Katalinic

It is pure theatre...mostly of the vaudeville freak show variety. I am wondering whether to start winding them up though with a "come on HMRC" post.

Did you mean constructive or constant? Just checking.

Lol especially with the tag line "shocking club debts" - the caption competition potential is enormous.

When speed cameras were first introduced they were put in sensible places such as outside schools, hospitals etc - unfortunately what then happened was that they were put on perfectly save dual carriageways, A roads etc and limits were reduced disproportionately from 60 to 40 and such like - in short they became a money making scheme and this rightly turned the tide of public opinion against them. I hope those bloody vans get booted out too or at least forced to only operate where there truly is a risk to the public/other drivers by speeding vehicles.

Problem is supply - looking at 2011 for some A3's.

I particularly enjoyed the ones when we went a goal down and then fought back to win - there you were, like clockwork, salivating prematurely over our downfall and then silence....I hope true to form, this trend continues from pre-season to when the real football starts.

Mark Draper was an old purple banger.

Irony - that is all.

Relaxed

Probably the same type of course I went to. What I was surprised about is that 80% of people in the room were 60 or over. Anyway, definitely worth attending if it means you save the 3 points.

Alpine, it is pre-season for goodness sake and already the "End of the World is Nigh". In this day and age there is unlikely to be a first XI - it will be horses for courses (and yes including those games at mud heaps that you are always so fond of bringing up!). Have a little more faith in AP - you never know he may actually know a little more than you about the players and football management generally.

Exactly - pre-season friendlies are only a minor element of what pre-season actually entails.

John B - All of them will be better than Sutton Utd, that goes without saying, but as MLG pointed out you can't compare pre-season games with "real" games so not sure what point you are making?

Only if you have misunderstood the rules of chess - Benjii has filled you in his posts above

Do you think we will get promoted this season?

Seriously, do you think we are going to have a crap season because we haven't won a few pre-season games the majority of which are played like training matches? Using any pre-season results as a barometer of likely success usually either raises false hopes or unnecessary doom and gloom. Lets see what happens when the real football starts.

Because we hardly had any of players we needed last season until August as opposed to the one or two we need now. Last season at this stage we had no coaches and no scouting network. You are confusing "lack of pre season" with "lack of pre-season wins".

Beat Shamrock Rovers, Huddersfield, Darlington. Drew with Leeds & Dundee United. Walked the Championship.

25th July 2009 Leyton Orient 6 Newcastle United 1 I could trawl through and pick out 100's of similar results from decades gone by. That is why pre-season results are irrelevant as an indicator of how the season will go.

Pre season results are irrelevant.

Puncheon also out with an ankle injury

There still seems to be a significant number of them that are either thick or simply in denial of the situation

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/frattonlatest/Cotterill-We-should-have-been.6437651.jp? I am beginning to wonder how long Cotterill will last before he walks.....lol at the "This may be a culture shock to people because this competition is meant to be fair – but we have been really, really put through the wringer to try to get some players" quote - grossly overspending on players you couldn't afford to stay in the PL and to win the FA Cup wasn't fair either.

The last two seasons were exceptional circumstances with the Lowe experiment followed by having no players last season. I am talking about a traditional pre-season having no bearing - someone earlier pointed out that last year Leyton orient beat Newcastle 6-1.

This debate comes up every pre-season and every season it is the same...pre-season results have absolutely no bearing on league results for any team. The end of the world is not nigh based a few meaningless friendlies.