Get outta my ground!

I guess we'll now see how much influence Alan Pardew does wield with his team in the course of a match.  Banned from attending a stadium for three matches and banned from the touchline for a further four, it's open to question whether he should consider a self-imposed touchline exile for the rest of the career, to spare Newcastle United further blushes.  Proportionate to the head-nudge that it was, the punishment will not overly hurt the Magpies (as some commentators wanted it to as a way of getting at Pardew) as they are in no danger of relegation and now even seventh place won't be enough for European football (of which more later).  Two of the three matches with stadium bans will be at St James' Park so barring half-time team talk (of which eye-gouger Mourinho said only half a dozen words to his team drawing a blank at Fulham before going on to win) and tactical substitutions and tweaks, it is not of massive inconvenience, as Pardew will be able to brief the squad just before they leave the training complex.  It's not as if John Carver is incapable as a deputy - he currently has a 100% record as a stand-in coach (in the match after Sir Bobby Robson was sacked).  The one away match is Fulham and their season also seems over, with relegation hovering like Banquo's Ghost over their remaining games.
Talking of the drop, Charlton Athletic were bidding fair to be the first third tier team ever to enter European competition.  After their defeat in Yorkshire, that mantle will now be taken on by Sheffield United in an eminently winnable game against Hull City at Wembley.  The Addicks can have their revenge next season - when they face the Blades in the same division.  Then again, the team from The Valley is only three points behind fourth-from-bottom Millwall but with four games in hand.  This is why it was so inexplicable that Chris Powell, Charlton legend should have been sacked, especially as only days earlier he was talking about being near to signing an extension to his contract.  But the new owner already had his own man lined up and was just itching to parachute him in and a quarter-final defeat in the same weekend that Charlton sunk to the basement of the Championship (their four relegation rivals all won) seemed to be opportune.  The Championship seems to be going the way of the Premier League with foreign managers easing out doughty British ones.  Scandalously, after the departures of Powell and Paul Ince at Blackpool, there is only one black manager in all the 92 clubs in the league pyramid and Chris Hughton's job security at Norwich City is precarious to say the least.
A fortnight ago, despite the season's woes, Manchester United could console themselves with a Europa League place next season, where the victors get a bye straight to the Champions League of the following season (making a Europa League trophy defence even less likely).  Now that Manchester City were eliminated from the FA Cup by holders Wigan Athletic (and would have been drawn against Arsenal anyway), only 5th and 6th place will be good enough to get European football and Man Utd should be grateful that their city rivals were successful in winning the League Cup.  Of course, three into two does not go and so they have to stay ahead of either Tottenham or Everton to avoid the indignity of a season without European football.  Spurs are four points ahead but sinking as the players know Sherwood will be gone at the end of the season while Everton are level with a game in hand (against strugglers Crystal Palace), so it will be quite some scramble between those three teams to avoid finishing 7th come May.  In days gone by, such a 'battle' would seem a trifling irrelevance but the booby prize of the Europa League has a pot of gold at the end of it.