Laivasse

Nothing special to boast of here, mostly moments of personal pride rather than global record breaking. I've been gaming for 20-odd years but for some reason the thing that always pops into mind is having completed the obscure Megadrive RPG 'Rings of Power' (made by the guys who later went on to make Crash Bandicoot). It was an obscenely long and tough game (not to mention an overlooked gem of the 16-bit era) and I was a very young and stupid child. It took me like a year and a half of stopping and starting but I nailed it. In Street Fighter Alpha 2, I once caught and finished my cocky boastful arcade gamer friend with Sodom's Ultra combo. This sounds like inconsequential gobbledygook but, again, we were quite young and neither of us had ever really figured out how to pull off the moves that required a 360 circle of the d-pad. Sodom's Ultra required a *full 720 degree double-circle* (ironic gasp!) of the d-pad and so was on another plane of difficulty entirely compared to the button-mashing we usually settled for... but when my friend whiffed an attack, I went for it and pulled it off. Gales of laughter reduced his ego to dust (though I think he beat me straight away when we changed characters). I'm all the more fond of that memory since nowadays in SF4 I play mostly as Zangief, so those double-circle Supers/Ultras are bread and butter to me. I could complete the first Virtua Cop with 1 credit using the light gun. In uni, on one floor of my small dorms, I think I held the record for the fastest run on the very first track of Wipeout 2097 in the Piranha ship. Between me and my main competitor, a Norwegian guy, we reduced that track to a kind of meditative exercise, a psychedelic piece of blurry art. We weren't as consistent as this guy and maybe not as sharp with the times but we could pull off the perfect laps and I don't think we were far off. I have a FM2010 career still going where I've taken Villa through 2 seasons undefeated in the Prem, but that's not so impressive since I've quickloaded away a couple of bad results. Also the difficulty seems to get wonky as you go on (Chelsea, Man City and Arsenal have sort of imploded in my game). Must have felt good. I milked years of bragging rights out of killing a 6 man terrorist team with a deagle once, but that was only on a pub server and way above my normal level of performance. I pretty much suck at online competitive games so the best I can boast of are isolated streaks, like a 10 man backstab streak as spy in TF2 while drunk on wine.

The ball was well within his reach and he reacted in plenty of time, but he misjudged the flight so it went over his hands and in. That was partly because it took a wicked dip from the way walker struck it, but you still expect a keeper to keep out any shot they've watched and successfully reached. Anything less is keeper error. I agree 'nightmare' is a little harsh but screwing up is screwing up.

Arsenal's defence would let down a Sunday league team. Mertesacker and Song just let a harmless long ball bounce between them to create a sitter for Bale (missed).

Decent showing, nothing spectacular but something we can hopefully build on. It was a little worrying that it took two pieces of individual excellence from Gabby to give us what we really needed from this game, but as long as he's playing that well I guess there's no problem. Not quite sure why some here seem so underwhelmed with Ireland today, since he had a good game. He and Bannan share credit for much of our positive work, although unfortunately it didn't lead to much (see the above comment about being worried due to relying on Gabby). The more that Bannan and Ireland start together, the better an understanding they can build up. Warnock too looked very good, showing none of the rashness or unreliability that's coloured our opinions of him. Wigan looked dismal, though. They put me in mind of us last season - decent amount of tippy tappy possession in their own half, but no ideas and near zero goal threat. Seeing how they couldn't even be arsed to attack the ball in our area at 0-2 down almost made me pissed off on their fans' behalf. Really we did the minimum expected, but at least we did it comfortably. Negatives were Delph still looking poor, the fact that we didn't miss Nzog at all (more a depressing fact than a negative), Bent looking lost until Gabby set him up and the continual penalty risk that is Hutton. I'll be surprised if he doesn't give away a couple this season, although it was nice to see him blocking down a shot at 91 minutes with his hands clasped behind his back - he's aware he's been a risk and he's trying not to be.

We dominated possession when we attacked and barely left ourselves open because QPR lacked ideas on how to create anything. Twice we tried to box up the ball in the corner flag and twice we gave it away within seconds, then having to run back to defend. I'd rather at least have us keep the pressure on than piss around with stupid timewasting tactics that didn't waste any time at all.

On the one replay that showed anything, Traore was making a tent out of Gabby's shirt by tugging it. It may only have been for a split second but if it causes Gabby to whiff the shot that's a massive impact. Fully deserved the pen and yellow card imo.

Why did we need to take it into the corner against a team who never created anything all game? We ballsed it up and gave them a goal kick within 2 seconds, I hate this cautious shit.

Tugging a striker back as he goes to shoot is a nailed on pen, Neville should man up, stop talking shit and accept the fact that the ref got it right.

Played a decent square ball across their area for Bannan too, but Bannan dribbled into a dead end. The problem with our midfield as Wilkins said is we're just not playing football most of the time...

Before that big knee injury, I thought everything I'd seen of Delph looked good. Maybe it did him in.

I'd agree Delph looks our weakest player atm. Although the rest of the midfield are anonymous because they simply can't get the ball, Delph looks terrified when he gets it as well. Most of his touches have been poor.

I know we're short on options but for me the sight of Bannan on that right hand side is ridiculous. He leaves an already shaky RB exposed and can barely move forward with the ball since he's terrified it will touch his right foot. A few minutes ago a ball floated in to him at the back post - that's never going to work either.

With signings that start poorly, but who are definitely able to do better, unfortunately the only hope you have of getting them to find form is to bite the bullet and give them an extended run. At the moment his poor decision making looks a result of having no understanding of his team mates; he'll run with the ball because he's not sure what pass is needed or he'll make a pass that nobody moved for so he loses possession for us more often than not. I remember yesterday at one point he was boxed in by 2 players on the right so he tried to roll the ball behind himself - to a player who had already overlapped ahead of him. That kind of thing is typical of his performance atm. However if we stick with him like MON did with Downing I don't doubt he'll come good. If Eck dropped the apparently injured Bent like he should atm, we'd have room for both Alby and Nzog in the side with Gabby alone up top.

Bad performance. When I saw the line up was basically identical to the one that performed terribly against Everton, I figured we were in for a torrid time, but then for about 25 minutes in the first half it looked like we were onto something. Then after half time Gabby went missing; N'Zog, Delph and Bent continued to be ineffective; McLeish subbed off probably our two most positive performers and by the end we were lucky to draw. Small positives were good performances from Warnock, Bannan, Given and Petrov (my MotM). Nobody who outlasted Petrov on the pitch was as positively involved in the game, apart from maybe Given, but I don't want to give MotM to him since tbh Newcastle weren't exactly raining shots down on us. They were shite and should have been there for the taking. Also, in the match thread people were saying Hutton wasn't too bad, but I wasn't feeling any positive vibes from him at all. He looks shaky defensively and going forward he looks as good as Cuellar. He had a few opportunities to cross and almost all were terrible (the one that wasn't terrible still wasn't great) and his passing interchanges down the right with Bannan, Zog and Petrov tended to end up with us losing possession. Zog still looks poor but I think it's down to not understanding how his teammates play. He holds on too long because he's not sure which pass is a good one, and often when he does pass it's based on wrongly predicting a team mate's movement. I know people are going to be coming down like a ton of bricks on him after this but I hope those people are equally harsh towards Bent, because for me he was even poorer. Bent's goals may have saved us from relegation last season but so far this time round he is playing, literally, like a breath of fresh air.

Petrov off is stupidity. He has been our best player. Bannan off is harsh because he's done decently, but putting on Ireland for Delph would make us very breezy in the middle.

Why the HELL didn't Hutton step in and collect the ball there when Collins won it. Petrov was forced into the cleanup and booked unfairly.

Commentator has it right, that was shocking marking. Can't figure out if it was Dunne's or Warnock's ballsup there.

Feels to me like we have a huge hole on our right hand side because primary responsibility there has been given to Bannan who isn't a defensively minded player and has no right foot so he always drifts inside. He's also not the beefiest guy in the world. He's meant to be providing cover for Hutton who looks less than impressive defensively to me so far. So when either of those guys lose out in midfield we're relying on either Petrov (slow, has an attacking remit atm) or Delph (looking unsure, favouring the left side anyway) to come over and plug the gap. IMO at some point I'd have Bent off for Albrighton on the right in a 5 man mid, because Bent just isn't firing on all cylinders.

Bannan played Hutton back into trouble there, Newcastle end up with the ball again. Needs to be more careful with his passing.

Zog and Petrov looking good in that attack, Bent looking well out of sorts still. BTW when Delph lost possession back there, it was partly Bannan's fault - weird reluctance not to play it down the right, became hesitant, Delph collected it in the middle where their lot had had time to tighten up. The final mistake was Delph's of course...

Brilliant... looking twice the player he was last season. Great first touch, calm finish, left foot - none of it usually stuff that would usually spring to mind with Gabby.

Really dismal performance. A draw was daylight robbery. Without sounding too melodramatic, it feels like we're on the edge of a precipice at the moment and some serious thought needs to go into how we can avoid performances like this in future, because if we're depending on Petrov to save us points with his once-every-few-seasons strikes, we're stuffed. It was a beauty though. Dunne was my MOTM for getting in a few good blocks and generally looking solid, but really all you had to do to be our MOTM was not be utterly shite, and most of the team didn't manage it. I'd be tempted to give it to super Marc, except it feels a bit cheap for getting in one great delivery. Delph had a nightmare that needs no elaboration. Hutton was shambolic. Zog was uninspiring. Bannan was trying but was muscled into anonymity for the most part. Bent had a shocker - bad service doesn't excuse constantly being offside or in terrible positions that no pass could unlock. Gabby didn't seem to show up until he scored. 'Mediocre' flatters the rest apart from Given and Dunne who, like I say, generally looked solid.

HAHAHAHA go on you scouse clearings in the woods, whinge about that one... lovely stuff, Marc.

Zog has been no worse than Gabby, Bent, Delph, Warnock etc etc... which is to say he was indeed shit. Villa better equalise again because I badly want to hear the depressed nasal whine that Barry Horne switched to when we scored the first time.

Laughable how Horne is trying to play down the quality of that strike now... 'He's ALWAYS got that in his locker, ALWAYS able to do that' - like the man says, Petrov's been gunning for that one for a couple of seasons now