Waste of a shirt (cont.) |
So the Toon are looking to cut their wage bill? Seems to me that a good place to
start would be to get a certain Alan Smith off the payroll as quickly as
possible. Against Hertha Berlin the best that you could say about him was that
he was anonymous. At least fellow 'striker' Shola did get into the six yard box
a couple of times. It's got to be a real concern when your two starting front
men haven't scored a goal between them in the last year. Any team would struggle
a bit with their three top strikers missing, but most would have something
better than Smith and Ameobi to fall back on. Much of the game was like a replay
of much of last season - tons of possession, loads of corners, but little
creativity or end product. Geremi obviously hasn't been working on his corners
since we last saw him.
Positives to come out of the Hertha game?
Gutierrez looks like he could be a
really good buy. He showed good skill and appetite, and a surprising willingness
to cover back. It was a bit worrying that he faded so much after a really bright
start though. Hopefully it was just down to a lack of match fitness rather than
him becoming disillusioned when he realised that the players around him aren't
in his league. Duff look as sharp after he came on as I've seen him since he
came to the Toon; at least he managed to work the keeper, even if only just.
Guthrie looked steady enough; we already had plenty of steady midfield players
though, it's quality attacking midfield players that we're crying out for.
Out with a whimper
Speaking of players, this is how the Player of the Season
voting ended up:
Whitley Beye | 8 |
Stevie Harper | 5 |
Nicky Butt | 4 |
Oba | 3 |
Milner | 2 |
Stevie Taylor | 1 |
EMO | 1 |
Joey Bartoon | 1 |
I voted for Butt, but I can't argue with the choice of Monday, Tuesday, Habib
Beye. He's played consistently well all season, despite having to adapt to
English football and having to deal with a massive change of culture and
climate. So well done Habib. Now we just have to get the trophy back from a
certain Mr Shearer...
Waste of a shirt
It
was a disappointing way to end our home campaign, as much as anything because it
would have been great to keep our unbeaten run going to the end of the season.
Most of our fans though didn't seem too unhappy afterwards. Bobby Robson would
have been bemused, if not totally pissed off, to see the fans' reaction at the
end considering what happened when we finished 5th in Bobby's last full season.
Fickle lot aren't we! Speaking of fickle, what about that shower from Chelsea?
In with a chance of winning the title, yet there were hundreds of empty seats.
Obviously because they've won it a couple of times the Chelsea fans are getting
blasé about the league now. As you would. Well, actually no. Champions League
Final or no
Champions League Final, if the boot had been on the other
foot tickets would have been like gold dust. And there certainly wouldn't have
been any empty seats if it had been Man U or Arsenal playing at SJP in the same
circumstances.
End of season dross
Most of us travelling down from Leeds were on the 8.05 or
8.15. Cookie Junior though had a lie-in and caught the 5 past 10 because she'd
had a few drinks on the Friday night. As if the rest of us hadn't. Anyway,
points or signalling or something problems meant that we arrived at Kings Cross
a bit later than expected, so we wasted no time heading over to the Duke of
Edinburgh. For some reason the pub decided that the commentary to the Chelsea v
Man U game had to be about 1000 decibels, so myself, Maggie and Fringo relocated
to the beer garden (for 'garden' read 'back yard') where it was fractionally
less noisy. The problem with being out there though was that those of us with
not much hair ended up with very sore heads the next day. And I'm not talking
about hangovers.
A special mention for Laura when she belatedly arrived at the
pub. At one point she disappeared into the ladies. She took her handbag with
her, which is obviously not unusual for a female. Strangely though she also took her (nearly empty)
glass. When she came back out her glass was mysteriously full again. Gordon would have been proud of her.
Stevie Round was celebrating big style on the way back
because he'd gone for 2-2 in the Predictions. Looking at the table you might wonder why it
should be such a big
deal when he's still in the bottom third, but the 3
points he scored took him above his lass, and whichever one of them finishes lower
has to pay for a meal out.
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El Fringo in
the Duke of |
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Toon 2 Gypsies, tramps and thieves 0
Nearly there
It's a reflection of the massive improvement that's occurred
in the last month or so that we can go to Portsmouth and boss the game and to be
disappointed not to take all three points. Mind, even though we were on top most
of the game I was still relieved to hear the final whistle because all the way
though the game I was expecting Defoe to pop up with a goal at any moment. And
he had his chances! Our performance level slipped a bit from the previous couple
of games. Perhaps this was just some of the players easing off a bit now that
we're effectively safe. It was still a good all round performance though other
than Enrique slicing the ball into touch regularly and Geremi's woeful corners.
Geremi actually puts in some decent free-kicks, where he whips the ball in from
a diagonal (like for the second goal against Fulham), but his corners are truly
shocking. It's hard to believe we haven't got anyone that could do better.
Anyone with a massive amount of time on their hands might
want to check out the new links I've put on the Links page. There's some really
good reading there!
Toon 3 Reading 0
Once again we bumped into some 'interesting' characters on
the train back; I put it down to Stevie Round Boy's natural tendency to chat to
anyone and everyone. One lad tried very hard to persuade us to get off the train
at Darlo and go back to his place, where substances and exotic ladies would have
been available. He couldn't believe that we didn't want to take him up on the
offer. When he proceeded to tell us about his past (like time spent in
Strangeways due to football violence!) we wondered if our rejection of his very
generous offer might cause things to turn nasty, but fortunately he took it
reasonably well. I think the fact that he was almost comatose (as a result of
excessive drinking in the Toon to celebrate his brother's 50th) might have had
something to do with this. Never a dull moment with Stevie!
King Kev rules again!
I put the win down to a number of factors:
- confidence; 4 points in the previous two games had obviously given the players a
massive boost; even conceding quite early on didn't seem to knock their belief
- Nicky Butt had a magnificent game
- Joey Barton had easily his best game for the Toon; this meant our midfield was
so much more competitive
- having a settled team for a few games (it's not rocket science!)
- the defence look much more solid with Stevie Harper between the posts
- it was the perfect time to be playing Spurs; hopefully the Pompey and Everton
players will also be thinking about their summer hols when we come up against
them
- Alan Smith not being in the team
At last
The Fulham game was a real potential banana skin. For a start
I was concerned by the apparent consensus of opinion that a decent second half
against Birmingham meant that everything was suddenly ok, with the preceding
twelve and a half games conveniently forgotten. Then there was Fulham
themselves. They hadn't won away for a year and half since they won at, that's
right, St James' Park. And the Toon being the Toon you could just us losing to
them again. And Fulham certainly set off looking like they fancied their
chances, no doubt buoyed by their victory against Everton in their previous
game. Even our early goal didn't knock them out of their stride. Fortunately
though their good possession play tended to fizzle out when they got within
sight of our goal. On another day one of those 30 yarders from Bullard would
have ended up nestled in the top corner with Harper helpless to do anything
about it, but perhaps our luck's finally started to change because none of his
efforts seriously troubled us. At the other end we created a succession of
decent chances and should really have had the game sewn up by half-time. As it
was we had to wait until late on for the comfort of a two goal cushion. Even
then we still couldn't relax because, although Fulham never really threatened in
the second half, if they'd managed to pull a goal back we would probably have
totally fallen apart.
There seems to be a lot of talk about KK's team selection
being influenced in a big way by what certain individuals do in training. Now I
can understand a reluctance to pick someone who tosses it off all week ahead of
someone who works his bollocks off. Yes, in an ideal world the grafter would be
rewarded with a place in the team. But we don't live in an ideal world
(otherwise it would be the Mackems not Derby propping up the table with a
pathetic number of points) and life's not fair and ultimately what players do on
Saturday afternoon has to be the biggest factor in team selection. Let's face
it, whose goals are more likely to keep us up, a) Alan Smith's or b) Mark
Viduka's? Exactly.
Phew!
It was good to see Keegan
having the bottle to finally drop Duff and Smith. It wasn't good though to see
Geremi playing instead. I've always thought that David Batty was one of the most
limited players in the history of football, but Geremi makes him look almost
good. How many corners did we have in the second half? Six? And every single one
of them wasted by Geremi. That's shocking at the best of times, but for a team
in our position it's absolutely criminal. And if Geremi was bad, Barton was
hardly better. Has any footballer in the history of the game ever given the ball
away more in 90 minutes than Barton did against Birmingham? And to think the
club are busting a gut to get him available to play. Why didn't we just allow
him be locked up until his trial? It would have been doing everyone a favour.
It was a bit of inspired management by KK to take our best
player off with 10 minutes or so to go. Not. I'm not surprised Oba was upset.
That was our best chance of winning the game down the toilet. Like I always say,
football's a simple game. If KK really felt that we needed to make a
substitution even though we were well on top at the time, it had to be anyone
else that went off.
I'd like to finish with a word for Stevie Harper. I reckon
that we would have lost tonight with Shay in goal. Harper though pulled off a
couple of crucial saves at vital times, but on top of that he came out and
caught some crosses, and just generally looked calm and in control. That's
exactly what we're going to need over the next few weeks.
The season starts here
Ok,
I knew there was a good chance we wouldn't get anything out of the Liverpool game, but the
performance and the manner of the defeat were an
embarrassment. Keegan said beforehand that he believed we had a chance of
winning. So how did he go about trying to achieve a victory? Pack the
midfield to stifle them, and somehow sneak a goal. We've tried those tactics
numerous times over the last few seasons against the top four and we've ended up
losing comfortably on every single occasion. And sure enough the ploy failed miserably again.
It's true that the deadlock was only broken with a fluke goal, but when the ball's
bouncing about in our penalty area as much as it was it's only a matter of time
before it goes in. The Kevin Keegan of a few years ago would never have sent out
a team to play like that, so why does he do it now? Yes, the players he had at his disposal in those
days were suited to going
forward, but the players we've got now just aren't suited to defending. It's as
much the midfield as the defence that's the problem. How many times were Gerrard
and Co able to cut straight through into our box virtually unopposed? Where was
Nicky Butt? Where was Smith (supposedly doing a man-to-man job on Gerrard)?
Someone said on the 606 web site that any team playing Alan Smith in every game
deserves to go down, and I can't disagree. Another thing. If you're going to
play a lone striker, what's the point in it being Michael Owen if all you're
going to do is lump long balls vaguely in his direction. We'd have been better
off playing Andy Carrol.
Anyway, we've really got to forget about all that's happened
over the last couple of months. We've got 9 games left and we need to take at
least 9 or 10 points from them. Most people will be thinking that if we can beat
Fulham, Reading and Mackem then we should be ok. While that's true, I don't look
at it quite like that. Yes those three would be great games to win, but I don't
care where we get the points from as long as we get them. What I would say
though is that we can't really afford to lose any of those games, or the
Birmingham away game for that matter. I'm not though for a minute saying we
should set out with the intention of not losing. We should be aiming to win all
those games, but if we have to settle for a draw so be it, and if necessary we
have to take a few points out of what logically are our tougher games. Who
knows, it's possible though that those 'tougher' games might not be. By the time
they come round it could be that the opposition will have nothing to play for.
What's indisputable is that the team needs the fans behind
them from now on in. Regardless of what we might think about the owner,
Chairman, manager, team selection, tactics or individual players we have to give
the team our full support from the first kick to the final whistle. Anything
less and we'll have failed in our duty as Toon fans.
Marathon Man
Si's original fundraising target was a modest 20 quid. But
he's easily surpassed that figure thanks mainly to some generous Yorkshire Mags.
That doesn't stop anyone else from sponsoring though. The easiest way to do it
is online
here. Alternatively you can just let him know by email, phone, text or
whatever how much you want to pledge and he'll stick it down on the
old-fashioned sponsor form that he's got.
Good luck on the day Si, and remember not to have more than a
dozen pints on the Saturday night. And a curry's definitely not a good idea.
Rough justice
For the second time this season against Blackburn
we've played pretty well and ended up with nothing. This was an especially bad
game to lose because, as was inevitably going to happen eventually, some of the
teams below us won. It was frustrating to see EMO fail to score from a sequence
of chances that he would have put away for fun a few years back
(usually when playing against us!), but at least we did for once create the sort
of chances that he thrives on. It's worrying though that you can't see where else
in the team a
goal is likely to come from.
Liverpool away isn't the sort
of game we need right now. Unlike most people though I don't accept that the
result is a foregone conclusion. Obviously current form and our record at Anfield
over the years means that Liverpool are likely to end up with three points. But
in football the form book occasionally goes out the window. We only have to look
back two weeks to see what can happen. No doubt most football 'experts' would
have said that Barnsley had absolutely no chance of beating the Scousers. Well
apparently the Barnsley players had other ideas, even after going a goal behind.
If we battle for every ball and have a bit of overdue luck then who knows what
could happen.
Something seems to have gone
wrong with Wetherspoons' recruitment process. I was under the impression that
you couldn't get a bar staff job with them unless you basically didn't have a
clue. But there was a lass behind the bar on Saturday who, not content with
serving customers in something like the right order, also managed to serve two
people at the same time. No doubt she'll be shown the door before the next home
game.
Going down
There's no getting away from it, on current form
we'll almost certainly get relegated. Ok, Reading are losing every game right
now, but we've got to assume that they'll start picking up points before long.
We need to scrape together around 10 points to give ourselves a decent chance of
staying up, but it's difficult to see where those points are going to come from.
And any more hammerings like those we've been having lately and the players'
confidence is going to be completely shot. To be fair heads didn't really drop
against Man U, but we looked hardly capable of hurting them while it seemed like
they could score any time they wanted. It wasn't quite a repeat of the
humiliation at Old Trafford though. On that occasion we were lucky that it
wasn't double figures. This time the game was fairly even and Man U probably
only had about 10 attempts at goal. It's just a pity that five of them went in!
About the only positive note for us was that Andy
Carroll gave us a bit of much needed presence up front after he came on. No
doubt he won't get a look in against Blackburn mind!
Some of us had the misfortune to have to endure
the company of some total wankers of Man U fans on the train journey back. Most
of their lot got on a late-running Kings Cross train, accompanied by a few
police. Some of them though decided to hang back and get on the Leeds train,
without an police accompaniment as it happens. To make matters worse they ended
up in our carriage. It would be an understatement to say that they weren't
exactly magnanimous in victory. In fact a few of them were clearly looking for a
fight, a clue being when they started chucking bottles (plastic!) at us in an
attempt to goad us. Their plan backfired though because unknown to them there
was a Man U fan sat at our table and he was just a little bit unimpressed, and I
think he would have quite happily torn the main perpetrator into little pieces.
There was an uneasy stand-off for the remainder of the journey to York where the
troublemakers fortunately got off to catch a connection to Mancland rather than
staying on as far as Leeds. We could of course have taken the easy option of
moving to the next carriage, as virtually all the terrified 'normal' passengers
did, but we weren't going to give them that satisfaction. Tossers. We discussed
amongst ourselves whether or not Toon fans come across the same when travelling
to and from games. Obviously we're a bit biased, but we all agreed that there's
no comparison. I've seen a few things I've been pretty embarrassed about, but our fans are
usually no worse than loud and very drunk.
PS Who's Robert Plant by the way?
GAM£ 39
What do we make of the fairly bizarre announcement
that the Premier League are looking at playing some games
abroad from a couple of years hence? I can't say this comes as a big surprise to
me considering the league and the clubs' infatuation with maximising income, and
in some ways I don't have a problem with it. If it's done the way that they're
talking about then no-one loses a home game and no-one really gains an advantage
through the extra game. But I just find it incredible when the top clubs have
complained for years about too many games and fixture congestion that they're
now suddenly happy to play an extra game. And let's face it, we're not talking
about France or Germany or Italy. At least some of the games will be played at
the other end of the planet, which means that the clubs involved will insist on
7 days clear of other games before and after. So that's two weeks added on to
the season. Just so that Wigan can play Fulham in front of a couple of hundred
disinterested Chinese. Like I said, bizarre.
Toon 1 Smoggies 1
Just
in case anyone was in any doubt, the Boro game was further proof that KK is
going to have his work cut out to transform us into a half-decent side. While
we're unquestionably underperforming, as much as anything due to a lack of
confidence, we just don't have anything like the quality we need if we're going
to challenge the top 6 or 7. Midfield is the main problem as far as I'm
concerned - it doesn't matter who's playing there they don't create enough or
give the front two enough support. Having said all that, with a half-decent ref
(and linesman) we might have won the game easily - Owen's early goal wrongly
disallowed, Boro's equaliser wrongly allowed to stand, and a succession of
free-kicks around Boro's box not given. It's not the first time in recent games
that we've been on the receiving end of some rubbish officiating. If as they say
it all averages out over a season we should be getting plenty of breaks over the
coming weeks.
A message for Sky and Setanta - 1.30 is much, much
too early to be kicking off on a Sunday. It's even worse when there's a reduced
train service due to engineering works. It meant a very early start for those of
us who wanted to make sure we'd get up to the Toon in decent time. Leechy took
the opportunity to conduct some research into the effect that 5 litres of cider
(and pork pies) on a Sunday morning have on the human body.
Arsenal 3 Toon 0 (take 1)
Oh well, another season without a
trophy. Not that the defeat at the Emirates was totally unexpected. And it means
that we can now concentrate on securing the dozen or so points we need to keep
us up. At least we tried in the first half to take the game to Arsenal, and for
a time were well on top. But it was scary to see how it all fell apart after
half-time, when we couldn't string two passes together. It doesn't help when
Nicky Butt does his best Titus Bramble impression and sprays a succession of 70
yard passes straight into the crowd. He wasn't the only one at fault though -
Owen again appeared disinterested, and Cacapa again looked out of his depth. The
substitutions were very curious - Rozehnal replacing Enrique was hardly
adventurous, and then Duff was taken off even though he'd had one of the best
games I've seen from him since he signed. Smith also had a decent (for him)
game, looking much more comfortable playing up front.
I'd caught the train down to
St Pancras from Leeds. It was slow, but it was quite a bit cheaper then the
Kings Cross option. It also gave me chance to see the 'Eight Billion Pound
Station' first hand. And very impressive it was too! I walked the length of the
champagne bar, but didn't feel tempted to call in for one - I was headed for the
only slightly less salubrious Dolphin, where I met up with Brendan, Paul, and others.
A few swift ones later it was time to head up to the ground. Nothing is ever
straight forward for Big Issue when it comes to travel, and so it proved again.
He'd topped up his Oyster Card (it's a pre-paid card that you use to travel
around London, working out considerably cheaper than pay-as-you-go) with 20 quid during
the week, but now he couldn't find it. He was still searching through pockets
and bags while we were on the tube up to Arsenal.
I might have had a slow journey down to London,
but I made record time coming back. I caught the half 6 from Kings Cross and was
in the house at 20 past 9. Pretty good considering the long bus journey out to
Yeadon.
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New manager, same old problems
We might have put four past Stoke, but our inability to break down a determined
Bolton team was a reminder that we're desperately lacking creativity. The
players that were unavailable, with the possible exception of Emre and Barton
(when he's not locked up), wouldn't have given us that much more going forward.
Even KK is going to have his work cut out transform our current midfield.
Whether or not he can find anyone to bring in before the transfer window shuts
remains to be seen.
Highlight of the day was the presentation of a clock to the manageress in Spoons
to replace the one that disappeared when the pub was refurbed last year.
Attempting to stand on a beer glass crate stood on its end to hang the clock on
the wall probably wasn't the wisest move the lass has made. Predictably she
ended up on her arse (fortunately apparently unhurt), and the clock ended up in
bits. Oh well, nice idea.
It's just as well we made good time motoring back down to Leeds with Keith. Big
Issue's kebab and farts made it a bit of a journey from hell. I've just about
recovered now, but I reckon it'll be 3 or 4 days before the car stops stinking.
PS I've just remembered - wasn't the ref absolute pants?! Doesn't
understand the concept of advantage, doesn't understand what constitutes a
bookable offence. Three
minutes added time in the second half? With the substitutions and Bolton's play
acting and time wasting it should have been at least 5. Not that we would have
scored of it had been 25.
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Return of the Messiah
I didn't think for a moment that Keegan would ever make
another return to the
Toon. I thought he was brave when he first came back as
manager considering how successful he'd been as a player. He's really putting
his neck on the block by coming back again. Anyone who thinks that his arrival
means an instant transformation to free flowing football and loads of goals is deluding themselves.
In Keegan's first spell as manager we certainly were very, very good at times. We hit a
peak at the start of the 1994/95 season when we hit 35 goals in our first 10
competitive games and literally no-one in Europe wanted to face us. And then
of course there was that 5-0. It wasn't always like that under Keegan though, but
people only remember the good bits. What can't be denied though is that he's
already made a difference - 4-1 against Stoke with 10 men for most of the game
just wouldn't have happened otherwise. And apparently a few players, including Duff and Owen, looked
much more lively.
What do I think of the appointment? It doesn't make sense! There's been all this
talk of taking a long-term view, getting things right from the bottom up,
sorting out the academy and youth set-up. Keegan's not your man for that. What
he will do though is to give a the club and the fans a massive lift. Everyone
knows we can't challenge the top two or three clubs in the Premiership in the
short term, but at least we might give them a bit less respect under KK, and we
might have a bit of fun along the way. Life certainly won't be dull!
And when he does hand over to someone else you can be sure that we'll have a
better squad than we have now.
It's fascinated me the last week or so how the
papers and numerous web sites have been so full of stuff about what's been going
on at the
Toon. A lot of it has concentrated on how we think Newcastle are a big club
whereas in fact we aren't because we haven't won anything for so long, blah blah
blah. So if we're only a small club, how come all these people with no
connection whatsoever with the club or area are so obsessed with happenings at
the Toon?
PS Heard yet another refence to H******d on
the radio on Wednesday night. If (a bit unlikely I admit) Havant and Waterlooville knock
out Liverpool, do you think the BBC will finally forget about that game? I don't think so
either.
Total shambles
Yes we should been 1-0 up, and
the free kick for the second never was, and the last goal wasn't even close to
being over the line, but at the end of the day we were well beaten by a much
better side. I've seen us lose plenty of times at Old Trafford, but the latest
non-performance takes some beating. And without some poor finishing and
desperate clearances it could have been a lot more. The worst
part about it is that the players you might hope would lead by example let us
down badly:
Michael Owen - as expected got little or no service, but when he had a chance to get us
back in the game he fluffed it
Shay Given - been a professional for over a dozen years and yet can't kick a
ball
Nicky Butt - constantly gave the ball away when under no pressure
Damien Duff - still hasn't produced a half-decent performance for the Toon and
should be chased
Alan Smith - what does he do?
It's clear that whoever comes in as manager must be able to give the players a
real lift. While I think our squad is no better than average (who have we got
that can change or win a game?), we are still underperforming at the
moment. I'm not for one minute suggesting that KK should come back, but we
need someone who can instil self-belief in the players the way that he
did. Unfortunately managers like that are few and far between. In fact they're
virtually non-existent nowadays when coaching qualifications are considered more
important than basic football knowledge and man management skills.
Man U hoodoo to be buried - exclusive
The reason for our failure to
beat Man U at Old Trafford for 36 years is really obvious to me. It's me.
Consider the facts. Our last domestic trophy was won in 1955, I was born in
1956. We couldn't win at Southampton for donkey's years, I decided to give it a
miss in 2004 and we won. The last time we won at Man U was 1972 (7 days after
Hereford - typical Toon), I started going there in 1973 and the rest is history.
I can only remember missing one league game there since that first visit. It's
traditionally been one of my favourite trips despite our record in that time.
Apart from the fact that it's obviously so easy to get to, not to mention a few
good sessions in the Waldorf, it's always been fcuking hilarious winding up the
Man U lot. But I have to confess that the long succession of disappointing
results and (often, but not always) performances have finally taken their toll,
and I'm not going this time. It just seems crazy to fork out best part of 40
quid for a ticket largely to wind up their fans when I can watch it for nowt on
Setanta, and so that's what I'm doing. So get your money on the Toon triumphing
at our Theatre of Nightmares. I just did - 33/2 at Betfair.
PS I forgot one. Remember that infamous run
of matches in London without a win? What was it, four years and 26 games? Well
needless to say I was at virtually every one of those 26 games, but not at the
match at Highbury where we finally ended the run.
The final straw
Well the Toon owner/Chairman
have ignored my advice and got rid of Big Sam. It seems like the reserve team's
defeat against the Mackems was one bad result too many. At least Sam's departure
is officially by mutual consent, which should save us a load in compensation,
even though it almost certainly wasn't really.
So where do we go from here? Don't ask me! I would
like to think that for once we've got someone lined up. Just as long as it's not
Venables or a load more that I could mention. I'm actually one of the minority
who think that Shearer could be the man for it. The fact that he's got no
experience doesn't bother me one bit. Either you've got what it takes or you
haven't. And at least he'd be given a chance by the fans, unlike a couple of our
recent appointments. Of course it would be a big risk, but so would any
appointment. We've had our share of proven managers over the last few years, and
they've mostly been pants. Whether or not Shearer would want the job is of
course another matter. Probably not at the moment if he's got any sense.
Watch this space.
Time to move on BBC?
The Beeb just can't get Hereford out of their system. Since that horrible day
other teams have been subject to similar or greater humiliations - Coventry
losing at Sutton, Burnley (then in the old first division) losing AT HOME to non-Wimbledon,
Man U held at home twice in recent seasons by non-league teams (although erased
from history apparently). Yet it's still the Hereford game that gets dragged up
any time they want to talk about cup upsets. I mean, it's 36 years ago now! And
still every time we get drawn against a team from a lower division they wet
themselves at the thought that we might get beat, and they jump at the chance to
show the game. And isn't it fucking great when we spoil their party.
I can't believe the BBC's coverage of the Stoke game. I lie, because I can
really. They way they were going on you would have thought we were up against a
bunch of part-timers. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Stoke 4th in the
Championship and on a great run, and weren't they at home against a team who are
mid-table in the Premiership, on a shit run and short of confidence, and
generally pretty crap away from home? For my money Stoke were slight favourites,
and I would have settled for a replay beforehand. In the end I thought a draw
was a fair result. Stoke huffed and puffed but quite frankly for a team doing as
well as they are they didn't offer that much. The first half we were very
comfortable and had the only three decent chances. The second half started off
pretty much the same. Then Stoke brought on 'The Beast', and for 10 minutes we
were all over the place and Stoke could easily have scored a couple. But from
then on it was again pretty comfortable. I'm not saying that we were better than
Stoke, or even good. It's just that while Stoke could have won, they didn't
"deserve to win" as all the so-called experts were saying. And those experts of
course include our own Alan Shearer who tries so hard to be politically correct
and unbiased when it comes to the Toon that he ends up talking bollocks. Stoke
should have had a penalty because the ball happened to hit Stevie Taylor's arm?
Like where else do they think his arm should have been? And did they discuss
Wilkinson's shove on Carroll right at the end that was more of a penalty?
Here are a few thoughts on some of the players in the team today:
Viduka - quality at times, but overall commitment poor
Enrique - worryingly again looked out of his depth
Duff - when is he going to start to deliver?
Smith - what does he do?
Taylor - great commitment (goes without saying), but also effective
Faye - not as eye-catching as Taylor, but solid as a rock
Going back to the coverage, what summed up the
BBC's infatuation with our cup record was Jonathan Pearce's reference to Tony
Pulis being Harry Redknapp's assistant at Bournemouth when they "famously" beat
us on penalties in 1992. So famous in fact that only our fans and theirs
remember it. And the BBC.
PS The BBC web site has a balanced report on
the match. They were obviously watching a different game.
Happy New Year?
As
we go into 2008 I can't make my mind up about this season and the state of the
club in general. Just when things had been looking up, with the team and the
fans pulling in the same direction, the wheels have come off the wagon again. Unlike most people I wasn't too bothered about the Derby game. I've
already written off this season and so the dropping of two points was largely
irrelevant, and overall it wasn't a bad game to watch compared to some off the
dross we've had to endure over the years. But then came Wigan, which was awful.
After showing a big improvement with his team selection, tactics and
substitutions, Big Sam reverted to early season. I would never condone playing a
lone striker in a game like this. Arsenal might do it of course, but that's
because they'd have loads of midfield players breaking forward in support. Who did we have in central
midfield? Geremi, Smith and Emre, with Geremi bizarrely being the most advanced
of the three. So Viduka was basically on his own. But even though the team
selection and tactics were pants, it doesn't excuse the individual performances
most of which were shocking. And nothing excuses the response from the
fans. "We're shit and we're sick of it"??? So much for our fantastic away
support, always getting behind the team no matter what. Yeah, it was shit, but
hearing that from the fans isn't going to motivate anyone to play better.
I came away from Wigan totally despondent, thinking there's
no way that things can carry on as they are. Then I look at the league table and
wonder all the fuss is about. We're probably about where we should realistically
expect us to be. We simply haven't got the players to be much higher up. If our
most creative midfield player hadn't decided he didn't want to play for us any
more then we might have been pushing for a UEFA Cup spot, but unfortunately it's
West Ham who are benefiting from his class now. So barring an influx of real
quality in January I don't see much improvement in the second half of the
season, which doesn't look good for Sam considering that a good chunk of our
'support' have already decided they want him out. What's the alternative? Our
Paul reckoned we could get Mourinho. Meanwhile back in the real world, it
probably depends ultimately on what a certain Mr Shearer's plans are. He's
possibly the only person who be given time by the fans. Of course he might turn
out to be totally crap as a manager. I can't see it somehow though. I can see a
lot of players falling out with him though!
Anyway, I'm always hopeful, so let's hope that 2008 is much
better than 2007 was.
PS Anyone going up by train tomorrow is officially
allowed to leave a couple of minutes early if they need to to catch the 21.47
train. (The later service has a bus replacement between Darlo and York in case
you hadn't seen it on the Travel page.)
Fulham 0 Toon 1
Hell this was hardly a classic but
there were a couple things to take from the game other than the very welcome 3
points: we kept a clean sheet away from home, and we won in London. The overall
performance was really disappointing though, especially after starting so well.
I knew that we wouldn't last 90 minutes playing as well as we did for the first
5 or 6 minutes, but I couldn't believe how quickly we tailed off. Our biggest
problem seemed to be midfield, with Butt and Geremi hardly in the game. I'm
convinced that Butt actually went about 45 minutes without touching the ball at
one point. It just wasn't the sort of game where you needed two defensive
midfield players. We're also really struggling up front. I mean, when was the
last time one of our strikers scored in open play? It's quite worrying that
we're nearly halfway through the season and we've got someone playing up front
(Smith) who not only hasn't scored yet, but who has hardly looked like scoring.
At one point yesterday the commentator even said when Milner was looking to play
the ball into the box "He had no one to pick out, he only had Alan Smith"! For
my money we've got to use Viduka more. I'm not saying he should play every game,
but more than 15 minutes now and again would be good. And especially yesterday
when he's got such a good scoring record against Fulham. Seeing his name on the
team sheet would have had Fulham crapping themselves even before we kicked off.
The team might have run out of steam yesterday, but the same
can't be said for the fans. They also started off strongly, no doubt helped by
the even longer than normal pre-match drink. But they kept it up for the full 90
minutes which as some achievement considering how poor the game was. And it was
all the more surprising considering that there will have been a lot of
southern-based Toon fans there which normally dilutes our support. Contrast our
fans yesterday with the Liverpool 'fans' at the corresponding game a week
earlier. Their lot at Reading were sat throughout the entire game other than to
celebrate their goal, and there was about as much life in them as there is in
the Platinum Club seats.
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Crisis? What crisis!
Three
decent performances in eight days and all the talk of a managerial change has
suddenly disappeared. Not that it should ever have been there in the first place
of course. It was good to see how the crowd again stayed behind the team after
we conceded the early goal. It seems that Joey Barton's well chosen words have
really hit home. I can't say I've got much time for him as a person, but he was
spot on with most of what he said about our home support. We would almost
certainly have lost the Arsenal and Birmingham games with our 'old' crowd.
Instead we picked up four points from them and can now start thinking in terms
of overhauling the teams above us instead of glancing nervously towards the
bottom of the table.
Even though he hasn't been in the team every week since he
signed, I've thought that Habib Beye has looked like he could be a real class
act. And a few more match-winning interventions like yesterday could see him end
up being a cult hero - charging forward in injury time to win a corner, urging
the fans to make more noise, and then heading in the winner. Brilliant! And I
was dead pleased that loads of people missed his goal. I still don't get why so
many people leave so early. Even though I don't like to see it, I can understand
it when the game's crap or say when it's a midweek game and someone has a long
journey home and wants to get a flyer and so dodges out just before the end. But
even on Wednesday against Arsenal with it all to play for there were people near
me who left with 10 minutes to go. And as often as not it's people who aren't
regulars. They pay a load of money to see a match as a one-off, it's a cracker,
and yet they choose to miss a good chunk of what they've forked out all that
money for. Bizarre. I can only think they've gone to the match to as some sort
of street cred thing rather than because they actually want to see the game.
Back to normality
How refreshing it was at Blackburn to be in a Toon crowd who were there almost
universally to give full support to the team apparently no matter what. It
probably helped that the performance was a massive improvement on what we'd had
to endure in the preceding few games. Who knows what would have happened if we'd
conceded an early goal or two, perhaps the fans would have turned on BSA and the
team again. However, we actually started the game quite well on this occasion
and matched Blackburn in the first half. We had more possession and pressure,
but they had the two best chances, both courtesy of dodgy defending. The game
moved up a gear in the second half, but the pattern was much the same with us
continuing to have the bulk of the possession. Ultimately the game was won by
two pieces of brilliant finishing by Bentley, the like of which he might not
repeat all season. Oh, and the free-kick for his first shouldn't have been.
Anyway, here are a few pluses to take from the game:
- good performances from all the players (other than the instances of dodgy
defending in the first half!)
- easily Barton's best game so far
- Smith looking a lot better in a position he's clearly happier playing
- playing further up the field
- positive substitutions
There was a massive turn-out of Yorkshire Mags for this game. Most of us
travelled over by train, on the whole arriving nice and early for a big beer
session. A small number were an hour behind though - either because they fancied
an extra hour in bed (Alan, Tom, Fringe), or because their train down from the
Toon was running late and so they missed the connection at York (Brendan, Paul
B, and others). Keith and Bryn drove over though; finding themselves 'alone' in
the Golden Cup, they journeyed by foot and bus across Blackburn to join us by
the station in the Adelphi. By the time they arrived we were well into a
marathon game of killer pool; there were about a dozen of us playing, and after
a triple 'rollover' there was more than 40 quid in the pot! In the end it was
Hamish who kept his nerve and walked away with all our money.
The announcements towards the end of the game that "The train back to Newcastle
is at 11 minutes past 6 and it won't wait" were bizarre. For a start, getting to
the station for that time was hardly going to be difficult as it's only a
half-hour walk back. But secondly, why would anyone suppose that the train would
wait?!!! As it happens the only concern anyone had was whether or not we'd be
able to actually get on the train. When it finally turned up about 15 minutes
late it was as expected only a two carriage job. And there must have been 200
Toon fans waiting on the platform! It was every man for himself, but I just
happened to be stood in a good spot and only had to fight my way about 6 feet to
a door, and could have even got a seat if I'd have been that bothered. I was one
of the lucky ones though. Not so lucky were the people who couldn't physically
get through the doors and so had to wait an hour for the next train. The trip
back really was a journey from hell, not helped by the fact that we crawled most
of the way, and I had to feel sorry for the 'normal' passengers on the train.
Steady passed the time doing what he does best, namely trying out his worst
chat-up lines. This time it was Danielle and Jolene from the Toon who were on
the receiving end. He tried but failed miserably to persuade Danielle to join
the lot who were going for a curry in Bradford.
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A very public undressing
Let's
make this clear for anyone who didn't see both games. The Liverpool performance
was much, much, much worse than Portsmouth. Ok, we may have been up against a
better team, but whereas Portsmouth could just about be marked down as a one-off
fluke, against Liverpool we were completely humiliated in everything other than
the ball actually hitting the back of the net. Just where we go from here I'm
not sure. Part of me would be quite happy to see Big Sam depart after some of
the team selections, formations, tactics, and performances of recent weeks. Not
to mention results. Assuming though that he's not going to walk away, I can't
help feeling that we'd be shooting ourselves in the foot by booting him out the
door. Of the few top managers available, would any of them in their right mind
want to take on a job knowing that they're only going to be given a dozen games
before they're judged?
On the assumption that Sam's going to be here until at least the end of the season,
I reckon he needs to have a big re-think if he's going to have any chance of getting the
fans on his side. Here are a few tips in case he's reading:
PR
The fans don't want to hear that we're going to places like Derby and the
Mackems with a game plan of not losing. Much better to say that we're going
there to get all 3 points, but that we'll settle for a point if we have to.
Keep a settled side
Even if this occasionally means leaving out players he'd like to have in the
side. Other clubs can make half a dozen changes from one game to the next and
you don't notice any difference. We try it and most of the team look like
they've never played football before.
Play players in their natural positions
Anyone with half an ounce of sense would have played Beye at right back
against Liverpool and Edgar at centre back.
Don't ever give Alan Smith a game
He might get "stuck in", and he might have had our only decent attempt
against Liverpool, BUT HE'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. And finally.....
Football's not a complicated game
Play to your strengths and let the other team worry about how they're going
to stop you. Especially when you've got better players than they have.
Embarrassment averted
Like probably most people, I would
have settled for 1-1 against the Mackems beforehand. And I certainly would have
done
at around 2.00 when we were a goal down and not looking like getting back in the
game. The result was just about the only thing we can take out of the game
though because collectively and individually the performances were once again
sub-standard on the whole. In the heat of the battle you often don't take it all
in, but it was quite scary watching the highlights in the cold light of day next
morning to see how many the Mackems could have scored. We've got what looks a
decent squad, but Big Sam needs to work out pretty soon what his best team and
formation are and stick with them. He especially needs a settled defence,
preferably with players playing in their natural positions. And we as fans
probably need to assist by taking a long-term view and accepting that there will
some painful set-backs along the way. Just as long as one of them doesn't occur
on April 19th!
The day didn't start well. The train that myself and the Doc
were on was delayed at York by "conflicting movements north of York". That's a
new one on me. We then crawled all the way to Darlo, getting overtaken by a
couple of trains on the way, without a word of explanation. By now we were about
35 minutes late, and to make matters worse they were serving beer in Spoons!
Seeing as how we were on a beerless train and how we were likely to be overtaken
again by the Virgin train that was right behind us, we jumped off at Darlo,
stocked up with cans, and then boarded the Virgin train. We were now drinking
beer and on a train going at full-speed, so things were beginning to look up.
Not for long though.
Getting into Spoons at about quarter to 11 I was looking forward to a few pints
and a bite to eat before we set off to get the Metro over to the Dark Place.
Think again. The place was absolutely chocka with 'boys'. I hadn't seen as many
caps and Stone Island badges in years. Getting served was a nightmare, not
helped by the staff not having a clue. Eventually though I did manage to get
some beer, but food was forgotten. Things improved not long afterwards though
when all the thugs left to catch the half 11 train. The more sensible amongst us
had another pint and then strolled over to the Metro station. A very civilised
journey over to Mackemland ensued, helped in no small measure by the
refreshments provided by Steady. I was initially surprised to see himself and
the Doc drinking bottles of pop, but I soon found out everything isn't always as
it seems!
After alighting the Metro at the Stadium of Shite
station we sensibly resisted the temptation to have a pint in a Mackem pub on
the way to the ground. Once inside the ground I was reminded once again just how
poor their ground is compared to the palace that is St James'. Just why it's
considered to be a top ground by a lot of people is beyond me. Everything about
it is cheap and nasty and the facilities are totally inadequate. Still,
hopefully we'll never have to go there again.
We all knew that we'd be kept in the ground at the end
of the game. It was a pleasant surprise though when the announcements informed
us that it would only be for 10 or 15 minutes. But when 10 or 15 minutes turned
into 25 or 30 minutes people started getting restless. And when we'd been there
for half an hour and we were told it would be "only 5 more minutes or so" it
looked like things could turn really nasty, and the police were having a really
hard time holding the Toon fans back. Finally though we were allowed out.
However, it was still another 15 minutes before the police dispersed and we were
able to set off back to the Metro. Not bad, only an hour since the game
finished.
Back in civilisation we were forced by the reduced
train service to have a few pints. And then the train was running late, so we
had to have another pint. And then we got some beer for the train. And so by the
time I got home I was a bit the worse for wear and I didn't make it down to the
Woolpack to see the Shambolix. Sorry Tom.
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Toon 1 Pompey 4
Well so much for my theory that we were going to be harder to
beat this season! On top of the feeble displays at Derby and Reading comes this
humiliating thrashing at what is supposed to be Fortress St James'. To be fair,
for most of the game we didn't play that badly. It's just unfortunate that the
game was already as good as over! It would have been interesting to see what
would have happened if we'd have managed to score a second, but in all honesty
we never came that close.
Just as worrying as the results and overall performances in
the last couple of games have been the performances of some individual players.
And I'm not just talking about defenders! You don't need me to tell you that EMO
has been a long way from his best. The poor service to him hasn't helped, but he
just doesn't look sharp (or interested some might say), and he could certainly
have done a lot better with the chances that have come his way. Just as
disappointing has been Joey Barton. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was
expecting great things from him after what we've seen him doing for Citeh, but
it just hasn't happened yet. Still, it's early days for him. Another
disappointment against Portsmouth was Alan Smith. He was playing in what I'm
sure is his preferred position, yet he was pretty innocuous other than picking
up another booking.
So Portsmouth finally got a win at SJP after 58 years of
trying. Let's hope we don't see another amazing winless streak ended next
Saturday. I know the dirty horrible Mackem bastards have got to beat us at their
place one day, I'm not quite ready for it to happen just yet.
Toon 3 Toffees 2
For the benefit of "Confused" and
anyone else who
couldn't work out what the hell my original Everton "write-up" was all about....
Everton
Bob was going on in Spoons before the
game about how for once I wouldn't be able to slag off Cahill seeing as how he
wasn't playing. Well by the time I'd got home from the game, had summat to eat
and watched MOTD2 while sipping (ok, guzzling) wine I was pretty well shagged.
Doing the absolute essential web site updates (Tickets, Travel, Results,
Predictions) before I could collapse in bed was a pain in the arse, and there
was absolutely no way that I was going to do a comprehensive write-up of the
day/match. But equally I couldn't not write something about Cahill.
As for the game, I thought Everton were very poor up to the
point where Johnson bundled the ball in for his first goal of the season (I'm
still not convinced it wasn't an own goal mind). The game was more even after
that and looked to be heading for a draw until Big Sam's inspired (or should
that be lucky?) substitutions. It then looked like it was going to be another
flattering 3-1 home win until Everton's bizarre second. Bob missed the goal
though because he was well on his way to the pub by then. Not that that made
much difference as one way or another he'd contrived to miss three of the four
goals that preceded it.
There was a massive turn-out of Yorkshire Mags in Spoonies
before the game, including a few faces not seen for a while, plus a new female
member who was getting loads of attention until she got chucked out. It's a pity
that Maggie wasn't there as she would have had a field day collecting subs.
Oh, and isn't that Cahill a tosser?
There's a full set of full-size pics from the Horsforth lads' day out on
Mike H's Facebook page thing (you need to be registered and a 'Friend' of
Mike's to see them though!)
Massive Club 3 Toon 1
Not too sure what to say about this
really. I thought that we didn't play that badly and had controlled much of the
game, especially in the second half, but probably without creating as much in
front of goal as we should have. As I was walking away from the ground I
overheard a Toon fan say to his missus "3-1 against West Ham last week probably
flattered us, and 3-1 flattered them today". A fair assessment I thought. So I
was amazed when on MOTD they were absolutely raving
about how good Citeh had been. Perhaps I was watching the game through beer goggles.
It's always hard to take when you get beat by this lot because they're so full
of themselves outside the ground afterwards. But it happens with monotonous
regularity these days.
I much preferred
Geremi in the more advanced role that he was used in for this game, he
contributed loads more than he has in previous games. However, we still lacked
creativity in midfield. When's Barton back?
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That's more like it!
Ok, it might not have been the most convincing performance
against West Ham, but it was a very welcome result. The early goal should have
relieved any pressure the players might have been feeling, but it was West Ham
who went on to have the best of the rest of the half, and we could count
ourselves fortunate to go in at half-time with a lead. Once again we were
lacking creativity in midfield. Butt seemed to at least be playing further
forward than in previous games, but he's never going to make runs into the box
or play defence-splitting passes to the front men. It's going to be interesting
to see what happens when Barton's fit again. Assuming he gets straight back into
the team that is. Logically one of the two central midfield players will have to
make way. Which means either Butt, or Big Sam's recent appointment as captain.
Anyway, I'm not sure what was said
during the interval (the longest half-time ever in the history of football???? -
I thought they weren't coming out again), but we were much better after the
break. And especially after Enrique came on and we had more players playing in
their natural positions.
I'm hoping someone can help me out here. Has there been a law
passed in the last few years that says that women on hen weekends must wear pink
cowboy hats? Whether there has or not, I reckon the three most secure jobs going
are undertaker, prison office, and punk cowboy hat maker.
Anyway, I'm sorry but I can't be bothered to write any more.
It's late and it's been a long day and I'm off to watch MOTD2.
AGM highlights
There was a pretty good turn-out for
the AGM despite (or because of?) the short notice, including our youngest member, Konrad Pattinson.
In fact it was probably the best turn-out for three years. That's not saying much mind. Anyway, we had some lively
discussions on a number of subjects. Here's a summary of what was decided, to
the best of my memory and in no particular order.
Committee
We're going to continue to operate without a full committee, ie with no
Secretary. In the absence of any other volunteers or nominations, the present
incumbents were unanimously re-elected. In case anyone doesn't know, that's Tom
as Chairman and Maggie as Treasurer, with Round Boy as Mags' assistant.
Bank Account
The history to this is that two years back the then Treasurer Darren Upton
resigned due to work commitments. When we subsequently tried to pay money into
the club account we were told by the bank that it had been closed. Darren's
explanation was that the bank had closed the account due to there being no money
in it. Now, apart from the question of why there should be no money in the
account, banks simply don't close accounts like that. Ok, they might declare the
account as 'dormant' if there's been no activity for a few years, but that's
another matter. Two years later we still haven't been able to get a satisfactory
explanation out of Darren, plus he's failed miserably to supply any
documentation (accounts, statements). We also haven't managed to open a new
account for various reasons, which makes it difficult to bank the various
cheques that the club's received in that time! The plan of action agreed at the
meeting is:
- ask Darren nicely once more for an explanation; if he doesn't come up with the
goods then we resort to Plan B
- Round Boy and Ian Maxted are going to open a joint account; they will open it
in their names as a personal account rather than a business account because it's
apparently much more straight forward
Subs
Subs will remain at their present level, ie £5 for an individual or £6 for a
family all at the same address. They're now due. You can hand your money to Tom,
Maggie or Round Boy. Alternatively, if you're not likely to see any of them in
the near future, send an email to
webbie@yorkshiremags.co.uk and I'll reply back with Maggie's
address and you can stick a cheque in the post. Alternatively (2), if you wait a
week or so it's possible you'll be able to pay through the web site if you've
got a Paypal account. I have the technology, whether or not I can get it to work
is another matter. Watch this space.....
Club season ticket
We currently sell this at 25 quid a game, which means that even if we sell it
for every game (which we don't) we lose around 100 quid over the season. From
now on we're going to charge £35/£30/£25 based on the category of the game
(A/B/C). This compares pretty favourably with the matchday prices of £45/£30/£28
for that seat. A decision on whether or not to renew the ticket will be made at
the end of this season.
Match tickets
We really went round (and round and round) the houses on this! It mostly
concerned whether or not we should charge a fee for supplying tickets (home and
away), and what that fee would be for members and especially for non-members.
I'd be here all night if I had to summarise the whole debate, instead I'll just
jump to the conclusions:
- being able to obtain tickets (home and away) is the prime motivation for
membership for many people and that's why they pay their fiver; therefore they
should get their tickets at face value
- non-members wanting tickets will have to pay a one-off five pound payment;
they will then effectively be a member for the rest of the season and will be
supplied with a membership card (see below)
Membership cards
Anyone paying their subs will be given a membership card. This obviously
supposes that we can physically get it to them!
Funds
In order to try to build up some funds Stevie Round is going to flog some domino
cards in Spoons. Just don't tell the staff!
Meetings
Although they weren't that well supported, some people miss the regular meetings
that we used to have. We're therefore bringing them back! But rather than going
back to having them on a Tuesday evening (it was a pain in the arse
dragging yourself out the house in the cold and dark in the middle of winter,
knowing that you could only have a couple of pints at the most because you were
driving), we'll have them on Saturdays when say it's an international break or
the Toon play on the Monday night or when we've got no game because it's 4th
round day and we've already been knocked out. The first one will therefore
probably be in a couple of months.
Social events
We'll try to organise the occasional social event. Curry nights are the
obvious thing to do. An end-of season barbecue is another option. Depending on
how funds are, there could be an element of subsidy.
Supported charity
For many years we used to raise money for the Burns Unit at Bradford, for
obvious reasons. Since then, because our President Peter Beardsley is a patron,
it's been Tiny Lives at the RVI. We've decided that it's time for a change!
Another local charity seemed like a good idea.
Martin House Hospice was suggested and unanimously agreed on.
Player of the Year
Normally we vote for this near the end of the season and present the trophy
to the winner as soon as possible afterwards. A quick straw poll at the last
home game of last season came up with local lad James Milner as the clear
winner. Unfortunately though a certain Mr Shearer has still got hold of the
trophy. Tom (brave man!) has taken it upon himself to get it back and to sort
out the presentation. We'll decide who's to present it if/when we've got the
trophy!
I think that's about it, but if anyone that was there reckons
I've missed something then please shout up!
Honours even
A draw against the Smogs was probably
a fair reflection overall. I thought we started well and were totally in control
until they suddenly got an equaliser out of nothing. The Setanta commentary team
obviously didn't agree though as they kept going on about how our 4-3-3 system
was as ineffective as it had been against Villa. One thing I will say about that
formation is that it needs midfield players getting into advanced positions
regularly, and with Butt and Geremi looking scaringly like the reincarnation of
Parker and Butt it puts a lot of pressure on the remaining midfield player. We
reverted to 4-4-2 in the second half to keep the commentators happy, but I
couldn't say that I saw much improvement. If nothing else Oba was a lot less
effective than he had been when playing wide. Still what do I know.
It's a real shame that we couldn't have held out for the win
because it would have made the perfect present for birthday boy Tom who was 50
on the day. The previous
evening was of course his 'surprise' party in the Wellington pub in Leeds. How
much of a surprise it was I'm not really sure, but I suspect The Doc's text
earlier in the day was a bit of a giveaway: "Happy birthday Tom. Sorry I can't
make it to the party tonight". Even without The Doc there was a tremendous
turn-out, with a lot of people having travelled from far and wide to be there,
including a large contingent of family and friends down from the north-east. I
think I can safely say that a good night was had by all, with (loud!!!) music
provided by Tom's band Shambollix. Aaarrroooonnnnaa was unfortunately working the
next morning and so had to keep himself right. He therefore restricted himself
to seven pints of Amstel and so was "stone cold sober" (his words) as he left
relatively early to get a taxi home, bouncing off the door frame and staggering
along the street as he went. Anyway, a big thank you to Jude and Nicky for the
fantastic job they did organising the event and getting everyone there.
Here's a few photos I took. Click on the thumbnails for a
full-size version.
You can watch a short video clip of the
Shambollix in action by clicking
here. Alternatively you can
download a
version with better picture quality. Apologies for the sound quality though - my
camera apparently doesn't do Dolby Digital Surround Sound.
"We are top of the league"
That's how one of the most popular
chants at Bolton went. The other was "Big Sam's black and white army" in time to
the Reebok drummers who were a bit slow to cotton on to the fact that they were
playing onto our hands every time they started up.
We couldn't really have asked for a
better start to the season. Well, for the first 45 minutes anyway. It just
seemed like nothing could go wrong; one minute it would have been 2-1 but for a
block on the line by Stevie Taylor, the next minute it's 3-0 thanks to a lucky
deflection. But then after half-time everything that was good about the
first-half performance went out the window. Instead of being positive we sat
back and invited pressure. Instead of being purposeful we were clueless.
Rozenhal went from looking complete class to Bramblesque. If Bolton had managed
to get a second goal then I don't think we'd have held on. But they didn't.
There was an excellent turn-out of
Yorkshire Mags in the Bromilow Arms before the game. Most had gone over by
train, but Brendan (now an ex-YM or what?) had organised a minibus from Whitley
cos he's now too old to get a Young Person's Railcard. Apparently it was some of
Brendan's lot that invented the new sport of bush jumping before the game. Now
chucking yourself into the middle of a bush isn't inherently dangerous, but
that's not the case when you get carried away and end up going right through and
landing on a load of empty asses or falling down a drop, or both.
It's my sad duty to have to report
that some of our lot left the ground well before the end of the game for no
apparent reason. The second half kicking off 8 minutes late meant that it was a
bit tight for those of us wanting to catch the 3 minutes past 5 train, but it
was still possible to stay till the end and get to the station in time. But when
your train's at 14 past 5 and the station's a 5 minute walk from the ground???
(Only winding you up Alan!)
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