Alan Pardew followed up his Manager of the Month award with an absolutely shameful display of team selection and tactics last night with an embarassing 4-1 mauling at the hands of Big Sam's Bolton.

NRC's illness meant a change was forced, but Pardew's actions were unforgivable in the face of such an important match. Getting up at 1am to watch the woeful antics was like a nightmare, but the half-time substitutions were as bizarre as the inexplicable starting lineup and the whole farce was a slap-in-the-face serve of reality to this bleary-eyed fan.

* Why take the league's most in-form defender and play him in a totally unfamiliar role?
* Why play two defensive midfielders, then substitute one for another at half time?
* Why play a debutant at centre back in such a vital match with no effective support?
* If NRC was ill, where was Carl Fletcher?
* Why remove every player (bar one) with any counter attack ability and instead start with the slowest players available?
* Why play two supporting strikers together and leave "Mr Opportunist" Ashton on the bench?
* Why change every single partnership possible except one (left side) in the same match? The strikers, right side, centre mid, and centre back partnerships were all changed.
* Why play "Teflon Don" Scaloni when Dailly is, sadly, a better option there?
* Why not move Newton to right-back, instead of subbing him off and leaving Scaloni at right back?
* Why name slow, unfit Teddy in the starting XI?
* Why leave Ashton and Harewood benched for the ENTIRE match?
* Why did Teddy's goal prevent Pardew from making the third sub?
* Why do all this dicking around with the squad in what is probably the most important game of the entire season?

Player ratings:
Shaka 5 - some good saves but should have prevented the first two goals - maybe the third.
Konchy 7 - the left side was our only consolation.
Elliot N/A - I will not rate him because he was thrown in the fire and we all know he is capable of much more. It would be unfair to rate him. Pardew: way to go, shatter his confidence!
Danny G 6 - OK.
Scaloni 4 - showed up on time for the match. Targeted thereafter. Bring Clive back.
Ethers 7 - the left side was our only consolation.
Mullins 5 - absent.
Anton 5 - Played out of position in the first half, OK in the second.
Newton 5 - absent.
Zamora 6 - tried desperately hard but given no support. Teddy could not benefit from his play.
Teddy 6 - got a goal & some passes, tried his best, but too slow in the absence of pace elsewhere.

Dailly 5 (on for Elliot) - not much better than Anton.
Yossi 5 (on for 10K) - absent.

Pardew 0 - did nothing right. The starting lineup was so wrong that we needed about 7 substitutions to get it right. The two that he did make were wrong. Take the blame, Pardew - everyone makes mistakes.

It's a blip - roll on!