OTF

The number of chances we've had is crazy.

Ranger has no idea what to do out there. Jonas just made an excellent drive into the box and Ranger's movement was horrible, gave him no chance.

Guthrie off, Routledge on. Lovenkrands off Ranger on.

Referee just separated Dempsey and Tiote. Tiote could be off here.... stupid stupid challenge. Survives it, just. Dempsey should have been carded for the reaction.

Nolan's having another quiet and ineffectual game, hopefully this post results in a goal or a substitution. Good tackle in the box from Williamson. Geez, they just hit the crossbar.

And there's Tiote's ffth yellow. All of them, I reckon, for leaving a leg in.

Good lead up play just now, Lovenkrands header straight at Schwarzer unfortunately.

Not so much ball moving through Tiote again in this game.

Danny Murphy you twat goes down after getting a ball to the face.

Carroll almost just scored a corker. Good save. Schwarzer.

Carroll/Lovenkrands unlucky not to score. Nolan in the way for Carroll's first time left footed volley, then Schwarzer with a good save from Lovenkrands well hit follow up. We started really well, nice passing and movement but Fulham have come back into it. Credit to them they're actually playing so it's a much much more enjoyable game than the Blackburn one. 10 mionutes in and I reckon I'd already had more enjoyment than the full 90 against Blackburn. Enrique's driving runs are really troubling them. Lovenkrands is doing ok as well. Guthrie on the right hasn't been bad, likes getting his crosses in as early as possible unfortunately whenever he's done that they have been well read by the Fulham defense. It should be a good second half.

We've started approximately 400 times better than we did against Blackburn. Good passing and movement, and Enrique just let Andy Johnson know that he won't beat him for pace.

Guthrie really struggles out wide, don't recall him having any good games there. Hope he can turn things around. Routledge is well out of favor obviously!

First born daughter is called Ellen Shera. No, not really.

Barton has been good at floating them in and letting Carroll (normally) do the rest of the work. Guthrie normally tries to pit a bit more pace on his free kicks so they can be more dangerous but tend to be far less consistent. Hopefully he starts gliding them in like Barton because you just know that Carroll will cause them problems. Our free kick routines are very well rehearsed, so I'm sure Guthrie will have been working on them a lot as soon as it was known that Barton would be out.

Given Ameobi left the field with a hamstring injury it's unlikely that he will play against Fulham on Saturday. Who do you think Chris will replace him with? Will he revert to playing Nolan in behind Carroll and bring Guthrie into central midfield with Routledge onto the right for the suspended Barton? Lovenkrands hasn't had much of an impact when used, though he could do ok against Fulham. Ranger is the obvious choice I guess, but I wonder about his decision making in games (as well as his footing/footwear!). Xisco's a bloody long shot, though I wouldn't mind seeing him out there oddly enough (not sure whether it's just for novelty value ). I also wonder whether Hughton will get Steven Taylor involved in this game. It could be a risky move breaking up what has been a pretty good defensive unit, but 3 games in 7 days is a lot and between Colo and Williamson there could be some tired legs. If I rested one it would be Williamson. Losing another home game would be devestating, and it's obviously important that we pick ourselves straight back up from the disappointing result, so this match is of large importance. After this we're away to a decent Bolton side then hosting Champions and league leaders Chelsea before an away match at West Brom, then home against Liverpool. It's a pretty tough run of games that could well yield very few points particularly if we don't get back to playing at or near our best on the weekend. Before we know it we could be just outside the relegation zone...

I rate him as a good young prospect (as I did when I saw him at that reserves match, remember ) As yet I dont think he compares anywhere close to the players I have mentioned above. I think he does some things well now, but to be Englands no 1 or compare with the Newcastle strikers of the past, he needs to start scoring different types of goals such as screamers from outside the box, runs into the box with a goal at the end of it, etc etc. I dont think Im saying anything bizzare tbf In summary:

Both the FA and FIFA can and have revisited incidents that have been seen and acted upon by referees in the game. When the FA claim that they're not able to it's plain and simple because they're a bunch of fucking cowards.

Jonas got some ok balls into the box to be honest. In fact he, Enrique and Carroll looked like the only players in our team who were confident on the ball despite the physical closing down tactics of FSA. We obviously lacked any sort of balance down the right compressing our attack and making it easier for them to double up on Jonas/Enrique or at least have them operating in much less space. Tiote was well off in this so they were missing his everpresence inside them, plus Nolan was largely anonymous, as was Shola before he came off. The tactics weren't spot on today, but truth be told it was a horrible mistake and some weak defending (that was probably a foul anyway) that they scored from. If we lacked the mental application against Arsenal on the weekend we'd have been well out of that game. Lets keep it all in perspective, our guys were flat from the get go I'm sure partly because the Arsenal game in London just 3 days earlier took it out of them both physically and mentally. I hope they have it in them to bounce back with a good performance against Fulham.

As I said earlier thank fucking god we've only got one more game against Blackburn this season. A season of that dross would be enough to sap all of the fun out of watching the game whether or not there was a top half finish 4 out of 5 seasons or not. So enjoy the victory bigchrissamba (who failed at his one designated job), and enjoy the occasional poking of your nose into the backyards of football teams that actually play football. I wouldn't wish Allardyce on anyone, but if you want to herald the mediocre results over any modicum of footballing attitude that he brings then go for it. The difference between us and you is that there's no way in the world that we would do the same, much less traipsing around other teams forums boasting about it.

Agree with this. These sort of things are never going to result in injuries, whereas the real heinous crimes like De Jong on Ben Arfa see the FA sit on their hands.

That's actually a decent point. They were very slow to start and didn't have the legs they had against Arsenal. 3 games in a week is a tough ask, with retrospect I'd love to have seen how a vastly changed side would have done against Blackburn. Would have left our main players with fresh legs for Fulham.

This. Had it been any other player, there wouldn't have been half the fuss. I think the point is that it wouldn't be any other player. Really? Really. Now if MGP had done something worthy of a reaction it might be a little different.

This. Had it been any other player, there wouldn't have been half the fuss. I think the point is that it wouldn't be any other player.

Barton was stupid, but how much of a dick is Pedersoft. Right from the start where he illegally won the free-kick that eventually lead to their goal by blatantly watching, waiting and then moving into the path of Williamson who was heading towards the ball. I'll have to see the replay again, wasn't watching on my normal telly so was smaller and further away than I'm used to watching. TBH I wasn't quite sure exactly what it was I was watching.