Craig

Aye but he hasn't been found guilty of either yet, he's not a flight risk, not particularly likely to interfere with witnesses and isn't exactly a danger to the general public, it seems unnecessary to me. Actually I think 'risk to the public' was what was said first time round (i.e. first time he was refused bail for this offence). I agree they're probably making an example of him but you are supposed to stay out of trouble when you are granted bail. Precisely and if he was granted bail there'd be uproar because he'd given preferential treatment most likely on account of his celebrity status. He was on bail for other offences and, in the words of his own solicitor, was indescriminately lashing out at people in the street because he'd 'lost it'! Not good enough - he's exactly where he deserves to be.

Over Christmas I've seen.... Mr Magoriums Wonder Emporium - shite! Golden Compass - Awesome effects but the shower of bastards have left it hanging for the next installment more than any other trilogy released since BTTF! I Am Legend - Superb Finding Neverland - Surpisingly good On The Buses Holiday Special - gets better every time I see it

To be fair to Allardyce, if you recall he wanted to take the players away between boxing day and new year for some sort of 'boot camp' but the players alledgedly kicked off and got their way.... I bet Barton wishes they'd gone now. For the record, I was in Liverpool between Christmas and New Year and was in town the very next day and walked passed where it all happened. The McDonalds in question is in very close proximity to one of the main drinking areas in the city. Quite what a highly paid Premiership footballer was doing in a McDonalds at 5.30am - less than 60 hours before a vital game over 200 miles away is beyond me... The fact that he was in the city of one of the clubs he turned down this summer and also the city in which his brother committed a racist murder is asking for trouble. I don't care if its him home city, being a premiership footballer comes with a responsibility to yourself but more importantly... your club. He's let everyone associated with NUFC down with this stunt. Goaded or not, he allowed himself to be put in that position in the first place and for that he can blame no-one but himself.

Fuck me, the last Boxing Day when we won was the season we got relegated?? IIRC that was Rob McDonald's only goal for us.... now he WAS a shit player!!!!

Christmas Day when I was about 5 or 6, my elder brother was sat in the corner of the room yawning to which my nan shouted out "serves you right for staying up late to see your Mam and Dad bringing the presents out..." Any remaining doubts were completely erased when my brother suddenly piped up with "Nan!!! For god's sake, he still believes in Santa!" with a finger firmly pointed in my direction...

Hammond's autobiography A pack of Jelly tots!! A pair of novelty socks A stress 'rocket' (you don't wanna know!) T-shirt & Short PJs... By god its fun being a Dad when you're divorcing the person who's buying the presents for the kids!

"Spit-roast anyone??"

Exactly what I'm on about - not losing to Birmingham, Fulham and Derby is now "an acceptable run". and feeling fortunate to have beaten Birmingham, Fulham and feeling very fortunate not to have lost at home to Derby. Welcome to the Allardyce revolution. Load of bollocks. OK, felt confident of getting something from the match prior to Viduka's 86 min equaliser against the mighty Derby did you ? Again I highlight the fact that a lot of people don't think Viduka should even be sat on the bench let alone getting a game. Yet if it hadn't been for him, we'd have been staring a 2-0 defeat in the face. Shoot me if iam wrong but I think his inclusion in the team playing up front (and his very employment by this club for that matter) was down to Allardyce was it not? Shall we give him a bit of credit? Football is all a game of you win some, you lose some. To put it into context, take a look at the 88-89 season. We were categorically the worst team in the division and putting out performances that makes our current outfit look like world beaters. Yet we went to Anfield, played Liverpool, who were considered to best time in the land at that point, and beat them. And just for good measure when they came to SJP later in the season, they were extremely lucky to leave with a point. Its not unheard of for the lowly teams to pull of a shock or two each season you know..... in fact, it's actually unusual if they don't...

I dunno about the rest of you but I think we've missed a real trick here....

Something we need to also not lose sight of is that we played absolute dog-shit against one of the worst teams in the league and salvaged a point.... Under Souness and Roeder I'd have expected us to have lost a game in that position. Also a lot of the arguments seem to aimed at the front line: "Smith is shite, Martins is out of position, etc....." We scored two goals yesterday. 12 months ago we'd have struggled to do that.

Talking about Sven, I was keen to see him at SJP but the majority weren't. Remember when the press reported that he was interested in the Newcastle job, there was uproar on here: "He's boring, aloof, out of touch with his players, clueless, milking the FA for every penny he can, etc...." That seemed to be the general response with one or two notable exceptions. And conversely when Sam was linked with Citeh a lot on here were of the opinion that we should move to get him quick before they do. Not saying 'be careful what u wish for' but its interesting to take note. Sven's club record (and his England one results-wise tbf) has always been superb. I'm not in the least bit surprised he's been a success for Man City.

You want me to bore you with a list of managers who are better than Allardyce ? Show us the list you put up last time that included the likes of David Moyes ffs. Like for like. I believe Moyes went through a bit of a rough patch at Everton as well - no doubt if you were following them you would have wanted the fucker out at the time. I can accept the team being a "work in progess" and be willing to man it out in the trenches whilst results gradually improve, but my patience wears rather thin when I see a manager make a complete fuck up of things due basic errors, so you are willing to sit it out, fine, but whats the end product going to be ? Newcastle playing like Bolton ? fuck me you must be desperate. Bolton who under Sam used to struggle until 2004 since when they've finished consistently in the top 8? And now he's gone, look at them now - nowhere and with largely the same players. No-one ever said that a Sam Allardyce team would play attractive football but if it turns out to be successful then who are we to complain? The Fish hit the nail on the head - the days of the entertaining, edge-of-the-seat stuff from the Keegan and Robson days are gone. We all need to accept that we're light years away from the team we were then.

Sorry Craig but bullshite. People stated if we can't get a decent manager, let Roeder do the job until the summer when we can get a better manager. The way history is constantly being twisted is getting beyond a joke. Bullshit?? You've just re-written what I was saying. History is not being twisted - its fact. Roeder's name was constantly touted ever since the Carling Cup match at Wigan when their reserves stuffed our first team. Agree with Dr Ken - he needs til the end of the season then assess where we are. This season will have to be measured on last and if we finish higher than we did last season then by definition its a success. What we're seeing is not good enough - but sacking him now will not be like pressing a reset button. And actually could end up with us in a worse position.

When I was at SJP for the Liverpool match, he was far and away our best player. Seems to be one of those who just quietly gets on with his job which is what we need.

I reckon if we brought in a manager who tried to use tactics to suit the players and began to play them in the correct position we'd see an immediate improvement. If you talk to a lot of Liverpool fans they'll say that Benitez is often tactically a disaster... But none of them call for his head - quite the opposite. How about we give the manager we've got in a bit more time to start to get it tactically right rather than bring in someone else who may also get it wrong (Souness, Roeder, Gullit and Dalglish were guilty of it and Robson was questioned from time to time....). I know they've spent more money than us but City have went through all the same changes as us and haven't done too badly. It's not really been made public but I think we really were in a financial shit-pit when Ashley took over and to be fair to him, he's emptied a sizable chunk of his 'rainy day' fund to put us in a better position - in other words, he's building us for the long term. Citeh have had fantastic short-term success but if I was one of their fans I'd be scared shitless of Shinawatra being in control. The bloke has public self-confessed as both a Man Utd and Liverpool fan and now he has control of Citeh. He appears to be investing in short-term return and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if in a couple of years time, the cash-cow picks up his udders and trots off to find a new field to graze in.

That line in bold is the epitome of how fickle we are as a bunch of supporters. 2½ years ago the vast majority of the match-going supporters would have gladly packed Nicky Butt's bags and driven him out of Newcastle..... and now people think he should be team captain? The performances of late (Arsenal match excepted) have been woefully inadequate and no-one is questioning some of Sam's tactics more than me, but I really can't see where sacking him will make the immediate impact that we're all yelling for. I remember back to the summer after we'd bought our stack of players and many were saying that we could almost guarantee ourselves European football and that when I said that we needed to be aiming for consolidation and anything else was a bonus, I was being laughed at. The club has changed from top to bottom in a little over 6 months. We have new ownership, new management, new coaching staff and the biggest overall change in first team players that we've had in many many years. It takes time to knit together and to sack a manager 6 months in because it's not yet right is short-sighted beyond belief. He's only a part of the new picture. And for those of you saying the picture may look even more shitty had other results not gone our way, well that's football. Your destiny is not just in your own hands and half of everything in football IS luck. Cast your minds back to 95/96 when the press love to point out how we threw away a 12 point lead and lost the title. In reality, it was only a 9 point lead and a game in hand but in the last 16 games of the season Man Utd took 44 out of a possible 48 points. We took 27 points which, if Man Utd hadn't been so prolific, would almost cetrainly have delivered the title. My point being that we need to concentrate on what we're doing. If we're higher up the table than you think we deserve then so be it. Accept it as good fortune and not worry that we didn't really deserve it.

Who wants to manage a Premier League club owned by a billionaire ???? realistically, plenty ! Better than what we already have? Like I said, I agree things are not acceptable at the moment but I'm struggling to think who we honestly could replace him with at this moment in time. From a footballing point of view we're not the same as we were 5 years ago..... But then neither are Leeds....

Can't remember that like? But that was the ambition of the old regime and they sure left us with some shite,he'll(the shep)will be laughing in his pint tonight! Would have prefered Sven when he was available tbh,quality club manager in his day before the poisoned one! Plenty of people were yelling to let Roeder take over (temporarily of course) until the end of the season instead of continuing with Souness...

"oooooooooooooooooooo hello mummy!"

What scares me is this.... "Souness is shite, get Roeder in....." Roeder is shite, get Allardyce in....." "Allardyce is shite....." Who's next?? Seriously?? I accept that performances like today simply aren't good enough. But who realistically is going to want to follow those 3 through the door?

Fat and useless according to some quarters....

Michael Wray's spreadsheet predictor doesn't look favourable for us... Reckons that we'll finish the season in 13th on 46pts

you pissed? nope - just having a spazz moment!

Radgi's biased.... it's contains alcohol!

John Lennon - War Is Over Pogues & Kirsty McColl - Fairytale of NY 'The Power of Love' by Frankie Goes to Hollywood cracks me up... Everytime I hear the line "I'll protect you from the hooded claw" instantly makes me think of Penelope Pitstop and the Anthill Mob....