St1pe

Going. Hopefully we have one of those games where everything just clicks. 2-0 Ritchie Mitro

Would never happen: he'd cost too much, his wages are too high and it goes against everything Mike Ashley had ever done - part of me would absolutely love it though ???

Moses has to be the worst for diving in the Premier League? Also Murphy just awful talking about the incident.

Saw this story shared on Facebook. There's still a lot of people defending him - surprisingly a lot of women. All with tons of likes too. What an absolute weird little creep he is in that video too. I wonder how much money those lads made from that?

Good for him! It's easy to forget the big performances in the biggest games he's put in like the Brighton games and Huddersfield away - especially with some people re-writing history about how he's apparently been shit all season. Some of it in the match threads has been RTG standard. He's been shite lately but I think he'll come good with time. He's got the attributes but just needs to calm down and stick to the basics. Given the absolute shell of men we've had at centre back in recent years I think the lad deserves a bit of time . I'd rather he wasn't captain next season though. Someone like Ritchie would be better suited and Lascelles can just focus on being a defender. He stood up when we needed someone to though and not in a Steven Taylor pashun sort of way before anyone makes the comparison.

We've got to play Mitrovic in this one. 4 goals in two games this season against Preston. For all I was borderline suicidal after the results yesterday I think we'll get a good win here and settle a few nerves.

The injuries to Gayle and Clark have hit us massively. We have a squad big enough to deal with it but no one has taken their opportunities. It's going to feel like a long wait until that Preston game.

The thought of dropping into the playoffs is terrifying.

It was a turgid struggle for a long time before those games too. It wasn't.

Things have been absolutely joyless since those Brighton and Huddersfield wins. Everything has just been a pure turgid struggle.

Would you want Rafa to take another shot at promotion on the basis of the last few weeks? He isn't getting anywhere near the potential out of our players. Jesus Christ

Oh man

Not keen on that lineup. I like Lascelles but he shouldn't have kept his place over Mbemba if one was going to be taken out. Perez has done more than a Diame has for weeks and Mitrovic had his best game since Preston then is dropped? The only positives are two wingers and the fact that whenever I've really got gripes with the first 11 we win comfortably ?

Agree with both. It's also his first full season. I think it also shows how important of a signing Clark has been. We wouldn't have conceded that goal last night - there's no way he'd have let someone be out of position like that in that stage of the game. Not unless I've got rose-tinted glasses on in the wake of that game.

Still incredibly disappointed about this today. It's hard to fault the performance and the effort of the players and I know promotion is the goal but we've completely thrown this title away. Looking back on some of the games like QPR, both Blackburn games, Bristol and Villa away we have completely dropped a bollock. There is very little difference between us and Brighton despite everyone now saying the opposite - we've had opportunities against teams we should have killed off yet took our foot of the gas. I think if we'd have won last night I could see us winning our remaining games and Brighton losing to Villa on the fina day. The gap is too big now and there's no pressure on them. I just hope Huddersfield's and Leeds's late goals don't make us flap into a nervy fight for second.

Desperate for a win tonight. I get the impression there's a meltdown bubbling away under the surface with some ready made scapegoats in that starting lineup. 2-0 win - not a wet bed in sight!

I think it'll be a standard ugly routine home win. Or at least I hope we win. Mitrovic redemption today ?

A timely return to form from Mitrovic would be perfect like. If Gayle is out I'd start him for the rest of the season to see if he's capable of playing well in Rafa's system. In all likelihood we should still go up so giving him a run of games will be a good indicator of whether he's going to be worth keeping or selling in the summer.

This place always seems over the top after a defeat but it's hard to draw any positives on that. We were all over the place at the back, the effort seemed lacking and if Shelvey, Ritchie or Gayle don't pull us through something in attack no one else seems to really step up. Two woeful performances against Sheff Wed, three if you count the cup game from last year. Their fans must think we're absolute shite. Especially considering Huddersfield lost we've wasted a very good opportunity there. What a weekend for Chris Hughton and Brighton. Huuge game v Leeds now to try and bounce back.

What a day this has been for Brighton.

If we don't concede early I'll think we'll win. They've got to be nervy at how close they are to dropping out of the playoffs and if we get a bit of space we should capitalise. I just really hope we win. I know promotion is the goal but given how long we've been top and after beating Brighton twice I'd be a disappointed if we didn't go up as Champions. Hopefully an unchanged side. 0-2 Gayle Atsu

There's a fair bit in the match thread on this but he did ok. I liked how he nips in front of the striker to pinch the ball and him bringing the ball out from the back a couple of times really relieves pressure - especially when we were kicking it long in the last 5 minutes. He did have a couple of shaky spells. His communication with Darlow seemed poor. At one point he berated Darlow for not coming for a ball then the next time told Darlow to come for it, he did, then Mbemba sort of half cleared it away as he was approaching nearly causing us some problems. We didn't have to do a lot of defending to really judge though it was good to see him back.

I thought his control and pass leading up to the penalty was sublime - simply magic to bring it down the way he did and put the perfectly weighted ball through for Gayle to run onto. Gayle falling over the defender's legs took the gloss off the move, though. Not to mention the shenanigans of the "Stroud decision". I didn't really notice it too much from where I was sat but it certainly looks a lot better since I've seen the highlights. I seem to have a bias towards Perez though I'm not sure why, I'm desperate for him to do well.

Enjoyed that last night. I think it was arguably our most dominant/comfortable performance since Birmingham at home - until the last 10 minutes when we seemed incapable of passing a ball. There's no point in me waffling on about the penalty because it looks like it has been done to death but the atmosphere incredible up until half time. Credit to the lads in the corner as well they really try and force the atmosphere all the way through the game. I thought Atsu was poor until he was moved to the right and then he looked like he caused problems. I think I'd sign him if his price was reasonable, as a squad player I think he could be useful. I really wanted Perez to step up this season too but he had another two really good chances last night - one that wasn't shown on the highlights after some nice one touch play by us that he totally skyed. Diame had a mixed game but really stepped up in the last 10 minutes and tried to win the ball when none of our players looked like they wanted it. I also thought the defence did pretty well considering they had so little to do, the distribution was good. I've missed having Mbemba nipping in front of the striker and pinching the ball. No idea how they managed to get 2 or 3 unmarked players from that set piece straight after we scored though. I can't imagine that'll go unnoticed from Rafa. I do get the feeling when watching us that we're almost single-handedly being dragged to the Premier League by Matt Ritchie. We're so reliant on him grabbing the game by the balls.