Paphos People

Played very well - Fulham were never in it, but I wasn't totally comfortable until we got the second....

Looks like KK is finally starting to stamp his mark on the team, and having Martins & Viduka back makes a massive difference too. His experiment with using Owen as more of a deep-lying playmaker looks like it could turn out to be masterstroke as well - long live the King!

I think your lot played Villa at just the right time - their players seem to think the season ended 3 weeks ago! We should both be able to get enough points from remaining home games to stay up now - got to fear for Bolton with the games they've got left, and Birmingham are looking a bit dodgy again now McFadden is out....

Boro fan here, after this weekend Boro are safe

(was this the only weekend all three of boro, mackems and jawdees won at the same time?)

think that it will be the current bottom three who will go down, with birmingham and newcastle just above the drop zone and the mackems 1 place above newcastle, leaving the deluded masses as bottom of the NE 3

Awesome, we now have someone else to rip when they get beaten on a weekly basis

Glad you've joined the 'Friendly Banter' Sports Bar Smurf & look forward to some good banter over the coming weeks

Welcome Smurf
You'll get beat this weekend, no probs.. Are you a fully fledged Smoggie or an apprentice ?
( Two heads or one ?)
I was thinking of opening a hat and scarf shop in the Boro. Reckon I'd make a bomb !
Gary

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aye you would make a fortune, as long as you do not specialize in balaclavas (you would need special equipment for the 2 headed ones!!)

from grove hill in the boro, which is one of the less classy parts of the town!!

Ooh er, give me a clue, can't remember where that is, give me a few pubs or a few roads. I s it worse than Nunthorpe ? ha ha
I t surely can't be worse than Whinney Banks?
If it is I'm not messing with you
Gary

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First mackems, now smoggies - I can see we're going to have to tighten up the registration criteria around here!

Welcome to the board anyway smurf - you fancy your lot to be North East top dogs this year?

As to the relegation battle, good to be playing Sunday this week so we can sit back and see how others fare - be cheering on Arsenal, Man City.....oh, and West Ham of course! Up the 'ammers!

Yes CF I bet you will be wouldn't do would it to have the little Mackems above your big club would it ?
Gary

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Absolutely right - we can't have the natural order of the universe being disrupted!

Oh aye, think it might be by tomorrow tea time !
Gary

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grove hill, much worse than whinney banks, even the pubs have closed down now, after all that fuss over boro being voted worst place in england, they had a vote on worst place in boro, grove hill won it (or should that be lost)

anyway boro to break chelsea's 4 year unbeaten home record on sunday (more chance of derby winning a game i know)

sunderland will beat west ham,
and newcastle will lose at spurs

ps a little taste of grove hill
http://ts4.gazettelive.co.uk/2007/11/life_in_a_forgotten_grove_hill.html

No wonder you like Cyprus!

aye, and i get to watch more boro matches than i did so its even better

Smurf well done your forecast was spot on. Sunderland 2 Hammers 1. Phewwww thought it wouldnt happen . Haway the Lads. -- Gary Marj

How lucky was that scored in the 96th minute

I only thought Man Usa got that much extra time in a game must be the Keano link

You know luck balances itself out over a season.
We've just got back in from Sunderland. The city is jumping !!!!!!!
The reason there was a lot of injury time is because West Ham players spent a lot of time feigning injury. Pete you commented last week that Chops scored an 83rd minute goal, today we got one in injury time, not for the first time, you play till the referee finishes the match don't you?
You'd take a 96th minute winner at Spurs wouldn't you ?
A massive, massive three points for us today.
Haway Me Bonnie Lads !!!!
Gary

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Luck --LUCK-- no just skill it takes a lot of practice to get a winning goal in the dying mins and the Lads have perfected it - imho. Haway the Lads- lets see if were still towering over Kee-gones ( think he will be ) lot after today's result. Mind I'm not holding my breath but I can live in hope. Marj

So that'll be Kee-gones 4-1 thrashing of the Spurts at the lane eh Marj

Oh did spurs turn up then with a score like that though they were playing on their own. Still glad they won --got to keep rooting for all the NE teams. Sorry Boro couldn't do it on the day but still in the middle nice and cosy between the Makams and the Takams. Haway the Lads. Marj

even harder to look beyond the bottom three now still think wigan and brum are nervous, especially wigan very big game next week wigan at home to brum, think the winners will definately stay up, losers will fight it out with fulham/bolton for last 2 relegation places

Well for me I think it pretty much certain it will be Fulham & Bolton to follow Derby but never say die in this league, there are a couple of other who could still end up down there with them

Not us tho

Well Derby are officially gone, Fulham as good as and Bolton will need something special to avoid joining them now, and with only 2 home games left I don't fancy their chances!

Have to admit I wasn't feeling too clever at half-time Saturday when both Brum and Bolton were leading comfortably, but thankfully it all worked out in the end!

Martin,
Saw your comments on the other thread about Bolton. Hope you are right but this is Sunderland we are talking about here.
I forecast a draw at Fulham and then a win against Man City at home. The rest of the games are anybody's guess. That includes the game at Sid James.
If I'm right and even if we lose at Bolton it would mean Bolton could only afford to lose one game in their run in if they were to overtake us.
But football is a funny old game and we might just blow it.
Gary

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Problem Bolton have is that there remaining games are against either teams at the top or fellow strugglers - if they had a few against mid-table sides with nothing to play for they would have more chance of snatching a couple of wins (as results over the last couple of weeks have shown!)

They also have only 2 at home and 4 away, and a terrible away record - they're as good as gone I reckon!

Just filled in the forms for season ticket renewals. To keep the seat you have, you have to sign up again before 4th April 2008 ! This, of course, means you don't know which league you will be in.
The incentive is that you get the ticket at a supposedly cheaper price.
I'm taking the forms up tomorrow and will be £920 lighter in the pocket.( I pay for two)
So you see, I really do hope we stay up
Gary

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920 quid?? That's an awful lot of Keo!

Surely you would be better waiting though - it's not as if they're going to sell out is it??

Martin,
The way I look at it is this.
The decent seats will probably sell out. It's a very good form of father and son bonding. As someone who didn't bond with his father, this is very important to me.
It's not just the match, it's the pre match and sometimes post match drinks and crack, meeting up with my mates or/and his mates and just all generally getting along very well.
If he gets a job he may offer to chip in with the price too
Finally, if all goes to plan, next season will be my last in this country, so it'll be our last chance to do it.( Fingers crossed)
Gary

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Fair play. Can certainly identify with the sentiment - probably 90% of the quality time I've ever spent with my old man has been in some way football related! He's over in a couple of weeks and I've already got the George & Dragon schedule sorted - if we lose the derby game when he's there he's not getting invited back though!

Same with my older brother - not much else in common so if we hadn't spent so much time going to matches (home, away & European - I'll tell you what that's like some day! ) I would probably hardly know him at all.

Haven't really missed the live games too much since moving here, but have to admit I'm starting to have the odd twinge now it's looking like things might kick off with Keegan again!

This week's games are hard to call. Newcastle home to Reading....... can't see Reading winning.
Wigan at home to Brum....... draw
Sunderland away to Fulham....... this is Fulham's MUST win game....draw
Bolton at home to the Hammers....... Bolton win ( Hope I'm wrong)
Boro play Man United and should lose but you never can tell with them.
I'm off now to sort my season tickets out for next season !
Haway The Lads !
Gary

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Have to say I'll have to agree with you on the majority of your prediction there Gary

A lot of lower league teams playing each other again, so it should be fun at the top too, bunch them up closer if the scores go to plan, making it easier for us to catch them

Roll on Top Ten finish

Still think the current bottom 3 are it now, but if there's to be any glimmer of hope for Fulham or Bolton then they simply MUST win this weekend - anything less than 3 points and they may as well give up now!

My predictions:

Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool
Aston Villa 2-0 Bolton
Blackburn 1-1 Tottenham
Fulham 1-1 Sunderland
Man City 0-2 Chelsea
Newcastle 2-1 Reading
Wigan 2-0 Birmingham
Everton 3-1 Derby
Middlesbrough 1-2 Man Utd

Maybe next season we should do this every week, have a bit of a tipsters competition?? We could do them like Lawro does on the Beeb, where you get a certain amount of points for getting the result right, and a bonus for the correct scoreline - what do you chaps reckon??

I'd say that's a good idea and will be a way of me winning my box of mars bars back from Pete.
He should be given a start cos it's obvious he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Mind I thought Bolton were at home to West Ham. You've got them away to Villa.
Villa are not doing very well are they at the mo ?
Gary

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Aye you could be right, we might need some kind of handicap system!

Nicked the fixtures from the Beeb so presume they're right. Villa have been shocking lately but still fancy them to do Bolton.

sounds good, but surely you lot being mackems and geordies is handicap enough

I'm neither a Geordie or Makem, I just support the best team in the NE

We use to do this sort of thing in my last job & pay 50p a guess, was pretty goop at it too, made enough to buy my coffee every week

I'm up for that, anyway of getting something which can be automatic on the system each week Ask Andy to write us some sort of programme which can gat the correct matches each week off the Beeb

Well folks, it looks like it won't be Newcastle or Sunderland, or Boro for that matter( well I'm not sure about the Smoggies)
Surely it will be Derby Fulham and Bolton.
Bolton apparently lacked passion in their four nil defeat at Villa. Seems like they've had enough of Megson.( Has he ever been successful?)
Just had to post this lads. Today we've been to a christening in a posh village and then drinks in a posh pub. Think rich people here.
The Rector in the church was a hoot !
He told us he knew Michael Caine and Rod Stewart and told us stories about them. He then asked if we'd had a great weekend as the lads had won in London !
He added I know Newcastle won as well but never mind
He went on to say that although he was wearing black and white he certainly was not from the dark side!
Finally he gave an example of repenting as thinking of the fella you know who used to follow the mags but who saw the light and now follows the lads !
We are blessed !!!!! He should have his own show on the telly !
Haway Me Bonnie Lads !!!!!!
Gary
PS To Smurf, you Smog Monsters could still go down, are you going to Cyprus to smell fresh air ? Ha Ha
And I've just realised where Grove Hill is, soft as clarts, the lot of ya!!!!

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2-2 against the best team in europe, and they were lucky
played well but dissapointed that we could have had 15 points from villa away, liverpool away, arsenal away chelsea away and manure at home and we got 3 , now if only we can play as well against the dross like fulham and sunderland

bottom 3 down now, will be interesting to see who ends up top of the NE

Well this weekend will be interesting, we have Portsmouth but they no longer have Benjani & we are smokin at present, not sure what you guys are playing but its too bloody close to call for who's going be Top Dog of the NE

Us against the Makem in 2 weeks could be a massive game, a lot bigger than normal

remaining NE fixtures

Boro Sunderland Newcastle
spurs away man city home portsmouth away
bolton home newcastle away sunderland home
sunderland away boro home west ham away
porstmouth home bolton away chelsea home
man city home arsenal home everton away


not too much between those fixtures, think newcastles look the hardest run in

Some tuff matches for us all there me thinks

Was reading this on F365 earlier:



Absolutely bizarre record against the Big 4 - what do you reckon that's all about?

By the way, hope everyone noted my top tipstering - 6 out of 9 predictions right, and 3 correct scores spot on - by my reckoning if I'd put a tenner on all those correct score predictions I would be about 200 quid up!

Having witnessed such prowess, you may all wish to concede next season's tipping contest to me already - there's no shame in being beaten by a better man!

Absolutely bizarre record against the Big 4 - what do you reckon that's all about?

quote]

i really dont know, this season i could put it down to a young team, being inconsistant and not needing motivating for the big teams, but i think this is doing southgate an injustice, whilst we haven't set the world alight this season I do believe we are going in the right direction, our team now has pace, and tries to play attractive football they just need to start next year well (confidence is such a huge part of top flight sport)

in the past well i think we underperformed under both mclaren and robson and the teams especially under mclaren produced some of the worst football i have seen, (he is our most successfull managaer but he was dull)


roll on 2008/2009

Did you hear Moaney hole Steve Bruce on the tv at the weekend slagging off Birmingham again. He was saying they were greedy and he expected better after giving them 6 years service.( Not for free of course)
Brum's owner was interviewed today by the Daily Mail and clarifies that Bruce was given £400,000 up front for a years image rights and that part of his contract was that if he left he paid it back pro rata. He left after 3 months so owed Brum £300,000.
Bruce has ended up paying back £100,000 over 3 years and has kept the rest.
Brum's owner revealed that part of Bruce's current contract with Wigan includes a £1.5million payment if he keeps them up !
The mind boggles !
Gary

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Should be a laugh if nothing else this week. We play Man Citeh at home. A friend of mine is a City fan who goes to many of their games. He's got 4 Citeh lads staying at his house this weekend but doesn't know the pubs of Sunderland too well so has asked to come with us.
In addition, Mrs DP has instructed me and my son to stay out of the house Satday night as she#'s having the girls round ( girls being a very loose description of her friends)
So it could be some day, especially if we win !
Haway The Lads ! Gary

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Man City are a strange one - blinding start but have been pretty terrible for the last couple of months now. Seems they may well be in holiday mode already so you might have a chance.

Pompey away for us - few weeks back I wouldn't have given us a prayer, but with out upturn in form and them hopefully having one eye on the cup final we might nick something....

As usual Martin, you speak a lot of sense !
Why can't all Newcastle fans be like you ?
Gary

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Cause he's not a typical Newcastle fan He's the 'Oracle' of all Newcastle stat's

Should be an interesting weekend for us all, I still think you'll have you work cut out if Citey want to get into Europe, they need to start winning & winning big, funny how they've gone down hill since signing Benjani from Pompy

Us on the other hand, as Martin says, in normal times, we wouldn't even think twice about beating Pompy but they are on a roll, maybe we can get something, epsecially with our awesome strikeforce being on fire, but I bet they don't attack us like they did at the TOON

As long as we stay above you & the Spurts fail again, I'll be a happy, slappy, chappy

So Pete,
Are you saying that typical Newcastle fans don't talk sense ?
Sounds like you are to me.
Gary

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No, what I said was, Martin isn't a typical Newcastle fan, he's the 'Oracle' of stats

Go on test him, he know nearly every stat involving the TOON

Typical Newcastle fans know lots about the club, players & history, Martin knows it all