Sheff Saint

I thought he played quite well at Reading, really well actually. Monday he was disappointing though. I happen to think we play ok when we've got three up front. But to often it's only 1. At Reading and Derby all three forwards pushed up but against Watford, Palace, even when we won at Donny, it was 4-5-1. Which makes it v hard for the forward. I'd never play Pekhart. I've seen him 3 or 4 times and he's been bloody dradful each and every time. Get rid of him and the other toss loan players and get John or Rasiak in the team. In my humble opinion.

Sorry but we are far to nice. We have no physical presence whatsoever. How many goals from set pieces have we conceeded this season? Lots. Look at the first goal last night. We let some old fat bloke bully us off the ball. Yeah, it was a foul, but the harsh thing is you get away with that in the CCC every week. Football isn't just about pretty passes. It's horses for courses and we urgently need some physical presence in the team from somewhere. And players like DMG need to be doing to opposition defences what Kuqi did to us all last night.

Not sure we have. Away 05/06 - Lost 2-1 06/07 - Won 3-0 Home 05/06 - Lost 3-4 06/07 - Won 1-0 None on TV

I thought we'd get battered. At the moment we're above that. I also said if we finish 4 from bottom then hopefully next season we can add one or two older heads to a squad of youngsters that would then be experienced (Please assure us of that Rupert...) So four from bottom is still the aim. We'll not finish a lot higher, thats for definite, but if we can get 20th - who knows next season? This year we seem to have a great win, a few average performances picking up points, a horrible horrible performance, a few average performances not picking up points and then a great win... Fingers crossed that'll see us safe, but i'm worried.

I always thought Oakley was a little over-rated. A good squad player for the Prem but not one of the best. And just cos Fuller is doing ok now, he was toss for us. There's quite a few really that did great jobs for us in the Prem that you wouldn't really single out as great players. Doddsey (much better than i sometimes think he's credited for), Telfer, Paul Williams. Richard Dryden never really did a lot wrong in his time here (if we all forget that 5-0 defeat at Newcastle!) Kevin Moore, Dave Beasent (given his reputation before joining, and his early games for us) Ken Monkou didn't get a lot of press in the national media but was appreciated round here!

Only really been one in my time really, so it has to be Doddsey. I think a very under-rated player, great crosser, great defender, a good leader, a great professional and versitile.

I think he was alluding to the fact the young players weren't played under the previous regime so chose to leave. Of course, Baird (eventually) and Jones were regulars so that doesn't seem to add up. And whereas it would be nice if Cranie and Best had stayed, they're not exactly superstars are they. Even Blackstock is only 'alright'

In defence of the club they get it right with ticket allocation 99% of the time. The price is wrong at the mo for the league IMO but spot on for this fixture. But regards allocation i bet there isn't one supporter that wants to go, can afford to go and can go, but isn't able to get a ticket. All that said sadly i'm not sure i can afford the cost or time to come home for this. Plus i've a sneeky feeling we might scrape a replay (I did only say might!) and i'd be able to make that one.

If only...!

I'd query that statement most of the time anyway, but on TV?!! I'm not sure there was much entertainment in either of the 1-0 defeats home defeats on tv this season. I suppose there was goals in the 4-1 defeats at QPR and Coventry but apart from a 20 minute spell in the second half at Loftus Road, it wasn't us entertaining. Car crash viewing might be why we're on a lot! Sorry i'm being negative. That's all behind us, we're on the up now..sort of?!!

Same for both teams to be fair and not a long journey for us. To be fair we've had an advantage already this season cos of tv when we played Sheff Utd on the Tuesday, they'd played on the Sunday on tv, we played Saturday. We move our Tuesday games to Wednesday normally don't we.

i think we got about £4 mill for it. Don't forget house prices weren't quite as stong even in 2001 (i.e i bet it'd been worth £8 mil in Jan last year!). I think that money was pumped straight into the building of the SMS. I'm sure someone will have a link to firm those figures up though. Same applied to Hampshire CCc i think.

I think you'll find we've had more points and less goals conceeded when Perry plays, than when he doesn't. And the fact remains, in this division, you need a few older players to help you out. I always point to Sheffield United's promotion a few years ago. It was our first season in the CCC. How many of us would have had the likes of Unsworth or Shipperley in the team. I reckon none. But they were good enough to send them up. I really think the role in the club that some older heads bring is over looked on here. A combination of 'quality' kids and experienced senior pros is the most effective way up from CCC land.

Yes.

To be fair, despite my cynical post above you're on to something here. The figures show, not just the skewed economics, but the skewed luck. We invested half that amount in GBs team. It was a similar 'gamble' to Hull. They got a bit of luck though and kept going up. We failed and now paying the price of that. It would be intresting to see what would have happened if Hull had got stuck in League 1 for a few years? I suppose my frustration now is that we are not helping ourselves as much as we could with our current path.

You left off the fact they didn't appoint some random manager from the Dutch semi-professional league and get a load of average 18 year olds in the first team. I'm surprised Hull succeded with such a revolutionary approach.

Went to watch this last night as it was only at Bramall Lane. All a bit like watching Saints really, i.e. a bit rubbish. At least England won thou! Mind due i don't know what i was expecting from an u21 friendly when it only cost a fiver! Disappointing Lallana only got a run for 5 mins, especially when Jack Cork came on after 70 mins in a sort of attacking midfield role. (though he sunk deeper and deeper back) Thought he looked a bit nervous in the things he did. Lallana, given 5 minutes, barely got a touch, but he did get a good turn and poor shot in. Difficult for both though coming off the bench with game so dis-jointed. Pekhart started for the Czech's. Sadly he just looked the definition of a cart horse. Really think we should free up a loan place and save some money and get him back to Spuds asap! Sorry, not much to report, thought we'd see more of our boys but hey hum!

I was just trying to be pedantic for comedy effect as well. Sorry. Sorry. Soz.

Given as Shils was before my time i'm going for Flowers over Neimi. Looks like this position is wrapped up already thou!

That means Watford would get at least three more points though this season and over take us. Otherwise i like the logic!

I still struggle to see what was wrong with having a gamble to get up? It very nearly worked. What was the alternative, not investing and having a few years of medoricity before ending up in the position we are in now? Not having a gamble would be avoiding 'doing a Leeds'. Yet we are in fact 'doing a Leeds,' (just without the highs of a Champs Leg semi final and title challenging season to keep us warm during this cold season.) I was happy with gambling and i'm prepared to live with having to be prudent now as a result of that failed gamble. I'm just not happy that the person that forced us into the need to gamble is back in charge and is taking a stance which is utterly stupid, naive and downright egotistictical.

Owls sweat on Beevers was the headline on the back of the local rag the other day

I was always, and still am, someone that thinks a manager should be given time and that means 18 months. However things seem to be getting worse under JP and relegation would be a disaster. Even finishing four from bottom would mean we had a platform for next year. As long as we are in or around the safety mark, and picking up the odd win, it's fair enough to stick with JP. I don't think long term he is the man, at all, but he needs a fair crack at the whip. If we stop getting these odd wins, he needs to go. I think this will happen.

He's a ****

God.