cosmicway

Did you notice Stevie's back pass yesterday. Sunderland forwards fluffed it but it was made with compass precision.

Well, it's an away match. One of the Greek historic matches was PAOK Salonika v. Panachaiki Patras in 1973. PAOK were going great guns for the championship but they lost 3-5 ! In Salonika there is the rumour one of their coaches was running towards the Patras bench with a bank cheque at half time but hit another bench on the way and broke both his legs. As he fainted, he could not talk to the ambulance men and say "please give the cheque to those men". I was on a ship's deck the following day Monday and a man tossed away a copy of the Times so I open and see the Greek results. Hello, what's this, I said to myself. But at the same time, Olympiakos -the eventual champions of 1973- drew 1-1 at Kavala, a Newcastle like quantity those days. Later when I read the press of the day they praised Olympiakos performence to get that draw.

One reason for the defeat is we went there to attack from the word go. We did not even think it worthwhile to secure the draw first.

1-0 thanks to give away penalty. If that's a championship team then I 'm the king of Samoa.

City play like kittens. I like Arsenal better.

Why ? Are they going to make it 24 x 3 ? Don't forgret that the City - CFC match has already been played (1-1). We were a lot more clueless last yeat of course (Norwich ...). This league is small time affair, like the Rafa Europa cup against Benfica, unless miracles happen. CL is the litmus test.

You have to consider that we did not want to settle for the draw. We attacked them from the start. That resulted in another Sunderland of last season situation. The match could have ended with a 3-0 win just as easy. With Mikel's header perhaps - Newcastle would have called it a day.

Who was the one who lost Cisse in their second goal ? Is that the same Cisse who played for Panathinaikos ? I think not.

I don't think Diego Costa is selfish but he looks a little scared lately of getting injured. Mind you that was a pen in the 88th-89th min, where he got the yellow card.

Newcastle were very lucky. If Hazard did n't hit that post we were going to win. The one who visibly underperformed today was Diego Costa. He came close on occasions but he just had to, where he was playing.

Unlucky, Newcastle a tiny little better than Sunderland.

We have until February to concentrate on the league and draw clear of the rest. Then there are some big matches coming up.

Newcastle are not doing badly and they beat us last year. Caution is needed -no Maribor or Sunderland jokes- because City seems to have woken up. Missed the chance to back the goons last night. My favourite bet, last minute siege- like CFC v. Everton last season. Sanchez scored for them just before I had time to get it in.

Remy looks good.

Looked like training session to me. No one stretched a leg forward. We all know what happens when we play against a weaker side and it's 0-0 after the interval - siege of Marsah Matrouh. Have you seen any of that ? It's little loss, but a loss of two points nevertheless. I don't buy the stuff about Wednesday's match in Germany because that developed into a stroll in the park. The players should be careful, because Jose is a nice guy but come June he can say to you "come on my boy, go to Qatar to find a team".

We have Terry-Costa-Ivanovitch and Drogba who are specialists in the air and we failed to give it a try. With the ball down we managed only one good effort, Matic towards the end of the first half.

Willian cannot take defenders. He has n't got a chance in that department. The answer to them parking the bus was aerial football but we saw none of that.

We did not even try to pump the ball in the air, given that our wingers were blocked. Except for the foul-corner in the last minute.

A super-Torres performence.

I 'm falling asleep.

city 3-2

blackout in lisbon

Kirchhoff. Of the famlily who discovered electric circuits ?

willian scores in the 21st century