Stottie

It says a lot that a good chuck of the current joy, for me a third, will be seeing the back of this plastic Geordie cunt. Ashley was bad enough, but he didn't stand there in front of cameras stoking every negative trope about the city and the fans. Expectations like players being coached or playing in their normal positions. The sooner it happens, the better.

Aye fuck off. Thank fuck for Hughton and Rafa for stopping the two big slides. It could have been much worse.

HT. Possession is back to 50:50 so the blip is over. All set up for them to adjust and Bruce to mess it up.

Cleverly should be booked for that. 30 min in and 60% possession and 7 shots.

Crisp packet hands

12 conceded in four games, one every 30 minutes with 9 men behind the ball playing hit and hope at ASM. Expect all the PFMs to line up and defend Bruce.

He's losing a match and he doesn't even bring on the striker we have on the bench. He's just standing there and admiring them. He'll have a good laugh with OGS after.

Bearing gifts.

Joelinton goes for power, its saved, and he gets slagged in commentary. Ronaldo does it, its straight at the keeper again and they can't praise him highly enough.

If there was any doubt about Woodman's role in the first....

Pisses all over their goal tbh.

Epic celebration by ASM! One for the ages. Credit to beg Joe, very laxadasical but in that moment it worked at least. But if Lascelles is going to do that, it doesn't matter. No complaints about the decision, it was a pen all the way. Another poor performance, and I expect we'll get pasted the first time we play someone good.

But he is capable of running and scored two against Norwich about three weeks ago thanks to some running. Joelinton can't even do that.

Going back five-six minutes, but Gayle and not Joelinton I reckon we're two up off that pass from Maxi.

Problems at full back/wing back strike again. Oh and I've seen them given.

I've only seen it once, but was that Schar with the ball in? It made the goal.

He got a partial let-off last week because the key turning point was the ludicrous penalty, but this week we had the same toothless final thirty minutes. We also conceded from set pieces, which is classic poor training. We scored a lot of set pieces in his first season, remember all the goals from defenders, which was to his credit and contrasted with Rafa, but they have long since dried up. If this sounds like clutching at straws to give him credit, yes it is, and even then he still comes out badly. He should be nowhere near the club.

We're doing long throws too, from their box back to the halfway line.

Much of this self-inflicted, but 25 left to see if we can come up with more than the 25 of complete ferk-all that ended last week's game.

Great finish. Top drawer. After a highly unimpressive slice into the stands from Lascelles though. Put it out 10 yards higher up the pitch and that doesn't happen.

Big Al and Sir Les reckon the penalty was a joke. I have to say I agree. As fine margins deciding games go, a free penalty is quite a big one. Maybe VAR is not allowed to over-rule Martin Atkinson. His performance also included not booking a player because he was pretending he had cramp. None of the above means we weren't shit second half, because we were. This was the perfect kind of opponent for us, positive enough to come to win but shit at the back and easy to get at, so it's a relatively easy three points missed. Weaker teams will come to St. James and force us to take the initiative, and we know how we struggle with that.

I don't get the penalty but that fourth was way way too easy. Like the Brighton games last year.

Schar and not Krafth and that's 3-1. We've played well. They had a good 15 minutes but on the whole, we were pretty good. We also hit the bar and that Clark header wasn't far away. 11 attempts from us, more than a games' worth last year, and the dizzy heights of 44% possession.

ferk, great goal!

Woodman gets a free ride on his debut, but a keeper should be making an effort to stop anything on target. Even if it means pushing out straight to a forward.