S-Clarke

It makes you laugh at the bad deal he was given as Liverpool manager. He had a better % than King Kenny. But the problem with Liverpool is that if they're 'not one of them' then they don't get a chance. If it wasn't kenny managing them now he'd have been hounded out months ago.

I remember that, their CB barrett I think with a volley? That woke us up to be fair and we tore them a new one in the 2nd half.

We always take things to the last day don't we? And by a large we do the job.

You have to register to read that - any chance you could paste it?

Who knows what can happen in football? Who would have thought Newcastle would be on the cusp of Champions League football just 2 years ago? It's not all about spending millions, it's about having a good structure right down the spine of the club and the right players mentally. You can win more with a team than you can with individual stars. I'm not saying we'll compete for the champions league, that's a fairy tale, but I don't think you can just pass up the opportunity to progress the club. It could be the start of a real story.

I probably just pre-emptted the responses in the rest of my post, as I've seen people say this alot. ''Not bothered if we don't go up, we can stay down and win lots of games. I'd prefer that"

I thought we'd do better if I'm honest, but the problem we had was the Cardiff - Leeds result. That gave M'Boro some real belief and they pushed us to the max. We didn't play badly but they didn't allow us to exert our quality. Frustrating, but that game was an example of 2 teams going hammer and tong at a target - one with 1 last chance, and another team who subconsciously in the back of their minds knew they had another chance whatever happend. - we came unstuck due to a sloppy bit of play, but we could have still won it if we were more professional. Saturday will be a totally different game, Coventry will not be as driven or as motivated. They may play with some freedom but as long as we play as we can then I can't see how they'll deal with us to be honest, and as I said I don't even think we'll need to play at the top of our game to cause them problems.

Nah, wasn't quoting you on that point - was just generally commenting on what people generally seem to be saying is an advantage to staying down.

People are panicking way too much about this game. We won't even need to play at top level to beat them, but if we do which I think we will then they'll not know what's hit them. We have nothing to worry about, enjoy the buildup and enjoy the celebrations at 3pm on Saturday.

Not sure why you've made the point about game times. I will bet my bottom dollar that we will have more 3pm KO's next year than we have had this year. I also don't quite agree with the view ''I'd rather be winning each year in the championship!!!". If only it was that simple, eh? Our best players will go, we will not be able to progress the youth academy and eventually we'll just stagnate again and become an Ipswich, who let's not forget have invested significant sums in the last few years. This year will be our best chance to get up for a long, long, long, long time. We need to take the chance now and grow us a club, because we won't be able to achieve the ambitions of our owners whilst staying at this level.

They will start with a 16 year old youth team player at CB because they have no one else.

It's been a bit of a dark season for midlands football in all to be fair, only West Brom are keeping it competitive.

I've quit my job, moved out and left my g/f. I will be spending the next few days camped outside St Mary's.

Nice to see a level headed hammer! Good post, and may the best team win...

This is all good fun 'n all, but we won't be in them.

I don't think they'll go down, but it's much closer than I thought it would be - and that's down to QPR, Blackburn, Wigan, Bolton etc winning games on the trot. Villa's run in doesn't look pretty on paper but they have the quality to get another win which is all I think it will take. It would be a great effort to lead 2 midlands clubs to successive relgations though....

That set the tone for sure, we never really looked back after that. Our start to the season was created by that game.

Yeah the first team are training at St Mary's this week I believe, nice to hear the work is moving on though.

What a performance from Lampard by the way.

That was incredible. How the hell did they manage to do that? Barca's season has truly fallen apart hasn't it? 3 defeats on the bounce for the first time in 9 years!!!

It's nervy, but it's bloody exciting. This is exactly why you support football teams, to go and fill the ground for such an important game. Sod relegation battles, sod mid-table nothingness - this is huge and very exciting, in a way I think we all need to embrace the buildup and enjoy it because as a football fan you don't experience games like this very often (Well not for us anyway)

Well, we're almost half way away.

I'm not sure, he looks very good when everything is going well and we're 3-0 up, but in a similar vein to Holmes I wouldn't really rely on him offering us much if we were struggling in a game. Just my take on it.

I would expect a right side reunion of Richardson and Guly.

Well exactly, from their point of view they have a couple of mountains to climb. So much has to happen in their favour.