dubai_phil

Weird weekend. How was your big night out D_P? It was very weird, I went out and cooked a Chocolate Fondant. On stage with a TV Chef. The weirdest thing was that it rocked. And yet football is so pre-determined and calculated, we thrash Walsall 0-1 and don't turn up at Colchester and beat a playoff rival 2-0 Think I need a little lay down and probably think I need a stiff drink. About the only thing of the past few days that has been dull boring and repetitive have been our resident thread ruiners To answer Dr Who's question, perhaps the team were so nervous because they had seen & heard the fans over the top reaction to Tuesday and have become too scared to play football in case they make a mistake again. As I've been harping on ALL week. Football is a mind game at the top level our mind sets still aren't in the right place as players OR fans.

I know some very good Therapists & Life Coaches. Would you like their contact details?

Wow, the Tuna was just perfect, but the real winner was the Salsa, yummy Off to have Fine Dining now Oh look we're winning a game we expected to lose Isn't life weird?

I know I shouldn't I really shouldn't. But all those who thought we had nothing running our way on Tuesday and dear old Karma turns up and gets us a goal and their striker sent off for being really stupid

See, we needed updates on the Tuna Will try and get a couple more before HT

Disaster averted, Tuna was too big for my fish grilling on bbq thingy so solved the problem by wrapping them in foil Give me a quick two minutes to rush up and see another FK and SaintsPlayer keeps cutting out Ah bless, normality

Sweetcorn on the bbq Tuna to follow SP shows 62% possession but zero shots RL has a FK

Hmm 3 full backs & a CB on the bench. Pah - loads of options.... You whippersnappers have no idea of what football used to be like in the old days. hell I remember the days when we brought Steve Moran on at CB for Big Dave Watson.. Which is another way of saying oh feck we're doomed, off to light the bbq

WHAT!!! No manager positions available. NC OUT!

Ha that works I run a Green Business. One beer owed

Well, I have had one muvva of a weird weekend so far. Son pulls dead body out the sea yesterday pm. He goes out with mates to get over it and they end up dragging some Arab bloke attempting to commit suicide off of Sheikh Zayed Road. Then just as I organise myself to type up the weather and dinner report onto here I get a phone call from my Satellitte provider telling me I've won a free Fine Dining dinner tonight with Jun Tanaka & Gary Rhodes in a random draw for longstanding customers.... I wouldn't mind but I had prepared BBQ Seared baby Tuna with Roasted Sweetcorn and a Peach & Chipolte Salsa. I mentioned this during the call and apparently the lads want to come round to mine first. So I'll love you and leave you alone tonight and will take Window Cleaner's advice to stick to their (no doubt fine) Chardonnay, I'll wrap up warm as it's a windy and a cold 21C and will stay VERY far away from the commentary because there's simply too much weird sh1t around me at the moment and I gotta a horrible feeling about todays game Anyone got a map to get back to reality FFS?

Yeah, 'cos we ALWAYS lost them

No goals eh? This is the same basic team that went on a run at the end of December with the following results 4-1 4-0 3-1 2-0 6-0 up until 11th January. Perhaps a more accurate question would be to simply ask the question What has happened since 11th January to turn a run of 19 for and 2 against into a run that became 0-0 0-2 1-2 2-1 4-4 1-0 0-0 up to the Swindon game ie 8 for and 9 against. FFS it is the middle of MARCH, for those who have never bothered to read FIFA's rules, there is a transfer window that STOPS us from selling the entire first team and buying in new players. Adkins was good enough in December to go on a run and score goals for fun but now is not up to the job. Something happened. Was it injury? Was it loss of form of one or two players? Answer THAT question and we can get a loan player in OR understand what is going on. But to sit and rant that the sky is falling and we are doomed and need a new team. OK good point, suggest you go off on vacation until June when the window opens again otherwise this is what we have, there seems to be a problem, it needs to be solved. Sack Adkins? Jeez, he was doing fine 6 weeks ago

Lol - you have SUCH an easy task there.... One day you can try and migrate a whole Datacentre. Think that was the funniest It thingy I ever had the joy to watch, I'm sure one of the tekkies actually went gray in front of my eyes But good luck, keep at it. The problem is slowly becoming more identified

No football is more important. Bill Shankly was right. Worrying about it and letting it get to me this week has been put into context. And yes we did sit down with a beer. Many on here will be as shocked as I am that for once in my life I was truly lost for words. Finding the right thing to say to a son who's been through that suddenly all the experience on here of finding the right riposte to Alps came to the fore. Just shook up Dude and yes, good old Blighty & elf & self tea has a lot to answer for, 'cos when Brits go somewhere else they expect the same rules to apply. There wasn't no Hoff and a happy ending, there was a heart attack & my lad & his Dude buddies. Jeez what a fecked up week

I thought Tuesday was a sh1t day. I thought I had a reason to be down and depressed all week. Then context & life decided to intervene and bite me in the bum. Son walks in and says "I've just had a really sh1t day today..... I just pulled a Dead guy out of the sea" Condolences to the guy (who appears to have been a 50+ overweight Brit holidaymaker who had a heart attack in heavy seas after getting into trouble) You know what, football isn't so important anymore

So the SQL Dbase didn't just go marching in then? Oh well we all know what will happen tomorrow then, better get my crash time in the sweepstake sorted out

As a Football Club We DESERVE to be here We do not BELONG here Slight difference As fans, we just have to follow the club and we do NOT deserve what happened to us, but then that's life

Lol I refuse point blank EVER to go there again unless it is free & in Hospitality. Went to the last World Cup Race at the "old" course - had a hot date, we were dressed up in our bestest fake Armani's with vouchers for the Bubble Lounge that we'd won, and spent SIX hours queuing in a rugby scrum in 32C to get in. They had one airport style scanner for 15,000 people, cheapskate ****s.

This. Players are in League 1 for a reason. They are either not good enough for the PL in terms of ability or in terms of mental strength. It seems to me that we have players with ability but not with mental strength. (Where is Paul Wotton when you need him for example - dire footballer by all accounts BUT makes up for it?) It also isn't just about effort or giving 110%, it is about mental attitude. That doesn't get solved by amateur psychology players either have it or they don't. If it was so easy for a Manager to impart that mental attitude then the world of football would be full of Jimmy Cases'. The fact is that if someone does not have it, then no matter how much a Manager tries to nurture and encourage it, they still won't have it. IF "Elite Performace" was purely down to ability then how come different golfers win tournaments just about every week? Why did Tiger Woods used to win so often? (with so many faults in his technique that he had to keep rebuidling his swing) Why did Spurs lose 3-1 away at Blackburn? Why haven't Man City walked the PL? Managers can work with what they have got, they can set up a shape, tactics and push players to expend energy levels during the match, but getting right inside someones head? That doesn't happen (eg remember David James being karp in goal in a game for England? He'd been up all night playing PS2 - that MENTAL issue wouldn't have been spotted by the manager. Circadian rythms, Bad night's sleep, stress, rows with the missus can impact on performance. So, you can find players of limited ability with the RIGHT mental attitude (like Bournemouth appear to have done) then an average manager can generate the atmosphereto make them outperform. A bunch of Prima Donnas with the wrong attitude? Sorry, even Jose or Fergie wouldn't be able to create. I think we have the wrong players for this type of league. MOST of those were bought by AP, not by NA, and MOST of them were vetted by our team of Scouts who are controlled by Les Reed. Les may be a fine person, but his mental toughness was exposed by his time in charge at Charlton, and they for sure seem to be a team of wimps even to this day.

We're all doomed. Just the match we didn't need after the Walsall nightmare. Away to a team we struggle to beat regularly, unknown injuries & knocks to MS & AOC at least. Chaplow off the boil, Barnard unable to hit a barndoor. It's just sssssssssooooooooooooooooooooo depressing. And the even worse news is that the forum is likely to stay stable this weekend so it will work when things go really wrong in the match and we'll have pages of ..... Arrrrrrggggggh what a bad weekend to give up glue sniffing

I don't often do this, but just for once, on this subject, Hypo - shut up.. Thanks Baj & Steve, IT apps are always a nightmare, I bet you've had a barrel of laughs these last few weeks doing the audit to find out what was actually going wrong

Well, that's it - the final proof... Poopey are planning for one week

Pies???!!! Sod that, for 15 Grand you'd think they'd serve Proper Prawn Sandwiches

Although, to be fair, If we'd closed the Academy for the last year in the PL and invested in a PROPER Centre Half....... But yes Hearn talks sense