S-Clarke

Violent conduct, seriously? According to Sky, the VAR crew have justified the decision because of Souceks 'clenched' fist. I'm struggling to see any clenched fist.

You referring to the likes of Hoedt/Lemina/Elyounoussi etc? They needed to go to be honest, they weren't offering us anything. Plus letting them go enabled us to bring in the likes of Diallo and Theo, without those departures we wouldn't have had the room in the wage budget.

I haven't. If anyone has mentioned it they're WUM'ing. We're not in a relegation fight, we can at least rest easy in that sense.

I think he openly admitted he'd have more players here if he could have them! The quality of the depth isn't there, they're just academy players, who let's face it...aren't up to the level in the main. He's been dealt a tough hand really, he's had to generate pretty much all his funds from sales since he's been here. Kinda tied with one hand behind his back most of the time. That's why I think he deserves a lot of credit for what he's managed to eek out of this squad.

Whilst it's true that we had that period of form, stretching over a really good sample of games, it's not a true reflection as it came across two seasons - one with a forced break in the middle of it. We seemed to handle the 'restart' matches much better than anyone else, not entirely sure why. Then we just gained momentum and ended the season like a train. We had a little break to recharge our batteries in the summer, and we kind of started where we left off (bar the first 3 games...). The true test was always producing that level of form over an entire season, but it's become pretty clear that we can't do that because of our squad. Unfortunately 10/11/12 is probably a fair place for this squad as it stands and I'd be more than happy with that level of finish.

Richard Browne: Madness. Totally accidental. Officiating in this Country is at a new low. Will Meredith: Mike Dean with VAR is like giving a toddler some fireworks and a lighter. Ridiculous. Peter Malath: Soucek red carded for that? Football is going through slow death on our watch. Disgusting Ben: As a neutral from another league, if that is a sending off, I’m not watching Premier League football again! Absolute joke. Even looked like Mitrovic was telling the ref it wasn’t a red. Keith: I'm a Fulham fan and that's never a red. Even Mitrovic said it wasn't. Unbelievable!

'Accidental elbow'. It was really, really iffy. Not clear enough for a red in my opinion. It was on 97 mins as well, is it really worth it? At least he gets put in the spot light again I guess.

The bottom 3 really do look cut adrift. It's going to take some work for any of those sides to stay up now. I'd be amazed if you need any more than 34 points to be safe this year.

Tag-team special. He is way too red card happy, something iffy about him.

We will lose him. The squad needs a bit of work, but we can only do that by reinvesting what we sell. It feels like we are building up to some strategic sales to then re-invest the money (probably only a portion of it) in building the squad out in numerous areas. That's how I see it anyway. I think we are lacking a real star attacking wide/number 10 style player, maybe Minimino can be that? We're lacking a really, really good CB and arguably we need an upgrade on left back and further depth up front. We can't do any of that without selling, and JWP and Ings are probably our only sellable assets left - in terms of the size of the fees they can bring us.

We were lucky it was so difficult for Man Utd and Leicester playing against 10/9 men then, weren't we.

That kinda describes some of our players too.

He was one of the reasons we lost the third goal. He certainly didn't play well at any stage of the game. He can deceive people by looking to run around a lot with the ball, but look at what he actually does with it. Nothing. Ever. A position that looks promising with him pulling out wide and running at a player, will often result in him slowing down, turning back and playing it to a defender. Every.single.time.

If we don't see Salisu in this game then I think it's fair to assume he doesn't actually exist.

Ralph has worked wonders to make this team competitive, I hate that people can't see that. This is such a terrible mish mash of a squad. Poor personality's throughout the squad, but he's managed to polish us up to some extent. Yes, he is very much a 'one plan' manager and it does feel very much like we only have one idea, but you have to say that a lot of that is down to the squad he has at his disposal. There's a decent core of players, technically, but their make up has always been a bit shit when the chips are down. We'd be much worse off without Ralph, trust me.

It all feels pretty raw at the moment, but Redmond isn't great and hasn't ever been. Bar a few games here and there over 5 years this has been Redmond. Giving the ball away, under hitting a pass, mishitting a cross, running into a defender or passing backwards. The weather doesn't make any difference, he has always been like this. He was poor under Puel, Pelligrino, arguably he had his best little purple patch under Hugues, but he's generally been a really poor player for us over the course of 5 years. I'd have Moussa in his place all day long, and even he doesn't rip up any trees. Arguably we play better when we don't have 'natural' wide men in the 11, not sure if that's more down to how we're drilled to play or the quality of the wide players.

I can't show any sympathy towards Redmond. I have no time for the guy.

I think you also need to look at the makeup of the players. Their players aren't as good technically, but they have much stronger hearts and professionalism. We are hopeless when the chips are down. We are a fine example of a team that only 'sings when it's winning'.

Last 20 mins were a tactical horror show. Minamino playing deeper, looking to play balls in behind I imagine. Redmond hugging the far right and passing the ball to the corner flag. I really don't know what our approach was in those last 20 mins? It was truly baffling tactically. Explain that one please Ralph.

It's more than just a 9 man Newcastle. They were without their leading goal scorer for most of that, they came in to it with a patched up defence and had to patch it up even more during the game. Then going down to 9 men it was even more bonuses for us, yet we still didn't have anything.

I don't think we'd have got anything if it was just their goal keeper playing.

Really? They deserved that. Got no time for any of our players after today.

We just pass it around a bit, give it to Redmond, pass it back. Give it to Adams, he'll try and hold it up, give it away. Pass it to Ings, miss hit. There you go. That's our attack. Give that to any team, even a school team, and they'd cope with that.

An absolutely hopeless second half, absolutely hopeless. We were up against 9 men for 20 mins, we barely mustered a shot. Ings looks ruined. No idea what's up with him, he isn't getting a move if that's his level. Redmond is suited to non-league, if that. Adams is ok, just lacks the touch and technique to do anything really. Minimino drifted in the second half, tired a bit. Just dreadful, I have no real words to be honest. To not even get a draw out of a Newcastle team without an attack, no defence and against 9 men is absolutely disgusting and they all need to fined a weeks wages. Any football league team would have beaten Newcastle today. If it was us at 9men, we'd probably lose 15-0. Absolutely hopeless run we are on. Season is done for me, I don't see what's going to happen now? Getting better than last season is a no-hope, just finish as close to 12th/13th as we can I guess.

Probably not, now the rain has subsided a bit.