Papa Lazaru

They really are pretty dire to watch at times, summed up when at home to Liverpool and at 1-1 in injury time they had a corner and played for time in the corner!!!

So he has a sense of humour then...and a death wish!

Probably half way to either drawing or losing in the last minute again! I'd much prefer the draw myself, it keeps the mackems from getting a morale boosting win and stops the smogs getting another 3 points. Though you do get that sneaking suspicion they might just hang on for the 3 points and the smogs are dull as hell and can easilly be shut out at times.

"Cole just takes the man away, Kelly in on goal. Kelly can he stay on his feet.......KELLY!!!!!" 38672[/snapback] I still don't know how that goal went in. When you see the replay from behind the goal the ball is hitting the post all the way then at the last second it somehow goes in!

B-side if I recall 38642[/snapback] They also did the song "You give football a bad name" about the mackems, though changed it to the more commercial "you give love a bad name" on instruction from their record company.

There's nothing wrong with him saying that, by any stretch of the imagination these days players don't expect to stay at one club forever any more. If things go well enough i think he'll be happy to see out his contract here, if they don't he'll be more than entitled to look to bigger clubs.

Not to any degree of success. All the top teams used 4-4-2 to win things, 3-5-2 was used by dull, mid table teams who went nowhere but thought it was clever and inventive.

Living on a Prayer? 38633[/snapback] There was some mention of that one, not sure if it was that though. 38635[/snapback] Did Bon Jovi do a song called "Your team's shite and you wish you were toon fans" or have i just made that up?

I was wondering myself what's best. I want the mackems to lose, but we can overhall the smogs so don't want them winning really. I settled on wanting a draw with hopefully a few cards and injuries because i'm nice like that!

You can dislike both as much as you want! When it comes to the actual macthes themselves though, you can't beat the toon-mackem game, you can feel the waves of hatred around the ground!!!

To be fair we are the most important team in both sets of fans lives after all!

I asked the question i think everyone on the board needs the answer to: Me: Should NUFC have sold Craig Bellamy? God: Maybe you should ask someone older. Me: Is anybody older than you? God: Signs point to yes. Ask John Lennon if it is Hope thats cleared it up for everybody!!!

Didn't Gary Speed say how irritating he was? Also that text to Shearer? If he'd been liked, don't you think we'd have heard some stories of revolt from the dressing room wanting him to stay? 38604[/snapback] Players aren't going to revolt over a sale, and nor should they. But have you forgotten the likes of Bramble and Millner at the club saying they wished he was still here, or Robert, Kluivert, Hughes, Bernard and the like who wanted him at their new clubs or said we shouldn't have got rid. I can understand why some fans wanted him gone, and its a game of opinions after all, but its bollocks to say all the players hated him and wanted him out because they didn't. And its bollocks to say he ruined morale because in years of him being here we saw a team full of spirit and morale and one that wasn't. Bellamy and indeed robert's personalities have not changed one bit in their time here, so if you think they are disruptive now then they always were. And if they always were then we couldn't have done what we did under bobby because people like you have said the team can't function with disruptive players.

Definitely, in fact in all the years those two were here i don't think i've ever seen a team mate celebrate a goal with them at all, ever, fact! Firstly you have to score goals to celebrate them so its hard to make a judgement this season! And secondly its bollocks. If you can be arsed then go back and watch all the goal celebrations from last season and theres little difference, the only difference in the last two games is one of depression being lifted. The team was on its arse until Shearer scored vs Blackburn and with all that lifted then no surprisingly the players are ecstatic and have responded accordingly. You also have new players like Owen keen to join in and a gerodie like Clarkie who celebrates like a fan would. But if the amateur psychologists seriously want to blame yet more stuff on Robert and Bellamy then feel free. 38594[/snapback] We're gonna need a bigger boat. 38600[/snapback] Fair play! I'll always defend them both because they came along and obviously with Bobby's good work turned us from what we were then to the CL team we briefly became. They also were massively responsible for getting us back to being a team that played genuinely entertaining, attacking football and i went back to enjoying going to the match after the crap that had preceded it.

Disaster waiting to happen. 38597[/snapback] It is, was and ever shall be a steaming pile of shite in the premiership. In the hands of Robson who knew something about tactis it was an embarassing load of bollocks, the thought of it being tried now would be seriously disturbing.

Definitely, in fact in all the years those two were here i don't think i've ever seen a team mate celebrate a goal with them at all, ever, fact! Firstly you have to score goals to celebrate them so its hard to make a judgement this season! And secondly its bollocks. If you can be arsed then go back and watch all the goal celebrations from last season and theres little difference, the only difference in the last two games is one of depression being lifted. The team was on its arse until Shearer scored vs Blackburn and with all that lifted then no surprisingly the players are ecstatic and have responded accordingly. You also have new players like Owen keen to join in and a gerodie like Clarkie who celebrates like a fan would. But if the amateur psychologists seriously want to blame yet more stuff on Robert and Bellamy then feel free.

The facts are for seasons under Bobby when we were finishing 4th and 3rd and plaing in the CL the team spirit/dressing room, call it what you will was more than fine. As shown by the teams ability to fight till the last minute and often come back from behind to win games. This team contained not just Bellamy but also Robert. Unless anyone on here is frequently in the dressing room and regulary trains at St. James then you are speculating completely on what influence Bellamy had on morale based on what is being said by the people who chucked him out. If he really was as bad for morale and team spirit as is being said then Bobby's team wouldn't have achieved what it did with Bellamy.

He's at the very least as good as he was as an all round player and still scores more goals than most people out there. He's more than fast enough and his timing and intelligencce of movement is as good as any player out there. He's also a good player technically and has more than enough control, skill and the like. Don't agree with the above comment about Bellamy though, he will never have Owens finishing ability, few do, but he is an intelligent player in terms of movement and runs and if he was caught of offside it wasn't any more so than other strikers and half the time it was ludicrous linesman decisions as they couldn't see how fast he was and that he wasn't offside at all.

He always will trouble even the very best defences because he has pace and intelligent movement combined with giving everything whenever he plays. He's also vastly improved his finishing from when he started his NUFC career, particularly one on ones. If people don't like the bloke and want him out thats one thing, to deny how good he is, how much defenders hate playing him and the effect he has on teams he plays for would be wrong.

The difference with this game and so many that have went before (including wins) was that we actually played well. There was some good passing, people actually wanting the ball and enough genuine chances created to have scored about 4-5 goals on a other day. Alot was down to Owen, he has pace but his movement and intelligence mean he is always where he needs to be and just wants somebody to pick him out with the ball. The only thing we lacked was Bowyer being told to get out wide more, though i suspect he as playing where he was told to as he stuck to a specifif role. We murdered them down the left but not the right so this would be the only criticism. Second half they came back into it and we were'nt as good, but we defended well enough and still created on the break. 90 mins like the first half is what we should be achieving and expecting with the finishing sharpened up a bit and players like Nobby, Emre and Dyer adding to the performance. And to be honest it wasn't a surprise when he picked an attacking midfield instead of playing Faye and Carr, its a simple game at times. And to be fair to Faye coming on as a sub he actually did quite well but i still don't want him starting anymore games as he isn't good enough for a team aiming at the very leats for top 6.

As MattM4 said i'm not a big fan of Neville but he's spot on about the arse, a team of arrogant, hypocritical whingers. They dish it out (frequently) but can never take it back and cry like bairns when things don't go their way.

It was really unselfish by Owen as well, he knew it was practically the last kick and could have tried to get a shot in himself, which made it all the more annoying when it was wasted. Shola just doesn't have the killer instinct and finishing required at the top level by the looks of things.

For the first time this season i'm finding this hard as several players deserve a mention. Bramble Owen Zog Going with those 3 but could also have said Parker, Shearer, Clarkie and Given for his save at 0-0

Bramble had an excellent game as he was doing frequently last season before the injury. His heading and tackling were top class including one absolutley crucial challenge near the 6 yard box. Also his distribution, including some long passes across the pitch were impressive as usual. And Boumsong whilst not great was better than recently so it may be that Bramble has as much of a positive effect on Boum as people were giving credit to Boum for improving Titus.

Didn't Luque come off injured for Spain in the middle of the week prior to the Fulham game? 38141[/snapback] That was an ankle knock which had cleared up, he then did his hamstring!