The9

I'm pretty sure he will be as this doesn't have anything to do with his role at Saints - he's probably more suited to England's preferred set up, and he'll probably also make the point that Hodgson has run out of other options - Hodgson himself said Carroll and Sturridge are ahead of Lambert even when trying to praise him. Nick Collins on SSN "Wonderful story, 31 years old, triumphant season with Southampton last year", blah blah, reinterpreted Hodgson's interview above as "chose him because every time he's gone up a level he's coped".

Hodgson on Lambert on SSN, not his most auspicious factually correct interview... "One of the things that's impressed me about him, is that this is a man that has come up the hard way, he's ploughed a very difficult furrow starting in non-League. I first came across him at Bristol Rovers when I was at Fulham about 5/6 years ago now. He played very well against us in fact I ever remember discussing him as a potential transfer target, but then of course the big question here is 'how can a guy in League One become a success in the Premier League'? Then of course he moved to a Championship side* and the question was asked, 'well, he's only a League One player can he play in the Championship', he helped Southampton win it*, and then the next question would be 'can he play in the Premiership*' and he scores 15 goals. So, I think if a man has really worked hard to prove his worth over the years it's Rickie Lambert, and I think he fully deserves his call up, at a time of course when a couple of players that might have got a nod in front of him, Daniel Sturridge and Andy Carroll, are not available". Also worth noting that he didn't score against Fulham in either of 2008's FA Cup matches with Bristol Rovers, though Rovers did win on penalties. *factual inaccuracy.

Can't argue with that - I hadn't checked.

Sky Sports News - "the big news is the inclusion of Wayne Rooney"...

Quite - whilst at the same time Carroll got picked as he gave them an alternative if they needed a target man. It's Carroll's spot, but if he gets the chance and puts in a hell of a performance there's always the possibility. Of course, expect a dip in form in October if he's not in the next competitive squad...

Oh God, we're all going to turn into deluded mentals again now are we ? He's still about 6th choice at the moment. This is exactly the kind of game Hodgson SHOULD be using to look at meritorious players on the fringes of selection - it's bloody Scotland FFS, they're useless at the moment, a more direct game will still give them problems, and with 4 or 5 strikers unavailable through pretend pre-season injuries where the big clubs have decided not to release them Hodgson has plenty of excuses if he doesn't immediately shine. Win-win situation, worst case scenario he can tell Walcott to exploit the massive space behind Fox.

Squad announcement was on SSN a while back.

Let's put it this way, I turned off SSN after the League Cup draw. Congratulations to him, it only took injuries to the entire England attack, him completely losing form, Grant Holt signing for a Championship side and a friendly against a footballing third world nation for him to get the call.

I've just looked at the unseeded teams, and Newport aside there is literally no opposition I'd be bothered to go to for an away match on a midweek evening. Burton Albion is about the closest one I haven't been to that I'd consider, and aside from that it's all too far North places like Morecambe, Doncaster, Notts County, Bury and Accrington.

Sharp and Tadanari Lee too, based on the players who haven't been given squad numbers (officially, though all of their previous numbers are still free, suspiciously). Seeing as practically all the people who've left since we got promoted except Dan Harding and Vegard Forren have been due to contract expiry, I don't think anyone deserves any credit for it. We've hardly been proactive in moving people on.

That's Bolton's prerogative.

This season or in 1980 ? That wasn't Jena ! I went to County v Accrington, and I don't hate Swansea, because they hate Cardiff - and everyone should hate Cardiff.

I think we'll get Barnsley away. Glad I went in the league in 2011.

My missus is like that for Newport County matches, she's been to Wembley twice to see them, and otherwise has only seen three league matches, all of which they have won 4-1. She could have got 50/1 for that on Saturday, and thanks to her superpowers, called the final score at 1-0. I believe they may be lining up a comp ST for her on this basis.

33 replies and no-one has made an hilarious joke about the gayer thinking "discrete" (separate/independent) is the same as "discreet" (behaving so as to not get caught going at it by Speedo thieving dogs). I'm waiting...

Just noticed the Spitting Image map has "Bournemouth" and "Brighton" for the Tory conference locations and "Grantham" for Mrs Thatch's birthplace marked on it. Funny. I think I have the 1991 Spitting Image book, not as good as the 1980s one.

I don't think most players even know who they're playing against next until the day before, and even then only because they get told what they're supposed to do. I honestly don't think any of them are remotely bothered about playing in marginally bigger grounds - there's plenty of chances for L2 players to play against teams in top half L1 sized grounds, why would they even care ? Newport's players played in a ground 50% larger just last night and they've only played one FL match, plus they've been to Wembley twice in two seasons, Fratton is hardly going to be a big deal for them. Plus Bradford only just got promoted out of L2 with a similar sized ground for everyone else to get their fill of echoey carbunkles.

There's a paralympics for that. Says ->

I think Mr Fry makes his point very well, and draws some interesting parallels. I particularly liked the Edmund Burke quote “All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing,” but there's a mischievous side of me that wants to point out that equally, claiming "someone else said it" is a very good way of doing something and staying out of trouble. I'm also unsurprised that Fry has not bothered to even try and argue the same criteria of equality and fairness applies to hosting the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and that's a massive indictment of FIFA's cynical role in promoting sport compared to the IOC.

I paid £18 to watch Newport County's first match in the FL for 25 years last weekend, which I thought was excellent value, and I am paying £12 for this due to some cost-spreading shenanigans by a mate, which is just about acceptable for a non-competitive game. The wife is going corporate for that Ladies' Day at £75 a chuck FFS, I'm pretty sure neither of us would be going if it wasn't for that. Hopefully she'll be able to smuggle out 2 dinners and two armfuls of wine to get her money's worth.

Hodgson should pick players that suit his system and who are on form. On that basis, only Cork might get a call up.

I would love to see your defence of those clubs' academies doing well. FWIW I agree with you about Lampard (and Bale for that matter). Top English scorer means NOTHING.

To get this back on topic, I think Mayuka offers more pace and a potentially much better upside than Sharp, but I was surprised that we didn't give Sharp any kind of chance to make an impact at all last year, especially when, unlike Hammond, Barnard and Dickson, he actually featured in early squads. I think Sharp is as capable of being a Prem player as Grant Holt was, but he wouldn't be a player you'd be signing now if he wasn't already ours. Then again there's at least 3 other fairly regular starters I could say that about.

My mistake, the official rule http://www.premierleague.com/content/dam/premierleague/site-content/News/publications/handbooks/premier-league-handbook-2012-2013.pdf states : "M.3. Save with the prior written consent of the Board shirt numbers shall commence with the number one and shall be allocated consecutively." So we could have asked for permission. It's a £300 fine in the first instance, then £600, then £1200. After that it's off to the PL's Disciplinary Process. The Form 12 referred to in rule M.6 has numbers up to 46 on it, just for the record.

Officially I don't think 40 and 41 were ever stated (which is strange given that Hoskins, Moore, Sinclair, Gape and Robinson all had numbers) - but we must have at least named someone on the original list to the Premier League even if they never actually used them. Either that or the PL just decided to ignore it, as the main purpose of the rule is to stop players taking unnecessarily high numbers for no good reason (viz Wanyama at Celtic, half the AS Roma squad and loads of Turkish players).