CHAPEL END CHARLIE

I demand a stewards inquiry into why you mugs have not included Saints legend Antony Pulis in your squads. The only possible explanation is that you are all bent and his dad has paid you off. Shame on you all.

I saw the highly promising Prometheus trailer too, and as a fanatical fan of the first two Alien series movies (I'm old enough to remember the profound impact both Alien & Blade Runner had on release) I'm looking forward to this film more than I can say. One can only hope that we not in for a another disappointing let down such as Terminator Salvation proved to be. But with that genius film director Ridley Scott back on board I trust we should be in safe hands.

I agree. Not really my type of thing but took the boy along to see it and - as popcorn movies go - I thought this was but no means a bad effort. Just enough humour to show that it wasn't taking itself too seriously as well. My favorite scene was when Loki was just getting into a long and detailed critique of the Avengers motivations, only for Hulk to grab him by the ankles and start bashing him from side to side deep into the floor in a most uncompromising manner - great fun.

You seem to be laboring under the impression that Antonio's only significant asset is pure pace, that's just not the young player that I remember and the record shows he's scoring important goals, not just running defences. As for his age, 22 hardly makes him the Old Man of the Sea does it, and in any case examples of good players who developed more slowly than some others are legion.

Sometimes in life what really matters is not where you are, but where you are going. In my judgment this player is (and always has been) very obviously heading for better things than L1. But I fear the forum may be becoming bored with my opinion, so lets take a look at what some Sheff Weds fans think: http://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/171414-antonio-batth/ I don't claim to know exactly how high he will go in the game, you can never be that certain about players, but I reckon you've underestimated him.

Haven't you heard ? All young footballers who find themselves playing in L1 must therefore be utterly incapable of anything better - its called 'Turks Law'.

You must be right I suppose because you are so very sure of yourself. Any suggestion that the illustration below might be of some assistance to you is of course entirely out of the question.

As we're (kinda) on the subject of Football in Sheffield, I'll take this opportunity to send my congratulations to ex Saints Nile Ranger and especially Michail Antonio - who today scored the goals that secured Sheffield Wednesday's promotion back to the NPC. Although I can't really claim I've been following Wednesday all that closely as I've been preoccupied with our campaign, it would seem on the face of it that Antonio is turning into a handy player after all.

We were very successful defensively (only Reading did better) but I'd still say you can't stand still in this game and our defence will require further strengthening. The record shows we conceded (exactly) a goal a game in the NPC this season, which is by no means a terrible stat given just how frequently we scored. But lets face it, we're unlikely to be as free-scoring next season, and the Premier League can be relied upon to ruthlessly expose any defence weakness. If in theory we were to play the same first choice defence next season, then conceding maybe 1.5 goals per game (on average of course) means we would probably end up somewhere in the bottom 5 or 6 places. Too close for comfort for me. As for Danny Fox .... well lets just say I'd really rather he was second choice LB next season.

Well think how much worse it would be if your airliner was going down. Then you'd really have something to moan about ..... if only for a few minutes as you plummet earthwards.

I'm looking forward to watching Series 2 of The Killing (C4 Wednesday) - this series has a truly hard act to follow because the original was near perfect, if you like this kind of thing. In a similar vain the suitably dark and densely plotted Danish/Swedish crime story 'The Bridge' (BBC2 Saturday night) is not at all bad either. I must say considering how influential our television industry was in helping to establish what we might call this 'quality crime' format with groundbreaking programming such as Cracker & Prime Suspect, it is rather depressing to see just how far off the pace we have now fallen. For instance the BBC's best current effort - Silent Witness - is in my opinion not even nearly the equal to the best Scandinavian crime drama, or their popular English language US produced adaptions for that matter. We really must try harder.

It would seem that the Falkland Islanders should not enjoy the same Human Rights as other free people - well according to the Argentine Ambassador to the Court of St James anyway: http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=19623 I can only suggest that His Excellency goes and takes a long walk off a very short pier .....

Middlesbrough at St Marys - we were sublime and the team reached a standard of pass & move football that we have never quite recaptured alas. Our 3rd goal in particular was a thing of beauty. I honesty think that day we could have given half the Premier League a fright.

I reckon those fellas had it coming .......

It's a interesting theoretical question - if Lee had not lost his place due to injury would we have finished the season in a more convincing fashion ? We can never know the answer of course, but for what its worth I just don't see Tadanari Lee scoring nearly as frequently as Billy Sharp has done of late. Make no mistake, Billy Sharp is a force to be reckoned with at this level, and if we can get him fitter then I wouldn't rule out the possibility of him making his mark at Premier League level too.

It has been both a wonderful, and a awful day, for me as (quite literally) two minutes before I set off for the big game today I received the shocking news that a young chap I know had died unexpectedly in the night - the cruelty of the situation being compounded by the fact that his much loved 10 year son found him dead in bed. There being nothing useful I could do to mitigate this human tragedy by staying at home I went to the game anyway, but with a heavy heart in all honesty. In this situation we are supposed to say that the importance of a football match pails into insignificance when compared to something like this, and that of course is perfectly true. But seeing our lovely old club go back where it belongs and witnessing the unmitigated joy of my fellow fans all around me did actually help. Grief and joy, life and death .... all part of the same deal.

I saw a BBC programme called 'The Joy of Stats' the other day which turned out to be far more entertaining that you might expect. It turns out that when it comes to guessing University Professors are marginally less intelligent than monkeys, and that nearly everyone in Sweden has more than the average number of legs. Which must be good news I suppose.

I shall be wearing my usual stylish Oxfam and even cheaper charity shop ensemble, topped off with a £3.50 beige baseball cap I bought from ASDA last Saturday. As for the question of suitable socks and underwear, it will probably be the same combination I've had on for nearly a week.

For reasons I will not go into now I found myself (standing!) at the back of block 3 very close to the away fan section for the Reading match. I actualy quite enjoyed the intensity of the experience and supporting from there is certainly very different from my usual billet in the Chapel. But in all honesty I will be happy to be back where I belong tomorrow. Each to his own.

Well it has a guaranteed audience of two already then. I read a story a while ago that at the end of WWII our Fleet Air Arm legally had to dispose of numerous US manufactured 'Lend Lease' aircraft it was operating at the time. The simplest solution to the problem was just to push them over the side of our carriers at sea. All those magnificent Corsairs, Avengers and Hellcats consigned to the deep ...... what a horrendous waste.

Update: http://www.defencemanagement.com/news_story.asp?id=19594 I hope some enterprising documentary TV producer has attached themselves to this project because whether they find Spitfires or not, the story will probably prove to be highly dramatic anyway.

The Football League (at long last) making a effort to sort out the financial mess it has long been mired in is surely a good thing for the health of the game. The reasons why the 3 wealthiest NPC clubs voted against reform are obvious - such a move might reduce the significant competitive advantage that generous financial backing gives them. Although I can easily see why we voted against it, I rather think this decision is both short sighted and self serving, in principle that must be a bad thing. But we've all enjoyed the fruits of a ample Liebherr money supply over the last few years, so it would be the very height of hypocrisy to start complaining about how unfair that is now. So lets just reflect on our good fortune and pray to the Gods of Football that it lasts. If we beat Coventry on Saturday of course it won't effect us for the time being anyway, and SFC will have a whole new set of problems to worry about next season.

The universe is a complex place and our scientific understanding of it is, & always will be, evolving over time. To argue that this obvious truth implies that we can thus safely disregard the current scientific consensus re global warming seems at least as dangerous as acting prematurely on what might still be a false premise. For instance, back in the 1950's a similar level of skepticism greeted the emerging statistical evidence that smoking Tobacco measurably increased the risk of developing lung cancer in humans - now I don't see many casting much doubt on that theory anymore & those enlightened individuals who did respond to this new evidence would probably have lived a longer, healthier life as a consequence. We ignore science at our peril. At this time no one can know with complete certainty whether the increasing levels of man-made CO2 in the Earths atmosphere is driving climate change significantly. As I understand it Human generated CO2 represents only a tiny component of the air around us, and it must be problematic separating out the planets natural temperature variation with any effect we are having on this enormously complicated ecosystem. Nevertheless, I'm not at all comfortable with those who argue we can ignore this theory because it's contraversial and addressing the issue would prove difficult and expensive anyway. The worst case scenario, if global warming theory is ever proven to be wrong, is that we end up with a poorer and cleaner planet. If the overwhelming weight of scientific opinion is correct however and we do nothing ..... well the consequences hardly bare thinking about. None of the above is about to stop me driving my car or going without all the wonderful benefits that electricity brings - what needful things we are.

Yes me too. A grand day out at Wembley would be memorable, but I'd really rather we weren't at home to Mr Ferk-up on Saturday.

I saw 'The Hunger Games' the other day and I kinda liked it. Set not very far in the future, as a punishment for a failed uprising (and just as importantly a mass TV entertainment) each district of 'Pan Am' has to despatch a randomly selected teenage boy and girl off to the hunger games every year. The games are like a bastardised combination of Big Brother and Lord of the Flys, where our selected teenagers fight for survival against natural and each other. Naturally only one teen can emerge alive ..... Being 30 years older than its target audience I've seen movies like it before, but this is a good effort and well worth seeing I'd say.