OTF

Replaced Lovelyhands. Bowyer yellow on Tiote, horrible tackle not even close to the ball, lucky Tiote is a beast.

Ranger danger not far away.

Has been shocking thus far.

Brilliant ball in from him there. I do think he's not fully fit, seems to not want to run at full pace ever - worried about him hamstrings scuppering a deal perhaps?

Good pressure from Enrique there. Larsson's quicker than I thought, though I don't think Enrique is fully fit.

Could have had it there if he didn't think it was job done just getting his head to the ball.

Bowyer injuring himself kicking Tiote who barely felt it and played on.

Not in birmigan no many snow!!!!!!! I'm feeling either a Jonas or Lovenkrands goal in this. Shola will do fuck all because he'll feel he's done his part by scoring the penalty. Give him 20 to prove me wrong, then get him off if he hasn't.

10 shots on target for us, 1 for them. We always manage to deflect shots in that the keeper would easily have covered. Such a poor goal to concede. That penalty from Shola was lovely. Foster's save from Nolan's shot was top shelf.

That's one definite benefit of having Taylor in the side. Can score the odd goal. Complete fuck up at the back there and they've eventually scored. Pardew should be furious.

Foster's having a great game for them. Sailor goal from the corner!!!

Parried save from shola's header from Barton's corner fell to Colo who whizzed one in that was saved by Foster into the crossbar and post to be cleared off the line. First attempt at clearance was scuffed and the ball was heading towards Nolan near the back post. Ridgewell used his forearm and shoulder to clear it further. It was rightfully picked up by the ref.

Goala!!!

Penalty for us. ridgewell off handball.

Good cross Jonas, bad cross Barton, poor technique Nolan. Bizarro World.

Ranger is best used off the bench. Every time he plays his effective play peters out after 15-20 minutes so having him on from the start would be a waste. That said Shola and Lovenkrands have just about no effective play at the moment anyway...

Shola butchered the chance there, made Carr look like a good defender. There's plenty of space in behind them here. Good game for the likes of Routledge it could have been. Would be nice to have some pace off the bench. 'Luis' Enrique at least 3 times from this commentator.

Barton putting the speccy in... Foster saved the goal kick

Yeah he has looked a little heftier than usual. Slim down a bit and take owenership of your role on the pitch (stop pointing about like a disco queen) and Saylor could make a good partner for Coloccini. Both are dreadfully slow though, which is a worry, but Williamson is no quicker anyway. That's where Tiote's importance in shielding them comes into play. If we lose Enrique that's all our pace from the backline gone. Simpson isn't slow, but only has one speed, which is far from blistering. He looked like he would kick on and become a very solid fullback for us but instead he's weakened as the season has gone on, exposing some of the deficiencies in his game. Kadar's been out in the wilderness through injuries and being loaned out, but he had looked a good prospect in the past. This next season for him will be time to get back into the squad. At only 21 he's still got plenty of developing to do as a defender, but much of that will need to be done on the pitch. This season has been a wasted one for him where we didn't get a chance to see whether he's a decent long term prospect.

Disappointing that he won't get to play this season. I've always thought that getting back on the pitch this season would do him the world of good mentally, and would help with his preparations for next season. Can only hope for a good off-season, coming back stronger than when he started.

Largely attitude/personality I think. Needs some mongrel. It will be good for Saylor to get some games this season. He's not great, we all know that, but he has been decent in the past yet has looked far from that since coming back from injury.

Even if he is the real deal it's hardly going to help his development kicking around on the training pitch with Shola, Ranger, Best and Lovenkrands. That will make it hard to get the most out of him. Carroll got his confidence and earnt his stripes playing for us in the Championship, but at that stage he already had a fair bit of experience under his belt. I don't know much about this kid, but if he's not at the same level that Carroll was in the championship then he might find it tough to step up with the expectations a high price signing would have at Newcastle. It would be an interesting signing, but I'm thinking we'd need to bring in an experienced quality forward to play alongside him to get the best value out of Wickham. A player like that doesn't come cheap.

'twas Nolan's push and Viduka's goal. Not that I'm bveing pedantic or anything.

People love rewriting history like. If he's half as good as Dyer was at his peak he's worth it. would rather chuck in a £10m bid for sturridge, then when we get told to fuck off look at this lad. Well with the Jose money, that should be near £45m, we should try and get both of them. THREE strikers are the priority not one. Two new strikers of sufficient quality is enough I reckon. Bumping Shola down to third rung will do wonders for his motivation which will hopefully translate to more effort when he's on the pitch. As it is he couldn't give two hoots as no matter how bad he plays he'll be in the first 11 if he's fit. On top of that Ben Arfa or Nolan will likely see some time playing behind one striker. Lovenkrands is at his level as a late sub, and Ranger should be loaned out. Leon Best is not good but sounds as though he's useful on the training pitch.