St Marco

Good footballer, but a total dickhe@d. Sure we might have been a bit harsh getting on his back at the start of the season, and he was but one of the players not really looking interested (Lambert being another). But as a proffesional you take that on board and you try and improve. Try and win the fans over with the same displays as the previous season. But he didn't do that, he spat his dummy out. Modern football seems to have way too many of these guys. Rather then work at it they take the easy route and want out. Thankfully for us he did well with Blackpool (scored only 1 less then Crouch,Defoe etc) and we should be able to get a lot of cash from his sale. The sooner he is gone the better for everyone.

Totally agree. Frank Warren will do what he does and try and cash in on a rematch as soon as possible. Degale will probably want it bad. But Groves has to hold off, there is no point having one right now. Before the fight and during the build up Degale was offered a title fight vs Robert Stieglitz. He declined. That title shot should now go to Groves. Hopefully the ginger nutter can win that fight too. A world title fight is more important then a rematch against a guy you have already beaten twice. In a way this could be the best thing for Degale. Maybe in the same way it has been for Khan. Degale talked the talk but couldn't walk the walk. He has to drop the arrogance thing now or he could be Audley Harrison all over again. British fans don't mind arrogance but you have to back that up. If you continue to be like that after you lost then the fans will never take to you. And Degale needs the fans. When he comes out and comments on the fight i think that will tell us who he will be, either the humbled Khan who vows to work harder and change his trainer/training camps and get rid of the hangers on. Or come out saying he was robbed and talk about destiny and how he is the best etc.. if he does that he is Fraudley part 2.

Some leaked video of the new "Impact Engine".... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6WnNDieX1w&feature=player_embedded It is all pretty technical but if you just skip to 4.45 they have a before and after thing to show you the difference. Personally i think it is a huge improvement and makes it more realistic. Can't wait. Only about 4 months to go....

Epic fight, truely epic! groves deserved it because Degale should of had a point deducted for one of his three elbows...

Going out of the championship. That whole season was something straight from hell. Lowe coming back. Fans at each others throats, protesting in the stands and outside the stadium (not to mention in the city centre!) players leaving and total gash coming in, the dutch muppets and going into admin. It was one giant **** up and the sad thing is we were the ones who lost out. Everyone else can just walk away but the fans are the ones who have to carry it forever. I don't mind being relegated from the prem league, if we go back up and come back down the next season it will suck but it will never be as bad as our last season in the championship. I hope we never have to go through anything like that ever again.

Can't believe this is still a ppv to be honest. Groves is not a bad fighter. Has a lot of heart and can't fault his effort. A bit like Matthew Hatton. He will get beat up, get knocked down, but will try to keep going. He won't do a Fraudley. Degale has massive potential. The question is will he realise that potential or throw it all away like so many as soon as he gets the big pay cheques? He is a bit of a **** there is no doubt about that and i really would love to see Groves beat him but you have to say it is a longshot. However Degale does not have huge power in his punches and he does get caught a fair bit. If Groves can land a bomb you never know what could happen. But as much as i'd love that to happen i can see the ref calling it off in later rounds in Degales favour. Our refs seem so quick to end fights these days which is a bit sad. The Khan fight was a disgrace. As for streams i think they will have it on here at somepoint http://boxingguru.eu/gurutv.html

I am not dismissing them. I mentioned them above. Coming on with a couple of minutes to go is not really worth talking about. Starts are the things to look at. And a goal against then league two Exeter is not basis for getting excited about or saying he will be better in the NPC. As the saying goes the league is the bread and butter and that is what people are judged on. I didn't make this video but this is the level we are currently at http://youtu.be/VGh9Lc0OqYo Holmes is nowhere near that ability....

I did. Now point out to me other then the league cup game the goals and assists? Because i couldn't see any. I can point out the times of when he is 1 on 1 and misses or when he has an almost open goal from 4 yards out and blazes over if you like?

How does the attitudes stink? The video you posted is a skills video with no goals and no assists. In fact if anything it shows that while he can run past a defender here or there he can't shoot and can't cross. There must of been 10 one on ones there and he missed them all..... As i tried to imply before are we buying/keeping players on their football ability or for sentimental reasons? I have respect for Lee as a person and what work he has put in the community. But i'd also like to respect him for his ability on the field and the things he has done for the team in the 3 years he has been here. After all the team is what we pay hundreds of pounds to see right?. And that is what he is paid thousands of pounds to be involved with right? So you might think it is a bad attitude or whatever but i think it is being realistic. If we signed a winger who had not scored a league goal in 3 years, made only 2 starts in 2 years and was injured for most of the past 36 months people would think it was a stupid deal. Why can that logic not apply to players we already have? And if you mention it then why does it make you look bad? Should someone like that be given a life long contract then? And Dubai i hope your right. Because i don't mind being wrong. I hope he stays fit and helps the team to get out of the NPC. Hope he plays above what we have seen of him and scores some vital goals. But i doubt the bookies would give you very good odds on that. As for the contract thing i am sure they would have a good case for it to be terminated by mutual consent. I don't think Lee would be the type to sit around doing nothing while picking up his cheque. But i am sure even he would understand if the club came to him and said look it's been over three years now. We stuck by you but we need to think of the future. And offer a termination deal. It happens at every club.

First season he made 11 starts none as sub. Second year made 2 starts and 3 as sub And third year no starts and 7 as sub Meaning in 3 seasons he started 13 starts and 10 sub appearances. No goals He did however score in the league cup against then league 2 side Exeter. Really struggle to see how anyone thinks giving him even more time is worth it. We let go so many players who have done more for the club, James,Murty,Thomas,Wotton,Trotman,Mellis,Patterson,Gillet,Perry,Saiejs,Euell and so on. Being injured is unfortunate, you have to feel sorry for the guy. But to be going into the 4th year now and having started only 13 games (average of 4 a season) and only 2 in the last 24 months is not good enough. It is like with Hargreaves at Man Utd. They will release him because he get's injured, is then out for rest of the season, they then try and get him fit again. A never ending circle. As i mentioned above if he was an impact player and changed games when he came on or scored some goals like Connolly then it is worth the gamble. But he has done nothing like that. In his entire time here he has set up only 2 goals. People like Puncheon have scored more and set up more and people want to ship him out. Even before he got in the huff people were on his back. It seems to me Holmes is immune from the same criticism that others get. Which is wrong imo.

Why? He has played 20 league games in 3 years for us and not scored once. Has been injured for the majority of that time. What will be different this time around? People slag off Forecast or Pullis but why not Holmes? Connolly has severe injury problems too but when he does get fit he makes a difference to the team. His goals at the end of the season show that. I don't think Holmes is good enough for the championship based on what he has done since he was there with Derby in 2004. AOC and Lallana are the type of quality we have and Holmes is nowhere near that level. Now that maybe harsh but as i said before if we want to improve and get out of the championship we need players who add quality to our squad. I don't think we can be sentimental about players who could of made it had they not been injured. 3 years is plenty of time to pass judgement and i don't think we should carry players who offered nothing in the past 3 years. In that regards he is in the same group as Pullis and Forecast.

Nice guy but think it is time to move on the people who have offered nothing to the club since we were in league one. Pullis, Forecast and Holmes should be released. If we want to be challenging for promotion we will need more reliable players then these 3. As others mentioned it makes more sense to have youngsters from the reserves/youth team take their spots in the squad if we are going to take a gamble on players. I don't think any of them are championship level. Where as the kids we don't know yet what level they can play at. Look at what AOC did last season. Much rather try more of the yoof then give Holmes/Pullis or Forecast more time.

Want Reading and Bournemouth in the NPC because it means less distance to travel to two games and will add a bit of spice to an already potential spicy season! Other then that i want either Cardiff or Swansea to go up. Can't be arsed with two trips to Wales! From the PL i want Blackpool because it would just be great to beat them again. The fans will give Holloway some stick and will just be funny to see it get to him again! For the last spot i'd love it if Birmingham went down. Them playing in Europe and in the NPC means loads of games for them which would knacker their old squad. Which you would think would mean they have little chance of going straight back up.

Infamous and Wipeout are pretty cool. Littlebigplanet is alright if you like creating stuff. Not heard od Dead Nation though.

You said "thankfully it was still early to turn things around". Surely that implies you thought we were in some trouble and if things didn't change we would of continued in that vein? To just give you another example of what i mean Arsenal have now lost 3 of their last 4 games. Does that mean next year they would be relegation candidates? Obviously not. All teams have blips in their season. Adkins has lost 8 games this year. That is almost as high as all our games lost for the entire season last year. If you look at the first 3 games of the season us,Huddersfield and Brighton had the same amount of points. So our rivals were not "accuring" those points as you say. The whole start argument thing revolves around those 2 games lost after Pardew left when we were looking for a new manager. To think we were destined for a poor season based on those 2 games as i said before is a tad ott. Adkins has done really well and as i said before deserves the respect and praise he is getting. But if we did not get promoted i think most people would of seen it as a poor season. Even if we lost the first 5 games i am sure most people would still of expected promotion whoever came in. He got us promoted. That what was required of him. Next season will be totally different. As me and others have said. We will be in a far harder league, we will have to play much better football then we have at times this year. We will need to bring in Championship level players to take us further and so on. The building of a league one promotion chasing club was done by Pardew. The building of a championship promotion chasing club will be done by Adkins. That will be what he is judged on. I have total faith in Adkins and think we have the right person for the job. But this was the easy part of the project. The real hard work is ahead of us.

Sorry but this is a fine example of what i mean about people being ott about the start. As you said from the first 5 games we won only one game. But if you look at the first 5 games for say Huddersfield/Bournemouth your see they only won 1 more game then us. You look at Brighton's first 5 games and your see they won 3, lost 1 and drew 1. Peterborugh/Mk Dons lost 2 of their 5. Point being there was not this huge gap that people try and make out. If the next game had been a win it would look different. Can you really say we were doomed based on 5 games? Because if you do then surely the same logic must apply to Adkins who had 1 win from his first 4 games? You can't judge how a season will go based on such few games. Whoever came in to the job after the 5th game mark only had to win 2 games to get us back on track. Are you really saying that was a "difficult" task to do?

Nice to see him get a new deal. Maybe that was to fend off some interest in him? But i am with Hypo on this one. Adkins did what was required of him. He had 41 games (90% of the season) to get into the top 2. He achived that. Some people try and concentrate on our start of the season and yes it was not the best but it was not awful either. Was only slightly worse then Brighton and Huddersfields. We lost a couple of games on the trot. That does not make it a disaster. By that logic the fans at Spurs should be calling for Harry's head seeing as they won only 1 game in their last 13!! Saying we would continue to lose and Adkins saved us from something is a tad ott in my opinion. He walked into the best squad in the league. He walked into a top 6 cup winning side. There was no re-building job to be done. He didn't need to do any changing to the backroom staff. Didn't need to change any of the infrastructure. Already had some of the best facilities in all of football let alone 3rd division. The players he used were already here. If i have one criticism of Adkins this year is his own signings. They have not exactly set the world alight as players like Fonte,Lambert,Barnard etc have done. Next season his real test begins. He will need to find the right players to bring in and will need to make the team Championship contenders within 2 years. He will be judged on that more so then what he did this season. Because although he deserves huge respect and the praise of us fans, he did not perform some miracle with his hands tied. Far from it. If Bompey go up that will be the miracle not what happened here.

They plan to have it up by the 31st of may now.....

I thought he looked more nervous rather then annoyed. Then as others mentioned he started to get more chilled and joined in as it progressed. Could be many reasons why he was nervous. I remember sometime ago he mentioned something about him having severe anxiety on match days, sometimes not even being able to sleep the night before.

Seeing as it is Matt and Benali who are the ones talking in the media or behind peoples backs surely it is them who should be trying to offer an olive branch? It seems all the other legends and old boys have nothing but praise for Nicola. Read Channons comments about it. So not really sure what you expect Nicola to do exactly?

I for one won't miss it. The thing that stands out for me is just the lack of atmosphere in it. Whenever we went away we could of been seen as the home side. Most fans just seemed really quiet and not really supportive. The grounds themself overall were pretty poor and soulless. Meeting the various fans was the highlight though as most were really nice people. I think in terms of crowd trouble this season would have to be the most incident free i have seen. There are a lot of negatives i think and a huge one is games getting called off. Especially when you have made the effort to get there and a **** ref thinks there is a wet patch that is dangerous 1hr from kick off and everyone else thinks the pitch looks great... If he did that in PL or NPC he would get slated for it. So maybe a bit arrogant on my behalf but i know that games like our FA Cup game vs Man Utd are things i prefer to playing teams like Dags and Walsall.

Let's be honest here. Anyone who took over the squad we have and had 41 games and failed to get us up would be a pretty crap manager no?

If you look at say Millwall would you not say we currently have a better squad then them? They only just missed out. Teams actually in the playoffs such as Swansea and maybe even Forest i think have equal squads to us. With a couple of good signings we could be better then them. If we got in say another CB of Fonte's calibre, a strong experienced central midfielder proven at this level and a fast clever quality striker then our squad would be very strong. Without those signings we shouldn't expect playoffs. But if we get them then we should be expecting it. I think Cortese will know we are actually in a good position. Not too far from a promotion chasing team in NPC. It would not surprise me to see him put maybe £4m-£5m in Adkins hands to go buy those players and go for promotion in the 1st season. If QPR,Norwich and Cardiff go up i think the potential 3 coming down from the pl will be a lot weaker. West Ham,Wolves and Blackpool are my picks to come down. I can see Wolves being favourites because they have done it before so many times. But West Ham could become one of those teams to free-fall. Blackpool you would expect to lose a few of their players, possibly even the manager so hard to tell how they could do. If we keep our current squad and don't add quality then i think expecting playoffs is a bit much. But getting to the playoffs would not be beyond us.

Looking at teams that have gone up from League one in previous seasons they have gone on to do well in the NPC. Leeds and Millwall just missed out on playoffs this year while Norwich could yet be champions. Leicester went from champions to finish 5th in Championship the year before. I think that is where we need to be aiming. Momentum is very important. That said it really depends on what happens in the summer. If we lose players then obviously you can't expect much. If we get in some good players then expectation rises. The squad we have now in my opinion is top 10 standard in the championship. A few good signings and we could go on to be contenders like Norwich this season. Anything below top 10 with the current squad and i'd see it as a bad season. We are not there to make up the numbers.