soccernet says that our defeat to liverpool "effectively put the title lights out on Newcastle"(refering to our title challenge). they don't mention we have a game in hand and a win in that would put us 1 point behind liverpool and 3 behind manure. there is also still 27 points to play for and with our relatively easy run in we can still be top by May. They also refuse to say that manure have got the ar$e at home and still have to travel to Chelsea and Leeds. Along with the resumption of the CL there going to be buggered and are vunerable to loose points (Just ask Derby).

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

Answers

Fair comment wazza, exactly what I've been saying for months.

Mind you, after last night's 'performance', by some of our star imports and a lack of depth in our squad, I suspect "our relatively easy run in" is no londer "relatively easy".

Let's hope YBR can somehow rally the troops.

Question. If Laurent Robert's stated ambition is to make the French World Cup squad, then why the f*%k does he play for us as though he couldn't give a rat's???

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

That's the spirit! But we need to get Craig Bellamy and Kieron Dyer and now Gary Speed back and I hope Carl Cort gets match fit fast. We just need a reasonable performance from our last quarter of the season to see us nicely into the Champions League. After all, it's not as if Leeds or Chelsea are looking invincible is it?, so we shouldn't get too down about a couple of disappointing, though predictable results. The other thing is, if Jenas can come in and not look out of place at 19, I hope we can get ourselves in a good enough position to let someone like Chopra have a decent go in a couple of games. It's going to be very important to get a good result on Saturday to re-launch for the run-in.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

"I have always said we would never win the title but that we would give it a real go and get close. That is what has happened.

"Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool are the biggest teams in the country with the best squads and the money.

"They will fight it out for the title because they have the better class of player and we are not there yet, realistically."

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

I like this thread! We always play our best football when we have been `written off`. (:o)

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

yeah - the media are currently thanking god that those cheeky geordie upstarts haven't spoilt their party. They had their headlines written before last night I'm sure.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

It shouldn't come as a great shock to people that our squad just isn't quite up to it, and it won't do us any harm to be realistic about it. We have been fortunate with injuries, and that has given us a relatively stable base of players who have played some fantastic football together, taking us to a level where we have been able to compete with the Chamionship hopefuls. This fantastic form should allow us to strengthen the squad naturally next season, without mortgaging the club to the hilt. There's lots to look forward to, we have some excellent young players, a crack at the FA Cup (until Saturday), and the possibility of still using our stealth tactics to creep up unnoticed on the media appointed title challengers without them noticing. We musn't look back and convince ourselves the season is over - 7 points is a cushion, but not one that will protect us if we get into a downward spiral.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

Agree Pete. Of course I hate to lose but we must be realistic. And when we are we still have done a great season. We are building (or Bobby rather) a team that will be up there in a couple of seasons. We have great talent in Dyer, Jenas and Bellamy, world class players in years to come. We also have nice players like Distin and Hughes in defence and Solano in midfield also I think Robert will only get better, at least I hope so. None of these are very old and have many years left in them. We need more qaulity players but we will get them and playing in the CL is the best way to attract them!

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

We have everything still to play for, which I hope the players realize and Bobby makes very clear to them. We are not mathematically out of the title race, though we are relying on other results going our way in addition to us winning every remaining game (not likely). There is still a CL place to play for and a UEFA spot that's our to lose.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

We play better when not under any pressure. Let them write us of and we might just nick it! How many times have we been 4th this season? We have always seeed to go to 2nd then back to 4th, 3rd then back to 4th, 2nd then back to 4th etc... Hopefully we'll finish on that Higher bit ;)

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002

To be honest, I don't see a single one of those 9 games as easy.

They are certainly winnable, but like all the teams up in the top 6, we've really scraped some results together when on another day we could have lost them.

Games like Derby and Blackburn at home and Leicester at home are the reason we are up in the top 4.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2002