acrossthepond

You may not be aware, but football is kind of a big deal in Africa, and most Africans care just a bit about their national sides. That's without even addressing the rest. The African federation wants to hold it in January - that's their right. End of tbh. Nah, they're too busy starving/losing limbs/being terrorists/ruining other peoples' countries/fleecing us/committing genocide to care about football. You don't learn, do you? I'm guessing you want your new avatar to be something along these lines: Perhaps with some helpful links to African football websites in your sig. Ant? Do the honours?

You may not be aware, but football is kind of a big deal in Africa, and most Africans care just a bit about their national sides. That's without even addressing the rest. The African federation wants to hold it in January - that's their right. End of tbh.

Excellent. Cheers Ant!

I use Firefox to view this board and since the switch to the new forum, I used to have a sidebar on the right side of my screen that included things like what new topics have been started, when our next match is, etc. I quite liked it. Yesterday I clicked something by accident and it went away and I can't figure out how to get it back. Thanks in advance.

Excellent.

Very, very happy with this. The right player at the right time. I wouldn't mind another striker on loan too though, doesn't have to be anyone expensive or superb, just someone who can help cover while the two Dembas are at the ACN.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. cwarr can't even boast that level of accuracy.

Some very classy touches and passes in there. He can light up a dull game, but he does need to work on his passing. Sad that he and Ba have played together so rarely this season - Ba could've done a lot with some of the half chances HBA created in the last game, especially the through ball to Best. (Not that Best didn't do a good job with it.)

Disappointingly predictable that HBA isn't playing. One week he scores Pardew's 'best goal', next week he isn't starting against the league's fourth bottom team. Yawn.

Toon legend Shefki Kuqi starting for Oldham.

Aye, he's been quite good over the last couple of games and looks the player we bought for 5 million. Long may it continue. R. Taylor at LB just wasn't working out and he looked much more natural out on the wing on Wednesday.

Oh shit, now you've done it. ATP to RVP, ATP to RVP, do you copy? Cover blown. Retreat to al-Aqsa. Leave the gun, take the kebab, over.

I also think playing Ryan Taylor over Obertan was a good decision and we looked a much better side when someone who would graft (he's not very fast but he's a trier) and could put in decent balls was getting possession on the right. Obviously, I was disappointed (like many others) that HBA didn't get on, but that takes nothing away from the performance or tactics. I don't rate Pardew but he has to take most of the credit for this glorious win as well as the other good results we've had this season. If we can show the same energy and commitment against Blackburn and QPR, we'll destroy them.

This is the greatest football club on earth. Every time I think I've got NUFC figured out, something incredible happens. I'll be walking on air for a week. Get. In. Get in! Have it you diving pricks, have it you red-nosed bastard, have it Webb, have all of it. :nufc:

Well that was brilliant. Absolutely top drawer from everyone, especially Tiote, Colo, Cabaye, and Santon. If they give another 45 minutes of that effort, we'll win this game - at least until Manchester's hero Howard Webb intervenes. Stonewall penalty, no doubt about it, 0% of the ball and Demba had it under control. No point crying about it now but that was a shocking decision.

Just as planned. Send the mugs back to SD so they can get a new, "updated" one.

Obertan wasn't awful at Man U away, iirc. Maybe the challenge of playing against his former club would eke a slightly better performance out of him again. The only other option really would be to start Sammy (no thanks) or play R. Taylor (not the worst idea but not sure if Pardew has any intention of doing this.)

That's not the one Parky, Lucho Gonzalez is actually quite good. It was Nacho Gonzalez that Wise brought in.

Utterly terrible. They were very, very average and we let them play their own game, plus crippled ourselves by starting Vuckic. Was Best not fit or something? Why change a winning team by taking him out, and if we had to, why not for HBA? Vuckic wasn't even playing a position for the 60 minutes he was on! Obertan was SO shit it was unbelievable. He can't start another game for us tbh, he's beyond awful. It's literally like 10 men. He's just a bumper: as soon as anyone passes to him, the ball bounces off him backwards to whoever made the pass. He's not interested in playing, getting the ball, attacking, anything. When he's not on the ball, he stands off and makes no move to challenge anyone at any time. Jesus Christ, I could write a dissertation on how terrible Gabriel Obertan is.

Vuckic has been pretty terrible so far. Fair play to him taking it in the jaw/neck but he's not playing a position. Either he totally lacks discipline and keeps floating about the pitch or Pardew's told him to play that way. Either way it's not working and Ba has been completely left alone up front. We all know what the solution to this problem is.

Our Scandinavian posters are usually good crack, Salty and Aeris really letting their brethren down here. It's matchday, pipe down and save the moaning for after the game. We can surely win this. Hopefully Pardew will stick with the possession/passing game seen after the 70th minute v. Bolton instead of the horrific hoofball evident in the first 70. Even if he leaves HBA on the bench, Ba is better with the ball at his feet than in the air and we will simply be a better side with it on the deck. I'd rather play Shola than Best, just fwiw. Best is truly average. Shola at least has some magic, even if he's never arsed to use it.

Villa are a nothing club who are rapidly fading back into the obscurity from which they came. Again, go back to our relegation - can you imagine our fans bringing out banners to mock Villa, had the positions been reversed? Small time club, small time mentality, not even worth noting tbh.

I think Hatem made his point. There was another piece of magic that I didn't see get a mention on here, which was how Tiote blocked a clearance with his head, brought it down perfectly, then played Obertan into space for his assist for the second goal. Beautiful. Good result for all that we struggled through the first half. Hoofball plainly wasn't working and I think Pardew finally came to grips with that. When Ben Arfa came on, he ran right to Cabaye and told him something I'll guess was, "The gaffer says you can start playing football again."

Good Christ(mas), does nobody realise when KSA is taking the piss?