OTF

Must've been a left uppercut he dished out. I heard he was waving to someone and their face slipped onto his fist.

Commentators were belting on about it before the game. Don't see how this talk could have actually picked up after the win over West Ham, doesn't make sense. The club should have reassured Chris behind closed doors and not entered into this sort of 'discussion' with the press etc. We don't need any distractions ahead of the game on Sunday.

Lovenkrands still has value, but certainly not in games where we're going to be starved of possession and resort to playing long balls. In those sort of games, like he was today he'll be largely anonymous. Routledge actually did some things ok today, beat Ebou nicely with some trickery. His final ball is pretty ordinary, but I'm far from writing him off completely. He does add something different I think, but at the moment it's hard to see that difference having much of an effect on the result. In the end result is the most important thing. Speaking of Ebou, what a diving twat he is.

Did you not see his through ball that put Ranger one on one with the keeper? Ranger's first touch was half decewnt but then got the ball under his feet with the goal virtually at his mercy. I wouldn't say he was slow an meadering at all, he was always looking up to see where he could make a pass to, something others (like Routledge) don't often do. Was horrible for the goal or course, can be no excuse for that. Is Ranger not the most clumsy looking player of all time? Makes Shola look graceful. I guess he's still growing into his body. Might help if he wasn't wearing skates out there. Vuckic looked quite good today I though. Would like to see him getting a little more involvement in the first team now that Ben Arfa is out. Has some good pace once he gets moving and looks to have good vision for a player of his age.

Communication and movemoent off the ball is lacking, thatr's where they're killing us. Combine that with the fact that we're hanging off them it gives them plenty of time to make easy passes, loads of 1-2s penetrating. We've created chances though, the most notable from an excellent pass from Danny Guthrie. If I was Hughton I'd think about bringing Jonas on, someone who is decent at holding possession.

Vuckic is lised as left mid.

Commentator going on about how some bookmaker has suspended betting on the next manager to go because they'd taken a lot of money on it being Chris Hughton... WTF? Chris back in his tracky (tracksuit in case tracky doesn't translate), unless he's planning an outfit change while he stands on the sidelines.

Where's Ferguson. He looked good for us against Chelsea, naturally left sided.

They're showing Newcastle v Everton at St James' from 03/04 in the leadup to the Carling Cup match. Shearer and Bellamy together up front. First goal was a Shearer knock down that Bellamy read and used his pace to get to, then cooly rounded the keeper. Have Fox Sports been reading this or something.... The look on Dyer's face was priceless after he scored a header that bounced over their keeper, said 'whoops didn't mean that'. Of course Shearer's got two of his own as well.

Kinda off-topic, but I hear a lot of journalists, players and many, many nobodies all promoting their Twitter feeds. Now I know naught about Twitter, but is there some sort of benefit that a person receives if they have more people following their feeds, or is it just all about building one's ego 'cause he/she can say 'Oh, look at all the people who follow my Twitterings!' (Actually, I can kinda understand it for newspaper journos because I guess that if you follow one of their feeds, there's a greater chance you may eventually land on that newspaper's website ... which increases website hits ... which increases likelihood of receiving paid advertising etc.) Yep, and that's why the Chronicle and lee Ryder spam out every article. I don't mind it though How else would I know that Andy Carroll is focused on the cup and the derby, that Steven Taylor is racing to be fit for the derby, that Gosling is back on the road to recovery, that Steve Watson wants a win in the Cup and against Sunderland, that Haris Vuckic wants to play against Arsenal TWICE in the space of a few hours!

They should have been an almost perfect partnership that lasted through to Shearer's retirement. Would have been in both their favours IMO and of course ours as supporters as well. It's incredibly frustrating when you think of the money wasted on players much much worse than Bellamy after his departure.

The fact that I'd completely forgotten about him probably says something about the way he's been playing of late. I'd like... Krul R. Taylor Coloccini Kadar Enrique Routledge Tiote Guthrie Jonas ......Vuckic Shola We might get... Krul R. Taylor Coloccini Kadar Ferguson Routledge Vuckic Guthrie Ranger ......Lovenkrands Shola

I'd like to see this team line-up.... GK: Krul RB: R. Taylor CB: Coloccini CB: Kadar LB: Enrique RM: Ranger CM: Tiote CM: Guthrie LM: Jonas ......SS: Vuckic CF: Shola Alternately, rest Enrique and play Ferguson at left back, or rest Jonas and play Ferguson at LM. Or, Ferguson at LM with Jonas on the right and Ranger on the bench. Coloccini and Williamson interchangeable.

On the contrary I think in a side with Bellamy in it Shearer would have scored more goals as he would have had a lot more space to work in .

Name 30 then and don't even think about saying Tim Cahill. I will, and don't think Cahill will figure either, though you can't really compare hem positionally.

Kadar reminds me a little of Coloccini, likes to be on the ball quite a lot for a defender. I'd say he'd be a little quicker than Coloccini and is a little taller as well. As for his defense we'll need to see him play more against quality opposition. He's an option at left back in a pinch but couldn't see him being too comfortable on the right.

I used to put on a toon top to watch in my lounge room, often alone at 3AM or some ridiculous hour of the morning. Stopped doing it because it obviously was making SFA difference.

Oddly enough, and almost frustratingly so, having the game taken to us in the early stages seems to elicit the best response from our players. We're a long way different in attitude to the 2008 side that was prone to turning off and giving up in matches.

I never get these right, so 2 points

I didn't say that you said he was good enough. What exactly is your point? Everyone including you thinks Perch isn't good enough. That's all that needs to be said.

As well it should or else you'd have hoardes of cloggers fugging up the pitch.

For the kind of wages we'd have to pay Craig Bellamy I'd prefer someone who isn't going to be injured every other week. I think there's some level of romanticism involved with Stevie's assessment of Bellamy. Without doubt he's a very talented player, but 'World Class' means nothing beacuse everyone has a different assessment of what it means. Can't say he'd be in my side (or even close to it) if I was to pick a squad of 30 players from the Premier League.

One of his first games since injury though, so he's given some leeway i guess, where as perch is god awful every week. I take that on board, Ant. It was more me saying Perch would've got dog's abuse rather than me having a pop at Simpson. One thing I noticed about Simpson though, which I noticed last season too, which'll be a problem: he doesn't want the ball when we have it. Because he doesn't have the ability and he knows it. I agree with you too, Chez. I was abusing Simpson a little His positioning was definitely better than Perch though. Simpson was at least there to be beaten by Obina for pace, unlike Perch who would have been jogging back after a failed forray forwards. Positionally he's better than Perch, as an attacking threat he's better than Perch as he has a decent cross, but defensively he's not very good. Hesitant when defending a player with the ball on the deck in front of them. He gives them enough space to get a shot off or slip an easy pass, plus he falls for just about ever feint overcommitting himself in an effort get a last gasp block. Truth be told though he was better than Perch and that's with only 3 reserves games (not full) under his belt. Perch conversely seemed to be getting more and more exposed as each week went by, despite playing in a fixed defensive unit. ChezGiven noone here personally dislikes James Perch so far as I can tell, but we all appreciate that based on what he's shown he just flat out isn't good enough. No amount of good will from the supporters is going to change that. If you want to talk options then Ryan Taylor is a better footballer than Perch, so with neither of them having much to offer defensively it was frustrating to see Perch appear time and time again, pushing far up the pitch time and time again. With Danny Simpson back we should hopefully have someone who is a little better defensively than Perch. I'll give the same sort of assessments of his performances as I do with any player on the pitch.

They'll do ok against decent defense as long as they get service. The problem there being that teams with good defenders are normally good teams and so the service won't be as good. Lovenkrands does make the right runs for the most part, there's value in him still in my opinion. There is if course no guarantee that his touch or finishing will be good on the end of his runs, or of course that the ball will even get to him. Th runs he makes are similar to those that you see from the likes of Kalou except Kalou obviously gets a lot better service at Chelsea.

Yeah Tiote was fantastic again today. Had his worst game for us last start, but even then he would have been the best we've had in that position for a long time. Nolan needs to improve his tackling and defensive involvement, but with Tiote alongside him he can get away with doing less than he'd have to alongside a less able partner. Barton gave away a lot of ball in this game, but still managed some very good contributions, most of all his assist but also free kicks and a decent run or two. I'd still be tempted to play Routledge on the right with Barton and Tiote in the middle. Nolan is undoubtedly a better scorer, but Barton will contribute more across a match. I can see where Chris is comin from having both Barton and Nolan in there with Tiote however it's a dangerous game when you try to play your 'best' players and not your best players in each position. As someone else pointed out it's hard to judge our performance in this game because West Ham were so poor for most of the match. In their good run our defense looked troubled.