Paullow

"Thankfully it goes out for a goal kick"...

I'm not normally one for commentators against us etc. but does anyone else get the impression that Townsend is really rooting for Everton here?

Good interview. Obviously it's just the way it is, but I did feel a little bit sorry for Sean at 8:40. He'll know he's unlikely to be here this time in 2 years, or probably in the Dummett role if he is, so just taking each day as it comes. Didn't realise they were good mates, but definitely a contrast in them whereby the club will probably outgrow one pretty soon, but hopefully the club can at least keep up with the other in the coming years.

What's changed is that they won 4 of their first 6 games under Potter, 13 points, and turning draws into wins, and looking like they could perhaps gatecrash the top 6, or at least be the main competition for 7th, but 2 points from their last 4 games, and no goals in their last 3 matches, including Brentford and Forest at home looks like they probably more likely to be in and around 9th again.

Great play by the Forest lad there. Going nowhere at all, but drew the foul. Mind, given straight away again FFS

Don't like how Amazon is like 10 seconds behind (even more in the tennis normally). Not ideal when you're checking other live scores, ha. Hang on Forest!

Decent start to the Palace match. Both have had good chances in the opening 6 minutes.

I hate these type of matches. 70-30 possession, 11-0 in shots, 6-0 in corners, and only really intriguing for as long as the 8/1 outsiders can hold out for, and even worse when it's the underdogs that you want to win. I think I'll be switching to the other match at half time. A shame this one wasn't buried tomorrow when there's 4 (good) matches on at the same time, where there would be no need to watch it. I'd only really want to watch Forest if they were at home.

9 Premier League matches scattered over the next 3 nights on Amazon Prime. Not the best fixtures (on paper) this evening - Brighton vs Nottm Forest at 7.30pm, and then Palace vs Wolves at 8.15pm. Quite like how you can watch the first half of one, switch over at half time, and then either keep watching that one, or go back to the original, and then can watch the full second half of the later match. Might not be great for the paying fan, but much better for the armchair fan than having both on at the same time.

Gerrard's a strange one. They paid £4m to prise him away from Rangers, so they obviously saw something in him, and he's been there less than a year. His league record, purely results-wise, isn't great by any means, but it's not totally abysmal, P37 W12 D8 L17, so 44 points. They're just a point off Everton and Palace, and 2 off West Ham, and I doubt any of those would be considering a managerial change any time soon, and a win in midweek and they could be in midtable. I totally get the no identity, throwing players under the bus, and they should be doing better, and from the outside you do feel that a new manger coming in will instantly have them playing and faring better, and that's ultimately what you want, so you couldn't blame the owners, and I suspect he will be gone soon, but at the same time, they did fork out a lot of money for a then 41 year old manager just starting out, and while Villa fans will argue it's far too long, 11 months isn't a massive amount of time to properly put your stamp on things. It'll be interesting to see what Gerrard does next if he does get the bullet soon.

Tough one regarding Carrick and young Bruce. I don't mind Boro, would like to see them back in the top flight at some point, especially as we continue to push on, and as a local lad, I'd like to see him do well. However, if Alex is involved then that will make it tougher to wish them well. That said, I guess Alex has no real direct links with Newcastle, and if you didn't follow social media, and his Twitter outbursts, then I guess he would be largely irrelevant, and at least it's not his father rumoured to be joining them (well yet anyway...)

I think it would be a half decent move for him. They seem to have a fair bit going for them - rich / ambitious owners, some good players, a good academy with some decent young players coming through, ground redevelopments plans. Whatever you think of it, it's in one of the UK's most major cities, and they are historically a big club. It seems like the manager is currently the main thing holding them back (internally), and they should be doing a lot better than they are. Externally, we are a big snag, because we'll both want similar things, just ours is on a much bigger scale, and more realistic. Villa would probably be hoping to replicate the Leicester of the past few seasons, gatecrash the top 6 if one or two of them underperform, and maybe snatch a cup, but our emergence will make that a lot harder for them as it's another club who will be expected to finish above them season on season, and they'd need to get a lot right for that not to happen, but it is still a good job in the so called best league in the world.

It'll probably depend on how many matches they can show. It is tier 7 at home to tier 3, but one's probably the biggest club at that level with a 75,000 population, whereas the other is the smallest with a population of less than 6,000, and they probably average around a similar amount at the gates, so it doesn't really feel like a huge mismatch, despite the huge pyramid gap. The Kevin Phillips familiarity factor might help though. I'd say Hereford vs Portsmouth is a sure fire pick as Portsmouth are definitely one of the biggest clubs entering this stage, won the competition not too long ago, and you've got he whole Ronnie Radford stuff to boot. Bracknell Town vs Ipswich is also tier 7 vs tier 3 (like Shields), but Ipswich are obviously a much bigger draw than FGR, so will feel much more of an upset if Bracknell pull it off. Wouldn't surprise me too much if they opted for one 'safe pick' as well like Bolton vs Barnsley where they will get x amount of viewers from the respective fanbases. BBC also running Alvechurch as their main headline with them being the lowest ranked side remaining, but then they are away, and they'd usually like the underdog to be at home. If there are 4 TV matches then there will be a decent chance of it being picked.

South Shields vs Forest Green Rovers

FA Cup 1st round draw live on BBC2 now (nearly done). Blyth/Wrexham vs Oldham or Chester Not seen who any of the other local sides face.

As strong as team as possible hopefully, and if changes are needed, make them for Spurs away on Sunday. 3 points from these next two games will be very adequate.

Crazy how hard to beat we are becoming, and hard to breakdown, considering we are the only team in the league not to have conceded double figure goals thus far. 29 league games in 2022, 15W 8D 6L, the losses against Chelsea (89th minute winner), Everton (99th minute winner), Tottenham, Liverpool, Man City, and Liverpool again this season (98th minute winner), and the only teams to score more than one goal against us this calendar year are Tottenham, Man City (twice), and Liverpool, which is quite amazing. This Sunday 1 year ago, technically today now as it's the 17th, was Bruce's last game in charge. Surreal to think of how far we have come in such a short period of time. It's also incredible comparing us to the likes of Southampton. They were one of Bruce's 8 matches last season where we got the injury time 'winner' before conceding not long after, and then of course the whole Covid rearranged thing, but at the start of the year, they were comfortably in mid table, we had one win in our 19 matches, and now, only 10 months later, the clubs just seem a million miles from each other. https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/12-january-2022/ Saw a stat that in their last 22 league matches they have won 3, drew 4, and last 15, 13 points.

Mbappe, Neymar, and Messi all start for PSG. I didn't realise PSG signed that Maddison looking Ruiz (who we were briefly linked to) from Napoli in the summer. He starts as well. Mbemba starts for OM.

We're the only team not to have conceded double figure goals now.

Who'll be happier with a point here?

We do like to concede a late away goal in tough away matches. Chelsea, Everton, and Liverpool all in the last 6 months or so. Would love a 0-0 at this stage.

Pretty much everyone on redcafe saying it was a pen. I've not seen it. https://www.redcafe.net/matches/manchester-united-vs-newcastle-united.469/page-11

I'm just watching Super Sunday (still can't believe we're not on) and following our score on the thread on here, but horrific error by Mings, heads i back, straight to Mount, and Chelsea lead early on.

Defo for me, I posted this on a boxing forum (Man Utd section), thinking I was posting on here (and wondering where it went) Quite happy to see Eriksen not involved today (illness). He'll likely have a stormer, but I've never really been sold on Fred.

Yeah, strange just a few months after joining permanently. Unless there's been a bit of a falling out, hasn't performed as well in training, but he wouldn't have left Villa's bench to join Newcastle's bench at this stage of his career / stage of our progression.