Never a penalty - have you actually seen it? Worrying that perhaps i was biased I read the BBC which described it as a foul and said our player was "taken out". I looked in a few other places and found: Guardian "penalty all day long" Mirror "clearly bringing him down. No complaints from the visitors" Got to the 5th match report and so far it's universal, all of them are saying that not only was it a penalty it's clearly a pen. You tool
Anyway, I was keeping an eye on your opponents scores and I reckon it was a pretty good night. Barnsley was the big game really and they didn't win. It's in your hands still - good times ahead hopefully.
Its always funny when a thread intended to mock turns completely around. Fair play to Newcastle it seems as though they deserved the win so well done. I ****ing hate city and guardiola so well done for sticking one up them. As for the league one results for me it was almost perfect. Only squabble is Barnsley coming from 2 down but would have taken them to only get a point before the game. Pompey have now lost 3 on the belt in the league and have gone from seemingly uncatchable to right on our door step. Luton winning was the best scenario in my eyes I couldn't give a toss about winning this league just getting out of it. Luton can have the title for me and they've just made it easier for us to get 2nd spot. Charlton and Barnsley are still well in the mix but it's in our hands now. The Portsmouth game our last home game could be ****ing massive and I hope it is as at the end of the day those kind of games are the reason we all love football.
Egg on faces here alright , a muse on last night, going back a while, when we sold Pickford I thought it was nailed on that he would go to City, but Pep went elsewhere, mistake. Pickford is still a bit raw but he is without doubt going to be one of the all time great goalkeepers. Talking of mistakes, we did similar with Virgil Van Dijk. Pickford, Van Dyke and Maja would have been an interesting spine. Hindsight is a wondrous thing.
To be fair you've done even worse before - like Monty's "Brighton have won the championship" thread 5 minutes before the end of the championship season, that one was truely unforgettable
Anyone who uses a monty thread as a yardstick can just be ignored! He occasionally says something of note (<0.1% of the time) and the rest fo the time it's utter dross! (He said we should loan Dwight Gayle from West Brom this month FFS!) I watched the game and thought Newcastle set up perfectly but also that City thought the game was won at 1-0 and seemed to look like they just wanted to coast to that win. They were truly awful (and none of that "Newcastle stopped them blah ****e" they were rubbish - some of their passing and control wouldn't be out of place in our division - and I'm talking simple passes and first touches) Mags deserved it - stupid pass inside frm the full back when he should see Longstaff (who I was impressed with BTW) behind Fernandinho and knows he doesn't have time! Could've easily ended up 9 v 10 on another day - although De Bruyne's first yellow was stupid refereeing - not saying the goal should've stood, just that it shouldn't be a yellow for that) Perez and Schar (SP?) both committed standard yellows on yellow cards much like De Bruyne but at least the ref was consistent
Oh I wasn't using Monty as a yardstick, and yes I know he's a . . , I was just saying it's not the first time your hubris has backfired (yeah Monty said it, but I'm sure he wasn't the only one thinking it!). I used to post here more but it seems a lot quieter these days, so you'll have to make do with haslam, who basically lives here anyway. At the end of the day, if City put in a gritty and impressive performance to beat Liverpool, then think they can just showboat against us and get a guaranteed victory, then it's their own ****ing fault. Pep said that getting a goal after 24 seconds was a bad thing, why? If your players have such an ego that the manager thinks them getting an early goal against a crap team means they're gonna go off the boil for the rest of the match and think they've already won it, then something's clearly wrong. That arrogance was clear in De Bruyne thinking he could go ahead of the ref and take a "cheeky" free kick, I agree with the yellow card for that. Also the laziness in passing which lead to our pen summed up their attitude. Yes they were way below par, but at the same time we were massively improved from recent performances (the Saturday FA cup game against Watford was absolutely diabolical), Dubravka made an least 2 excellent saves, defence was solid, and yes Longstaff is looking like a find, has been MOTM in just about all the games he's played, and is already cementing a place in the first (even when Shelvey and Diame come back I'd still pick him ahead of them).
I can guarantee most would've felt differently if it was at the other end. . They're apparently now talking about changing the rule (which was changed not long after we had Don Hutchison who used to do it all of the time for us). I don't see any arrogance in taking a quick free kick - for me it's just footballers thinking quickly. If Longstaff had seen Rondon moving into space and thought "Goal chance here" - I can guarantee most of the mags would've been up in arms about a disallowed goal let alone a yellow card. As I say, I don't mind the disallowed goal but to book a player for thinking quickly is crazy
When I played the game I always tried to take quick free kicks. If some twat on the other side jumped in the way to stop it he got that free kick full tilt right in the balls. Got a few things back using that trick and never booked once
I agree. He had 16 seconds to take a quick free kick. At that point the ref decided he had missed that opportunity and told him wait for the whistle (he even raised the whistle towards him to confirm it). De Bruyne ignored that instruction. The defensive team believed no quick free kick was being taken and were organising themselves for the impending free kick. Whereas booking him was overkill, and I wouldn't see it as arrogance either, in no way shape or form should that goal be allowed. I'd say exactly the same if it was any other side or at the other end. You've penalised the defending team for fouling, to then allow an advantage like that would be penalising them twice and putting them at a massive disadvantage. Anyone who has played football at any level would understand why that goal cannot stand. The ref has understandably taken exception to the fact that De Bruyne has knowingly ignored his instruction. You could view it as arrogance as the ref has, but again if you've played football, you would understand that you're gonna chance your arm sometimes. I think it was an ego thing with that ref. He actually made things worse in the long run, because De Bruyne was miffed at the yellow and committed a yellow card offence soon after (ref couldn't book him), then Perez took exception to the kick he'd taken and decided to have a nibble himself having already been booked. Again the ref couldn't book him because he'd just had the same scenario with De Bruyne. One poor decision led to a series of them.
