Pet hate of the day

Pet hate of the day :

Upside down Union Flags (aka Union Jacks)

This is incorrect. It just looks totally wrong.

This is how it should look :



Simple : The diagonal white stripes go on the top on the left side of the flag. Easy.

Yakubu & AJ feast on Brann

What a pitifully awful headline...apologies but I couldn't resist.

Everton 6 - 1 SK Brann

So going into last night I admit I felt nervous. In the first leg Brann looked nowhere near as rusty as we thought they would and although they looked fairly tame going forward they were busy and dilligent pressing and closing down. I know that sounds like damning with faint praise but there was definitely a job still to do last night.

Wouldn't say I was looking forward to the game but I was anxious to get out of work and get moving fortunately one of my bosses at Hit Search is a blue and so after an afternoon of search engine optimisation ( ;) ) I got off sharpish, drove home, wolfed down a pizza and made the train with 1 minute to spare.

Evertonians are a superstitious, nervous bunch and I was pretty unhappy that people were outside Goodison handing out flyers for flights to either Rosenbourg or Florence for the next round, if anything was going to tempt the fates it's that I thought...met up with my brother outside the church and then headed into the Gwladys Street. The ground was pretty full most notably the away section which much have had 2 or 3 thousand people in it. Plane-loads of Red shirted Norwegian football fans arriving at John Lennon Airport, I'm sure that's almost unprecedented ;) :P )

Another potential bad omen was that for some reason the teams emerged to total silence...no z-cars (apart from a few people playing it on their mobiles purely tradition's sake). Superstitions aside Everton just looked more at the races than Brann. Again they pressed a harried well enough but the first half hour seen a few half chances for them and a shedload of posession for us, ultimatley you just knew that was going to tell in the end.





It turned into one of those night when everything went in...four great goals and two lucky ones. Johnson and Yakubu both tipped in with two superb strikes apiece (Johnson's second being the pick of the bunch coming in the 90th minute after a lot of people had already hit the road). Arteta got a wicked deflection for his and Yakubu could barely miss to round off his hatrick. His middle goal where his feint sent two defenders sprawling before he calmly passed it just inside the post was brilliant.

Pienaar was back and looking brilliant, on this form he is putting Fernandes in the shade (You hope Fernandes get's up to speed soon becasue on current form he isn't looking worth the money Valancia will want for him). Stevie P did everything but score as did Anichebe who was so desperate to get on the scoresheet (He looks really eager to get the two goals he needs to become the club's all-time leading scorer in Europe). 6-1 to Everton, their goal coming on 60 minutes when a daisy-cutting free-kick somehow evaded Tim Howard.



Everything went right for the blues but this didn't bother the SK Brann fans. They really were brilliant. They sung and danced all night and got an ovation for all sides of the ground as we trooped to the exit.

Everton take on Fiorentina in the next round...the real business end of the tournament now. It'll be very tough but this is what we want. COYB!

Even the clown is telling the circus to stay in town

BBC SPORT | Sepp Blatter hostile to Premiership 39th game plan

The president of football's world governing body Fifa has told the BBC that plans by the Premier League to host games abroad will never happen.
Sepp Blatter also warned that the proposal could harm England's attempt to host the 2018 World Cup.

"This does not take into consideration the fans of the clubs and it gives the impression that they just want to go on tour to make some money," Blatter said.

"This will never happen, at least as long as I am the president of Fifa."

It has to be said I am loving this...the greedy money-men are looking massively foolish now. The whole idea of playing a randomly drawn 39th lague game and then having the rest of the world fight over who gets the 'honour' of hosting it was just so repugnant to anyone who knows the game. Kudos to everyone who remembered what footy is all about.

The only thing I can think of is that the whole idea is merely a stalking horse for something else 'cause it was just so bizarre and awkward and at odds with the spirit and integrity of the game.

Yak apologises

To be honest his performance last night was apology enough.

EVERTONFC.COM: | YAK'S APOLOGY

"Yakubu has apologised to his 'Everton family' for his late return from African Cup of Nations duty.

The Nigerian international was speaking after returning to the Blues' starting line-up for Wednesday night's 2-0 victory over SK Brann in the Uefa Cup.
It was the player's first taste of action for The Toffees following his punishment for returning to Everton three days later than expected after Nigeria's exit from the African Cup of Nations.

He produced a typically robust and full-blooded performance alongside Andrew Johnson in tough conditions in Bergen.

Afterwards he admitted he owed everyone associated with the Club an apology.
He told evertonTV: 'I feel like a part of a family here with everyone working together. We want to win something and achieve something together. I am so pleased to be playing again and it is thanks to the players and the manager.

'I came back late and I have apologised to everyone for that, the supporters too. It happened for personal reasons but I promise it won't happen again. I am so pleased to be back again now and playing again.

'The gaffer was very angry,' he continued, 'I have spoken to the manager and now it is over. I think the players were glad to see me back. It is good to be in a team where you know the players want you.'"

Cricus told to stay in town

Great to see that the rest of the world has more common sense than the Premier League's greedy chairmen.

BBC SPORT | Asia opposes Premier League plan

"Asian Football Confederation president Mohamed bin Hammam says he is strongly opposed to the Premier League's plan of top-flight clubs playing games abroad.

The English season could be extended by one match with the 39th round being played in five overseas venues.

'We'll vote strongly against it. The Premier League is putting money before responsibility and dignity,' Hammam told BBC sports editor Mihir Bose.

'As far as Asia is concerned, I'm not supportive of this initiative.'

The plans to play a 39th round of games abroad from January 2011 have sparked widespread criticism.

And the BBC has learned that world governing body Fifa is also lukewarm about the idea.
It has made it clear it will not consider the proposal unless it comes from the English Football Association, rather than the Premier League."

And the US has said it would only entertain the idea if Fifa approved it.

However, some federations in the Middle East have expressed an interest in the plans.

Qatar says it would love to stage a game in Doha while Saudi Arabia says it would be interested if the matches involved big teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea or Liverpool.

Hammam believes the Premier League and its chief executive Richard Scudamore should have thought more carefully about the proposal before it became public.

"I wish the people in charge of the Premier League would think twice about organising any matches outside England in Asia," added Hammam.

"Friendly matches I'm not against. I welcome that. But I cannot digest at all that a different league will be played in another country than its own.

"There was no consultation, I just read about it in the newspapers.

"But the recommendation as far as this is concerned will be no. There's no question of the Premier League organising such a match in Asia.

That's restored a bit of my faith in the game.

THE CORDAROUNDS BLOG

THE CORDAROUNDS BLOG

What an odd, odd site. Perticularly liked their soft-o-meter with it's rating of : As soft as "A freshly laundered bunny".

Gerrin!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It wasn't pretty, defniately not pretty SK Brann were no pushovers....given that was effectively the first game of their season they did well. Everton stroked it about well enough but Brann always looked dangerous on the break...but for a bit of a lack of sharpness and possibly a lack of match fitness we could have been facing a defecit going into the second leg. Credit to Everton though, they stuck at it and although they weren 't really firing on all cylinders we deserved the win. Our first was a great strike from Osman after 59 minutes. A really good goal curled into across the goal...it was just reward 'cause Leon had a similar effort saved in the first half. After that I think Everton benefitted from Brann coming forward more and perhaps the Norwegians were a bit leggy...late on a fantasticly curled, weighted low cross from Lescott found a suspiciously offside Anichebe to cheekilly knock it in for 2-0. Great result...a few of the 1000s of Evertonians spilled onto the pitch at the final whistle for a good natured pitch invasion at the end much to the annoyance of a stern Phil Neville.



Special mention has to go to both Yakubu and Moyes...Yak screwed up, Moyes sorted it (along with the rest of the squad apparently). No posturing, no pouting, no media battles, no agents. Well done lads. God I love Everton. COYB! Top marks got to the travelling blues who debuted their new song "Find the Yak and he will score!". Brilliant!




Note the sponsorless kits...that would have looked great if we'd have had our traditional white shorts and socks. I thought Utd's Munich memorial retro style shirts looked fantastic at the weekend (pity about the result). A great tribute to The Busby Babes.



Whilst on that subject hats off to everyone who was at that game for giving the occasion the respect and gravitas in deserved. Deep down we all knew the City fans would do themselves proud.



changing subject completely : This is my song of the day after hearing it on BBC Radio6 recently.

Moving swiftly on

There are two possible mitigating reasons for not posting anything since the weekend.

The first being I've recently changed jobs and so whilst I am no longer trundled nose-to-tail along the M56 every morning to Manchester I am massively busy trying to learn the ropes at my new place. The new place is Hit Search Limited who specialise in Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click internet advertising (do you see what I did there?!?!). As far as I can tell so far my job is to sit in the corner and look bewildered ;). Many thanks to Andy Redfern & Andy Donaldson (You see! How confusing is that?) for being patient with me. Anyway bottom line is having a busy but fun time at Hitsearch and I'm really enjoying driving 14 miles a day instead of 75.

No-one at my new company can tell me the name of this fellow though :



The other reason is that I've only just woken up from my Everton induced coma after the Reading game at the weekend. Poor was the politest word I heard used to describe it. Both teams STUNK! Not a lot else to say really...With Yak going AWOL before the game it left us a bit toothless. AJ worked himself into the ground but there has to be someone to pass to. Arteta and Cahill both had bad games and Fernandes is still finding his feet.


Thank God for Jagielka who had a great game whilst all around him looked lost!

Reading are in a false position I'd say...they looked tidy and businesslike. You'd struggle to tell who was 4th and who was 4th from bottom. A cutting edge is all they need. After the weekend the relegation battle is looking pretty messy. Sunderland won but Wigan looked decent...Reading look decent every week but lose, Derby (obviously) & Fulham look in trouble but apart from that it's tricky...unless you look further up and see Newcastle floundering....but surely that can't happen.

The circus is leaving town

Premier to play fixtures overseas

"The English Premier League is considering playing some matches overseas, BBC Sport has learned.

At a meeting in London on Thursday, all 20 clubs agreed to explore a proposal to extend the season to 39 games.

Those 10 extra games would be played at venues around the world, with cities bidding for the right to stage them.

It is understood the additional fixtures could be determined by a draw but that the top-five teams could be seeded to avoid playing each other."

This has got to be a joke...if that happens footy is over. It's just a circus after that. 39 games a season? You play everyon ohme and away then well all decamp to Thailand or Kuala Lumpur for a randomly chosen one-off fixture in order to make a bit of extra cash....nah, that'll be it for me.

I THOUGHT this would be the weirdest sporting story of the day until this turned up on the radio on the way home :

"Pakistani cricket captain Shoaib Malik has threatened to sue an Indian family for alleging he married their daughter over the telephone five years ago.

He has accused the Muslim family from the city of Hyderabad of committing an internet marriage fraud against him.

The family says that the marriage took place in June 2002 after a two-month courtship with witnesses on both sides.

When news of the relationship became public in 2005, it was hailed as a love affair that crossed borders.

But now it has turned sour with both sides threatening legal action.

"I was interested in marrying her after she told me she belonged to an Indian Muslim family in Hyderabad and sent me her pictures," Mr Malik told a news conference in Lahore.

He said that although he had spoken to the woman, Ayesha Siddiqui, on the telephone and chatted to her on the internet, they never actually met.

Mr Malik said that he came to realise in 2005 that the girl in the photograph was not who she claimed to be and that the relationship ended in that year.

He said that the Siddiqui family in Hyderabad had tricked him on the internet into believing she was the girl in the picture.

"I can claim with authority that no nikkah [Muslim marriage ceremony] has ever been performed [by me] with a girl having a name of Ayesha," Mr Malik said.

"This is an accusation against me, and I will take legal action, both in India and in Pakistan."

However, The Times of India newspaper has quoted Mohammed Ahmed Siddiqui, the father of the woman, Ayesha, as saying Mr Malik should acknowledge the marriage took place in June 2002 - for which he has proof - and that he should divorce his daughter.

Mr Siddiqui argued that Islamic Sharia laws recognises the exchange of marriage vows over the telephone and has threatened legal action against Mr Malik.

He said that his daughter has been ill since Mr Malik denied his relationship with her.

In 2005, Ayesha told the BBC that the two had met for the first time in Dubai in 2000 where Shoaib had come as a member of a Pakistani team and she was there with her family shopping.

Ayesha recalled that they bumped into each other accidentally at a hotel where she had gone for a meal and had left behind her keys.

A young man came to return the key who she said turned out to be Shoaib.

Shoaib Malik became Pakistan's cricket captain last year after the team's surprise exit from the World Cup. "

Cricket365 - Malik Denies Telephonic Marriage

BBC Sport - Pakistan captain in 'love scam'

Telegraph - Pakistan cricket captain's 'net marriage fraud'

What we've always suspected : Everton are cursed

This made me laugh (thanks to Ger on ThePeople'sForum for posting it):

Everton are just unlucky

THERE are times in my life when I'm incredibly grateful to my dad for taking me to see Southend United on my 11th birthday.

It was freezing cold, everything smelt of fried onions, someone urinated on my trainers and Huddersfield won 1-0. But somehow it felt so right.

It was the start of an unlikely love affair with a football team that is doomed forever to wander the lower leagues like a mournful wraith.

Southend will never win anything of note, we will never field England internationals and we are unlikely to launch our own TV station, but my God, it must be more fun than being an Everton fan.

Everton are that bloke in your office who arrives an hour before anyone else and always stays late, but never gets that pay rise.

They're the desperate wedding guest who never catches the bouquet.

They're the house-trained, fully-grown Labrador in the dog pound that never gets chosen because the puppies look cuter.

They are destined to do everything right, but inexplicably fail.

Have a look at the League table, they're in fourth place. Reckon it will last? Of course it won't.

Fractious, underwhelming, underperforming, inconsistent Liverpool will somehow recover and snatch it from them.

Why? Because things like that happen to Everton.

Even when they did somehow scrape the final Champions League place in 2005, they ended up crashing out in the preliminaries.

Everton being Everton, they were inevitably drawn against the only other decent team forced to jump through the hoops, Villarreal, and they lost when they had a perfectly good goal disallowed.

I don't know how the Goodison Park faithful manage to get up in the morning, I really don't.

It was happening again at the weekend when they were denied a perfectly good goal by Sepp Blatter's Offside Clarification of 2004.

Andy Johnson, who scored when he was onside by a comfortable margin, saw his goal ruled out because he was deemed offside.

The problem, you see, was that Johnson was offside when the move started, but was deemed to be onside because he wasn't interfering with play.

Then, when he was onside, he was deemed to be offside, because it was the second phase and despite being offside, but onside, for the first phase, he was onside, but actually offside for the second.

Thanks for clarifying that, Sepp. Keep up the good work.

Another take on the whole thing is this :

Everton paying for pact with devil

Evertonians must like tension – the years we spent on the razor’s edge of relegation weren’t able to be healed by warm, coddled mid-table safety for long. Now we have a different set of reasons to grab every point that we can get.

Whereas in the past we would breathe a long sigh of relief at the season’s end – at the dodgy offside goal we scored (and the ref didn’t notice) – now we count the points struck off our potential final tally by officials in need of dark glasses and white sticks. A point here, a disallowed goal there ... it all counts, and it all makes a huge difference. Like the princess who had umpteen mattresses between her and a pea, a miniscule refereeing mistake can have gargantuan consequences.

Pierluigi Collina’s heart-breaking and unfathomable decision to disallow Duncan Ferguson’s equaliser against Villarreal that stopped us cold at the Champions League qualifier stage still haunts me. This season, however, the gaffes could stop Everton from even getting to that stage.

I have to wonder if the FA charge against David Moyes for his post-derby Mark Clattenburg comments (”Didn’t Clattenburg go to Hong Kong with Liverpool for the Asia Cup this summer? Maybe he wants to be their friend”) was recently dropped because the FA feared where this investigation would focus.

The Merseyside derby result hangs on my back like a black dog, as do the two points dropped against Blackburn at the weekend, when James Vaughan and AJ combined wonderfully, but were denied cruelly by the linesman.

To borrow and bend the Bard: As flies to wanton boys are we to the referees; they cheat us for their sport.

As it is, Everton are in fourth spot but remain uncomfortably close to the chasing pack. If certain results had gone the way the laws of the game intended and myopic refs hadn’t missed legit goals, we would surely be more securely ensconced in fourth place.

Despite a video dossier to the contrary, the knee-jerk reaction of most refs to the sight of AJ taking a tumble is to treat it as a dive, such is his reputation. AJ is forced to chase long balls and lost causes, evade defenders, sidestep his reputation as a diver, stay on his feet despite being fouled, and then score – a thankless task.

The fact that Everton haven’t been awarded a single penalty in the Premier League this season speaks volumes. Add to that the several penalties we have been awarded by continental referees in the UEFA Cup games we played this season, and you wonder if there is a congenital British eye defect inbred amongst referees and linesmen.

Looking back at Everton’s miraculous 3-2 win against pugnacious bruisers Wimbledon back in 1994 – coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2 in truly amazing circumstances – I always suspected a Faustian pact secured this win. Are we paying for that luck now?

Personally I can't see it, surely if Hollywood has taught us nothing else is that the devil is contant;y looking after his charges...I prefer to think that being an Everton fan is a path full of trials and tribulations that ultimately leads to righteousness. I've got to cling to something I suppose. ;)

Twenty20

New Zealand V England, Eden Park, Auckland. New Zealand

Great to have the cricket back although it was a bit gutting it not being on Radio 4 long-wave this morning. Nice to see England get off to a winning start too.

Love this picture :

Dazed and confused

Two things today :

Lewis Hamilton subject to racist abuse by Spanish fans

What on earth is all that about....if it wasn't so offsensive it's almost funny it's that petty & pathetic. Utterly horrible.


Dispicable.

To his credit Hamilton came out with a nice statement about the whole thing :

"The truth is I feel somewhat sad," he said. "I love this country, especially the city of Barcelona. The people in Spain have always been very warm."

Further backing up the general consensus that as well as being a superstar he's a really nice bloke too.

Benjani deal will go through

This is puzzling too, don't see how they can get that transfer through. You either meet the deadline or you don't. The waters wer eespecially muddied by City saying they felt pressured and bullied by Portsmouth and Benjani waiting until the last possible moment to turn up and get the deal done. I wonder if this is some good old fashioned Harry Redknapp wheeling and dealing.

The Day The Rugby Died - The Rugby Forum

Melodramtic but I tihnk this article deserve an airing :

The Day The Rugby Died - The Rugby Forum

Wednesday 9th January 2008. That was the date which may well be remembered as when England blew their chances for the 2011 World Cup. Despite being less then 4 months since the unexpected World Cup final appearance and the wealth of young talent presently in the Guinness Premiership, England may well have already thrown their chances away.

How is that possible? It’s a full 3 1/2 years until the world turns it’s eyes to Middle Earth and the next All Black hype machine becomes a disappointment… Well, yes, there is a long time to go. However if England’s rapidly ageing squad is to evolve onto the next generation, the old guard need to take a step to the side along with the upper echelons of the Union who prefer old names for money rather then young talent for success.

With the announcement of this squad for the Six Nations, there were many familiar faces amongst the names reeled off; Ben Kay, Mark Reegan, Joe Worsley, Ian Balshaw, Charlie Hodgson, Jamie Noon, Mike Tindall and Jonny Wilkinson, with Phil Vickery as captain. In fact, there is little change between the squad announced for this tournament and the squad taken to France in 2007.

This is a worrying turn of events considering how few the young English talent who’ve turned heads so far this year in the Guinness Premiership have been only called up to the Saxons, more worrying the number whom are ignored completely; Gloucester’s Andy Titterell, Ryan Lamb & James Simpson-Daniel, Leicester’s Ollie Smith, Jordan Crane and Danny Hipkiss, Bath trio Abendanon, Banahan and Lipman, London Wasp Tom Palmer and from ND1, Saints Dylan Hartley and 20-try Chris Ashton all missed the cut for Brian Ashtons squad.

For those still unaware, England’s Six Nations squad currently looks like;

Backs: Balshaw (Gloucester), Cipriani (Wasps), Cueto (Sale Sharks), Flood (Newcastle), Gomarsall (Harlequins), Hodgson (Sale Sharks), Noon (Newcastle), Richards (London Irish), Sackey (Wasps), Strettle (Harlequins), Tait (Newcastle), Tindall (Gloucester), Wigglesworth (Sale), Wilkinson (Newcastle), Vainikolo (Gloucester).

Forwards: Borthwick (Bath), Croft (Leicester), Chuter (Leicester), L Deacon (Leicester), Easter (Harlequins), Haskell (Wasps), Kay (Leicester), Mears (Bath), Moody (Leicester), Payne (Wasps), Rees (Wasps), Regan (Bristol), Shaw (Wasps), Sheridan (Sale), Stevens (Bath), Vickery (Wasps, capt), Worsley (Wasps)

Some fans will say with great enthusiasm “that looks like a step in the right direction” seeing the inclusion of Haskell, Croft, Rees, Cipriani, Wigglesworth, Payne and Vainikolo, but how many of these names get starts over the 5 match series is questionable. With the selected 32 as it stands, a likely XXII for the 2nd Feb against Warren Gatland’s Wales will be as follows;

1. Sheridan
2. Regan
3. Vickery
4. Shaw
5. Kay
6. Haskell
7. Moody
8. Easter
9. Gommersall
10. Wilkinson
11. Sackey
12. Flood
13. Tindall
14. Strettle
15. Tait

16. Mears
17. Stevens
18. Borthwick
19. Rees
20. Richards
21. Cipriani
22. Vinakolo

That team simply isn’t good enough and it certainly isn’t “moving forwards”. Sure, a couple of names have been brought in on the bench, but as a side with the perfect opportunity to build a strong squad before the next world cup, debuting 29 year old Vinakolo as a sub (who will be 33 years old in 2011 and has been pretty average since he promising Gloucester debut) or making the bright young talent of Cipriani play second fiddle to Jonny Wilkinson, who’s once bright superstar talent is fading fast, is a far too conservative selection for even the most Nazi of political commentators.

Other annoying risks being taken include the Matthew Tait, whom can’t neither tackle or go into contact without knocking on, at fullback where he’s been playing poorly for Newcastle and old warhorse Mike Tindall at centre, whom even the most one eyed Gloucester fan will tell you isn’t a shadow of his former self.

In the pack, Vickery, who has displayed neither the leadership skills nor playing the ability since his horrific injury 2 years ago, not only remains in the squad but also retains captaincy. Ben Kay, who’s not been remotely useful for neither club nor country since 2003 and Mark Regan, who’s only possible use is to wind up the opposition and annoy the referee, also worm their way into the side somehow.

Also on the wings are have Paul Sackey and David Strettle. Both are good workers for their club sides in the Premiership, but neither player is of international standard for power, pace, vision or skill. This presents a problem all of it’s own against any team managed by Warren Gatland and Shawn Edwards; Countering the Blitz defence.

There are 3 ways to get through a team using a Blitz;

- Cut out to the centre who will scissor with the wing, which requires very deft hands from your 13 and perfect timing from your winger.
- Chip over the fullback and collect, which will require the wings and centres to burst out the blocks and maintain the pace.
- Bulldoze your way through, which requires your whole pack and both centres to pick, drive and protect for the duration.

As the expected XV does not have anywhere near what is required, chances are high of Williams or Brew coming up the outside and intercepting everything Wilkinson or Flood float out to Strettle and Sackey, provided the Newcastle duo don’t simply hoof the ball downfield every time they get it. Should those wide passes happen and get intercepted, every time the Prince of Wales will end up one-on-one with Tait it’ll be try-time.

Add to this Jones’ trickiness or Hooks’ running ability pulling the string at 10, the rejuvenated Henson running the show at 12, the balls to the wall play of Thomas at 13 and the dangerous counter attack running from Sweeney at fullback, then England could be in deep trouble against a very different Welsh side to that which disappointed during the World Cup. A win is still expected of the home side, but an easy victory certainly will not be.

Consider the backline of;

9. Andy Gommersall
10. Jonny Wilkinson
11. Paul Sackey
12. Toby Flood
13. Mike Tindall
14. David Strettle
15. Matthew Tait

Apart from Jason Robinson, that is as near to the best England could have hoped for in Paris last year, but now it is completely unacceptable. Consider the Saxons backline likely to appear at some point against Ireland ‘A’ on Feb 1st at Welford Road;

9. Danny Care
10. Ryan Lamb
11. James Simpson-Daniel
12 .Anthony Allen
13. Danny Hipkiss
14. Chris Ashton
15. Nick Abendanon

In every position on the field, the Saxons will feature younger, quicker, stronger and better players then their 1st XV counterparts. This looks fantastic for the future (one would assume), but because of the way the England team is run and the nepotism involved in selection according to what club they play for, the world be lucky to see more then 3 of those players ever progress to the full international squad.

The hope that a new, young, hungry England team would run out against Wales at Twickenham on the 2nd of February 2008, aiming to rebuild and reclaim their world crown was dashed with the announcement of the same old squad England have used for the past 5 years.

And that’s why January 9th 2008 will be remembered, at least in English minds and hearts, as the day the rugby died.

oh for ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

I hate to say I told you so but :

"as I type I havea feeling England are going to get mugged by Wales despite clearly being the better side." Stuart Brandwood - 17:46 2/2/08

England 19 - 26 Wales

I could just see that coming from miles off....disgusting second half performance.

I have just seen Andy Johnson score Everton's goal today at Blackburn and I am apoplectic...how onside do you need to be?!?!?!?!

ONSIDE! Conspiracy theory, corrupt referee etc etc etc


Andy Johnson clearly onside

Almost

Blackburn 0-0 Everton

Apparently Everton were robbed this afternoon, perfectly good Andy Johnson goal chalked off by the referee.

Grrrr!

Waterloo lost away to Nuneaton but picked up a losing bonus.

:( :( :(

Not a happy bunny because as I type I havea feeling England are going to get mugged by Wales despite clearly being the better side.

At least Peterborough won