Football Focus

[Administrator]

I tend to let discussion in the Lounge area run on their own but I will step in on this one. I know it is an emotive subject but please reign in the insults and stick to the subject at foot, so pack it in. One of you has already been requested to not send offensive and threatening Private Messages to other users and if I discover you have done so again you will be banned from the forum for a short time, probably a week.

As Ladygooner says, Any predictions for tonights match against Switzerland?

[Keef]

Innit! There is no need for this nonsense. Footy is footy, we goad a bit about teams and players, but it should never get to personal insults.

Besides, Man U and Arsenal are both full of c**ts, so you have a lot in common! >:D<

As for tonight, I'm going to go 3-1 England... I think all the players will be trying to impress. They reckon he'll play Rooney up front with Joe Cole behind him... Could work, but I'd rather have Owen up front with Rooney or Cole behind him feeding him.

[atila the gooner]

Keef Wrote:

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> Innit! There is no need for this nonsense. Footy

> is footy, we goad a bit about teams and players,

> but it should never get to personal insults.

>

> Besides, Man U and Arsenal are both full of c**ts,

> so you have a lot in common! >:D

Man ure I grant you.

[atila the gooner]

On paper it's a game we should win. We have better players than the Swiss, but we've been saying this for years and crashing out of competitions or failing to qualifying. On that basis I'll reserve judgement and see if the players are up to performing for national pride and to inpress the new gaffer, and maybe even showing the fans that they really can compete on the international stage. But I'm not holding my breath.

[Jah Lush]

Calm down calm down. This isn't the terraces in the 1970s. We've been here before so let's all make up and be friendly. We can keep the banter going but insults are stupid.

Right...England should have a very comfortable win tonight and I'll go for three or four-nil. Or is that being too optmistic. Aah! The dawning of a new era and hopefully a very successful one.

[SimonM]

I am a pessimist and will go for 0-0!

[atila the gooner]

I've decided to play 5 a side as i always do on a Wednesday and catch the highlights later.

[Jah Lush]

Lucky so and so. I wish I was still playing.

[atila the gooner]

Jah Lush Wrote:

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> Lucky so and so. I wish I was still playing.

Do what I did, ask your friends if any of them still play and get yourself along, that's what I did. I also scouted around for a saturday vets team and managed to find one. Mind you the vets side gets hammered every week but the social side of the club is a blinder!!!!

[Jah Lush]

Unfortunately I haven't played a competitive game since I was 28 and I'm 50 on Friday week so I think I'd probably need a cardio vascular unit on standby if I was to ever put the boots back on again.

[atila the gooner]

Not neccessarily, I'm 51 this year and before last year I hadn't kicked a ball in anger for the best part of 10 years. It gets easier once you get started, the first week I thought I was going to die, but it does get better and far easier with the passing of each session. Give it a go. Much more fun to play than watch.

[Jah Lush]

I'll certainly agree with you that its more fun to play than watch. The agonies we all go through watching our teams is bloody hard to bare sometimes. Waiting for the inevitable shut out that never comes. Conceding last minute goals in Spurs case and watching England over the years has mostly been an extremely painful experience.

The last time I played though was in a friendly kick-about in a park with about 20 other lads in the early 90s and I was so slow and frankly bloody useless that I felt embarrased for myself and vowed never to play again.

So, I think rather than risk a heart attack I think the boots - and I still have them sadly gathering dust somewhere at home - have been hung up for good.

[atila the gooner]

That's a shame Jah, but at least the spirit sounds willing even if the body is not up to it.

[atila the gooner]

Bah humbug. My regular wednesday night 5 a side run around was cancelled because the lads wnated to watch the Engerland game. That would have been fine if it had been a game worth watching. Stevie G man of the match, I'm not sure that was totally justified. I thought Joe Cole had a good game and was more worthy, although it pains me to say so.

A wins a win, so they say. But did we win because we were so much better, or because the Swiss had 4 or so of their best players missing and decided to take players off in the way that dear old Sven used to. I wasn't overly impressed with the performance but hey, we've got a long wait until we reach 2010 world cup finals, or does that put the mockers on our chances of qualification?

[Keef]

It was nothing special, but to be fair he's having a look at people. Don't like Barry in that position, which is a shame for him because next to Gerrard he's looked really good.

[Keef]

Having mentioned it on another thread, I googled Darren Anderton quite interesting reading, he really has had bad luck with injuries (he's out injured at the moment). He along with Jamie Redknapp and Robbie Fowler could have done great things had they been able to stay fit!

Very interesting fact in there is

One amazing statistic about Anderton's England career is that his last five caps were given to him by five different managers. These were: vs Czech Republic (18/11/98) by Glenn Hoddle, vs France (10/02/99) by Howard Wilkinson, vs France (02/09/00) by Kevin Keegan, vs Italy (15/11/00) by Peter Taylor and vs Sweden (10/11/01) by Sven-G?ran Eriksson.

[Jah Lush]

It was an internet vote that made Gerrard Man of the Match. Obviously you get young fans of a certain player adding their vote but I certainly didn't agree with the outcome and nor did any of the pundits. He did all right without being spectacular. Joe Cole was man of the match in my opinion followed by Rooney, Bentley and Jenas.

You can't really expect to read too much into this game but I thought it was a good start for Fabio Capello, although there is obviously plenty of room for improvement and other players to come back in and he's given plenty of scope for other untried players to force themselves into the picture.

[atila the gooner]

Aston Villa 2 v Newcastle 1

Bolton 1 v Portsmouth 2

Derby 0 v Tottenham 2

Everton 1 v Reading 0

Middlesbrough 1 v Fulham 1

Sunderland 2 v Wigan 0

West Ham 1 v Birmingham 0

Chelsea 1 v Liverpool 1

Man Utd 3 v Man City 0

Arsenal 3 v Blackburn 0

[Keef]

Given our current form and the fact Torres has gone and done a hamstring, I'd be happy with a 1 all draw at Chelsea! I just pray Torres was taken off as a precaution and has just pulled something minor...

[Jah Lush]

That Darren Anderton fact would make a very good pub quiz question Keef.

Aston Villa 2 v Newcastle 1

Bolton 2 v Portsmouth 2

Derby 0 v Tottenham 3

Everton 2 v Reading 0

Middlesbrough 2 v Fulham 1

Sunderland 2 v Wigan 1

West Ham 3 v Birmingham 1

Chelsea 2 v Liverpool 1

Man Utd 3 v Man City 1

Arsenal 2 v Blackburn 1

[spadetownboy]

villa 2-0 toon

bolton 1-0 p,mouth

derby 2-2 spurs

toffees 3-1 reading

boro 2-0 fulham

keanos army 1-1 wigan

west ham 2-0 brum

chelsea 1-2 pool

utd 2-0 city

arse 1-1 b,burn

[AnotherPaul]

I was loving Mark Lawrenson's definition of people who voted for man of the match using the web: "geeks" - and that's all of us it seems.

I was happy and a little confused to see England come back and better after conceding. Weird.

And am also chuffed that the prick McLaren is away from my eyes.

[atila the gooner]

AnotherPaul Wrote:

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> And am also chuffed that the prick McLaren is away

> from my eyes.

I agree, he has that effect on me too.

[SimonM]

Aston Villa 2 v Newcastle 0

Bolton 1 v Portsmouth 2

Derby 0 v Tottenham 2

Everton 3 v Reading 1

Middlesbrough 2 v Fulham 1

Sunderland 2 v Wigan 0

West Ham 2 v Birmingham 1

Chelsea 2 v Liverpool 0

Man Utd 2 v Man City 1

Arsenal 2 v Blackburn 0

[atila the gooner]

So the proposal to play a round of games overseas is not motivated by money according to Scudamore. Really? So it's purely for the benefit of raising the profile of the premier league which is already availbale worldwide on satelite and cable TV, and is already watched by millions/billions of people. Time for those making such decisions were honest with us and just come and say, yeah, it's all about the money. I can forsee all sorts of issues with these proposals, but if the Premiership continues on its trip into oblivion, I can see me saying no thanks, and going to Rymans league games instead.