david in sweden

well as it was an U21 game, I guess we 'd have to go for the 18 year old . as for the " oldie from Leeds" ..how old is old in this context?

well......it sounds a bit like it from here. My answer is YES I'm fairly satisfied considering that he isn't on the pitch himself...and I don't expect him to get us up to the Prem by next May. We had a good second half to last season , but there were still flaws in the system then (AP)...at least NA is doing something about it ..so generally speaking ...yes I'm impressed . If you're still in that bunker? I'd keep your head down until the smoke clears and keep your helmet on .

good observations phil, PLUS, Ricky is the best dead-ball specialist we've had since MLT, though I wouldn't put him in the same class, of course.

well he fits the bill for the " new player-profile we have. Under 25 / 25 ish, over 100 games..34 goals isn't so bad especially in a team like Torquay, and he shows some consistancy without being a world beater. It might be us bidding ..let's face it ..who else in this League has money enough and would go down to the west country to buy a player ? Tell me ..he's 6' 3" and I'll be convinced.

was the not-so-polite observation of someone last season when it seemed that Ricky Lambert was the only regular goalscorer through the season. ** Memories of Ron Davies' legendary efforts in the late 1960's when he scored over 50% of our goals during one year. Now that we see that former Saint Bradley Wright-Phillips is leading scorer in L1, but a closer look at Argyle's goals for shows that his 10 goals are exactly half of Plymouths goal tally this season - so far. (No one else has more than 3 ..and not so many of them, either). Very few strikers can maintain a regular strike rate all season, (though Ricky never went more than 3 games without scoring last season,)but if BWP can't maintain his form, then Plymouth may be in line for a drab winter. Ironically, if he does continue, he'll certainly be target for someone to buy come January......and before you say it..NO! . I'm not recommending him. I know he was popular with a section of the fan base, but IMHO he was never more than an average player, and scored many of his goals coming on a sub. and we still had better after he left. Maybe Ricky isn't on form at present, so it's comforting to know that we have a few others able to net regularly. My only remaining question is the one I had on August 31st...namely WHY hadn't we bought someone as cover for Ricky? ...it was the most obvious thing to do, and I 'm not calling that hindsight!

Yes Martini, I think I mentioned that briefly in the above text. Gefle won 2nd leg 2-0 today so will stay up in Allsvenskan next season. Since first post the Swedish Cup Final has taken place with Helsingborg getting a consolation (for finishing second in league) by beating Hammarby 1-0. Did I say lack of interest ...? the crowd was about 10,000 in a ground that can hold 35,000 ..nuff said. The Swedes just don't appreciate Cup football.

.....her activities seem to upset the present administration a lot. Last time she was out she walked over the road against a red light ..(or something equally threatening to state security) and whilst in custody some years ago had contact with a foreign journo' - which was enough for them to extend the detention order even further. House arrest? ...Most annoying thing must be looking at the same wallpaper every day !

WARSAW? ..or WALSALL?..is Rasiak playing ..?

as memory serves ...if it does... last season (1-1) and the gate was 7000..and a 92nd min. point-saver from Jaidi, think I saw a figure of 691 Saints fans?..or

........and the winner is....... Malmö - one of the most southerly clubs in Sweden are Champions of Allsvekskan (Prem.)..just as the snow begins to fall... (incidentally a team that had great success in the late 1970's under a young English manager called Bob Houghton (!) ..wonder what ever happened to him?) With rivals Helsingborg only drawing their last game, it was the foreign-dominated Mälmo squad that won the trophy. A revived Örebro side were 12 points behind in third, just ahead of Anders Svensson's Elfsborg side. (local Note: 34 year old Anders and his wife had a baby boy just 2 weeks ago). Two top Stockholm sides Djurgården and AIK recovered from disasterous starts and finished mid table, whilst at the bottom of the table it was relegation for the Academy-based side Brommapojkarna who had a catastophic season with several of their young stars injured they didn't stand a chance after the summer break. Also down were last years promoted side Åtvidaberg, but it was a reprieve för Gävle who meet local rivals Sundsvall in a play-off for the last place. Promoted from Superettan (CCC) are Norrköping... and Syrianska (a club originally formed over 20 years ago from the many thousands of Christian refugees from Lebanon and Syria (where they are a persecuted minority in that part of the world). A fantastic achievement but hard to see that they will be a force to reckon with at the highest level. There only remains the Swedish Cup Final - which doesn't hold any of the glory of the FA Cup at Wembley, as is dismissed by many Swedes as an afterthought. Shame! Now it's only Ice Hockey in the headlines, (not my taste)... until the new season starts in April 2011. Talk about a long winter break.!!!

IF true ...lets hope that Ferguson lasts it out until after the deadline and we've signed RC already.

not that you weren't the first ... but an interesting thing I picked up on was from the Preston home page where it states that (PNE manager Darren Ferguson) had problems with Chaplow ? ...and that (he) has been " on the list" since the end of the summer... Sounds like they want to unload him and get him off the payroll? If so ..looks like a good deal...come January. GOOD TIP ...Richard..grow some hair back..that style may look tough but it made players like Jimmy Melia and Chris Marsden look like pensioners before they were 30. No point in giving those " disatisfied fans " grounds to complain if you don't give 100%.

for the match commentaries ! People ask me what the weather like in Sweden? So..do you mean in Stockholm...(today +3 deg C) and the recent snow has melted away ..or in the top third of the country which is above the Arctic Circle... and it's dark for six months of the year .(High Wind, heavy snow and -5 deg.C - as is today) I follow radio / text reports of games that sound disgraceful only to find out (for example) it snowed in Carlisle... and the pitch was almost waterlogged..a good excuse for poor football ...as is early season games in August when it's +25 deg C and everyone is sweating like the preverbial pig. How many of us can recall those wintry evening games against sides from the North East when it's blowing a gale off the North Sea and the rain is coming down vertically !..but the game still goes on. I'm not against criticising bad play when the elements play a bigger role than the teams.. ..then there is some excuse for poor play and bad results. So come along commentators..let's have some input on the weather conditions. Rain? Sunny?, Hail, minus(-) temps. ..it helps your perspective on the game when you can't actually SEE the match in progress...and maybe some explanation for bland football.

the only trouble with q. like this is that you have to judge the situation according to the era. the early Bates sides, the first Div 1 sides. The pre-Wembley and post wembley Lawrie Mac sides . the 1980-85 McMenemy sides (argueably the best era.) etc, etc, If you want to say the FASTEST player. The one-footed John Sydenham would have won hands down ...until Theo Walcott arrived. If you say the FITTEST... You'd have to look a long way to find candidates better than Huxford and Telfer.. who could run forever. ...and the TOUGHEST ...try John Mc Grath, Neil Ruddock..or Jim Steele...? Sadly David Hughes [/bwas one of the talented youngsters whose body let him down whilst his footballing brain was way ahead of many others of that era.

ssh! if someone else is willing to pay for the expansion ..? why argue ?

YES ..Pahars and Beattie were good, but we had a great midfield at that time, who provided lots of assists.

several articles on BBC site show that B'mouth have an injury crisis, and are desperate to have 11 fit players. Difficult to judge someone on a couple of sub.appearances but Reading obviously want him to get some experience and any game is experience for the lad. Let's hope he doesn't shock everyone and score a hat-trick every week. Remember Defoe's loan spell at B'mouth ..when he set a club goal-scoring record !

Amen to that. The fact that Beattie had some such a good season 23 goals was due in no small measure to Bretts assists. On his own he was hardly a great goalscorer, but I'd give him 110% for effort. Choosing ..apart from BO being 30+ now, I'd take Barney anyway.

Given the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of some of our previous " managers ", this will probabaly pale into insignificance!

Guly good alternative starter instead of Ricky. EG may have a height advantage over the likes of Peter Crouch, but expect a lot of ground play instead of hign balls into the box.

what the f*** does that matter! I don't care if he's got a wooden leg, he's delivering the goods at the moment.

quite right, if we can't beat Shrewsbury without Fonte.... then we are in real trouble. We have Jaidi and Aaron Martin available , and if they aren't good enough we need to know now. Fonte has been very consistant this season so he deserves an extra break. Good opportunity to try alternatives without risking 3 points.

IMHO - you can continue to heap praise on Nick. One of the very few (local) So'ton-born players to play over than 100 games and also was captain of the side for quite some time. My well-thumbed edition of ITN also shows that in days when players had the shirt number of their position every game , Nick ..held the distinction of wearing shirts for quite a few different ones..and always played whatever role Lawrie Mac wanted him to do, a great club man.

agree with that Colin, he got very mixed reviews when on loan to us before, but his feud with Ferguson might be a solution to everyone's problem. Obviously, DF wants to see the back of him, and he would be a valubale addition to the squad. Only a third way through the season and we've had more than enough injury problems already.

one of the best excuses I've heard for allowing cloning people !