OTF

They've scored Sturridge. After some pretty ordinary touches from our defense. Tiote's pass was silly in that position.. gave it away and they made us pay.

Has to be a yellow? Didn't see it.... Raylor special coming up? into the far corner...

Great leadup work there. Fantastic slide ball from Jonas, great run and good cut pass from Lovenkrands... their defender just managed to come in to break things up. End to end stuff. Elmander just puts on wide after a neat little turn.

Fantastic swinging ball in from Enrique.. Loven just missed getting his head to it... ball fell to Best with a good chance... unfortunately the shot was blocked.

...we're missing Barton's calming presence out there. Not loooking great in posession. ..and Best was definitely off-side, wasn't that marginal (from the replay).

Noone at home at the back post from Raylor's corner. There's definite penalties from this bunch with Wheather and Robinson...

Very marginally off depending on interpretation.

Six weeks? Ouch? where did you hear/see that? Best off-side again... marginally would have been a penalty by Robinson otherwise.

Pretty sweet nightmare if we're 1-0 up so far... (touchwood)

Horrible cross from Enrique.. on the wain obv.

It was a brilliant header. The good placement and pace on the cross from Tiote made it possible. Good attacking game so far...

NOLANNNNNNNN!!! Great header across and down... Tiote cross.

Cheeky shot there from Lovenkrands. Good save.

Enrique and Jonas should be owning Paul Robinson all game. Best... wanted too long in the box. To be fair though it was never in a great position to shoot. Close at the other end... good block...

Besty just flashed one marginally wide... well struck shot off his left foot.

On that OzT, what div you guys this season? And are you interested in a pre-season game? Div 5.. and yeah could possibly be.. this one is one that we've organised ourselves.

Raylor.. I guess they wanted someone to take over on free-kick duties. Thigh injury it was for Barton. If Raylor is too rusty I'd think about Lovelyhands down the left with Jonas switching to the right.

To keep everyone else updated on mundane shit... by the time this game is over it will be roughly 6 hours before I play a pre-season friendly. The problem? I also need to try to slip in some sleep.

I know papers make up shit, but if the figures are anywhere near accurate then it's actually a proper sign that they're keen to keep hold of Tiote. Otherwise they'd sell him in the summer and not have wasted any money on giving additional wages to a player already on contract until 2015. Accounting wise that sort of bullshit maths I wouldn't put past Ashley and co. As others have pointed out if it's accurate you'd have to remove Carroll's wages and deduct Tiote's previous wage which would effectively cancel out the increase. Otherwise they would have to spend 35m plus the 7m+ that would have been paid to Carroll until 2015.

Tiote's for sure.

Regardless of how much sceptecism you apply this is good news. My main hope is that it helps to leads to Enrique and Barton also extending their deals. Facts of the matter are that every player has their price. The sooner some people on here realise that it doesn't need to be proclaimed every minute the better.

meine aufrichtigen Entschuldigungen....aber, Ich könnte nicht widerstehen... Hast Du etwas Zeit für mich Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich Von 99 Luftballons Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont Denkst Du vielleicht grad' an mich Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich Von 99 Luftballons Und dass sowas von sowas kommt Dreh dich nicht um, schau, schau, der Kommissar geht um!

Wouldn't be a painting... unless it was the roof of the sistine chapel (with the chapel attached and without the thousands of gawkers). I'd say a number of building would be classified as art, but they too are impractical. So if it was to be something to go in my house I'd like it to be something that I can look upon from multiple angles so would be leaning toward a sculpture. David wouldn't fit in my house. Venus de Milo would, but isn't that interesting. Quite like the Thinker but it too is too large. So all said and done I'd have Tutankhamun's Mask. being able to gaze upon something so ancient yet beautiful would be amazing. If I thought about it more I'd probably come up with some alternatives..

Didn't think I'd ever say this but I think we should keep him. From all accounts he is well behaved and a good trainer. Always trying to impress in training to get a chance in the first team. Having him around should keep the pressure on our hopefully higher profile forwards. Has a good scoring record when he has played as well. All despite not looking very good and in general having the heading ability of a sharpened rock (spare his headed goal).

Has the physical attributes to be a very good defender, but judging from less than half a good season in the turmoil that we were in was impossible. I've always said that 8m for him was good business. He wasn't needed by us in the championship and a year there would not have increased his value. Had a horrible shirt tugging habit that puts Williamson's arm work to shame. Was horribly exposed by Emile Heskey, and cost us dearly when he was also sent off against Fulham resulting in him missing our final game against Villa.