Lighthouse

Good grief Reading are terrible. 0 points after 4 games was worrying for us but at least the ingredients of a decent side were there. Reading have just looked like a bunch of muppets against West Brom and Spuds. They are going straight back down playing like that, no doubt about it. West Ham haven't been anything to write home about either. Lucky to get points in some very winnable opening fixtures.

This is all true. What I was getting at is that they don't have any young Ukrainians making up the spine of the team, which is what Barcelona and Saints have been striding for. I would say their model is based more on Arsenal, bringing in the best young tallent from other clubs, usually abroad and developing them into their team. Metalist have a pretty good record in the Europa League, which would explain why they are ranked higher than Spuds.

Most of Metalists first team regulars are South American, with the exception of Goryainov the 'keeper. I can't say that their youth set-up has produced any amazing tallents. Must be doing something good for Reed to go all the way to Ukraine for a look around. Let's hope he takes a look at Yarmolenko whilst he's out there.

You keep saying that whilst ignoring what I've actually written. How odd. I know nicotine is the addictive drug, however if you quit you can be over the withdrawl in less than a week. 6 months seems like a ridiculous amount of time to be on nicotine patches to me. They're not supposed to be a completely substitute for cigarettes. The idea is you use them and decrease the usage until eventually you are independant. My original point was, why go back to cigarettes if you are on patches? If you are getting the nicotine you need without most of the side effects of smoking, why go back to cigarettes.

I don't get your point? If you've gone through all the pain and mental anguish of giving up cigarettes, via patches or whatever, why go back to cigarettes? You can quit most drugs cold turkey with enough will power. It will be incredibly unpleasant but if you really want it that much you can do it.

If you read what I posted perhaps your wouldn't feel the need to be so patronising. I know it is an addiction and difficult to quit. What I don't get is why having quit you would then go back to smoking months later. If you've given up for several months your not an addict anymore, you have no physical dependancy on nicotine so why would you make a concious choice to go out and buy another box of fags, having gone without for so long.

I sort of get why weak willed people take it up in their teens. Kids at school will do anything to fit in and try and look cool. What I don't get are those that give up succesfully for months then relapse. How can someone think, "yeah I really miss wasting hundreds of pounds every year on screwing my health and smelling like a dirty bonfire," and go back to it? I've never smoked a cigarette. Not trying to be all high and mighty I just don't see any point to it what-so-ever.

You cannot compare the scarifices of millions of young men to liberate the world from the Evil of Nazism to the Hillsborough disaster. The cover up was a disgrace and the accident changed the way we watch football but it hardly changed the world.

Nobody at Hillsborough gave their life for my freedom. I'm not saying the victims of Hillsborough don't matter but it's hardly as if the entire nation owes them a debt of gratitude either.

Wasn't Craig Mackail-Smith our 'missed opportunity' last summer?

Cork or Morgan for me. You want someone who is both centrally located and dictates play IMO. It should be someone who has the discipline to organise a defence and the vision to then launch an attack.

TBF the Sun is normally written at a table in the pub at lunch.

Spuds switch off going into stoppage time and let one in. Doesn't hide the fact that Reading have been awful, could easily have been a 6-1 if Spuds weren't so wasteful with their chances. 20 odd shots to Reading's 3 I think.

How many of the people picking Shaw have seen him play more than a couple of sub appearances against sh*t teams in the cup? I have doubts over Fox too but this 'anyone is better' mentality is flawed. Chuck him in too early and we will just end up with another Bernard, Molyneux or Van Damme.

On the other hand I can't say that they've looked any better (in the first 20 minutes) than we have over our first 4 games. Spaces in their defence that a better team than Spuds would rip into.

I can't respect basketball really. It's not so much a sport as a competition to see who can sign the tallest freaks on the planet.

The phrase, "season starts against Villa," seems to be doing the rounds, so let's get the season off to a good start and win. Last time we played this fixture the winner was scored by... Steven Davis. Hooiveld might be injured. Cork played 90 minutes for the U21s against the Barcodes so could be back in contention. I'd go with a similar team: Davis Clyne - Fonte - Yoshi - Fox Davis - Morgan - JWP Ramirez - Lambert - Lallana

The tickets on the OS has a choice of Lower Bullens or Paddock, anyone know which is best?

Well I expected 1 point from our first 4 games so I'm not all that surprised. A spanking was always on the cards but it is NEVER these games which get you relegated. It's the home games against teams outside the top 4 which ultimately decide your fate. We will get better. People complain about or lack of activity bringing in defenders but we have got Clyne and Yoshi who I think will do alright. Don't forget we went for a LB and a better 'keeper so Adkins is aware of our problems, the right deal just wasn't available at the time. Don't forget last time we almost stayed up with Bernard, Davenport, Claus, Jackobsson, Van Damme and Delap in defence. Given time our defence will be better than that shower of sh*te. Ramirez looks good Yoshi looks good. Clyne and JWP will only get better. Lambert will make idiots of a lot of defenders this season. We haven't seen anything of Yukka yet. Keep the faith!!

Wigan 4 goals down against Man Utd, so they're guaranteed to be relegated Norwich let in 5 during their opening fixture, so they're guaranteed to be relegated QPR also let in 5 during their opening fixture, so they're guaranteed to be relegated How can all 4 teams be guaranteed to be relegated, have they changed the rules this year? To be honnest I'm surprised we're playing Arsenal at all, they were relegated last year after they lost 8-2. And why did we play Man Utd in the last game? They lost 6-1 last year surely they must have been relegated too. I don't understand this football lark.

A) What makes you think that? B) Opposition will get worse, Clyne will get better with experience and Yoshi looks decent so far. C) What makes you think that?

Not a good day for Clyne really. Was swiping at shaddows for that one.

Lets just calm down for a minute. We didn't get spanked by MC or MU and the goals we let in against Wigan were as much individual errors as anything. The teams needs to get used to each other and dare I say it 'gel'. We're having a real baptism of fire with the fixture list if we only get one spanking in this lot it wont be so bad. Give it time. Let's put today down as an utterly abysmal day at the office and judge Saints against teams like Villa and stoke before we write ourselves off as relegation certainties.

Christ alive.

Stupid foul, Kelvin too far to the left. I saw him do exactly the same at Boro last season, f**king massive target for them to aim at. I've had enough of that stream now.