OTF

Everything except when Jones turned on him from wide. Thankfully Jones miss-kicked the shot. Though yeah Bassong was excellent, as was Enrique. Would like to say the same for Jonas, but was badly let down by his crossing.

And don't worry lads, we've still got "a few irons in the fire."

Jonas can't cross a ball with his left foot. So when he's played out there you know his bally into the box are going to be without power and skidding in. Kept getting into good position but could do nothing with it. Frustrating. Could barely look when Ameobi stepped up to take the penalty. Chopra did us a bloody big favour with his decision making, though Nicky Butt should hang his head in shame for that woeful pass (and his pathetic attempt at actually running earlier in the game).

.And the long balls from the back are painful. Carroll is getting to his fair share, but we're not retaining possession on many of them. Butt and Nolan might as well not be there when we have the ball, as they're being played over or around constantly. No doubt they are the tactics of Kinnear with Shola and Carroll up front.

Ouch. Explains why they were so quick to act (in signing Nolan) after the Barton injury.

Agree, unless it's a pay when you play style arrangement.

I lol'd

Nice flattering snap of Bassong

Bring in Taylor for sure. Tell Marseille they can have the original agreed fee for Ebondo or get stuffed. If it's the latter, put the money toward a proper midfield signing. Part of the benefit with Nolan I think, is that he won't have been on massive wages at Bolton, so also won't be on big wages with us. Trying to bring foreign players on board what appears to be a sinking ship will be hard to do unless you pony up with massive wages (which when you look at our already mammoth wage bill is not economically feasible).

We'd be stupid to get rid of him at the moment. He's playing like shit, and everyone knows that he wants out. Noone is going to offer us any decent amount of money for him. He's signed on with us until 2012, so we should be in no rush to sell him. It's tough times at the club at the moment, and everyone reacts in their own way. You can understand in some ways how he would be frustrated, having not had much of a chance to play in his preferred position (and certainly not for any prolonged periods of time). Besides, I feel that Duff will be the next one of our players to pick up an injury, so the chance for N'Zogbia to get some decent amount of time in his preferred position will open up. Needs to sit down with Kinnear and sort things out, channel his anger into giving better performances than we're getting from him at the moment. If we sell him we'll be the ones losing out. We can't afford to let anyone go at the moment. There's rumours about that he'll be going to Villa for 4-6 mill, though I can't see why they would really want him with Ashley Young there. I guess if they're planning on being in the Champions League next season they'll need to flesh out their playing roster.

Boaz Myhill. Not too bad a keeper.

The only club where he would pass a medical is us tbh. Noone will want him now (noone wanted him before he was injured) and he'll have trouble finding anyone who will pay him big wages next season. He's shot.

Only the desperate or the foolish will now offer Owen a big money contract (excluding on a pay-for-play basis). Whatever he says he is injury prone, and with each new injury that he picks up he becomes less of a useful player. In several matches this season he's been a liability for us, with little or no attacking instinct shown while on the ball.

I'm sure we will 'show some interest', at least they'll talk like they have. Signing some actual players on the other hand...

As far as I could tell noone was nasty to him, excluding of course his stylist.

Yep he's out for West Brom. TBH I don't think the Sunderland or the West Brom game will suit his style of play. Even still we'll miss him.

Looked hopelessly stranded when Bellamy got their second. Looked like no matter where Bellamy put the ball Harper was stuck in the mud. That said his vision was probably blocked by a defender, and it's likely that the ball went nowhere near where Bellamy was planning. Their first goal he came out and made himself as big as he could. Unfortunately Wright-Phillips maintained composure and slotted the ball cooly through Harper's legs. If Taylor wasn't dallying in the middle of our box Wright-Phillips would have been offside. Ref missed an obvious penalty when Taylor was assaulted by Richards. Only thing I can think there is that Taylor's reputation preceded him, and the ref thought he'd been struck by a sniper on the grassy knoll. They had a good penalty shout turned down as well, when Bassong basically pushed Bellamy.

Lovenkrands didn't do too badly. Perhaps overran the play when Duff was played into the box by Enrique (but Duff's ball was poor anyway). Didn't get much of a chance, so didn't really get to see him much. Certainly didn't do anything to make me think he is hopeless. Geremi did touch the ball, but it was usually only to turn it straight over. He had a pathetically woeful first half, but improved ever so slightly in the second. The only way he could have done worse that his first half would have been if he suddenly turned around and started playing for them.

Will this mean more money for transfers?* * - No, of course it bloody won't. If we lose on the weekend, wow, just wow.

Less than 4 days till we can confirm that our owner is a tight-wad with an inability to gauge the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in. And what do we have to show for it?... A Danish guy who was cut from a German club where he played 44 games across 3 years. We've been left high and dry during previous transfer windows but never with the same shadow of relegation hanging over us.

Fiorentina are sitting on the edge of qualifying for Europe in Serie A, and playing in the Champions League group stages this season. If they're willing to let him go mid-season then you'd have to say that he can't exactly be the bees kness. On the flipside however, he's played an important role in a team that is doing well in Serie A, and made the Champions League so he's more than likely better than the riff-raff and rable that we have now. He can't possibly be worse than Nicky Butt has been this season? Some clown has appended a comment onto his goal tally in wikipedia - "(3 Don't Judge me)"

Get in, whoever you are.

If Enrique has been rubbish, then Barton is but a flea on a speck of shit on a pile of rubbish. Seriously, Enrique has given much more to Newcastle than Barton has. He's either been injured, or crap, has probably turned in 2 or 3 decent performances for us. We can't afford to let him go unfortunately, and there is a chance he will return to his former 'glory' (on the field, not fighting his teammates, burning people with cigars, or beating up kids).

We currently have no players who are available to play right back who can actually play it well. I get your point though, but we need cover there for the rest of the season. It doesn't matter how good Beye is, if he's out injured he's not going to help us avoid relegation. He's also getting on in years, so it's only logical that we have some forward thinking there. We're horribly short on for fullbacks, who knows, maybe this bloke can also play on the left.