Hang on, what division are Northwich Victoria in? The FA Cup, 2009/10

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/46691000/jpg/_46691961_008248701-1.jpg

Gonna give my heart away
Leave it to the other girls to play

Anyone watching Rochdale-Luton on ITV4 at the moment? It's quite good - Rochdale are an exceedingly nifty bunch.

Also, the Luton fans have realised that, with the stadium being pretty sparsely attended, anything they chant will be heard on air. So they've just been chanting for Iain Dowie, who's on co-commentary duty tonight (and is not at all bad at it).

And Rochdale have just been done by the outside of Kevin Gallen's boot, Luton 1-0 up on the hour.

Finally, something goes right for Morrissey.

Tottenham v Peterborough
Middlesbrough v Man City
Notts County v Forest Green
Chelsea v Watford
West Ham v Arsenal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/fa_cup/8384168.stm

lol final fixture = heated balls

nicely done, fa cup organisers

Leeds vs. Kettering is on ITV4. Kettering just equalised. 1-1. This Is Quite A Good Game Of Ball Ball Ball Footy Footy Footy.

It's extra-time. Kettering are right in this aside from Anthony Elding being basically immobile by this point.

*&%$#!!!!

^^^wait for his reaction when Charlton overhaul 'em in the league

Might watch the rest of extra-time now...

There was something so inevitable about the TV remote not working, it taking 10 minutes to get the TV working, and then Leeds to score within 30 seconds of me getting the TV working.

The TV was then turned off, btw

:( it was good while it lasted

*Whew*

btw man u will beat u 6-0

and u will be fined £tens of thousands for chanting abt munich air disaster

Yeah, very possible but we could still use the cash from an Old Trafford match.

this is true

it's gonna be a long old championship relegation battle next season ;-)

hahahahaha leeds you utter bastards

It would be beneath me to respond to your provocations, you know that, right? ;)

Yeah, NOW they show wwith the goals. Jeeze.

Well, there's a decent chance of my own club being involved in that same relegation scrap next season too! Provided Norwich don't overhaul us.

Is four goals for one team in a single half of extra-time a record?

I'm sorry, I can't recall who you support.

it's true, every club below* leeds in the league is a goddamn nobody

*even if it is 4 points

:P

Oh, so you're a Charlton fan? I've got nothing against Charlton at all. I was always a fan of them in the PL under Curbishley.

Unfortunately, we are a completely different club and team now. Much like your good selves. I don't know whether I'd rather have been in a CL semi-final this decade and now be in this position, or not!

I was in Paris in 2001 when they lost to Valencia. Not a good memory.

the days of stephen 'epic' mcphail and harry 'too' kewell 'for school'

I'll always have a soft side for Kewell after that stunning goal that cost Arsenal the league in '98-99 (I think).

MUCH more recent than that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc1NN6JOrt8&feature=related

I notice that ITV aren't at all Big Four biased. They're not about to show three complete non-events. The sooner this channel is exterminated forever, the better. Capitalism failed, guys.

you're lucky you've got the games at all. in Scotland we've got Batteries Not Included.

lol ITV looking more and more otm with every passing minute

lol CRISIS

"only rooney can do that" as he sticks a 20-yard shot two yards wide of the post = please die soon, clive

We should do a sweepstake on what minute Wes Brown gets sent off, who's in

"...and that SURELY would have been game set and match!" Man U coming from two behind with 15 minutes to go? Impossible to contemplate!!

argh he just said it again ffs

l

Did they show Mani at the end there?

Oof

2010 will be a year of the sweetest lols

Thank fuck they won't be around to knock us out this year.

kinda disappointed about how first teamy our xi is.

blimey i thought john hartson died

Thank fuck they won't be around to knock us out this year.

I know right

Breathing fractionally easier now there's been at least one big upset this weekend.

Plucky minnows Arsenal pull one back against West Ham's plucky minnows.

what a header from Eduardo 2-1

ITV's "live scores" updating us on the 24th hour of Middlesbrough v Citeh.

Billy Bragg, Phil Jupitus, Russell Brand, Danny Dyer - your boys took one hell 25 minutes of a beating.

good katy perry was drowned before she saw that

wtf with the ball numbering? its not alphabetical or on like league position so? just picked at random?

i would like to extend my warmest congratulations to arsenal. i hope this can only mean a cataract of mildly approving posts from the diehard

oh wait THE DRAW so excited

So, who have Utd got in the next round?

we were a bit shit. wilshere and merida need to go on loan. ramsey and vela should play more, eduardo should be allowed in the middle more. usual boring boring arsenal.

itv website cacked out if anyone wants to liveblog this shit for me.

united have manchester city

looool spurs - leeds

United are actually away to Spurs

plucky underdogs reading v. plucky underdogs burnley will be enjoyable.

Jeez why did I turn off FM 2010 to watch Tranmere and Wolves aimlessly lump the ball about in the middle?

because thats all you were watching on FM2010?

omg link

http://www.atdhe.net/

look down the list.

I'm managing Grimsby in FM 2010 so it's even worse than this tbh

There's a few entertaining ones there, but Spurs vs. Leeds should be lots of fun. Also, Stoke away is an 'orrible draw for Arsenal's kids, Everton vs. Forest or Birmingham is a difficult call with the form all three of them are in... and for some reason, I reckon Scunny might just have a chance against Citeh at home. Then again, I thought the same about Colchester against Preston yesterday.

Dude who sounds like Steve Claridge on the commentary questioning Seb's attitude and commitment this season can GTF, especially if it is Steve Claridge. Cock.

McCarthy resting the first XI that time is looking sillier every week

Michael Mancienne is being groomed by Big Mick as some kind of Diet Thudd btw.

1840: These two teams are playing for the right to entertain Crystal Palace, remember.

"Entertain".

If this is 0-0 at 85 minutes I hope we're under instruction to kick it in our own net.

Stoke away is fine. The quicker they learn about the 'teams up norf in winter' cliche the better.

lol Jarvis hits the corner flag from 6 feet out.

that is the bakayoko right

Tragically no.

:(

We watched the second part of Doctor Who yesterday so at least this is only the second-most "why the fuck am I watching this?" moment of the weekend.

I saw just the last 5 minutes of Doctor Who and that still comfortably outstrips this :P

Only if Big Mick spends the last 20 minutes of the game saying goodbye to Keogh, George Elokobi, Kights and Sam Vokes.

And then gives Iwelumo a Fucking Magic Willy Wonka Lottery Ticket.

Think McCarthy must've told them at half time that they can keep warm by running around and trying to score.

Who's this feckin' co-commentator? It's on the tup of my mind.

the TIP

lol Freudian slips

Commentator seems to have invented his own pronunciation for Iwelumo.

LOOOOOOOOL

Jaysus Tranmere should've been in front ffs dudes

Solitary shots that effortlessly summarize the spirit of this match

Bringing on a striker who wasn't able to score for Leeds this season, excellent.

It's getting close to score a deliberate own goal time.

phew

Or score a deliberate proper goal. Y'know, whatever.

for someone liveblogging this so we don't have to watch, you are living up to yr name vaguey. who scored?

I know it's cold and all, but it's a damned poor show that Wigan & Hull could only scrape together 5,335 fans yesterday

Jarvis scored, ran onto a sweet through ball from Milijas and thumped it in.

Dunno if this is over in real time but on the stream Tranmere are far from dead.

Thank fuck that's done.

Oh, is this competition still going?

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f14/snouts/6fc0bcacc4c6a970ccd3e7b7d1ea1445.gif

Hang on, I am looking forward to Scunthorpe-City.

http://poetrywriting.org/Sketchbook3-10oct08/images/BFAngelaConsolo_As_If_03.JPG

http://ratonconbotas.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/sooz.jpg

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olliewilliams/wigan_hull_mascots.jpg

Furry Association Cup

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e152/northwilts/Goonerholic/dirtybastard.jpg

^^^not even worth a yellow it seems.

What did Diaby get when he did it to Terry?

Cheering on Leeds, very strange feeling. But looks like I'll be doing it again next round...

Wes Brown: quelle thug.

a yellow iirc.

Fish in a barrel but lol pompey.

co-commentator: "westwood tips it over...with his wrong hand of course"

loooooooooool worst defending ever

Jobi "Jobby" McAnuff nearly scored the greatest fa cup goal ever (better than that Gigg's goal. But he made a big jobby of the finish.

oh, penalty to reading

HAHA

half the reading fans already left. They will all be turning round and driving back to the game.

terrible call...mind you pool doing their usual best effort to give the opposition a goal in injury time.

did the commentator just say "Goofy Sigurdsson"?

i actually thought he was gonna be booked for diving, didnt expect a penalty.

still a dire performance.

1-1 is about right. Liverpool are thoroughly poor.

i thought reading were better in the 1st half tbh.

why were reading fans leaving at 1-0? that's just stupid

reading hadnt offered much in the 2nd half until the jobby run. I suspect some of them may have been at their 1st reading away match too.

Its a shit game though so I dont blame them for leaving.

Liverpool...begin every game a little bit fresh/inventive, see what happens, maybe score a goal despite that inventiveness fading after about 20 mins. Then slowly retreat into their shell for 65-70 mins, giving the opposition better and better chances to score the closer to the end of the game it is. If somehow miraculously they don't take any Liverpool may actually win a game.

WOW

2-1 reading

Leaving early: recall my mate and his dad leaving an FA Cup semi replay at 0-0 before extra time had started (Everton-West Ham at Elland Road, 1980) - "I've got work in the morning and you've got school, so we need to get on the motorway." Seems incredible in retrospect.

I'm just waiting for the advert where the TicTacs are on the golf course and then we'll cut back to celebrating L'pool players.

why can't they play with this urgency from the start? it's fucking humiliating.

More like Hang on, what division are Northwich Victoria Liverpool in? The FA Cup, 2009/10

great material

XD

'sex dreamers' on the subtitles

"Royals Command Performance" - nice one.

4th and Europa Cup winners, for deffo.

XD

nice supporting a diff team every evening

FFS Liverpool, this isn't even amusing any more

if rafa isn't sacked now it's safe to say he can do as shit as he wants with total impunity.

hahaha ronan at least 3/4 of that XD was dedicated towards your posting on football threads recently which has been, with a couple of exceptions, undiluted bile of the most unnecessary order

Love that story about the FA Cup semi, by the way. And didn't BBC Scotland once end live coverage of a match in the middle of a penalty shoot-out?

x-post I apologise, I just can't get your sycophancy/verbal lute playing down.

They won't sack Rafa, he's now free to concentrate on being shit in the league.

put it this way, ANY major cup shock, especially one inflicted on a 'big club', is going to be celebrated in these quarters. add that to how abjectly liverpool insist on surrendering + the general self-inflicted sense of malaise instilled by panicking supporters, and poking becomes irresistible

also sycophancy? at whom am i sycophantic? if someone (say, d-mac, as has often been the case recently) posts something humorous, i'll respond appropriately. if you say something ridiculous and vengeful, i'll do the same. but it was only, what, yesterday, that i praised something you wrote on a football thread (about giggs i think)? christ dude just chill

ANY major cup shock, especially one inflicted on a 'big club', is going to be celebrated in these quarters

the first post on this very thread, louis

a) big club and b) hey i was totally celebrating

That change of direction, nutmeg, and cross routine was absolutely beautiful. Deserved to win the match.

Penalty was very neatly taken, too.

I am chilled I just said it was nice to support a diff team every night. Then you seemed to get annoyed. Rest assured I can post all evening about how much more chilled I am right now.

"At the moment Reading are just half a yard quicker, both in movement and in brain thoughts." Mark Lawrenson, Five Live.

Love that story about the FA Cup semi, by the way.

The postscript to this is my mate's dad banging on the steering wheel with joy when Latchford equalised Devonshire's opener and pulling off the M62 for a dry-your-eyes-son Little Chef treat after Lampard Sr's winner. This is all going in the book, obviously. Which I'm now calling Brain Thoughts (was McIlroy Is Through).

I support lower-league football innit bruv

also I support Liverpool against, like, Chelsea! And Birmingham. And Blackburn. And Man City. And in (just about) any European tie. And Arsenal, sometimes, depending on which result is funnier

michael plz can your book be like 1/3 pictures

I used to like Liverpool till I started reading these threads and seeing Ronan get so wound up, frankly.

x-post I remember having to pick up my granny from the train station the day Ireland beat Holland 1-0 at Lansdowne Road to make the World Cup playoffs, I made my brother come with me because I felt so annoyed at having to leave the game. McAteer scored as I was driving through a really rough area and I started beeping the horn and stuff, people were jumping in front of the traffic lights. Good times. (Can't be sure if this actually happened or it was in the film adaptation of a Roddy Doyle book. No wait it happened.)

(Also, I supported Liverpool against most teams when they played good football and had a shot at the title last season)

Jumping in front of the traffic lights?

louis i don't care if you think liverpool are the shittest team on earth really, i think everything you've said pretty much is summed up by "it's nice to support a diff team every night."

I think I read something about this in Soccernomics, the Nick Hornbys v. Gideon Rachmans.

I had a similar experience stopped at lights outside a Celtic pub once when the final whistle went on another title-winning season and the pub made like a clown car. In my memory it's all gaily-dressed youths gambolling in the street, performing cartwheels and doing ring-a-ring-a-roses, but it probably didn't happen like that

Isn't it better to have an investment in the result of a match, however frivolous, than to not care?

Isn't it better to have men be ungrateful, than to miss a chance to do good? ...

It's impossible for me to watch a match without either having an over-riding preference going in or developping one based on the quality of play of one side or another. Like Louis, I support a lower division team so in the US, I rarely see any English football that's not the Premier League and when I do, it's kind of hard not to root for the underdog, especially if they're playing well, except for the Blades and Cardiff City.

Isn't it Benayoun to chip the keeper, than to roll it straight at the goalie?

will be sitting in the kop for the bolton match, it's gonna be tough.

just seen this:

http://twitter.com/RealDanArundel/status/7725974649
His english is ok, his writing is excellent but rafa does struggle with his Reading.

except for the Blades and Cardiff City

actually this is kinda urgent and key

rafa trending on twitter now

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=Rafa

rafa getting sacked in the morning - surely

can't afford to sack him, genuinely. but that's gotta be the only reason at this stage

http://i49.tinypic.com/w1ppud.jpg

4th and Europa Cup winners, for deffo.

― Michael Jones

Think I'll look for a price on doubling those up.

still think 4th, but hmm mancini, hmm krajncjadat, hmm benitez. tough to call.

Hey!

Reading Won!

Right, I'm off this football thread. Bye.

By the way, I can totally understand fans leaving an away game half a country away when their team is losing against NANDO TORRES in the worst driving conditions this country has seen in years to drive home at night. Sure 15 minutes most probably won't make much of a difference but

Anyway, YAY MY LOCAL TEAM IN THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Can't even afford a liverpolol anymore, poor Ronan

Truth be told, that didn't look like a team selected by someone who was particularly bothered about progressing to the next round.

Yeah, I wondered...

yes it did. only degen/cavalieri were not first teamers...

01 Cavalieri
05 Agger
22 Insua
23 Carragher
27 Degen (Skrtel 91)
04 Aquilani
08 Gerrard (Babel 46)
15 Benayoun
21 Lucas
09 Torres (Ngog 29)
18 Kuyt

in fairness that's a strong enough team for an FA cup replay- losing their two best players in the first half doesn't help

Although the goalie facing the penalty was somewhat "meh"

A bit cavalier?

in fairness that's a strong enough team for an FA cup replay- losing their two best players in the first half doesn't help

now now

liverpool better without gerrard this season, or at least benayoun certainly seem to bloom without him in the lineup.

torres- no team in the known universe doesn't miss a player like torres.

Genius trolling:

I expect that he will be sacked at the end of the season, a new big-name manager in and given £millions to spend. The irony is that if Rafa is given the money to spend that will undoubtedly be given to a new manager, then he would win us the league. Am sure of it.

Keep the faith. Rafa is God.

heh as if.

rafa benitez is still held to be an exceptional football manager by liverpool fans that speak of houllier as if he were developmentally challenged or senile during his time there.

rafa is a better manager than houllier.

who could forget those wonderful CL nights under houllier...oh hang on

rafa is a better manager than houllier (by far in europe), but there's not a cavernous expanse there or anything overall.

there's a decent gap tho, houllier was even worse in the transfer market. rafa prob came closer to winning the league too, the only year they were top that I can recall under houllier was the time he had the heart problem when they had won 7 out of 8, then thommo came in and they lost every game 8-0 for 3 months.

like good houllier signings....hamannn, hyypia, struggling to think of others.

risse and dudek and half the cl winning team?

i know some of them came in under evans, but i still think of carragher, murphy, gerrard as being houllier players- bringing them through was a big point in his favour v. rafa i think.

it's hard to quantify how a team 'should' do in the league with different opposition over different years, but i think that asking houllier to beat any of the teams that won the league the years he was there (vintage united & occasionally awesome arsenal) was a bigger ask than liverpool beating united last year.

risse and dudek and half the cl winning team?

riise yes, dudek not v good, lol, half the cl winning team. you mean traore, smicer, baros, kewell?

houllier prob had more money too, the figures are relatively similar but with inflation taken into account.

cisse i forgot cisse! god...surely one of their worst signings ever.

half the cl winning team. you mean traore, smicer, baros, kewell

have learned not to make this argument for the above reasons tbh.

The Houllier heart scare/Thompson in charge season was 2001-02. L'pool were only six or seven games into the season when GH was ill and were top six; they eventually finished 2nd (not sure when GH came back - April?). So Bignose did OK - they were definitely top while he was in charge.

The following season was the bizarro collapse - top in November, 9 wins, 3 draws - then couldn't win at home for three months and went 11 games in the league within a win. But, thanks to GH steering L'pool to the feeblest 4th-place finish ever (slightly feebler even than Everton 12 months later) in 2004, he set up the CL win.

I liked him! His love for the place was really quite touching. In retrospect.

(xp - Practically all the shit GH signings mentioned seem to have scored in derbies vs Everton)

He was a nice man, definitely. Prob more likeable than Rafa as a person, but not a great boss. At this stage whatever happens next, whenever Rafa finally goes, can the owners put on the job description: MUST ENJOY PLAYING SOME ACTUAL FUCKING WINGERS/FULL BACKS, MUST LIKE FOOTBALL WITH WIDTH, MUST NOT BE DEFENSIVE. I can't stomach another decade of negative football.

lol, half the cl winning team. you mean traore, smicer, baros, kewell?

did better in the cl than wiltord and cygan ever did?

well...if ever rafa deserved praise for anything. that fucking team winning the CL...

Decent Houllier signings = Hyppia, Henchoz, Markus Babbel before his untimely death, DIDI HAMMANN, Westerveld and I'm pretty sure Emile Heskey had his most prolific season playing under Houllier.

Also you should probably put Dudek in there given he made the save that won the Champions League.

Gary McAllister played a big part in the Cup treble season. Obv, you weren't going to get more than a couple of season of the guy, but a decent singing.

that was an amazing signing actually.

I'm sorry but Westerveld and Dudek???

I thought they both had a couple of good seasons before losing the plot?

well the fact one replaced the other seems to invalidate picking both as good signings

I think if you get two good seasons out of a player they probably count given the number of Houllier signings who gave you zero good seasons.

I disagree, definitely. If you buy a keeper that should be the end of it. Houllier bought two and both were flakey. Dudek is a legend for that CL performance but EVEN IN THAT GAME he was howleriffic for a long time. Having a place in a club's memories/history books does not necessarily equate to being a brilliant player.

Who was the goalkeeper who Dudek was dropped for? I seem to remember him spending ages on the Liverpool bench but I'm sure there was someone between him and Reina (who admittedly is better than anyone being discussed here).

westerveld looked ok in spain after, but it's a stretch to include either of them as 'successes'

The only real success he has had was winning the Champion's League, where only two of the starting line up, and four of his match squad were his players, the rest being Houllier's.

In the 2006 FA Cup final, four of the starting eleven and six of the matchday squad were his signings, the rest being down to Houllier.

By the 2007 Champion's League final, which he lost, seven of his starting eleven were his players, and eleven of the match day squad were his.

He now only has two players from before he joined, and they are 7th in the league and out of the Champion's League.

Rafa is really poor at buying players. Whilst he was tactically good enough to get Houiller's decent-but-nothing-special squad to win two cups, it all went tits up as soon as he had to rely on players he brought in.

I dunno, at least he made quite a few signings of high regard: Reina, Alonso, Torres, Kuyt, Benny Noon, Agger, Mascherano. Pretty much everone on that list is better than anyone Gerald ever signed.

everything is rick parry's fault though

The Houllier heart scare/Thompson in charge season was 2001-02. L'pool were only six or seven games into the season when GH was ill and were top six; they eventually finished 2nd (not sure when GH came back - April?). So Bignose did OK - they were definitely top while he was in charge.

I read that as an Italian name at first ('bin-YO-say') and wondered who this mysterious figure from Liverpool's past was.

job description.... MUST NOT BE DEFENSIVE. I can't stomach another decade of negative football.

Glad to hear it. That seems to be one thing that Houllier and Benitez have had in commmon (most of the time - Liverpool actually transformed into a genuinely exciting attacking force for the second half of last season).

odd how both of them seem to distrust width...

tho yeah, I watched the highlights of the Real 4-0 this week, we were unreal in that game and in a lot of games from then on. seems amazing that it's virtually the same team.

Liverpool 2008/09 are in hindsight becoming one of my favourite teams ever. What's going on now is just too painful and bizarre.

Dead 'pool 09-10.

looool

The only real success he has had was winning the Champion's League, where only two of the starting line up, and four of his match squad were his players, the rest being Houllier's.

In the 2006 FA Cup final, four of the starting eleven and six of the matchday squad were his signings, the rest being down to Houllier.

By the 2007 Champion's League final, which he lost, seven of his starting eleven were his players, and eleven of the match day squad were his.

He now only has two players from before he joined, and they are 7th in the league and out of the Champion's League.

Rafa is really poor at buying players. Whilst he was tactically good enough to get Houiller's decent-but-nothing-special squad to win two cups, it all went tits up as soon as he had to rely on players he brought in.

erm...apart from last season being their best prem finish ever, and er...winning the CL in 2005 with a squad inherited from Houllier should count as a bigger achievement than if he'd done it with an actually good squad.

lets not forget also that before Rafa came in Carragher never, ever played at centre back. Carragher became a brilliant centre back solely under Rafa. With Houllier he played at full-back, effectively, but nowhere near the presence he was in the centre under Rafa.

Also if winning cups is the sole measure of success in a squad, then surely Wenger is just as bad as Rafa, for what, four/five years?

I'm not defending Rafa completely, I think he's achieved v little in terms of progress, but that post is just typically dense.

liverpool finished second a few years back under houllier/thompson? From Jan onwards last year they blew a really good chance to win the league, before coming back strongly once it was all but certain they couldn't- it always struck me as a 'flattering to deceive' title charge. and last season, chelsea, arsenal and arguably united were well below par each of them.

wenger can't be as bad as rafa, because he builds stadia for the poor in his spare time, and earns millions for uzbekhis of dubious character. and, for the neutral, (which god help me i was on rafa once, i was a big fan for his first season or two when it looked like he might make liverpool interesting) wenger's teams have never played dirk kuyt on the wing, regardless of effectiveness last season.

hanging rick parry, gerrard, even gareth barry- basically anyone he could offer to the press any time he's under pressure- is also something of a trait

Playing Dirk Kuyt on the wing vs. playing Emmanuel Eboue on the wing.

t/s as a crime? kuyt, because the guy could conceivably be of use elsewhere.

Lest we forget, in all these considerations of Rafa, that the Bob-Tway-chipping-in-out-of-the-bunker CL win of 2005 very handily masked a 58pt, 14-defeat, 5th-place league finish that took the league form of Houll's last two years and made it slightly worse. Liverpool were much more impressive week-in-week-out the following season (even Cisse was pretty good!), bolstered by some Rafa signings, and, if you only go as far as last May (and accept that he's been a bit unlucky with injuries), you could view the entire project as a success: Liverpool improving a bit each year. What's happened this season is kinda nutty.

yes

a little nutty but mostly lol

Liverpool were much more impressive week-in-week-out the following season (even Cisse was pretty good!), bolstered by some Rafa signings, and, if you only go as far as last May

Don't know about that, Michael- you'd have to ignore a very patchy league campaign (with the seemingly habitual slow start issues) in 2006-7 (beating a fairly shabby arsenal to 3rd on goal difference only) and a fourth finish the following season. Not sure, leaving Europe aside, what the great progression is there.

As far as Benitez's league 'improvement' goes, last season was a fluke for Liverpool, and worse again it was a wasted fluke because United were there for the taking too in a way that none of the top 3 are going to be again for Benitez.

How do you "fluke" 86pts and a top-two finish?

by having your only two rivals for 2nd underperform all season? chelsea sacked a manager halfway through the season, and wenger was under more pressure than at any other time in his arsenal days.

they were much better than they had been under benitez, incredibly tough to beat, all of that. but there's no linear liverpool-have-improved-every-year-under-rafa argument.

they only finished second because everyone below them was less good!

Don't put that United side down too much - they may have looked ropey, but they won something like nine straight games to take the title.

Only because all nine of those teams underperformed. United were there for the taking </standarddarraghbollocks>

82pts in 05-06 wasn't a bad effort - big 16-game unbeaten run in the middle of the season (when Houll's teams always stumbled) barely conceding a goal, 11-game winning run to finish (12 if you include the FAC final pens victory over West Ham). That was really the first time since the Dalglish days that I'd seen a machine-like efficiency to Liverpool, just mowing teams down every week. They had some glitches too (losing to Palace in the League Cup, bad results all round vs the other elite clubs) but it was generally scarily good. If you accept the argument that a lengthy CL campaign has a detrimental effect on a league season (yeah, I know, doesn't apply to Chelsea or Man U), then 06-07 wasn't too bad (and that CL run itself was far more impressive overall than 04-05) but they did fade. 07-08 an improvement on that, 08-09 very good. Season-long flukes? No.

I'm not saying it's an uninterrupted upswing, but L'pool in 5/09 looked miles better than L'pool in 5/04. L'pool 1/10, er, dunno.

But, yeah, factor in the fuckloads of cash spent and maybe Project Rafa wasn't all that rosy. I shall miss his post-match interviews if he goes though.

xxxp

Basically, what I'm saying is, RAFA IN.

It doesn't actually feel like he'll get the chop. There's lots of speculation, but not of the high-level hand-wringing type.

matt, i am a valuable consensus challenger.

(my username is a quote from matt around or about the time jol got out, btw)

they only finished second because everyone below them was less good!

― mdskltr (blueski), 15 January 2010 12:23 (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

yes!

i mean, ffs, frame it like that all you want, but what was the alternative, if you accept that arsenal and chelsea had bad seasons that can't be atrributed to anything liverpool did?

united won 9 on the trot, yeah we all agreed at the time that they were grim motherfuckers to play, the football equivalent of a tombstone rolling over an infant or whatever, but even accepting that they were consistent enough not to question liverpool failing to beat them in the league, it doesn't follow that 2nd ahead of the other two was some kind of uber-performance.

big 16-game unbeaten run in the middle of the season (when Houll's teams always stumbled) barely conceding a goal, 11-game winning run to finish (12 if you include the FAC final pens victory over West Ham)

how did they start that season? seems that every year something is expected of them, rafa's bottled it to the extent of running for 2nd at best before they got going. jol style.

I HATE BENITEZ

I've felt that about Wenger too, actually - I think he himself is surprised still to be up there this time

the bottling that is, how could anyone hate Wenger?

er, he's a complete tool. but i like him anyway.

shame now that Redknapp won't get the chance to better Jol at Spurs position-wise

nah can't see redknapp leaving over this- the team runs itself, another advantage of not having paranoid chess manager rafa in charge. if billy bob jordan or whoever needs to take over for a few weeks i don't see it being any real change (fuck it, maybe he'd sell keane and play pavlyuchenko)

re: bottling- ferguson's major talent this past few seasons has been cultivating players that aren't afraid to grab a league title when they see it.

They didn't start 05-06 terribly well, no: 2-4-2 when they lost to Fulham in mid-Oct and 12th (with games in hand). But perhaps I'm mired in some earlier era when failure to win yr first eight games didn't automatically provoke CRISIS and TITLE BID IN TATTERS headlines before the leaves were even off the trees. By Jan they were cruising at over 2pts/game but that was rendered meaningless by Chelsea in untouchable mode. Still: 82pts. I'd like 82pts. Wouldn't you like 82pts? We'd all like 82pts. We're not going to get 82pts though. No, sir.

xxxxp

But perhaps I'm mired in some earlier era when failure to win yr first eight games didn't automatically provoke CRISIS and TITLE BID IN TATTERS headlines before the leaves were even off the trees

well i take your point, but there's no point in only reviewing the good bits of a season, is there? spurs fans can always get a dvd for that, for s start.

Still: 82pts. I'd like 82pts. Wouldn't you like 82pts? We'd all like 82pts. We're not going to get 82pts though. No, sir

not much answer to that. but i wouldn't have benitez as a manager to get it for us, if offered.

ferguson's major talent this past few seasons has been cultivating players that aren't afraid to grab a league title when they see it

Hard to overstate how important this is. United hardly ever stumble over the line.

cultivating players that aren't afraid to grab a league title when they see it

I really have no idea how you scout/train for that particular skill.

think Fergie has reached a point where he'd rather lose than draw as it's more likely to gee the team up to win their next two or three. Genius.

I really have no idea how you scout/train for that particular skill.

hardly a resounding refutation

heh because, y'know, that's what each of my posts deserve and all

It wasn't meant to be a resounding refutation.

You don't train for it, but maybe players without a certain mentality don't succeed at Old Trafford?

xp yeah kind of acknowledged that in the follow up :)

i guess fergie recognises the type matt? though the 99 team maybe didn't have a team full of that type of personality, they certainly had a bit more technical ability to make up for it. and roy keane.

but fletcher, for instance- in every football simulation ever that guy is gonna be 20 for mentality, his goal to game ratio in 'big' matches (or when united really need one) is pretty ridiculous for a guy of his fairly limited talent.

though i'm not sure how many more they have- rooney, certainly, gneville. maybe all it takes is three or four strong personalities around the place that really don't get philosophical about the odd loss.

In all seriousness, I think that's right. Most people go with the flow most of the time, you just need enough winners to pull the rest along in their wake. I've seen exactly that argument laid out best in education policy, about getting the mix of achievers/non-achievers in a school right. Get above a certain percentage of achievers and the dossers start doing really well - below that threshhold the achievers turn into dossers themselves.

Rafa contemplating whether the standard of current Liverpool debate on ILx is up to its 04-05 levels.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/47118000/jpg/_47118467_rafa466x282.jpg

Hang on, isn't that David Cameron in a beard?

IK- yeah, exactly.

xpost cameron is also likely to be immune to losing his job despite completely fucking up britain's chances of winning anything amirite.

lol right wing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01004/dirk-kuyt_1004187c.jpg

I think you mean:

http://argville.com/images/funny-pictures/feyenoord.jpg

http://lagranjaberga.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/di_canio_salute1.jpg

xp if properly looked after, they would both be in very different positions.

would not mind swapping keane for kuyt, can we make this happen y/n

I'd rather sign a good striker.

what's your feeling on pavlyuchenko?

I like him a lot but he's not as good as either Crouch or Defoe (terrible first touch for one) and I still harbour hopes that Keane can get back to being the player he was two or three years ago. On the basis that we're not going to play him enough I'd rather we sold him for a decent price and signed a big bullying striker that could run at defenders.

I'm not convinced he's not a better all rounder than crouch, actual aerial ability and finishing taken into account. but yeah if harry's not going to use him then the reports that a few clubs will bite at £10m isn't a bad result.

haven't seen too many names in the frame for a replacement. where's mido lately?

United hardly ever stumble over the line.

I don't have the facts to hand at the moment, but I'm pretty sure United stumbled over the line in 06/07, but they just about managed to outstumble Chelsea. Details a bit hazy in my mind: there was a defeat at Portsmouth. Then there was the fateful day when they were 2-0 down at Everton while Chelsea were winning (I think), but then Chelsea drew and United won 4-2.

Was 07/08 a stumble too? I can't remember if United ever had a convincing lead at the top that season (it was Arsenal who were top until the spring), but I remember them losing at Stamford Bridge very near the end of the season and Chelsea going level on points.

lol didn't phil neville score an own goal in that everton game

Agent Neville to the rescue.

tbh i wasn't disqualifying 'stumbling over the line' as 'grabbing an available title', in fact they're the type of title that other teams have been losing to united in the latter years of success.

even last season united didn't nail down the title, but just did enough i think?

on checking, united's 'blip' was really with 6-7 games to go, ended by 'that' macheda goal and all that (moment of the season, btw?)

No way - Torres destroying Vidic at Old Trafford, immediately followed by Aurelio's free kick was (extended) moment of the season. Don't tell me that those were separate incidents, my memory doesn't want to know.

lol didn't phil neville score an own goal in that everton game

Yes, and Everton couldn't field Howard as he was still on loan (though there seemed to be some dispute about that clause really being in the contract); replacement Iain Turner made a hash of a corner at 2-0 to hand O'Shea a goal. Fernandez's goal in that game still one of the highlights of the season though.

though there seemed to be some dispute about that clause really being in the contract

presumably because these clauses are prohibited by the FA (if not FIFA?)

not sure that those goals changed anything important about the season, although liverpool were some kind of awesome in that match and against real. of course, benitez pushed his spielberg/lucas level of indulgences contract through the next week so long-term obviously they were significant events.

I can't remember the dates, but in my (possibly wildly inaccurate) imagination last season was mostly a bit boring until an insane week where there was the Chelsea 4 Liverpool 4 European game, then the Man Utd 5 Spurs 2 game (with Spurs two-up at half-time), then the Liverpool 4 Arshavin 4 match.

[Howard]

Yes, it was all a bit dodgy (the move was possibly permanent by this time anyway?); ultimately, it was determined that Howard could've played if selected but, mysteriously, he wasn't. This is great fodder for the Fergie-grooming-Moyes-for-OT-job Liverpudlian conspiracists.

Man Utd 5 Spurs 2 game (with Spurs two-up at half-time),

fucking cunt was it clattenburg again or some other sponsored whore?

gentleman's agreement ftw

last year pool had a great tilt at the league...I know because I can't ever remember feeling they were really in the race so late in the season before. When Benayoun scored in the last minute to beat Fulham, the night before Man U played Villa, I was genuinely starting to think Liverpool would win. I still think if Man U hadn't beaten Villa (and if Villa hadn't shat themselves at 2-1) Pool probably would have won.

^this is correct. and it breaks my heart.

Today's popbitch has the story that spice-boys-era Liverpool used to amuse themselves by taking a pound coin onto the field and passing it among themselves during the match - whoever was left with it at the final whistle being the loser and having to pay a forfeit. Rafa may not be having a great time of it just now, but you can't deny he's kept that sort of nonsense stamped out.

That story is old as the hills, it was in McAteer or someone's book, my friend told me about it ages ago. The loser had to buy the drinks. My friends did this for the local footie team...apparently it's amazing fun.

I think free-kicks etc become hilarious, my friends said you'd get a free way up the pitch with 2 mins to go and suddenly the keeper would come sprinting up as if to offer advice or offer to take it, then back he'd go having got rid of the coin. Or three people would race over for a throw in and be passing the coin back and forth.

lol cupsets. chelsea-arsenal final?

So, I suppose we have to ask, are Birmingham City actually good nowadays?

This is a terrific game btw.

jeez at what stage does either dawson or bassong just fucking mark the only threat leeds have? what do these fucking guys work at all week? they get paid a lot to have to be babysat through 90 mins.

rose looks a v good prospect, bale having a good game too. modric having to come in a lot from the right, but hutton doing well overlapping.

defoe's lazy penalty characteristic of his game, week, month tbh.

jenas is rubbish in every way. he reminds me of a dylan moran routine about how fucking with your potential will only spoil it.

JENAS I WILL FIND AND BATTER YOUR CHILDREN YOU FUCKING CUNT

pavlyuchenko should be starting. redknapp needs to admit his mistake.

and that wasn't offside! nice goal between keane/pavlyuchenko chalked off

wow

i cant wait for the replay

oh perfect dawson. perfect. proving your fucking brains there lad, stupid tackle in the box with ten seconds left. fuckwit.

when redknapp can coach a team to defend before the ball drops into the box then he'll earn his money. until then we're still tottenham. so typical it hurts. everything rotten about this club has been shown off this past few days.

I think it was a penalty, it does look like he caught his leg before he did get the ball.

Mind you, Bale was really good, and Hutton wasn't shit.

If Jenas and Crouch start the next game ahead of *anybody* and Pavlyucheno then it's a real question mark on 'arry.

It was a definite penalty- scissoring left leg is always asking the ref to make the call. No complaints about the ref all game, tbh- he didn't call the offside goal we scored, and couldn't have seen the tackle on Defoe in the first half that should have been a penalty.

Ha Ha Spurs! LOL

indeed.

Great game

When it went into injury time I wanted Leeds to score because it was a really good cup-tie and I quite fancied watching a replay. Should be a good one.

Fully expecting us to do the classic third-tier team thing of fluking a run to the semis by not playing anyone good. Home to Reading next round, maybe?

yeah. i can't see us being any better than that in terms of overall play, because that was quite a good performance. but jesus christ do we ever lose our heads at critical moments- defoe's soft peno, jenas for the first goal just gawking at a bouncing ball in the box, dawson making a crazy tackle in the last minute- and they were just the things that had a direct impact on the score, but it seems like every 50/50 ball at the moment is turning into a gift due to shit decision making.

credit leeds, they came to play a bit and beckford just bent dawson and bassong over all afternoon. pathetic showing from two centre halves that should be looking to push their way into the first team.

I went to Portsmouth v Sunderland yesterday. The insolvent v the incompetent, as I saw it described elsewhere.

A pretty dire standard of football all round, an awful lot of long-ball hoofing from both sides.

But at least Pompey see to be able to defend the long ball. :-(

too early

There's one thing worse than ITV's coverage: ITV's streaming.

Yeah, you can't watch a bit you've already seen without it having to load again

Think Clive Tyldsley is probably right that too many handballs are given in football?

lol at their 'omg this rory delap fella likes to throw it! and he takes some time in his build up! this can't be right, never seen this before. the ref must add on like 15 minutes!' schtick. jeez itv, you can watch non-fa cup/champions league football the rest of the year.

Cesc should get the towel and spend three minutes drying his boot before taking a corner.

every time I click on this thread, stoke score.

the two times i weren't watching, stoke score. never gonna take my eyes of le arse ever again.

every time I click on this thread, stoke score.

are you just clicking refresh a lot here or

STOP REFRESHING FFS

Congratulations Chelsea

Fuck off.

Fucking Stoke.

Fuck it.

free to concentrate on finishing 3rd

Stoke City fans, yesterday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJGBusE6Tvo

the day before their team beat arsenal, in the fa cup

beat them 3-1 in fact

Explains the empty seats.

they are bad people, that stoke lot. bad people whose team has just won, by 3 goals, to 1

"Cesc should get the towel and spend three minutes drying his boot before taking a corner."

Maybe they'd have gone near an Arsenal player then

All in all not a bad game. JET played well out of position, Theo closer to match fitness, Coq, Eastmond and Vela got some more experience.

Theo closer to a transfer to the Championship, more like.

now their pro evo thingies will bleep up a few percentage points - o look coquelin has moved up to 76 long pass accuracy :)

Theo closer to a transfer to the Championship, more like.

― James Mitchell, Sunday, 24 January 2010 15:51 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Jeez, the guy has made what, two starts this season? No wonder people hate Arsenal fans.

swap deal w/ aliadiere

arselol?

lol campbell?

GO ON SCUNTHORPE

best FA cup ever

worst FA cup ever

worst goalkeeping ever

absolutely certain i'd have given a better stab at saving that

probably still wouldn't save it

i'd have cleaned out the ball, and onuoha, and a large divot of turf

and let in the resulting penalty

this is all predicated on me playing for scunthorpe

and them getting this far in the competition with you in goal

nah i'm on emergency loan from bolton

Linesman Mo Matadar (who incidentally is the man who should have flagged Paul Hayes offside before he scored for Scunthorpe)

quite a name for someone who waves a brightly coloured piece of cloth in the name of sport

GO ON SCUNTHORPE,

Really enjoying this.

lol fixed draw

in which dj martian hangs self from cd rack

Dear manifest destiny - fuckin' do one, eh?

reckon we'll see some real goddamn football violence for a change

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v356/kenjuggle3/arselolshavin.jpg

Neil Warnock - Suggest Broadmoor

I'm really enjoying this, it's exactly what things were like before they created the unnatural beast that is footy at the top of the Premiership.

Always nice to see Selhurst Park too - every time the ball goes over the far side I mentally replay Cantona on Matthew Simmons. Wonder if he's there tonight?

I dunno if I'm enjoying it or not, Wolves not much better than they were on Saturday and a Palace team that looks like it'd be more at home getting thrown out of Weatherspoon's on a Saturday night. Warnock genuinely does need some kind of sedative/Hannibal Lecter mask combo administering.

I guess I'd be enjoying it more if it wasn't my bunch of inept effete overpaid Premier Leaguers being subjected to aggravated assault.

Also enjoy it more if McCarthy took a blow to the head at half time and forgot that the 4-5-1 formation existed.

They're doing a good job of not looking like Premier Leaguers to be fair (not entirely an insult, that)

We're actually getting worse by the minute OMIGOD HE'S BRINGING 2 STRIKERS ON

that just about sums it up tbf

Hat trick!

My pleasure in this competition is only tempered by the knowledge that whatever happens, the final will still be Chelsea beating Stoke 4-0

hahaha McCarthy Out

Haha - 7 goals in 252 games, followed by a hat trick in eight minutes!

Oh well, it'll be nice to watch the Villa without having to travel 150 miles

too much to hope for kaboul on the team sheet tonight?

i thoght i read that you can't play people in replays who weren't in the original tie?

jesus what am i thinking kaboul will be cuptied obviously.

although tbh i've never heard of the rule you're quoting, it sounds a bit mental.

yeah, he's cuptied, think i read that in relation to gudjohnsen.

i've never heard that. maybe it's to do with players that weren't registered to the team in the original tie?

i don't know, can't remember where i read it.

You definitely can't play people in the second leg of a two-legged tie if they weren't in your squad for the first leg, I assume replays are the same?

that i can buy.

pav injured. so defoe and crouch up front again. hm.

they've got 28 in 28 starts together, right? dunno why they're depressing me at the moment, but i've a feeling that 20 of those came a loooong time ago.

I've never heard of this. You're cuptied if you've already played in the competition for another club during that season, but this 'can't play in replay if you weren't in the first match' thing is new to me: what if you had loads of injuries, or a bout of swine flu?

that's what i'm saying- 'if you weren't a registered player for team A' is more like it i think.

"what if you had loads of injuries, or a bout of swine flu?"

well then obviously you're down to the bare bones

"Striker Roman Pavlyuchenko (groin) is not expected to feature tonight, while new signing Eidur Gudjohnsen is unavailable as he was not involved in the original tie. "

from F365, but I still think they've garbled that.

It's squad, I'm certain that some of the losers we played last night didn't turn up and be shit in the first match.

that's the kind of sentence i habitually sit up in bed and shout at my girlfriend. completely lost.

I don't like football any more tbh

malaise of the yo yo club fan needs a great novel written about it

I've often thought that football needs a great novel written about it but maybe fandom wd be a better/funnier/sadder subject.

heh not counting fever pitch then? damned utd?

dunphy's book isn't a novel but it's essential

I like Damned Utd a lot but wd fall shy of calling it Great plus I'm not sure Peace is properly a football fan, it's not wholly about football. Fever Pitch isn't really a novel as far as I know? but in any event I have never, nor will I ever, read it, so I'm not counting it.

I liked 'Fever Pitch' well enough but it's more about him being a dick than it is about football.

I read a couple of Brian Glanville's novels as a teenager so I suppose they deserve another chance cos I probably wouldn't have got literary writing back then, but I don't think Glanville's all that so I doubt he counts either.

It'd be cool to have a book that inhabited and celebrated just how important football is to so many lives but without being lol twee nostalgia or some "sport as high art" abstracted beyond its social context and the people that engage in it cobblers.

rooney's autobiography

You'll have to explain when you're kidding, I hardly ever read auto/biographies.

I have read Alan Ball's It's All About A Ball tho. All I remember of that is stories about the England team on the piss.

"With 'Rooney: My Story', the literary art has hit a new high"

The Times

Hunter Davies ghost-wrote? He's okay tbh.

"With 'Gerrard: My Autobiography', something new and terrible has been born- yet not without grace and a dark beauty"

London Book Review

lol a terrible beauty

does the Gerrard end with him totally not punching the shit out of some DJ in a pub?

Tony Cascarino's book is meant to be good; I've given it as a present but I haven't read it myself. Fever Pitch is pretty great I reckon, from what I can remember - and it really is about football's place in a guy's life rather than football itself, if that's what you were getting at. It certainly resonated deeply with my uncle, I've heard him quoting the bit about Gus Caesar to people on more than one occasion. I loved Brian Glanville's Goalkeepers Are Different too, but I was about eight years old at the time.

Cascarino's would be great entertainment- coming out as a lolpaddy caused a massive stir over here at the time.

NV i regret to advise that I've not read any of these weighty tomes.

don't think I will get round to them either. also I hate football.

"With 'Terry: That bloke that look slike an ageing crack addict who still gets laid by reasonably nice guys partners', the author reveals deep and abiding secrets of both the personal and the universal. We have come to truth by the final pages."

Terry Venables, writing in Viz

If you don't like football, there are a couple of decent novels about hooliganism - Awaydays by Kevin Sampson, which is pretty good, and Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh, which is ridiculous (still pretty good, just tear out the last ten pages before you start).

Fever Pitch is pretty great I reckon, from what I can remember

I should've added a few more caveats

oh shit sorry i had actually meant to post an (admittedly slighter) agreement, not just leave it there as snark or anything.

fever pitch is good, and it pretty much does at least try to interweave the football aspect with the personal aspect of the narrator's life.

Yeah, but I was thinking of a novel where Football itself would be the subject, I guess.

have you read dunphy, he repeated to the room in general

Fever Pitch isn't really a novel as far as I know? but in any event I have never, nor will I ever, read it, so I'm not counting it.

Why's that?

maybe he read 'how to be good' or 'about a boy' first. pity, i think we've lost him.

is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?

depends on if you saw his fade before his burn i guess.

Spurs looked great til they scored

Cracking atmosphere at Elland Road tonight

All credit to Leeds for the response, serious amount of pressure in those ten minutes.

Did Andy Townsend really just say
"technically he's offside but by the letter of the law he's not" ? Cos if so that makes no fucking sense!!!

Oh ITV why must you spoil football for me?

He is such a dick.

Pompey are saving a tenner tonight by playing some bloke in midfield who hasn't even got his name or number printed on his shirt.

I knew one day djmartian turning up at the game in his strip with his football boots would pay off for him.

multi xposts Re: Nick Hornby - personally, without getting into a debate of his de/merits, I won't spend time reading a writer I have no interest whatsoever. Don't care about his aesthetic or his ideas, but that's just me and I'm not saying other people don't feel differently.

Bentley has finally found his level.

(xpost) but presumably when Fever Pitch came out you'd never heard of him and had no preconceptions as to his aesthetic or ideas?

Well no obv but now I do so no chance of me reading it in future? I've got friends who seem to read some terrible stuff just so they can't be accused of slagging something off that they haven't read, but that seems v. masochistic and I'm not slagging (here) just avoiding.

bentley was great last night, can he be marked by that dude every week?

even jenas looked useful.

i reckon we'd CLEAN UP in the Championship

Jenas's head is really small. I can't be the first person to have noticed but it's all I can think of when I see him and, to be honest, it's starting to affect my enjoyment at watching him play

jermaine peanut

Cardiff, Stoke and Saints to win today, please.

^they say that he's a dreamer etc

Eh, Cardiff have looked like an organised and effective team for 90% of the time but what is the point when you go to sleep around your penalty area so often

Robbie Earle: "Lescott and Toure are gonna have to stand up to (Stoke). They're gonna have to have some lumps on their head."

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00032/lescott_280x420_32758a.jpg

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00032/lescott_280x420_32758a.jpg

Cracking assist from Shawcross there.

Totally forgot that Bolton-Spurs was an earlyish kickoff

Second half has been some sort of marriage of painful and maddening and awesome. Defoe just equalised. Someone will probably be sent off

Jesus fucking christ

Spurs would literally have been better off using the two minutes between the handball and the penalty just playing on

5live: two scandinavian players jaaskelainen and Steinsson are having a serious discussion i wonder if they're speaking in english.

The penalty kind of ruined this - was a fantastic twenty minutes leading up to it

Bolton were shockingly good in the first half. Shame they couldn't keep it up once the pressure was on. I have a feeling that's how the rest of our season will go.

This is rather good stuff, absolutely electric atmosphere.

Yeah, the Neil Warnock puff-piece in the build-up was great as well. Having missed the first game to watch an utterly abject Rangers team cheat their way past Hibs, I'm delighted to see an actual real decent cup tie.

Woah, what a shot!!!

Cracking free kick.

2-2 now, Stan Petrov, been a right good match, though wouldn't bet against something happening in the last minute or so.

Quarter finals:

Portsmouth v Birmingham

Reading/West Brom v Crystal Palace/Aston Villa

Fulham v Bolton/Spurs

Chelsea v Man City/Stoke

Decent draw that. Chelsea-Pompey final I reckon, Pompey going all Palace/Brighton/Boro in the end.

Had a great view of that Ambrose screamer. Pretty pissed the replay is four days before the league cup final though.

“He can swig his Moët & Chandon but I’ve been drinking Dom Perignon for the past 12 years,” Savage said.

“Hopefully he won’t spend all his money on champagne and save some for his retirement.“Once he’s played 350 League games at the top he can go from Moët to the vintage I drink. I’ll buy him a bottle myself. He’s played but a handful of games in the Premier League and he’s saying that. I’m a wind-up merchant, but I’ve got more respect. I would never have gone up to Roy Keane and said that in my first season. He was out of order.”

Bob Savage's measured response to Roger Johnson saying "I will celebrate this victory by drinking Champagne"

Bob Savage showing a sense of perspective

I’ve got more respect

tattoo this on this cunt's forehead imo.

he is a legend wind-up merchant though

“The Birmingham fans shouted that I was greedy. But I wasn't greedy. The fans will find out when I publish my book that wasn't the case. I didn't make any gestures at them,” he added.

that is genius though.

plus he was great in the phones 4 u ads.

i'm assuming it was taylor just put a 35 yard screamer an inch wide, phew. nice setup by bale

pav and modric again.

just lost the stream, i take it that's good news?

1-0!

hoo raa

who now

kamara you fuck who scored? oh us good

Villa goal: If anyone ever tells you that lightning never strikes twice, tell them they've clearly never heard of The Great Aston Villa-Crystal Palace Saga 2010, as it's about to become known. Villa win a corner WHEN CLEARLY IT WASN'T A CORNER, AGAIN, and from the resulting set-piece, Gabby Agbonlahor glances in a header. Someone get me a visual on Neil Warnock. Pronto.

looooooooooooooooooool

looks like Spurs took Og on loan from United for this match.

3 0 but feckin missed it again

mancini out

mancini in

adebayor off

peno at villa for palace

scored

spurs seem to have 11 left footers on the pitch

peno to villa

lol all over the shop

also scored, and fuck a 'duplicate message' code

darragh making bbc liverblogging look shit.

certainly i've got brevity on my side

liverblogging? Is that done from a pub?

gudjohnsen looks good, btw, but we're trying the hollywood through balls now so he's not getting much chance to make it stick

i'm at home with my liverbird

dowie killin it with his match reports on SS1

bolton play good football, and should probably have put a few in but they've finished like an amalgamation of peter crouch's quick feet and robbie keane's focus

lol typos. itv coverage almost most being made to look good by the ssn folks. what the fuck is that black streak on a silver hood hair cut?

lost count of the number of times spurs defenders have passed it to bolton attackers under no pressure.

reading 3-2 up in extra time

pav!

made a cunt of zat knight there. lovely touch and finish

BERBATOVESQUE there i said it

lawrence concedes a second stupid penalty on carew. scored

peno at villa for villa, scored

luka modric is the best footballer in europe

stream bows out right on cue. I'm off to Stoke

spurs have just been playin playground stuff in a packed bolton box, practice match stuff.

Villa!

luka modric is the best footballer in europe

― quiz show flat-track bully (darraghmac), Wednesday, 24 February 2010 21:49 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol dude maicon was just on telly.

sturridge moved to chelsea too xp

was expecting you to come back with bendtner tbh i'm not sure our double act is gonna work

mancini out again

Sorry.

Also Rory Delap long throw.

fuck a 'duplicate message' code

― quiz show flat-track bully (darraghmac)

Wonder if the BBC has these re Villa penalties. Bizarre

Stoke!

(d for the madness)

sturridge gone to chelsea too iirc

STOKE!

STOKE!

lol city

STURRIDGE!

fantastic bit of play by glenn whelan! also fran merida.

lol ssn just did a goslingv.liverpool

ssn great value tonight, dowie zinging presenter, merson an ass, dude on villa game just can't get over lawrence's penalties

What the hell happened?!! I took me five mins to get the Stoke game set up, I wasn't expecting that.

How does Mancini's record at City compare to Hughes's this season?

sky is broeked ;_;

How does Mancini's record at City compare to Hughes's this season?

― Home Taping Is Killing Muzak (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Wednesday, 24 February 2010 21:59 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sold a lot more scarves.

warnock out.

dude lucio and samuel aren't strong? how fucking retarded are you guy-on-the-telly-i-currently-have-forgotten-the-name-of.

(charlie nicholas, my bad.)

Has anyone got a West Brom-Reading stream? Feels wrong to have just one match on

hats off to Stoke

So, I'm guessing a Spurs v Chelsea final, then?

take it that this is on terrestial tv somewhere again? itv with the sound down?

not if you're in Scotland. stupid STV.

you can get English ITV on Virgin and Sky.

also http://www.itv.com/sport/football/news/facup/manualstories/thisweekendonitvcomwatchallfourfacupquarterfinalslive3678/default.html

yeah, but I'd have to go somewhere else. leaving the flat when the FA Cup used to be all about rolling from the bed to the couch and just camping out.

Oh noes, you will have to go to the pub.

Is the minute of applause for Pompy's death?

Macclesfield manager. Presumably applause to drown out celebratory ringing from that cnut with the death knell.

Er, signalling death of Portsmouth, like, not Macclesfield manager. Note to self: read before hitting submit.

Birmingham denied a blatant, crucial goal. Surely the case for goalline technology is now answerable.

Cheer up Alex McLeish :-)

You'd better piquionne the bones of that...dear God, that's worse than any Linekerisms :-(

1341: This quite baffling news just in: The International Football Association Board have announced that goal-line technology will not be pursued in the future.

^before the disallowed goal

Good bit of karma for Small Heath's tooth-grindingly bullshit penalty winner last week

Wembley, Wembley: It's The Special Part Of London That The Blues Will Never See

they've surely played a play-off final or two there

but yeah, watched the first half at my friend's and I challenged him to name a Birmingham player who wasn't an irredeemable cunt, so he said 'Cameron Jerome', at which point the telly showed a slo-mo replay of our man elbowing Tal Ben Haim hard in the face

Kevin Phillips can't be that bad a guy, surely? I assume Joe Hart is a bit of a twat, but maybe not a cunt?

I Wanted Joe Hart is on loan so doesn't really count, and his humility when asked about the England goalkeeping position marks him out as not a true Blue

Phillips may not be much of a cunt but he scores cuntish goals, always nipping in against your team to finish something that should have been cleared

Liam Radgewell might be one of the worst, you did well letting him go

I like McFadden, though that's more to do with his Scotland heroics than anything he's ever done at club level.

never forgive

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V-0tEM-SR0&feature=related

oh come on that's beautiful

yeah gotd if messi didnt exist.

havent yet heard lol-foootballing-rapists rumours about their two centre halves?

Liam Ridgewell literally rapes our national sport every week

james mccarthy, a corner flag and a linesman all ravished in one swift, deadly lunge, for the price of a talking-to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggquIS8LyQs

not inspiring stuff out here.

pavlyuchenko is rubbish, i can't understand why harry persists with him week after week. modric shit too.

Simon Davies is having a fucking mare

ok was

have any of you latte-sipping continental types seen David Elm's kid brother Rasmus play and is he the future Ballon D'or winner excitable Scandinavians claim?

Villa's cup games continuing to be fucking mental

Absolutely bizarre. The first half was the worst 45 Villa's played all season and the start of the second is a cracker. Keep it going Villa!

having been at Aston Villa 0-2 Wigan I have to disagree, but yeah, the O'Neill half time teamtalk is a thing of mysterious beauty

Ashley Young's turtle being returned to him alive and well at 17:00 GMT if this stays the same

I forgot the Wigan game. Worst since Wigan, surely.

I do wish Villa could clear a ball once in a while instead of kicking it straight up.

Yeah this has still got a bit of a next goal wins vibe to it but they've not really adequately counter-attacked any of Reading's last ten massive surges forward

does it feel big and clever, to break everyone's heart like this

celebrating John Carew's hat trick by singing "John Carew Carew, he's bigger than me and you, he's gonna score one or two" - best fans in the world

I think lying down for the first 45 minutes was quite gracious, thanks

these being the same fans who spent 40 minutes singing nothing except "two nil and you fucked it up"

i mean cmon guys, you may be the physical manifestation of randy lerner's philanthropy but no need to rub it in when you decide to whisk the sweet-bag away

our fans are all either senile malcontents or feral chavs who hate everything tbh. Think the first thing they sang at Palace was "where's all your money gone?"

lemme guess you're a feral malcontent who hates seniles

also there was something inevitable about heskey powering that finish into the goalkeeper; he is a man of brute and forthright habit

now to watch a ball being repeatedly thrown into john terry's face until he literally bends over and begs for death

Was getting a bit radge-y during the last 30 of that, I gotta say. First half was quite fun, spent all of it trolling Villatalk.

At least Heskey rode the shit tackle that would've got the last man sent off and faced up to his inevitable shitnuss in the one on one situation

First half was quite fun, spent all of it trolling Villatalk.

if there is a spirit, that is it

yeah true, would have been a red card but i'd have backed downing or young to score the free-kick more than i'd back heskey for the 1 v 1 so tbh it's more a card for bailing heskey out than denying a goalscoring opportunity

also did you see that for the penalty there were actually two penalty-worthy fouls, just to make sure

They should let us save them up and use them to get a penalty whenever we want, WWE Money In The Bank style. Between those and Vidic's various three minute long chain wrestling fouls on Gabby over the years we could go unbeaten for a season

all losing 1-0 to a plucky and utterly deserving display from notts forest, and bam there it is, 87th minute, deploy the PowerBolt

CM Punk all striding menacingly down the tunnel with a briefcase in hand to step up and send Lee Camp the wrong way

and then stomp around the centre-circle for five minutes making belligerent noises at the travelling support until the referee blows for full-time and hands him a belt

robert earnshaw all booked for trying to start the game again when he clearly just got Punk'd

our fans are all either senile malcontents or feral chavs who hate everything tbh. Think the first thing they sang at Palace was "where's all your money gone?"

― MPx4A, Sunday, 7 March 2010 15:41 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Eduardo..Woaahhh
Eduardo..Woahhhhh
He used to have silky skills
And now he walks like Heather Mills

if you sing that you literally deserve to have your car blown up

i mean it doesn't even scan for fuck's sake

"he had some silky skills"

that was a Spurs creation though rite

iirc it was sung the game after it happened?

Yeah, Spurs sang it in the midweek game and our charming lads adopted it for the Saturday, only to to be shut up by heroic one-goal Nicklas Bendtner

Stoke bringing on Dave Kitson as their supersub isn't going well, is it?

Not since Clark Carlisle stole his powers.

He had powers?

his commitment to the passive-agressive note is unmatched in football

Jim Beglin's one trick is immediately saying "he shouldn't have done that, he should have kicked the ball in the goal instead"

Chelsea are absolutely definitely going to win the FA Cup, aren't they

I dunno, I still have hopes for vilola, loltenham and lolham.

you forgot portsmlol

no i didnt

When's the next round draw?

1754: Don't forget the semi-final draw is coming up shortly.

Think I'd rather get Chelsea here

don't think you can have high hopes for both fulham and tottenham.

missed all football so far today, i take it villa won then

Well, there you go then.

xpost

Spurs v Chelsea final, then.

cheer up, maybe ramsey will walk again this summer

Chelsea-Pompey final is inevitable here, as I have been saying for weeks.

xp He needs to drink more milk first.

Re: the Eduardo song, I've been told that Arsenal have been singing:
'Adebayor, Adebayoooo-or, he used to like coach trips, but not any more'
(I have no proof of this, though)

Our Adebayor song is 'He's five foot four, he's five foot four, we've got arshavin, fuck adebayor' afair

I also wouldn't put it past Arsenal fans if the other one has been sung. Arsenal fans are horrible for the most part.

If Pompey do make the final, they may have to do without several of their players, who will be making their final appearances for the club in the semi-final because of expensive trigger clauses in their contracts

It's the only possible way for this season to end.

I know he's got form, but how have I been completely unaware of the majesty of David James' latest hairstyle? Please say he's growing it on purpose in some kind of Portsmouth solidarity.

it's like that season of America's Next Top Model where Miss J. didn't get a haircut through the competition and by the end had a fro with like a five foot diameter.

WHAT.

turned on to lol wembley pitch meme

lol coward webb

What happened? I just switched on.

Stone. Cold. Penalty.

Shocking.

carew smh

ITS NICHOLASSSSSSSSSSSS ANELKA YOU PRICK SRSLY HE HAS BEEN IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL SINCE 96 AND NICHOLAS IS A COMMON FUCKING NAME HERE, WHY ARE YOU BEING SUCH A PUBIC HAIR?

why the empty seats? crappy views but expensive? given to sponsors?

Stadium half empty.
Pitch a disgrace.
Referee a disgrace.
Game as shit as it gets.
Lucky goal by the least deserving team.

The spirit of the FA Cup lives on.

florent 'ballon d'or 2010' malouda

chelsea singing "we're going to wembley", in wembley.

Chelsea looking good for the double. If they do it, that means there'll've been more doubles in the last 16 years than there were in the first 106.

wtf john terry staying on a pitch? webb is a cunt

What do you mean? Dirty foreigner James Milner should apologise to upstanding English national captain John Terry for not making his leg cave in two.

http://i41.tinypic.com/33b0ho2.gif

Fucking hell, I missed that. Did Milner survive?

y luckily

omg that terry foul, missed that too.

I'm going to be so amazingly gutted if we blow this opportunity to lose to Chelsea in the final.

If a team gets done for cheating in the league, I'm not sure why they're allowed to cheat their way to an FA Cup semi.

pretty sure Chelsea fans were singing "whatever will be will be, we're going to win the league", which is fair enough

everything else about that fucking bent farce of a game can fuck off

dis fuckin pitch

will actually be surprised if one m dawson doesn't lose this for us today, based on first 24 mins. but modric is on song.

jesus this is incredibly open.

gareth bale is actually having a little rest on the sideline 38 mins in.

huddlestone with a beauty strike, great save james.

omg that was nearly spunk in pants right there

that was indeed lovely. too delicate to be a YOMP, yes?

interested by recent news report saying Michael Dawson refuses to book a holiday with his girlfriend over the summer in case he's in the England team

yeah, definitely not a YOMP

lolololol xp thing is it isn't the longest of shots :/

cos I mean I just booked mine for the end of the group stages and I'm gonna cancel it if I get the call

dude, ireland got eliminated

by henry's hand

the hand of thierry henry

dude's just being cheap. come June he'll just be all SORRY LOVE TOO LATE TO GO ABROAD, BLACKPOOL IT IS ONCE MORE.

wtf is going on with bale

I've had a rough weekend, fucked if I'm gonna let several months of good form change my opinion of Michael Dawson

The Ireland thing and Villa's season just makes me think that for all the "Signing of the Season" talk Richard Dunne should basically be on suicide watch over the summer

turned down chance to understudy at rb for paul mcshane, because i mean fuck that.

ref wtf booking hudd for slipping on that shit

dawson's form has been, as always, one step from disaster tbh. palacios is the difference, not dawson, and with no credible DM for england then i don't see any chance.

lol crazy game

A good team would be smashing us right now. If its still like this after 60mins or so then it's Pav time.

yeah they sure are getting a lot of joy on the break. they're playing some variation of 424 based on numbers in our box as soon as they get the ball.

think they'll tire though, thy're killing themselves out there.

didn't expect defoe off but they're so deep he can't really get behind them. pav in

eh that's a handball? maybe not in the box

england crouch would have scored two by now

england david james would have let in three more

Think David James has just destroyed our CL chances by ensuring another 30mins.

ty pompy for the easy 3pts at the lane in midweek btw, was worried about that game until lol extra time heavy legs.

!

LIFE'S A PITCH

piqui-that-onne out of the net, gomes!

who get the europa space if pompy when this shit?

will actually be surprised if one m dawson doesn't lose this for us today

― Jesse James Woods (darraghmac), Sunday, 11 April 2010 15:26 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I guess it goes to 7th?

lol

Lol, just lol

Ooh, controversy.

appalling refereeing