OTF

Yep, it was the winner. A cracking header from a Modric free-kick.

I can't believe people are only now noticing how good a defender Enrique is. I'll be devestated if he goes.

Or it could be that they're 'mates' and he's just there to take the steam off Ashley in general and there actually is no offer... Anyway, we're playing pretty well, leading 1-0 at home.

Yeah, Carroll has done well to get to plenty of long balls and has knocked them down nicely. Doesn't help that Shola is 20 yards away strolling instead of hanging around looking for the knock-down like any lucid half decent strike partner would be.

Agree re: Jonas. Has combined nicely with Enrique. Lost his footing when just about clear through on goal . Enrique has been the stand-out thus far (even though he has put in some ordinary crosses). The one that Shola scored off was inch perfect, and have to say Shola's run at the back post was well timed and the header (although awkward looking) was reasonably well directed. All in all we deserve the lead. Coloccini needs to be more physical with Long. Was super lucky to get away with a shambolic challenge that was incorrectly adjudged to be a foul by Long.

This. I reckon you could score a hat-trick of own goals and still be named in the first 11 under Hughton if you're more experienced than the other options. Ultra soft touch. Seriously, what does he have to lose? I suspect he's possibly not even picking the side.

If it wasn't for a combination of poor finishing, good positional keeping and some quality last man defending Chelsea should have scored 6. As it was I was smiling when Drogba's cross hit the inside netting. Can't stand Phil Brown, and by association Hull.

In America most likely.

Yep. We're now not going to have a right winger, instead we'll have three midfielders making the same very slow runs.

Smith, Nolan and Barton in midfield. can't wait to see which one of them is supposed to play out wide. I say supposed to because there is buckley's chance that they'll hold any width. Good luck to the fullback that happens to be on that side. I'd wager a bet that it's going to be on our right and as such Ryan Taylor (who was incredibley poor last start) will be under the pump all game. Isn't it great having all optimism slowly but painfully extracted over a season of shite and lies. We should still be fancied over this Reading side at St James': RFC: Adam Federici, Liam Rosenior, Ryan Bertrand, Kalifa Cisse, Alex Pearce ©, Jay Tabb, Jimmy Kebe, Scott Davies, Simon Church, Shane Long, Jem Karacan Subs: Matthew Mills, Brynjar Gunnarsson, Noel Hunt, James Harper, Hal Robson-Kanu, Ben Hamer, Gylfi Sigurdsson

Get out of our house and into your car hit the road ash take what's left of your cash not welcome here no more no more ....grabs coat...

I know. Paper thin squad already man. 46 league games makes injuries inevitable and we seem to have had an injury crisis every year for about the last half dozen seasons. I can see the annual injury crisis coming as well. What happens when we cant field 11 fit professionals ?? Will the games be canceled? Yep, it's only by virtue of our relative lack of injuries that we're able to field a reasonably decent side. Knock out two defenders, and two forwards and we'll really be struggling.

Harper R. Taylor S. Taylor Coloccini Enrique Duff Smith Barton Jonas Nolan Carroll Wouldn't be the worst option. Carroll was so clearly better than Ameobi on the weekend that it would be criminal if Shola was to start at Andy's expense. I was thinking that I'd like to see Tamas Kadar starting in place of Coloccini, but Kadar was on the losing side in the walloping our reserves copped off Leeds so perhaps now is not the best time to stick him out there. On the back of that second half I'd like to see Krul given a chance to start, though I won't be disappointed if Harper is again named. Would possibly be worthwhile to have Geremi out there as well. For all of his inability to run (though he did actually beat a defender with pace last season) he is probably the best crosser that we have in our entire squad. Certainly puts Jonas and Duff to shame in that respect (though playing them on their opposite wings as is currently en vougue does little to help with that).

Yep. Last time there was protests they just dug themselves in and effectively did nothing. That's the last thing we need at the moment.

Would be interested to hear/see a full transcript of what went down. Was it intended as an arena to raise issues, to suggest ideas/solutions/actions, or both?

Hard to say no to it if it's 4 million, however won't Duff also have to agree to personal terms? I can't see Bolton or Fulham paying 60k for him, so he may elect to reject any offers? He was poor in the first half against West Brom, but improved a great deal in the second half (including his quality first time finish). He's much better IMO when he doesn't spend too much time of the ball, needs to move it on/cross it in quickly before the defense has a chance to settle. He played ok for the Republic of Ireland (against Australia) yesterday. Interestingly he also played on the right for them (he was a substituted at the half).

Fair call, I'm certainly not in a position to deny any of that. I am partially glad that I'm not in a situation where I'm surrounded by more of the same feelings and emotions. At one leve it's good to share the feelings with others (eg. on here and other forums that I post at), but for me here in Australia, most people know buckleys about Newcastle, let alone the situation they're in at the moment so it's fairly easy to avoid it if I don't want to bring myself down too far. Believe me there's been many nights when I'm up at 3AM freezing cold in my lounge room watching a match that we've got buckleys chance of competing in, let alone winning yet I'm still there watching every painful moment with a horrible feeling in my gut that I'm sure you're familiar with.

This is not a soooper fan comment but you really need to get to SJP to see the fucking apathy this cunt has created. It's not obvious on the telly. As I said I've seen it in action at St Pauli and it's a beautiful thing and nothing is going to change until this cunt is pushed. There's not much I'd love more than to see a game at St James'. I'm completely across the feeling of apathy created by Ashley in my own life, but yes it probably would be eye opening to see it on a broader scale. Despite this I've perservered and watched every match we've played in over the past two seasons (and most matches for multiple seasons before when available). So I might not be across the feelings in Newcastle (though they're probably similar to mine) but I have seen the steady decline in player morale particularly after Keegan's departure last season. I definitely don't have all the answers, just putting my opinion (however ill informed others believe it to be) across. We all want the same thing.

Amen.

Fuck me I don't know whether I want you to lose the Oz or the ToonFan out of your user name because you behaving like neither! There are no potential buyers until the fat cunt realises it's worth a fraction of what he is asking. Something has to be done, Ashley the cunt is arse raping all toon fans with what he is doing to the club and I doubt anyone here wouldn't fight back if he was physically waving his cock in your direction. Either target his shops and brands, as mentioned on the first page and/or take action at the game. The St Pauli protest I witnessed earlier this year was the most affective thing I've seen - it was organised and the team wasn't put off by it because they knew it wasn't at them because of the media coverage prior to the game. Let the media know a protest involving chants against Ashley for the first 30 minutes will be organised. Then organise two groups for a call and response - then watch others join in. At 30 minutes stop the abuse at Ashley and support the team. But it needs to be coordinated. I stand by my statement. Support the 11 guys on the pitch. It's plain to see there's no way there's going to be any sort of properly organised or coordinated boycotts. I don't see how 30 minutes of vocal protesting that has no relation to what is happening in the match could not have a negative effect on the players. There's no disputing that Ashley is fucking/has fucked the club up, but that's surely not his intention. Getting angry about it hasn't fucking worked in the past. Truth is noone here really has any idea as to whether or not there is any actual potential buyers, and if there is what they were offering to buy the club. We all do know however that there is fuck all time left before no further action can be taken to increase our drastically depleted playing roster. It's apparent that the tide of anger will build to a gushing crescendo at the precise point when the transfer window snaps shut and we find ourselves stuck in the same position as last window. Obviously by this stage the protests will mean very little as it's incredibly unlikely that someone will buy us between now and the summer window unless by some small miracle the shell of a squad that we have is getting results. The potential to get those results may become further compromised by supporter unrest. By all means protest at Ashley expressing your desire for him to leave, but try not to do so at the expense of what is happening on the field. We've already found out the hard way that every point is precious.

Shay didn't even move for the first one, thought he would have chucked in a pointless dive! Great crack by Carney at the end there as well. Pim Verbeek's system is really working well.

Just remember that boycotts and any resulting lowered revenue will only serve to decrease interest from potential buyers. Support the 11 blokes on the pitch, don't cut off our own noses to spite the face.

Nobody is going to disagree that we need a striker capable of scoring 20 goals a season. Xisco is not really the man for that. I'm only really going off what Deportivo fans were saying about him during his time there, but he seems like a player who plays a bit with his back to goal, who can operate as a lone striker. To effecively perform in a role like that you need to gel with the other players in the side, something that's not possible if you're not playing in first string games. What the hell, lets just continue to let him rot and pick up wages on our bench with occassional reserve team runs. Sure it means his value will decrease faster than a Coloccini, but I just can't see him cracking a spot in the first team ahead of our imaginary 20 goals a season striker. ...and for the sake of anyone who missed my point (thankfully seems to be the minority) I was essentially wondering why he was bought (for so much money) if he's not going to be played.

I've read numerous reports where he has played well in reserves matches. He did also suffer a broken toe at one stage when it looked like he was going to have some involvement in the first team. I can understand why he wasn't used in the final run of games last season as he had no premier league experience and would not have been fully match fit. Plenty of other times in the season though where he could have been given a go. I'd like to see him be given a string of games to establish and prove himsefl in our side. We've got nothing to lose really.. it's not as though Shola has done anything good in recent history. I suppose the one detractor is that he's probably (based on minimal viewing granted) reasonably similar in the way he plays to Andy Carroll, though Carroll likely has more mongrel/fight in him.

I don't disagree with this.