Papa Lazaru

But thats the problem Craig, it never will be a priority for a lot of people. If we get promoted then survival will be our priority and the years will pass by and still no trophy and we will be no different in approach to the game than the Boltons of this world. This club has a great cup tradition and thats the way it should continue. Besides it didnt do Burnley much harm last season Strongest line up every time for me for the reasons stated in my earlier post I'm all for giving every game your best shot - but only when you have a squad that can allow you to have that mindset. Say we play our strongest team against Peterborough and Taylor, Nolan & Jonas all suffer long term injuries and we lose anyway. We have absolutely no-one of any stature to replace them and we'lll end up play 2-3 months of league football with totally inexperienced kids all for the sake of one cup game in a competition we're not going to win anyway... Fot the Peterborough game we HAVE to go with resting some of the first team players and if we get through, great! If Hughton sticks out a full strength team he's a fucking idiot! Is the correct answer. Its simply being realistic, we won't win the cup, we'll lose to one of the big 4 or another prem team somewhere down the line, whereas we could be promoted. We have no squad, we have to rest players, and avoid risk of inujuries that will fuck up our whole season. People are going on about not just wanting to be a Bolton of this world and i get that, but if we don't get promoted we will be stuck in the championship and dreaming of being as good as a Bolton. We have to get back to the prem and the ludicrous millions it provides to get this club off its arse again, whoever may own it at the time. And i would take promotion back to the prem like a shot over winning the league cup, i'd love a trophy but i'm looking to the future of the club as a whole and it needs to be in the prem and the best shot to get back is in this season and the next, after that theres no parachute payments, and you're stuck in the mire with everybody else down there.

Even if one of your dads was Greg Evigan? Bloody hell, I watched that regularly and all. As did I, not sure why! But i can't hear his name, without thinking of the Lee and Herring "When insects attack" stuff, with voice over by Greg "I made this!" Evigan!

Be interesting to see what lineup Hughton goes for with the striker injury crisis. Personally i'd probably stick Smith up front for a game with Ranger, a bit of experience up there to help the young lad, since we have plenty of central midfielders available to cover Smith.

This is the problem, i don't want us to lose any individual match but we won't win the cup and the more fixtures that pile up the more it wrecks our promotion bid which is all that matters. So i'd be playing the kids and if we lose, so be it, but we need to rest key players and also avoid them picking up injuries. And, since we have such a small squad, we need the kids to get experience at first team level because they will be needed this season in the league.

Back to this club being fucking cursed, we should have known it would happen. He hits the form of his life and becomes massively important to the team so an injury was inevitable, i'm sick of it happening all the time to us.

You wouldn't be at all surprised if they could get any sort of fee for him. And it would be a stupid sale, he's not on big wages, won't bring in a big transfer fee and he does a very useful job in this team. Because he plays as the target man, battling for the ball and winning the headers its allowed Shola to just be the striker, and not be lumbered with a role he can't fill that well. So whilst i was dead against Hughton playing the 2 of them together at first, fair play to him, he was right and its worked very nicely. Mind Shola seems possessed at the moment, when he came on 2nd half he truned the game around with his impact, involved in the equaliser, won and took the pen then set up Nolan on a plate!

Nolan can clearly do a good job for us at this level, and looks like he'll be amongst the goals as well. If ashley got rid of him on a loan it would make him an even bigger reatard/cunt than i thought possible!

The injuries picked up are a worry as we can't afford any at all these days! There was always a gamble playing a young CB in his first full game and a young fullback alongside him, so its not the end of the world that we conceded, the fact we won means Kadar won't dwell on any mistake and will have just got a massive boost from making a full debut. Enrique was a class above anyone else and i think Guthrie will be a big player for us this season. At this level Geremi can use the ball well, but he can barely move after the first 5 mins! But fair play to him on a nicely take goal. I thought the young lads did well, and the team as whole played some good football in spells and Hughton's subs had a big impact on the game. Shola came on and was involved in Geremi's goal and then won and took the pen after that, before setting up Nolan's winner! And Jonas also made a good impact sub as he ran them ragged and we scored from the freekick he won with one of his many runs. I'm also impressed at the fact we seem to have some fight and character this season. Not only were we 3-1 down, but straight after kick off in the 2nd half which tore up any plans Hughton had given them to start the half with and yet they fought back to win, and didn't go mad al out attck they kept playing their football calmly and got the goals.

Agree, when its such petty or nasty stuff just needlessly mocking of a toon legend (two times over), if you understand anything about this club you wouldn't stoop to that level of abuse of him. Fair enough some people were a bit pissed off the last time he left, i am at what happened, but not with him, as the people above were taking the piss out of him, but even if i was angry with him, for everything he did for this club i would manage not to start acting like a complete prick and taking the piss out of him.

Its a shame we've missed out but big wages and 5 years, thats not soemthing we could have offered these days! However had he only wanted say 1 or 2 years on reasonable wages, you can bet ashley still would have fucked it up!

He'd better not have, it didn't go too well last time that happened! Who was it again, it was on MOTD2 because i remember watching it and was thinking, did i just hear what i thought i did, and they got bollocked for it. Pardew. They tried to brush it off by pointing out a dictionary definition 'to take from aggressively' Cheers, i knew it was a manager and just couldn't remember who exactly.

He'd better not have, it didn't go too well last time that happened! Who was it again, it was on MOTD2 because i remember watching it and was thinking, did i just hear what i thought i did, and they got bollocked for it.

There really are some appalling cunts over there. I read the first page, which was more than enough. I thought i'd went on to a mackem forum to be honest, in fact i think mackems would show Keegan more respect than that lot, absolutely embarassing that its supposed to be toon fans. Clearly not toon fans who saw anything before Keegans first managerial stint.

He does get far too much abuse for being optimistic on here, its not like he goes and does it on the SSN cameras making us look deluded, its just a messageboard. And if ashley kept everyone we have now we could get automatic promotion, its not far fetched, it would obviously require some luck with injuries and doing some dealing in January, but its far from impossible. This division is pretty poor no matter how much people say it isn't, whats required of us is fight, effort, stamina and character for 46 games, to match the other teams an then our quality will see us through most games. And so far much to our surprises the players have been well up for that challenge. Obviously an injury crisis could cause us some problems and unlike acca i'm not saying its certain, far from it, but when we're seeing our defence concede 1 in 4 games, when the Nolan's and Raylors are scoring goals and shola looks prolific it tells you what this divisions standard is.

Sadly that's where we are though isn't it, we'd be greatful for some prem teams to loan us a couple of young prospects to bolster our squad these days. You'd hope that we've at least asked some of the other big teams apart from manu for a player or two, if they said no then fair enough, but i'd like to think we've tried.

Pretty much. Another in the mould of Steve Watson & Aaron Hughes IMO. Both who we lived to regret selling and I think we'll do the same with Edgar. Cracking shot on him too as Man Utd & Liverpool could testify. And i know Burnley are hardly premiership giants, but their manager obviously thought Edgar was good enough for a shot at the prem, yet we didn't offer him a contract to play in the championship whe he was already here and our player. He struglled at fullback because he isn't one, but when he played centreback i liked the look of him, and certainly for this level. Also he's young and like Taylor, more likely to be bothered than some other players here.

Other way round wasn't it? Yeah, i thought that's what i'd typed to be honest!

Don't get me wrong i think ashley and llambias have fequently been full of shit and i dont trust a word they come out with, but ive never been convinced by the argument its all one big conspiracy, that he's known all along he wont sell and he's just using all this stuff as an excuse. He owns the club, he can do waht the fuck he likes without needing to pretend anything, he knows the fans will still come even if he sells players, appoints a shit manager or no manager and he already knows we hate him. So its not hard if he wanted to say im not selling and im clearing out loads of players to trim the wage bill. I think he genuinely wants out, yes he may fuck us over in terms of too high a price, pissing people about because he's a tool and things like that, but i think he wants Moat to bale him out and that because Moat isnt the rich billionaire we'd like Barclays are taking some convincing. So i think thers a chance Moat will takeover, but also i think its likely you could see him come in in a part owenership capacity or even that ashley doesnt sell, its all possible to me. And is ashley does stay then i worry as to who the fuck he'll bring in as boss. But in all the scenarios i do worry that we'll see to many more good players sold and not replaced. If they could leave the squad as it is, unless soembody offers good money for one of the players we wouldn't mind shifting, then prootion is a defnitie possibility.

Signing Lovenkrands on a free is a no-brainer, but sadly so is our owner so don't expect it to happen anytime soon! The guy will cost nothing, has alrady played here so knows his teammates, was doing a half decent job in the divison above and has pace which we sorely lack. And our squad is woefully short even before the injuries start to hit, so we have to get him on board.

As it stands it seems there hasn't been a concrete offer for Taylor, but i think theres a good chance of at least one prem team coming calling very soon. I don't blame any player for leaving this mess, as long as they haven't made a big deal about being a toon fan, loving the club and how much it means etc. If thats true then you don't leave, you have a contract and they can't make you leave, Hughton will still pick him, he won't be banished to play with the kids or anything and he's on good wages. You can't use the excuse you were forced out, its still choice. However at the moment he hasn't left and is playing well so i'm not having a go at him and i hope he stays, but it seems likely he'll go with this club the way it is.

I agree, that first test being saved by the tail was crucial. If we'd lost it then recovering would be so much harder than the lift from that draw, and you'd have been 1-0 up which i'm not convinced you would have ever relinquished. Strauss was given man of the series and i think Hilfinhaus just beat Clarke for your players of the series award. It was defnitiely about 2 or 3 sessions that England blitzed you in that turned the series as clearly overall stats show you had the runs and wicket takers. I think next time round will be another cracking series rather than the 5-0 whitewash type, though you will as ever be favourites. Alot will depend on how the likes of Broad progress and i'm hopeful by then that Rashid will have been given his chance as he looks like a talented cricketr in the making. And we will hopefully have a full series out of KP this time rather than a couple of tests when he was hampered by injury.

Exactly. A decent owner with brains wouldn't have got us relegated, we'd still have had KK (or a decent boss of their choice) there, instead of being in complete turmoil and would be looking good, not saying we'd be world beaters, but they wouldn't have to have spent more money than ashley, just not been a complete fuckwitt. I've no idea what Moat's plans and finaces are if he should takeover, but you have to believe he will be better than ashley and as Matt said if you get the fans back, you get more money in, not the billions we'd all love, but it still helps.

It was on Match of the Day that game. Yeah, i was just looking it up on the web, to check i'd remembered it right being behind at halftime and KK scoring etc. and they mentioned the cameras had turned up to see how we were getting on for that match.

I think Taylor was here all the time. He was born in London but he's lived in the NE nearly all his life I think. You might be right though. Annoyingly I think Edgar would have been decent at this level and might have played a fair bit this season. What's worse is Edgar would hardly have been asking for a deal that would break the bank, he just wanted a contract offer which never came and we lost a player who was already here with a bit of first team experience who i think could do a job at CB in the champonship.

1983 Charlton (h) 2-1 (0-1) Division One Keegan (2) Don't remember that much about it to be honest as it was so long ago, just know we were 1-0 down at half time and came back to win in the second half and i loved it!