Happy Face

The thing is Roeder had largely lost it and lost the dressing room by the end of last season, BUT a lot of that goes back to the ridiculous injures we had last season compounded by the relentless negative pressure the guy had most ALL of last season. Without those injuries things might have been different (although I couldn't have seen him doing what Allardyce is hoped to be able to do even without). The thing is I reckon Allardyce is only a loss at Sunderland (or a few losses elsewhere) from going in a similar direction as Roeder and once a manager is more concerned with fighting the press and the fans than anything else, they are probably doomed. People moan about Roeder using injuries as an excuse but he was right, his problem was he mentioned it every day. How many more points would we have picked up last season if Owen had been fit more often than not? quite a few I reckon considering we had to play Rossi and Duff up front at times, shame Boro wouldn't sell us Viduka which would have softened the blow. Aye well his big problem was saying "I won't use injuries as an excuse" at the beginning of the season when we had a fairly decent injury crisis going, but that left him on a hiding to nothing as our injury crisis amazingly continued unabated and even deepened massively post-Xmas for the rest of the season. He backed himself into a corner and the fans and the press just got more and more aggressive over the season with him, and there was very little he could really say or do that would placate them. By the end of the season he seemed more like a WW1 shell shock casualty than anything else. Which is what worries me about Allardyce, he may not be the man to take us back to glory day (or nearly glory days), but I wonder if he'll even be given the chance to try before the feeding frenzy begins. I reckon tactics wise they're on about the same level, but allardyce talks a far better game and uses smoke and mirrors to convince people he's a scientist of the game barely matched by professor Wenger. He'll be far better at facing down his accusors. Which isn't a dig by the way, if he can convince the changing room/fans he knows what he's doing he's half way there. It's all about confidence.

Roeders only problem in the Transfer market was being too cagey. He refused to throw money at solving the problem. Which wasn't a bad thing imo. I wouldn't argue with any of Allardyce's buys at the time though, except for barton who I wasn't happy to see here.

Overachieving when there are low expectations is easier than achieving initially high expectations.

Viduka is a miss from the squad and I can see him making enough of a difference to get us that 10th position if he's fit. Not so much Duff. There's no-one else missing though is there? Given might have saved one or two of those four goals on Saturday, but I doubt it, and there's not much in the bag for us to rely on. It's worrying that BS seems to have made the fat Aussie bastard (meant affectionately) the player our team is 'built around', choosing the aged fella, over the younger best goalscorer in England. Hope it's not because Owen isn't "his player" and he's a petty manager like that....you could ask the same question about him starting Smith ahead of Martins.

In the two seasons he finished in charge we finished higher than in the season before he took over and higher than we were at the point he took over. So either way he was a better caretaker and full time manager than the previous incumbent. No-one wants to get in a Roeder discussion again though. Just pointing out the impatience of Newcastle fans, even improvement isn't good enough, unless it's massive.

I was just in the process of writing the same thing mate. Villa could probably be added to that list who moved up 5 places last season and are looking tough to beat this season too. But its wasted on so many of our supporters who think we are so much better than we are, have no patience and would rather sit and boo their own team than get behind them. Aye, Roeder had taken us in the right direction too, just not far enough fast enough for 99% of fans.

Don't know what the reaction was around the stadium but I was well impressed with the reaction of fans up in Leazes L7 when we went 3 behind. We really got behind the team I thought, despite the shite start, actually, because of it. We had a bit of pressure and scored the goal. The half time booing was unfortunate, but we'd only got quieter since pulling one back. At that point it was up to BS to put a rocket up their arses and for a reinvigorated team to come out for the second half. The lack of second half response warranted the full time booing imo (though I didn't join in...still can't bring myself to do it). Mind you there was a cockney sat behind us who never shut his wideboy mouth about Newcastle being "facking shit". Boiled my piss.

Having wathched it this weekend I have to say I disagree. I love Eternal Sunshine. One of my all time favourite films, Block Party was fantastic too, I even liked Human Nature somewhat but I felt hugely let down By SOS. Michel Gondry can't write films, he has superb visual ideas, but when given free reign he's written a film to cater to his visuals, rather than creating visuals to cater to his film. It was willfully eccentric in a way that I depise (zany student shite) and for the first hour at least I was bored senseless, the last half hour started introducing some story ideas that might have been interesting (his psychotic tendencies, her lack of interest/distaste for him) but there was such an indistinct line drawn between dreams and reality up top that point that there wasn't a character you could trust as giving their own real point of view.

There's probably Americans that can do better than me. 165,000 is my top score after repeated attempts, but I've only been abroad three or four times.

That was class. My head feels like there's an anvil loose in there, I'm shivering cold, I'm sweating like a fat lass in a sauna, my eyeballs feel like they're on fire and a light chuckle exacerbates every symptom. But I pissed myself watching that.

Don't want to incur peoples wrath here, but how many starts have Shola and Owen had together? I'm not a fan of Heskey either, but his partnership with Owen was always prolific. I guess I'm crediting Shola with far more strength and power than he actually has, but isn't he the biggest big man option we have to play with Owen? ....plus Ameobi scores against the mackems.

Allardyce was on Soccer Saturday an hour before the match yesterday. He said there's not a cat in hells chance of him being at Newcastle in 10 years.

"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!"

I think he made some cracking tackles, but I get annoyed by his showy performances that ignore the basics. Check this out from ther Telegraph site.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...4/sfgnew104.xml Nicky Butt did less attacking than him. Cacapa's getting all the blame (deserves most of it) but I think Taylors wandering really stretches the defense when he's struggling to get back. I think I can excuse that yesterday. Like I said he was to blame for two of their goals so I'm not defending his performance overall. However, as he was playing at RB and we were 3-0 down after 10 minutes or whatever there was a strong emphasis on him to 'bomb on' and get forward as often as possible. He did that yesterday a lot more than Enrique did. Quite why we were playing 4 at the back, especially after Enrique went off, when they had one upfront more or less is another matter. That's fair enough, though I do think the majority of our success (if you can call it that) was down the left. All the "one Steven Taylor!" stuff just got my back up when three of their four goals came from the left. No wonder Anal pushes the Geordie hero stuff when the crowd seem to lap that shit up.

I think he made some cracking tackles, but I get annoyed by his showy performances that ignore the basics. Check this out from ther Telegraph site.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtm...4/sfgnew104.xml Nicky Butt did less attacking than him. Cacapa's getting all the blame (deserves most of it) but I think Taylors wandering really stretches the defense when he's struggling to get back.

Both Allardyce and Roeder 2 goals down at half time then, only one of them is able to pull it back though.

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality. -Joe Paterno

This. Agree with everything except the slow moving thing, because I wouldn't want people to be put off. Bit more exposition, it's about a history teacher with a drug problem who becomes freindly with one of his students and tries to keep her from going down the same path as her imprisoned brother. The history teacher part is important because it pushes the point of history as change, of learning lessons and avoiding repeated mistakes. What's excellent is that the kid actually has their head screwed on better than the teacher telling her this, he's constantly doomed to repeat his mistakes, but he still has an impact on these kids, so that they do learn, while he seems incapable of it. As a result it's not a moralising film about drugs being bad, more about people making bad choices.

Hope I've misunderstood how it'll be used. It's going to look great if I have to start scanning my card at work when I should actually be doing some work.

I think it should stay here. Lovely serene photos to take our minds of the current plight. That sun on the horizon is lush.

Butt's serving a ban. Which is a shame because we'll desparately miss his strength in a blood and guts derby. I'd start Taylor simply for his passion. Got sick of him yesterday mind, the crowd were loving him but he was constantly out of position and slow to get back, he set up their third and as good as scored the 4th himself, yet the fans were still lauding him. Owen on the other hand made our goal and made (Mr 100%) Smith look like a bystander but all he heard all afternoon was chants for Martins (who later in the game just stood and stared at a very similar deflection owen had latched on to).

Aye, complete horseshit on all accounts.

Sigur Ros - Hvarf-Heim Bunch of pissed up Telletubbies.

I think it's a myth that we needed our defence tightening. We had a lot of individual errors that match of the Day or Goals on Sunday would take the piss out of, but we conceded less than Tottenham, Bolton, Reading, Blackburn and Middlesboro last year. They all finished above us, but we never scored as many as a single team above us. The fact that we're still not looking like scoring, but conceding even more is a worry though.

I'm not Fish but....