Paullow

Haha, and a minute later Leicester take the lead.

Leeds have been the far better team here, but still 0-0. The game is definitely there for the taking.

Not sure how relevant it'll be, but we play Everton on Thursday 17th and they will have a winnable FA Cup QF match on either the following Sunday or Monday. Even if they win their next 2 matches and Burnley lose theirs and the picture is looking a bit better for them, they obviously won't be resting players against us, as the league is more important if you are still in relegation contention, but it might be a little distraction for them.

Forest have put out the last two winners in Arsenal and Leicester (both at home), so if they get past Huddersfield on Monday, then they will have a decent chance to add another scalp, especially if Liverpool make multiple changes again. I think it's probably the best draw on paper from the 8/10 teams available.

Well, I thought it was pretty good anyway . It's a lot better than if all the 'big boys' were at home. Southampton vs Man City looks good, given the formers home form.

Really good FA Cup draw. C Palace vs Everton / Boreham Wood N Forest / Huddersfield vs Liverpool Middlesbrough vs Chelsea Southampton vs Man City Bar the first one which is arguable, all the stronger sides are away, so still the potential for some heavyweight semi finals, but tricky tasks to overcome first. Tonight's match would have been a lot more interesting if the non leaguers were at home.

Chelsea and West Ham equalise almost simultaneously.

It does feel very strange having (different) football matches on BBC1 and ITV1 at the same time. The only other time that may happen would be deciding group matches at the World Cup or Euros, but even then, they would tend to be on ITV1 and ITV4 as opposed to the 2 main channels.

I can remember as a young 7 year old listening to the match on the radio on our last trip to KR in 1994 - a 2-0 loss in an FA Cup 4th round replay. One of my earliest football memories, I was devastated.

10 changes for Liverpool, 7 for Norwich. Hopefully no E/T for Norwich - I'd like to see them win on Saturday. Southampton vs West Ham just getting underway on the red button.

It didn't go great for him at Sunderland, and that, at the time, was a pretty big job (one of his 3 more higher profile roles along with us and Villa). We had just got back into the Premier League, and as a fan for like 27 years or so (as of now), I think that's the only period where I would consider they had a better squad / team than us - they had a fair bit of investment, had Bent, Gyan, Henderson, Mignolet, Welbeck, Sessegnon, Malbranque and a few other decent players, and in late January 2011 they were 6th in the league, and were only a point off 4th place after 24 games: https://www.11v11.com/league-tables/premier-league/22-january-2011/ They then only gained 1 point from their next 9 matches, and going on an infamous / trademark Brucey run. They did win 3 of their final 5 matches, including their last match of the season which, along with us being pegged back from 3-0 to 3-3 at home to WBA, meant they leapfropped us (and a few others) and finished 10th (ya kna) - only their 3rd top 10 finish since the 1955/56 season (that's crazy - 3 top 10 finishes for them in 67 years, and obviously counting). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010–11_Sunderland_A.F.C._season#Premier_League The season after they only won 2 of their first 13 matches, 11 points, and he was sacked - so in 2011, his league record prior to his sacking was P27 W5 D6 L16 PTS 21 which was awful for the squad they had, and they were massively calling for his head. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–12_Sunderland_A.F.C._season#Premier_League

In League Two, Anderson played 70 mins in Bristol Rovers 1-0 win over Barrow, but he was subbed prior to the winning goal. Also great (for me) to see Carlisle record back to back wins and pull further away from the relegation zone. They brought Paul Simpson back as manager a week ago, and he's off to a cracking start. In League One, not the best collective results for Sunderland. Wigan won so any tiny hopes of automatic following their big win the other day look even smaller. Sheff Wed and Wycombe both won as well against lower teams. Oxford lost, but that was to Portsmouth who may still have half a chance of sneaking into the top 6.

Good stuff.

Ian Woan, that's a blast from the past. Palace ahead now, so looking like potentially 4 away games in a row after Saturday, as it stands. Just turned it on to the Palace match after HT in the Boro match, and it's 1-1 now.

Hull fans seemed to like him, and he did OK at Wigan, but yes, the vast majority didn't like him, and certainly the fans of the 3 most high profile jobs that he has had.

This was Ambrose on Talksport:

Yeah, while we'll all have our preferences on who we'd like, we're certainly not in a position to be picking and choosing who we want to go down, yet. Fail to beat Brighton, Palace beat Stoke tonight then we're looking at 4 tricky away games in a row (Saints, Chelsea, Everton, Spurs), and while things are looking much better at the moment, and it's starting to look more unlikely that we'll go down, a few bad results on the trot, and that will start to change. I'll want every team currently below us to lose to every team currently above us until we're on 30 odd points and looking far more comfortable.

To be fair, in the 7 matches from 11th December to the end of January, they only won one of their 7 league matches (5 points), so weren't in great form, hence the sacking, and not many points clear of the teams behind them. That said, they are recently relegated, and had been in the top 5 all season up until the end of match 28, so they clearly have the players and ability to be up there, and they rolled the dice on wor Bruce, hoping he'd have an immediate bounce and get back to the results they had earlier in the season, but that's clearly not happened. I can't see how / why he would stay beyond this season though. He's 61 now, generally hated by his last two clubs, or three if you include Sheff Wed (although that hatred was slightly different circumstances), and the game has definitely moved on. If they can't see him at the club in 2024 (and surely they don't, realistically), they surely have to get someone else in, younger, hungrier, with fresher ideas.

https://wbaunofficial.org.uk/forumdisplay.php?fid=4 There's certainly plenty of Newcastle fans on there - 37 members, and 197 guests.

100% want Leicester to win, I don't really care if we finish 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, or 17th, as long as it's not any lower than that. Stay up this season, hopefully comfortable midtable next season (with no relegation worries), and then push on from there. Another question - hypothetically, if Leicester had to win of their next two games, but lose the other, which would you prefer (they play Leeds at home on Saturday)?

Get in

WBA did get their first shot on target just before, and have just hit the post with a counter attack. A draw is probably fair, but while it was tongue and cheek above, I can actually see them getting a late winner.

Swansea should be ahead FFS. Awful header from Swansea's striker. Bruce will probably get a Hayden / Everton late late goal with their first shot on target.

I'm watching this match as if it was Sunderland playing Swansea. The resentment is real