Wallsendmag

No it isn't. The likes of Huddersfield have gone from relegation fodder to promotion contenders overnight without actually doing anything. It's a poor league and nobody can convince me otherwise.

We need to know our place.

He's great. I've never known a manager get support like him with the possible exception of Keegan but he's not beyond criticism and our home record is poor this season. He's partly to blame for that.

Nowt new there. Everyone knows we needed strengthening in a couple of positions in January. That's nowt to do with the negative tactics at home though We've scored 38 goals in 18 league home games, like, and have some of the highest possession & shots. I'd hardly say we're negative. Inefficient & inconsistent, definitely. Stats can hide a multitude of sins. According to the stats we should have got battered at Huddersfield last week. Over a whole season? Plus, didn't they have less shots on target than us? I'll concede that the football in the second half of the season hasn't been to the standard of some of the stuff we played in the first, but I don't think it's down to negativity. We've lost 5 times at home already this season. Last time we went up we lost 4 games in total, home and away. Whichever way you want to look at it we've been poor at home this season, in terms of performances and results.

Nowt new there. Everyone knows we needed strengthening in a couple of positions in January. That's nowt to do with the negative tactics at home though We've scored 38 goals in 18 league home games, like, and have some of the highest possession & shots. I'd hardly say we're negative. Inefficient & inconsistent, definitely. Stats can hide a multitude of sins. According to the stats we should have got battered at Huddersfield last week.

Nowt new there. Everyone knows we needed strengthening in a couple of positions in January. That's nowt to do with the negative tactics at home though

Couldn't agree more. Match made in heaven.

Home form table?

Need him back. And fast!

I said this in the pub before the match. We had to start well today if we were to win the game. When you have Ritchie (rightly so) screaming at his team mates a few minutes in because we were so lethargic and 2nd to every ball it was inevitable what was coming. It was funny when Ritchie pressed high and waved for us to press with him, the tactics don't allow it! It's so rigid and almost militarily style at home it's just awful to watch. Literally an atmosphere killer if ever there was one. I can understand it on the road but it's very tedious at home now.

I said this in the pub before the match. We had to start well today if we were to win the game. When you have Ritchie (rightly so) screaming at his team mates a few minutes in because we were so lethargic and 2nd to every ball it was inevitable what was coming.

This is it imho. We really need some leaders if we do go up. A proper central midfield leader to drag us through games. It doesn't help that the fans boo as soon as we misplace a pass. Away from home they get supported, at home they get slated for every bad pass. The fans turn up expecting the other team to just rollover and it doesn't work that way. The amount of sheer s*** I heard behind me today was unreal. We didn't have the best game but I repeated to a few that we had only lost 1 f***ing game this year and no matter how good you thought our rivals play we are still top of this league. What do people actually want? Keegan football ain't happening I get that the home crowd don't help at times, but I was at the game today and most of the groans were at the team not being able to do the basics right i.e. simple 10 yard balls and whatnot. We looked clueless out there. Every home crowd in the country moans. Don't blame the crowd for that display today. That's just avoiding what the main issue is here

Can't argue with the latest couple of posts. Absolutely 100% correct.

When you watch him hes actually not a bad player. He literally made that goal all by himself.

Teams are encouraged to have a go at us now with our relatively poor home form (for a team that are top). Aye i get that but it doesn't really explain letting teams have the ball and playing it about at will, and that's what we're doing letting them have it. And when we do get it, us just hoying forward. Rafa is better than that, and despite our squad being average they're better than that too. Fulham were better than us in every area of the pitch.

Wish people would stop making excuses for him. He's awful.

Pretty much spot on tbh. Fulham are a far better footballing team than us. Touch, vision, application, different level to us. If he's going to persist with this formation at home, effectively playing with 10 men based on Diames non performance today, we'd be just as well soaking up pressure and hitting teams on the break at SJP.

Should be starting him and Gayle together at home. Diame was a disgrace agon today. Didn't even break into a sweat.

Obviously I'm on about when they're both fit like.

The tactics at home are hampering us as much as they're benefiting us away from home tbh. I've said it before though, and I'll say it again. This group of players we have are limited to say the least, barring 3 or 4.

That "performance" as a right back today man There's actually people who would rather he started before Yedlin as well!

Just leaving the ground now. Needs to stop the negative, tactical rubbish at home and start on the front foot. Tactics weren't the only reason we lost today, a lot of pathethetic individual performances (Lascelles, Anita, Colback, Shelvey, Diame, Gayle) but they're not helping.

Their prices aren't changing so says the Chronicle. £25 is for a childs season ticket, which is fair play IMO. I know they're hardly in a position to sell themselves to the new generation of mongo's but even still they may as well get them in now and let the knackers who pay for their season tickets try and get them into it properly, so as far as business strategy goes it makes sense. £25 is better than f*** all, which is what they'd normally get for a lot of seats due to the free tickets. I agree with slating them on the free tickets patter because it's just horrendous and shows how much of a joke they are, but they're hardly going to be charging a fortune for season tickets either given the fact that they're absolute s**** and they also live in a massively under-privileged area where people there don't have much money. I think Sima made a very valid point earlier in the thread about them having a serious problem with a huge % of their fans leaving early, as early as half time in some cases. If you've paid £35 for your ticket or £500 for your season ticket you're more than likely to stick it out through stubbornness and wanting to get a bit value for money. In their case a large number of match going fans are getting in for free and even those who pay don't pay very much so the product has been devalued to the point where it's virtually worthless so I can see where the attitude of "well I got in for nowt so I might as well spend the 2nd half/last half hour down the pub" could well prevail. If they go down and don't come straight back up they face years in the wilderness without getting a new backer who will basically bankroll the club like Ellis Short did until a couple of years ago because they just aren't capable of generating the revenue through their own means.

Looks like they're already planning for the Championship. They've announced next year's season ticket prices and they start from £25! That's £25 for a season ticket, not 1 match.

We were supposed to have him against Derby but he was withdrawn at the last minute with an injury.