OTF

Nicky Butt! Like lightning into the box.. wins the penalty

FFS

Great work Carroll, sounds like it was a great cross from Routlegde. Hopefully we keep seeing these sort of performances from these two next season.

Good to see that Chris went with that lineup. Radio Stream

Cool. They do bear the signs of most mock-ups in that the home one was overworked, and the away one was a leap.

Double on us and West Brom, paying 3.70 for every 1.

Are these confirmed, or are they just more mock-ups? (certainly they look amateur) The home one isn't bad, but is far from good. The away one looks shite, but may look better in person.

In the interests of gossiping like a woman PM me also please. I'd love to hear via PM how your weekend is going so far, allegedly quite good.

<shuts up>

Some people appreciate good defense, some don't.

I heard that as well and scoffed. Obviously they don't watch any/many matches in the Championship, widely evidenced by their own remarks that they only have a faint idea of the happenings in the lower leagues.

Fantastic point. Your average punter remembers goals, they're far and away the most memorable moments of games. Enrique was clearly the player in the side that was far and away the best player at performing his role. He was in control all season, played some good players out of games and linked up extremely well down the left. Got forward and contributed assists (should have honestly had more if it wasn't for some average finishing) and got off his duck as well. To rule him out of player of the year contention simply because he's a left back is absurd IMO. If you look at what Nolan has done, the goals he has scored have been great value, there's no denying that but many of them were part of team efforts where Nolan simply played a part in the goal. One important thing to consider is his contribution elsewhere on the park. Considering he played in the centre of midfield for much of the season, there was some areas of his game that were severely lacking. Most people will admit that if you take the goals out of his game, he's a pretty poor contributor. There was a patch midseason where he was absolutely horrible, and anyone watching games was calling for him to be dropped. In those matches the lack of contribution from Nolan was blatantly obvious, with the general feeling being that with someone else playing instead of him we'd have been much more likely to have won/drawn.

FYP. and all the professional footballers in the league who voted him their player of the season Wonderful point. However.... No doubt I'm sure all of the players, and nobody else jumped onto the following link to submit their votes for someone in another team who they couldn't give two hoots about. Football League Awards Player of the Year To top it off, guess who's missing from the available selections for Newcastle? ....and even Ryan Taylor cracked it for an auto spot! So, you were saying?

I'm personally shocked. My world is collapsing. I'm with you on the nature of the groups, Simpson, Carroll in particular stand out. Better off just lumping the lot into the grey area category to be honest, but then that's not much of a story.

FYP.

He's 18 in not too long, so hopefully not-withstanding injury we get to see a bit of him next season. Milner was playing the Premier League at 16, so there's no reason to discount his ability to do so on that basis alone. Like I said earlier it would be great to get him some time on the pitch at St James in front of a full stadium before the season is out, so that he can strengthen his bonds with the club, and Chris can show that he's a part of the plans for next season (which he definitely should be).

My mistake, I forgot that with Nolan every one of his important goals he dispossed the opposition, knocked a through-ball through for himself, dinked in the perfect cross then headed it home whilst the rest of the team stood by watching in awe.

Call me Chips, cause I'm with The Fish. Absolutely. Late Nolan/Carroll goals would have been for nil if our defense hadn't done their job and kept the amount of clean sheets they had.

The answer to the question is maybe.

Love how you included the goals in that comparison. Nolan was a passenger in a long series of games through the middle of the season, Enrique has been consistently good. Even in many of the matches where he scored, Nolan neglected some of the core duties he should have been performing. Sounds as though I'm being overly negative of Nolan, but I'm not. But no matter, by your reckoning if he hasn't scored loads of goals then he's not contributing to the team. Nevermind the 23 clean sheets that have been kept throughout the season. Nolan would be second best, I'd agree with that but it's typical of the press and the uneducated masses to discount the contribution of a player simply because of the position he plays in.

Keep him. That article is rubbish (goal.com who would have guessed) but it makes out like he started 3 games for our first team this season. I wish he didn't suffer the injuries this season as he could have properly featured or at least cameo'd in our first team. In fact in the last couple of games it might be worth at the very least including him in the 18 men and maybe popping him on late in a home game. Experiencing that first hand will surely increase his desire to stay at the club and play for the first team down the track. But, we shouldn't get our hopes us as if a sizeable offer did come in for him (and it won't be this year) then given Ashley's track record he'd sell him in a heartbeat and write it up as good business.

No Xunts pls. Scott Parker

Spot on. Nolan has been bloody important that's for sure but this season, particularly the early part, was built on good defense.

I have a Jabulani. It looks lovely. Better than the Finals version IMO. The new Nike ball is ugly.

That's a relief. You really had me worried there.