Stottie

"They usually do, cup final week, I find." Been there loads of times haven't you, Alan. What a tool.

Has to be Taylor for all the embarrassing appeals to Geordieness and blagging it for so long. Other clowns at the club do it too, Beardsley, Moncur, Carver for years, etc. Colo deffo second, and then take your pick for third. I'd be tempted to pick someone who's not performed under Rafa. Maybe Janmaat. Going forward, Shelvey has an extremely unlikeable habit of finger pointing (see Taylor) and could well find himself in a future list. I also reckon Eliot was actually mediocre this year (Colback level), still stinks of Pardew, and was a factor in our relegation. Swap our goalkeeping for the Mackems' and I reckon they would have gone down.

First time a relegated team has got twelve points in their last six since West Ham in 88/89. It's never been done in the Prem era. We were relegated as bottom that season under Jim Smith. It's also the year Arsenal pipped Liverpool to the title with that Michael Thomas goal.

Jamie Vardy fourth oldest, behind only Rooney, Cahill, and Milner. Getting in the team at his age is a real achievement.

He's been great for us and, wow, what a shot on him. I did rate him, but he's still exceeded my expectations. Definitely one to keep if it is possible. He was also prepared to come and graft for our bunch of losers, so all credit to the lad. I hope he stays, but will still wish him all the best if he doesn't.

He beat Kyle Walker very easily for his goal, but still kicked out at him with us still winning the game. If that's what he does to someone in his pocket, it doesn't bode well for games where a mouthy defender has the upper hand over him.

So not only did the security firm leave a fake bomb in the stadium, they didn't have one member of staff listening to the news and available to react when a full bomb alert is announced for exactly the same place as their training exercise four days earlier. Whatever training exercise was conducted, it either didn't involve or slipped the mind of the match day staff at Old Trafford. What a shambles. As this incident has proved, any real life terrorist threat will involve the police and security forces, which raises the question of how valuable any training exercise conducted without them is going to be. After the shambles with 4GS during the Olympics and firms like Halliburton and KBR in the US, security should not be farmed out to (invariably politically connected) for-profit firms in the private sector.

Aye, get it saved.

I'd rather have City in the CL than Man U, esp. after the way the latter have played all season. Southampton finish ahead of West Ham.

Spurs about to finish third in a two-horse race. Still, it's all good if it helps Rafa stay.

Aye, for Rafa, the Norwich handball and then the Aguero header. Maybe the Colo one at the mackems way back was the biggest though.

Just for anyone, journos mainly, pushing the "ironic that it was sacked former manager Sam Allardyce" line, it was a textbook "on the beach" performance from Allardyce's West Ham that confirmed our safety last season under the lip licker. Since Hull couldn't win their last game, it didn't matter at full time, but there were plenty of people bricking it when the game kicked off. One of them being Carver himself, I would imagine. One season after Allardyce left, West Ham have been challenging for Champions League.

True. I also suspect getting away with winning that game stopped us from giving it more of a go against Villa.

At the margins, the game could still have been won. We had some chances and Sunderland scored three from at least fifteen yards out. That's what can happen when things go for you. However, nine shots, three on target, against a historically poor team with a duff goalie isn't going to earn you a lot of sympathy when you don't score. We needed to do more, especially first half. You shouldn't be depending on the run of the ball against such poor opposition.

On a season level, he started quite brightly, had a couple of months where he lost his way and seemed more interested in pretending to be fouled than trying to score, and then picked it up again toward the end. He's missed the odd gilt-edged one, but not that many because we are not a gilt-edged chance creating team. For a first season in the league and his age, maybe a C minus. The rest of the team gets a D minus. If anything, I think Perez deserves more flack than Mitro. He's been more disappointing this year.

He got it wrong yesterday, but is still our best hope of the club operating with some kind of competency going forward. Maybe the home support next week could put on a show and convince him to stay, if we haven't already. There is still the underlying fear that those at the club will not grab this opportunity and merrily show him door out of the usual complacency and ineptitude.

For all the numerous feckups in the past, most notably Thauvin after Cabella and McClaren, redemption was still possible in January. And who did we sign? Saivet and Doumbia. WTF was that about? Why did we even bother?

Staying with goalkeeping, their game turned on Courtois going for the Boroni shot with his wrong hand. Credit to them for a fantastic first goal and very good third, and scrapping all game. Chelsea had the better openings but couldn't stick them away.

This, basically. Defoe was the key ingredient that made the difference between the two teams. They identified someone who can score in this league for fun. While we bought and stuck with a kid and two grandfathers. The other factor I've not seen anyone mention is that compared to Villa, Norwich, and us (blob), the mackems' keepers are much better. It should be obvious by watching them, but its also reflected in their save percentage which was way higher. The other notably low save percentage teams were Liverpool (Mignolet) and Bournemouth. Darlow has actually done okay, but blob was poor and the only reason people haven't been more critical of him is that expectations were rock bottom. Louise Taylor said he was our player of the season, but she also blamed us for not marking someone stood a yard offside. Compared to blob, I think Krul would have got us four or five more points. He was injured on international duty remember.

Nine shots, only two in the first half. That's all we managed. Just not good enough against a team that's lost that many games in a row.

Mackems losing again. Matic 2-1

Fantastic finish!

COSTA!

Aye, a gimme game for them with Man U's recent away form, no Martial and Rashford, and Norwich weren't especially up for it and gave it away with a defensive error. Take away our game, which had two goals from defenders (one after a handball), and they have now scored one in their last five games. There is no fight or application in there.