Ffs, we're great at ending team's bad runs And conceding a header from Nolberto Solano of all people.

Subs: P Enckelman, M Pedersen, P Gallagher, D Thompson, J McEveley

Do we actually "fear" any of their players tho? Angel in form, yes. But he isn't... so what's left? 1-0 Rovers. Ferguson.

Bolton have now lost five in a row. If we can't win this game I can't see when we ever will.

Very dissapointed. Newcastle are a poor team, with maybe the worst defense in the league. According to the audio commentary we were by far the better team and should have scored a third. Still, it's better than a loss. However all it takes for us to get back into the relegation zone is two out of Crystal Palace, Southampton and Norwich to win while we lose.

Well, if there's snow involved MGP should be great After all Tromsö is north of Berings Strait, and I remember seeing a videoclip from a game early this season (The Norwegian season that is) where it was snowing so much you could hardly see the ball and the players. Anyway, 2-1 Rovers. Kluivert for them, not sure who will score for us.

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/ful...9/7480/1470?eaf I believe that's the article mentioned earlier about how it's impossible for linesmen. Haven't really read it though.

No he is not, he is way to greedy imo. Can't remember him setting up one singel goal so far this season. He set up Ferguson against Southampton and Villa, but yeah he is too selfish on occasion.

We just don't look like scoring. And unfortunately the chances fall to the wrong people. Flitcroft having a couple, and on a counter attack, Andy Todd of all people had a good shooting opportunity and instead played a poor pass wasting the situation. Defence looks solid, although Everton aren't really an attacking side. At least we can claim that we were better than the 2nd placed team, but we ought to have won this one.

It's on Canal+ Sport in Scandinavia.

Rainmaker does have a point. If a player is young and English people on here will look a lot more favourably on him than if he was a 31 year old German. That being said, it's NOT the case here. Cuidado just won't realise that MGP, however talented he may be, for some reason isn't up to the pace of the premiership at the moment. It could be having played a whole season in Norway before coming here or it could be something else. But Mark Hughes and his coaching staff sees him in training every day and knows better than anyone in what shape he is. He will eventually get his chance.

Two international captains for £600k total. Sure, not the biggest national teams but still. Looks like the D.C fans have nothing but praise for Nelsen, and surely that's always a good sign?

From what I've gathered, Nelsen is a centre back. But I'm not sure about Mokoena? I've seen articles calling him a defender and others a midfielder, but not whether he's a wide or central one.

I didn't say he actually produced quality passes, but he was there I wouldn't call his attacking rubbish though, wasn't any worse than the rest of the team. And he was more than solid defensively. He took the ball of Defoe easily quite a few times, was the last remaining Rover after corners a couple of times and did well. And agreed about NEJ. He is solid at the back, but I'd rather have Short going forward in his place. He's an awful passer, no technique and takes way too long.

0-1 it is then. We should've had a point, Tottenham weren't good at all. They have a good keeper, solid central defense and two good forwards. They have no midfield. But I have to say this though, Lucas Neill was absolutely brilliant tonight. Always in on the attacks and did really well defensively too. Great performance, easily my MoM. Todd was very good too. Again, we were lacking that final pass. Plenty of possession near their box, but the quality of the deliveries wasn't good enough.

It did look like he brought it down with his hand, yea. The Swedish commentators also thought so, but it'd have been a lot more controversial without Superman in goal EDIT: I forgot to mention our fitness levels earlier. Just look at the likes of Reid, Dickov, Emerton, heck the whole team!. They ran tirelessly throughout the game and never looked tired. I believe that this improvement alone could save us from relegation. With the better play we're seeing under Hughes, it could get us even further.

Great result, great team effort. It has to be said that Fulham weren't very good, but I believe we made them look worse than they really were. They couldn't string two passes together, but we did put constant pressure on them in midfield. The whole defense, including Neill, looked very solid. Friedel didn't have to do much, but was always in the right place and made a great save when Andy Cole was clean through. I was really worried when I saw Nissa at left back, but he was brilliant IMO. Also got forward a lot and actually looked like a real left back. Neither Tugay or Ferguson really pulled the strings in midfield, but they were good defensively. Reid and Emerton again put in great performances, especially Emerton. Reid helped out well at the back and I believed he cleared it off the line at the end too. Dickov... well, I don't think we'll ever see him put in a bad performance. Got around the defenders on the wings several times, creating many opportunities. Yes it's true that he's not a very good passer, but he gets so many opportunities through his immense workrate that it doesn't matter. I also think there's no coincidence that us getting two penalties in the space of like 4 games just happened to come after we signed Dickov. Gallagher was very lively and did well. Excellent finish to score his second goal in two games. I guess Hughes didn't play him earlier because he took a little longer getting back to match fitness after his injury than people expected. I won't do any ratings, everyone played well. Extra praise for Emerton and Dickov. An improvement from Neill too.

Larsson kept it very quiet when he scored vs Celtic.

Todd and Johansson weren't blameless for their goals though. The Brum players had waay to much space. But I agree, Neill/Jay were more at fault and the CBs were solid in the second half

Positives: 4th straight game without losing. A GREAT second half, we were all over them. We came back from a two-goal lead against one of the better defenses in the league. Reid was brilliant, MoM for me. Thompson created our two second half goals and almost scored one himself, he has been sorely missed. Ferguson had another pretty good game. Gallagher and Jansen got to score, we need that to improve our strikers confidence Negatives: We didn't win. McEveley was again easily beaten a couple of times. Our defending was horrendous, we gifted them three cheap goals. If only we had a RvN type of striker who could play alone upfront in a 4-5-1 formation, then Tugay would be great to have, as he can still play some great balls (Like his ball to Reid for the first goal, came out of nowhere really). But unfortunately, that's all he's good for. He doesn't make forward runs and he doesn't contribute much defensively, and I'm afraid that's not enough. Thompson must start against Fulham, we look so much more dangerous going forward with him in the team. And surely Reid must have proved all his doubters wrong with this display, he was a constant threat. He's in the Emerton mould, a very strong runner who, with any decent through balls, will score quite a bit of goals (Like Ljungberg, can't strike a ball to save his life but still scores plenty) but isn't a typical winger. The defense, plus Friedel, would get sixes from me. Emerton 8 - Could've been a seven too. Had a good game, but was unproductive. Ferguson 8 - Played well, especially in the second half. Good passing and a gritty display. Tugay 6 - Good passing, not much else. Reid 9+ - My MoM. Ran tirelessly, created one goal and scored another. Won a lot of duels and was a constant threat. Came pretty close to scoring a second with a good shot. Dickov 8 - Even though Gallagher finished it off, the equalizer was his goal. An eight is a bit generous, but he put in a good display as usual. Certainly shouldn't be dropped. Jansen 7 - Scored a well taken goal, showed some good technique on a couple of occasions but wasn't involved too much. Gallagher 7 - Scored a goal, showed good intentions. Looked like he could use a few more games to get back to match fitness, didn't look as sharp as we're used to seeing. Thompson 8 - The creator of two goals, very lively and looks like he's back to his best.

Same team as last game, except Thommo in central midfield and Gallagher upfront if Stead is injured.

I don't believe De Pedro is on any monster wages. He had agreed a deal with Southampton I believe, and they have a quite strict policy, includng a salary cap I think. I don't think he'd be on more than that here, at least I don't hope so.

I think it's time for us to start winning, and I also can't see a Birmingham side without Forsell scoring tbh. 2-0 Rovers, and I hope Jansen/Gally/Stead (Whoever is playing alonside Dickov really) to score in order to boost their confidence. A confident striker is a good striker. Oh, and would be nice if Thommo scored too.

Was only able to watch parts of the game on the delayed Canal+ showing, but I'd say that we looked the better team, however we were lacking that quality final pass and a real goalscoring threat. Defensively we looked solid, which is encouraging considering that Man C have two of the quickest (And best IMO) forwards in Anelka and SWP. Very good penalty by Dickov too. James guessed correctly and made a really good attempt to save but no keeper would've caught it I think. Thommo looked lively, and he can only improve with more match fitness (After all, he's played like 6-7 games in the last year, most of them reserve games). Hit a cracking shot from 25 yards, looked even more impressive in slowmo. The ball was completely still in the air, beautiful. Palace (Thank you Mr Baros!!) and Norwich both lost, and hopefully WBA won't start winning either. Southampton won however, which doesn't worry me too much as I don't think they'll be serious candidates for the drop anyway. They do have a good squad and should be able to pull out of the bottom sides too. We haven't lost for three games now, which is good. We need to start winning however, but I think we will. A draw vs Liverpool is a good result, coming back from a goal down while playing with ten men for 45 minutes, away, is excellent, and drawing away vs a City side high on confidence after the result vs Man U after conceding the first goal is again a good result. Better finishing should see us win the next few games. The opposition is "worse", and we should have an advantage playing at home too. The return of Thommo is promising too. Ofcourse, he's not "the saviour" and can turn our season around, but he provides us with another option to partner Barry, he adds tenacity to our midfield and, most of all, a real threat to score from a distance. Hopefully his knee will hold up now, and I'm thinking that it will. They must've been extra careful and thorough after the first operation didn't work. I think we'll be able to stay up, but it'll be close. Encouraging signs in the last 3-4 games though, and a win next week should boost confidence even higher.

I have no idea how well Tony Parkes does his job nowadays or what the relationship between him and Hughes is so I can't comment on that, but I can say two things: Mark Hughes has the right to choose his own backroom staff and shouldn't have to keep Parkes around just because he's been here "forever". Football (Or, indeed, any other sport) isn't like a normal job where it's often "first in, first out". Secondly; Tony Parkes has been a fantastic servant to the club, both as a player, coach and caretaker. Thank you Tony, and all the best in the future.