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I feel fairly optimistic that we will win tonight.

The coverage of the match starts at 7pm on Sky tv, I'll be watching and hoping.

C'mon Newcastle make us proud.

Teams

Fulham: Schwarzer, Riether, Hughes, Hangeland, Riise, Duff, Baird, Sidwell, Kacaniklic, Rodallega, Berbatov.

Subs: Etheridge, Senderos, Petric, Karagounis, Richardson, Diarra, Dejagah.

Newcastle: Krul, Simpson, Coloccini, Williamson, Santon, Gutierrez, Tiote, Anita, Ben Arfa, Cisse, Ba.

Subs: Harper, Perch, Bigirimana, Marveaux, Shola Ameobi, Ferguson, Tavernier.

Sidwell 1-0 deflected by Williamson

Cisse offside again!!!

Half time and Fulham have been the better side.

Cisse has not performed and hopefully he'll be taken off and Shola put up front with Ba at some point.

C'mon Newcastle

The more I see of Anita the more I like him.

Ben Arfa 1-1 What a cracker

Dejagah on Kacaniclic off

Rodallega 2-1

Cisse hit the bar but it wouldn't have counted if he got in brcause he was offside agin!!!

Ben Arfa off Shola Ameobi on

Petric on Rodellaga off

Tiote and Anita off

Bigirimana and Marveaux on

Full time Fulham win 2-1




My work here is done

Nice work Annie, it was an ok performance I suppose, we were unlucky with the 1st goal, second I thought it was bad defending form colocini he got the wrong side for me.

HBA goals was a good one, we created plenty as did fulham and I would of been pleased with a draw but it just didnt go our way, maybe a little better delivery from wide would of helped a bit and sometimes the ball seems to go out wide and Im thinking cross it now but they always seem to delay pass it back then cross it instead of crossing straight away.

I agree Anita is starting to take shape well and playing decent. I thought simpson and williamson seemed a bit sloppy today, Santon did well he is good at pushing forward puts an alright delivery in too but sometimes does get caught a little up the pitch.

Like you I wanted them to cross the ball as soon as they got it but the ball was often passed back. I wonder if that's a lack of confidence.

Santon did leave us exposed a few times but I want to see him up the field helping the attack.

Cisse didn't have a very good game and I'd rather he had gone off than Ba or Hatem Ben Arfa.

We are definetly playing better as a team.

Yeah agreed there is signs of recovery in the team, I think maybe a shock win or lucky break somewhere or another and it could turn our season around. It is almost all to do with confidence atm and we need to build a bit of that back, too many players are off the boil, injured, suspended all at the same time which is unfortunate but we still can pull this back, the league is always so tight if we can manage to get a bit confidence back and go on a little run then we could quite easily move back into the top half.

What we certainly do not need is knee jerk reactions, calling for sackings and booing at every opportunity is not going to put any confidence into anyone at the club. Us the fans probably have one of the most important roles in helping players play with confidence when they appear at st james to a true 50000 strong roar that will give them confidence.

When they turn out on cold wet dark nights with nothing more than a small cheer and a corus of boo's on occasions they would probably think their better off back in the dressing room.

Not that I'm saying fans aren't entitled to views etc and either am I saying we are setting the world alight or being unfair, but I do wonder of a small section of fans who boo at any opportunity.

I am very pleased to see us more or less revert back to a 4-3-3 now. I think Pardew probably left Cisse on ahead of HBA for two reasons last night. 1> HBA had just returned and probably wasn't 100% and 2> If he drops Cisse or starts taking him off as a sub, what will that do for his confidence? Sometimes it is better just to try and have faith with a player during a barren spell then maybe one or two chances will fall and help kick start things.

Finally people posting with a bit of sense!

I thought we were the better team for the majority of the match, i was worried from the start about Berbatov playing and he orchestrated most of their attacks however i thought Tiote did a great job against him.

Andrew, as you said its all about confidence at the minute or the lack of it, if you were like me you would have been shouting at the tv for them to cross it but because of the lack of confidence players are taking an extra touch or passing it back and slowing the attack, Cisse is the same rather than playing instictively he's thinking about what he is doing and probably trying too hard for the goal, we are also playing to Ba's strengths at the minute and putting crosses into the box for him to bring down control and shoot, Cisse is looking for defence splitting passes or balls over the defenders for him to chase down with Cabaye out we haven't really got anyone doing that!

Anita is becoming the 6million player the club thought he was and once Cabaye is back our 3 midfilders should make a strong partnership!

We just can't seem to defend corners and free kicks at the minute AP needs to spend a lot of time on the training field addressing this, everytime the opposition get a corner or free kick i'm actually suprised when they dont score!

I went yesterday and obviously you get a slightly different view on players performance from being there to telly (mainly you can watch what players are doing when they haven't got the ball etc)

Anyway my point is this Cisse, simply can not play out wide, I really don't think he understands how, he seems to naturally revert to a position that is too far forward to help the defense and too far back to be of help in an attack.

Once moved into the middle he is a different player.

Ba can play wide he did it very well last season, I don't think we will see the Cisse of last season, until we give up on him being a wide player.

On a side note I thought Simpson had a good game yesterday, one of his better ones.

Its pretty clear that we are playing more and more like a team, just like last year.
Players are slowly coming back from injuries, and, for me, HOPEFULLY we will find another CB instead of Williams.
Sure it was NOT only his fault that their scored, but every match I think he is caught in bad positions, that others have to help him out of. But when Colo or Simpsons get caught, he have more than enough to do with handling his own markings.

My point - he is simply not good enough, and it is unbelievable that we havent spent the summer buying someone else as a 2nd/3rd CB..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:12:11:21:06:17 by TvA.