stevegrant

Hampshire won the toss and are batting. 32/0 off 3.5 overs, Lumb and Adams opening. Lineup: Lumb, Adams, Carberry, Benham, Dawson, Ervine, Pothas, Mascarenhas, Tomlinson, Tahir, Taylor

Heskey will stick to his position and is a decent link-up targetman. Rooney tries to be about 5 different players at once, and unfortunately it makes him completely ineffective for England.

I wonder who his agent might be...

Yep...

With the central midfield options being him, Jimmy Bullard (clearly not good enough) and Jermaine Jenas (likewise, but without the attitude and commitment), there really wasn't any other option If Gerrard was fit, I'd have him in there instead of Lumpoflard, but he's not...

Jermaine Jenas? David Beckham? On form alone, my team would be: Green Johnson - Ferdinand - Terry - A Cole J Cole - Barry - Lumpoflard - Downing Defoe - Heskey However, clearly David James isn't going to be dropped going into important qualifying matches, and clearly Wayne Rooney won't be dropped either, despite being utter ****e for England for a long time. Realistically, I'd expect James to be in instead of Green, Brown instead of Johnson, Beckham instead of Downing and Rooney instead of Heskey. Defoe will score a couple as he's playing against a tinpot nation, which will secure his place for the bigger games, where he will continue to be found out.

Yep...

My laptop has decided it's going to start playing up. The problem is as follows: At fairly intermittent points, the right-hand side of the screen (about an inch and a half in from the right) wobbles and I have to adjust the screen a bit to restore it. I think it's probably a loose connection or something like that - any ideas how to fix it?

A bit of a wake-up call. Credit to Blackpool who played very well in the second half (although somewhat cynically with some of the timewasting, but we wouldn't be complaining if we were in their position). If we'd taken one of the handful of pretty decent chances we created in the first half, we'd have probably won quite comfortably. No complaints with the penalty decision from where I was sat, and also no real complaints with the final result. While the last week has seen two excellent performances and results, it's important to remember that it won't happen every game. We perhaps tried to be a bit *too* cute and nicey-nicey with our football, trying three passes when one would have been sufficient. Blackpool looked like they had more energy in reserve, which is hardly surprising given they've had a week off, and they made the most of it. It was said that we made Derby and Birmingham look rubbish in our last two games, and in the second half Blackpool did the same to us. It happens, and we've now got two weeks to improve the fitness and stamina before our next game.

That's the one... couldn't find it on the stadium guide I was using for all the foreign grounds I've been to

Game's off now, for some reason the pitch the opposition booked was (at best) 7 or 8-a-side. We will instead be having something resembling a training session at Millbrook Rec (next to Goals), also starting at 11am.

OS Preview: http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/article.php?page_id=10506 BBC Preview: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/7578466.stm

It's at times like this I'm even more ****ed off that I'm currently sat about 2 miles from the Oval but can't even watch it on TV, let alone be in the ground...

Certainly wasn't expecting that. Cracking fightback from a seemingly lost cause. Makes the table look a hell of a lot better as well: 1. Somerset 12 146 2. Nottinghamshire 12.5 145 3. Durham 12 139 4. Hampshire 14 138 5. Kent 12.5 136 6. Lancashire 12.5 126 7. Sussex 12.5 129 8. Yorkshire 12.5 124 9. Surrey 12.5 106

I had to say something about some form of cricket so felt it was best to jinx the already-comfortable England team...

Portsmouth v Vitoria Guimaraes (Portugal) Not the easiest, but they'll expect to beat them over two legs.

SA win the toss and field first. England off to a flyer, 99/0 from the first 15 overs, Bell reaching 50 off 36 balls (currently 62 not out) and Prior 33 not out.

Full system scan came back clean. Wouldn't worry too much...

I've already restarted my PC this morning after visiting PO to see what the fuss was all about, and nothing bad happened. I am running a full system scan using McAfee Total Protection just in case though

Yes

Not yet it's not. They have to get through the first round before it becomes a group stage.

*frantically checks server security and makes a backup*

An irritatingly addictive cricket game: http://www.foddy.net/Cricket.html Although probably not in the same league as Stick Cricket, mind you...

Yep, we're screwed. Oh well, should win a few games next season in Div 2...

Oops... :smt033