Papa Lazaru

I hope after this series finishes (ie. the end of this test!) that the selectors/managemtn have the decency to come out and admit thay they completely fucked up any chance we had of retaining the ashes. The preperation for the biggest even in cricket was a joke and as many cricketing people have pointed out, our players are only now reaching their form as they needed seriously competitive matches to get to that level and didn't have them. They picked Giles ahead of Monty even though he'd barely played for a year and Monty is easilly the better bowler. They played Anderson when he'd hardly played any cricket and hasn't done much for a long time. And laughably they dropped Read who'd done everything they asked of him to play Jones for his batting and he's scored fuck all this series. If we'd prepared properly, went in with Read, Monty and another bowler for Anderson we may still have lost to the aussies, but at least the managemet and selctors could say they'd done their job and not thrown it all away before we started.

Comedy awards doesn't seem to be as good a laugh as it used to be. Liked Ross' opening monalogue/insults and Gervais and Merchant but after that there wasn't much worth watching. Speaking of Ricky Grevais is anyone else going to see him at the City Hall doing the third of his stand up shows after Animals and Politics, got my tickets for it this week!

Watched the game, didn't see that It was right at the end, just before the whistle i think and McQueen was really pissed off about the foul, the lack of a card and hoping we would equalise.

I can't believe we have picked up yet another serious injury, this season is becoming beyond ludicrous for injuries even by the freakish NUFC standards we've been used to over the years! And from what i heard on SSN it could have been worse as Gordon McQueen said Makelele went completely over the top on Martins. Needless to say since it was a Chelsea player on a toon player the ref did what i would expect of any of the biased, useless fuckwitts and didn't punish him for it. McQueen was pretty angry with th challenge and the ref for doing fuck all and said he hoped we scored an equaliser, so i'm guessing it was bad!

I haven't been for a couple of years, but it was always one of my favourites in Newcastle. Had a mint jukebox, IIRC, & at least it was different from the usual chain pub bollocks.... I believe the jukebox is touted as "officially the best jukebox in newcastle" But only the 5th best Jukebox in England in the last decade. Sack the staff. The staff have to work to a budget, they aren't made of money and can only buy so many songs, you double wanker!!!

Yes, i think in his entire time here that was Souness' one "tactical" victory against anything near decent opposition, though to be fair he didn't exactly come up with the idea merely copied the other teams who'd done it to arsenal ealier in the season, butit did work! The level of hypocrisy and bullshit that clbs like arsenal come out with is absolutely laughable, everything they ever accuse each other of doing you can guarentee they are on of the other clubs most guilty of that offence.

Gemmil hating students, i'm shocked! Out of interest how did you know it was a student and why was that worse than it being the usual culprit of charva scum? Is it because the student actually has and can use a brain and so should know better?

Doesn't bother me in the slightest and if the players think it helps then they can go ahead. Its better that they show team spirit or are trying to increase it than wandering round like 11 individuals who don't care about the team at all. I agree with people saying stay away from cheerleaders, muisc after goals and other shit that micky mouse teams like Boro get up to, but if the players try to show a bit of unity who cares?

I agree... both sets of players have been as bad as each other. The ref should come out and blast the lot of them. I'd start deducting points from teams whose players are perpetually cheating. If they just get away with yellow cards as today, they will try it again. Or at least banning players retrospectively. It's not the diving to win penalties/free kicks that bothers me as much as players trying to get each other sent off (which is what the above incident sounds like). I really don't know how players can live with themselves for trying to start fights then rolling around on the floor like four year old girls at the slightest touch. Its about the most embarssing thing in the world of sport and what is worse is football (and only mens football) is the only sport you will see it going on in where players act like a complete bunch of pricks. Rugby players knock the shit out of each other and get on with it, hockey players get twatted with sticks and in ice hockey hammered into the walls and fight all the time. Cricketers get hit with balls at 90mph. The list goes on but only footballers do this shit and how some of them can look any other sportsmen (or any other men tbh) in the eye is beyond me. I've always said any footballer feigning injury or hitting the ground after minimal contact should have to play a rugby union match and when he finds himself being hit by 16 stone blokes and burried at the bottom of a scrum he might learn to stop acting like a complete dick all the time. I'm not defending diving in any way before I start I just want to point out... But... In all those other sports, the competitors have nothing to gain by faking injury or pretending to be fouled, unlike in football when they go down easier than they normally would they have a chance, a chance being better than nothing at all, to win a penalty or free kick. Hence the reason why it happens more in football than in a sport like cricket or ice hockey. I also believe that the way in which people are brought up in the game has a massive way in which they act. Rugby players and cricketers know as soon as they step on the pitch that the umpire and referee are real figures of authority and must be treated with the upmost respect. Football is different from this. Maybe diving wouldn't be as useful in other sports, though there are others you could still do it in. But all those other sports could feign injury just like footballers to get people in trouble (not cricket so much mind!), but they actually act like men and don't do it. In fact if any rugby player comes close to it, the stick they get from oppositon and their own players as well as commentators would ensure they don't feel the need again. When Brian Moore does the commentary he frequently mentions things that footballers would/wouldn't be doing and has a right go at anyone even comign close to over doing any injury they've suffered! Its a real shame because football is and always will be mine and the worlds number one sport, but it is played by such a bunch of dicks at times who are worthy of nothing but complete cotempt.

The irony being that 2 of them were Liverpool players at the time, and now they're going to sign him? I agree that saying that it wasn't a red is reasonable, it's just not right. Even if it really wasn't a red (which it was!) the fact that it pissed of Mark Hughes and maybe helped drag his team (with the likes of Neill, Savage et al) into a relagtion battle is good enough for me! Thats true about Neil as well, if i was Bellamy and Carragher i'd tell Benitez that if he signs him then he should expect to see him ending his first training session with a broken leg.

I agree... both sets of players have been as bad as each other. The ref should come out and blast the lot of them. I'd start deducting points from teams whose players are perpetually cheating. If they just get away with yellow cards as today, they will try it again. Or at least banning players retrospectively. It's not the diving to win penalties/free kicks that bothers me as much as players trying to get each other sent off (which is what the above incident sounds like). I really don't know how players can live with themselves for trying to start fights then rolling around on the floor like four year old girls at the slightest touch. Its about the most embarssing thing in the world of sport and what is worse is football (and only mens football) is the only sport you will see it going on in where players act like a complete bunch of pricks. Rugby players knock the shit out of each other and get on with it, hockey players get twatted with sticks and in ice hockey hammered into the walls and fight all the time. Cricketers get hit with balls at 90mph. The list goes on but only footballers do this shit and how some of them can look any other sportsmen (or any other men tbh) in the eye is beyond me. I've always said any footballer feigning injury or hitting the ground after minimal contact should have to play a rugby union match and when he finds himself being hit by 16 stone blokes and burried at the bottom of a scrum he might learn to stop acting like a complete dick all the time.

Like I said earlier, its very simple. Apart from when officials cost you points, or some freakish moment of bad luck you couldn't do anything about occurs, you have the amount of points you deserve and you got the results you deserve. Dominating games, playing "the best football", having the most possession, having the most chances, the other teams keeper being man of the match etc. are all things people say means they deserved more. Well you didn't deserve more because players are paid to create and score goals or stop them being scored and the team who scores the most deserves the win.

I agree... both sets of players have been as bad as each other. The ref should come out and blast the lot of them. They will continue to do it because refs in this country allow them and manu to do what the fuck they like, because our refs are both incredibly biassed and incredibly shite. It'll never change, but occasionally as a token gesture they'll book somebody for diving who plays for a lesser side, ie. Man City against manu

Don't worry. Wankers - both of them. I was just going to post that myself strangely!

Hughes was (as ever) talking bollocks about the goals being offside. Martins was level with the last defender, if not an inch or 2 behind him and for the second goal Zog's cross into the box doesn't go forward so Taylor can't be offside as its not from a forward pass. For the sending off when i saw it live on TV i thought straight red, but watching on MOTD i can see the argument that it was out wide and away from the goal so possibly harsh, but i don't think you can knock the ref for giving a red as he was last man and Martins was away from him. The ref had a strange game, he was impressive first half then turned to shite in the second half deciding to allow Blackburn's hatchet men to kick the crap out of our players yet booked two of ours for about the only fouls we committed! For those who only saw the highlights, Henchoz was also lucky to escape a yellow card on 2 previous occasions. I think it's very likely that played a part in Gallagher's(?) decision. Shame MOTD didn't mention it. With Martins' pace, if he had got clear of that (rugby) tackle he would have been 1 on 1, at a reasonable angle. Under FA regulations, Lucas Neill should have been pelted with bits of the stadium until he died, for his behavior. So these things even themselves out. I agree with you that the red was right, but i could see where they were coming from about it being out wide etc. But the fact remains he was last man and Martins may have been out wide but he was about to run into the box and be 1 on 1 with the keeper. And Lucas Neil is just a complete cunt, who has tried to end several fellow professionals careers in his time here, so he fits perfectly with Mark Hughes vision of football.

I'm hoping the fact we haven't really heard much is good news and that they aren't bad injuries, with Nobby and Sib. With Emre they said he's having a scan to see if he's broken his ankle but they think he hasn't. But if our club's people think he hasn't then i'm sure he has! Even if he hasn't he could still be out for ages with whatever he has injured.

Hughes was (as ever) talking bollocks about the goals being offside. Martins was level with the last defender, if not an inch or 2 behind him and for the second goal Zog's cross into the box doesn't go forward so Taylor can't be offside as its not from a forward pass. For the sending off when i saw it live on TV i thought straight red, but watching on MOTD i can see the argument that it was out wide and away from the goal so possibly harsh, but i don't think you can knock the ref for giving a red as he was last man and Martins was away from him. The ref had a strange game, he was impressive first half then turned to shite in the second half deciding to allow Blackburn's hatchet men to kick the crap out of our players yet booked two of ours for about the only fouls we committed!

But in some of those games we fully deserved the win but never seemed to have the goals in us. The goals seem to be coming a lot easier now though. IMO you deserve the win if you score more goals than the opposition, not for having the most possesion or the most attempts on goal etc. Managers always bang on about how they deserved more than the result, well they didn't because their team didn't score and the other team did which is what both sets of players are bough and paid for. The only time you validly can claim you deserved something you didn't get is when a ref/linesman has shafted you out of it (quite likely in the prem as our officials are complete pricks) or maybe if you have some incredible piece of bad luck that you can't legislate for. But even if we "deserved" a win in some of those games (and i still to this day have to admit i don't know how we lost the Fulham game!) the fact remains this season has seen some of the worst teams, playing some of the worst football i have seen at St. James in the prem and we are struggling against them when past teams of ours would have felt insulted to have to share the pitch with some of the abject shite we've faced this year! Take out manu and Chelsea, possibly Liverpool if they find any consistency and Arsenal when they aren't fannying about and whingeing about all and sundry, and the prem is absolutely abysmal these days and with our resources we should be well clear of all bar the 4 teams i mentioned.

Roeder has definitely had worse injuries than Souness and had the added job of having inherited the complete mess left by Souness. Souness at least had the luck of not following a complete fuckwitt like himself! And there is no doubt that if many other clubs had the same injuries we do then they would struggle and would be far lower down the league than they are. But even with all our injuries, we've all seen the games and the opposition this season and the points we've dropped against teams that should have been hammered with ease and we could (and should) be sitting where Portsmouth for example, are this season. The home games against Fulham, Everton, Bolton, Charlton, Sheff utd etc. all saw points dropped against teams that were either complete shite or at best poor so the management/coaches clearly haven't done a good job this season.

Does seem like a good bloke, shame he's surrounded by such a bunch of pricks at Bolton!

In future fixtures. I meant more if his injury is serious. Being as its NUFC and we are cursed i reckon it'll be a bloody achiles injury and he'll end up out for the season knowing our luck. He seemed to be caught on in the achilles area and when the physio came on he straight away signalled that Emre was fucked, and it doesn't look good. Its unbelievable whats happenign to us with injuries. We finally get a little run going even though we have hardly any fit players, then with Emre looking likes he's running into his best form he gets crocked, Nobby who's been excellent at RB gets injured and it just goes on.

Mine seems to be working ok

You know what Blackburn will do as they're a dirty bunch of twats. They go around kicking people and looking to take them out, target individuals and then at the end of the match Hughes will whinge like a little girl, blame the ref and try to deny they're a bunch of arseholes.

So he understands and can communicate well enough to comprehend what he's been accused of an deny that he did it then!

Not a bad idea...apart from the hats, the photos and the posting of the photos!