sandwichsaint

I think you'll find they let girls into schools nowadays, and even universities too.

Can we have this next week?

Yoof ain't what it used to be. I remember a time when he would have got a shower of loose change, a couple of cups of **** and the odd stray dart for his troubles.

At the moment the 'worse' three sides are Reading / Villa / QPR, QPR have potential to get a bit better, Villa limited opportunity to get better, Reading very little chance of getting better. Newcastle and Sunderland both look mediocre, Sunderland haven't been very good for a while and their time might have come no obvious signs where they are going to improve. Newcastle have a lot of injuries and Thursday footie to contend with but they do have the players to get out of it. I don't think Norwich or Wigan will go down, Stoke aren't even in the mix, all three have decent managers and a method that accumulates points. Ditto Saints, injuries are obviously key for us, but we have shown that our first X1 can compete and pick up points, but major question marks over squad depth. Who will change their teams in the window? Depends who can afford new players AND who can attract new players of the required standard. Would think Newcastle and QPR fit that descriptor and would like to think we will try to strengthen, particularly if we are not cast adrift at that stage. If I had to pick now I would go for 18 Sunderland 19 Villa 20 Reading 15 Saints!

My understanding is it's based on 'excessive force', which is again totally subjective. A tackle that's dangerous or likely to lead to an injury is a foul even if the defender plays the ball first. Haven't seen it on telly but in realtime it looked like a very quick and very well executed tackle, defender gets to the ball first and plays it away, then the defender and fd collide and the fd goes down. Judging by the telly comments above that is what happened. Clattenberg's two calls are 1) did the defender reach the ball first, and 2) was the tackle 'safe' in that it was controlled and that the forward was in no way put at risk. Facts will say Clattenberg got either 1 or 2 or both wrong, and he was wrong to award the freekick, albeit he has to make the decision in realtime with all the other associated pressures. Unfortunately that's what he's paid for and he got it wrong last night (on this and almost everything else too), really really poor game from somebody who is supposed to be one of our top 2 or 3 refs.

Agree, I picked this up straight away, no excuses for the goalkeeping but Punch really shouldn't be playing at that off-balance (although in part it is instinct to stick your leg out). It was a routine shot that the GK should have fielded 999/1000 and after Punch taking an air-shot over the ball the second most likely outcome would have been him shinning it straight past his own GK, tho he probably would have saved that! (I've seen it once in real time from 100m away and haven't seen it on telly so feel free to ignore/tell me I'm wrong if I'm 'doing a Derry' on this one).

Was hoping for all 3 tonight but in the end happy to settle for one - 4 games unbeaten in the 'hardest league in the world' TM NA, is not to be sniffed at. Norwich were better (more effective) than most of the teams we have played at home so far and our performance had more than a hint of after the Lord Mayor's show about it. The Keeper, Yoshi and pretty much all of the front 6 failed to reach the heights they reached on Sunday. Honorable exceptions Clyne and Fonte are both proving to be very consistent performers this season and Shaw had a stormer at LB. Fairly tepid game all round, all turning on their shocking goal, let Norwich back into the game and they pretty much carried that momentum in the second half. Not sure where this leaves us for Liverpool? Maybe some rotation on Saturday and then get our best X1 out v Reading the week after? Good to see we had enough about us to scrap out a result even though we didn't play particularly well, we are back on track and wins against Reading and Sunderland would see us moving above a point a game. (KD on Saturday for me; Gazza looked shot tonight, it's out of the firing line and off on loan to L1 for him, though I still see him as a decent long-term option for us).

Just in, took 47 minutes to get from Charlotte Place to the bottom of the M3 after the game. (Un)happy days.

Block 39 not good enough for him now;)? Saw his lads were in yesterday though.

TBF,he's been at it all season.

I think we'd all prefer Ricky to start but it wouldn't be the end of the world if JRod had to play. We are starting to get a settled team/style/shape and the next level now is about having players to come in (to cover injuries/suspensions/rotations) and DAJFU without disrupting what's already going on. The difference between seamless and shoe-horning if you will. I could see JRod doing a decent job in this team when he's called on, great finish today.

Perfect fit then. (sorry, couldn't resist. In real life I don't believe this at all)

Whether I like the chairman is fairly irrelevant it's much more important that the chairman likes me. On balance this one has done more good for me than not, always room for improvement but I'd give him 8/10 so far. No, make that 9/10 for not knee-jerking NA out the door after our difficult start - we've turned the corner and we are now looking to put some serious points on the board, starting from this afternoon. Hopefully NA, the players and the fans will repay the chairman's judgement with another three points today. COYRs!

Nice low key return, has he got a game on Saturday?

Alan Pardew (groin ache)

Adkins will at best be third in the sack race then - that's one in the eye for the knockers that said he was the nailed on to win it.

What a mess to be in, 3 keepers, all with some strengths, but all appear to have significant weaknesses. By default I would keep Gazza in goal and hope he can eliminate the silly mistakes and maintain his concentration for the full 90, the more he plays the better he will get (hopefully!). Unfortunately due to his last two performances he has put himself in the firing line and could possibly be dropped on Sunday. Anymore foul-ups and it will be hard for NA to persist with him, 'settled side' or not. I'm sort of leaning towards a second chance for KD, excellent last season but hopeless in the games he played this season. Has he learnt from this and is he ready to bounce back? Unlikely but possible. I'm rather discounting Boruc, I'm well aware of his pedigree but he has looked like a joke in the games he has played - maybe he has trained hard and sharpened up over the last 6 weeks (or maybe the 'incident' and the 'inquiry' has further unsettled him)? In reality this is NA's biggest dilemma at the moment - he's sees the players train every day and I'm sure we can rely on him to make the right call. I'll have a cheeky fiver that Gazza starts on Sunday.

OK, you've got me. I should have inserted IMHO he's definitely Prem squad standard, clearly it's hypothetical and until he plays a number of games in the Prem we won't know it as a FACT either way. I'm quite happy to back my judgement though, I'd like to think I'm right about calling players much more often than I'm wrong!

Ipswich home he was excellent, based on last year's performances he's definitely Prem squad standard.

Lock this thread - let's not have our best weekend for ages ruined with another 10 pages of drivel.

Mick Jones of the Clash and Steve Cook erstwhile Pistol are both big QPR fans,

This. I've done it and cheated for you so you can get your 50/100 respondents, it really could have done with a bit more of the old thinking/planning up front though.

So which is it at 8.30 - us or West Brom?

Abso-chuffing-lutely! Let's judge Nige now he's got a full squad to choose from. Green shoots last week - absolutely verdant today .... bring on the barcodes next week!!!!

magic!!!!