OTF

Given Ameobi left the field with a hamstring injury it's unlikely that he will play against Fulham on Saturday. Who do you think Chris will replace him with? Will he revert to playing Nolan in behind Carroll and bring Guthrie into central midfield with Routledge onto the right for the suspended Barton? Lovenkrands hasn't had much of an impact when used, though he could do ok against Fulham. Ranger is the obvious choice I guess, but I wonder about his decision making in games (as well as his footing/footwear!). Xisco's a bloody long shot, though I wouldn't mind seeing him out there oddly enough (not sure whether it's just for novelty value ). I also wonder whether Hughton will get Steven Taylor involved in this game. It could be a risky move breaking up what has been a pretty good defensive unit, but 3 games in 7 days is a lot and between Colo and Williamson there could be some tired legs. If I rested one it would be Williamson. Losing another home game would be devestating, and it's obviously important that we pick ourselves straight back up from the disappointing result, so this match is of large importance. After this we're away to a decent Bolton side then hosting Champions and league leaders Chelsea before an away match at West Brom, then home against Liverpool. It's a pretty tough run of games that could well yield very few points particularly if we don't get back to playing at or near our best on the weekend. Before we know it we could be just outside the relegation zone...

I rate him as a good young prospect (as I did when I saw him at that reserves match, remember ) As yet I dont think he compares anywhere close to the players I have mentioned above. I think he does some things well now, but to be Englands no 1 or compare with the Newcastle strikers of the past, he needs to start scoring different types of goals such as screamers from outside the box, runs into the box with a goal at the end of it, etc etc. I dont think Im saying anything bizzare tbf In summary:

Both the FA and FIFA can and have revisited incidents that have been seen and acted upon by referees in the game. When the FA claim that they're not able to it's plain and simple because they're a bunch of fucking cowards.

Jonas got some ok balls into the box to be honest. In fact he, Enrique and Carroll looked like the only players in our team who were confident on the ball despite the physical closing down tactics of FSA. We obviously lacked any sort of balance down the right compressing our attack and making it easier for them to double up on Jonas/Enrique or at least have them operating in much less space. Tiote was well off in this so they were missing his everpresence inside them, plus Nolan was largely anonymous, as was Shola before he came off. The tactics weren't spot on today, but truth be told it was a horrible mistake and some weak defending (that was probably a foul anyway) that they scored from. If we lacked the mental application against Arsenal on the weekend we'd have been well out of that game. Lets keep it all in perspective, our guys were flat from the get go I'm sure partly because the Arsenal game in London just 3 days earlier took it out of them both physically and mentally. I hope they have it in them to bounce back with a good performance against Fulham.

As I said earlier thank fucking god we've only got one more game against Blackburn this season. A season of that dross would be enough to sap all of the fun out of watching the game whether or not there was a top half finish 4 out of 5 seasons or not. So enjoy the victory bigchrissamba (who failed at his one designated job), and enjoy the occasional poking of your nose into the backyards of football teams that actually play football. I wouldn't wish Allardyce on anyone, but if you want to herald the mediocre results over any modicum of footballing attitude that he brings then go for it. The difference between us and you is that there's no way in the world that we would do the same, much less traipsing around other teams forums boasting about it.

Agree with this. These sort of things are never going to result in injuries, whereas the real heinous crimes like De Jong on Ben Arfa see the FA sit on their hands.

That's actually a decent point. They were very slow to start and didn't have the legs they had against Arsenal. 3 games in a week is a tough ask, with retrospect I'd love to have seen how a vastly changed side would have done against Blackburn. Would have left our main players with fresh legs for Fulham.

This. Had it been any other player, there wouldn't have been half the fuss. I think the point is that it wouldn't be any other player. Really? Really. Now if MGP had done something worthy of a reaction it might be a little different.

This. Had it been any other player, there wouldn't have been half the fuss. I think the point is that it wouldn't be any other player.

Barton was stupid, but how much of a dick is Pedersoft. Right from the start where he illegally won the free-kick that eventually lead to their goal by blatantly watching, waiting and then moving into the path of Williamson who was heading towards the ball. I'll have to see the replay again, wasn't watching on my normal telly so was smaller and further away than I'm used to watching. TBH I wasn't quite sure exactly what it was I was watching.

This. I haven't watched any Fulham games this season so I'm not sure how they play. Here's hoping it's nothing like Blackburn because that was frankly atrocious. Tiote out, but I'd guess that Barton will still be available even if there is a late charge brought against him by the FA. I'd guess Barton will move into the middle and Routledge will be back on the right wing.

Is Christmas Tree on the wind up or what?

I honestly think there is buckleys chance of Carroll being sold. It would possibly be the single most idiotic decision that Ashley has made, and as we all know that's saying something.

Fucking stupid of Barton. To me it looked like an open handed slap to the guts, and you can tell from Pedersoft's reaction that there wasn't a great deal to it. But fucking stupid end of. Proof that a leopard doesn't change its spots, or that if you keep poking at an alligator eventually it's going to snap, or some combination of those or some other analogy involving animals that have little self-control. There's no doubt that managers will constantly be telling their players to wind up Barton. That's a given. Joey Barton is the only person that can use that to his own advantage by sticking to the game and outplaying the opposing players. For several games this season he's done a good job of that, unfortunately today that all went out the window (along with my credibility in this thread).

Talk about the skeletons coming out of the closet for this one. First up, Tiote, my oh my. That was incredibly painful to watch and felt that in the very pit of my stomach. I hope we haven't put the cart before the horse on that one, because that really was a disappointing game from him. Thankfully that wasn't his first game for us or else he could have been written off before he had a fair go. Frustratingly for Tiote he won't get the chance to get straight back on the bike given he has now picked up his fifth yellow. The way he leaves/sticks out his leg like that around the box (and sometimes in it) is just asking for free-kicks to be given away. Hopefully he sorts that out quick smart. We're going to encounter plenty of teams who play like Blackburn in the league particularly at home, so we're going to have to find a way to rise above the rubbish. Today we were slowly drawn down into it some players worse than others. I hope Chris can turn this around and use the result as a wake-up call to our players. Carroll was again very good even with the very limited support that he received from a lumbering (not fully fit?) Ameobi and an exhuberant but wasteful Ranger. Barton's balls intyo the area, with the exception of the one for the goal weren't up to the high standard that he has set for himself of late. Enrique, Jonas and Coloccini along with the aforementioned Carroll for mine were our best players. They picked up where they left off and didn't get involved in the negatively of the game, keeping to their own strengths and playing till the end. At the other end of the spectrum Joey Barton was way too easily sucked back into the niggly, cynical region of football. The slap to the guts of Morten Gamst Pedersoft was idiotic (although possibly deserved) and Barton was incredibly lucky that noone on the pitch caught it despite the Blackburn players best efforts to react as though he'd been fly kicked by a pitch invading Eric Cantona. Nolan was obviously well off his best and appeared to be limping throughout the match after being caught early on. His penchant for scoring must have been the only thing keeping him on the pitch, though I'd still have liked to see Hughton making a move earlier to replace him with someone who's 100%. Onto Blackburn. For me the single biggest positive to take from this game is that we now only have to endure the dire, anti-footballing measures employed by Real Madrid's manager in waiting Fat Sam Allardyce for a single other match this season (procluding any unfortunate draws in the FA Cup). The Blackburn players persistent fouling was extremely poorly dealt with by the make-weight referee who somehow handed Newcastle 2 of the first 3 cards of the game. Samba for one should have been yellow carded very early in the piece, and their captain (was it also Samba) should have had a talking to on several occassions where-by an ultimatum was given to stop fouling or else pickup yellow for each consequent cynical challenge. Conversely as soon as Blackburn had possession of the ball their previously wrecking ball like players shattered to the ground left right and centre like the big club dreams of FSA. Jason Roberts is a giant fucking penis, seriously what an utter fucking toss-pot - proof that even the shittiest of players can easily get a massively over-inflated view of their own self importance because of the ridiculous idolisation of football players and the massive wages even the most common of players are on. That spasmodic kid they had playing in front of their defense is the future of anti-football. Apologies for my late remarks - as noted it was a delayed telecast down under, so I had to wait out an entire day at work without checking anything that would potentially give the result away. Was an anxious wait all day, only to arrive to find that my IQ box (Sky for you guys) in the lounge had not recorded the game because it had run out of space. Somehow 10% of a 500GB drive had been filled between the time that I check last night and the time that the game was on this morning! F%^%! Thankfully (as I thought at the time) I had also set it to record in the bedroom, so had to watch it on a 36" set instead of 58".

Fitting given your signature.

Carroll vs Samba will be very interesting. I'm sure they will have a lot of focus on picking up Carroll on set pieces and the like, so we need our secret weapon to be firing in this one. You know, the secret weapon who's been on our books for 15 years, has played almost 300 games and has scored almost 70 goals. Not going to say his name because I know FSA and his Blackburn cronies are closely monitoring this thread. For brevity sake the secret weapon will henceforth be referred to by his code name - Super Header of Lobbed Attacks, or SHOLA for short. Andy, SHOLA, Williamson and Colo running their plays with the well weighted corners and free-kicks from Joey Barton, yes please!

I think you've inadvertently gone and said something mildly witty. Good on you http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/product.asp?productid=599821 Great book from a legend of Australian football (RIP) dealing with the changes in attitude to the round ball game down under.

6ft, around 12.5 stone.

Can you believe Poll "mistook" him for an Australian player because of his accent and hence why he didn't send him off until the 3rd yellow card!!! Šimunić hadn't lived in Australia for about 10 years by that stage, I doubt he had much of an accent left. I guess he'd be speaking Croatian in Croatia, so his English accent would still be quite Australian. What kind of excuse from Poll is that anyway, did he award the yellow with his eyes shut based on some offensive comments made by Simunic? Chances are he's more like Grella and can barely speak English How quickly did Grella turn from a quality defensive midfielder into a hack, it was ridiculous. I blame Sam Allardyce. How funny that we paid less for 24 year old Cheik Tiote than they did for a 27/28 year old Vince Grella.

Ordered through kitbag, cost me AU$80 with CARROLL 9 on the back including postage. Let me know if they do turn up at either of the Puma stores at DFO. I'd be keen to see how much they are seeing as Rebel are changing AU$120+ for the kit with no name/number. Wonder if the Adidas store will be receiving the shorts as well as the shirts. The shorts are awesome for playing in. As for the shirst the Puma ones are definitely better for playing in IMO. I've never seen the shorts there but I have seen the change and 3rd kit turn up (I'm hoping the inter version does). Also the place is packed with 2J adidas tracksuit tops, the western suburbs Lebanese must love them Wonder if the deck chair one will turn up. Detested it to begin with, but by the end of the season had a soft spot for it.

Can you believe Poll "mistook" him for an Australian player because of his accent and hence why he didn't send him off until the 3rd yellow card!!! Šimunić hadn't lived in Australia for about 10 years by that stage, I doubt he had much of an accent left. I guess he'd be speaking Croatian in Croatia, so his English accent would still be quite Australian. What kind of excuse from Poll is that anyway, did he award the yellow with his eyes shut based on some offensive comments made by Simunic?

Ordered through kitbag, cost me AU$80 with CARROLL 9 on the back including postage. Let me know if they do turn up at either of the Puma stores at DFO. I'd be keen to see how much they are seeing as Rebel are changing AU$120+ for the kit with no name/number. Wonder if the Adidas store will be receiving the shorts as well as the shirts. The shorts are awesome for playing in. As for the shirst the Puma ones are definitely better for playing in IMO.

Getting JOSE ENRIQUE accurately is quite tough it seems.. some places won't do the accented characters and some have a limit on letters.... so get Tiote. I ended up getting Carroll.. wore it last night while playing six-a-side for my half in goals Our strip is the Arsenal away kit Edit - Actually Tiote has an accent on the e! arghhhhhhh PS - Get Carroll

I guess we won't be shipping Xisco off to Dinamo Zagreb then! Australian born Simunic had a horrible horrible game against us at the 2006 World Cup.. was sent off with three yellows and should easily have had two additonal penalties given against him. That game was such a farce it's ridiculous.