hughieslastminutegoal

What's his problem , then? He had a year to run, he wanted an extension to his contract and Newcastle said "no, we want younger, better, cheaper". That's football life. They could have asked for a fee for him, but aren't. So he's lucky, innit?

I take exception to you wishing to deny prats and morons the same opportunity as that taken by intelligent and hardworking people to express the opinion that rank nepotism should be discouraged. That's what my intelligent, hardworking friend told me to say, anyway.

It was indeed magic. Now you see him, now you don't. Or should that be 'you didn't see him, and now you won't'?

I heard a Rolling Stone broke a bourbon buscuit in Shania Twain. She wasn't partial to Mars Bars apparently. One for the oldies. Added: That's what she thought was "going French"

As it is still the closed season, perhaps you could discuss for us the regrettable underuse of the semi-colon; it could have been of benefit in Gemmel's list of happies. (It beats talking about Brighton's stadium.) I rather favour a whole sentence being in brackets occasionally, meaning it is an aside, a kind of afterthought.

Nowt wrong with your sentence........... if it finishes with ...'that a course of intensive psychoanalysis can't put right'

But clearly not intelligent enough to spend your life trawling other football boards and rumour sites so you can pompously diss any re-posted rumour. There seems to be quite a few people sarcastically dismissing rumour who actually spend most of their time reading rumour boards... Hypocricy I think the word is. Or is it that they really mean "I read it somewhere else before you, nah nah".

So fans here took a dislike to him, Tranmere fans took a dislike to him, and we make him train with da yoof because he is a model pro? Doesn't it seem likely that he has some kind of problem? Let's see what he says about us when he finally gets away.

Dates are usually written using figs. (messy I know), except when written in words in which case they couldn't be arabic.

Thats a very good point. The most significant baby boom that contributed to the growth of support means that 55+ supporters are a large % of the fan base. P*ss them off enough and you can alienate a lot of fans. There's far too much competition for young peoples' dosh, and their favourite time to be entertained just aint late afternoon/early evening at £25 a time. What with the cost of Uni, no EMA, lack of jobs for young people, big cuts in benefits on the way this aint the time for any business to annoy its older fans. You can afford to hack off your existing customers only if you can replace them with new ones, and that can only happen at Saints if the club is successful. That will continue to cost more and more. And if success doesn't come and a reversal of fortune sets in, no doubt the club will try to (re)play the loyalty card: you know, the one where fans somehow get assigned a "duty" to keep supporting.

The players boots are in Switzerland! So maybe they could get him to clean the boods of the Academy players while the first team squad are away. That'd bring him down a peg or four.

Or... "We'll stop handcuffing you to the running track when you've told us where you got that sparkling 40 carat diamond ring from".

"When I said 'tails up gets to pick ends', that's not what I meant, Radhi."

Far too much technical sports science in this for me, well above my head, but I'm sure the training staff will appreciate the advice.

We lost 4-1 at home to the skates (wash my mouth out for reminding you). We lost to MU (ok we were up for it, but then I can recall little Exeter pushing MU a while back.) A swallow and a half doesn't make a summer. A healthy dose of realism helps to make a good manager though.

Holmes looks a bit red in the face.

The ref probably recognised he was so slow that he needed a head start to arrive in the changing room at the same time as everyone else.

Most places out of the immediate city centre give customers free parking if they have the space. Even squeeze-every-penny supermarkets. It aint a lot of money, but it's just an unnecessary niggle - it'll only earn them a few bob - it's really an indication of how NC feels about his customers - pay up and shut up.

For this league spot on.

Especially if the centre half told him to keep one on the back post. Still, the decision about which one would be made infinitely easier (before someone says 50% easier, and then someone else says no it's 100%)

Don't you think its got something to do with helping them with revenue by playing a side that people might pay to go and see? What's wrong with us trying to do that for them, or is it now SFC's policy to do the minimum for the locals? I assume local loyalty does indeed mean eff all now.

And we wouldn't want to show some local loyalty by sticking to the spirit of the agreement?

You cannot possibly describe NH as "otherwise unimportant, ordinary or otherwise forgettable " My vote goes to: Mike Hennigan for his one and only appearance in place of Tony Knapp - against Derby County when he managed to injure his elbow in the first half and get taken off, never to be seen again. That's all I can remember about him - a ginger(ish)-haired bloke breaking his elbow. If he'd stayed on, and Tony Godfrey hadn't got concussed putting Cliff Huxford in goal, I'm sure we'd have lost. In the event we won 6-4. (in the good ol' days without subs).

This thread is much like the famous radio debate between Russell and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Summarising: Russell - there's no evidence for God Archbishop - I believe there is Russell - It's a question of evidence Archbishop - It's a question of belief Russell - I can't believe without evidence Archbishop - I believe one can A forum like this is always split between 'believers' who trust that God (the manager/chairman) will ultimately deliver but require no up-front proof and the 'sceptics' who always try to use current evidence to predict the future who may or may not be proved "right". In a results driven business I'd prefer to be guided by authority from the latter camp who can instill a bit of the former. I think Adkins is one of those, but I've yet to work out whether NC just wants to bump up the congegation to help negotiate a better price for the church freehold.

Is there any such thing as comfortable mid-table? If you are mid-table you are not many points off relegation zone. A couple of injuries, a minor dip in form at the wrong time can suddenly change a side's psychology, fear creeps in, results deteriorate. If you go into a season with don't worry we're a comfortable mid-table side, don't be surprised if that bites you on the arse. Saying a side is a play-off contender really is not saying a lot. 7th - 12th (or so) would make us a contender for play-offs in the final quarter of the season, but similarly below 10th you could anticipate the possibility of getting dragged into a relegation scrap. The last thing the club want to do is delude themselves that promotion from L1 is proof that life will be comfortable in Div1 without too much bother.