Figures 1-0 Football

Aye, but it's usually followed by a soft pass back to them. He needs to improve, he's not playing in a shit and slow Dutch league now and needs to start putting in the performances that he is capable of. We constantly lambast the players in our squad like Colback, Anita, Dummett. But they are hampered by the fact that they are not very good, this guy has all the quality he needs but has only shown it in about 5 games of our 30 so far this season and seems to consistently get away with it.

Sunderland were time wasting from the 6th minute like, when they strolled over at snail pace to take a corner. I thought Martin Atkinson was terrible today, every 50/50 challenge he gave in their favour. The Mitrovic shoulder-to-shoulder incident was absolutely embarrassing that he gave a free kick. He made no attempt to challenge their time wasting, its about time (excuse the pun) this became a mandatory yellow card a lot earlier - it'd soon stop it. The Arsenal (v Watford?) cup game comes to mind when Pantilimon could/should have received a second yellow for time wasting. Thought overall a draw was fair, similar performance to the Leicester one imo but we actually got a goal. Shit first half and improved second half, with the subs making a good impact. Slow but steady progress under Rafa, can see us getting out of this but we need to start turning 0 and 1 points into 3. Norwich is a huge game, possibly must-win rather than must not lose. Games against the likes of Villa, Swansea and Palace need to collect 3 points. Although looking at our remaining fixtures, we don't really have to face anybody special. Man City appear to have given up and Tottenham may have nothing to play for on the final day. I don't think we were as dramatically bad as others are making out, it's certainly an improvement on the shit served up under Pardew, Carver and McClaren.

Agree with all of that, my thoughts were exactly the same.

Doubt we'll see him feature much now, get the impression that Rafa isn't that impressed with him.

I thought their 6-man defence were going to end up sitting in the Gallowgate, they were getting deeper and deeper in the second half

Lukaku has also played Premier League football for a long time in a much better performing team(s) Daft comparison.

I'm probably a 6.5. Both us and Sunderland have proven today that we can pick up performances and points, Palace better start worrying!

Bit of a shit time for an international break. Another week working intensely with the players would have been good before Norwich rather than players travelling far and wide for very little purpose/benefit.

Still not sure if this guy is class with many poor performances or very poor with occasional class performances.

Mitrovic has scored in three of his last five appearances at St James' Park. Prolific.

Thought their support was dreadful today, considering they were 1-0 up away at their local rivals all of the second half they were absolutely silent. The half-hearted chants of 'paedo' towards Cisse when he came on were ironic/embarrassing.

Who knew managers could see a shit performance, change it a bit at HT and then make substitutions that come off well and improve the game

Biggest away game for a very, very long time. Delighted/terrified that I'll be going to Norwich.

Shelvey is about the only player who tries to move us forward with the ball he constantly makes runs and shows for the ball. Obviously every now and again one of his passes will be dreadful, but he's by far a better option than any other player we have in that position. What do people want? Colback is shit because he hides and is 'too safe' playing backwards, we finally get a man who constantly shows for it and passes forwards but is shit because not all of them come off.

Looks nervy at times but could potentially have a good partnership with Mbemba. Not the finished product at all, but with decent coaching he could be a fairly decent CB. Seemed to panic a lot and head the ball in random directions, but apart from that I like him.

Seems a lot more 'up for it' since Rafa has came in although his quality is very hit and miss.

Looked nice and tidy when he came on, the sort of player I thought he was when we signed him.

Looked a completely different player when we actually started playing attacking football and Cisse came on. Think that he and Cisse would be an interesting partnership.

Did they look like happy magpies? Like winning ones?

A Norwich v Sunderland game ending in a draw would be an excellent result for us. Especially if we get 4 or 6 points from our games against them. So many different scenarios that could play out, may as well just take it one game at a time.

Maybe if Premier League clubs were forced to shove money into their local grassroots teams then the national team would be better developed. A lot of talent is wasted in this country because it is not picked up from an early age.

In regards to that, what was the latest news on that lass who fell at Leicester? It was only a couple of rows behind me and she didn't look great.

3-0 win, easy.

Come on Gini lad, earn your corn today!

What points were we on at this stage last season/away from the drop during our historic tumble under Carver?