Paullow

I've not been a man of many posts during my 9 and a half years on this forum, but I've been browsing it constantly recently, and it's so good to actually care again, and even though most will likely be b*llocks, it's exciting to see who we are linked with next, as opposed to a late XYZ loan bid, if lucky, on January 31st.

In what sense? Having a few fixtures postponed until after January, or the season potentially being null and void?

Palace always seem to look a decent side whenever I watch them. 1-0 up on Southampton after just 2 mins.

Definitely mixed on here between those wanting a draw (myself included) and a Brentford win, but I think we can all agree that it's a far better result than what it was looking like on 82 minutes.

Carragher saying this is the result the 3 in the relegation zone want.

Mind, it is nice to watch a Premier League game (not directly involving Newcastle) and actually caring about the outcome.

Yeah, I think a Watford win is the worst, but at the same time, I still think Brentford could be the 5th most likely to drop, and if they did lose here, then they would have lost a bread and butter type game. If Brentford win then that 10 point gap will look very big, and it will be less eggs in the basket, even if the bottom 4 teams will be closer together. Just takes another couple of 5-2 and 4-1 Everton and Man Utd results for Watford and then we might have been wishing for more teams still more in the mix. I'm still thinking draw.

Brentford vs Watford - what do we want here? It's hard to tell, I can kind of see positive and negatives for any outcome, but a draw possibly best?

I'd say 7. Looking at the table, and the teams, I can't really imagine anyone outside of Norwich, Newcastle, Burnley, Watford, and Brentford being involved. Obviously it's still early days, and a team can get sucked in, and maybe someone like Villa will, given their current run, but there doesn't seem to be too much margin, and Burnley and Dyche will usually find a way. One thing I was surprised about were some pundits saying bad for Newcastle that Norwich beat Brentford. I know we were temporarily bottom because of it, but I was fully wanting Norwich to beat them when following on Soccer Saturday. Newly promoted side (Brentford), on a bit of a losing streak, and we play them at home next, definitely the best result that Norwich beat them IMO.

Imagine if it all turned out to be a master plan by Ashley to shift some tickets and get a bit of atmosphere to move them away from danger: Bruce ends up being here until the end of the season, to give them time to get the right man in Sports Direct signs here for a 'short period', which also turns out to be the end of the season No need for many signings in January as we've got a few wins on the board in the meantime, and not in massive danger, but rest assured, the cheque book will be out in the summer And then come summer, Ashley be like:

Interesting bump. You'd think Norwich would be gone, certainly now, but Burnley often find a way, and Watford (even though they are now favourites to go down) and Brentford are both in far stronger positions points wise, so there's no obvious clubs who you'd tip to go down at this stage (bar Norwich). 3 points from 7 games is abysmal, especially considering the 'winnable' games we have passed up, and the next few fixtures look tough. We obviously need Bruce out ASAP, and thankfully there is plenty of time, and even a full, boisterous crowd should be a big bonus and play a part, as opposed to a largely apathetic one, and who knows, maybe the new manager can get a tune out of the likes of Lewis, Fraser, and dare I say, even Joelinton, before obvious necessary reinforcements in January. Probably at a 7 at the moment.

Have barely logged in, never mind posted since the end of the season, so just noticed this thread now. I was actually just thinking earlier how I think I'm just going to try and follow the Premier League as a 'neutral' this season, so that kind of ties in with this thread. I was another 10 for what it's worth. I may have given up on Newcastle, and the Premier League is dubious at best, but I don't want to give up on football altogether, so unlike in previous years where I might have wanted a club that I considered 'smaller' not to win the FA Cup if they reached the latter stages, or say West Ham to qualify for the Champions League last season, I probably will want lesser sides to do well this season, upset the stranglehold of the 'big 6' where possible, and not worry about Newcastle's stock falling further behind clubs where it really should be higher. Absolutely shite situation, but I think that's better than just ignoring it completely. I will still want Newcastle to do as well as they can, but definitely going to try and move away from the one club perspective. I'll see how it goes anyway

Marcelino instantly sprung to my mind the moment I saw the thread title. £6m was a lot in 1999, especially for a defender - it's still more than we paid for a lot of our current first time - Dubravka, Hayden, Lascelles, Schaar, Fernandez etc. and he was gash, and never fit.

You can here the full interview there if you put it back to 10.10am.

Cracking header from Big Al.

Crazy, after getting 2 wins, and I think 11 points on that 19 match league run, there might actually be a chance we finish in 12th place. Fulham vs Newcastle Arsenal vs BHA Wolves vs Man Utd (probably easier than it looks given Man Utd guaranteed 2nd, and have Europa final on the horizon) West Ham vs Southampton Liverpool vs Palace Now, Fulham are still favourites to beat Newcastle (6/5 at most places), and had a decent point the other day, but if we were to match the result on the final day of 2 seasons ago (ironically Rafa's last match, will history repeat itself...) then a 3 goal swing would take us above Wolves, and it would also mean that Palace and Southampton would need to win as well. On the other hand, we could just as easily finish 16th, or even 17th if we lost, and Brighton sneaked a point, and Burnley beat Sheff Utd comfortably, but 12th would be pretty shocking considering that pathetic run we went on. Quite a big difference 12th to 17th, at least from big Mike's pockets POV.

I kind of asked this on the general NUFC thread, but nobody replied. Would most rather just finish 16th or 17th, or would you rather we got 6, or even 7, points from the last 3 to finish say 12th? The thought of listening to Bruce say 'ah finished 12th ya kna' makes me opt for the former.

Would you want Newcastle to pick up as many points as they can in the last 3 games, and end up finishing say 12th / 13th, or would you rather they got say 2 points and ended up 16th or 17th? Finishing 12th would be an absolute joke considering we were odds on to go down, and even in the bottom 3 of the live league with 9 games to go.

Happens all the time. Leicester were gone with about 9 (admittedly more) games to go, and they ended up going on a run out of nowhere the year before the league. Sunderland drew at Man City with a late Mannone error, and everyone thought they were done, but they then won at Stamford Bridge, beat Man Utd, and a couple of other good results and stayed up. Villa went on a good run towards the end of last season, and pulled a comfortably looking Watford in. West Ham under Brooking as caretake going a bit further back Bryan Robson's WBA.

We are still in a great position. Odds-wise it's like 1/50 Fulham, 20/1 Newcastle (in from around 35/1 pre kick off). Nobody would swap positions, but from a Fulham POV, it really is take it game by game - their next 2 are much more favourable than ours, doesn't mean they will get 6 points, probably won't, but game by game they could win them, and it wouldn't be a huge shock, and then if they are within 3 points, with GD in their favour by the time we play Sheff Utd, then this place will be a mess. Still in a good position, and should really be fine, but not done and dusted yet. I'd say 2 or 3 at the moment.

Bump

Arsenal winnable for them, but not us, or are you saying Fulham vs Newcastle is not winnable for us?

4. Current odds 1/4 us, 7/2 Fulham, so obviously a hell of a lot better than a couple of matches ago when we were odds on. 3 defeats in a row for Fulham, and all of them fairly 'winnable' on paper (4 including the expected defeat to Man City), and some of them lost from decent positions. Still not fully confident, just because we have to play them on the final day, but beat Sheff U, and nick a couple of points from the tough 5 games coming up, then hopefully we will be 4 points clear going into that potential huge match. They will almost certainly have to beat us on the last game of the season now, although as someone said earlier, that may not be a bad thing from their perspective, i.e. nothing to defend. Fixture placing could be crucial. Ours isn't great, bar maybe Man City, who will be able to put out any team to get the job done, but Fulham play Arsenal next weekend, just 3 days after they get back from Prague in the Europa, and Man Utd may well have 2nd place confirmed (can't finish 1st, can't finish 3rd) by the time they play Fulham on the 2nd last day, and I'd far rather play a weaker Man Utd, than a weaker Man City. Still a few possible twists and turns to come, but looking so much better than it was.

They've literally won 9 (and drawn 3) of their last 12 league games, and one of those draws was a 97th minute equaliser, which I'd imagine would feel more like a win at the time. They do have some tough games remaining, and most of them do have something to play for, but you can't really argue with their form over the past couple of months.

From a wanting Newcastle to stay up perspective, I wasn't sure what I was wanting last night. I think Brighton are and were the better side, but then Palace did have 3 extra points on the board (before kick off). Brighton's goal difference was -5 (compared to our -17), and their 6 league results before yesterday were: Leeds 0 BHA 1 BHA 0 Fulham 0 BHA 1 Spurs 0 Liverpool 0 BHA 1 Burnley 1 BHA 1 BHA 0 Villa 0 So unbeaten in 6, 12 points picked up, obviously not many goals scored, but only 1 conceded. They were around 22-28/1 to go down, but I think a lot of that would have been on the assumption of extending their run over Palace. That was a bitter blow for them, no doubt about it, and they're now around 11/1 to go down, but I still find it hard to see them not picking up enough points/wins to have no real concerns, despite just being the one point ahead of us. They have WBA, Southampton and Newcastle in their next 4 games, so I think we'll know far more about their relegation credentials after that period. I'd have been more confident of Palace sinking like a stone had they lost, but think that win all but confirms their safety.