Game on at the AMEX
The FA Cup is taken very seriously by a majority of our fans. After all it’s a competition which is synonymous with our history and, most important of all, we, like other clubs, have a chance of winning it.
To win it though you must first be in it, and standing in the way of us doing that is the very man who has previously dashed our FA Cup dream – Gustavo Poyet – and his Brighton outfit. For those who are unaware, Poyet had a habit of scoring against us and scored both goals in a 2-1 loss in an FA Cup semi-final back in 2000. Hopefully we can pay him back today.
Thing is I hate these ties against teams from lower leagues. Granted Brighton aren’t far off the play-off places in the Championship but there is still a shock to be had should they beat us today. We will be a scalp and they will be fired up for it which means that it won’t be easy and we’ll need to up our game from the Fulham debacle to ensure we aren’t bemoaning another cup exit come around 6:45 this evening.
As ever, Shamrock had penned one of his most excellent match previews ahead of the game. I messed up the posting of it though so some of you may not have seen it or read it. If you haven’t I suggest click here and have a little looksie whilst we collectively wait for the kick-off.
The match is being broadcast live on ESPN which is good news for all concerned. Firstly those who have ESPN can sit and watch it on the big TV and those who don’t will more than likely be able to watch it on the internet. Not that I advocate that kind of thing of course, but if somebody happens to accidentally post a link to an internet stream then there isn’t a lot I can do. If you wish to check it for quality purposes then fell free.
That’s about it and it really is ‘Game On’ time. Hopefully we won’t be licking anymore wounds by the time the final whistle goes, although looking at the strength of the team we’ve put out it would appear that we are taking this match very seriously indeed!
Howay the lads!
Brighton: Peter Brezovan, Inigo Calderon, Gordan Greer, Lewis Dunk, Adam El-Abd, Liam Bridcutt, Matt Sparrow, Jake Forster-Caskey, Will Buckley, Craig Mackail-Smith, Ashley Barnes
Subs: Casper Ankergren, Will Hoskins, Alan Navarro, Ryan Harley, Romain Vincelot, Torbrorn Agdestein, Grant Hall
Newcastle:Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Danny Guthrie, Jonas Gutierrez, Leon Best, Shola Ameobi
Subs: Rob Elliot, Tamas Kadar, Shane Ferguson, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Peter Lovenkrands
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368 Comments
Bench looks about as strong as a Charles Hawtrey!
Ameobi as captain is a joke, his lack of effort is a joke, hes general play is a joke.
Dont know who i would have gave it to probably Cabaye, not cause everyone loves him, but because he is a natural leader.
Glad colo was rested no point risking him, hope perch puts in a convincing performance
Finally get to see kadar again. I rather him start than perch oh well.
Completely with you Spencer. But if Ameobi can’t look decent against Brighton then I don’t know…
Should be ok. But I too think its a joke he’s captain
It’s easy to be loyal when your too shit for any other club to want you…
Anyway, that’s the last anti Shola comment I’ll make till I see the effort he.outs in today. Might be his day… He is due a decent game
He is not even that Loyal, when he wasn’t wanted, he went to stoke on loan, it may sound harsh, but I cant wait for him to retire, that’s no disrespect to him!
Dont worry folks. The Mansfield Zanetti will see us through with a clean sheet. Would rather see him in midfield but CB will do today. No towering forwards against us today.
Getting the scapegoats early in I see
James Perch next, even though he’s done nowt wrong yet
Perch better not do owt daft, should have moved Simpson inside and stuck Ryan Taylor in at right back.
i stuck up for perch actually toonsy
well i never had a go at him at least;-)
if shola dosnt turn up the day,pards should get rid ASAP.
Toonsy, surely you have seen Ameobi play poorly enough to see he is a scapegoat!
Jonas should of got the captains arm band , At least its an opponent from a leauge lower but i am not confident with perch at the back and Shola up front
Axel- Jonas is no captain, he does not lead the team, remember Norwich? he shyed away.
no big upsets yet ,theres always 1
links
http://www.wiziwig.tv/broadcast.php?matchid=142402&part=sports
Jeez, toonsy! People are allowed to not rate players. Perch, Best and Strolla just aren’t good enough in some people’s opinion.
Batty, get a bit of faith will you man!
Howay the Lads”
Captain Shola!
Yes, gan on Shola son
You never know being Captain might inspire him to a barnstorming performance. Really hope he has a good game for all our sakes.Also would be a real slap in the face to Pards after all the faith he puts in him if he’s as shit as last week again.
These players who aren’t good enough….who play for a club who has been around the top 6 of the league all season
How good does someone actually have to be to play for us, in our second season back from releagtion having finished in the bottom half last year?
Some of you are totally deluded about the calibre of player we should have at the minute, we actually have more quality in this side than I would have dreamt of at the end of last season.
Not only that but having these players also makes our first teamers up their games and become less complacent.
Toonsy,sadly perch hasn’t give me at least 45% confidence that he will do well in centre back position.
But i will still root for any newcastle player who start,especially shola
Chris Hughton Has been doing well in his job at Birmingham,not bad.
AoD,
have you watched Perch at centre back this season? Hasn’t put a foot wrong and he hasn’t given you even 45% confidence?
Give it a rest man honestly, you divvn’t kna what you’re on about.
He isn’t brilliant but he has done well this season everytime he’s been called upon
Moreno I guess im one of the deluded ones because I dont think Strolla or Perch are good enough, but if you think different will your entitiled to your opinion
SPENCERTHETOON
you slaging Ameobi every bloody day is a joke not his fault you to dumb and blind to see what he brings
Spencer
When Shola retires us fans should have an open top bus parade!
this is the first time I have been on the blog for about a month you stupid fuck wit..
Dave will back me on that.
Quite a shrewd move having the same starting line up as Fulham, bar Colo obviously.
Obviously said to them – go show the world you’re not as bad as that 2nd half at Fulham suggested.
Agreed Toonsy, how about getting behind the team before kick off!!
I’ve got no problem with people having a go a players who have a poor 90 mins but I hope Shola scores and Perch helps keep a clean sheet. If they don’t and have a poor game I’ll be on saying so. But the selected 11 should have our backing at the start of every match!
AOD bring back Chrissy Hughton I say…..
JJ- whilst his testimonial is on
Anyone know where Ross is hiding? He used to offer up some good debate.
Toonarmylite
Ye mate you right, Shola is mint
STT kna its rare your on the blog lately,was wondering where you were,i must be blind and dumb too
who is Ross ?
Shola must be f**king outstanding in training
SPENCERTHETOON
you the stupid f ck and lier to boot
t
Dave,
You know I respect your opinion mate.
When you say…’they are not good enough’
Not good enough for what exactly?
Avoiding defeat today is a minimum. We’ll also have the Demba Boys back for the replay…..if necessary.
Howay the lads….. get behind the team man…
4-1- toon Shola 2, Best and HBA.
You heard it here first…
Is Vuckic injured?
well we new that ice
Mainly been studying mate, and playing xbox 
Oh oh…what’s with the bitch slapping ? Calm down calm down…
Why is it that people think that because some are disappointed that Shola is captain, that we are not behind the team?!!?
Fact is, if he scores and plays a blinder, we’ll all be happy as pigs in shit.
Fact is thougth, he’ll still be shit, as he has been for 12 years.
Every dog has his day. Let’s hope Shola can have one against Brighton!
Toonarmyelite- Are you a mackem in disguise? or one of them fans that the majority of the fans hate?
Feck me Spencer, you’ve only been back on the blog 10 minutes and ya causing botha already
Come on then lads , nice early goal from capn Shola please.
Stuart – Of course people are allowed to not rate players. I don;t rate Ryan Taylor for example. However there is not rating them and there is getting on their back before they’ve even kicked a ball.
Spencer this is the 1st you have been on in yonks, so someone is talking shite.
It used to be everyone was entitiled to their own opinion without all the childish name calling
Sharpy I think there is a difference in stating your opinion about a player and getting behind the team and all the players
Actually i am getting attacked by someone who obviously thinks he is higher in society than me, therefore my opinion is invalid
Been loving your emails mate
I’ve found that monkey from the other day!
It’s Gus Poyet
Toonarmylite
Everyone thinks your a prick, now feck off!
Toonsy,
Nah I think you rate him a lot more now…you just hate him for some reason
That was a great cross by Santon. Shola should have attacked that!
Decent start. Pressing them well
Toonsy- shola has kicked the ball plenty of times for Newcastle though. and it has only ended in the goals 78 times in 10 years, that is why everyone has a dig at him!
Spence – I’ll have a look now mate. Been busy all day pretty much
I just don’t get the ‘not good enough’ as a generalisation.
Not good enough for what?
Not good enough to win the Premier League?
Not good enough to be a squad player at NUFC?
Not good enough to play against Brighton?
SPENCERTHETOON
the only mackem in disguise is the stupid dumb idiot who slags our players off every day you for instants
can someone link me to a good stream, the one i was on was about 6 minutes behind
Moreno…..I’ll go for the first option
So far Shola has not bothered trying to get on the end of a cross and his first touch he chests it 15 yards backwards to a Brighton player… Shite.
Perch gives 100%, no prbs with him at all…
Spencer nutjob.eu isn’t too bad
Spence – So 8 (well, 7.8
) goals a season for a third or fourth choice striker is a bad return?
Toonarmyelite- you are just making yourself look daft mate, I used to be a regular user, so everyone nos my name, maybe not for good reasons
However, I suggest you stop saying i do something “everyday”
Toonsy, maybe not so to be fair, i guess it is his lack of effort that pisses me off.
You do have to remember that includes europe as well, so it must be in a lot of games.
Nice to see Shola sprinting 50 yards from the peno box to close that down. The lazy bastard
Richie i see you are help full as ever
http://www.nutjob.eu/
Hatems weakness…
Draws in three defenders then tries to beat all of them instead of passing to exloit the space…
feck me that was close
Close so close
Toonsy, I told you to use it once you great big poo!
Great play by Best.
what minute are you all on?
SPENCERTHETOON the only 1 looks daft is you funny 10 managers saw something in him your blind dumb butt cant see suppose you know more than them is it
HOW THE FK BEST MISSED THE TARGET THERE
I hope Best ain’t gonna have one of them days when nowt goes in
That’s why Best isn’t good enough.
Misses so many good chances.
14th for me Spence
Toonsy, its not Sholas goal return which irritates me…
Even though its poor, what irritatedls me is his complete lack of energy and effort. Lazy running and workrate. And mostly the way he disrupts or gets the way of attacking moves.
Where’s Mr best finishing touches gone to
Best might miss a few but he makes the runs and creates the chances for himself to score.
For me he is good enough as cover. Shola is not.
Best would be a better player not playing next to Shola…
should of put his foot through that!
Great play from santon,and no one is there to finish.grrrr…
Ashley has lost loads of weight man
Whoa,nice hairstyle by mike ashley… And he slim down quite abit.
Mike’s lost some weight, he’s looking sexy.
Glad I am recording this for a freeze frame wank at half time
Ashley looks like he’s lost about 4 stone!
Their commentating is rubbish. Must have said 3 words in 5 minutes!
Ben Arfa needs to learn there are ten other players on the pitch, otherwise he needs to be sold.
Ray Hudson is my favourite commentator. He was doing a Real Madrid match a couple of weeks ago and Casillas made a save. He started screaming “JUNGLE CAT!!! JUNGLE CAT!!!!!!”
Nearly wet meself
Bloody hell JJ
Have you got owt good to say about anyone 
Shamrock – I don’t mind that makes a nice change tbh. Sky are soooo bad i end up turning the sound down as most hate us and don’t make a good job of hiding it either.
Moreno,
I said Perch is looking good. And I complimented Besty. No my fault you only absorb the negative stuff…
Hmm, the lack of commentry makes me wonder if i’m watching a live Fifa 96 game!
Can someone please lend me a decent stream! cheers!
The less Waddle opens his gob, the better for me like
Shamrock @95
KimToon, true. I actually cancelled SkySports because they rip us off and are all w**kers.
http://www.nutjob.eu/
Santon , oh dear
Shamrock @ 99
Two extremely valid reasons….the latter being an understatement though!
Although I like Jeff and Kammy….
RT- I though you we’re taking the piss
Spence you’ll get a live stream on redtube mate….won’t be the match though
Moreno, yes those two are both legends
Spencer…. I know ya did
come on Lads
Moreno, I have already had my 5 a day, bit early i know
Moreno@102 Jeff & Kammy are Kings of sky sports ,lose them and they are proper f**ked.
Wasn’t that Dalglish lass on Skysportnews a Toon fan?
haha, Simpson was never gonna score in a million years
great ball from Benny
JJ- you mean Kelly ,yeh think she was at that.
Shit corner though
Great corner….!
And you can see why danny simpson doesn’t score loads of goals- I thought he didn’t score much cause he was a full back? you tool!
Spencer, your own sperm isn’t classed as one of your 5 a day. You’re supposed to eat fruit and veg
This is not feeling like a cup match so far…. Come on lads, give us some flair, irresponsible defending and magic!
Shola could learn a thing or two from Micael Smiths workrate. Makes a huge difference. We havnt had a striker like that since Bellemy.
This game is like a stagnant pool, strangely watchable yet stinkin the place out.
I put it in celery mate
STT this one tops,pity aboot waddle like
http://free-footie.comli.com/mypremiumtv/uk.php
Benny’s passing has been nothing short of abysmal.
Our problem is not releasing the ball when brighton swamp us. On at least 4 occasions now I have seen a crowd of Brighton players attacking the man on the ball (meaning they aren’t where they are supposed to be) and we run deeper into them
fuk that was lucky for Cabaye
JJ, beg to differ. Carroll’s workrate was outstanding
Kimtoon
Kelly Dalglish, that’s her! I remember her celebrating when she wasnt supposed to when the Toon scored. Was awesome.
And she was cute. I miss her
I simply love ESPN commetary. They simply go quiet for awhile and don’t continuely shouting and screamin.
Moreno – You’re wrong. The sunshine from Hatem’s arse has clearly obstructed your vision. Remember, nobody is allowed to say anything bad about Benny. The poor mite…
Ice that was the first one i had, it was behind?
“Nice on the eye ” Wadds discription of match so far!!!!!!!!
Moreno, Ye he put in a shift too!
Yeah, but they are paid to commentate! Just gone a whole minute without saying a word the lazy gits!
JJ@126- Well she certainly had more talent than her brother paul !
And bigger, more succulent titties!
Toonsy @ 128,
haha, does that lynch mob still come out in force now they realise he actually isn’t as good as messi as they were all making out? They would prefer him over Ronaldo, most technically gifted player in the world etc etc etc.
Would have been funny if they weren’t deadly serious at the time
thats one chance at each end he’s created now….
Toonsy-My word
why the fk is jonas keep drifting to the RW.
Boring first half, going to get my curry!
Moreno @123
Exactly what I was saying. He’s too selfish. Even shooting from corners.
If he doesn’t chant by the end of the season we should get rid of him.
He reminds me of a young Ronaldo at Man U in his first season.
Only prob, Ronaldo was 19, Ben Arfa is already 23.
He should know better…
Weirdly I quite enjoyed watching that
Well that was exhilarating.
Moreno – I’d choose option 2 – not good enough to be in the Newcastle squad.
But the reality is that this is the squad we have at the moment and Pardew is selecting these players as he has limited options at the mo with our 2 first choice CBs out injured and our Demba boys and DCM away in Africa.
Nobody’s saying they are mint, but they are what we have at the mo, so we have to get behind them all the same.
Lover for the 2nd half for me now tho and hopefully Best will find his shooting boots
Pards needs to gee em up for second half cause that was poor at times.
@Kimtoon
Only good thing Kenny Dalglish ever did IMO
I wonder if she thinks her dads as bigger wanker as I do…
Santon one of the worst left backs this twat has seen apparently..
JJ-probs not
Yep, don’t think HBA has been up to much really, but suppose he’s one of those players that can do something out of nothing, but up to now, he and many others haven’t done too much. on the other hand, hasn’t been that bad a game, canny passing, just nobody to put it in the net.
On another note, does anybody think the sponser on the shirt does just look like what we would get, something to iron on over the top of Northern Rock?
Poor first half. Hardly did anything with that ball. Ben Arfa needs stop trying to be a superhero every time he gets the ball. He tries the most complex options when the simpler ones are better.
Since when Steve Harper retired??
way are we playing long balls with no support for that donkey ameobi…get him off and bring oberton on play best with benny…
sometimes i think the arfa hater is as bad as arfa’s worshipper..yes he has a bad game so far(mind you 1st time after he started i think) but quality is not to newcastle standard?you are having a laugh
And become a commetator?
Ron, who said his quality wasn’t to our standard?
Not a thing up front, why the hell is Jonas wandering all of the place, get him back on the left and leave him there, then he can link up with Santon, all this wandering is just causing more confusion for us than the opposition.
Just sitting down. Missed the first half. I hope nobody has been slagging Benny. How are calamity Mike and i can’t pass the ball danny simpson playing. They should both feel at home playing a championship side
“its time to wake up, its time to come alive” What an appropriate advert!
Poor all round one the last third.
Continue to believe that it’s our strikers who make us look abject up there. Midfield just has nothing to aim for, the movement and control up front is
Ah some on here getting ready to have another fall guy (Ben Arfa) when Stroller is no longer in the team, OK a couple of bad balls but what about the others, non are really inspiring confidence today.
dont you hate it when you refresh the wrong page and lose the loody stream, bringing more stupid adverts?!
heres a good one shamrock.
http://extremegoal10.blogspot.com/p/ch1.html
I think the team’s just a little confused as to where the hell they’re supposed to be and where the hell everyone else is. Benny needs to cut in a bit more and make himself open for an easier pass so we can get him on the ball more often. We should be able to make our domination count tonight but at the same time we need to be careful of their counter attacks
Hitman – Nice link mate. Cheers, clear picture.
I think the theory behind the Benny/onas thing is Jonas naturally drifts out wide whilst benny cuts in, the theory is sound but we aren’t putting it into practice
Toonsy, you about? There’s a status on my facebook regarding Evra/Suarez you should get involved in
Thing with Benny is that A LOTof fans have built him up to be the next Jesus, or possibly even better than the original Jesus, that a lot is expected of him.
All I ask is that the lad keeps it fecking simple when he has the chance to. It’s not difficult and it’s one of the things that separates the good players and great players….
Is it just me or do Brighton look really pretty poor?
And I’d also like Jonas to stop wandering inside all the time!
ooooh ya f*cker Guthers! Unlucky
“Ameobi not been in the game at all, static so easy to mark”
Quite right. Great cross from Simpson, but unless the ball lands directly on his motionless head, Shola won’t get in the end of it.
Terrible play there by Shola, only taking out three defenders and setting up Best for a one on one. What a lazy fucker.
Anyone wonder why is best on flank most of the time,and that it becomes 1 striker upfront with shola flicking off the ball to no one?
thats better
brighton player telling best he is shite. No irony there
Stu @ 167 they look a bit weak, and I think we should be upping our game and take advantage
Toonsy
My favourite part was my comment –
They should change the tourist board slogan “Welcome to Liverpool….unless you’re black”
Anyone see Taricco’s tacky PVC puffa jacket there? Straight out of Cameo that is
go on carver
I can’t wait till the 2 demba’s get back
Benny shoulda spanked that one goalwards
Sorry for keep going on and on but Best is rubbish
Get up ya big girls blouse
That was horrible from Cabaye, no one deserves to be kicked in the face.
Somebody wrote the the other day that pardew should hold Cisse back. I hope whoever he is he is watching this
So will cabaye be ban from FA?
Pardew said Cisse will NOT play against Blackburn.
TLR @ 181 but he scored a hat-trick for us
jonas will you get back on the left.FFS
Jonas has been awful today like
Hopefully, he’s just ensuring Blackburn dont prepare fully for us though. I’d like to see him on the bench.
Toonsy, he has been poor quite a lot recently!
Jonas is awful and making one or two others look as bad by all his wanderings, style and pattern has gone out of the window
Great tackle by perch
Santon gets himself into sill positions, is he worst than i thought he was?
This match is boring.
This game is shit
Subs!
fuckng simpson
fuck fuck fuck
FFS THIS HAS BEEN COMING FOR AGES NOW.
Simmo and Guthrie need shot for that. Guthrie had his back to the ball and didn’t look like he could be arsed tracking back and what the fuck was Simmo doing?
Thats it screwed again
Sorry but that’s just shite!
FFS maybe now we might start playing like a prem team, because we are poor and they were there for the taking
Not one bit surprised!!!! No one gives a fuck on that pitch!
Simpson should have done better, and Cabaye should have done better. FFS
pardew need to get jonas telt like,for the past few games jonas has went walk about,who does he think is crocodlie dundee
FK OFF
Simpson and Williamson show their championship class. A centre half should not be turning his body. Why have we not signed a centre half this month
Look at our body language. What the hell is going on here
yep, we have been flat and crap. Desreve to be losing for lack of effort.
Right we’re out then, classic
Well we deserved that , we have been poor against a team a division lower fuckers ,another season goes by without winning anything .
Unfortunately we look about as likely to score as Stephen Hawkins in a brothel.
Pardew should have some questions to answer, he puts the team out with this style of play and it STINKS, 28 days into the transfer window and what have they done about the defence sweet FA
Cant wait for Demba to get back like!
When are they gonna get to grips with Buckley
No more fucking holidays either cause we’re gash before them and gash after them, whats the fucking point.
fuking toothless
We’re all over the place at the back now, wtf!
Pathetic, no fcking way we will score. I can only see this ending 2-0 to Brighton…
@Newkie
If you honestly think Ameobi is decent I’m not going to waste time debating with you mate.
We don’t even look like scoring when he plays with 70% possession because his movement is pathetic…
escape there, should have been 2-0
for once i agree with the commentator..we are too wide
Another umpteen years of this been quoted on the tele by every channel going, Brighton are the team that was held by a non league team in the last round and we were the team that stuffed Man U a few weeks ago.
Now do you who critcised me the other night now realise that Tiote is our most influential and without him we are crap and must never be sold at any price
Sorry, but Pardew has to take the blame here for me.
Playing Shola instead of Lovenkrans or Obertan. We will never score with that useless cnt up front.
And yes I know the others havnt been great, but he is ALwAYS shit. Every fcking game.
Agree completely with 225.
if this is the level of our strikers looks like dembas will go straight to 1st 11
get some bodies up the pitch FFS
JJ-don’t look like score? Although he did set up Best for two good if not great chances. Ameobi isn’t the reason we’re losing this, our whole team just don’t seem fussed.
Shocking performance
The squad just isn’t big enough to sustain a cup run.
fuck sakes simmo don’t throw it to their players
TLR we could have Tiote in there but if we are relying on our 2 strikers to score the goals needed
nailed on pen that like
How did the ref not see that
Why was nobody even running forward? Brighton lads sprint back and ours stumble forward. fuck me, shocking.
blatant fucking penalty and all.
Thats 2 games on the trot that most of our team have been dire, thats not good enough
There is always a shock in the cup ,looks like it’s our turn
Like I said Newkie, if you can’t see how bad he is. No point arguing. We won’t agree. Just different opinions I guess.
We are a very very poor team at the moment because we have no defence and absolutely no strike force.
Can’t see us picking up any points till Colo and Ba are back.
Poor from the ref and linesman to miss that
Simpson has been terrible
Penalty or not, we dont deserve to be in the next round. Lethargic performance. The magic of the FA Cup is obviously lost on these boys. No excuse for laziness.
Not as easy to forgive this one as the Fulham loss.
Calamity Mike and Simpson are tuckin awful.
Kimtoon
It’s always our turn, so its not really a shock.
Well now we know, we cannot even hold out own against a championship side, OK we have 3 players missing but come on the rest are just not good enough, and the tactics for the last 3 games with the wandering minstrel who is Jonas just stink.
Pardew you have 2 days to get someone in that can defend.
shamrock the thing is its not like brighton deserve to win
we got what we deserved
Cheated out two keeps, Wembley dream over for two years, hope we can push on in the league and get into Europe!
cups* And sorry for saying we got cheated out of that, a bit of a knee jerk, but it was defiantly a peno!
Whey, I’m ganin to get pissed, laters
No excuses about the penalty, that was pathetic
Hope they enjoyed there holiday in Tenerife
seems like all they did was discuss who is going to type the most shit on Twitter.
FUCKING SHITE!!!!
Us fans are fucking stupid, every year we think well go on a cup run and every year the squad prove theyre not fucking good enough.
We should be beating teams like this convincingly man.
Our players earn alot of money!!
We are a premier league team with too many championship standard players in our squad.
There’s no excuses today like, we were playing a weaker team with plenty of chances to win and we fucked it up. I dont want to read any apologies from players, not interested… ITS SHIT!!!
Well that’s 95 minutes of my life i won’t get back
Feckin awfull display , Ash has to splash out on a couple of guys now or we’ll be dropping like a stone.
that was fucking disgusting!!!!!! easily the worst peformance ive watched newcastle united play!! ive just paid 9pound to have espn to watch that!!! really really disgustin!!! shane ferguson had the best game and he was on 8 minutes!!! that was terrible!!! ashley get ya fucking wallet oot man !!!!!!
JJ-I just hate the general obsession with him our fans have. Its as if people think he actively tries to fail. Its ridiculous. Fact is we were spoiled with strikers and now expect way too much from the position in general.
Pardew to blame. Same tactics as Fulham. He needs to study the oppositions before and design our tactics either to meet their threats, exploit their weaknesses. Pardew seems to think one size fits all.
He is crap.
Cannot really blame the players, we bossed the game but up front we were pathetic. They’re just not good enough.
We didn’t play that bad (apart from Simpson)… It’s just those two numbnuts upfront let us down badly. Absolutley useless.
I thought Ameobi was one of our better players out there. Strange how folk see things differently.
ben arfa?? what about shola?? he was frightenly terrible
Time for Pardew to wake up and smell the coffee ,NO MORE SHOLA ,NOT EVER and i know i am am going to get slated for this but , HBA is to much of a luxury player for us in games like this ,the guy has moments of sheer brilliance but he is no grafter .
I actually feel strange that i would prefer youngsters playing cup matches instead. Somehow i feel that they got more desire,passion,drive to play and a point to show the manager they are ready for 1st team.
Weirdly enough,when pardew played the supposed 1st team squad,the outcome is always negative.
ohh haha you mentioned him
LACEDAEMONIAN
January 28, 2012 at 19:16
I thought Ameobi was one of our better players out there. Strange how folk see things differently.
are you having a laugh??
Best on the left is ridiculous as well imo, he’s got pace and stregnth and he can make the runs but he’s also our best finisher, put him in the fucking box.
Why have we no attacking play. My missus with her broken wrist could have played in goal for Brighton.
Looks like we need a revolving door in the summer. Guthrie is neat and tidy but doesn’t hurt the opposition. Jonas looks like he has forgotten how to play football. The two goons up front well everybody knows how bad they are.
How can we go from being buzzing full of energy against Manure to the rubbish we have seen lately
bad crack when fans ganning on aboot pen we should have had,ffs we had95min against “brighton” just not bloody good enough end of
I know Ron. Aweful.
As for Pardew’s subs – a) They were too late as we were ineffective long before the goal came along and b) they were crap. Ferguson should have started the match, Gosling and Taylor were never going to carve the opposition open.
Oh well, i’m logging off before I look like I’m being fickle – although not only did we fail to beat a team a league below us – we did not even try that hard to do it. WTF? Not the team we saw at the start of the season.
Oh, Guthrie, Cabaye, Shola, stop talking to the press about how we are going to challenge for the cup this year, or hold off the challenge of a new striker coming in. All talk, no action this weekend. Let yourselves down.
haway man ……….. 8 mins to go and then pardew changes things?? anyone and i mean anyone knows that is a terrible time to bring subs on when you need goals!! 20 mins at least ……
All the stick I gave ameobi, he was maybe one of our better players, didnt mean he ruffled any feathers!
And guys from what i see,is leon best that is the culprit of the entire upfront performance. Where the hell he is whenever shola flicks on the ball..
HE IS FREAKING 30-40YARDS AWAY FROM SHOLA!!!!
Angel-Same.
agree with icedog!! pen or not we simply wernt gud enough!!!
we need players in desperatly!!!
No.
Icedog. You are correct. Simply not good enough
I’m fizzing with this like
simspoon is a joke….sorry just defend…why does he think he can go passed players..he then cant even control a fooball…the hole team were still on holiday…pardew dont u tell best 2 run off amoebi when we kick the ball forward fucking clueless players no hunger 2 score a goal…
Are the wheels starting too fall of the bus lads
we need Tiote and Ba and the new lad back asap .
Toonsy, do the classroom match report again, that was class
People that think Shola is decent only see football as a game played with the ball at your feet. In which case Shola would be average to poor for a Premier League striker.
Those that see how shit he is see football as a game played both on and off the ball.
In which case Shola is possibly the worst player I have EVER witnessed and I am honestly embarrasses that he is a Newcastle player.
When he leads our attack, I expect us to lose even against weak.opposition. Because I cant see US scoring. And unfortunately this is very often the case.
And there might be chance FA gonna take a look at cabaye action…
Geez is he becoming another old joey barton.
Their monkey face manager was loving it. What a load of crap, put in little effort and paid the price. Best and Ameobi are shit, not good enough for this club get rid of Best to Wolves. 7 year in a row we’re out of the 5th round!
What pisses me off is all the bollicks about how we are gonna go for Europe and the FA cup beforehand piss off man you bunch of tossers!!!
Simpson was woeful second half. He LET three players go by him from what I can remember. He wasnt beaten by them. He let them go by. This was the difference between us not losing this game.
BEN ARFA – Did Benny have a good game today? The team was shite and you know it, Bnny included.
Surprised nobody is crediting Perch with that own goal.
On a more serious note, we were the better team overall in the second half. We had a good period especially in the first 20 mins of the second half, had Best or Shola put in at least one of their efforts, It would have been a different outcome. Nevertheless, Cabaye had a poor game, so did Benny and also Simpson. Best did played well and was unlucky not to score. Brighton on the other hand were kicking our players around and got their break through half a chance.
Positives to take from this game, Perch looked solid and Ameobi showed some good footwork. Best was easily our best player.
ESPN got their little upset aswell, the only one of the round…..but predicted and predictable. See you next year lads xx and you Waddle you fucking sausage stuffing mackem imposter
Shola’s flick ons? Why the fuck is he trying to flick everything on. He should be chesting it down. And holding the ball up for the midfield.
Not hoping some random flick on will land on someone’s feet!!!
If he wants to do that he can Fck off and go play for Stoke.
TOBY LE RHONE 268 the reason they were buzzing against Manure is they knew they could make a name for themselves .Today it was sheer arrogance ,they thought they only had to turn up and the game was won .
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/report/_/id/307975?cc=4716
This is what happens when the team is played with youngsters..Rmb Shola was the captain that night and win the game.
Poor performance. Very disappointed in several in the team including Ben Arfa and Best. No attack to speak of. Again can’t understand Pardew’s subs when we are trailing in a game. Why bring on Raylor and Gosling when it was obvious we lacked a cutting edge? If you want to make an impact change the formation and add a striker up front. Go all out 4-3-3 with 20 minutes left at least. Brighton were far too comfortable at the back. Pardew manages well when we have the lead but his choice of subs when we trail is often terrible. We deserve to be out of the cup after playing like that. Two terrible games in a row now. Can’t wait for Ba and Cisse to be available after dross like that again.
JJ-I thought we weren’t going to argue
I know what you mean, running on to through balls certainly isn’t his strength, but some of his movement is still decent, his diagonal run against manure which opened up space for Ba and then the free kick etc is a case example. Then you have to look at the creativity, how many through balls did we play? Did we attempt to play? Surely other players need to make runs as well? I only really remember Barfa to simmo.
Even with Demba ba we basically pass it to his feet and wait for him to beat several defenders before smashing the ball in…or cut it back to him. Rarely do we ever incisively cut through teams.
Axel i would agree .I love Benny but he is a luxury player , he needs to learn to play it a little simpler sometimes .He seems to feel he has to go past the entire opposition befor shooting/passing.
The Shola bashing is predictable at least
@JJ
Not sure what match u watching.
I have seen shola chest it down and flick the ball on countless time without anyone for him to pass to… Leon best is somehow afraid shola will pass on some deadly virus to him and further himself away as far as possible.
I agree with AOD @ 296. At times Best was out near the wing and Shola had nowhere to go or nobody to pass to. The difference is illustrated by Demba Ba, who actually anticipates flick ons ala Manchester United.
I’ve never yet seen Best have a decent header on goal. It always goes over the top. He was free in the box in the first half and it was put right on his head and still he puts it over the net. He also tried to carry the ball too much and beat too many players. Best and Ameobi are starting to look like the same player to me. Would have rather had Ben Arfa up front instead of wasted on the wing. Put Best with Ben Arfa or Shola with Ben Arfa to start since we have nothing else to offer in attack right now. The owner was there. I hope he enjoyed what he saw.
Before anyone starts getting the rope out and hanging themselves, just remember, even under Keegans’ superstars we went out like meek little mice in the cups.
The team played shit I admit that infact the team didn’t play shit because there was no team out there, it was individuals doing their own thing.
The crux of the matter is simple; we played it about ok without any penetration but equally Brighton were shite and the only way I could see the game being won by them was a fluke goal or a dubious penalty and unfortunately it was a fluke goal.
It’s all about ifs’ and buts’ ….BUT, we had a stone wall penalty overlooked by the ref who can have no excuse for not giving it, unless he comes out and says he blatantly disregarded it because he wanted Brighton to win.
Cabaye won’t get anything done by the FA for his little kick out I don’t think because the ref dealt with that but it wouldn’t surprise me if for some reason they look at Ballotellis’ incident and use it as a yardstick and ban Cabaye for 4 games though.
AOD
Shola isn’t good enough for.players to play off him.
When he plays we are forced to play long ball because its all he is capable of with his pathetic movement.
His “style” of play doesn’t suit the way any of our midfielders like to play.
They all looking thread balls through the opposition defence, but Shola is standing, static and marked with his back to goal.
Half the time they just ignore him because he is so slow he allows the opposition defense to reorganize themselves.
If that’s how you want us to play, let’s resign Kevin Nolan and call ourselves Stoke City.
Hark at that slimey little twat on ESPN trying to talk up the Cabaye ‘stamp’.
and that was our best 11 god help us thats two in a row where do we go from here games like these could make you lose faith in footy
Exactly, but we’re clearing telling the players to plkay 4-3-3 and best just isn’t a winger/striker, he doesn’t really understand what’s being expected of him. I don’t really see why we had to change to 4-3-3 to be perfectly fucking honest. Is it just a fashionable to bum 4-3-3 because Barca play it and other Europeans look down on us for it? I see the strengths but jesus, when we’ve played a 4-4-2 that’s served us well for the majority of the season, why fanny around with it. Best and Jonas today were fucking lost, and I don’t really blame em.
ICEDOG@302, that wasn’t our best 11.
We are in a bit of a rutt at present. Blackburn, Qpr, Fulham then this today four real ineffective performances. There i think are some players too complacent and get their team place to easy. If we had lost 3-2 I would of been happier than to never trouble their goal. I suppose having witnessed inept performances over the last fifty years I should by now be getting used to the disappointment.
Season ticket renewals come around next month. I will confirm my renewal but I really need to go and see a shrink supporting the Toon is an obsession that has a serious health warning.
What happened to the 35 million
long-time reader, first ever post
I will lose my mind if Shola starts the next match. I know it’s all been said before, but I find his lack of effort astonishing at times. If he worked half as hard as we just witnessed Mackail-Smith do for brighton, he would be a real asset. Watching him make no effort to turn and chase after a cross gets over his head drives me mad. His two blocked efforts today were as much threat as he’s posed to the opposing goal in three months. All else aside, for a premier league striker, that simply isn’t anywhere near good enough.
To those who constantly defend his play, WHY? He holds the ball up sometimes, and wins a few headers from long balls? So does any decent-sized striker in the world. You think Xisco or Ranger, both of whom have no business in our team (and no longer DO have a place in our squad) wouldn’t win a few headers, or occasionally hold the ball up or provide an outlet from defense? They would, because any striker would. If I were Peter Lovenkrands, stuck on the bench watching that for 90 minutes (again), I would have to think I might never get another chance at Newcastle. I love Pardew, but his tactics and subs today were not the best, and his reliance on Ameobi has to end.
Rant over, bring home the Dembas, and bring on Blackburn!
Does anybody want my Leon Best autograph??? Seriously?? If not it’s going in the bin. Any takers??
I will DJG!
WOLFIE its the bloody best we got at the mo,poor shite against a team like them,if your happy with that your easy pleased imo
What is the good of having an impact player like Ben Arfa and then sticking him out on the wing about 40 miles away from the strikers? And Best is about as good a winger as Ben Arfa. Really makes you wonder. We made it so easy for Brighton to sit back and just hope for a fluke goal, which is what they got. They set little traps all over their half for our attacking players who all tried to beat everyone on the other team. At times Ben Arfa had 3 of their players within a couple of yards of him. We are in desperate need of a pacy winger who can stretch the game and actually cross the ball (remember the days of accurate crosses, there certainly haven’t been any lately).
Is this not Pardew’s tactics again?
Best was way off Shola because the boss told him to play out on the left. Is that his fault? Sure, he should have put that header on target, at least, but it seemed like his orders were to stay out wide.
Did those three changes make sense to anyone? Honestly don’t understand them. Anybody?
Email yur address to toonsy and he will email to to me.
lets get back to reality lads …. were we really gna win the fa cup?? we were really gna beat a good team in this competition with shola ?? no!! lets concentrate on getting some signings in and try and stay around the 7th mark in the league!! i can assure you when ba and cisse get back in the team we will have a different look!! please ashley get samba in
He already has it DJG
Army go away, I hate people who say that, there are how ever many teams in the pot, each and everyone of them has a chance to win it, and if we got through this round we would of had demba back, also with man u and man city out, it was perhaps our best chance!
DJG-I’ll have it buddy, be worth a fortune when he spearheads our trophy winning, champion’s league challenging team…..Next season?
the players AND pardew were to blame for that peformance!! bringin players on so late in a game when your getting beat isnt good enough!! its not like hes just done it today .. he done it against norwich when we were getting beat , he done it at fulham last week now today!!
can i ask … what is wrong with obertan?
WOLFIW@299 it is obvious why the ref did not give the penalty , he is Trelford Mills’s love child . You can’t blame him its in his genes .
One thing that gained my respect from Pards was his honesty. when things went bad he holds his hands up.
Now those post match comments concern me because if he really does think ‘we gave a good account of ourselves’ then the buck has to stop with him and his tactics/formation
That should read WOLFIE@299
The shocking thing to me was Perch actually had a decent game for the most part but Pardew please don’t tell me he is starting against Blackburn. And don’t bother with a string of excuses after this load of bollocks. Just come out and say it. The team played like crap and lost.
Army go away, I hate people who say that, there are how ever many teams in the pot, each and everyone of them has a chance to win it, and if we got through this round we would of had demba back, also with man u and man city out, it was perhaps our best chance!
go away hahaha?? yi dafty .. its my opinion matey , i dont think we could win anything with with sqaud we have got
i just really think we wernt gud enough today and it has narked me of the peformances of most the players!!
perch my man of the match for us
Maybe i shouldnt have told you to go away, but I bet you thought cardiff had no chance of winning the Carling cup? they are in the final?
You’re right Moreno the buck does stop with Pardew. The subs were pathetic and far too late. He should have changed things at the half. He just isn’t decisive when we are losing. Look at how Jol handled things when Fulham were 1-0 down against us. I have a lot of respect for how Pardew has handled the club but subs when we are trailing are not his strength. If I hear him mentioned again as a potential England manager I will know there really is no hope for the national team. I know things are going to get better for us but it can’t happen too soon for me after the last couple of weeks.
What difference a goal can make.
alreet lads,
That was fucking woeful, shola, simpson and williamson are terrible, on the very limited bright side ferguson looked okay when he came on although he’s defo not a left back, diddnt understand those substitutions either why diddnt he bring lover and obertan on.
Really hope we sell simpson he’s startin to piss me off he looks so uncomfortable its mad, hopefully we have seen the last of shola now, i can’t take much more.
Pissed off
its a wee bit different in that cup tho spencer as alot of teams play there 2nd team , every team takes the fa cup alot more seriously … but i do get your point
Everyone is mad about the game, but I am well over that.
I am more concerned about Cabaye’s imminent FOUR MATCH BAN! He is far to petulant at times and he needs to be reigned in.
Ice spot on I have always said that we asa team shouldn’t have to rely on refs, or other teams scores etc. We need to do things ourselfs.
Againn Pards has to take some blame but the players deserve 90% of the blam, its just not good enough.
Perch WAS MAYBE man of the match. But doesn’t that say something?
To me it says Ashley spend some money of this season is in danger of collapsing. With or without our strikers we should have been better than that. Now the priority (with l’pool still in both cups) is and all out assault on the league. But it is pointless because we havn’t got the squad depth under Ashley for Europe. Our best bet was the FA cup and the players have let us down big time tonight. No if’s…no buts.. they have let us down.
The kid, i think everyone forgot about that, put i wish people would put the boot on the other foot, cause defending that is fucking stupid imo.
The Kid good point that is a few times now he has been dirty, and I can’t stand dirty players as there is no need for it.
Meant to say imo this is another game where we miss a player like Joey, we have no one in the team that will tell the players to fuking wise up and play for the shirt.
agree with you dave – not good enough!! never mind we will hopefully have a stronger team next time we are in the fa cup!! lets concentrate on the league now and beat blackburn on wed
Forget about Ashley spending money now people!!!!
I honestly think that he will tell Pardew to fuck off now like, and he’ll want players shipped out before he hands any more cash out.
Think about it, we have nowt left to play for. Ashley doesn’t want Europe and we won’t get champ league with this squad. So I don’t think he’ll spend. They may use the last few days sorting pre contracts and loans but don’t see any more money being spent!
The Kid
I am mad about the game because I know that our ONLY chance to win anything for another 15 months is out of the window without so much as a ‘kiss me arse goodbye’. If you can’t see that then there is a problem mate. Cabaye is just an afterthought.
I’m seeing a bit of hate for Pardew’s subs. Let’s look at the bench…
Subs: Rob Elliot, Tamas Kadar, Shane Ferguson, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Peter Lovenkrands
Three of them came on. The only two viable ones when chasing the game are Peter Lovenkrands and Gabriel Obertan. One is shit and the other one has 50,000 fans telling him he is shit every few weeks…
Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot that Pardew could change in my opinion. It’s down to squad depth, and we all know how we are lacking in that department…
The kid-I didn’t see the stamp myself but it sounds bad, and he’s got away with a couple of dirty tackles. It was kinda funny against Sunderland but he needs to chill out.
Aye Lace what a difference a goal makes but we were dross for the entire game. We should have been all over them. I think once Cabaye started to lose his cool and our strikers (? should I even call them that?) couldn’t connect it got even worse. Ben Arfa was completely shut out of the game and we had no answer for their midfield traps. Ba would have torn them a new one. Sad but true. If we leave this window behind without a good new CB in I will scream.
AROUND @306
Perfectly worded mate, that’s exactly how I feel about Shola.
Guys one thing about making subs ,he makes them because he honestly thinks it will make a difference to the tactics he set out . We can sometimes not understand them but i do think he makes them with a plan to change the game . Bert Van Marwijk used to get get slagged off by fans when at feyenoord because he makes late changes and look at him now ,he got Holland to the final of the world cup . Managers make changes because they believe in their players and its the players that cross the line and enter the field . The fact is our players let us the fans and the manager down today ,their was just no effort from alot of them today and Pardew should be judged on how he now reacts in the next game in terms off the players picked to play .
djg
You actually thought we would win this cup?
I’m sorry, but I struggle to get downbeat about the cups. Probably has something to do with the fact that I have never seen my team win one.
Toonsy, which is which
Seems like Ben Arfa isn’t up for a cold Saturday evening in Brighton.
Leon Best was the only attacker who tried and he can’t do it all by himself. How people are picking Best of all people out boggles the mind.
Ben Arfa was a disgrace, Shola actually did his “task” well but it never counted to anything.
We only seemed to try after going behind when we put two wide players on who can cross. Cabaye looks a right twat too, he lashes out at Shaun Derry and then kicks out nevermind his near broken leg on Jay Spearing. Cunt.
Start with Ferguson and Ryan Taylor next game and we will score a headed goal.
He could have taken off Shola for Loverman and gone with a straight 4-4-2 for the final 20 minutes. It’s not like our midfield was overrun.
Dunno. I have to admit I’m often baffled by tactics and don’t know much about it, so that’s why I’m questioning.
Anybody have better sub ideas?
I know Strolla gets a lot of well deserved stick, but I think Best gets away too lightly he has scored in 2 games out of 15 or 16 is that the best we should hope for
.
Toonsy Pardew could have changed the formation earlier in the game. Bringing on 3 subs in the last 8 minutes was pointless. Ben Arfa was completely ineffective where he was used. I agree many have been critical of Obertan but he was desperately needed out there today for his pace. He has to show some guts and just go out there and prove he is worthy of a place in the team. If he is too soft to handle a little criticism he will never make it. But he didn’t get a chance anyway. Very frustrating. It was only a couple of months ago that Pardew was singing Obertan’s praises. Lots of work to do to restore confidence Pardew. Use Ba and Cisse well and make us forget about this fiasco.
Also, I am starting to worry about Santon’s form. That’s two shockers in a row for the young Italian. Needs to bounce back against Blackburn.
agree with that Axel, at the end of the day players should be able to do it on the pitch regardless of tactics but when we are getting beat 1 nil you would expect players to be brought on who are capable of scoring goals, the substitutions said to me give it to taylor and ferguson and get it in the box. sorry but you have to be more imaginative than that. why he keeps picking shola i don’t know.
Axel @ 342 spot on I agree 100%
the only problem for Pards is he doesn’t really have much to choose from.
i wana see on news now tonight ” samba in newcastle united talks ” or douglas agrees terms with newcastle united … not .. newcastle united try 4th attempt to buy mariappa
The Kid – Do these two shockers for Santon coincide withJonas going wandering and effectively leaving Santon on his own against the whole pf the opposition left side?
FJ
You definitely see things differently from me if you thought Best did OK. For me he was as much crap as Shola. Alarmingly those two weren’t our worst players. Williamson Simpson and Jonas took that honour easily.
A well documented fact is that before this season I wasn’t a Guthrie fan but his performances pre Christmas were winning me round but this month he has been painful to watch once again. Slows play down. I want my football a hundred mile a hour with loads of attempts at goal not the dire of stuff produced lately
My take on the match goes as this.
Krul, didn’t have much to do and could do nothing with the deflected goal. 6/10
Santon, played ok and got up the line but defensively I think he switched off too many times, probably an Italian mentality of playing so called minnows and believing it’s gonna be easy. 6/10
Perch, didn’t really put a foot wrong and stood firm with everything that came his way, which wasn’t that much. He done his job though. 7/10.
Williamson, he had a reasonable game and wasn’t really troubled at all but unfortunately his deflection led to their goal and I have to question why he turned his back on the shot like a sissy. 6/10
Simpson, I thought he had a poor game and his crossing always ends up 90 foot in the air or 90 foot past the goal posts, plus he got caught out too many times and looked clueless really. 4/10
Jonas, looked lethargic even though you could see he was trying but nothing hardly came off for him and lost the ball more times than I can remember. 5/10
Cabaye, he covers a lot of ground and loves to rough it but you could see the frustration on him when tackles against him went unpunished and he seemed to lose any influence on the game as it went on but still put in a decent enough display, although Pardew is gonna have to try and calm him down in games because we will end up with 10 men too regular if he strops , he distributed some really good balls though….7/10
Guthrie, average at best and didn’t really get into the game. 6/10
Ben Arfa, absolutely frustrating and believed he could just run through the Brighton players as if they weren’t there and lost the ball too many times, plus his distribution was way way below par, I was very dosappointed in him today. 4/10
Best, I thought he had a very good game, unfortunately the shape of the team didn’t do him any favours to be fair to him but he still put in a great shift considering and COULD have had a brace. Unfortunately it wasn’t his day. 7and a half out of 10
Shola, I just don’t know what to say really, I mean people can argue that he holds up the ball and flicks the ball on and such but that’s no good in a system we were playing of him being basically the last man. He was too slow in mind and body to have any meaningful effect on this game. H e is a player that wants his chances on a plate like someone bringing his breakfast up to him in bed and refusing to go back down and get himself a glass of orange, if you get my meaning.
Subs.
Ferguson, I thought the lad was extremely good from the minute he came on and foraged forward at every opportunity and he looked hungry and I don’t mean because he has a Jody Kidd frame lol 7/10
Raylor, looked a better bet than what we were seeing , it’s just a shame we couldn’t have gained a free kick for him to be a hero .6/10
Gosling, I don’t know why we brought him on because there was no urgency in him to get forward and didn’t do anything that was different to what we were doing in the first place.5/10
Pardew, Sorry Pardew got it wrong this time and I can’t understand why he didn’t alter the shape because Brighton weren’t really much of a threat even with us playing as bad as we did. I think Obertan could have changed this game if he came on and we reverted to a 4/4/2
Ref Lee Probert, I thought he was terrible for a lot of the game and certainly seemed to favour Brighton. The blatant hand ball for a penalty to us he didn’t bottle it, he blatantly cheated us out of it.2/10
All in all, this wasn’t a team game and all of our players looked like they just met yesterday, plus there was no urgency hardly when we went a goal down.
I know it’s 20-20 hindsight now but we got the same type of disaster against Stevenage last season. I don’t think it is a fluke that we were criticising Pardew’s in that game as well. We got behind and he made bizarre pointless subs as with today. It has happened several times in the league games as well. Look back at the Stevenage game and compare it to today. The same kind of insipid performance with very little desire to get into the game, then the strange subs. What happened to Pardew’s comments that he only saw Ben Arfa as a withdrawn striker? Withdrawn to where? The wing? I still remain unconvinced about Pardew’s ability to manage from behind. Only time will tell about that. He will get lots of opportunities if we continue to play like we did today though.
Anyway, match report up. Pretty pissed off so it might show through. Sorry
The Kid I think its the whole back 4 that was suffering, I think they badly miss Colo and Saylor because when they were there we had one of the best defence’s and that was with Simmo and Raylor in there. Could it be a lack of trust between them ? I think sometimes that could be a problem for the team in general trust, because the way I see it we can make as many chances as we like but if we are relying on our front 2 to get the goals we need then we’re fuked, and whats to stop the other players thinking the same.
The Kid
Please tell me if you rated Santon as having a shocker how did you rate Williamson and Simpson tonight?
Good question about Jonas’ wandering leaving Santon exposed, but that’s down to Pardew’s dabble with the new formation too, isn’t it?
I think Santon’s been a little suspect defensively before these two games. Looks good going forward, no doubt, but has had some trouble defending.
It’s true Pardew’s in a pretty tight spot squad wise, but the changes were late and hard to wrap my head around anyway.
Perch was good today. I remember Toonsy writing he’d had really good games in central defense in the past too.
ALEX i think you are right about the thinking about bringing Taylor and Ferguson on and getting the ball in the box , trouble is the recipient of those balls today was Shola . I think next time with Ba and Cisse in their it will be a different story .
Army @ 352 you never know as we still have £ 15 – 17 mill to spend
I have to agree almost completely with your scores for the team wolfie. I would give Pardew about 3 out of 10 for his performance on the day. Poor formation to start, no subs at the half, waited too late to make subs and then made the wrong ones. Leave Gosling off, bring on Peter and play 4-3-3 with Best and Ben Arfa up front. Obertan on the right (leave Raylor off) and Ferguson on the left with Guthrie in the middle (pull Cabaye off he had lost it earlier on). Attack from both wings with pace.
ARMY69 believe me we dont want Douglas here ,he is not good enough for the premiership . He can tackle but thats it ,his distribution once on the ball is crap and his positional play can be left wanting as well .
Gutted and very angry about result/performance and its not good enough. However I hope it doesnt take away from the fantastic progress we have made this season. We all know the squad isnt good enough in certain areas but we are a work in progress.
Simply best and shola are not good enough ! play vuckic play the kids play lovenkrands play the lad from bogner but not those two they are very very poor . Pardew did get it wrong today but we are all allowed an off day ! And at the risk of the “get behind the team ” ers shooting me down it yet again proves we have a very good first team and a poor squad and this is mainly down to lack of investment and trying to do everything on the cheap
Toby
Williamson and Simpson were comfortable for the most part. Simpson was useless towards the end of the game as he was clearly tiring and was on a yellow card. The result is a defender that will not put in challenges for fear of making a lazy one that results in a sending off.
Williamson didn’t really anything wrong. Neither did Perch. We weren’t really threatened by them.
I was probably harsh on Santon when I said he had a shocker, but he was certainly below his performances prior to Fulham.
Toonsy
Yes, I believe there is a connection between Jonas’ new position and Santon’s performances. Modern day full backs always tend to struggle in a 4-3-3 formation as they are left exposed and have to be equally good at defending as attacking…Very rare nowadays.
Man to man all the Newcastle players were better quality but Brighton just showed more determination.
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