Stottie

Get Kuqi on!

Their lineup isn't as good as ManYoo's and we got a draw off them without offering too many chances. With our attacking players, I can't see us scoring more than one though. Anyway its no foregone conclusion. Howay the Toon!

The time to do something about fakery was Rivaldo in the WC. Didn't he get away with a small fine?

It'll be interesting to see what he does when his team needs to score two. My guess is to continue the spoiler tactics and go out while pissing and moaning all the way. Maybe a bit of route one to Adebayor like he used to with Drogba.

I don't think Wenger is anything like as good at finding defensive players. At present, they concede too easily from set pieces and route one. Stoke and their ilk get results on them most seasons now. We did too with that Carroll goal.

And he's put 4 past them this season and all that Nolan has scored more against SAFC this season than Jordan Henderson has scored for SAFC in his career. He's scored more than their entire midfield all season. More league goals than Defoe, Crouch & Pavyluchenko put together. Ha ha. Top scorer for us this season will do for me though. Best might have come close to Carroll's total too had he stayed fit. Shola needs four more if its all comps, but games are running out and he doesn't get them quick in the league.

365 have projections of final points based on recent form. In them, Sunderland will finish fifth bottom, with Blackpool, Blackburn and Wigan for the drop. We're already safe with 39 points in the bag and our goal difference. http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/runin.html Obviously its just an automatic calculation, but they're not heading up the table if they can't score any goals.

Indeed. Wolves came into this game with decent form and beat ManYoo, so it was also reassuring to see how "good" they actually are. With teams like that us below us, we should be all right.

Red all the way that one.

Hope we get to play that kind of ManYoo line up! No dynamism in midfield at all.

Nice one Phil Dowd, but they would both be automatic three game bans with a slightly stricter interpretation. That rule is a total joke.

Only one more game this month. Get patched up and put Barton RW, normal back four, and HBA in for Loven and we'll be fine. The goal difference we have is worth an extra point compared to the teams below. Effectively seven ahead with nine/ten to play.

Missed Barton and wacky formation didn't work. Two "right backs" on the right and still gave them too much space there. Harper MOM for keeping it to two probably.

Looks like there's another goal in this.

Too much protective fat for that to happen.

Amazing that he wasn't even a starter at Twente. Has anyone seen them play much?

He says its one of his wife's diet pills, so maybe ephedrine. I dunno about now but it used to be legal in the States not so long ago.

Yeah but Shola got that mad offside goal against Everton a few seasons back. The one where he had time to stop, look across to the linesman, and then poke it in.

So long as refs don't pay attention to it, the baggage only works in our favour. Oh, and if your team needs a classy ball-playing midfielder, Charlie Adam's that way.

Isn't that exactly what Sol gets (for doing very little)?

They play nice stuff but they're shit at the back. Unless the new bloke is a player manager defender, its a bit pointless doing it now. Didn't one of their fans reckon they passed over Tiote to get whoever DM they got?

I'm sure someone must have mentioned it somewhere in in these 470 pages, but does anyone reckon us getting such a high fee for Carroll has something to do with Kia Joorbchian or however you spell Tevez's agent's name? It came out that he was advising us in the autumn, I guess after the Hughton sacking. Left to their own devices, I don't see why the Ashley regime would have refused the Spurs bid of twenty odd million. Doing so though has got us an extra ten million plus, albeit at the cost of no time to get another body in. Simply in terms of maximizing the fee, we played that transfer uncharacteristically well.

Doing all right in my book. Not breaking the duck for a while must have put pressure on the lad, but it hasn't destroyed him. Was unlucky against Spuds and put the ball in the net twice yesterday. Rather have him than a panic-bought Carlton Cole.

If he can shoot like that then ferk it, he is the new Vieira!

Stand back and admire them and you'll get crucified, but get stuck in and that's what happens. It's been said a million times, but they don't like it up em!