Paullow

Poor set of results in the Prem so far. Brighton do look dangerous. I guess if they did pip us and we finished 7th then with Man Utd / City and Brighton all with favourable home ties to make the (FA Cup) semi final, 7th would very likely secure Europa Conference. I'm still keeping tabs on Chelsea, and even Villa don't look too far adrift, and we have to go to both of those grounds. I'd possibly take 7th now as long as it was enough for Europe.

Was hoping for a harder match for Brighton. I know Southampton lost at home tonight to Grimsby, but Brighton could probably rest lots of players and still come through with room to spare. Mind, if Brighton did pip us to 6th (and we finished 7th), then them winning would be better for us than a Blackburn or Burnley winning as we would still get Europa Conference.

If one of those win the cup then that will benefit us if we finish 6th or 7th. If we finish 5th and above, or 8th and below then it's pretty irrelevant.

So will many Newcastle fans if we have a tough few weeks leading up to the semi finals.

I wouldn't mind Spurs having another 30 minutes here, if they can find an equaliser. I'm happy Man Utd went through. Would be disappointing if we did finish 6th (very respectable, and possibly 'par' as it stands) and ended up being in the Conference instead of the Europa, or if we ended up 7th and missed out on Europe altogether. It's a bit shit wanting the better teams to win all the time, but if we were to finish lower than 5th then it's definitely in our best interest for a better side to win the FA Cup this season.

No, decided on the night.

Shearer's mate Justin Whittle will be pleased. @Rocker

I'm quite pleased Man Utd are level, but would prefer no extra time - normally it would be OK for them to use up more energy, but they play Liverpool on Sunday, and I'd prefer them to win, certainly more than Liverpool anyway.

This Casemiro one WILL surely be offside.

The one time you want Man Utd to win... (well this coming Sunday as well).

Grimsby 2-0 up away at Southampton

They've not been amazing here, but Man Utd have made 6 outfield changes from the cup final against West Ham and they can still field a reasonably competitive team with full internationals, some costing circa £100m. If we make 6 outfield changes then we're starting the likes of Lascelles, Murphy and Ritchie. Even Dalot (one of the 4 who started) only played 45 mins against us, to be replaced by a £50m man. Just shows the lack of squad depth we have - we basically only have a squad of 14/15 competent players and three of those (Maxi, Isak, Targett) have missed significant portions of the season. Hopefully within the next 3 windows (2 of them summer ones) we'll keep adding quality and have much more of a squad. It is easy to forget that 16 months ago we were bottom of the league, without a win, and managed by Steve Bruce. Still a long way away from the established clubs, but we've come very far in such a short period.

Leicester out. I think, given some of their better players, and their recent pedigree, they were one of the biggest threat to the obvious three (and Brighton), so probably a boost for our European ambitions. Watched from about 60 minutes and it was a decent match.

Yep, no longer in their hands after that home defeat the other day. Mind, Wrexham did finish 2nd last season and could have still gone up on the final day, and then blew the playoffs, so guess it's nice from their perspective if they make it this time. Should really be 3 up and 3 down in that league, although it was just one up one down for ages, making it even harder.

A goal in all 5 televised matches now. Brighton, Man City, Blackburn and Fulham all ahead in the cup, and Millwall with a very early goal in the Championship.

Feels strange having matches on BBC and ITV at the same time. I'll probably switch to Fulham vs Leeds at 7.45pm. Big match in the Championship on Sky at 8pm as well - Luton vs Millwall with both sides currently in the top 6.

It would be awful if we missed out on Europe altogether after how the season was going up until that second leg. We're obviously still in the race for 4th, but it'll be very tough, and I personally can't see us finishing any higher than 5th unfortunately, or lower than 7th. Just hoping Man Utd, Man City, Spurs and (to a lesser extent) Brighton all come through in the FA Cup over the next couple of days, and one of them goes on to take the trophy to keep more European options open for us, should it go downhill a bit. It may have had a bit of an impact on their league form, but West Ham have played 6 matches in Europe thus far, and have had matches in Brussels, Bucharest, and Denmark, won all 6 matches, and now have a 2 legged tie with a Cypriot team for a place in a significant QF, so even if it ended up 'just' being Europa Conference (either by finishing 6th and FA Cup goes to a less fancied side, or by finishing 7th and a better side wins it), I'd be pretty content / happy. We were in Europe (Champions League, UEFA/Europa, Cup Winners Cup) in 9 of my first 13 seasons growing up, and 2 of those other 4 we were at least playing the likes of 1860 Munich and Deportivo in the Intertoto Cup, so to only be in Europe once in the next 16 seasons really is grim, and hopefully that is put right, regardless of competition, later this year.

Yeah, Hull (under the big man) got into Europe as FA Cup runners up to top 4 Arsenal in 2013/14, but Aston Villa didn't the following year when losing to the same opposition, so that rule has been stopped since 2014/15 - we've obviously benefited twice in the late 90s by getting into Europe that way, but it's generally better to go to the league IMO. I've never known the League Cup runner up to ever get into Europe in my time (PL era). 6th would guarantee some form of Europe, 7th would get Conference if an already qualified team won the FA Cup (as GA mentioned above) I'll definitely be wanting Man Utd, Man City and Spurs winning their match in the FA Cup in midweek, Brighton too. Can't see us finishing lower than 7th, but it would be disappointing if we ended up with no European football after such a good season so far. It would have been more favourable playing a Forest in the final, but if we lost to them, then 7th definitely wouldn't have got Europe, and at this stage, 6th wouldn't have been guaranteed either.

Na, not quite that far, but if you lined up 1000 of them and gave them the choice of Sunderland and Newcastle both win, or Coventry and Man Utd both win, the vast majority would choose the latter.

Not a great set of results for them today, and not one draw in the 11 fixtures. WBA, Norwich, Luton, Millwall and Blackburn winning was bad, obviously Coventry as well, as those were all within a few points (either side) of them before kick off. Midtable Reading and Preston both beat sides near the bottom to move within range of them, so that's 8 poor results out of the 11 fixtures. Burnley vs Huddersfield was pretty irrelevant as neither are anywhere near them at the respective ends of the table, and likewise there was only one point between Bristol C and Hull, so no obvious favourable result there. Sheff Utd beating Watford was the only result that they would have been happy with.

Bad day so far for the marra's Lost their big grudge match to Coventry, who move within a point of them, with a game in hand. WBA, Millwall, Luton, Norwich, Blackburn all winning. Even Watford picking up a decent point at the moment against Sheff U. Still 20 odd mins to go, but they could hardly have got a worse set of results from those around them

Aye. Teammate was telling him to put it our as well.

Should have been a minute or two more, considering there was a goal in injury time, although not complaining.

Too casual from the full back. Hopefully it doesn't cost them.

Another advert during the Sunderland match. Emphasised United vs United - they must have been pressured Ferdinand, Ginola, Neville, Keane, and Carragher the studio guests. Poor Given must have had his nose put out as he's been there for most of the previous LC matches.