Dr Gloom

how typically us that we're struggling in the game we ought to be bossing after three wins on the bounce - two away from home. typical toon rollercoaster

"where's your famous atmopshere" chant blackburn. far cry from sunderland like. ugly game so far. tiote and nolan both booked. chances non existent. no pace.

piss poor effort by nolan

ditto

any non plug in rivers? how the fuck did we concede? how are we looking?

small river would be super. most grateful if anyone could send me a pm

did skidmark change his user name from something else too? the only time i notice him is when he's having his ding dongs with leazes tbh

fuck me. when you put it in black and white, that's a pretty shite bit of business. i like smith's attitude; he's a trier and he doesn't hide but he was never worth that sort of money. he's a striker that didn't score goals and a converted holding midfielder who is championship standard at best. all that for a cool £15m in wages plus £6m transfer fee.

"I have proved most of the time that when I get a football club it improves from where it was," explained Allardyce. "That was going be the case at Newcastle but I was not given enough time, but there is no bitterness towards the club. "I'm not sure that apart from Arsene (Wenger) and Sir Alex (Ferguson) anyone else has managed at this level for as long as I have. "I take a huge amount of pleasure in having been able to sustain my ability in the best league in the world."

he's still got a lot to do to prove his england class but we're not exactly spoiled for good strikers at the moment. he's definitely got something about him. he must be a centre half's nightmare, he wins everything in the air but he's shown a decent touch and turn of pace this season too. a good prospect when you look at this age and the fact he came through the ranks.

I mentioned the idea about 4-5 years ago (Souness era) and remember getting absolutely blasted for it. We needed it and if we'd survived, we'd have only have been delaying the inevitable. The Mackems did something similar when Quinn took over as chairman. EDIT: Found it... much more recent than I thought http://www.toontastic.net/board/index.php?showtopic=18250 there was a lot of luck that we ended up the way we have but i'm pretty sure we're stronger now than we would have been if we'd continued to drift under the likes of of jfk but we were very fortunate to bounce straight back up and find hughton. if keegan had been given a proper chance to manage, who knows where we'd have ended up?

midweek blues after a heavy birthday weekend rounded off with superb trip to the emirates. the week is dragging and i'm struggling for inspiration. i'm hoping another good result tonight will tide me over till the weekend

I'll bet anybody on here anything H will be gone by Christmas. Should have had a piece of that action

500. Well worth it

Quite a few floated this idea before we went down. I never bought it but now it's happened i can't help but think relegation and the things that came with it - stumbling across hughton, the new team spirit, getting the big egos off the wage bill and the return of the feel good factor that comes with winning - have put the club back on the right track. Would things have been worse if we survived? Would we have continued to stagnate while employing players that didn't give a shit? I am genuinely optimistic about this season after what we've seen so far.

6ft3 and 14 stone and a half. Worst shape I've been in for about three years.

Just chalked up an iPad. In fact I'm writing this from it now. Anyone else got one? What are the best apps? When's the toontastic app coming out?

speaking of darren bent, i just bought a darren bent tea tray. it's great - it carries ten mugs.

two very winnable games. i'm finding it hard not to get carried away at the moment. we're back!

he looked good for everton last year. not sure he'd get in the current side when ben arfa is back and fit but he'd be a good option coming off the bench and we do need the numbers.

I get where you are coming from but its rose tinted spectacle stuff for me. Jonas's runs virtually all resulted in conceding posession. Taking the pressure off should be popping crosses on Carrols head. he's a good out ball thoug isn't he when we're backs against the wall - give him the ball and he'll run half the length of the pitch then win a free kick.

he could come in for shola and play just off carroll or on either of the flanks, or central midfield even. i'm pretty sure he'd improve most of those positions. though you don't change a winning team so he wouldn't expect to walk straight back into it.

he conducts himself superbly. He's done a great job, said last year that if Alan Shearer had came in and did what he had done, we would be saying we had a Brian Clough on our hands. Early days yet. To go higher, he needs big backing [whatever anyone thinks to the contrary] and show he can handle higher calibre players because with them comes personality and ego problems. Thats just the way it is. Give him a contract, and it also blows the theories that appointing someone from within, timing is important, all of this sort of bollocks to smithereens. To be honest I would be happy if we keep the decent players we have got and carry on going for the likes of Tiote/Ben Arfa. I don't see us ever buying right at the top of the market again I just hope Ashley realises how lucky he has got with Hughton and the way he has pulled everybody together. The trouble with team spirit is it is so much easier to destroy than it is to create, and I have absolutely no confidence that Ashley wont pull the rug out one way or another at any moment so true, the team haven't played with this kind of spirit since sir bobby's time. a unified team and coaching staff is key to any kind of success and so difficult to create and maintain. it's funny how the comments in this thread have evolved from most being pleasantly surprised to him with our early season form to hughton gradually winning widespread respect to the extent that it's now turned into an outright love in. he has to keep wearing the suit. in three outings, it's been worn, we've had three fantastic results. goodbye tracksuit manager chris

if we can keep this up for the season, then yes. a top half finish, let alone a top6 or top 8 finish would be different class.

kiss of death maybe? it wouldn't surprise me if we were to stumble on wednesday. we're all buzzing after the run of results we're on, it would be just like us this season to lose one of the games most of us fancy to do well in. how good would it be to keep this run going though??? i'm finding it hard not to get carried away. this unity the lads have is worth so much