Lord Duckhunter

I always thought winning the play offs would be the best way up, but after the Cov game I've changed my mind. Nothing could come close to that feeling, and waiting another 3 weeks would have hospitalised me............

I thought it was just West Ham fans who were obsessed with the "West Ham" way. From what I saw today, West Ham played no different than Reading or countless other Championship sides, they certainly played a lot more football than Stoke did when they got promoted. They dont play as much football as us, or Wigan or Blackpool, but they play pretty much like half a dozen Premiership sides. David Moyes gets praised to the hilt for sending teams out to play the Fat Sam way. In my opinion had Di Cannio been Manager and they played like they did today, nobody would have said a thing. They reminded me of Alan Pardew's West Ham today.

There's one player who is seriously under achieving. I really think he's got the ability to be a monster in the Premiership, but someone needs to get hold of him. I would have quite liked them to have failed today and maybe Nigel could have got him on the bus. I reckon Nigel could bring the best out of him.

The first 2 goals were more or less identical,from both sides. The second was a decent long pass after Nolan made a good run in behind the defence. Blackpool played some pretty stuff, in front of the West Ham defence. I doubt if that's much comfort to their supporters when the season kicks off next season.I didn't think West Ham played too much long ball, I thought they were ok, certainly not as bad as some sides.

Wonder what Venkys think about Fat Sam replacing their side in the top flight. My only thought is "are you watching Rupert Lowe". Keep most of your best players, get a premiership Manager and you have a chance of going up within the parachute period. And dont give me the old pony about what would have happened to them had they not gone up with that expense. Number 1; they did go back up and number 2; We got ****ed anyway, despite taking the "sensible" approach.

It's either for more money, or he's been tapped up. If Rickie scores a hatful next season and then wants move, good luck to him. When we signed him, I never thought he'd play in the Premier League. So even 1 season is a bonus in my mind.

Ince looked good. I like the look of the centre half as well, not the big dummy, but the other one. Good back up for our 2.

There were tips on Martin Lewis' money saving site posted by a sky employee. It's certain times of the week and on certain days it is better to call. The retention team have a certain amount of discount to give away each month. the guy posted dont call at the start of their month, as they want to hold some back and dont call at the end, as it might have run out.Tell them how much you love Sky but just can not afford it. I followed his advise, and called saying my Mrs was up the duff and not working. they gave me half price for the period she was on "maternity" leave. I think it was a year, but cant quite remember. Sometimes doesn't work, told a mate and he did the same, they said "fine" and were going to cancel it. He had to call back and say he changed his mind.So it doesn't always work, look up Martin Lewis' advise on when to call.

Did anyone see Steve Cropper on the Ronnie Wood show the other night (great show most weeks). He also told the story of "hold on I'm coming". Issack Hayes and David Porter had the rift but no words. Porter went for a **** and Hayes thought he was taking too long, when he shouted "hurry up", the reply was "hold on, I'm coming", and the song had the words.......... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1VCjsHE6k0&feature=related

There was a guy on Newsnight on Weds, Terry Smith. He said that people were deluded if they think that by spending more you could create growth.He said that the previous Labour Govt spent £2.18 for every £1 of growth, even before the downturn, and this is just not sustainable. It is kicking the can down the road, it may get you elected but somebody else will have to deal with your deficit later down the line. He was not a politican and saved his main contempt for the Tory on there. He explained ( and the Tory, despite his bluster, couldn't counter the arguement) that this Govt was cutting spending by just 1.5% in 2011-12 ( I think he said it was 0.7% of GDP), and that spending was 50% higher in real terms than it was 10 years ago. He went on that that amount is hardly "Austerity", and that you can not cut Govt spending unless you have real cuts in welfare and NHS spending, everything else is just tinkering around the edges. He also said that we never came out of recession, but that £500bn of deficit spending & £325bn of Quantitative Easing enabled us to inch over that particular line. His recipe, is to cut spending dramatically enough to be able to cut taxes for people and Companies.

The story Stax put out was Memphis Group, but I read an article saying it was because a friend owned an MG. According to that article, Stax put out the story Memphis Group in case of any trademark infringement claims by the car Company.

Dont know if this has been posted yet. http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/pompey/pompey-past/balram-chainrai-submits-his-bid-to-buy-pompey-1-3860834

A lot of people dont know that was Booker T & The Mg's. They were seriously underrated, particulary Steve Cropper. He wrote or part wrote Green Onions, Sitting on the dock of the bay,midnight hour,Knock on wood. Not forgetting backing the worlds greatest ever soul singer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGv0Thu3Gas

If investors in Greek and Spainish banks start to pull their money out of their banks and put it into German & Dutch banks, then the Euro as we know it is over. It's not the ordinary people, as most haven't got a pot to **** in, but institutional investors and the wealthy who are in a position to shift cash overnight from Greece to Germany. For all the political will to keep the Euro together, no matter how much the people themselves want to stay in the Euro, the markets will decide it's fate. And it's not looking good.

It must be a time thing,being 40 odd years ago. I'm surprised there wasn't a bit more about it. He was a major part of the Stax story. And what a story that was, it was at the heart of American music and the story of the '60's Fantastic....RIP

Died at the weekend. Was in the greatest house band of them all, Booker T & the MG's. Played on most of Stax's fantastic recordings backing people like Otis, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett. I always prefered Stax to the pop of Motown and along with Steve Cropper were the white members of a racially integrated soul group — one of the first of its kind (it was the USA in the 1960's) RIP

I saw this article on another web site and thought it deserved a thread on here. Loved the stories, especically the Cricket one "Steele was then introduced to a burly stranger. “The guy proceeds to knock back eight or nine pints of ale, then stands up and says, ‘see you, Steeley. Nice to have met you’. I asked Ron where he was going. ‘He’s going into bat,’" Apoligies if it has been posted before because it's quite old. http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/more-scottish-football/balls-of-steele-1.1028014

We had people claiming Martin O Neil was going to be our next Manager, whilst we were in League 1...............

I play football with a couple of coppers and they are both decent normal guys. Some of the storries they tell about Fri/Sat night do make you wonder what sort of ****ing idiots we have produced in this Country. I dont know whther they would shop me or not, as I dont tend to go round drink driving and generally stick to the right side of the law.

So how else do you want to judge a Manager? Trophy's? Hodgson was the first Liverpool manager since before Bill Shankly to not win one. Away results? Hodgson won 1 away league game as Liverpool Manager. Cup? Hodgson became the first Liverpool Manager to lose a cup game to a 4th tier outfit in the whole of their history. Signings? Danny Wilson, Brad Jones , Paul Konchesky , Christian Poulsen , Joe Cole , Raul Meireles, he may not have had the £'s KD had, but he wasted money. The post I was responding to was one that claimed KD had done worse than Hodgson. So I'll ask you, in what measurable way was Hodgsons record better? KD has got an average record since his return, anyone else would have got the bullet by now. But, that does not make Roy Hodgson's record any better. It was even worse than that.

Having listened to Lambert's interview after the last game of the season, I'm pretty certain there's been some unofficial contact from Villa. When asked if he would be Norwich manager next season he paused before saying "we will have to wait and see". Norwich fans were getting their knickers in a twist over losing him to Villa during a phone in, until someone pointed out to them that they had done the same thing to Colchester.It's the same with us, he came to us because he felt we were a better option that Scunny. I hope we dont complain and call him traitor if he moves on. Hopefully that will be many years away.

It's really really sad what's happenening to the Greek people. I have been there a few times and they are wonderful & friendly people. The Portillo programme was really enlightening. The problem was they could borrow money at "German rates" and money was easy to come by. The big point made was that there was a clause in the Maastricht Treaty that there would be no bail out if Euro Zone Countries overreached themselves. The fact was that the markets never believed that, they always knew that the German's and the rest of the Euro Zone would bail out any country that got into difficulty. They therefore lent money to the Greeks, knowing that they couldn't afford it, but knowing that there would be a bail out and they would get most of their money back.The markets knew that the "project" was more important than any rules. The other point made was over ordinary Greek business' and their tax issues. It was said that the Greek tax collection system is a shambles and not even computorised. What happened is that people didn't pay VAT (I think they said it was 25%), and those people are able to undercut everyone else. Therefore they all dodge their VAT because if they dont, they dont get the business and they go bang. It was said that they are not corrupt, but that the system corrupts them.

I watched the Michael Portillo programme on the Euro last night. He travelled to Greece & Germany and spoke to various people and politicans about the Euro. Everybody he spoke to wanted to stay in the Euro from the man on the street to the Greek finance minister. The thing that surprised me the most was the feeling was the same in Germany, they were all committed to the Euro and the EU as a whole. After seeing that, I'm not as sure as I was that the Greeks will leave. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01hllyd/This_World_Michael_Portillos_Great_Euro_Crisis/

At least he wasn't in fancy dress...........