We’ve had better football teams over the years, but there is much to admire about this team. We struggled in the 1st half. Imho, this was once again largely down to our apparent inability to deal with the opposition playing an extra man in midfield.

Perch and Guthrie tended to move towards the same man, and where frequently passed around, leaving large gaps in front of the back four.

I had confidence Alan Pardew would sort this out at Half-Time, and he appeared to do so simply by telling Perch to stop chasing around the pitch and hold his position in front of the back four.

Villa created too many half chances for comfort, and Krul was kept fairly busy, dealing with pretty well everything thrown at him superbly. As usual, Simpson was awful, including on their goal when he did not get tight enough to Insomnia.

Santon was again decent going forward, and rather suspect defensively. He and Jonas are forming a useful partnership, but being right-footed they both slow progress by constantly needing to bring the ball onto the right foot.

Colo was less effective than normal, seemed rather hesitant, and made a number of unusual errors.

We were much brighter in the 2nd half with Obertan occasionally threatening down the right, Jonas working incredibly hard up and down the left, Guthrie working his nuts off in the provider role, and Cisse and Ba’s movement causing Villa problems. What a joy to have two mobile forwards!

After a tough night on Wednesday, we tired towards the end and let them come on to us; however, we saw it out. It would have been criminal if Cisse had been denied the winner after that phenomenal strike and a hugely encouraging debut.

Alan Pardew told Ba to drop deeper to assist, but as v Spurs last week he showed he is incapable of doing that effectively. At half time Pardew took off Best and replaced him with Hatem Ben Arfa in a further effort solve this problem.

While not entirely successful, this did improve matters as one of Wigan’s midfield three had to pick up Ben Arfa as he was playing deep, giving Cabaye & Tiote a little more time and space. He is still rather off the pace, and gave the ball away too often, but his presence was a threat that Wigan couldn’t ignore.

Despite getting more of a grip in midfield, we still weren’t creating clearcut chances and Wigan’s defenders were dominating Ba, now playing up front on his own. So, Shola was brought on for Ba.

Unfortunately, this Shola was ‘regular Shola’ rather than the ‘super-Shola’ that came on last week. Nevertheless, he was more of a physical threat than Ba had been.

Pardew’s final move was to mercifully replace Obertan with Marveaux. The former’s confidence visibly drained away today as he turned over possession time and time again, and he was starting to get stick from the crowd.

Marveaux showed some nice touches, linking well with Ben Arfa and Cabaye, and played the ball square for Cabaye to strike a gem from the edge of the area into the far top corner.

Not a great performance, but not a bad one either imho. Wigan deserve a lot of credit, and were certainly the better team in the 1st half. They worked hard to stop us playing if rather over-physically at times.

I thought Pardew’s changes were well thought out and each one brought about improvements. However, it seems to me we’ve reached the point where some reassessment is needed.

Two big strikers and only two in central midfield will not always work in the Premier League. Cabaye & Tiote are bearing too much of the workload in this formation and will eventually run out of steam (or get injured).

Krul made one excellent save early on, and was then largely unemployed. I don’t know what Alan Pardew said to Simpson at the break, but he had a barn-storming 2nd half. Top man for me once again was Colo, although Steven Taylor also did well.

The game actually going in high tempo with both teams have creating some chances in the first half, but it’s normally that the home side is getting the best of it the most, but thanks to our both full backs who done their job perfectly.

Both Danny Simpson and Steven Taylor have a breathtaking moment when they have to make a critical save infront of an empty Newcastle’s goal from Bothroyd and Wright-Phillips efforts. Tim Krul was twice making mistakes to go up too far leaving his post.

We also have two or three chances to go up in first half through Leon Best. But, in my honest opinion, I was quite impressed with Obertan’s appearance, He’s doing pretty well and keep progressing.

From the homeside, I was noted that Taarabt and Wright-Phillips are our serious threats, especially when WP makes me hold my breath with his long ball chips into our empty net, thanks to Steven Taylor who heads the ball off the line.

Not a similar scenario that I would have been expected to see in the second half, as we are looking surprisingly tired, strange but we are usually playing much better after the break but that not seen during the second half at Loftus Road.

In fact the only serious threat that we created was when Jonas moving in too quickly before the ball finally arriving, and since that we are very rare to make any serious test to the home defense. I also see that Tiote will have to wait and working more harder to catch-up with his previous level of fitness as well as his skill.

All in all, a quite decent game to watch and satisfactory result for both team I thought, although not as good as our last game against Fulham and I was hoping that we could land in the top four spot with a win tonight, but to keep the unbeaten record so far was a good achievement too.

Until then and thanks for keep coming. Howay the Lads!

We struggled to establish any measure of control in midfield, and although we got on top for spells in the 2nd half, a draw was probably a fair result. Both keepers made a couple of good saves, and Fulham hit the bar.

Nolan worked his socks off but his lack of mobility was painfully apparent in the engine room. Guthrie floated in and out of the game without making a real impact, although he did provide one superb cross that Lovenkrands unfortunately headed straight at Schwarzer.

In the absence of Barton, Jonas was the one we were looking to to create something for the strikers. He was a massive disappointment, and personally I’d have replaced him with Routledge at half time.

Tiote had a decent game, and was probably the pick of a stuttering midfield, but he picked up his usual booking and will now miss the next game – something we can ill afford.

We defended better than against Blackburn, although Williamson looked nervy and was booked for the second of two late challenges after his man beat him rather too easily.

To avoid a red card I’d have have replaced him at half time, but to his credit he had a pretty good 2nd half. Colo was the pick of the defence, although Enrique did a lot better going forward than his left wing partner.

Lots of huff and puff, but a shortage of real quality going forward. We are increasingly tending to hit long balls towards Carroll rather than working the ball patiently and waiting for the opening.

This is costing us possession, and isn’t doing Carroll any favours either. As a team we also have a tendency to want to play the difficult ball, or try something clever, often in dangerous positions.

This really is something we should be trying to cut out. It has already cost us important goals, and will continue to do so.

Not a great game, not helped by another cr@p Referee, but no shortage of effort and at least it’s another point in the bag.

And for this new post, I want to give him huge deserved credits for keeping his concentration all the way up until the very end of the game before finally being booked at the death of injury time.

The game itself was a breathtaking one and without high tempo both teams creating some dangerous chances but only two goals were finally created. And spealing about the goal chances, I think we have the better numbers than the home team has.

We should have gone 2 goals ahead in first half, just if Carroll and Nollan took their half-chances well. Actually Carroll should have another hattrick today, and one great chance has gone off but only produced a yellow card which I think a little too harsh for him.

Then from a good corner kick, the home team also have one decent chance with wolves striker Ebanks-Blake headed the ball into the bar, and when the second chance coming on his way he took it very well to give his side the lead. And for his goal, I think our defenders are a bit sleepy in the box and should have done better to keep him in tight position.

The second half started with us going up for the equalizing goal, with wolves several attacking break also producing couple of dangerous moments, but it’s Carroll who took his chance very well this time to booked his fourth premierships goal this season.

All in all, a good game to watch with plenty of yellow cards flying out of the referee pocket, and I think a draw is a good result for us. Can’t wait to watch Tiote playing in midfield for us in two weeks time after the international break next Saturday, as i think he would get his work permit shortly.