Capitulation at the Cottage! Fulham 5-2 Newcastle

Guthrie opens the scoring
It was a tale of the sublime and the ridiculous at Craven Cottage as Newcastle ended up on the end of a resounding 5-2 defeat at the hands of Martin Jol’s Fulham.

It was sublime in the first half. Newcastle played as well as I’ve seen them play for a long time and pretty much dominated the hosts who were tame by comparison.

It then turned ridiculous in the second half as Fulham came back strong and scored five goals, which all started with the assistance of the referee who changed the game with a penalty decision that was awarded for a foul outside the box. Of course what happened after that there is no excuse for, but make no mistake that penalty decision – early in the second half – changed the dynamic of the game.

Yohan Cabaye shook off his injury and assumed his role in midfield next to Danny Guthrie while Hatem Ben Arfa was handed a start up front with Shola Ameobi and Leon Best. Defensively Newcastle were unchanged and kept the same back five that have been impressing so much in recent weeks.

Newcastle started off brightly and took the game to Fulham. Shola Ameobi headed goalwards while Fabricio Coloccini could ad probably should have put United into the lead but he applied a finish that reminded us all that Colo is a defender first and foremost.

More impressive though was the sheer dominance of the away side, aided and abetted by an abject Fulham side who just didn’t look interested. At one stage we had over 80% of the possession so it perhaps came as no surprise when Newcastle eventually took the lead. Well, perhaps the only surprise was that it took 43 minutes to find the breakthrough.

Ben Arfa – criticised by Alan Pardew for his lack of defensive work – won the ball back off of Bryan Ruiz before passing to Danny Guthrie who dribbled inside and unleashed an unstoppable 25-yard left-footed drive high into the Fulham net. It was an exquisite goal that reinforces the fine run of form Danny Guthrie – or the “G-Unit” as myself, Mark and Jobey christened him at Nottingham Forest earlier in the season – is in at the moment.

Half-time: Fulham 0-1 Newcastle

I always sense that Fulham would come out fired up and offer more, which they did. However they were gifted an equaliser when Davide Santon shoved Damien Duff in the back on the edge of the area resulting in the hosts being awarded a penalty. A harsh decision when you consider that first contact was made a good three yards outside the box. Danny Murphy slotted home the resulting spot kick to restore parity.

From then on there was only ever going to be one winner. Buoyed by the equaliser Fulham set about turning the screws on Newcastle. Zamora forced a save from Krul from which Chris Baird fired the rebound over. Parity didn’t last long however and Fulham did indeed take the lead. Andy Johnson ran at the away defence and played in Bobby Zamora whose shot was parried by Krul straight into the path of Clint Dempsey who was in the right place at the right time to find the back of the net.

A third goal came soon after, again through Clint Dempsey who finished calmly into the bottom corner of the after being played in by Zamora. With England boss Fabio Capello in the stands, Zamora looked keen to impress.

And it was the former West Ham man who made it 4-1 and round off a mad 16 minutes for the Magpies by despatching another penalty (the right call this time) straight down the middle of the goal after Andy Johnson was fouled by Tim Krul, or Mike Williamson. Take your pick. By that time I was to annoyed to work out just who the offence was given against…

Hope, well slim hope, was restored when Hatem Ben Arfa jinked in from the right wing and smashed the ball into the back of the net to reduce the deficit to 4-2 but any lingering hopes of a fight back were killed off a minute before time when Clint Dempsey completed his hat-trick and compound the misery for the away side.

Full-time: Fulham 5-2 Newcastle

So where do we start analysing? Well obviously it’s not a great result and our second half collapse was horrendous. We just seemed to completely switch off. Perhaps our first half performance bred some overconfidence? Perhaps it was the tactical switch from Jol? Maybe it was a bit of both?

The fact is that it’s done now and can’t be changed. Not many teams go through a season without getting some form of thumping and even the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United have been on the end of a hiding. Hopefully this game was ours!

There were a couple of encouraging things from the game yesterday though. One being Hatem Ben Arfa. He is becoming the starter that he’s been touted as being. It’s been a while coming, but he is working for the team now and is still doing his stuff when it comes to attacking. He’s stewing away quite nicely at the moment.

The other one, and this is a bit left field, is that the result was mainly our own doing. We were the architects of our downfall and that isn’t often the case. Generally we’ve been solid enough for bulk of the season and hopefully this result will give them enough of a kick up the backside to get back to what they have been doing so well this season.

Next week we are in FA Cup action. A chance to get back to winning ways and banish this result to the history books. Fair play to Fulham, but I can’t help thinking we made it so easy for them in the end.

Howay the lads!

Fulham: David Stockdale; Stephen Kelly, Brede Hangeland, Philippe Senderos, John Arne Riise; Steve Sidwell, Danny Murphy (c), Clint Dempsey; Damien Duff, Bobby Zamora, Bryan Ruiz

Subs: Neil Etheridge, Matthew Briggs, Chris Baird, Aaron Hughes, Kerim Frei, Marcel Gecov, Andrew Johnson

Newcastle: Tim Krul; Danny Simpson, Mike Williamson, Fabricio Coloccini (c), Davide Santon; Hatem Ben Arfa, Danny Guthrie, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez; Leon Best, Shola Ameobi

Subs: Rob Elliot, Shane Ferguson, James Perch, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling, Gabriel Obertan, Peter Lovenkrands.

Attendance: 25,692

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

76 thoughts on “Capitulation at the Cottage! Fulham 5-2 Newcastle

  1. Good write up, sublime to the ridiculous just about sums it up, as Cornish says doubt it will happen again. Roll on the next game and the chance to put things right, that’s the beauty of football, redemption is always just around the corner. HWTL

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  2. First half: excellent interchange and movement by the midfield – pity there wasn’t much of a threat by the forwards.

    Second half: ***** all over the field.

    Jonas was good in the roaming roll and linked up well with HBA in the 1st half. It was fluid and interesting, so why were we so quick to change that set up in the second half?

    Really pissed off with Ashley after that performance (because he’s the guy who makes all the decisions 😉 ) Never mind, these things happen. Moving on …

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  3. richie,he was so bad. i wish i could say he was a yard off the pace, so slow im amazed he caught the bus to the game

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  4. Pleased to see Senagal lose last night, we may get Wor Demba’s back sooner than expected. 😆 😆

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  5. poor 2nd half showing y’day. Although Johnson made the difference for them when he came on, I’m sure we reverted to the old ‘one up front’ at the start of the 2nd half.

    Shola is incapable of holding the line on his tod, he so slow.. so why do we invite trouble?

    It should of been a comfortable win.. never mind, Pool lost 😀

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  6. Carroll looked desperate v Bolton. I doubt they’d get 8mil nu for him. 😆

    there was a point in the 2nd half around 75mins when he tried a one-two with Gerrard and completely miss-timed the pass.. Gerrard looked embarrassed but Carroll didnt even have the heart to apoligise or even look at Gerrard..

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  7. Mark – There was one point where Carroll was 12 yards out, shot at goal, but he struck the ball against his other leg and it just bounced to safety 😆

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  8. The midfield dissapeared in the second half and this put too much pressure on the defence. The reason the midfield struggled is because there is just absolutely no movement from our front two so they had nobody to pass to so ended up losing the ball.

    Static forwards cause a magnitude of problems for a team and we saw it for ourselves yesterday in the second half.

    Come on Sengegal, another ***** performance please.

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  9. Awful result, good 1st half, scored 2 great goals and conceded 5 poor ones, they had a cutting edge up front and we didnt.
    To our credit, we kept going even at 5 – 2, Ben Arfa looks well up to speed now but the back 4 were seriously exposed for the first time this season, maybe that had a lot to do with Guthrie and Cabaye carrying knocks and tiring.

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  10. It was a must win game for fulham as if hey lost then they were in a relegation battle, and I bet Martin Jol made sure his players knew that at half time. If sidwell didn’t get injured and were forced to bring Johnson on in a 4-4-2 then I think we may have went on to win. I think the second half was a case of Pardew being accidentally tactically outclassed while the fulham players wanted it more. Roll on the cup.

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  11. @Tigger

    How’s things this morning Tigger? 😛

    I was bouncing out of anger yesterday after that capitulation in the second half. 😯

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  12. Live in China first game been at since Arsenal opening saturday, gutted. But gotta say Pardew needs to hold his hand up. Shola should have been taken off. People are praising our first half but we only had that much possession because fulham were so bad, I was screaming for us to raise the tempo and press them in the first half, but we just sat back and took the odd chance that a fulham mistake allowed. With the right tempo the game would have been over at half-time. There was no urgency, we really were not that good in the first half at all. The mood was really set then for the second half.

    Ben Arfa is dangerous certainly but he definitely disrupts our shape, we were absolutely all over the place in the second half, plus he really does run into brickwalls so often and gives up position. Pardew should have changed it, brought Obertan on and got us into a solid 442 or 451, we had no width and no cover, the midfield was just stretched all over the place.

    There were comments when Barton and Nolan went that we would need their graft at certain stages of the season, this was one. Guthrie was head and shoulders above Cabaye and Jonas yesterday, he was up for it , the others just let the game pass them by. They were pathetic. The only reason Guthrie got booked was that he was so frustrated about what was going on around him.

    We shouldn’t even talk of Ba, Tiote etc, we had plenty there to win that game and we didn’t. Pardew, like a few of our players, needs to man up a bit and take some responsibility because that was an easy 3 points, Fulham were that poor in the first half, and we ended up getting trounced.

    *I watched the players warm up yesterday, and Carver was trying to get them to take the 1 touch passing drill seriously, ping the ball to each other. They didn’t, too many doing their own thing. They carried that into the game. We may have had possession first half, but if we had passed it with the urgency that Carver was asking for in the warm up we would have one that game in the first half. We didn’t.

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  13. Lets be honest a very bad 25mins stoke and bindippers lost so it wasnt the worst result in the world.

    Europe next year could be a huge mistake for us not that im saying it isnt great but we do not have the squad strength to play consistently 😕

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  14. on a different note, he does make me laugh

    cwarr07 Colin
    Re Cabaye if he plays any part v Fulham I’ll quit twitter

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  15. Over confidence?
    One thing I would like to see is HBA playing off the front man he has shown he can score goals … 3 in 5?

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  16. @lionelspeed

    You make me absolutely furious with your assessment!!!!!!! Do you actually realise you are talking total and utter ………………….. Sense!!!!!!!!

    You’ve jumped on board the reality train without introducing yourself!!!!

    Forgiven tho. . Jump on board. 😛

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  17. if you look at every prem team this season you will find at one point they have been hammered !! its happened to even man utd!! thats football tho and it just gives us a massive chance to show what sort characters the team have when they try and bounce back next game which im sure we will!! all in all yesterdays game was a game to forget so lets move on , we have 36 pts with 16 games left and 3 top pros to come back soon from acon so im very positive we can get on a winnin run again sooner or later!! hwtl

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  18. HBA is definitely an immense talent. His goal scoring compilation at the end of the season is going to be fantastic. 😛

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  19. not bad Troyore, hope all is good.

    Ive got calf-lock after last weeks bouncing, so im just walking now but raising my eyebrows as if im bouncing 😀

    it didnt go down too well in tesco’s last night, especially in the lingerie department 😀

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  20. i agree 100% troy!! hes got 3 goals now in a handfull of games … hes a fantastic player who we cant leave out the team!! one thing that really angers me is when pardew can start a game with shola and have ben arfa on the bench hahaha shola needs to hang his boots up asap cos its gettn embarrasin!!!

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  21. Santon looked as bad as Enrique did for Pool v Bolton 😯

    Isnt there meant to be some good news today regarding a defender, read it somewhere..

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  22. ARMY69

    Shola isnt all about scoring goals in his 15yrs service, it’s his hold-up play, awareness, distribution, beating the offside trap, which are all also gash 😆

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  23. Mark… allegedly Colo’s agent coming over in the next 10 days or so to tie up his contract 😯

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  24. ALAN PARDEW says his new defender will be ready for first-team football straight away – as he hinted Jason Prior can still have a Toon future.

    The Sunday Sun understands Newcastle hope to clinch a new defensive recruit before their Cup dash to Brighton in a move that would conclude their business for the window.

    And Pardew still has ALL of his £8million transfer war chest left, with the cash raised to sign Papiss Cisse understood to have come from the summer budget – which included provision to bring in a new No 9.

    Unsurprisingly, given that kind of cash Pardew is confident of bringing in a player capable of challenging the first team immediately.

    “I wouldn’t bring a player in if I didn’t think he could challenge for the first team – full stop,” he said. “If I don’t think a player can come straight into the first team, it makes no difference to me.”

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  25. I just wish we would pack in the long ball game that we have adopted again lately.
    Tim Krul kicks long and all it does is give away possession.
    so frustrating, because he then does it again and again and again.
    I’m like WTF man ❓ 😕 ❓ try something else ffs. 👿

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  26. @Tigger

    I think I saw you in the lingerie department. I was trying a thong on at the time and was struggling to fit my bits in. 😛

    I’ve also had calf trouble. I woke up this morning and did my usual check on my ornamental cow on my front lawn and found someone had exchanged it for calf! Bloody fizzin again! 😯

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  27. @richie

    Colo’s agent is coming over to tie his contract up?

    Colo needs to ask him to tie his boot laces after his performance yesterday. 😯

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  28. @Troyore

    U couldnt of seem me m8, I normally climb into a sexy outfit while its still hung on the rack, Im sure ppl dont notice im there. I was there for hrs y’day just watching the ladies picking up thongs 😯 👿

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  29. Troy…he knows how to tie them, he just shouldn’t tie the 2 together 😉 …..everyones allowed a bad half though…just wish the feckers didn’t all have it at the same time 😕

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  30. @Tigger

    I like the way you hang 😛

    Which mode of transport are you on today? The reality train or dream bus? 😆

    I’m torn whether to call you Tigger or The Butterfly.

    Tigger has been explained but the butterfly floats from one vehicle to the other like a they do with flowers depending on how good the nectar tastes.

    You really are a butterfly who floats about with no real views. 😛

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  31. The 1st half we were on fire, but for all the possession we had we should have been up 2-3.0 but our strikers arn’t capable.
    2nd half was a disgrace, and I cant help but think that we missed a Barton type player that would have gave the players the rollicking they needed and deserved, I think the closest we have is Saylor.
    I think Colo is a good captain but I think the Captain has to be able to ball and shout if needed, and yesterday it was needed.
    But Thankfully I think that was a one off, and we won’t have to witness that again

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  32. The dirty Mackems are still clawing away at our lead. I wouldn’t write them off finishing above us. 😯

    Hughton has now got Birmingham in the play off position after their win yesterday. I still like Hughton (tho not comparing or criticising Pardew cos he’s done fantastic as well).

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  33. @Troyore, aye I’ll go with Butterfly ta 😉

    I’m travelling on the ream trus.. see what I did there? clever eh 🙄

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  34. Troy I noticed Hooters during the week, I think he has toughend up a bit from he went to brum, I seen him balling and shouting at them admittedly it was one of the younguns but all the same. 😉

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  35. i have never been more angry in my life than when i watched sholas peformance yesterday!!! does he even care if he loses the ball?? he didnt break sweat once yesterday , hes a lazy , terrible footballer that doesnt deserve any more time in the pitch!! surely pardew can see hes terrible???? anytime shola plays we are playn with 10 men … hes that bad!! i would even have ranger playn instead and thats saying something

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  36. if pards continues playing shola,questions have to be asked..
    play best with benny just behind him.
    we would get more joy,and didnt pards say thats where he wants benny to play..
    shola brings nothing

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  37. why didnt he bring obertan on yesterday , take shola off and move benny just behind best with obertan on the right or vice versa?? we were needing goals and he brung perch and gosling on?? pardews done fantastic but his decisions sometimes scare me

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  38. No question, up there with the worst performances I’ve ever seen in the second half. Seriously, that was England style football.

    The whole side apart from maybe Barfa when to sleep in that second half. Bambi was very poor but I find it bloody hilarious people blame him for us losing? Do we expect him and Bestie and Barfa to score 6 goals a match now so we don’t lose? Are we going for the King Kev strategy?

    Colo should have buried his chance and was very poor in defence, possibly not as bad as wilo/simo/santon but they were all pretty horrific and Krul unfortunately couldn’t really get his hands to any of the shots.

    Guthrie and Cabaye completely vanished and allowed those ridiculously poor overhead balls to tear us to shreds.

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  39. Jol watched his team get thoroughly outplayed for 40-odd mins and decided to do something about it. He noticed that there was repeatedly a load of space in behind the CBs due to NUFCs high-line. He brought on pacey, shoulder-hanging, CB-spinning Andy Johnson and told his team to play balls over the top for him (and later Dempsey) to run on to.

    Due to a strong Fulham tail-wind in the first half, most attempts at using this tactic weren’t effective, passes tending to run away from Johnson into touch. The one time we were caught out, Santon probably should have been sent off for twice hacking the nippy little ****. Danger sign

    Now, in the 2nd half that aforementioned strong wind became a head-wind (for them) which served to hold up nicely any through balls played in behind our CBs and the collapse ensued….

    In short, Pardew desperately needs to come up with a plan B for when our tendency to play a high-line is being explicitly exploited by an opponent. It’s not the first time it’s happened this season, after all…..

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  40. army69..the game was up then..why risk injury 2 cabye and yes u are right in some ways…but if he got injuried u would be saying why didnt u take him off….ben arfa is something special..with them 2 upfront he is doing all the work himself…they dont even make runs for him and some times he hits brick walls becasue he cant pass it off…13 years i have waited for some1like ben arfa to get me off my seat every time he gets the ball..not since the great tino..

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  41. Shola had one of his off days yesterday, which most of us feel he has too often. I like Shola, but his inconsistency comes part and parcel. He was class against QPR. Yesterday he stunk the cottage out. Anyone managing him needs to realise that he doesn’t always perform and should be prepared to pull him when he doesn’t.

    Don’t know what to say about the game. We did dominate them in the first half, but we paid the price for not making the dominance count. We should have gone in at about 3 up if our finishing had reflected the play, putting the game out of their reach. Have to take it on the chin and hope that this wouldn’t have happened if Demba and Demba had been on the pitch instead of Best and Shola. Not that Best didn’t try, he just didn’t seem to get into the game as much as he sometimes does.

    Personally I hope Pardew sticks to the 4-3-3 when we have a full strength squad. Ba and Benny either side of Cisse with Jonas lurking and Cabaye and Tiote sitting. Looks tasty to me. Maybe go back to 4-4-2 until the ACoN ends though.

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  42. army – “pardews done fantastic but his decisions sometimes scare me”
    .
    Totally agree. How he worked out Perch n Gosling was the answer beggers belief. He didn’t have a clue tbh 😳

    Big Dave @ 43. Bang on. I was saying the same thing yesterday. For the first time we really missed what Bartoon can bring ON the pitch.
    Colo is weak when it comes to getting a grip.
    When the pressure was on and the Lads were in dissarray, we had no one to man up and get the problem sorted.
    Its kind of worrying really.

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  43. Can’t really say anything else that hasn’t been already said about the second half. We were ****. The thing with Shola is every now and again he has a game and is outstanding. Like when he came on against spuds and got a cracking goal and bullied their back four from what I remember. But far too often you get yesterday. But i love Shola regardless of his inconsistency!

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  44. Agree with BB – we always say Colo is a captain who leads by example, but when that example is **** we’re knackered.

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  45. Wheres the butterfly fluttered off to? 😛

    How’s big Dave today.? I would like to see Hughton bring Brum back up.
    I know you have opinions on Hooters but I seriously can’t remember if it was supportive or critical. What’s your view again?

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  46. Ameobi was poor against QPR actually, then far worse against Fulham. I like the lad and know he is capable of contributing to the cause, but his current form is shocking now. Like a lot of people noted yesterday, he was simply not moving. I noted time and again where he would pass then remain static, giving players no options. Other times they would be loking for him to run into space, but he just stood there like a lost little lamb. Can not think of many performances worse than that.

    Generally the team and manager all had a bad day with the exception of maybe Benny and Guti, but my worst 4 players yesterday would be Santon, Simpson, Williamson & Ameobi.

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  47. BB I have heard lots of Fans saying that he doesn’t need to bawl and shout because he leads by example.
    But I think there is times that the Captain needs to bawl and shout, and tell the players to get there *** into gear, and yesterday even the player next to him Willo needed to be told.
    I do believe that Saylor will be a good future captain, because I have seen him shout at his team mates before.

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  48. I think it was quite easy to understand how can we play all the game with no striker or no guys upfront. Pardew must have change at half time putting Best Upfront with Benny just behind and introducing Rtaylor for Shola. Because in this game Shola was inexistent and even Best was lost in this left side. And you can do nothing with Shola, he cannot control a ball, you cannot made a combination with him he doesn’t understand the game, he has a lag of 5 second of reactions. I immagine how must feel Benny 3 or 4 weeks ago when he see Shola Play and himself in the bench..
    After yeah Andy Johnson brings a lot of problem, he seems to have a lot more pace than our defenders.

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  49. There is always a danger when we play a high defensive pressing game we will get caught out by fast strikers getting behind us and our fullbacks.

    That happened yesterday through , who terrorised the CB’s and Santone in particular yesterday. West Brom also did it a few weeks back. We will always be open to that kind of striker cos we have no real pace in mid-defence. However, the defending needs to be done throughout the team, starting from the front line. Our strikers were poor yesterday, and Cabaye and Guthrie disappeared completely in the second half, due to being unfit or lacking match practice, whatever…

    A saving grace is that we have HBA in the team. When he gets the ball in the same position as yesterday, on the right hand side, and runs at the defender, no-one will be able to stop him. He is providing the goals from midfield which we have been crying out for. And man what a powerful shot he has on him.

    Despite the gash second half yesterday, we still have a lot of promise in the side. Don’t forget we only came back up last year, we are doing great !

    There again, I wasn’t there yesterday, so I have no right to comment…. 😉

    Howay the lads…

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  50. Ya gotta laugh at Liverpool….. 😆 😆 wehey cuffed by Bolton WITH Gerrard in the side…

    Poor Bolton, great win yesterday, and all the papers can focus on is Dalglish and what Liverpool did wrong. Dreadfully disrespectful against Bolton. The toon have suffered the same way this season, despite cuffing Man Utd for example…. 😉

    Take loanee Bellamys goals out of that Liverpool team and they would be struggling….ditto Adebayor at Spuds…..

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  51. Troy I always liked Hooters as a coach, but never felt he had the steel needed to make tough decisions that a manager sometimes has to make.
    I always believed that he let the senior players have too much power, and things I have heard from he went, only confirms to me that they had too much power

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  52. @BD

    I’m not sure. I think there is a place for having influential players in the dressing room if it suits.
    For example, things were going well for the team and there seemed to be a good team spirit.

    Whether or not Hooters was undermined by the team is open for debate. It’s not acceptable if he was but I don’t know enough about what happened.

    All I can say is, Hooters was always professional and came across as a really genuine fella and he should be remembered for his promotion achievement whether he was fortunate to inherit such a strong team or not.

    The way he was dealt with by the regime was a disgrace.

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  53. **** all over the park. Except HBA.
    It happens to the best of us.
    Nowt we can dee noo apart from pick themselves up, and concentrate on Brighton.
    Have to say, the ****** irishman who sent us down 3 years ago wants raped for that penalty dive though.
    Totally changed the game.
    Oh and clint dempsey had a blinder

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  54. Clunt Dempsey has scored 10 goals in 10 games this season. 😯
    He wont be at Fulham much longer I wouldn’t think.
    His 3rd goal was well taken too.
    Made even easier by the fact there were nay defenders 👿

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