Y is for Yate, the kind of town upsets come from: The FA Cup, 2012/13

Ah, it's not as though you get a chance at this thread title every year. They're bottom of Southern League Division One South & West, and they beat current Conference table-toppers Newport County 3-1 away tonight to earn a tie at Cheltenham.

AFC Fylde V Accrington
Aldershot V Hendon
Barnet V Oxford Utd
Bishop's Stortford V Hastings Utd
Boreham Wood V Brentford
Bournemouth V Dag & Red
Braintree V Tranmere
Bristol Rovers V Sheff Utd
Burton Albion V Altrincham
Bury V Exeter
Cambridge City V MK Dons
Carlisle V Ebbsfleet
Chelmsford/East Thurrock V Colchester
Cheltenham V Yate
Chesterfield V Hartlepool
Coventry V Arlesey
Crewe V Wycombe
Doncaster V Bradford PA
Dorchester V Plymouth
Fleetwood V Bromley
Forest Green V Port Vale
Gillingham V Scunthorpe
Gloucester V Leyton Orient
Guiseley V Barrow
Hereford V Shrewsbury
Kidderminster V Oldham
Lincoln City V Walsall
Luton V Nuneaton
Mansfield V Slough
Met Police V Crawley
Morecambe V Rochdale
Northampton V Bradford
Portsmouth V Notts County
Preston V Yeovil
Rotherham V Stevenage
Southend V Stockport
Swindon V Macclesfield
Torquay V Hyde/Harrogate Town
Wrexham V Alfreton
York V Wimbledon

Tie of the round would obviously be Met Police vs Crawley, but Steve Evans is at Rotherham now. Ho ho ho.

Full name: Association Football Club Fylde
Nickname(s): The Coasters
Manager: Dave Challinor

http://www.thurrockgazette.co.uk/sport/10002584.Heartache_for_brave_Rocks_who_took_Chelmsford_City_to_the_wire/

chelmsford prevail in the first round of essex bashes

met police v crawley sounds fun. shame theyre not all bobbies any more though

It will be the Met’s first appearance in the First Round since 1993 when they also faced Crawley, then a non-league outfit. The Sussex side were too strong on that occasion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop's_Stortford_F.C.#Current_squad

conceivably the most entertaining single set of names in world football

Blair Sturrock, released by his own father.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUYwAS9X0zk

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/63886000/jpg/_63886317_refresh-2-split-template-62.jpg

David Beckham impersonator Jamie Gleeson (right) set for FA Cup tie. "A lot of the boys say I look like Rylan from X Factor. I don't really see it."

If Wimbledon and Franchise both win their replays, they're meeting in the second round. Now is the time to root for Cambridge City.

Preston North End v Gillingham

Bury v Southend United

Sheffield United v Port Vale

Carlisle United v AFC Bournemouth

Crewe Alexandra v Burton Albion or Altrincham

Northampton Town or Bradford City v Brentford

Luton Town or Nuneaton Town v Dorchester Town

Alfreton Town v Gloucester City or Leyton Orient

Oldham Athletic v Doncaster Rovers

Braintree Town or Tranmere v Chesterfield

Rotherham United v Notts County

Cheltenham Town v Hereford United

Guiseley or Barrow v Macclesfield Town

Accrington Stanley v Oxford United

Lincoln City or Walsall v Mansfield Town or Slough Town

Harrogate Town v Hastings United

Coventry City v Morecambe or Rochdale

Cambridge City or MK Dons v York City or AFC Wimbledon

Crawley Town v Chelmsford City

Fleetwood Town v Aldershot Town

Not a bit of it, that's the ultimate grudge match. Pity Wimbledon aren't at home.

And well done to the Rylan impersonator.

"the sort of occasion which the fa cup with budweiser specialises", says jon champion with gun to his head

It's on. I hadn't twigged that Wimbledon likely won't even recognise the fixture, so in reality probably nothing to see here.

The BBC piece on this carries a quote from an anonymous fan who supported Wimbledon and changed his allegiance to MK when the old club moved. I have trouble believing such a creature exists.

i'm going to go to koya on the day when that match is on just so that i can shout "come on UDON"

Why isn't the Milton Keynes derby match live on TV?

So that's where Alan Smith ended up. (Not that one) (Or that one)

MK is on TV somewhere?

on ITV apparently. listening on the radio

Thanks NV. I forgot ITV were allowed to show football.

it doesn't sound like TV gold tbh

i'd presumed afc would rather have lost this 20-0 than entertain a replay

Gah! Nearly a fairytale ending

radio commentator pointed out they've made 6 figures from this cup run already and the replay wd likely be televised so

gutting

Cunts

cunts

confirming that there's no place for justice in football, there

sincerely hope it's been afc singing "who are ya" and not mk

"been a lot of talk about theft in the run up to this fixture, mk have stolen a win here"

fuck off and die tyldesley, seriously

The Guardian's website is somehow 10 seconds ahead of the draw live on TV

Burnsley v Barnley

West Ham. Tasty.

sick to fuck of muamba at this stage tbh

lol arsenal swansea again, triffic

The Guardian's website is somehow 10 seconds ahead of the draw live on TV

Ah - this was not evidence of a rip in the space-time continuum - I forgot that I had rewound the live images to watch the Wimbledon goal again

That's a pretty good draw imo - lots of scope for good things to happen

Apparently the Wimbledon fans were singing to MK yesterday "Where were you when you were us?"

meh to 'real fans' tbh.

we've got cupset written all over us today

newcastle shat on by the seagulls

Crisp Hull on Twitter: "Surprised that former professional footballers and current members of the Newcastle technical staff Stevie Stone and Peter Beardsley aren't on the bench, they could do a job."

I'm going to head down to Upton Park and see if I can somehow get a ticket outside. Most likely I'll just miss the game on TV as I travel back empty handed.

Good luck. I'm sure there'll be a Hammers pub nearby where you can cheer your last-minute winner.

boom Luton 1-0

surprise surfuckingprise

lol Macclesfield 2 goals in 2 minutes to go 2-1 up

kieron dyer you prat what did we want a replay for

oh well morale up i guess

Stale out

not gonna happen, but feel obliged to say it

demba ba makes me wanna be a Chelsea fan

hahaha ... oh

it's a fleeting desire

That chorus of 'sign on, sign on' a few minutes ago - is that standard Utd repertoire, regardless of the opposition?

Ah, the third round of the FA Cup. The most magical weekend of the season. The walls of Upton Park rise high. The burger vans. The program sellers. The stalls selling half-and-half scarves (who the fuck buys them?). The crowd swells. Northern accents mingle with the cockneys. A man in a parka goes from group to group: "got any spares?"

But all he encounters are others looking for spares. They line up against the railings, Mancs, southerners, someone from Ireland... After 45 minutes the man in the parka thinks 'fuck it' and pushes his way through the throngs to get back onto the tube.

Xp IK - no, I don't really understand why it was being sung

Bad luck matey. Is the parka your MiB costume?

No, just my regular coat. I don't think many Hammers would feel intimidated by my presence.

might be glad not to have paid for this

has one of the west ham players not got a number on his shirt?

Shit, you've got to salute that

Just made myself slightly conspicuous in an East London hostelry with a one-man goon at the Van Persie goal. Time to go home.

I was so close

our dog almost shat himself when that went in, sorry for yelling old boy

he is just ridiculously good

first touch from van Pers was sublime, the cunt

Stale out

― soma dude (Noodle Vague), Saturday, January 5, 2013 4:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not gonna happen, but feel obliged to say it

― soma dude (Noodle Vague), Saturday, January 5, 2013 4:58 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ye of little faith

after the way they fannied about over McCarthy i was kind of amazed they moved so quickly over Stolbakken, especially when you consider the financial consequences of dropping out of the Prem are way bigger than those for dropping out of the Championship.

i assume Stale was financially a lot easier to get rid of, cos i don't think Moxey and Morgan think very much or know very much about anything outside of balance sheets

Swansea v Arsenal

Not as exciting as Stoke according to BBC min-by-min 'contributors'. I wouldn't know. I'm not watching.

As for this

1445:

Away from the FA Cup action, Tottenham winger Gareth Bale has been enjoying a productive Sunday afternoon on Twitter: "Out on the golf course today and have sunk a 45 ft putt on the 7th for birdie. Cue wild Alan Shearer style celebrations..."

What kind of twat has their phone turned on when on the golf course?

so this was the right match to start watching in the 81st minute

I should've switched on instead of just typing what game it was, huh?

Does anyone know when the replay is?

Norwich v Luton

Oldham v Mansfield/Liverpool

Maccelsfield v Wigan/Bournemouth

Derby v Blackburn

Hull/Orient v Barnsley

Boro v Aldershot

Millwall v Aston Villa

Leeds/Birmingham v Spurs

Brighton v Swansea/Arsenal

Palace/Stoke v Manchester City

West Ham/Man Utd v Fulham/Blackpool

Southend/Brentford v Chelsea

Reading v Sheffield United

Huddersfield v Leicester

QPR/West Brom v Sheffield Wed/ MK Dons

Bolton/Sunderland v Cheltenham/Everton

Finally a good draw for Brentford, if we can beat Southend. Other than that...meh. Leeds Spurs could be fun I guess?

Exodus Geohaghon

Exodus Geohaghon Exodus Geohaghon Exodus Geohaghon Exodus Geohaghon Exodus Geohaghon

p good draw imo, no big club clash tedium

wall/villa might be realness

southend/chelsea has a nice ring

palace/city has whiff of cupset

qpr/wednesday has 90s frisson

brighton v swansea/arse the farmers market extravaganza

do teh bees feel any particular way about chelsea or are u saving all your love for rangers

It's QPR hatred for me (Quarter Pound of Rubbish more like, lol), but others claim Fulham are the main enemy. There's not really any substantial feeling towards Chelsea, other than them being premier league shites.

aw and there i was thinking the one thing we could all agree on was nobody giving the slightest toss about fulham

studge almost seemed agreeable for a sec there after scoring, and then he did a dance

how's jack robinson doing

just following the live text, don't have espn

xxp Yeah, we had a few decent matches back when they were shit. Then they were bought by Al Fayed and we were bought by Ron Noades ;_;

When I was at university up north in the early 90s there was a Brentford fan called Nick the Greek (probably not his real name). One time a whole load of his mates came up from London (probably because Brentford were playing the local club) and then spent the whole evening in the college bar singing about 'shitting on the Fulham once again'.

for goodness' sake lads

history's greatest monster
http://cadfael.tv/image/src/1357493038961.gif

Bren might've given him a rest ere now, he keeps getting trapped in that patch of quicksand

Whoever that woman is they keep cutting to has a half-and-half scarf on

youngest CEO in English football dontcha know

and the chairman's wife

feel a bit sorry for mansfield, better team in the second half

have to lol at suarez - he has shat into the fa cup itself

to be fair, I believe that's considered to be a conciliatory gesture in his culture

last 10 minutes of Swans-Nal was awesome, Mansfield was rightly punished for not taking the game to the shitehouse that played them, feel like there might've been a game after that but got too mullahed to remember

Why has no-one ever called them Nal before?

A-Nal

Need an A'nal-Scunt half-and-half scarf, please fa cup draw let this happen

saw some West Ham-Man U scarves on the telly yesterday, what kind of literal bell-end ????

Is that bad, then?

i just don't get it, it's one thing having Scottish club/English club scarves but anybody who "supports" two top flight clubs from the same country is a bet-hedging glory-hunting tool imo

I believe the local party line is "meh to 'real fans' tbh."

Hedging bets and hunting glory sound like good ideas in the abstract, don't they?

god no

i mean we probly need a "real fans" thread and god knows i'm anti realness but football is a sickness you can't control and if it doesn't inspire as much hate in you as love then you don't really get it

You're right, and you're wrong. This is like a scab in my soul that I can't stop picking at.

that's what scabs are for :)

Also nutrition, tbf.

I've never bought a half'n'half/friendship scarf. It amuses me to see the hawkers attempting to sell them outside the ground for ages afterwards - like they honestly believe someone will suddenly decide to cough up £5 for a "Celtic <3 Jeunesse Esch" scarf two years after the game.

Never understood scarf swapping either.

The Exeter City / Brazil one warms my heart.

But not my neck: I bought one but gave it away to someone who couldn't make the game.

My dad bought a Celtic/Porto one in Seville, then gave it to his local friendly publican when I was all "they're diving cheating pricks who did us out of a trophy, why the fuck would you want a scarf with their name on it!"

Can you get Rangers-Celtic ones?

I have never seen one.

I remember photos from a shop window in Ayr that was bedecked in Rangers/Ayr scarves for the "friendly semi-final" - someone put a brick through it.

friendly final, that should be

Can you get Rangers-Celtic ones?

On a par with 'Celtic <3 Jeunesse Esch' these days

Oi, Jeunesse Esch is still a top flight team!

ESPN have issued a statement regarding the comments Jon Champion made about Suarez.

“We take our responsibility to deliver the highest standards of coverage to our viewers. ESPN’s editorial policy is for commentators to be unbiased and honest, to call things as they see them. Inevitably this can involve treading a fine line on occasion, especially in the heat of the moment. Comments during the Mansfield v Liverpool match caused offence where none was intended and we have spoken to our commentator about this incident.”

recall reading an anecdote years ago - which I've never been able to otherwise corroborate - about 20th century celeb Jimmy Savile running the Glasgow marathon in a half-and-half Old Firm top. the result of this being both sets of fans shouting abuse at him in equal measure

yeah "cheat" has this weird distorted power in football vernacular, it seems like anyone speaking officially as it were can allude to it or use synonyms but it's essentially taboo as an accusation. Townshend used it to describe a player (non-UK team obv) in a Europa League game earlier this season and it stuck in my head in spite of neither of the teams playing doing so

Anyone who knew about scottish football would never have made that mistake xp

so basically that is a good illustartion of the difference between say, jimmy saville and the savvy gemmill

I think he presented Top of the Pops with it on! I've seen the photo, not sure I can stomach googling for it.

Come on, surely you don't hate Rangers that much?

it's not really even a case of football semantics with champion though, he spat it out with the full intention

nevertheless he has a right to do so and espn are pussyholes

quite funny how flustered his co-commentator got afterwards

also i can't say i've ever had an opinion about j champion (besides thinking he's pretty ok idk?) so adopting a vintage bazza davies harrumph in his dotage can only be a good look

WARNING contains Savile:

http://i44.tinypic.com/20ivzsx.jpg

He looks like a consultant mid-taking his stethoscope and suit off

Anyone who knew about scottish football would never have made that mistake xp

― Albert Crampus (NickB), Monday, 7 January 2013 19:34 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

so basically that is a good illustartion of the difference between say, jimmy saville and the savvy gemmill

― Albert Crampus (NickB), Monday, 7 January 2013 19:34 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

g-d nickb is on some sort of ting with the paranomasia

bossing it like the jimmy sav to snoball's stuart hall

yeah i loved that line, a beaut

nick b, ladies and gents

if a player gives away a foul he's a cheat, fuck this preciousness or somehow preferring one type over another, every cunt's a cheat

i think maybe TV companies don't want to be rude about these guys that they want access to on the reg, is the thing

this is way more about caving to the liverpool fans on the blogs and the 606 and the controversial microblogging site twitter

my dad just told me Alan Green "didn't see the incident" for some reason

espn may be pussyholes but champion nonetheless deserves a sonning

their coverage is mostly dreadful

i dunno tho, because in fairness they never call cheats cheats unless they're foreign or if the offence was a bit foreign (didn't actually hurt anyone)

Cheating implies getting away with something - fouls aren't cheating, neither are handballs on the line, as there are clear guidelines for referees on the ensuing protocol

Diving and winning a free-kick is cheating, but that's because the referee's action does not follow deservedly or according to the rules

i'm not sure that i would accept that you have to get away with cheating for it to be cheating.

And even if you were to escape punishment, why ought that arbitrary outcome reflect any better or worse on you?

Let's take it here:
Luis Suárez controversy: 10 incidents that have caused outrage

Diouf! Brentford! QPR?!

Last night's Brentford game sounded like a great match. We were very very good - finally a squad which could get us out of League One. Don't think I'll be able to get a ticket for the Chelsea match but at least it's on tv. It's been seven years since we beat Sunderland in the fourth round - The Best Match Of My Life (via lower-league fan's distorted view of what constitutes success).

http://cadfael.tv/image/src/1358372655956.gif

A splendid advert for the game

I popped along to the free range section at The Emirates tonight (where even the little milk portions are organic). I haven't enjoyed a game as much as that second half for years - was roaring with laughter for much of it. Goals are all very well, but a team banging on the door and finding myriad ways to miss is a more choice pleasure imo. The magic of the cup I say.

It's just a pity it was Arsenal who finally scored, a Swansea suckerpunch would've been perfect.

Villa ship another from a setpiece, big Dan Shittu is your man. I assumed this'd be on telly but I can't find it anywhere. Maybe it's like when there's a really bad injury and they've decided to spare us Villa's death throes.

It was only moved because of the Lewisham A&E protest march tomorrow

So it was. Also the 'Lambo out' march in Brmingham tomorrow.

cuh at first i was anguished that i'd mistaken this big dan vs big benteke ultimate titan battle for tomorrow but not only has the lambo thrown in the towel before it started, it's not even on telly. fuck the fa cup

quite into listening on the radio now though, it's been a long while

is anyone listening to this...? the millwall fans are doing some sort of endless wall of noize drone piece it's amazing

Got it on now - ululating women/sitar bonng conspicuous by its absence tbh.

Listening on the radio is great though, yeah - perfect if there was some kind of Claridge Filter.

always been a big fan of the old "UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

WALL

uhhhhhhhhhhh...

Awesome exchange just now:

Claridge: Where do Villa go from here? Where do. They go. From here?
Commentator: uh, well where they go is for a game against Newcastle that grows bigger with every passing defeat...
Claridge (irate): NO BUT WHERE DO THEY GO FROM HERE IN TERMS OF PERFORMANCES??

even on radio my heart soars at every big dan clearance into orbit

full time, let 'rockin all over the world' begin

i had bbc london on, no schoolboy claridge errors for me :)

Oh to be in South Bermondsey tonight

lol at Colin Murray laying the doom & gloom, heavy weather, motorway traffic on thick

lol at the BBC sending separate commentary teams to that game, then

i've got r's fan leroy rosenior losing his profesh cool with "this is great for us"

i assume 5live is not currently discussing how "james henry is an annoying player"

No, it's Colin Murray discussing things with Claridge, so off it went. Got Bitches Brew on now.

fuck me it wasn't leroy rosenior at all, it was his exact soundalike PAUL MORTIMER :O

i think even imago might not remember him

"this is great for us"

You're telling me it was former Villa player Paul Mortimer saying this instead?!

lol apparently so

think he'll get away with it on local radio and only after 12 appearances though

He was our ladies' coach for a bit, I think. Like hell he's forgotten!

no way he would forget that

Look I'm mailing u tomorrow ok

jesus

lol that wasnt supposed to be a slight

i was trying to invent something about the misunderstandings and sexual tension that might occur between middle aged retired fitba bro and 'lady footballers'

like 'how do u make a film about ennui without being boring' its not easy to describe chauvinsim without affirming it

Vincent Kompany goes off injured. 10 minutes later Mancini and Platt have still not decided who to send on in replacement yet, and have even called Kolarov over to see what he thinks.

"come on kola just try again with rodwell please he's not that bad honest"

"no"

i genuinely forgot Rodwell had gone there

ugh

Edwin van der Sar ‏@vdsar1970
“@thomaswebb1985: @vdsar1970 you a Berbatov fan?He's one of the best footballers in the Premiership in my opinion.”Strange player and person

genuinely forgot rosicky ever existed

"oop, mistake by ferdinand"... you know the rest

christ

welcome to the post ryan nelsen era

four

Cracker from Giroud. Looked really clumsy, but wasn't.

Woo! Actual diving header for Brighton.

Luton take the lead at Norwich. They're non-league now, right?

Indeed they are, as no doubt trailed everywhere all week.

Well done and that, but I can't help feeling underwhelmed when the shock is performed by a team who've been big within memory. That's not Sutton 1989 imo. Similarly Leeds beating Man Utd was about the least remarkable way of a third division side pulling off that particular feat.

don't really think of Luton as a non-league team tbh, in fact in my mind they still have a plastic pitch

also what IK said

half the Conference is recent-memory League clubs nowadays

same feeling i had about Macclesfield-Wigan

True, part of me sees those two as rough equivalents. And djm otm - banning away fans, ID cards and Wembley glory are also what Luton bring to mind, rather than stands without banking or the club offices being a portakabin.

lol rooney he is awful

entire fulham team at gk practice all week obv

bizarre bit of pantomime from Clattenburg there

Bizarre decision by Clattenberg

lol Redknapp's post-match interview where he just listed every starting player today one by one. it was a bit like "in 1983, no-one died..."

Did he admit to the incident with the pigeon?

rooney is amazing

What was the line-up? I'm imagining him picking a full team of scapegoats purely to bring about that press conference - Kenny, Bosingwa, Barton, Bosingwa, Cisse, etc. Manager: M Hughes.

he's only two games in to his traditional five game warm-up period tbf

“I gave them a chance because some of them have been knocking at my door saying they should play and with others I’ve been told they’re good players. Well I gave them a chance and they blew it.

“You know what? It answers questions. Not for me – I knew the answers. But it maybe answers questions for those who didn’t know.

“People think they should be playing and their agents think they should be getting a chance. Well they had their chance.

“I’ve said all along we need to improve. That’s why I’ve traipsed all over Europe trying to sign players.

“I’ll go home with the raving hump. I didn’t pick a team to lose, I picked a team that should have been able to beat MK Dons.”

alright Clattenburg, knock it off

Green; Traore Ben-Haim Ferdinand Fabio; Park (c) Faurlin Granero Mackie; Bothroyd Campbell

none of these cunts were gonna play city on tuesday anyway

lol I bet he talked up Ben Haim though

Not exactly classic viewing on ESPN tonight. Both teams are playing as if it's a friendly, the crowd appear to be asleep, all the action came in the first five minutes. I can only assume Clattenberg got the fear about giving two penalties for handball in quick succession because it was about as nailed on as it could have been.

Clattenberg actually trying to explain the decision to the Fulham players too

still a cunt

Giggs should only be allowed to play in the cup now

rooney shocking there

Words of 'wisdom' from the commentary team: apparently Sutton knocked Coventry out of the cup in 1987. The only flaw in that argument is that Coventry won the cup in 87.

Earlier on Burley suggested Giggs had been around so long he must have started shortly after the Chelsea v Man Utd final of 94, when he'd already been a first team regular for three years by that point.

Burley is a clown

Wouldn't burley have played in that final? Having trouble placing his career tbh, except for the most embarrassing red card ever at World Cup 98.

burley is a fuckin eejit

ref having a blinder here, rooney goal disallowed because chicarito being clocked beforehand somehow turned into a free out

Yeah, Burley did play in that final, that's why they were talking about it.

how could we forget?

Literally shaking with rage here: but for Clattenberg's outrageous officiating that would have been six. One word: corruption. Etc, etc

it's been even more blatant than usual in recent weeks

giant bottle of budweiser?

Kharine; Clarke, Kjeldberg, Johnsen, Sinclair; Wise, Newton, Burley, Peacock; Stein, Spencer

Clearly the potential was always there, just a pity Bentford didn't have idea first.

next saturday at half five on ESPN - Fulham vs Manchester Utd

that road to Wembley: Barnet (replay), Wednesday (replay), Oxford, Wolves, Luton ffs. Chance has been cruel to us.

next saturday at half five on ESPN - Fulham vs Manchester Utd

The man in the parka is thinking of making a(n almost certainly fruitless) trip to Craven Cottage to try and blag a ticket.

FA Cup sponsors Budweiser will have been delighted with the 142 mentions of Barclays on ESPN's cup coverage this evening.

I have cancelled my ESPN subscription mostly because Craig Burley is a cunt.

Their Scottish football coverage in the upcoming months includes one Celtic SPL match and five Scottish 3rd Division matches.

They get the shit end of the EPL pickings too, once Sky have set their 38 Super Sundays.

I get the feeling the rise of City has helped espn out quite a bit, because they're not really big box office but there's still some kind of duty to allocate them a slot on most of the big Sunday bills - means espn can usually rely on getting Arsenal or similar now, whereas they must've been struggling a bit before.

ESPN are just obsessed with Annan Athletic, huh?

they got excited about being able to bid for coverage, jumped the alphabetic gun

rafa is the rafa that just keeps on giving

What's all this then?

Griffin Park looks great I must say

woah

this is all the players' masterplan to get another manager they don't like sacked right?

ffs NOW you do it Nando?

still time for a ballboy to be a hero

ref's read the script

best competition

lol wtf do they make of that on fox sports?

:D

Yeah congrats, that was excellent

Behind them twice already this might be good

My sounds not too clear, what does jimmy saville do?

Lol high line. Fine finish

Naughton no better on the right then. Get rid.

Can one have a 17 minute nightmare cos clint dempsey

If feckless aggression was as useful at school as it is in english football what would michael brown be professor of

Cheers IK, that was a great match. Turnbull was hopeless. I thought he should've got booked when he picked up a backpass but I'm not sure the rules allow for it. If he'd tried to play it with his feet he'd have lost the ball. Torres is so broken. Such a blatant penalty for Chelsea at the end but oh well. I thought Douglas was our best player.

ha fair play to them

pitiful stuff from us at the back and up front today, really, but two classy finishes from leeds

i'm not kidding about dempsey he is an absolute joke up there as a striker

can feel the relief from here tbh, I could tell that the unflaky, efficient Spurs we've been seeing of late hasn't been sitting quite right

well at last clint

Much as I like Dempsey, I have to agree - something about putting him in a good, fast side has turned him into Peter Crouch. So glad you beat us to him in the summer.

ha xp

there're times we play a slower buildup, take it, bring it in, hold it up, see who's around you- sigurdsssssson and dempsey are ok, they're not playign wide they're just a bit out to the side, don't have to cross it just rerecycle it centrally.

but if they're put into the middle or expected to play it quickly, oh no

another fuckin crazy one-on-one for leeds ffs

clint keano

ah jesus i don't want to blame the young lad but ffs put that away obika

this looks like it

evidences how badly we need a striker tbh

well deserved leeds

ah could the ref not have waited for that shot from 70 yards to go in before blowing up?

it would have been a fitting end.

That didn't take long.

way to start!

ah could the ref not have waited for that shot from 70 yards to go in before blowing up?

― bully4u.co.uk (darraghmac), Sunday, 27 January 2013 15:57 (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

ikr what a prick

Youssouf Yacoub M'Changama (born August 29, 1990) is a French-born Comorian footballer who currently plays for Oldham Athletic.[2]

He made his Latics, and Football League, debut as a substitute against Yeovil Town, on March 10, 2012, making him the first Comorian ever to play for the club.[4]

never eard of it mate

comorian, french, mexican, south african, aussie polaks x 3 in wesolowski/cisak/tarkowski, jose baxter, "matt smith"

what a world

and lee fucking croft

look at the state of him

keeper'll be disappointed with that

he should be.

if Chelsea come out of today looking good

lol that free kick fail was superb

oh goal!

this is getting funny.

I'm not getting a stream to stick for this, fortunately

Stream? It's on actual telly.

ITV Engurland or on http://www.itv.com/ xp

Watch itv? Steady on.

Sterling's really not ready to compete at League One level

It's not like it was a full-strength side; Agger, Reina and Johnson all missing

the most prestigious competition in world football

I don't know how they managed to make a boring draw out of that

lolling so hard picturing the luton chairman as that draw was made

savouring the magic of the cup, ooh maybe united maybe chelsea away, nice little earner

nope sorry, millwall at home and a one billion pound bill from the police if anyone even makes it out alive from the rubble

In my mind Luton are the bigger club too, the romance is all with the 'wall

I missed everything today, turned on the radio while driving literally about five seconds before full-time in the Oldham match and then heard the non-event of a draw. United at home against Reading is about as boring as it could possibly be - I look forward to the cup as something to offer a bit of variety, away ties at clubs you never normally play, but we keep getting other Premier League teams all the time.

Re: yesterday's comments on the Luton giantkilling, it's true it doesn't really feel like non-league team knocking out a top club - they must have been in the same division about five years ago? I keep forgetting Luton aren't actually in the league any more. In fact the Conference Blue Square Thing has got loads of clubs in it that I still think are league teams, while the Fourth Division one above it has got lots of clubs I think are non-league.

Luton v Millwall means we're basically going to get endless repeats on local news for the next few weeks of the riots in 1985.

http://i.imgur.com/zzLL53S.jpg

dressing room's the other way thudd

Full name Mathieu James Smith[1]
Date of birth 7 June 1989 (age 23)
Place of birth Birmingham, England
Height 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Playing position Forward

2011– Oldham Athletic 52 (6)

lol no way

excellent

Brentford player says Ashley moaned about other Chelsea players. SERIOUSLY

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/28/brentford-chelsea-pitch-tension

I'm not getting a sense of whether you approve of the Rafa era.

always mumbling something, always mumbling stuff quietly

Brimful of ashers

When torres got the equaliser he was doing some hushing of bfc fans. Cole was the first Chelsea player to get to him and was obv telling him to give it a rest. Being told not to act the cunt by Ashley Cole.

Nah fans dish it out should learn to take it as well. Hush away nando.

Ha I'm not protecting the delicate sensibilities of our fans, just lol at torres getting so obviously rattled by league one pisstakers.

Haha, yah I see that. Euro 2012 Golden Boot Winner sure showed the Griffin Park faithful by ensuring a Chelsea victory replay.

I've been looking at Brentford history, surprised to see your lads as top-six fixtures before the war intervened and ruined everything. Clearly Nando still feeling an inferiority complex from that era.

Yeah, we used to be somebody. New owner and a plan for a new stadium mean things are looking up. In my lifetime I've seen us lose in the league one playoffs five times.

Ah the QPR route, promising stuff

Oh, don't. The technicalities of the ownership are too complicated for me but it does seem to be getting done the right way. New owner is notably not a dick, and it's all about 'championship in five years' not epl in two.

Would you want a new stadium? I loved the look of Griffin Park on Sunday.

GP is great and obviously there's a massive sentimental attachment. But it runs at a massive loss, and there's no hospitality or possibility of non-football activity. It's a 10 million pound bit of land which gets used 30 days a year. New stadium on brownfield site will have hotels, flats, offices, and 'commercial opportunities'.

Writing that down is making me think oh Christ it will all go wrong because it's actually impossible to run a football club as a going concern isn't it. But it's clear that staying at GP = no club in 5 or 10 years, and I trust the current lot in charge more than I did when ron noades had us 10 years ago.

It is possible to run a football club as a going concern, but it's very unusual, and it's virtually impossible to progress through the leagues if you run as a going concern, because everyone else is playing to different rules. It sucks.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2270928/Kevin-Friend-Gambler-denied-500-000-windfall-football-accumulator-bet-referee-blowing-whistle.html

this story has gotta be made up right? oh man.

Friend shd've been disciplined for the sheer wankerishness of that whistle anyway

they don't help themselves

1-0 Kazim-Kazim.

There's always the Champions League

concentrating on the Europa League surely oh hang on

All credit to townsend there, that was quality

Rafa, truly you are the patron saint of lulz

Ian Wright's attempt to become a Serious Pundit has made him even worse then when he just played everything for lulz.

Millwall v Blackburn
Man Utd/Reading v Middlesbrough/Chelsea
Man City v Barnsley
Oldham/Everton v Wigan

Good draw. Looking forward to Reading-Middlesbrough.

wtf

Everton not so hot w/o Timmay

Closing of the circle. March 2002 - similarly dreadful first half in Cup qf vs Boro (three goals in a few minutes), Smith out, Moyes in. End of an era.

(Last time I posted on ILX after a WTF 0-3 first half was Istanbul. MAYBE JUST MAYBE).

maybe not eh

Really hope the final will be something, anything, other than a grim all-Manchester affair.

Actually City v Chelsea would possibly be worse.

Wigan beating Chelsea in the final would be nice.

The kickback against moyes has been vv sudden tbh

It's bubbled up occasionally iirc but this time, when they've been doing well and just dropped off a bit is new. Not unlike when the Villa fans turned on O'Neill when they were coasting to sixth, maybe? In fact possibly exactly like that.

And look at them now..

Don't think you can blame villa's current predicament on the fans getting fed up with that cunt tbh, even if their reasons for doing so were completely wrong.

Getting rid of an underperforming manager is no guarantee of success but inactivity can be a flail for the soul

I dont necessarily accept either of the cases offered as underperforming, but then i couldve gladly throttled st jol in his last 18 months so

Villa didn't get rid of O'Neill as far as I remember. Thought he quit when told he'd have to significantly lower the wage bill.

scolding midtable club supporters for not having "perspective" is some patronising self-serving top 4 bullshit. have fun now but don't forget your place in the natural order of things, tut tut these deluded ingrates trying to break their glass ceiling. funnily enough you seem to hear it most from the clubs locked in a neverending purgatory eating united's dust

Oh yeah

It came as a surprise at the time from outside the club, but istr many villa supporters not being too upset about his leaving, which tbf veered towards the constructive dismissal from lerner

either side of it will argue theyve been vindicated since, but the rebound relationships sure have been unhealthy

Hope to fuck thats not aimed at any spurs supporters you jinxing bastatd xp

Stoke and Pulis will be on this soon if they're not already.

Pulis well on it

hints of curbishley/charlton about that except pulis an outright cunt and stoke can dissolve into the pit tomorrow for all i care

even before the accounts came in villa fans were entitled to criticise o'neill if they perceived chances missed to crack on and progress. working your socks off to get into europe only to play weakened sides when you're there? the fuck kinda life is that?

likewise moyes' sides have consistently fluffed their lines or gone on barren spells in ways that money difficulties does not excuse. probably also not a coincidence that dissatisfaction has risen after moyes himself floated the prospect he mightve outgrown the club

and with curbs i don't care what anyone says, there came a point where he simply lacked the imagination not to settle for his lot. just cos dowie came along doesn't mean there wasn't a laudrup somewhere

Thought he quit when told he'd have to significantly lower the wage bill

How did this add up to constructive dismissal btw? It sounds to me like 'being asked to do his job'.

Hope to fuck thats not aimed at any spurs supporters you jinxing bastatd xp

― i don't have to be fair, i'm *right* (darraghmac), Sunday, 10 March 2013 12:44 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

nah spurs are being proactive

imagine instead if you'd stuck with harry for the next 5 years, cries for help unanswered as everyone smarmily reminds you of that one cl run and who do spurs think they are anyway

Isn't this syndrome largely about complete, numbing tedium? At least Harry takes you on a journey; anyone would get a bit bored with Pulis or whoever taking you to the same three-place window every year, in basically the same way.

Its a specific brand of frustration displayed by supporters that finish 5th - 9th. Can't help to overdo when you had it so near. More bcz there is a 'top 4' due to the format of CL more than anything that creates this env where you can tip over from questioning decisions to poison.

Something specific about Villa during those years w/O'Neill though, can't put a finger on it right now.

the £50m+ spent on championship-level shite i would imagine

Lerner sold a lot of talent and o'neill spent a lot of that on shite and momentum that was mainly down to underperformance of other teams stalled

If I had similar funds to utilise when I play as villa on fm 13 I'd win the champs league. FACT

Ooh this looks quite good actually. Lovely goal.

Hey this is a game

Hazard's was great.

Valencia has been shocking.

yeah, Nani going off for him basically cost Utd the game

Has Ferguson learned nothing?

So that cup draw ensures one less team in the Europa through league position yeah? Just 5th place now I think.

Assuming Chelsea and City finish top 4.

Does that mean it's Wigan v Blackburn/'wall?

Yah! A half empty Wembley awaits.

Would they really make Wigan & Blackburn travel to Wembley? Of course they would.

you revealed yourself as a pessimist btw

More games for city and chelsea pls

Yah! A half empty Wembley awaits

Do you reckon? I'm not saying it will be full, but it's not as if those clubs get to go to Wembley very often. I wouldn't be surprised if loads of 'fans' crawl out of the woodwork for a one-off.

Maybe he meant the other one?

Man city?

I heard Dave Whelan on the radio after the Everton game claiming he had dreamed they had beaten Everton and drew Blackburn in the semi.

Chelsea are the only possible stumbling block to one of Wigan/Blackburn/Millwall in Europe next season. o_O

all 3 of them have been in Europe before iirc

Blackburn won the league, Millwall were in a playoff position and Wigan could have done Intertoto but didn't.

Currently Wigan are in the bottom three and both Blackburn and Millwall are in the bottom half of the Championship. It's not really the same thing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/mar/11/chelsea-fixture-pile-up
I can't help feeling this bit was a bit gratuitous: But that may be opposed by Rafael Benítez, their interim manager

They were leading yesterday with Rafa raising handshake storm, by not having his hand shaken. Bloke gets a bad press imo.

considering he makes their job so fuckin easy for them i agree tbh

I love how Rafa made a point of telling everyone how nasty Fergie didn't shake his hand before the game then when asked why he didn't offer to shake hands afterwards said "I was celebrating with my players" like no-one's ever won drawn a game before.

Those players won't celebrate themselves you know

Nani desperately needs to wake up

Welbeck is the only one playing at the moment

Terrific goal from Ba.

Like Hughes against Oldham (but for the wrong team)

Gah. I was boggling at why the guardian saw fit to start their mbm at lunchtime; no idea it was an early kick-off.

A summary for you IK: first half hour United comfortably the better team without ever looking like scoring, Nani at his worst, Chelsea then woke up and had a good effort saved by De Gea's feet, start of the second half Chelsea chip it over the defence for Ba to score a great leaping-volley-lob thing

it's been a terrible terrible game

I was about to ask if this was worth switching on for but really there's nothing exciting about the concept at all.

Thanks. I suppose I'd probably prefer Utd to win this one, but there's pleasure to be had whoever loses.

Oof, that's a save

it's livening up a bit now. Cech with an incredible save from Hernandez

I just celebrated a goal then: it took my mind quite a while to process the fact the ball hadn't actually gone in. Nani is having a truly terrible game.

decent shout for save of the season imo

and yeah I completely forget this was on

Young on Saturday was a contender for worst performance by a Utd winger this season (and there's a lot of competition) but Nani has raised his game today

A timely substitution

def want chelsea to win this and stay in as many competitions as possible - the priority has to be seeing them miss out on a CL place

p much every Utd player seems to be having an actively poor game this half

pathetic

The ref could have added on another 20 minutes there and we'd still never have looked like scoring. Van Persie's not been the same player since that Swansea guy booted the ball into his head. I fear he'll retire at the end of the season.

de gea had a good match but other than that, fucking hell

Rafa cup double hero imo

what was tyldesley on about saying rio ferdinand's always been booed at chelsea and that it's nothing new

It's traditional, apparently, and entirely football-related. Presumably the same is true for his brother.

excellent play from Kone

^^

Wembley semis still a disgusting idea

I'm watching with the sound off and seeing a lot of argy-bargy in the crowd, what's going on (besides 'Millwall')?

the best day of football in recent memory, that's what

http://i.minus.com/ibcsJ0M6cQk7KJ.gif
http://i.minus.com/iuogWp2MFQmdG.gif

lolling so hard thinking about the crafty hat thief bloke's reaction when he gets home

the camera was on him for like a full minute with ray stubbs giving damning live commentary on his every move and facial expression

i bet he'll panic and try and bury the hat in the garden or something

look at him. giddy as a school girl.

there was a later 2-second clip of the hat thief where he took it out, showed it to a mate, grinned like a 3 year-old and returned it to its spot

it was the funniest thing I've seen all month

I concur. idgi, Bertie Wooster done it and everyone was all 'what a jolly wheeze!'; now this oik's going to the big house

Those two old boys in front of him, I bet they committed much worse on a weekly basis in their day

Wooster was fined £5 tbf

we'll all be sorry when it turns out he's a male stripper innocently taking in the game before his shift later in the evening

2 Hamilton Accies youngsters in the FA Cup Final :)

http://i.imgur.com/xgYRDS8.jpg

Best angle for that

Cmon guys this is cracking

"Torres hasn't touched the ball but he has an effect just being there"

I only got in at 2-0 but that was a fantastic Demba Ba goal.

City are visibly shitting themselves now.

Another Chelsea goal would be nice, and no more. We want their fixture list nice and congested.

Oh holy shit the wembley announcer

itv commentary the greatest cunts obv, inane grammatically negligible tactically ignorant morons whose only challop chops are earned suggesting snidely that kompany is a nicer boy than that tevez and fans that arent in their seats on time are the ruination of football, townsend is clearly long since categorised as analyticus inferior inferior but the cunt aside him is channelling a disapproving little england spinster blyton dormouse and instant death would be appropriate and merited

That announcer is fuck-awful.

What prompted that? (amn't watching)

He screamed the scorer WWE intro style but he is english and this is football and this is a neutral stadium ffs

Two great efforts there at either end. Game this open from the start btw, decisions from city in final third

omg aguero

have been v poor

lol

omg aguero lol, luiz throwin elbow tho tbf

it's a fucking disgrace

Townsend, did he claim toure was porked as he hit a shot

is "analyticus inferior inferior" really any way to speak of the official top irish soccer player of the last 50 years

Dont fuckin start

I heard "Borked" which would indicate a familiarity with Supreme Court nomination history I would not have expected.

final might be watchable for once

a yaya toure running through a substandard defence, forever

It being itv means i have to watch norn irn ads for eheuuuuws insurance and all the other mickey mouse businesses that pay 50p for the coverage

They don't even show it in Scotland, count yourself lucky

ch 853 on virginmedia

LOL Rafa. Even crap Chelsea managers usually win the FA Cup.

Leaving everyone's favourite racist on the bench and then playing a back four like that is the purest driven trolling.

we may never know if the conspiracy theories were true

terry is 33 and could barely run when he was 25, on recent form hes not much more than a carragher type franchise realness totem

the problem wasn't the central defence so much as naive fullbacks and weak protection from midfield, city had terriotorial advantage for almost all the first hour

Central defence wasn't the problem but Rafa did have a non-naive fullback, Ivanovic, playing at CB. They've done that for a lot of the season but not against a front line that good. Terry isn't a great option either but it's hard to believe they'd have been less solid with him in there.

Not much anyone can do about the lack of protection in midfield with the current squad. Amazing that a club with as much money as Chelsea can appear so threadbare in so many areas.

azpilicueta is now their regular rightback, he's a spain international

still not really convinced by ramires or luiz, the former is somewhere between a central midfielder and a carrilero type scuttler along the inside right like he used to play under dunga

i want to like luiz because of his skill and devillment but he is just a bit too stupid to ever become reliable without a thiago silva level titan next to him

Amazing that a club with as much money as Chelsea can appear so threadbare in so many areas.

We've got something like £80m worth of players out on loan

Ramires is a very good player but a really awkward fit within that midfield, which is a weird fudge of Mourinho-era cloggers and nifty posession players that just doesn't gel together at all, with two world class wingers on either side. Luiz is indeed too stupid to ever be a top-quality CB but he might still become a very good central midfielder, probably better than Mikel at any rate.

Millwall club captain Paul Robinson says the violence at their FA Cup semi-final will damage the club's image.

No-one likes us, we do care

i found it endearing tbh

What does he think the club's image is?

The FA has confirmed the kick-off time for Manchester City v Wigan Athletic
Manchester City v Wigan Athletic
The FA Cup with Budweiser
The Final
5.15pm, Saturday 11 May 2013
Wembley Stadium
Live on ITV and ESPN

savages

There isn't even an epl programme that day, it had the 3pm slot to itself.

is there an FA rule banning live games at 3 oclock kicks offs? They might have brought one in when the tv started showing games all the time.

more likely however its for tv audiences home and abroad?

get home in time to have th telly on

i can't remember the last time i watched the FA cup final

is there an FA rule banning live games at 3 oclock kicks offs?

There is but it's for the Premiership, not the FA Cup.

I blame the Saturday night Champions League Final for this btw. Are they doing this in response to pressure from US TV or something?

Even bearing that in mind you'd have thought there'd be a bigger audience in Asia.

they did it last year, it's as much at ITV's request as anything iirc, they want it to blend into their evening schedule

hmm budweiser FA Cup ? most likely american sponsorship demands it but yeah nv is right about ITV too. It suits everyone except fans.

the architects of the budweiser fa cup would like to remind you that the correct nomenclature is

the fa cup sponsored by budweiser

The last time I watched an FA Cup Sponsored By Budweiser match on ESPN they managed to mention Barclays four times as often as Budweiser.

It's for domestic tv aiui, far higher viewing figures if it's not up against holding wives' coats while they look at fancy things

What could be fancier than Gary Caldwell's heid in all its glory at 3pm on a May Saturday?

'I was stupid', says horse punch man

"Some of my best friends are animals"

abide with me was crap

im going to watch this, for the first time since chelsea vs united

I came here to say just that.

Is dave whelan the wigan chairman

Ugh these cunts cant sing

Xp yeah first final i'll have been bothered to watch in some time

Fuck football finals tbh, always shit

Just realised that I'm watching this in the same way that I've gone back to buying from bookshops

That McManaman, putting aside the very ugly challenge which he scandalously avoided severe punishment for, looks like a good player for the future

That was quite a pass from Kone

Commentator "Since Everton won in 1995 just six teams have won the FA Cup". Is that particularly small? It always used to seem to be Spurs / United / Everton / Liverpool / Arsenal in the final before that.

Wigan are looking pretty good, I really didn't expect City to give them so much time on the ball.

fwiw
1996-2012: 6 teams (Chelsea 6, Arsenal 4, United 3, Liverpool 2, Portsmouth 1, City 1)
1979-1995: 8 teams (United 4, Spurs 3, Liverpool 3, Everton 2, Arsenal 2, West Ham 1, Coventry 1, Wimbledon 1)

xp the sixteen years before that had those five winners plus Coventry, Wimbledon and West Ham. I think it's more the predictability of it now - other than Portsmouth, West Ham are the only plucky minnows who've really come close.

Keeper!

Wigan are hugely likeable in the context of this game at least, which is pissing me off because I pledged to hate them about a month ago because Dave Whelan

The sense of occasion is completely ruined by the fact there's still two Premiership games left. If Wigan win they can't even celebrate properly.

did you know that dave whelan broke his leg in the fa cup final? what an amazing story

clear pen, went down too late.

Mcmanaman prob should have gone down before the one on one chance too

tyldesley fucking loves saying 'cliiichyyy' doesn't he

This has been good stuff.

Why can't the Cup Final be the last game of the season? There are a dozen weekends coming up that don't clash with anything. I feel like the logical end point will be two mid-table teams in the final, both fielding weakened teams so as not to risk getting the Europa League place.

when did this happen

i think it hasn't been the last game for years

Wigan playin good stuff. Espinoza will cost em tho.

I feel like the logical end point will be two mid-table teams in the final, both fielding weakened teams so as not to risk getting the Europa League place.

if it's an 'avoid the europa league at all costs' spectacle you're after, surely the best match would be a play off between the top two in the fair play table.

Europa league is awes tho

it's had a few years lately of not being the last game of the season. my Dad tells me it routinely wasn't the last game of the season back in the 50s/early 60s, in an era when Division 1 teams didn't all play their last game at the same time on the same day.

WOSS WRONG WIV BLACK BOOTS YOU CAAAAHNTS

Milner can now come on and give City that spark that they so desperately need

tells me everything i need to know to feel good about not watching this

he's killin em

hes killin em!

Aaaaah gutted.

thought there'd been more than two red cards in a final previously. was just thinking about Kevin Moran's one earlier in the game for some reason - recall reading it 'shocked the establishment' or something

It really did. I remember calls for him to hand his medal back.

City are shook here.

I like the FA cup but the nation is pretty, pretty stuffy about it. or was.

if this goes to extra time, logically Wigan should be 10% less shattered than they would otherwise have been when they play Arsenal

minor penalty call

fsgvewrfbg

sfgherbgebtfrdetbg

Get in!

Oh my god.

wigan win the fa cup ffs

now finally can they sack that clown Mancini?

very m*gical night in B*rcelona, that header was

keano will question hart

Ben Watson is approx Walcott's age?? he looks in his 30s. not in a bad way but

I am so happy right now.

Nobody's ever won the cup and been relegated fwiw

yeah delighted

cracking game and well deserved winners

commentator just made the point that this is the most unlikely final result since Wimbledon in '88 which is sadly otm I think? like Wigan beating City in their current state is not a massive deal in itself

It was basically the 1988 goal too iirc?

aw nice.

Wish I could rewind to the old Wigan fan staring at the sky arms outstretched like someone rolling at 4 in the morning.

mcmanaman shouldnt be fucking playing but what a performance

Awesome

So that's bye bye for Mancini?

Yes! (I missed most of the final with a trip to Sainsbury's, just caught the vital ending)

and martinez

Always nice to see a CL club get properly outplayed as well. City don't look like they give that much of a shit.

Really nice to see fans devastated at losing

those fucking logos on the ribbons

Re: Kevin Moran's medal
I think it was the other way round: they refused to give him a medal on the day and there was a campaign for him to be allowed one (at least that's how I remember it)

amazing what dropping Caldwell can do for a team

xp That rings a bell. The bell that tolls for the death of society (since replaced by that music played over the presentation)

Shit presentation

aw Scharner.

this is rather what i was suggesting about moyes the other day -- despite 11 years in the league, he hasn't been really able to outplay any of the elite sides in the way martinez has managed on a few occasions during a much shorter tenure, even his successes mostly involve fellaini murdering a dozy carrick with long balls or whatever

even if wigan get relegated, 4 consecutive seasons in the epl with such low expenditure is a significant achievement, greater than rodgers had managed prior to his move to liverpool

this should finally lay to rest the 'domestic managers don't get a chance' shit espoused by trash like kevin nolan, given that the two most prestigious names in the epl have appointed british managers in the last year, and a foreigner whose achievements outstrip theirs is probably going to get the everton or newcastle job at best

tbf I'm not sure that someone who's spent the last 18 years working in British football should even be counted as a parachuted-in forrin devil.

Reckon Martinez would stay at Wigan rather than go to Newcastle fwiw.

He turned down Villa last year, I reckon he'll stay at Wigan for a crack at Europe

this might give him the name recognition for a top 10 primera division side to appoint him, i don't think he had any great spanish profile before

even if wigan get relegated, 4 consecutive seasons in the epl with such low expenditure is a significant achievement, greater than rodgers had managed prior to his move to Liverpool

surely wigan's squad was worth much more than Swansea's last season though? i'd say finishing 11th (4 places above wigan) was quite an achievement by Rodgers.

The better I see Wigan play, the more I wonder just how exactly Martinez is getting them relegated

rodgers had sigurdsson for half of that, and the completely worth £15m joe allen

a single season isn't that difficult though, even terrible squads like norwich 11/12 or reading 06/07(?) have survived easily before

wigan have been without their best cb for most of the season and the rest of their defence cost probably £3m at most

lol trollin

wigan definitely not relegated yet. if norwich lose tomorrow I'd have them favourites to go down

Why are you posting about the premiership itt?

Anyway, if Newcastle lose tomorrow...

this is rather what i was suggesting about moyes the other day -- despite 11 years in the league, he hasn't been really able to outplay any of the elite sides in the way martinez has managed on a few occasions during a much shorter tenure

Well, except for Man City, who we always beat. (Since Jan 2008: W9 D1 L2). And we've beaten Chelsea four times since 2010. And, as for "outplayed", we've done that to Arsenal and Man Utd more than once without necessarily the right result (obviously, our record vs Wenger doesn't bear very close examination - some of the numbers are 'orrible.). And we have actually beaten all of these teams at Goodison over the years.

In fact, I'm not really sure what your point is about Martinez. He had that one win over Man Utd, and lost the other seven meetings by an aggregate of 29-0. Similarly - 3-1 vs Chelsea in 2009, one draw since, and six- and eight-goal maulings amongst the losses. Bit better vs Arsenal.

And even if it were the case that Wigan were able to regularly outclass top four teams* at their grounds while Everton weren't (which it isn't), the fact that they spend virtually all their time in the relegation zone whereas Everton are pretty comfortably top 8 or better would be more relevant. There's no point being able to turn it on for 3 or 4 big games if you lose everything else.

*from the previous season

The better I see Wigan play, the more I wonder just how exactly Martinez is getting them relegated

They play open attacking football with this as protection:

http://images.footballfancast.com/players/300px/wigan/Gary-Caldwell.jpg

the fact that they spend virtually all their time in the relegation zone whereas Everton are pretty comfortably top 8 or better would be more relevant.

― Hearing moyes confirmedare we hearing m (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Saturday, 11 May 2013 23:09 (9 minutes ago)

this is really stupid to the extent that it looks like wilful misreading. that amazing ~fact~ would be relevant if marouane fellaini didn't cost more than the entire wigan starting xi today. my argument was about /outplaying/ rather than winning, and although outplay isn't the best word in the fitba lexicon, it does roughly convey elements of tactical supremacy, territorial advantage, control of midfield, neutralization, whatever.

it's in those terms that wigan today were exemplary, as they were before when defeating ancelotti's chelsea, winning at the emirates last season etc. everton have had their successes too, but not really in the same manner.

http://www.ftbpro.com/posts/the.unsilent.minority/73194/david-moyes-wonders-on-a-shoestring-merely-a-cliche

cba verifying any of that but if it's true Everton are fifth in the ten years to 2012 points table with a net spend of £13m it looks really good, lack of cup win aside - though I suppose you could argue that if you're going to averages fifth for a decade you should maybe finish above fifth more than once.

His record in turning cheap talent into expensive talent is excellent but his bigger spends haven't always worked out. He seems to have a knack (as was mentioned in the league thread) of taking proven EPL forwards and wasting them.

arsenal look a lot better using that metric, and in any case a lot of that is helped by having £45m of twp/rodwell fall into his lap.

moyes' case is better served by looking at the wage bill, and he averages epl finishes around 6/7 with wage bills around 11/12. this is probably the main reason united appointed him and half the reason ferguson rates him so much.

Fag packet tells me Everton are nowhere near fifth in the ten year table.

Fuckin bloggers.

oh wait maybe they could be he might be counting the season before City came up - giving Everton 38 extra games

Ok, I don't watch enough football to contest yr main point about the style of Wigan's (isolated) successes vs elite teams being markedly different to the style of Everton's (slightly less infrequent) successes vs same. Kinda dubious, but if a team that's 1-29 vs Man Utd over four seasons can get everything right vs CL-contenders once every 18 months, then yay.

I'm fairly sure we've comprehensively played Mancini's lot off the park in at least a couple of our seven home'n'away victories over them, but maybe we just clogged them about, Dogs Of War style.

Very pleased about today. Maybe if EFC can lure Roberto Carlos away from Anzhi Makhachkala, we'll win the Cup next season.

xxxxp

my argument was about /outplaying/ rather than winning, and although outplay isn't the best word in the fitba lexicon, it does roughly convey elements of tactical supremacy, territorial advantage, control of midfield, neutralization, whatever

Yes and Wigan have been frequently comprehensively outplayed by all manner of teams. It's all very well looking impressive for a few games at the end of the season, but they spend most of the rest of the time playing shite. It's not as if they go out and dominate every week in terms of "tactical supremacy, territorial advantage, control of midfield, neutralization" yet somehow contrive to end up losing.

they often succeed in all of those areas but lose because they have defenders like gary caldwell or emmerson boyce on champo wages and they make stupid mistakes

you don't know shit

You're right. My partisanship has somehow blinded me to their obvious superior qualities on the numerous occasions I've seen them roll over and concede four against United.

im sad that nobody seems to remember alex mcleish when he comprehensively outplayed arsenal in the league cup final

they often succeed in all of those areas but lose because they have defenders like gary caldwell or emmerson boyce on champo wages and they make stupid mistakes

Whose fault his that then? Martinez has shown he can sign really good attacking players but defenders are a bit of a blind spot for him, or at least relatively cheap defenders. I like Martinez a lot but get a sense that he doesn't really know how to take Wigan to the next level in the league, by which I mean the level that Rodgers and Laudrup have managed at Swansea with similar turnover and expenditure. Admittedly that's building on Martinez's work, but I would like to see Bobby M working with actual money to spend and Everton would be completely the wrong move for him.

That said Swansea and Wigan winning both cups is good for British football in that it undermines your idiots who think that playing like Pulis/Allardyce/McLeish is the only way for smaller sides to succeed. And Martinez plays considerably more complex tactical football than any of those sides, which is probably why he's lasted at Wigan despite numerous relegation scares, and longer than considerably more limited managers like Jewell and Bruce (who admittedly led Wigan to much higher league positions).

arsenal look a lot better using that metric, and in any case a lot of that is helped by having £45m of twp/rodwell fall into his lap

Lescott as well. Still, Wigan have done pretty well out of player trading over recent years - Palacios, Baines, Valencia, N'Zogbia, Moses, etc, but not to that level.

Like actually a team like Newcastle would be a great move for him in that they've already got excellent scouts in place and reasonable money to spend but that would mean giving up Wigan, where the Chairman and fans will always support him, for Mike Ashley.