OTF

Thank you Krul

For Newcastle supporters it's more like a Christmas where we're reduced to watching other teams supporters open their presents as we've got none of our own.

Fair points all of them. I'd counter that the sport itself isn't broken, but the capitalism of it is. Once the game kicks off it's 11 on 11 and generally the competitive spirit of the players will have them doing near enough their best resulting in what is an entertaining technical sport with plenty of talking points.

Jonas would clearly be the best at that reaction.

True of football in total or just Newcastle? Guess I'm questioning causation of your lack of interest.

Don't know how our players would react to playing soccer and having to wear cleats though.

I'm constantly astounded by the amount of defenders who see fit to hoy their arms out/up to stop balls that they otherwise couldn't get to. Can't help but think that in their youth they've got away with them at some level and so are conditioned to it. I'm watching on delay to spare waiting on the break between the matches, which is why I'm behind the times with my comment btw.

That was my first reaction to the goal, haven't re-watched it. Undoubtedly an excellent keeper, can see Stoke keeping quite a few clean sheets at home with their narrow pitch, big defenders and ultimately Begovic.

Erik Pieters looks like he'll be a good signing for Stoke.

I've not said he isn't. Think he was caught out with Sturridge's shot though.

Apart from that he has done well for sure. Lucky for him that many of their shots have been perfectly positioned for acrobatic looking saves.

Players committed to each other and the team, a manager who favors getting the best of our players over Allardycing the game. If we have that the results will be good enough and there should be a fair share of highly entertaining games. That's enough for me.

Poor for the opening goal. Liverpool's movement off the ball is very good. Pardew would do well to make our team watch this.

With the players they've got they'll probably run hot and cold. It will be interesting to see how they play against the top sides in the league.

That's it. With or without Newcastle United the competition is 'broken'. With or without Ashley Newcastle United is a football club because of the supporters. If you choose to not watch because the competition is fundamentally flawed or because of a rightful distaste for Ashley then you're really only hurting yourself. But if you can't summon up the anticipation before a match or the optimistic enthusiasm when the whistle sounds then you're probably just not interested. That's fair enough, but in reality I'd say that has more to do with yourself than it does the state of the club or the league, so you're really not hurting yourself.

First 90 odd minutes of this will be critical, if we can hold out for that I reckon we're in with a shot at a point.

The earlier seasons of weeds were the strongest, like some of Doug's work in particular. Orange is the New Black was enjoyable, though the breast count and quality diminished as the season progressed.

Whilst our squad is reasonably strong in comparison to the past there can be absolutely no doubt that the standard of players in the lower tier of teams in the premier league has come along in leaps and bounds over the past three or four seasons. The easier matches against the weak smaller teams are no more and it really is true that you need to move forward just to stand still. With all this in mind it's particularly worrying as there is not a lot of room for allowing others to move past us before we're relegated. On the face of it it feels like our team has far too much quality to be relegated, but with last season fresh in our minds we know that this is no longer necessarily true. If we have an unsettled start and don't pick up points in the early part of the season in some easier matches then the wheels could quickly come off and the ghosts of 2008/09 could return.

Historically the reaction to missing out on a target has not been to switch attentions elsewhere, but rather the equivalent of uttering "oh well, we'll get 'em next time".

If we play with one striker against them I'd say Shola would be more effective than Cisse. Cisse on his own against a mob where we're virtually guaranteed of having little possession is somewhat wasted. That said I hope we don't start the match with one up top unless they're also flanked by two wingers.

There's no need to apologise... CT has got the attention he craves and Stevie's got the drama he seeks. Stevie and Ant please spare us all the overreactions and the escalating responses to to those. Nobody wins and nobody is impressed with people being called out for good natured mockery.

Are you saying drugs are the answer? Livestrong indeed...

I'm hanging on until the end of the window before I throw my stones.

I maintain that we still owe them a beating from the game where Beye was wrongfully sent off after making a superb tackle on Robinho. We didn't lose it despite playing most of the game with 10. Since that we've been pap against them and the chasm in class between our sides has been ever growing. First game of the season though, so anything can happen.

Yes, shocking picture that. Perhaps his podginess will work in our favour with defenders thinking he'll have lost some spark.