Hammer blow

Last minute penalties are a killer. I was sickened at the end of the match at Upton Park. We hadn't played brilliantly, but had created some good chances. A draw and shared points probably would have been the fairest result. But the ref could have given us a peno a few minutes earlier when Lucas Neil touched the ball with his arm. He turned us down and then he gave them one a few minutes later on the stroke of full time. If we'd taken our chances then it wouldn't have mattered. We didn't and paid the price as has been the case many times this season.

Sunderland visit Anfield tomorrow. We are in crap form at the minute but this could be the perfect opportunity to turn it around. Sunderland have terrible away form with only 2 points from 36. Jones will cause us problems but their defense is pretty crap so we should be able to win. Surely we have enough to put he black cats away? I think we'll do it. I'm going to this match so I'd love to see us bang in a few goals and get the season back on track.

Momo completed his move to Juve this week. I hope that it works out for him and he goes on to have a great career. A letter from him was published on the official site today. As Rafa would say, "a nice boy".

The news that Opare, a young Ghanain defender we've been tracking, has opted for Real Madrid is dissappointing. The fact that he was with our feeder club, Ashanti Gold, is even more annoying.

We drew Barnsley at home in the FA Cup. It's a decent draw and we can't say fairer than that really. There are only six premiership teams left in the cup and United and Arsenal playing each other, we have a decent enough chance of going all the way.

The youth team beat Arsenal in the FA youth cup on Tuesday. The team is a young one and only has a few members from last years victorious team. When you consider that we're going for three in a row here, it's a great testament to Steve Heighway, Hugh McAuley and Rafa. Pako Ayestarán was at the match which is interesting but may not mean anything in itself. He recently left his job with Real Sociedad.