acrossthepond

We've been worse. Time to move on from this game and I hope Pardew makes it clear that this loss doesn't change anything. We played decently and only individual errors, which will always be punished more harshly by the better teams, cost us. Colo, Krul and S. Taylor were incredible, and Ben Arfa showed that he is still the player we signed last summer. Gutted for him that his shot didn't go in, it was very well worked.

Can't agree there like. Turning his back on the ball was terrible and so was extending his arms to defend a shot. Basic stuff. Like you said, it doesn't mean that Santon is going to somehow be magically better, but Ryan Taylor isn't a good defender and hasn't ever really been. He's had a bit of a charmed life this season with Jonas shielding him but against a superior attacking side like City it was always going to show.

Disaster. Can anyone explain to me why that stutter-step penalty is legal? Sickens me every time I see it. Just stand up, be a man, and shoot. Doubt R. Taylor will emerge for the second half. Shame, we were doing quite well. Oh well - I didn't expect anything from this game either way.

Cue sniffer showing up to tell us he's glad FIFA aren't going to waste their time investigating the claims of every darkie who thinks someone said a mean word to him.

Shit article as per usual, but a couple of interesting subtexts - Ryder didn't use the horrific 'SDA' (can't even bring myself to type it out) and his continuing praise for Shearer, who's been vilified in the press by Dekka a couple of times now, suggests he may not be playing the arselicker role as overtly as he has in the past.

All of the factors you named except probably fatigue after a long season. Plenty of other top national sides have 20-team top flights with two domestic cup competitions, like ours. I think it's blatant that most of England's "stars" don't care about playing for England, not to mention that we've had, in quick succession, a mercenary, someone who was completely out of his depth, and another mercenary as England manager. Where we go after Capello will be a big turning point. We need a manager who will focus on young players who have the drive to represent their country with pride. Hopefully he can get to them before the huge cheques, Benzes, and booze do.

This is all our fault. We demanded a striker and they've had to sell the stadium name to provide us with one. Never mind that Mike & Dekka will never get anyone thick enough to take them up on their offer, so they'll not get the revenue needed to buy a new player (as if that were ever their plan.) Then we'll be blamed for driving away potential investors with our "toxic atmosphere." Next summer, rinse and repeat, perhaps this time with the strip or the stand names. I honestly think the fat cunt sits in his office and says to Dekka, "Here man, things are going too well - what can we fuck up today?" Slimy, odious, treacherous CUNTS, the pair of them, and may they rot in hell. We play our games at St James's Park. I hope the BBC, Sky, and the rest will not use the false name - after an initial period of piss-taking over the "sportsdirect.com @ SJP" debacle, they reverted to calling it SJP - but even if they do, it will not change anything except ruin the harmonious environment and team spirit. Pardew must be livid if he has an ounce of honesty about him.

Only the Wall Street Journal is Murdoch's. The New York Times owns itself and also owns the International Herald Tribune. (The NYT is one of the last reputable papers in this country. The phone-tapping Aussie scum hasn't cornered the market entirely...yet.) Why are we being featured more in American media? The Premier League's profile has never been higher and it continues to soar. I see high-schoolers walking around in EPL strips all the time - sure, mostly Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal, but a handful of Tottenham, Everton, and yes, even NUFC. Kids talk Champions League with their American football coaches. The game is on the rise at the grassroots level here - it seems to have fully shaken off its tag of "girls' sport." So while I wouldn't rule out these recent mentions being part of some Ashley spin, I think it's more likely that we are a big story in the Premier League so far this year, and the Premier League is becoming a relatively big story in America.

Let's just say that second half wasn't exactly a vintage performance and leave it at that. Guthrie has done well as Tiote's stand-in. Marveaux seemed very lively and dangerous throughout - hope he's not been hurt too badly by that pathetic tackle from Heitinga. Good defence again from Jonas, Best was quite poor and Ba didn't look his usual sharp self. Lucky we've got the international break now to help us with these injuries and knocks.

Typical Newcastle, that. Hopefully we will buck up our ideas for the second half. We've not exactly been great and we need to move into 2nd gear. What a goal by Ryan Taylor by the way, that's one for the highlight reel.

We surely have it in us to beat Everton, who probably have even less strength in depth than we do. Too bad the 'Fake Colo' isn't playing, he's always been poor against us. 2-1 to us, but we can't afford to show complacency and I hope the fans don't get on the team's back if we don't score in the first 20 minutes.

He's done a job for us and I have great respect for his decision to play after losing his father, but he's really not a PL-standard player any more. Best decision for both parties. I wish him well wherever he ends up.

Cracking game. Watching Stoke is like having your tonsils removed with hot pincers. I'd feel sorry for the 15k or so who watch them week in and week out but they're such a bunch of wankers that I couldn't give less of a shit. When your messiah is someone who wears a shit baseball cap and gets the team playing something closer to rugby or American football, you deserve anything you get. Ba, Jonas, all four defenders, and even Obertan were exceptional, and credit has to go to Pardew for totally shutting down Stoke's game plan. Neither award was a pen to be honest. I thought we were good value for a point at least before the game but we continue to surpass expectations - long may it continue, and bring on Everton!

I see that KSA has this thread handled. I'll just add that Gaddafi was scum who deserved what he got. I have family in Libya - some of my cousins were born there - and they tell me all I need to know about him and his regime, and it wasn't any of the stuff that was listed in the first post. My only regret is that he was not taken alive and tried at the ICC.

Jonas has had a great start to the season, so CT can hardly keep up that crusade without looking even more of a plum than he already is (although he tried it after 4 games or so - remember him trying to say Jonas should be dropped for Marveaux because Obertan showed more potential? Yeah, ok... ) so now it's on to HBA. Hopefully Pardew will give Ben Arfa a good talking-to and remind him we've had our best start to the season in however many years largely without his contributions, so he needn't think he's an automatic starter. He'll probably need to be more diplomatic than that like.

How long a Toon Fan : Consciously, 25 or 26 years. Why the Toon : I was born into Newcastle United. My mother and her entire side of the family are Geordies and there was never any choice. I'm as doomed as the rest of you. Location : NYC. Toon Games been to : I haven't been back to England in decades, but when I do return, I will be sure to catch at least two home games. Where we have been / are going : See my sig. But I live in hope. We've had a great start to the season and Europe is not beyond us, especially if we strengthen well in January...which, let's face it, seems unlikely.

Strong team, except Perch. Guthrie for Tiote was reasonable, Gosling may not be fully fit.

That's part of his persona too though. I don't think it's that he actually doesn't care, but more like he's trying to do the Henry-esque 'I'm so good I could do that with my eyes closed, why should I celebrate something so mundane?' attitude. He's a complete head case, but as long as he stays away from the drink and drugs and has someone to give him guidance and counsel, he'll be all right, since he certainly has the talent.

Did CT actually make that video? It showed a bit of self-parody I would never have thought the moron capable of. Minimum of misspellings, too. There's cases for being both positive and negative about the future of our club, and I respect both viewpoints. What I don't respect is the view that being anti-Ashley means you are a miserable wanker who glories in NUFC doing poorly. I am and probably will always be anti-Ashley - the man is a sleazy chancer whose every word (through his mouthpiece Dekka) is a lie, and I'll never trust him if we win a boatload of cups. I think there's hope for our club and I think that we are on the road back to respectability and success, but I also believe that we are essentially at the whim of a surly, capricious cunt who can screw things up at literally any moment. Let's not forget we thought we were heading back to the big time about this time last year before Hughton got chucked out on his arse and we sold our best player.

Not exactly a vintage game there, but Cabaye's goal was one for the highlight reel. Get. In. Obertan was useless and hopefully Pardew has finally got the message. Marveaux was hardly on the pitch but showed he has football intelligence by providing a good assist for Cabaye. HBA was decent, glad to see he's getting more playing time. Good shot that was well saved - wish he'd pass a bit more. Simpson was really great today and may have had his best performance in black and white. He really bounced back from how awful he was on Sunday. Perhaps the introduction of Santon last week gave him the idea that his place is no longer 100% guaranteed, and that can only be a motivator for him. Bring on Stoke!

Cheap shot, like. It's not as though many of us were thinking anything different at the time. You judge people on past experience, and Pardew had been sacked at Charlton after taking them down, then sacked at 3rd division Sarfampton, His track record was nothing better than average.

Normally I'd say this is the sort of game we regularly slip up on, but we are full of confidence and Wigan are rather the opposite. If we can avoid complacency, we outclass Wigan in every area of the pitch. Get Ben Arfa, Santon and Marveaux on - new signings (well almost in HBA's case) who will be hungry to prove a point and I think we'll see a demolition on Saturday. I doubt Pardew will change a winning team though.

I want to be in it. I think we'd treat it with a lot more respect this time around because it would mean more to us. Even back in 2006 when we had the Waffa Cup run and went out to AZ, it seemed like neither Roeder nor the players really cared too much. The heights of the SBR years were still lingering in fans' and players' memories and there was no urgency for a 'second-rate' cup. Now if we qualified for Europe it would be a momentous success, especially considering how poorly we've been run since we went out in Alkmaar. We'd not send youth teams like Villa and Spurs have done in the past - or at least I hope we wouldn't. I don't think we've got much hope of qualifying for the CL ever again, so the Europa League and the domestic cups are our best chances of glory, and I would want us to give those all we've got.

What he says: Did you see me at the match mate? I must've kissed everyone within a 20 feet radius so I might've kissed yee when we equalised. How's N-O? Even the Trent Posse divvint drink there nuw mate. No I haven't seen you there yet and I can assure you if you'd kissed me you would remember ;-) tbh the daughter keeps wanting to set off earlier each week so I'm turning up less sober each game. Ended up at the Trent ad we originally headed to the strawberry first to watch the Mackems and then realised after about 15 mins that I couldn't give two shits about them and was more interested in enjoying the pre match build up. As we were already that close, it seemed the logical choice being close to the Leazes. (strange boozer though and seems a bit like a hippies retreat). Newcastle online seems canny so far as there always seems a good range of views on all subjects. The general chat is quite good too, particularly the embarrassing sex thread! Totally different sort of forum to here though but each has it's own charm. Nice to still see some of the canny posters on both sites. The one big difference is the lack of the multi-post-wars which is nice. Don't post as often ad here because someones usually posted the same opinion which is a bit of a novelty after three years on here. Just a shame I left as all my predictions of Ashley getting it right, Pardew being good, Carr being excellent, Krul being fantastic, Cabaye / rob Lee etc etc came good ;-) Nice to see Chez taking on the captaincy with such vigour. What he means: I'd put the wink smiley here but it looks really shit so let's just say I'm winking.

I don't believe that this was ever Fat Mike's 'plan.' Why should he be given credit for things that he never intended to happen? Pardew has turned out to be decent, but he was appointed because he was a cheap option who would toe the bullshit line (which he has consistently done), not out of respect for his CV or because he was believed a candidate to take the club to the next level. Tiote, Ba and Cabaye have turned out to be excellent acquisitions, but again, how much of that was down to Fat Mike or his appointees? Tiote was scouted by KK and was recommended by McClaren. We all watched Ba do the business in the Premier League for West Ham and many of us were talking on here about how we should sign him long before any rumours of it actually taking place occurred, and Cabaye only won the French league last season - it's not like he was an unknown either. We were in for those players because we were taking gambles on inexpensive players who had good potential. Tiote and Cabaye came from weaker leagues; Ba had done well in England but was a risk because of his fitness, and Marveaux is in that category too. That's Mike Ashley's 'plan.' Is that worthy of plaudits? He gambled with our PL status and lost in January 2009, and he did it again last January but managed to win that time. Is this chancer who plays with the fate of our club really someone who you think deserves credit?