the two penalties for me. I was surprised when Defoe lined up to take ours and could not bare to watch him take it. Without Borini I thought Larsson whould have taken it, but no matter, it hit the back of the net. The Palace penalty taken by Cabaye would have had the same effect but in all my years of watching football I have to say it was the perfectly taken penalty for a goalkeeper to save. Two foot or so off the ground, not a lot of power and not too far away from the keeper and hey presto - duly saved and the ex captain ensures his old team three precious points at a crucial time. Nothing can be directly raised about the outcome, but if that penalty miss is not enough to fire our lads up then I do not know what is.
I'm don't want to say that Palace threw the game or anything but some of their play today was so half arsed it was unbelievable. One instance they broke down the left wing from a Newcastle attack, a decent attacking opportunity and they stopped turned back and it ended up back with the keeper/centre halves. The penalty was awful as well. Cabaye rarely misses. He didn't even look bothered that he'd missed either.
I wouldn't suggest Cabaye purposely fluffed it but it certainly looked as if his heart wasn't in it for sure.
Was it the knee slide celebration after missing that gave you that impression? It'll never come under scrutiny but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't make it difficult on purpose. There was a pleb on the phone to benno on the radio who said "Defoe's penalty was rubbish. If the keeper had guessed right it was an easy save!" (I kid you not!) then Defoe says "the keeper went early so it made it easier for me"
Don't trust the match of the day highlights regarding Palace, in the first half they were well up for it and should have been leading. Suggestions they were half-arsed are wide of the mark. They did fade as the game went on and the truth is that it was a bigger match for us than it was for them but that's the case for both our teams at this stage - we should have been further ahead in the second half when the penalty came. Big Sam has sold a line and people seem to have bought it, Stoke previous three results? 4-0 loss, 4-0 loss, 4-1 loss and Hughes was having to defend suggestions his team were already on their holidays. I'm pretty sure if Benitez had made that comment to the media then Big Sam would have kicked off. It was a poor penalty but it's not like he blazed it over the bar, it still needed to be saved and more often than not it wouldn't have been.
Im watching the whole game now. (Sunday is my do **** all day) 29 mins in, its been mostly Palace. Bolaise doing well.
ha ha .. yous are still in the driving seat ..but but i would still rather have the points on the board no fingernails left
Agree, it was a saveable height but on target, a keeper picks his way to dive in advance and sticks with it, there was a high chance he could've dived the wrong way. You could argue Cabaye was put off by the boos or felt awkward taking a pen against his old club, but in reality it's more that he's not playing that well atm, he was on fire at the start of the season and was the centre piece of their team, but since xmas his form has really dropped. Same story with Palace yesterday as for the last few months when they've been on this crap run - they didn't actually play badly, they just didn't create enough clear cut chances. Their lack of an out and out goal scorer is a major miss, Whickham doesn't get enough and Bolasie, Zaha and Cabaye are good midfielders who get the odd goal, but can't be relied on as a main source of goals.
I assume so, he took pens with us, and I can't remember him ever missing one. Was always really composed and accurate, same with his free kicks.
I watched the first half and Palace were in top. A bit more composure, a better touch from Wikum esp. when put through, and they should have gone for oranges in the lead. Didn't see the rest as was put on sprog duty.
Im into the 2nd half now. Mags playing much better. Especially that Wij fella. But theirs no way palace threw the game.
Sounds like the Mags won fair and square. they certainly had a go, but not sure how good they were to get the win. We sounded ****e all match and snatched a point. I saw a few mins of highlights and the passing was ****ing awful. Constantly giving the ball away, needlessly. The Mags are in the driving seat now, whether we like it ir not. Villa away or Chelsea at home? I know who i'd rather be playing, and it ain't Chelsea. Villa had a go yesterday, but imploded spectacularly. ****-all chance they'll have anything left next weekend. Big Sam has some motivating and coaching to do to make sure yesterday was our last blip, playing-wise.
Was that it. No ****ing way was that not intentional to score. Gk got direction right that was all. Could easily have gone in. So im not buying into any conspiracies. Sissoko ****ed up for the pen anyway.
Whickham should have took it. And Sam is trying to make excuses for why we are not winning. Kabul was not fouled before the goal he was too soft, and he should have jumped to prevent that happening. The mags have got better and we have got worse over the last few games. Fletcher out on loan and Cattermole instead of Larsson playing is why we not winning, we would have been gone now had it not been for defore, cos Borini ain't going to do it. The continuous kicking the ball to empty spaces is pathetic, and Alladyce as not addressed they want to draw the last 3 games and that will relegate us. In a match which was vital they never turned up, because we were out of the bottom 3 and that curse still goes on. We need to be in the bottom 3 before the Watford game because their mentality wants us there.
