Paullow

They'd still be a point behind with a win, having played two games more

Page 41 onwards certainly is an enjoyable interesting read in retrospect

Harry Wilson has just scored an amazing goal for Fulham, but then missed an absolute sitter in the space of 5 minutes. 1-1 vs Barnsley.

I didn't realise / forgot that Brighton won 4 of their first 5 PL matches, so their last 22 games are 3W D12 L7. I guess it's still roughly a point per game which isn't a disaster, and 36.3 points would probably keep you up most seasons, but 3 wins in 22 is pretty poor.

It's an interesting one. I've been in the '17th is fine' camp for so long, so from that perspective, 18th placed Burnley losing is an absolute no brainer, especially when it's a relatively very winnable game, but at the same time, we maybe are in more of a position now to pick and choose how we would like to see certain results go, and it would be pretty funny to see Everton drop in to the bottom 3 - I must emphasise I've been against that mindset for so long, but now we are on 31 points it maybe is changing a bit. Assuming the bottom 2 are down, in terms of who I would like to see drop after that, the order for me would be Everton, Brentford, Burnley, Leeds, so a Burnley win would be the best from that POV, however, there's still a teeny bit of (natural) pessimism in me, so I'm probably hoping for a draw. A quick 'Brentford Burnley nufc' Twitter search brings up the following, so seems there are a few hoping for Burnley to win:

"That'll shut a few folk up".

A disappointing ending, but still not the best result for them, although it probably will feel better than if it was just a standard 0-0. Another match without a win for him, he failed to win any of his 9 games here, and just 1 in 7 for WBA, so 1 in 16 overall this season. Bournemouth the real winners there.

Hudds have gone to pieces here.

FFS

Get in! 0-2

I'm genuinely finding myself wanting WBA to lose more than Sunderland these days.

I didn't realise the drink driving part to be fair, and I said pundit not commentator.

Agree with Peter Reid. I quite liked Niall Quinn too. I thought he always came across well, especially as a pundit.

I'm just watching the Leeds match and following the updates on here, but Villa are ahead - Coutinho.

Ralf will be buzzing that Wood scored

Didn't take Chelsea long to take the lead away at Norwich. Not too bothered about Norwich, but I was interested to see how the earlier news would have affected Chelsea. Possibly not in the way some would have expected.

But just three of those were away, which is a smaller sample size, plus one of those was obviously against 10 men for 80 minutes and that becomes a completely different match (even if we did start brightly).

It's the type of match where at home I'd be hoping / half expecting to win, but away, I'd be delighted with a point. They are 10 unbeaten at home, winning 5 of them (12 and 7 if you include the FA Cup where they recently beat West Ham). I can see a 3-1 Southampton win, unfortunately.

There's some questionable noises coming from the crowd in the Hartlepool match https://twitter.com/search?q=hartlepool&src=typed_query&f=live

Hartlepool vs Rotherham getting underway on Sky in the semi final of that Pizza Cup. Winner plays Sutton united in the final at Wembley. Two local lads were highlighted as the ones to watch on either side - Ex Sunderland player Luke Molyneux of Bishop for Hartlepool, and ex Newcastle Dan Barlaser from Gateshead for Rotherham. I'll see how those goes for the first 10-15 mins and might switch to PSG- R Madrid.

Yeah, that was my main concern. I definitely didn't want to be in the same league as them next year, although that is looking a lot less likely now, on both fronts (certainly more than it was at Christmas). I always said if we push on, and get back towards where we were mid 90's and early 00's then I wouldn't mind them doing what they have for the majority of their time in the Premier League (and what we have for the past 14 years, give or take a year) - ideally us challenging for top 4 and them battling for 17th, and in those days, we would also have the upper hand in the derbies, but now, I'd still like to see them do another couple of years in that league. Top 2 looks very much beyond them, and you'd think one of either Wigan or MK Dons would be pretty much guaranteed a playoff spot, but then 7 teams battling for 3 spots after that. If they do make the playoffs then hopefully Sheff Wed and an inform Ipswich or Portsmouth are the other two to fill up the remaining spaces.

Yep, we're still not in a position to be picking and choosing who we want to go down, so for now, I'll be hoping for every external result that benefits Newcastle (this season) than any personal preference. If we were to only get a point or so from the next 4 tough away matches (which is very feasible) then we could just be 2 or 3 points clear again by the end of that sequence, putting massive pressure on the more winnable games against the likes of Palace, Leicester, Wolves at home and Norwich away. If we beat Southampton on Thursday to reach 31 points with 11 to go, and a few of those 11 better on paper, then I may start to want Burnley and Watford to win to appease my personal preferences, but until then, I want everyone from 15 down to lose to everyone from 13 and above - so come on Arsenal.

Finally a win for him at the 15th time of asking this season. Decent weekend for him with only Middlesbrough winning of those who started the weekend between 4th to 10th, and while Boro may probably be a more realistic playoff candidate, that was against Luton who started the day 2 points ahead of Boro, so WBA are now within 2 wins of 6th (although it will take more than 2 matches to get inside the POs). Nottm Forests last second equaliser against Sheff Utd last night was good news for him too. WBA play the current top 2 in their next 2 matches, so hopefully they, or rather 'he', are on the losing trail again soon enough.

Happy with either a Norwich win or a draw, but would prefer the former.