Varadi

That's actually the main hope I'm clinging onto. Someone like HBA in particular will be quite happy to go do his own thing if he thinks it's best for the team, and he's the one player we have who could pretty much keep us up on his own if he's fit and firing.

I know, I know... It was still the longest barren run in our history and our lowest league finish since the 1940s. Pampered children and all that... If that Man Utd fan had come out with something like that he would be about to be on the receiving end of a 10 page kicking!

Ashley was definitely there - saw him on the TV coverage (watched on Abu Dhabi Sports)

He was on the bench yesterday.

They have 2 home wins all season, have lost their last 3 at home by an aggregate score of 0-8 and conceded 20 in their last 6 league games. Will probably beat us 1-0.

He had 4 very good chances yesterday, he's getting into the positions, I'm confident the goals will come. Getting HBA back will make a huge difference too, both in terms of chances and space created for him.

I can see the reasoning in that decision, I just fundamentally disagree with it. We were winning comfortably at home against a side that had only 2 away points all season, and hadn't mustered a shot on target in over an hour. The best way to stop Le Fondre having an impact was to play some positive football and stop him getting the ball anywhere near our goal - I know the players confidence is down but when you see your manager making such negative changes it affects the whole group's mentality, including the crowd. Pardew has been quick to point out that the negative crowd reaction affected the team, but doesn't seem to have made the logical connection that it was his decisions that created that negativity.

The main positive from yesterday was seeing how s**** Reading were - think they're nailed on to go down. QPR have improved under Ballface but still only have 11 points in his 11 games - with only 15 points and really tough fixtures to come it's not going to be enough. There's a good chance Southampton will slump without Adkins and Wigan have 1 win in 10 and look terrible. Looks like 35 points will be enough to stay up and I think the extra quality that us and Villa have will edge us both clear. Going to be horribly tense though and we desperately need a win, any win, very soon. I reserve the right to change this prediction if HBA breaks down again on his return.....

The rumoured 60k a week I should imagine.

Not sure if it's just getting older/changing priorities but i definitely give less of a shit these days - a performance and result like today used to ruin my whole weekend but now I manage to shrug it off pretty quickly and just think about other stuff. Think the Keegan days were probably a once in a lifetime kind of thing, so very glad I got to enjoy it when I was young and in my match-going prime!

Newcastle are close to completing the £6.8million signing for Montpellier ­defender Mapou ­­­Yanga-Mbiwa. The Magpies have beaten off competition from Arsenal for the talented 23-year-old. He will fly into Newcastle on Monday to complete the deal. St James’ Park sources say a fee has been agreed and Newcastle don’t expect there to be any last-minute hitches like the one that wrecked the Loic Remy deal. French sources say Newcastle will pay their new defender £3m-a-year for what is likely to be a five-and-a-half season deal. He will join a growing colony of Tyneside-based French internationals with recent signing Mathieu Debuchy, Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa already at St. James’ Park. The versatile Yanga-Mbiwa, 23, can play in central defence or at right-back and has won three caps for France. He played as a defensive midfielder against Arsenal in the Champions League earlier this season – and helped Montpellier to the title last season. And his arrival will ease some of the pressure on manager Alan Pardew on the eve of crucial talks aimed at keeping want-away skipper and centre- back Fabricio Coloccini on Tyneside. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/newcastle-are-close-to-completing-68m-deal-1545207?

He looked royally pissed off at the end mind - Williamson alongside him, Shola in front - must already be wondering what the fuck he's done.

Ketsbaia

Genuinely think we're gone without a change - Pardew doesn't seem to know what he's doing anymore.

Officially jumping onto the Pardew out bandwagon now. I still think he's been a little unlucky with some of the circumstances he's had to deal with but today was probably the most cowardly managerial performance I've ever seen. It's almost like he wants to be sacked - I can't think of a set of decisions more likely to bring that about than what he served us today.

Aye, and just imagine Obertan running after him late on after he's been wrestling with the Big Sho for an hour! That like comparing the smell of turds tbh. Here man, I'm searching for positives you miserable bugger Searching hard!

Aye, and just imagine Obertan running at him late on after he's been wrestling with the Big Sho for an hour!

I can normally at least see the logic in the team selections, even if I don't necessarily agree with them. This one has genuinely baffled me. One positive - if he is wide right, Shola is up against probably the only fullback in the country he can beat for pace!

Wait, is that Shola playing wide right??

I was already in the ground when that bugger got called off - the pitch looked absolutely fine so to say I wasn't best pleased would be something of an understatement!

I think Reading's danger from set pieces is more to do with Harte's delivery, they have even less height in their team than we do.

The total ineffectiveness of the formation against Norwich was to do with Pardew telling them to play that way. Aye - the objective at Norwich was to not get beat, today it should be win at all costs. I'll be genuinely surprised if Shola starts this one mind.

Quite a few in the lower leagues, but none in the top 2 divisions as yet: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/fixtures

http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/what-Alison-Brie-.gif

I'll be very, very surprised if we sign this lad.