Problems Ahead?

The two points dropped on Saturday to a late Coventry equaliser have had the consequence of pushing us out of the top two as West Brom did the inevitable and crushed lowly QPR by an emphatic 5-1.

The last time we suffered such a meaningful late equaliser was the 2-2 draw with Fulham back in December last year in Pardew's first match in charge when a mistake by the referee in giving Fulham a free-kick lead to a last-gasp goal. Those two points dropped haunted us for the next 5 months and we can only hope that we can recover ourselves tomorrow so we can forget the latest slip-up as quickly as possible.

We've had what Pards' foresaw as 4 difficult away games at Stoke, Palarse, Colchester and Monica's Coventry and got ourselves 5 points out of a possible 12 but perhaps we should compare that haul with the team just above us.

As pointed out on Saturday, one of our more serious rivals is West Brom whose impressive home record of 4 straight wins have come against 22nd placed Preston 2-0, 8th placed Barnsley 2-0, 15th placed Ipswich 4-0 and bottom club QPR 5-1 and although they've lost at Sheff. U and Burnley they have got themselves above us thanks to 4 points earned away at high-flyers Scunthorpe and Bristol City.

They've also scored the most goals in the Division and conceded the least and after losing in last seasons Play-Off final against Derby have more experience than the Addicks of life in the Fizzies.

So when do we face them? Well, its our 22nd game on a Saturday 10 days before Christmas, an away game when most of us will be traipsing around behind the missus buying the last minute presents.

The return is game 40 on March 22nd but that's a long way ahead and of more immediate concern to Pardew will be the next game and in the congested Fizzies games come quick and fast and there's another one up tomorrow with a visit to the KC Stadium in Hull.

And it's another buoyant team after a recent win after Hull enjoyed a second home victory of the season on Saturday with a 3-1 win over Ipswich and they'll be eager to get another three points to get them into those tempting play-off positions just two points in front of them.

It'll be their fifth home game of the season and they've already got a point against Stoke in a 1-1 draw and their only home defeat was on the opening day of the season to a late winner from Plymouth but tomorrow's worry for Pardew will be the unfortunate and untimely return to fitness of someone we've meet before, 32 year old Henrik Pederson.

He played his first game of the season after an Achilles problem and scored twice and there's also his old mate from Bolton Jay-Jay Okocha to cause us problems.

And speaking of problems, there's news that around 20 creditors of Llanera have formed a "group" to better address their concerns and have approached a lawyer to press their claims for around 2 million Euros in short term debt and 3 million in total.

There's a good article by WynGrant that explains the issue but the word "mismanagement" is one that comes to mind when despite the current rising cost of mortgages in Spain affecting Spanish buyers, there remains a seemingly endless influx of British buyers all along the coasts of Spain. The fact that the company is a family business has tended to hide the numbers involved but it appears that on a sale income of 6 million Euros in 2006 they paid their managers a total of 30 million!

Looks like another problem soon to come our way....