Pard02

Was linked with Wolves a few months back... https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/wolves-scouting-report-assessing-transfer-13917227

He absolutely didn't. No idea what the ref thinks he's seen Correct, Gayle is yards away from any of their players before the penalty and runs past their player without any contact...no way can the ref claim a foul!

Sounds like the free-kick was taken from where Gayle is in that photo. There was no foul or feigning by Ritchie....the ref has made a complete arse of it and awarded a free kick instead of a retake!!

Cheers for your perspective and this isn't to doubt you by the way. It's funny how you saw the game as us being better in the first half, yet Pards thinks it was the other way round. Football is such an opinions game it's untrue. Yeah its definitely an opinions game although quite worrying when Pardew manages to see things differently, especially when we only looked dangerous for the last 10/15 mins of the 2nd half, which by this time both teams had made a number of changes and Rangers had taken off most of their first team!!

Was at the game last night and was quite optimistic of seeing a good performance since Pardew had probably his preferred first XI....how disappointed was I!! 1st half we lined up 4-3-3 with Ben Arfa and Jonas out wide and Sissoko in the no. 10 role although when our 2 wide players end up playing as deep as Pardew wants them to it was more like a 4-4-1-1. We did play some decent stuff in the first half but just like last season we lacked any killer instinct, happily passing from side to side hoping someone can create a chance!!! Jonas was probably our most dangerous outlet, leaving their full back trailing on numerous occasions but as usual had no end product to cause any danger!! Ben Arfa doesnt look ready at all for the new season, not sharp enough and was easily pushed off the ball quite a few times, although he did have one excellent effort fly just inches over the bar. 2nd half we changed formation to 4-4-2, this is when Sissoko moved out to the right and Gouffran went up top with Cisse. We were absolutely rotten after this with Rangers looking the most likely to get a 2nd goal. Cabaye spent most of the game more intent on trying to kick players and Tiote was reasonably quiet until he almost took 2 players clean out within seconds before he was subbed!! The 2nd half improved when the subs came on for the last 10/15 mins, Sammy Ameobi had a few decent runs down the left forcing a few corners but even so our goal came from an error by the rangers full back. Overall it was a poor performance, struggling to create clear cut chances and relying on long range efforts, must say Debuchy's volley from our corner in the 1st half was a great effort...unfortunately it was straight at the keeper as anywhere else would have left him no chance. Maybe the players were expecting a walkover but Rangers more than matched us and even gave our defence a fair few problems....big improvement needed for the new season!!!