If, If, you can get him cheap you have a chance, no more. We already have a lead of 150 on a pitch that will get worse so don't forget that. Batting last on that pitch thanks to a poor call by punter will not be easy. At present it is very finely poised which is what we all want I suppose.

I think it's harsh to say it was a rubbish performance. I know you're being your usual sensational self but even still bar Jones & Bell and to an extent Vaughan I think most of the batsmen will be pleased with their efforts. All we did today is what the Aussies have done for years now. Play attacking cricket. We can't have it always, at Lords they were at fault for being defensive and waiting for the ball. Today we took it to them and bar a few daft shots we hit them all over. Of course we have lost wickets that we shouldn't but you can bet that the confidence will have been knocked by being smacked all around Edgbaston. Lets wait and see what happens tomorrow before we slate the boys. If anyone seriously thinks the Aussies will just dig in for two days they haven't watched them for the last few years.

Coco? I would have thought they had enough clowns already?

There are only a couple of players carrying slight knocks and even those have been involved for much of pre-season. Only Thommo and Amo have played no part so it's hardly that worrying.

No idea, i've not heard of Treacy either who is on the bench. 4 left backs! In fairness I suppose Matteo isn't a left back and McEveley has played centre half for the youngsters. Just found a keeper on Soccerbase called Charlie Treacy so it's possibly him as there isn't another keeper on the bench. Still no idea on Fredici, wasn't he in big brother?

Fair enough Alan I didn't check the link just copied the story I was reading which had a picture of Joey Barton so it seemed the most appropriate thread. cheers for the reply anyhow.

I posted the very same last night and it appears to have disappeared. God knows why as it's on the BBC website.

What a disgraceful following to a pre-season friendly.

So why is your official site reminding fans to renew and why are other Newcastle fans still reporting they are being pestered by the club. If you truly had magnificent fans there would be no need for the club to be getting so wound up by press stories about your sales being well down.

Fat Freddie denied that 14,000 had not been sold however did admit there were about 5,000 left which was why they were doing an advertising campaign. Strange really as with 10 million on the waiting list you would have thought they would have been snapped up. Massive club? my arse!

What's made you laugh Puddled? The prospect of seeing your new big signing. I would imagine laughter is the emotion most strikers are thinking about playing against Craig Moore.

Grimsby on Tuesday.

There was a thread on ask admin about people seeing the time an hour out due to their settings. It's fine for me and I posted at 15.42 before and the update was from the official site.

Rovers 1-0 against Swansea apparently, Pedersen with the goal.

I certainly won't go and haven't gone to a home friendly in about 8 years. I think they are a waste of time to be honest but they must serve some purpose otherwise the clubs wouldn't have them. I know we never used to have them at home but I think it seems to have happened more since the Championship & Premier League kick off on different weekends so we can't play a lower league team.

I would think you would have a fair chance, they didn't mind that i'd missed the deadline although I made the first payment. Worth a try though.

Wasn't Newcastle & Liverpool both above 30,000 and both as good as sold out? Or 29+ as Stu says. However the Man U game last year was on tv either way our average itself will be a couple of thousand more just because of the games we can get above their capacity i'd have thought.

I think it was always likely that bunch of Premier League rejects would be shown up for the shower of sh1te they are once O' Neill left. Didn't think it would be quite that empatically though. Any team with Paul Telfer & Mo Camara is likely to be given the run around though. Wonder how many of those reporters questioning Bellamy will be quite so vociferous now?

Blue Phil were you not one of the first people complaining about the police actions the other day and stating that in a free country people have the right not to be shot. Surely repealing the Human rights act would ensure peopl would forego that right amongst many others.

Whilst ours may drop below the level of last year the fact that we will more or less sell out about 4 or 5 games should mean we keep our average above Wigan. I'd take the bet certainly. I do think with a good start our crowd will beat last year.

It's not new it's happened for years.

I don't think it's a case of people not having sympathy for the victim, certainly not on my part. It's a sad indictment of the times we live in at present. In a 'free society' we should be able to travel to work without fear of being blown up but sadly we don't at the moment. I'm not sure why it matters that he was shot 7 times as opposed to being shot 2 or 3. Either way he would have been killed and sadly that is the point of a shoot to kill policy strangely enough. I'm certain that the police that did this will be devastated and rightly so. Lessons will hopefully be learnt but in the current climate I don't for one minute think that it will stop the police from having this policy.

Flintoff not batting against Banlgadesh was exactly the reason why we should never have played them. We gained nothing from those games at all. The openers just had some batting practice but were never tested. The only benefit could have been confidence but they had that in abundance anyway after the run we've had. Instead we played games against a side worse than any county side and achieved nothing. Questions should be asked of whoever has planned this summer's fixtures.

I agree that we contributed to our own downfall to a certain extent but congrats to the Aussies for a very good display. Our batsmen need to have a look at themselves, Giles should be worried because on that performance i'd prefer Collingwood by a mile and Jones was rubbish. No need to panic yet but pretty disappointing all round really. The big positive was Pietersen who just oozes class apart from his catching of course.

The problem with Thorpe is that whilst he is clearly a very good player, he has let the selectors down before and had already ruled himself out of this winter's tours. Taking that into account it was probably too good an opportunity to not drop him. Still a shame as he could have been crucial.