Completely disagree there philipl. It isn't surprising that many people are voting for Le Saux because 95% of the people here saw him play for us and he was bloody good. I voted for him because in a situation where both players had their merits, I had seen Le Saux a good many times, and this gives me evidence. I may have thought Eckersley was a complete hacker. I understand that he wasn't, but are you REALLY that amazed that a messageboard which is predominantly made up of people aged under 50 are voting for a player they associate with a title win and who they've seen play more? I can understand a case for Crompton, and had no hesitation in voting for him as best right back because it was so obvious that nobody else held a candle to him. This is far less cut and dried, and hence its better the devil you know for me. I'm guessing this will be a recurring theme throughout the team, because its very hard to go with paragraphs of text over players you've seen week in, week out. These are the problems with democracy, don't get worked up about it.

I agree with 1864. How the guy got a 4 year contract is a complete mystery. He brings absolutely nothing new to the table.

Very embarassing. Don't want to go into detail because I'm too downbeat now. Nissa, for all the times I've praised him, had a bit of a shocker, Amo was little better. Neill and Gresko didn't cover themselves in glory, but were at least willing to go forward. Emerton was our best player. He ran at people and produced deeper crosses, which is what everybody wanted. A tactical switch to bring Gally on forced him to RB which limited his attacking threat in ET. Douglas is a terrible player. Here he was with a chance to play in his favoured central midfield position against a team of hackers. He blew it. People saying he can't be worse than Flitcroft are dead wrong. Missed one particularly glorious opportunity when Emerton crossed from the by-line. De Pedro and MGP had better games. Both still showed flaws - de Pedro isn't a skillful player and MGP hasn't quite got into the stride and looks in the need of confidence. His goal will help no end, and he thumped his penalty home. De Pedro's forward passing is absolutely top notch and he delivered at least one pin-point cross. His square balls and passing across goals leave a lot to be desired, and put us in danger a few times. Jansen had a bit of a non-event. He still doesn't look Prem class. Bothroyd saw a lot of the ball but this wasn't his night. Gally worked hard but his distribution was poor. Well-taken goal though. Stead looked short on confidence and his penalty miss reflected this. Can't really blame people in a shootout situation. Tugay should be hitting the target, but we all get on with it. Collective blame in this situation. The team didn't play all that well. the team lacked a cutting edge. The team showed desire to claw back the second goal. The team let it slip again in a pressure situation. The team needs to do better.

I didn't see the line-up at the start of the game, but it looked as though Jenas was playing down the left and Bellamy was on the right wing. Some things never change.

Where is Collins John playing then? At fullback?

Very high opinion of ourself haven't we, sir?

Very hard to disagree with anything 1864 said there. We needed a win to boost confidence amongst both the players and the fans. Thankfully (in a game reminiscent of Kidd's against Charlton) we did just that. A perky start soon petered out into a drab affair. Ferguson saw a lot of the ball and Flitcroft harried Portsmouth from the off. This was one of his better performances in the last year or so - nobody could complain about him going missing here. However, there were still the obvious flaws from the usual suspects. Neill's distribution was woeful. Long ball after long ball towards our strikers - comfotably dealt with by a big pompey defence with little actual class. Pedersen was just a non-starter. He simply cannot pass. I don't care how many team training sessions he's attended, he was just pure woe. V02 max or not, he doesn't deserve to be in the team. Bring back de Pedro and give him some match fitness. At half time I hoped Sparky was reading out the riot act. He constantly screamed at Emerton and Neill to bomb forwards. Emerton was disappointing in the first half, and thus with no winger threat there was no striker threat. Stead isn't finding himself with clear cut chances at his feet. When he drops back his touches are neat enough, but he never threatened the goal. Dickov is a little terrier who will create a chance a game simply by robbing hesitant defenders. He does alright dealing with the long balls, but it clearly isn't his game. The second half was much better from our point of view. Pompey had already spurned a great chance just before the break when Fuller cracked the post when he really should have hit the target. Ferguson was still dictating, and Emerton grew in confidence. Whilst he still has his frustrating moments, he is far more willing to run at people and take them on. Very encouraging from him. Jansen coming on may have changed the game well in our favour. The crowd was lifted and started urging the team on. The introduction of Bothroyd also added some spark, as his close control and mazy dribbling created several chances for himself. We finally broke through after several goal-bound attempts. I think it was Lucas who played a ball down the middle, and Jansen controlled, spun and smashed it past Hislop. On the balance of play we deserved it, and there wasn't a player anybody wanted to score more. Portsmouth still had chances with Yakubu missing a one on one and a penalty appeal turned down, but by and large they're a team of hackers. Griffin was lucky not to be sent off for flying through Pedersen. Stefanovic (sp) was wound up by Dickov (who admittedly kicked him, plain and simple) and they constantly gave away niggly fouls. We should have nothing to fear from teams like this. So the right result and a great second half performance. Long may that kind of play continue!

Oh not again

This message board is bullsh!t. I posted a topic about who we are close to appointing. Not about we 'want as our new manager'. Little choice have we if the board have already decided. Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out then. Bye!

One problem with the merger (which has no doubt been raised before) is that our squad would basically be the strongest and have no need for players from Blackpool etc. This makes it OK in theory for us because once we got used to a different name etc then we'd all be basically watching Blackburn Rovers. Can Burnley fans really come to Ewood and support a team which is Blackburn in everything but name? I doubt the measure would increase fanbase at all. There would most likely be a MK Dons situation where the fans started their own club again rather than support the team which changed.

I don't think anybody doensn't appreciate your contribution here. The point I made was that just because he has a small amount of lactic doesn't mean he'll be a workforce for us. Just because Stead is 6 foot 4 doesn't mean he'll be a massive aerial threat from corners. What you've said suggests that MGP should have a great deal of stamina. That doesn't mean he'll work hard and cover every blade of grass. People are just a little uneasy about him because in his first two games he's shown little-to-nothing.

Whilst I agree that he's been crap for 99% of his time here, I think he's been one of our better players recently. On Saturday he was the only one prepared to run at Newcastle players and take them on.

Just because he CAN run more than anybody else doesn't mean he DOES. Sidders is right - like anybody gives a damn about his vO2-max! He'll be judged on how well he plays on the pitch, not the amount of lactic acid in his legs whilst hes doing it.

Strachan is 12/1 on Ladbrokes. For those with a bit of faith you could do worse than sticking a quick tenner on.

Well nearly 24 hours on, I've had time to reflect. Thoroughly rubbish performance, but slight glimmers of hope from some areas. The new manager will have one of the world's finest goalkeepers to start building a defence in front of. Michael Gray is another very solid player who gives it his all. I thought that he was the only defender who didn't look lost, and did a much better job of containng Dyer than Lucas did with Robert. It was reminiscent of Tiny and Ziege in Cardiff - every time Ropbert got the ball he had 20 yards to run into and it caused us problems throughout the match, especially in Newcastle's purple patch in the first 45. Short is still a good defender but will need a much more capable partner than Lothar (who I'm close to giving up on already). Shearer was quite limited yesterday. It was the rest of Newcastle's pacy attack that did the damage. When teams run at us with pace and skill then our defence has major problems. The direction that the game is going in is one of pace and directness. What Rovers have is a defence which would be fine in the 1990s, but isn't upto scratch with the modern game. The new manager will have to deal with that. The midfield is again a mixed bag. Emerton is becoming my only positive of the season so far. In the last three games he has been far more willing to put his head down, knock the ball past the defender and RUN. This isn't to say that he's turned the corner (his corners are still diabolical) but theres defnintely enough to show that he shouldn't be written off. Contrast this to Morten Gamst Pedersen. Deary me. He needs time to settle in, and these two fixtures in a demoralised side isn't the right time, but nevertheless we've needed him to shine immediately, and its fair to say he hasn't. I'm totally with Scotty on this one - a pub player could have done just as well yesterday. I've no doubts he'll get better, especially as the Norwegian contingent of this board seem to be hopeful about him. However, yesterday he was pretty shambolic. Our central midfield was completely overrun. Pace. Power. Strength. Accuracy. Newcastle ran us over with all of these. Ferguson will perform well with a good partner, I'm totally sure of this. However, he can't do it on his own. If we're going to play Flitcroft and let the opposition overrun us then we may as well have spent £7.50 on a midfielder, not £7.5m. Surely Flitcroft has no future under a new manager? I hope not. Stead and Dickov definitely have potential, but are somewhat lightweight. Dickov is the perfect 2nd striker - he works like a dog, has quality, and will patch in with goals. This leaves Stead with the mantle of numero uno striker. This is a task that he's not developed enough for yet. Yesterday he created himself chances, and even managed to clip the bar. He can run at players, his first touch is very good, and his holding up play is infinitely better than it was six months ago. Is he ready for the responsibility of getting 15+ goals this season from nothing more than scraps? I doubt it. Newcastle were a team playing to impress a new manager. They clicked, and when they do, very few teams can contain them. Better teams than us will get gunned down at St James' (at least until GS can ruin them properly). Whilst it's all well and good saying this, we can't let this happen too often. All last season we were "waiting for our season to start", and look what happened there. The new manager (whoever he may be) has a great deal of work to do. The most important job will be to instill confidence. Our side isn't much weaker than some of the midtable clubs. It is definitely stronger than the promoted clubs, and should be better than the Southamptons of this world. However, without a complete makeover of the most brutal nature we'll never get back to the days of qualifying for Europe via the league.

Why continually put yourself in this position?! Are you a bit special Hughesy? Only taking it from the source. Like i said. The same source who told me about Souey going. Is that where you started a thread but there was already one going because somebody else had got there first?

That settles it then! Whilst I like Gray, he doesn't have the experience that I'd want in our next manager. His job at Sky is safe - he doesn't need to take a risk on failing as a manager now.

Wouldnt mind Earnshaw or Giggs or even Bellamy but please not Robbie Savage! I'd absolutely love Robbie Savage. Cracking little player who gets stuck in, doesn't get sent off, can take set pieces, and winds the opposition up no end.

Hughes has been slashed to 3/1 on skybet.com already.

Must be said, I'm surprised to find out what the rest of the Premiership thinks of GS. I didn't realise that he was seen as a bit of a joke.

Perhaps this can be converted into a poll (Dunno if that has already been suggested)? Strachan for me as well unless the club can pull off a stormer and get The Hitz~

I'm shocked beyond belief. I didn't think the man was that kind of person. How could he possibly do this?

I think Dwight started the season well, and some of the comments about his performance in the ManU game ahave been OTT from frustrated fans who are finding it hard to accept that we let the lead slip in that fashion. He won some free kicks and did in fact hold the ball up. He was playing on his own up front with the ball abrely within 50 yards of him all the time. In fact, he's barely put a foot wrong this season so far. He ran around a lot against West Brom and Arsenal. In fact, he's done nothing to suggest that he'd be half as bad as last season. He's a player I enjoyed watching. I wouldn't have him starting in our team, but at the same time I don't hold as much against him as most of you seem to do. All the best to him.

Do you not know anything about this transfer Scotty? You're at that age, y'know. The age where you know things.

Are they also the ones who tell you to light fires in the stationery cupboard? You work from home?