Ponky

I take it we are sitting back now and letting Blackburn pound our goal?

Preston 7-0 against Colchester.

I think the original dig was at MOn more than Sidwell.

From the Beeb live updates:

"Ten-man Blackburn are back in it against Villa. Brad Guzan drops a corner right in front of Nikola Kalinic and the Croat striker can't miss. Blackburn trail 2-1."

Sounds like lil Brad **** up.

Chris Herd playing for Lincoln who are 0-0 at Bolton at present. No sign of Lichaj there though.

Assume Diouf misses one of the LC games this week. Beeb says professional foul - so only one match?

Set piece?

His first senior goal on home soil?

Didn't he also score in the Fa cup replay against Doncaster last season also?

Ah yes - forgot about that one.

So - update - is Delfouneso still on the pitch yes or no?

OK - thanks _ I missed that Zilina match as was out of internet range. His other goal was against Hamburg right?

Hopefully this first domestic senior goal will be the first of many.

His first senior goal on home soil?

That's put a smile on my dial.

Gardner has been injured hasn't he?

Interesting that Delph gets a run ahead of Sidwell. Change in the pecking order maybe?

Also surprised Milner's not even on the bench.

I seriously doubt Lowry would be playing in this one. Methinks he will be back at Plymouth or elsewhere pretty much as soon as the transfer window opens.

Is he back from Dubai yet, or still out there with Australia?

Match is on 6 Jan - so I would suggest he'll be in Dubai until then unless he has to return to sign any paperwork or anything.

I seriously doubt Lowry would be playing in this one. Methinks he will be back at Plymouth or elsewhere pretty much as soon as the transfer window opens.

Can we recall Marlon for this one?

Football is a cruel and fickle mistress. Tonight, she led us on with promises of a night of tasty treats and at the end of the night she went home with another man.

Bitch.

Was that the first direct free kick we have conceded to this season? Most DFKs appear to bounce straight off our wall usually. It really was a brilliant shot.

To be fair, I reckon over-reactions are down at least 13% on our last loss!

I thought a 0-0 was nailed on at half time but Arsenal really clicked up a gear after half time. They looked a bit too worried about our attacking threat in the first and didn't probe us enough but with Fabregas on things started flowing better for them and we just couldn't sustain the effort.

Considering they conceded 3 goals I though the defence were excellent again although Friedel looked quite shaky.

I agree the ref was a crook and I reckon Song should have been given his second yellow for his studs out tackle on Milner in the first half - he was a dirty prick and got away with plenty of dodgy stuff - including sticking out a knee resulting in a booking for Ash for diving. While the yellow was harsh on Ash, it has been a long time coming and perhaps being "outed" by the ref might be enough to get him thinking.

People are bemoaning MON's subbing of Carew for Heskey instead of another midfielder and yes, in hindsight he got it wrong, but at least it shows we were trying to win the game at 0-0 rather than simply settle for a point - and if Carew had scored it would have been regarded as a risk that paid off - it is a fine line sometimes.

It will be interesting to see how the boys respond against the Pool. Hopefully they will just shut rent-a-quote mouths and let their football do the talking.

True Stoke deserved a point but we were still the better team. Stoke closed our defenders down well today and put them under enormous pressure. Cuellar and Young were great, but Dunne and Warnock had their moments but looked shaky at times.

In my opinion though, Tuncay showed tonight that he or a player like him is the missing piece of the puzzle for us. He unlocked our defence on numerous occasions but was let down by his teammates with poor finishing. In a better all-round quality side I think he would thrive.

In the end, I suspect MON and the players will draw a line through it, accept the 3 points gleefully and put the somewhat jaded performance down to having to play 3 matches in 7 days.

Our passing is shit - just giving it away too much for them to counter. Carew has little to do with that IMO.

MON just needs to get them refocused on working the ball around a bit better.

was anger that Kevin Friend, the referee, did not live up to his surname (he was “shocking”, Bruce said)

i thought the ref was very good yesterday and didn't get anything wrong .. every time the Blunderland players and fans were baying for a free kick the ref was proved right

Or did i just have claret & blue tinted classes on (like the ref :-) )

I can't figure out what they were complaining about to be honest. It was clear from the start their tactic was to take us with late tackles and pretty much play the man. I thought bar one dodgy 'simulation' from Gabby, pretty much everything we got we deserved, and then late in the game both Milner and Luke Young handed out some square-ups and got booked for it (and didn't Reid squeal like a girl when he got taken late by Young?). Then you see this rocket polisher who seems to be paid actual money to write sycophantic bullshit like this

Ref was no Friend to Black Cats

YOU can moan about the refereeing, you can moan about some gamesmanship (or cheating, as I prefer to call it), but can we honestly say we had anyone other than ourselves to blame for last night's 2-0 defeat by Aston Villa?

True, referee Kevin Friend seemed anything but Friend-ly to the home side, and he and one of his assistants made several howlers.

So much so that they were booed from the field at half-time, and then back on to it after the interval.

But they had nothing to do with either of the goals that were to prove the real difference between the two sides.

True also, that for all their skill and talent, the likes of Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor seem all too eager to throw themselves on the floor whenever the opportunity arises.

That may well sound like sour grapes, but it's diving which leaves a bad taste in my mouth, not defeat.

Both Young and Agbonlahor could represent England in the World Cup next summer, and if they do I hope they have a great tournament, but are remembered for what they can do with their feet rather than for their inability to stay on them.

There will be those who argue it's all part of gamesmanship, or say that I wouldn't be complaining if it was Sunderland players doing it.

Wrong on both counts. It's cheating, nothing else, and if a Sunderland player does it will be just as distasteful.

No one wants to win more than me, but if we have to start diving to do so, I'd rather we didn't bother.

Of course, the diving of messrs Young and Agbonlahor wasn't the reason for our demise last night.

Nobody threw themselves over to cause Lorik Cana to receive two yellow cards, and consequently pick up a red one.

Both challenges were rash to say the least, probably only slightly less rash than George McCartney's kamikaze pass which led to Villa's opener.

I've said it often enough – and if you've ever seen me play then you won't need telling – that I was never close to becoming a professional footballer.

I was, however, in my very-amateur playing career a defender, and two of the first things I learned was not to commit the cardinal sin of passing across your own box, especially without looking.

McCartney did both, and Villa punished us. The second goal was a moment of pure magic by James Milner.

However, that also came from our inability to keep hold of the ball, which, when teams hit you on the break at the pace Villa do, can be very costly.

So forget Friend and forget the diving, our problems last night were all of our own making.

After some great results so far, the wheels have come off ever so slightly in recent games, and getting back on track away to Manchester City this weekend is going to be a big ask.

What a great win - and in terms of our season's ambitions probably more important than the Man U win.

I thought we were terrible in the first twenty minutes - couldn't get possession and when we did kept giving it away. But that lovely goal from Heskey really changed it all. Sunderland got a few really strong chances at goal but it's funny with this defence you kind of expect them to clear the ball even with the certain opposition goals - see for example Dunne's challenge on Jones and Friedl's miraculous reappearance on the goal line when the Sunderland player had a shot on open goal.

But make no mistake we are a team on the rise. This formation using Downing, Young and Milner is lethal and very difficult to counter. And with Heskey and Gabby both in scoring form, we are finally starting to get a reward for our attacking play.

I love the way that MON is talking us down for top 4 too - I think he will keep the boys focused and hungry.

Next up - revenge on Stoke for derailing our season last time around.

I don't care what they do to be honest as long as we:

a) finish above them and

do them over at VP