shurlock

Started the season slowly but was in 'form' before his injury and doing a lot more defensive work.

Usual magnanimous winning manager b*****ks. We weren't poor (hence why most on here are ultimately singling out individual players) and the score doesnt reflect the game and the momentum we had at 2-2. But we're not as good as we've been. Most of our fans were pretty loud and defiant to the end which is usually a good barometer.

Interesting that some of our players were getting visibly frustrated with Ramirez. We're not usually a team that does that.

Yes and no. They exposed us with the early ball down the channels, though I thought we recovered well and many times the crosses were dealt with comfortably. Boruc had a quieter day than he did in last four games. Can't remember the build up for the first but typically the quick balls behind the fullbacks caused us problems when Newcastle won the ball higher up the pitch. Some credit must go to Newcastle's pressing, though some of the challenges they were putting were pretty reckless and generally allowed by the ref, typified by Tiote's lunge where he injured himself and play was stopped! The personnel didn't necessarily work - Davis was brought in to be another ball winner and he was too lightweight (a big difference from other games). And the ref was very niggly which didn't help our pressing (contrast with Foy's laissez faire tribute to French day for the Geordies). And finally, Newcastle have some very pacey players -wouldn't be surprised if they were the paciest team in the league. We won't come across that every week.

Just back from the game after East Coast trains f**ked up (again) but that's how I pretty much saw it. The 2nd should have blown in our favour and the flick from a punt was offside. Thought the third was slightly harsh (resulting from another punt we didn't deal with) (so did geordie fans i spoke to) but seen them given plenty of times before. Thought Foy was shockingly inconsistent -not even a yellow for the foul on Lambert as he was moving into the box at the end. We were quite route one at times but still played the more composed football especially in the 2nd half when LAmbert suddenly started getting more joy and at 2-2 we looked the better team. But Newcastle showed greater intensity and ruthlessness (they looked like they were ones with the pressing game), aided and abetted by the ref's own laissez faire tribute to French day. Apart from picking the goals out of the net, Boruc didn't have a save to make. Motm was probably Sissoko - for us, Lambert, Yoshi and Morgan were good. Davis and Jayrod were ineffectual and Hooiveld was going off the boil before the OG. Interestingly I detected quite a bit of frustration towards Gaston from the other players. Today reminded why I was happy to see Pardew go - his football is pretty pedestrian and predictable, however good the players he has at his disposal. We were undone by pace and punts down the channels -the full backs weren't given enough protection- and we only have ourselves to blame for not dealing with and adapting to it.

Yep but it's not Xmas 2003.

Their first win in ten and two and a half months - they must be relieved they've stopped the rot.

Chris Hughton could have done with your tortuous logic. He conceded Norwich were in poor form. And we're not discussing whether they are a midtable side. We're discussing their form. Before yesterday, they hadn't won in 9 games. That's not cherry picking, that's worrying form by any reasonable standard. If we were winless in our last 9 (regardless of draws), people on here would be wetting themselves. FACT

http://guardian.touch-line.com/?CTID=11&CPID=4&TEID=232&pStr=League_Pos&t=3 Maybe you find pictures easier. And with that Im f**king off to the match.

They had climbed to 7th and since then had fallen to 14th-a slide by any account.

Is Cisse strong in the air? His lack of physicality is one of his weaknesses. They've arguably lost some of that with Ba's departure.

West Ham and the mastermind BFS are still catchable though

Agree but the suggestion in parts of this thread is that we shouldn't be that fussed by Norwich's last gasp win.

They had a very good run until Xmas and then hit a wall. Over 2 months without a win is hardly amazing form - some Norwich mates were fearing the worse after the spanking by Liverpool and getting dumped out of the cup by Luton. Lets not lose the woods through the trees. However you slice and dice the form guide, to suggest -as DD did- that their result against Everton was largely irrelevant to the relegation mix is nonsense. They're not favs to go down -I like them as a club- but they're a team we can catch and put a buffer between us and the drop zone.

Am looking over a longer-run of games because its been a very busy period (xmas etc). All the signs were that they were slipping before today's result.

But they were losing games.

Before today - 1 win in 12 - lost 7, drawn 4, won 1. Over the last 6, they were bottom of the form table.

They've been in horrible form - bottom of the table form. FACT.

Brilliant

People are neither selfish nor altruistic - they are conditional altruists, they will cooperate and contribute to the public good, often at significance personal cost, if they believe others are. What people don't like is being taken for a mug or a ride. The task of government should be to assure others that people are doing their bit so that this kind of voluntary action can be created and sustained.

The only possibility -and it's remote- is that Cortese is months and months in arrears on the rent but thats not what is implied here.

Bring it up with the iphone.

A bit of a damp squid, though, isn't it? Was expecting wrecking balls and battered settees on the manor's lawn.

How the other half live -they're all up their own ar$e$.

Much better:) Agree that there's a lot of value in places like Japan - a player like Nagatom could have been picked up for peanuts before he went to Inter. As much as Lee has failed to impress, it's worth pointing that he has not a regulat starter at international level.