OTF

Don't give a shit about the Mackems. Helps that I don't have to deal with any of them ever. It's going to be a crazy off-season and a big eye opener of a season. I hope the fans stick behind the team and turn up to matches, it's not like they've been treated to attractive football this season (from us) so the drop shouldn't impact upon that much at all.

Part 1 of the 5 year plan complete?

That's me fucked for next season. From watching every game of the season to watching a half hour Championship highlights show and the occassional match on telly over here. As someone else said typical for it to be at the hands of an unfortunate deflection. As they say though you make your own luck. As soon as we started hoofing the ball upfield constantly we looked rubbish. All the strikers on the pitch just meant that we had no wdith. Made it easy for Villa tbh. Going to be interesting to see who hangs around. Going on the way we've played this season can't say that too many will leave that anyone will miss.

Any team news?

Actually, I'm a Perth lad. Cheers though ... Just down the road

Annoying about Aussie Mags site (atm). Waiting to here back from the owner. Where abouts in Sydney are you db?

Player for player I think that's better than anything that we can put out there. Somehow we totally outplayed them earlier in the season, what I would give for that to happen again!

Will be watching in my lounge room. Kick off here is at 1:00AM on Monday morning. Will be switching routinely to check results in other games (they're showing Newcastle v Villa, Hull v Manure, Sunderland v Chelsea, Wet Spam v Middlesbrough and Pool v Spurs live).

Fish, first time I've seen it. Quality work!

Sad truth is that noone in our team can score a goal, spare our strikers. We must have the worst goal return from midfielders in the league, and as far as I'm aware Steven Taylor is the only defender of ours who has scored (scratch that Dave Edgar also got one). Player, Games, Goals, Assists Ameobi, 21, 4, 1 Barton, 9, 1 (PK), 1 Bassong, 30, 0, 0 Beye, 23, 0, 1 Butt, 32, 0, 1 Cacapa, 6, 0, 1 Carroll, 14, 3, 0 Coloccini, 33, 0, 0 Duff, 29, 3, 1 Edgar, 10, 1, 1 Geremi, 15, 0, 3 Guthrie, 23, 2, 3 Jonas, 30, 0, 3 Enrique, 25, 0, 2 Lovenkrands, 11, 3, 0 Martins, 23, 8, 2 Nolan, 10, 0, 2 Owen, 27, 8, 0 Smith, 6, 0, 0 R. Taylor, 11, 0, 1 S. Taylor, 26, 4, 1 Xisco, 5, 1, 0 Viduka, 11, 0, 2 Hopeless. That's 38 goals. 27 came from forwards. 6 from midfielders. 5 from defenders. 27 assists in total. 5 from forwards. 14 from midfielders. 8 from defenders. SHITE.

I didn't say that I thought that was why we could go down. But factually speaking it could be why we go down. I know we've been shit over the whole season, I've seen every fucking dross minute of our premier league season and don't need anyone to point it out to me. We fully deserve to be relegated, but fuck do I hope that we're not.

I wonder if you can pursue an appeal through other legal means? If both us and Hull lose on Sunday then there is an arguement that says we get relegated because of that decision. Can you imagine in your job if you got something wrong that ended up costing someone 50 million pounds?

At least credit the source you plagiarising twat.

Fucking devestating. We're going to line-up in a must get result match with either Coloccini or Beye as a centre back.... and even if we do win it there's every chance that we could still go down.

Playing ok I thought, but yet again a defensive fuck-up/lack of communication costs us dearly.

It's a poor glory hunter indeed that chooses to come to St James'.

And how the heck are you supposed to choose a name and number for the back when we 1, don't know which league we will be in next season and consequently which players will still be here (or for that matter what numbers they will be wearing?). I'll wait till next season to grab one.

Viduka being on the wage that he was was a direct result of him being available on a free. Instead of the money going to a club, it went straight to Viduka ('s waistline). I think his value in the market has dropped substancially thanks to all the time he has spent on our treatment tables (and the fact that his age has also advanced 2 years) so there won't be the same need to sweeten the deal with the large wage. Nonetheless if he gets offered a lower wage with healthy incentives and knocks it back, then he can piss off. It will show where his heart is.

It's fair to say that whether or not we offer him a new deal he will get injured again. He likes having a cause to fight for; whether that's a new contract, escaping relagation, getting back into the Australian team or whatever, when he's motivated and on the pitch he's a class above. He said that he came to Newcastle because he wanted to be able to look back on his career and have some great memories. Memories like a man-of-the-match performance in front of 50,000+ screaming Geordies waving flags that helps to drag Newcastle out of the relegation zone. Sure, he'll need to be babied through a season, and will even still forseeably spend a fair amount of time off the pitch... but taking all that into account I think the value that he offers to the team in the matches where he does take to the pitch are enough to warrant keeping him (at a lower wage). We're not in a position where we can attract players of that quality, so if we can keep him and get him on the pitch more than last season then he will be like a new player.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...41-2883,00.html I'd like him to stay, but only under the provision that he is paid in proportion to how often, and how well he plays.

Was great to have him back in the side. We've got no other defenders who can score a goal, in fact we've got just about noone who can score a goal that isn't a striker (and even then they can't score consistently). Like OP said lets his heart rule his head a little too much, but that should improve with maturity.

Yep, he won't want to be the next Aloisi (though Viduka is leagues ahead of him).

Nope, he has said that he wants to play for Australia again, but never that he was definitely coming back.

Week-to-week pay as you play sort of arrangement (or low wage plus healthy match bonus) should do the trick. Better on the ball than anyone else we have or could hope to attract in our current position.

Hooray for having a defender who can score, and somoeone who can actually take a decent corner. What a difference 3 points makes, the 2 goal F/A advantage will also help. Hope the players get some belief out of that match (even though there was a number of shaky moments). Martins with composure for once... even though he badly hit the shot. He really does not look to be anywhere near fit. Lovenkrands goal was well struck also.