Great day yesterday, i went up to middlesboro for the 3 hour journy! I have to say Everton played absolutely brilliant we played boro off the park and the atmosphere as always at an away game was brilliant also. Got a few pictures of the riverside stadium, it's actually a really nice stadium and they almost filled their stadium this time around we're last season it was half empty lol! 1-0 to the blues!! Should of been much more. Then to top it off i went into town and got smashed!!

Nice!? It's horrible!! but then again you have got to compare it with goodison

I thought it was nice, there was no obstruction view poles for starters lol! Oi less of the digs!

Me mate supports boro and we went up there once and it was terrible! people so rude too!

I agree with the rude bit! Walked past some woman singing my head off after the game, and she says "people like use shouldn't be allowed to go to football matches" really baffled me that phrase!

Every single one of the Everton fans got searched witch i didn't like either! We come to watch a football match....

Great trip tho although i was hung over all day from the night before witch ruined it a touch... i blame mr_107 for making me buy stella!

Just logged in to say this one thing:

Rooney will never be a world class player as long as he has that temper, the elbow was blatent, and a typical childish act, right in front of the linesman, not that it matters in the prem, cos officials ar in fergies pocket.

But when it comes to playing for England or in Europe, things will be (and have been) different, that is what is halting his progress, he needs to grow up, and then hopefully (from an Enland point of view) stop writing books, and actually get a few goals!! I really do (at the moment) not see what people see in him - a bad temper and a bad goal scoring record both for utd and england.

Anyway, Liverpool need to beat toon tommorow, to go top over New Year (dont think there are any new years eve games this year which is annoying) so will be good to top for 2008.

Another point, I think Pompey are in huge trouble, Arsenal at the emirates next too.

Don't worry... You will

Was never any new years eve games though, new years day it was, but not anymore

I couldn't help but laugh at that comment..

Given is having a blinder against L'pool so far. Totally dominant though are Liverpool.

leeds won

get in

You summed up the Newcastle game there. Given was outstanding, pulled off 4-5 world class saves, yet still conceded 5 due to the shambles in front of him.

I thought I was going to be able to say there was a decent referee in the Premier League after the first half, but not the second.

At 2-1 we were on top, then what looked like a blatant hand ball led to their goal, right in front of the ref. Then up the other end Duff got hacked down on the edge of the area and nothing was given. Then a blatant back pass by them, nothing given.

And to top it off, at the end Babel headed it straight wide and the linesman and referee were the only people in the ground to have decided there was a deflection- giving them a corner.

Someone in front of me was saying his conspiracy theory, where the referees gather pre-season and decide who is going down, now it's not that drastic, but it wouldn't surprise me if there was money being chucked about.

Oh and in the first half Duff was put through and was given offside, despite clearly being on.

Great bit of editing there Ste, you could work for the sun!

What I said was that he will never be a world class player as long as he has that temper. People are to quick to say hes world class without looking at the facts. His goalscoring ecord for a striker is similar to that of emile heskey, put it this way I would put 2 liverpool players ahead of him - Torres and Gerrard.

Continued - Which brings me onto the Liverpool newcastle match.

I think we gave them a footballing lesson, 5-1 and that was flattering Newcastle to be honest, Gerrard was absolutely immense and even Lucas was playing well.

I think if we continue to play like that (reminded me bit of the old arsenal) then we have got a definite chance to end our title wait.

As i said, Give me Gerrard over Rooney any day, and Torres has got to come back intot his team as well. Good signs.

And cmon Fulham!

Tom, very biassed that!

Lucas didnt handball it hit the top of his shoulder which is not handball! Duff was given offside, yes but the liverpooldefence had stopped, and Lucas was a mile on when he got flagged after setting babbel up - when newcastle did not stop. Also I seen a rather cowardice challenge on reina when he had just got up from being injured. The ref did a good job, even kinear didnt complain

Well it looked from where I was that it hit his arm (And that's not me sitting up the other end, I'm up that end). So what if the Liverpool defence had stopped? That doesn't mean that offside shouldn't be given.

But yeah Lucas wasn't off I could see that clearly (And I don't sit at the side, I'm in the corner but more behind the goal than on the side). I turned to my dad straight away and said that it was never offside.

But tell me that wasn't a back pass! The keeper dropped it and your player knocked it back in his direction and he picked it up.

And also, please say that you saw that corner given at the end?

The referee was good in the first half, but went completely in your favour in the second. However, you would still have won, and after seeing that, I do think you will get the title.

Was talking to my dad on the way back, saying that all Newcastle did was pass it around the back line, then ended up with a long ball to Duff & Owen who were against Hypia and Agger... While Liverpool got the ball, passed and moved and made ground, Newcastle just passed it, but didn't move.

Was good to see that Sir Bobby was there and that he was given an ovation at the start, even a couple of Liverpool fans clapped, not many though, but I'd come to expect that.

Oh, and the Liverpool fans were crap. Didn't hear a thing until they scored, then they stopped. They scored again and they sung for a few minutes. They only sang when Liverpool scored, there was more chants coming from the Newcastle fans at 5-1 than the Liverpool fans.

I know I've already said this, but Shay Given was incredible. Best shot stopped in the Premier League, those saves he made at the beginning were unbelievable, he kept it from being 8-9 Liverpool goals.

Oh, and on cowardice challenges... Carragher jumped in on Owen pretty early on, but got nothing given to other him other than a free kick to us, yet Taylor ran into Reina and got booked, and Given kicked the ball away on that corner and got a yellow card for that...

Not a good day

Will be interesting to see Fuller's sent off.. he apparently hit his own teammate Andy Griffin!

lol, bit like bowyer and can't remember who for newcastle a couple years ago.

Mooeny you mean bowyer and dyer

Pathetic fuller pathetic i would drop him form the team for a few matches after his ban is up pathetic

match stats are:

West Ham - Stoke

7 Shots On Target 5
8 Shots Off Target 3
10 Fouls (Conceded) 13
8 Corners 4
3 Yellow Cards 3
0 Red Cards 1

Well play stoke and once again disapointed in fuller

Yeah it was Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer, we had already had Steven Taylor sent off (When he made it look like he'd been shot when he hand balled it on the line ) and in the end lost to Villa 3-0.

But yeah, will be interesting to see that on MoTD

haha i remember that!
very rivaldo-esque

The difference between those two though was that Rivaldo did it to get another player sent off, Taylor did it to try and stop Newcastle going further behind and not get sent off, not that it would ever have worked, but was funny to see!