saint1977

Agreed Steve and it was a shocker in the first game, the ball pitched so far outside leg that it may as well have pitched in China! Remember Hussain getting one of those in Sri Lanka a few years ago. Moores is clueless though, Bopara got 50n.o last time yet good old counties Peter still bats him at 8. His bowling, whilst not world-beating, is now superior to Collingwood's yet Colly can keept get single-figure scores as he's Peter's friend yet Ravi doesn't bowl an over. I don't always agree with Darren Gough but I do on this - England's ODI selection is based on facial fit and not ability or form. If it wasn't, Colly (who has performed in the past to be fair) and Bell (who has only 1 ODI ton and has done very little in ODIs when it counts) wouldn't be in the squad.

Peter Moores is awful at International level, I hate seeing England lose but a few more defeats like this might rid us of the tosser. Get back to the counties and let someone who understands cricket at that level take control.

The ref was a cvnt but then most of them are at this level. It was bad enough in the PL. What is it with English refs and linos? If we can have 4 leagues full of overseas players, we can have overseas refs until ours get fit/stop being biased/stop being media tarts. Seriously, I wouldn't be suprised if Saturday's ref either a) had a few quid on Wolves winning 2-1 or b) got a nice brown envelope from someone pre-match. I've seen some bad refs over the last 4 years but this guy was much worse but we'll struggle to ever prove it. Having said that, there's probably some UEFA or FIFA edict saying that we can't import superior, proper "professional" refs from Scandinavia, Italy, Spain, Germany or France. The Football League may as well have saved money and pulled a Wolves fan out of the away end to take charge.

Real shame that it has gone bust, Black Penny is a superb Porter and Lionheart is a good beer. 11 jobs gone too.

Why do England bother with Bell-end? He's just a bottler.

Ian Bell-end is a classic example. He scores a century and a half-century every Test and ODI innings and averages 40 but doesn't have the mental ability for International cricket when the pressure is even mildly on. This latest dismissal - wide slash with no footwork - could have been a repeat from Ashes 2005, Pakistan 2005/6 (after which he was dropped for a while) etc etc. The problem isn't KP - our only ODI player along with Flintoff of note - but Peter Moores. Moores is a mixture of Ian Branfoot and JP, classic counties boy which is why the ECB love him. His latest crackerjack was trying to put India off by saying they might not be ready for the game - well Peter, they just walloped the Aussies. Not only that, Yuvraj still carted us everywhere with a back spasm! Moores is embarrassing and really must go before the Caribbean tour in the Spring. Surprised he doesn't pick Kirtley and Robin-Jenkins from Kirtley for their "deadly" 70mph missiles - bet Sachin, Raul and co. would be quaking in their boots! Truth is, world cricket has moved on from the county scene Moores remembers from the 80s. It'll be sad to not go to the Caribbean with the Barmy Army this time around but the memories of 2004 are still fresh!

Totally agree with you but it is unforgivable that Haringey's Senior Management refused to apologise at the Press Conference and instead put out a sheet of A4 spin about how great they are. Shows you the attitude at the top of that LA - they have a hard job as those of us who have been to watch Saints at Spurs in the past know what a tough, deprived Borough it is! Nevertheless, it is no excuse for sticking their well-paid heads in the sand.

He's awful - Charlton are really in the crap to take him on trial. Hope they sign him though because our lads should be scoring goals against them if Pardew is daft enough to play him. Davenport and Bernard were still worse though IMO. How do some players get a contract?

Yes, I remember that and it's mentioned in a number of books. Does anyone remember Filbert St in 1994/5 when Leicester fans were pelting us with coins and then after the FA Cup game a couple of years ago they also had a significant pop at our coaches? Well done Hatch on the Home Office tables, it has to be said that as one of the biggest clubs outside the PL, our arrest rates are still comparatively low although the Cup arrest figure was high for 06/07 - wonder why? All the usual suspects in the PL had high figures - Skates, Man U etc and in League 1 Millwall, Leeds and Forest had very high banning order and arrest figures. Surprised at Grimsby and Lincoln though, guess they must have had a couple of derby games with lots of trouble. I'm not excusing SW Police in any way because it sounds like they were OTT but Police forces do tend to be so after dealing with a lot of violence in a high profile game - Swansea V Cardiff in the Carling Cup had occured 2 weeks before with a lot of quite serious violence to deal with.

Good point and it's all the bits off of the pitch as well. SCW put in place a structure that was aimed at working with the cream of Europe's young players rather than PL cast-offs and the odd gem like Bale. It would have been wonderful if we'd stayed in the PL and probably very successful but in hindsight, which is always wonderful, perhaps SCW could have scaled his plans down a bit and that's not being critical of SCW. Now, we can probably barely afford the electricity to light and the heat the buildings! Plus our other overheads would have been higher after 13 years of SKY PL money. PL clubs are such highly geared organisations now that the turbulence of relegation, particularly when not experienced in a generation as with us, is devastating. Charlton spent two season's worth of transfer budget in their last PL season so if you think we're in trouble, watch events at the Valley unless they get a lucky takeover. I also know that they paid a kid from Crewe, Luke Varney, £23k per week and that came from another club he was in talks with (not SFC). Imagine what their players from the PL era still there are on... Also, the £7m gamble by Wilde et al didn't come off either, hence the current plight. That said, Palace kept Johnson and the better players and still came unstuck in the play-offs V Watford. As for Norwich, their fanbase was unified by being hours from administration until a lifelong fan (not a Lifelong Saint...) came to their rescue - Geoffrey Watling. Robert Chase, their former Chairman, if you think Guy Askham was of the worst men in football (and I did and still do), this guy was a really bad egg in comparison! He still had his loyal followers before the truth on Chase's actions emerged but Norwich fans ran a really protacted campaign to get him out otherwise he really would have killed that club.

I'd swap Lancashire for Perry (if recovered from the snots) and BWP for Robertson (ditto Perry) from that side. BWP is a sub-only for me when the opposition's back 4 are tiring. Would definately bring Lallana back in though.

I think a few of the squad have had a bug as the weather changes going into winter. A number of CCC clubs seemed to be fielding players who were well under 100% fit at the weekend for the same reason.

Bristol are more inconsistent this year whereas last season when they visited they were in the heart of the promotion race, culminating in the play-off final. Should be a good game, they just happened to be on the end of our best performance of last season at SMS!

Crap beer, they are welcome to it. They'd fit in well later in the evening as well given their reputation for trouble.

You'll be pleased to know Wes Tender that Lowe copped a few from me as did Blair - not a fan of his either and can't stand the main 2 parties. I vote either Green or Independent these days. Guy Askham would have taken the most punches if he'd been up there though, followed by Branfoot and Joey Barton.

There's some real scum on there other than Lowe - Redknapp, Thatcher, Michael Howard, John McCain, Boris Johnson. Crikey, I don't like Lowe and gave him a few token punches but he looks like an alright bloke compared to the others on there!

Great to hear that, players and fans have been disengaged for so long, bar the Sheff Utd game last season. Delighted for the fans too, we've so had so little to cheer about since beating the Skates December 2003 3-0 that we deserve a bit more of this. Hopefully we can get the investment or takeover we need to keep Lallana, Surman and Gobern if he continues to look such a good prospect after his debut and shore up the academy so that we can keep our reputation intact there as well. A couple of experienced faces would really help out JP in the dressing room and the young lads on the pitch as mentors.

Our aim wouldn't be good as Villa's though. That said, it was Redknapp we were aiming at, even I'd probably hit with my poor throwing abilities!

Tell them that the people do not live at your address any longer -I've had this when I moved into a new place a few years ago. Confirm who you are by identification and they will depart sharpish. You certainly do not have to let them in.

Obama please!

Just look at another sport - Anthony Hamilton, Lewis's dad. He shows that you can be ambitious but also treat people with respect and has helped Lewis make the right decisions and forge the right alliances and not always the ones that are the most trendy. The Hamiltons and Ron Dennis of McClaren have shown each other a lot of loyalty and invested a lot in Lewis between them - if that was football, the dad would have told the son to go to Ferrari because the agent had put a £250k bung in his pocket.

Probably more like it. Great to see the spirit and celebrations after Drew's goal, let's have more of it. In sport, you have to grab opportunities and I believe PNE's missing that sitter at 2-0 was the catalyst for the lads to think "we can either get battered 5-0 again up here or have at go at these and see if they wobble". The lads gave it real go and were fully rewarded.

It's also down to sensible parenting - Theo comes from an encouraging and balanced background. Some parents are just not grounded in reality in relation to their "prodigy".

It's because Rovers are only a Centre of Excellence whereas the Academy clubs will always get the best young players, as we traditionally have (Theo, Bale etc). Even though Sinclair had broken through, the argument would be that the better coaching would make him go the extra mile in his career. Not sure I totally agree, young players were traditionally blooded in the lower leagues - David Platt didn't do badly being at Crewe for example. A warning to Lowe and Wilde though - dilute the formula at your peril, Academy status can be given and taken away.

Sounds like Johnson's agent may be hawking him around, McAllister hasn't always picked him this season and wanted to see him work harder - my best mate is a Leeds fan - although I believe he's back in the picture now.