You were doing so well until you drifted into the it's all Pardew's fault mode and that, sadly, diluted your opinion.

I am aware this is heresy in this site - and I am not saying this as a fact as I have no idea what could have happened - but I was and remain a cautious Pardew supporter and am not sure SA made that effective a change.

Had we not sacked him and then plugged the gaps at LB and CB would the results have been any better or worse? No-one tonked Pardew - it was pretty much always the one annoying goal. However, we did stuff Stoke and got some other good early doors results - points on the board that had as much to do with our survival as those got under SA. Yet we were caned at home by the bottom team and lost loads under SA; but everyone is so forgiving. This notwithstanding the fact that, like Pulis, he walked out completely stuffing our pre-season, forcing us into a rushed manager selection and effectively leaving us where we are now.

Yet people still attack the man who kept us up, took us to a cup final that we could have won, but made the critical error of not getting decent back-up in one position - a fault that actually lies more with senior management.