William Morris

Where's the "Both" option?

That's spot on. Don't get out to pubs as much as I used to but remember the delights of Wobbly Bob in The Swan in Wood St very well, and all the other stuff they always had in there long before it became fashionable. The supermarket real ales are always good, I don't think I've tasted one I didn't like, though maybe SOME of the Shepherd Neame ones aren't up to the standard of the others. However..........the snobbery of some of the real ale crowd can be a bit off putting, always thinking everything else is shite. On a hot summer's day (remember them?) I'd prefer to sit in the garden with a can or two of Fosters or something similar to any real ale.

As long as it's there and we can't qualify for the CL, I suppoose I want us to be in it, but I won't be losing any sleep if we don't make it. It's an appalling format they've concocted which does nothing for it at all. Fair enough, the CL has become so big and powerful, whatever the format they chose for it the Europa was always going to play second fiddle. But if, as has already been said by others, they'd kept it as a straight knockout competition, it would have still looked like an attractive, alternative competition, different from it's big brother. Introducing qualifying rounds and group stages so it looks similar to the CL just enhances the feeling it's a poor man's version.

There were lots of long balls, even that thing with the goalie taking the ball outside his area before hitting the same long diagonal that the defenders were hitting. I accept it happened less the longer the game went on though. You might have a point about them not necessarily being overly physical, but because, as you say, they were all so much bigger than our lads, it's hard to tell the difference between being physical and just taking advantage of the extra muscle. Sour grapes or not, they are still a fucking plague on the game at every level as far as I'm concerned. Going back to the earlier point about all teams at every level playing in the same style as the first team, and I'm talking regardless of whether it's in the style of Barcelona or Wimbledon. I've already aid it makes sense and I'm definitely in favour, but there are disadvantages unless you know your manager is going to be here long term. Teams that change their manager every 5 minutes will have a potential new philosophy with each manager, resulting in a rip it up and start again attitude with each appointment. Which will be no good for anyone. But it is another argument in favour of managerial stability I suppose, though not one many clubs would be likely to take notice of if they thought the circumstances demanded change.

I think everyone agrees it's a sensible thing when teams at every level play in the style of the 1st team, thus ensuring a seamless progression for those deemed good enough. But when Stoke do it it just seems like child abuse (for both teams in a way.) A team full of giants who welly long diagonals at every opportunity and are very physical, though tbf I wouldn't say dirty. Sad thing is, a good few of them look as if they are well capable of playing decent football if allowed. Saying that, me sitting here criticising them when they've just hammered us looks like sour grapes doesn't it? I suppose I could argue that this sort of football isn't going to go away in this country, so it was a good example of just what they'll have to get used to at some stage or other and learn to adapt to it if they are to make it.

I really should be avoiding this OTT premature sort of shite, but I honestly think if he avoids injuries, keeps his head screwed on and keeps progressing, he'll be playing for the 1st team by the time he is 17. A tremendous talent and, although I don't mean it to sound like a criticism of them, he has a playing style that is possibly more suited to the English game than the likes of Suso, Teixeira, Nacho and Pacheco.

Just put the telly on to watch it but it's not on. Wish they'd make their fucking minds up about these games.

Can't remember who it was, but it wasn't Paul Durkin. In a home game against Leeds I think. Probably come to me later though someone else will know anyway.

There's quite a few Pogues covers that when you try to find out who did the original, instead of it being The Dubliners/Luke Kelly as you half expected, it just says "traditional" and there appears to be no definitive answer. Strange that, you'd think it wouldn't be that hard to find out where these songs came from.

We hoisted our colours to the top of the mast And for Greenland sailed away Brave boys etc. Never did find out who did the original of that.

Well the quality of coverage that I was moaning about in the Hull thread the other day was much improved today. No multiple replays of things that didn't matter anyway, no pointless, lingering shots of whoever is on the bench - always while the play is going on. This will be a great source of comfort to me as I contemplate the wreckage of a horrendous weekend of football. :no

Oh forgot to say........well done there young Reds! :smile:

Whoever is in charge of the way the reserve and youth games are covered might have noticed by now that the way they go about it is a fucking joke. Except they haven't. Every game is the same - let's linger on some totally irrelevant camera shot for about ten fucking minutes while the game is going on. How many times do we need to see Rodolfo Borrell and the gang sitting in the stands, or Steve Bruce's big fat head, or some player they've just mentioned who they then show ambling around for ages while we are racing away up the pitch off camera? Or the other thing with the replays. There is obviously some auto thing whereby if they decide to show a replay, and quite often said replay will be of some inconsequential load of bollocks that doesn't even need to be shown, it has to be shown 3 times from 3 different angles, again while the play is continuing elsewhere on the pitch. Oh look, we've just missed the entire build up to our second goal, only coming back on in time for us to see Jack Dunn take his goalscoring shot. I'm glad we get to see these games as I've found them really enjoyable for a good few years now. But ffs, can't they get something so basic right!

I was actually impressed with the 2nd half performance, though not in the way I'd have preferred. We came under pressure from a team that are supposedly highly rated judging by what they were saying, but I thought we stood up to it pretty well and they didn't create that much. At the same time our front players always looked capable of cutting them open on the break. Agree with the comment about these front players playing as individuals alot of the time though. If they really got their act together they'd be formidable, though I'm not seeing it with Sinclair as much as some of the others on here are. He shows flashes of ability but needs to get involved more and not spend too long on the ball either trying to do too much, or failing to make his mind up what to do next. For a 15 year old, Rossiter was incredible.

That's harsh really. It's true they strolled almost untested through the initial group stage, mainly because they are a very good team, but just as it's got more difficult, so their injury problems have increased, at every level of the youth set up too, making it harder to mix and match from the various age related groups. Being as there was a problem at centre half, I was wondering why Sokolic didn't play last night, another young lad who has looked talented prospect. It turns out he was injured too. Last night's team was thrown together with people playing out of position all over the place, and although the inclusion of Shelvey, Suso, Sterling and Wisdom should have strengthened it, the awful form of two of them actually made it worse. I'm assuming that was more or less the Mancs usual reserve team, which would explain why they looked so much more organised and "together" than our lads did. And it STILL took them till the 93rd minute to find a way of beating us despite us going down to 10 men. After a dodgy 7 or 8 minutes or so after the sending off, I thought our lads then played better with 10 men than they did with 11. Based on the many televised games I've seen the reserves play this season, I'd say that along with Spurs, they are a match for anyone and, a highly talented bunch when they can put out something like their strongest side. Sadly, it looks like they won't be able to prove it now though. Which is a shame.

Going back several years to when we DID have a good ladies team, that's exactly what Everton did to us and they massively improved on the back of it while we went downhill. So I'd like to say serves them right, but I actually don't give a fuck either way. :biggrin:

I'm generally in favour of teams walking off if any of their players are subjected to racist abuse, and until recently I would have been supportive if we'd been the ones to do it. Without it coming from the ref first, I'm not sure I'd want us to do it now though. Post Suarez, there are plenty, including in our own wonderful press, who would just throw it back in our faces and ask why we weren't so strong in condemnation of racism at the time. In fact, in their ongoing determination to do fuck all about it, I'd half expect UEFA themselves to take advantage of this and make us the guilty party, using the supposed poor behaviour of the club to mitigate themselves, and condemn us.

Probably because playing non stp football for God knows how long has seen him looking tired the last couple of games. That and the fact the battle for 6th place is obviously far more important than trying to win the only thing we possibly can this season, especially being as we already know cups mean fuck all.

I've just been on the one Everton forum I can tolerate (in small doses) to find out which Liverpool players played shit for England tonight. Only Johnson, they must be feeling generous, though I did receive confirmation of what deep down we all know is true - that Hodgson is a top manager and we were stupid to hound him out. :whatever:

We've got plenty of talented young players but that will be a hell of a test for them considering what happened last season. Obviously I'm not sure how many of the same players from Sporting will be involved, but didn't they also knock us out of some other youth tournament earlier this season? Or did I dream that?

Apologies if it's already been mentioned elsewhere, but the under 21s also won again today, 3-2 in a home game against Wolves. We needed not one, but 2 late goals to achieve this. You mightn't think so bearing in mind we beat them 5-1 away last time we played them, but during the 1st half of that game when they led 1-0, and in the very early stages of the 2nd half, they caused us more problems than most other teams we've played this season. They also drew their game in Kirkby I think so that today represents another good win for the lads. They'll have to improve though from what they've shown in both games so far at this elite level if they are to finish ahead of Spurs, who probably look like the biggest threat.

Someone should point it out to the insurance companies because they stlll seem to think having an "L" postcode entitles them to charge us the Earth for cover. And that particular example of unfairness isn't just based on that one set of figures either. There have been similar lists for a while.

He was. That's why he isn't on the list. ;) Alan Kennedy is though, perhaps a bit fortunately though I'd have to see a full list of ALL of his signings to judge properly. Don't mean that to sound too critical of Barney like, just that he was a bit of a loon of a player.

The press in this country have spent David Villa's entire career trying to sell him to someone in this country, usually Chelsea. When these rumours were at their height, Villa himself publicly commented on this matter more than once, saying in so many words that he had no intention of coming to England, basically because he thought English football was shit. The English press carried on regardless. Meanwhile David Villa still plays in Spain.

Should have asked him about the infamous "ice on the ball" excuse at Boro. Good job he's not playing tomorrow - if it goes ahead.