertan 7, Sammy 6, Shola 6). Special mention to the kids behind us that were absolutely thick as mince. As soon as they got to their seats they opened (yes, opened!) with "McClaren is a paedo". Mere mortals would be discouraged by this chant not catching on despite 100 attempts at starting it (they even changed the melody to the Sammy Ameobi song halfway through, presumably to take advantage of its popularity) but no, these lads continued this long into extra time and I imagine long into the Nottingham night. Persistence outstanding, brains non-existent. The bit in bold is evidence of what he was trying in his first game back when he looked rusty but a class above anyone else on the field, I'm glad that he's now back to the stage where he'll just run past players and go for goal himself as he has done against Blackburn and now Bolton.

Looks as if Ben Arfa is the excited member of the public. It does.

With you. Like you say though the bans are fair enough.

It's bite o'clock!

The thing is that non-English sides don't seem to have a problem taking it seriously. Look at the last 8 most seasons and there are some big foreign sides still in it.

You reckon?

Maybe you should be a bit clearer. Might stop all these arguments.

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Yet it's very rare they do. http://i.imgur.com/7d2j9.jpg liverpools on there a bit, pompey, everton, thats spurs team wasn't great. look at many of the poor teams they beat aswell, us twice when we were poor, millwall, cardiff just off the top of my head. 10th, 6th, 10th, 1st, 15th, 1st, 6th, 1st, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 8th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd. FA Cup winners are generally no mugs, a solid league position in addition to evidence the club "can win things" is a sure-fire way to get top players through the door IMO. look at the teams they often put out aswell, shows you in how high regard they have it. Well they'll put shadow sides out in the early rounds but take it more seriously late on. It's obvious it's a distant 3rd priority to the top clubs, yet one of them normally wins it. If we won it next season and finished 5th-8th after this season's efforts it would send a clear message we're a club that's going places. Probably not as big a message as finishing 4th like but you know. Beating a few big sides along the way and one in the final would increase that. what message would it send if we won it and finished 14th ? A s*** one. Why would that need to happen though, what you getting at? See my post earlier, a team hasn't won it and finished lower than 8th in 17 years. bobby robson said something in his last year or so here about how huge and hard a step it is from 5th to 4th and then again to 3rd. the step from 9th to 8th isn't half as big or difficuilt. What's that got to do with winning the FA Cup? I don't see why we couldn't aim to achieve a solid position in the league in conjunction with a good cup run perhaps leading to a cup win, and in turn why that wouldn't improve the perception of us amongst potential signings, which was the original point you disagreed with. Debate's become a bit muddied now.

Yet it's very rare they do. http://i.imgur.com/7d2j9.jpg liverpools on there a bit, pompey, everton, thats spurs team wasn't great. look at many of the poor teams they beat aswell, us twice when we were poor, millwall, cardiff just off the top of my head. 10th, 6th, 10th, 1st, 15th, 1st, 6th, 1st, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 8th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd. FA Cup winners are generally no mugs, a solid league position in addition to evidence the club "can win things" is a sure-fire way to get top players through the door IMO. look at the teams they often put out aswell, shows you in how high regard they have it. Well they'll put shadow sides out in the early rounds but take it more seriously late on. It's obvious it's a distant 3rd priority to the top clubs, yet one of them normally wins it. If we won it next season and finished 5th-8th after this season's efforts it would send a clear message we're a club that's going places. Probably not as big a message as finishing 4th like but you know. Beating a few big sides along the way and one in the final would increase that. what message would it send if we won it and finished 14th ? A shit one. Why would that need to happen though, what you getting at? See my post earlier, a team hasn't won it and finished lower than 8th in 17 years.

Yet it's very rare they do. http://i.imgur.com/7d2j9.jpg liverpools on there a bit, pompey, everton, thats spurs team wasn't great. look at many of the poor teams they beat aswell, us twice when we were poor, millwall, cardiff just off the top of my head. 10th, 6th, 10th, 1st, 15th, 1st, 6th, 1st, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 8th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd. FA Cup winners are generally no mugs, a solid league position in addition to evidence the club "can win things" is a sure-fire way to get top players through the door IMO. look at the teams they often put out aswell, shows you in how high regard they have it. Well they'll put shadow sides out in the early rounds but take it more seriously late on. It's obvious it's a distant 3rd priority to the top clubs, yet one of them normally wins it. If we won it next season and finished 5th-8th after this season's efforts it would send a clear message we're a club that's going places. Probably not as big a message as finishing 4th like but you know. Beating a few big sides along the way and one in the final would increase that.

Yet it's very rare they do. http://i.imgur.com/7d2j9.jpg liverpools on there a bit, pompey, everton, thats spurs team wasn't great. look at many of the poor teams they beat aswell, us twice when we were poor, millwall, cardiff just off the top of my head. 10th, 6th, 10th, 1st, 15th, 1st, 6th, 1st, 1st, 5th, 3rd, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 2nd, 8th, 3rd, 1st, 3rd. FA Cup winners are generally no mugs, a solid league position in addition to evidence the club "can win things" is a sure-fire way to get top players through the door IMO.

Yet it's very rare they do. http://i.imgur.com/7d2j9.jpg

Fair do's.

Our arguably best midfielder? You don't say? Tiote, tbh. I thought Tiote was useless against teams not in the top six in your opinion? Although I suppose our new formation may change things a bit.

Wiki says he had an unsuccessful trial with Barcelona when he was 15 as well.

I think it could go that way as well but hopefully our fans won't lose their bottle and actually realise what we're in danger of achieving here. The last few results and performances have been quite galvanising for the club so you'd hope the crowd would give the players a break and treat this game as a significant step towards an incredible achievement rather than a shoe-in where we blow the opposition away. I think if we knock the ball around a bit then the patience will be there but if we put in one of those disjointed performances where there's no pattern to our play then people might get restless, which would be a shame. Incidentally I think if Spurs and Arsenal had lost this weekend the atmosphere would have been rocking regardless, hopefully tomorrow's an acceptable medium.

The reason my dad mentioned it is that he had a hip replacement a few weeks back and going to the match tomorrow is the most active thing he will have done since the operation. He's a bit apprehensive about it as he's nowhere near 100%. He was not happy at the prospect of us being happy with a draw to say the least. Although a 0-0 would save him having to get up and down off his seat, which would probably be for the best. We give them a hammering and he's back in the hospital.

Happened to me once when the GF was away for the weekend and I watched wall-to-wall porn for 3 days, just saying.

Strange quotes IMO, don't know why I even take any notice anymore though. Apologies if already posted, my dad mentioned it on the phone earlier and I hadn't seen the quotes anywhere.

Shhh Mikel, Newcastle aren't supposed to be in the mix FFS.

Plus extra matchday revenue.