Howay

Honestly man it's so fucking bizarre. I think someone linked it on here the other day but there's an article somewhere about how the other day he went to one of the best steak restaurants in Washington D.C. and he ordered his steak well done and then had a big dollop of tomato ketchup with it . Stuff like that just sums the bloke up tbh. I'm going to D.C. for a wedding on the 10th, so hopefully he fucks off to Florida for the weekend so he's not out and about in D.C. with the police shutting traffic down.

Nah I can't remember what it was exactly but it was along those sort of logical lines. Basically saying we should have got someone like Nigel Pearson as he had experience at that level and getting teams promoted as opposed to Rafa who had no experience at that level, he was of course ignoring Rafa's early jobs at 2nd division Spanish sides.

Honestly man the bloke was probably more coherent after he crashed his car mortal drunk than he is in those pathetic rants on Soccer Saturday. How on Earth a bloke can be a tv pundit and say ridiculous stuff along the lines of 'the guy is used to managing Champions League players, he has no experience at that level so is incapable of managing at it', do they not get that they are essentially implying the Championship is harder to manage in than the Champions League? Absolute fucking arsehole he is man.

Aye, I understood it at first as it was to rile us up but they've carried on saying it to the point I think they genuinely believe it. If Rafa had been given the job going into that 10 day break where the squad went to Portugal (iirc) we'd still be in the PL now, unfortunately Charnley (or Ashley for not taking it our of his hands sooner) allowed McClaren to throw a few more games completely out the window before Rafa come in. I'm still amazed they took any pleasure whatsoever from that season (aside from us being relegated of course, I get that part) as we were one of the most inept sides many of us have seen in fucking donkeys years under McClaren and they still only finished 1 point above that.

Aye, honestly man it's just utter fucking nonsense. The league is shit but the bottom half of the PL is as well ffs, do they honestly think absolute chuff like Hull, themselves, West Brom, Palace, etc are quality sides? There have been a fair few sides from the Championship burst PL sides comfortably in the cup this season, in fact we played Hull off the park ourselve but just couldn't finish that game. There is a ton of crap in this league but you have to be a decent side to win as much and as often as our lot, we're often winning 2 games a week man . Our side is completely transformed from the one under McClaren, I shudder to think where we would be now if that was allowed to continue and I honestly think this mackem side are far closer to that train wreck of a team than they are to us now. Rafa has been doing a stunning job tbh, people can go "aye well he's a big name manager so it's to be expected" but he still needs to actually fucking do it and he is doing it remarkably imo. Don't expect any of this from SMB though, they're the same forum that were basically in full agreement that Rafa is a shit manager and he took us down. There are mackems out there that are worried and know they'll be stuck down here for a long time if they go down tbf, just the SMB is basically the Pennywell of forums and we all know Pennywell makes Kandahar look like Paris. I also absolutely do think they're being ridiculous despite the fact people like me were saying we'd piss this league ourselves when we were going down because we were only so confident because of Rafa tbh, if we had a manager of Ashley's usual standard I'd have been panicking.

Spot on. It was a very strong away performance, first 20 or so minutes Brighton come out of the gates to try and put us on the ropes and with a massive help from another dodgy decision they got a goal which could have sunk us confidence wise after the start. From that point the team controlled the game, we could never attack really aggressively as Hughton was playing the counter which kept us honest. I thought our defence did a cracking job of checking the counter, I mentioned it earlier but as I slagged the blokes passing off I have to give him extra praise Dummett did a cracking job in particular, had Knockaert completely in his pocket, so much so in fact that I'm sure Anthony is still in there. It was mint to see Darlow look absolutely solid after a couple of recent wobbles and criticism, that punch he did from Bruno's shot was stunning tbh, I thought it was a good save at first but on the replay he read it perfectly and was even confident enough to put his hands together in order to get a 2 handed punch on it as he knew where he wanted to hit it. As good as Diame's sublime Bergkamp-esque flick. I agree about Perez in all, I've been critical of the lad but his movement and finish were class yesterday, of course the ball from Ritchie was brilliant and Atsu did well to get the ball into him as well but it's great to see that sort of commitment and desire from players again to work hard and find space in a box that late in the game. I thought we'd respond with a performance against Brighton after we'd been grinding out some wins in not great fashion but that exceeded any expectation I had for the game tbh. Jack Colback remains one of the worst footballers I have ever witnessed in my life.

It seems completely lost on them that we have improved fucking massively since being the team they finished 1 point above (also ignoring the fact that if Rafa had come in a few games earlier we'd have stayed up). It's also worth noting they've probably got worse over the same period. They're in for a real shock if they think they can match what we've done this season, they'll be closer to resembling Villa iyam.

Team Willy waver will become a veritable forest after the game on Saturday.

Aye I started panicking and was wishing Rafa would make a sub around the 70th minute, I thought we had missed our window but he obviously knew what he was doing. I saw the backwards passing as deliberate attempts to lure Brighton as they were trying to bait us in so they could counter. Our lot done well not to overcommit as the game wore on.

We'll burst them in all after Man City give them a howking tomorrow.

It's a tough one for me, I really like Hughton but the Brighton players are a bunch of utter wankers. Must say I rate Knockaert in this league but Paul Dummett shut him down tonight so I wonder what he'll be like in the Prem.

World class by Diame mind, he meant it . It was like Bergkamp turning Dabizas, except he thought that he would lob the keeper.

36 page thread on the SMB. Bet they were buzzing until the late goals, hope it fucking ruined their week

To be fair he could have made the changes earlier ffs. Risky but it paid off so we'll keep schtum. I think team willy wavers will have added a few to our ranks from team bed wetters after tonight.

Aye I said to my mate at 1-0 down that if we could score we'd go on to win, they were doing what Pardew had us doing all the time, going up then allowing the team to come onto you so you can counter. It works if you can stop the opposition but if you concede it's nigh on impossible to get back the momentum. Rafa done Hughton up a kipper.

Fantastic performance that, we rode our luck early doors and relied on some good saves by Darlow then they got an utter bollocks penalty. From that penalty we controlled the game as Brighton gave us space to try and counter attack us, our lot defended the counter well. The first goal was spawny as fuck but deserved, the second goal was quality though and honestly I think fully deserved too as we were the better team overall imo. I gave Dummett a lot of grief for his passing but he had Knockaert in his back pocket all game and the horrible little cheat couldn't do anything to the point Brighton took him off.

Feels like a bit too late for that sub tbh, we had a prolonged spell of control and we didn't capitalize on it by bringing a striker on.

Aye howay Rafa man, what on Earth is he doing? we're desperate for a change here and honestly have been since half time.

Nice to see Clark dragged over in the box by Baldock and the ref just lets them continue the attack.

Aye ana you did, was just doubling on your earlier point.

Aye that was what I was thinking, if he shifted it right the keeper was in absolute no mans land and he would have had empty net to aim at.

Got a lad out on loan who would have finished that tbh.

2nd yellow for Knockaert please.

That was fucking disgusting by Gouffran

They've went into full on counter attack mode here like, we need to score soon or they'll catch us when we get increasingly desperate.