£500 million on players alone sort of helps.
England 1. Sweden 0.
Back to back victories in the friendlies and a long overdue win against the swedes even though it came as a result of an OG.
The scorer - Majstorovic - will sadly go down in football history as the poor unfortunate who gifted England with their 2000 goal in International football.
First half was decent enough but the second was like wading through treacle at times against a team that looked as pedestrian as the Dala horses they turn out.
I was hoping to see the young bloods out there give it a real go and put some gumption behind it but they flattered to deceive. The set pieces are as predictable as coalition u turns,why oh why can they not ring the changes?
Onwards.
Yes I also found it a bit frustrating in the second half, I noticed that our lads are once more dropping into the annoying habit of playing the ball backwards on numerous cases, oh for the days of imaginative coaches instead of the ultra cautious lot that seem to have sprouted up like fields of weeds and such negative football is slowly killing the game.
Realistically I think that England could have at least scored 4 but as usual it’s only the ones that go in that count lol. At least we did win and in the process eliminated a nemesis at last. Will things get better? no use asking Fabio Capello, I can never understand the man! Ah well , we can but hope.
Well there we have it then, it is official, there is no racism in football at least according to the FIFA President Septic Blatter.
He astonishingly suggests any complaint by a player who alleges he has been called a racist name should forget about it and remember “it’s just a game”. Furthermore, all issues should be settled on the field by a simple handshake.
You have to wonder what planet this tulip is on, I would think that right now the anti-racism campaigners are well suited with his latest inane pronouncement which has effectively driven a herd of buffalo through all the campaigns that they have undertaken to rid us of this scourge.
What he has said implies, to me at any rate, that whoever you are and wherever you play, it is ok to say what you want to another player as long as you shake his hand at full time.
We must have all heard the disgraceful monkey chants coming from some of the spanish supporters at wembley on Saturday. It gives me no real satisfaction to have heard the english supporters trying to drown them out with equally offensive racism.
There is only one way to sort this out and that is zero tolerance both on and off the field and whilst that is going on, get rid of dinosaurs like Blatter.
It seems to me that Liverpool FC have adopted a very commonsense approach to the news that Luis Suarez is to be charged by the FA. Rather than jump in with both feet they say they,
“will take time to properly review the documentation which has been sent to us”
“We will discuss the matter fully with him when he returns from international duty, but he will plead not guilty to the charge and we expect him to request a personal hearing”
“Luis remains determined to clear his name of the allegation made against him by Patrice Evra”. “The Club remain fully supportive of Luis in this matter”.
This is how clubs should act.
It really is about time that the old dinosaur Sepp “Blather” was given the boot, he is a total disgrace and to be leading an organisation like FIFA is farcical to say the least, he definitely is not on this earth, more likely on Fullers Earth!
He is a bigger enemy to Anti Racism than anyone else connected with the game of soccer and to see the smug way he dismisses everything is like red rag to a bull. The man is an idiot and goodness knows what he uses as a brain!
Most probably he would advise that verdicts of not guilty through lack of evidence should be brought in regarding the John Terry and Luis Suarez episodes.
After all the interludes it is back to this weekends football clashes.
Starting with the The Blue Brazil, they will journey to Newtown Park for yet another historic occasion against Bo’ness United for this William Hill Scottish Cup third round tie. It is an early kick off at 1:45pm and should be a good match but I take Cowdenbeath to crack the home sides resistance and come away with a win.
A bit of a lay off for Lincoln City due to an early exit from the FA Cup but the last couple of weeks have been hectic for the squad and David Holdsworth as they have been putting in some hard graft in training.
Lets hope it will have been worth it as the Imps face league leaders Wrexham on Saturday at the Racecourse Ground.
The kick-off is at 3pm.
Liverpool return to the fray of the Premier League after the international break with a trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday with a 4pm kick off.
The Reds will be hoping to at least emulate last terms fixture which they won 0-1 but I think Chelsea and Mr Torres in particular will add some grit to this encounter.
Difficult to call but a draw will do nobody much good.
The Hammers travel up to the Ricoh stadium for their Saturday 3.pm match against Coventry. We will be looking to make this the sixth away league victory in nine matches.
Whilst the Sky blues languish near the foot of the table I think they may just cause us a problem or two especially bearing in mind with so many injuries the tea lady has been asked to bring her boots in.
Good luck to all our teams and let us hope for good clean trouble free games.
A good win for Liverpool at Chelsea today, coming away with a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Rodrigues and Johnson, back to back home defeats for the men in blue!
The Hammers managed to overcome Coventry 2-1 so avoiding a banana skin situation, still going well on their travels whilst Cowdenbeath carried on the good work , winning 2-0 at home to Stenhousemuir but sorry to see that Lincoln came unstuck at Wrexham 2-0, by all accounts the Imps played a lot better than the score suggests
This weeks round up of the fans fixtures starts with ‘Birthday boy’ Jimmy’s team Cowdenbeath.
The Blue Brazil entertain Dumbarton at Central Park on Saturday with a 3pm start.
I see this as a home win although the fourth placed visitors might just spoil the day. Manager Colin Cameron will be looking to choose from a strong squad as he has a couple of last weeks omissions back.
Lincoln City welcome Ebbsfleet to Sincil Bank for the first time on Saturday.3pm kick-off. Manager Holdsworth will be without the injured top scorer Sam Smith but he does have players like Medley, Thompson and Sheridan all pushing for selection following a full weeks training.
Liverpool fans have the pick of this weekends games as they entertain Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday, the later kick-off is presumably for the benefit of TV. With all sorts of stats possible on the result of this match it will be a very intriguing encounter to say the least. A close one to call but I think somehow that the Reds might just catch City wanting after their midweek European disaster.
As for the Hammers, the Boleyn ground will see the visit of Derby County for the Championship match tomorrow, the Kick-off once again put back to 5.20pm so as to accommodate Sky Sports.
We had about 6500 fans travel to Coventry last week and usually have a home gate of about 30,000, let us hope we can give our loyal following something to cheer about. Our lack of home form and dearth of goals has to be of concern to Allardyce, we need it sorting now.
At Coventry he played a first half of two men…Morecambe and Wise, that might be alright on the night at the Palladium but oh dear me, not at the Boleyn it aint.
Well they did it for you Hammer and a 3-1 scoreline didn’t flatter them by all accounts, well done and you were correct in your assumption that Dumbarton may spoil the day for Jim’s favourites but at least they didn’t lose, the match ending scoreless.
Elsewhere John must have had a big smile on his face as the Imps destroyed Ebbsfleet United 3-0 hope that times are indeed improving under new management. Liverpool entertain Manchester City today with a 4pm kick off and the men in blue must be hoping for a good result after their near neighbours United slipped up at home to Newcastle, a 1-1 draw meaning 2 points dropped at home so the match at Anfield should be a tasty affair methinks.
Very sad indeed to have to post on the death of Gary Speed.
The manager of Wales and former midfielder was found at his home in Chester this morning after apparently committing suicide.
The reason behind his death is not for this post, I would think they will become clear in the days to come.
I prefer to remember him as a person and a player. I always thought of him as very quiet, polite and intelligent with a great outlook on the game he loved and with such great prospects ahead.
He played for Leeds, Everton, Newcastle, Bolton and Sheffield. As a player, a solid and dependable midfielder who had a good reading of the game.
His managerial career started with Sheffield and moved on to the Welsh National side where the shoots of success were just starting to emerge.
I saw him on the BBC’s Football Focus yesterday lunchtime and he along with Gary McAllister seemed very happy to be talking about our game.
RIP Gary You will be sorely missed by all of us.
Hammer, I’m shocked about Gary Speed. I also watched Football Focus on Saturday, and everything looked ok, especially when the presenter(the excellent Dan Walker), said its a pity Wales’s latest results had,nt come a bit earlier in the competition (Euros), as they were quite good. I did’nt know about his death, till I looked on this thread.Boy, thats blown me away! Was going to comment on football topics, but don’t feel able to.
Such a sad sad loss to football and at such a young age, I didn’t find out till later in the day. Just when everything seemed to be going in the right direction for him as well including Wales seemingly on the threshold of improving results, what an awful tragedy. RIP Gary
Gary Speed was a true footballer and gent.
I met him once years ago when he was playing for Leeds, he was at a charity do for young footballers who had had their careers cut short for various reasons.
He had time for everyone even the smallest of youngsters.
RIP Gary.
After a very sombre week in the world of football we must move forward as they say.
For our small but extremely valued fans a quick update on this weekends fixtures.
Starting as usual with Cowdenbeath, the Blue Brazil have a 40 mile trip to 6th placed side Albion Rovers. Kick-off at the Cliftonhill Stadium, Coatbridge.is 3pm.
Jimmy’s team will have to watch out for The Wee Rovers as they will be looking to notch up their third home victory in a row.
Moving to Lincoln City, the Red Imps have to travel to the Newport Stadium for their 3.pm Kick-off against County. Manager David Holdsworth has a deal to think about following the mid week 2-0 defeat away to York. While Newport will be feeling less pressurised after the fine 4-0 win at Hayes & Yeading on Tuesday evening which lifted them out of the bottom four.
With three points separating the teams and The Exiles having a game in hand this one could be seen as a ‘six pointer’
Slipping down country for Liverpool’s match at Craven cottage on Monday night against Fulham.
Liverpool return to action on Monday night when they take on Fulham at Craven Cottage. The Reds will looking to extend their 11 match unbeaten run in all competitions and consolidate their for push for a finish in the top four of the Prem. Last season’s corresponding fixture saw Liverpool win 5-2 but whilst I see this as an away win it could be a lot tighter; especially now that injured midfielder Lucas Leiva will be missing due to the cruciate knee ligament injury he sustained in the Carling Cup quarter-final victory over Chelsea.
And finally the Hammers, we entertain another claret and blue side, on Saturday afternoon at the Boleyn with a 3pm Kick-off.
Burnley will be trying their hardest to prevent us recording a fifth straight league win for the first time since doing so in the old Division One in April/May 1986, when dear old John Lyall’s side won six consecutive matches.
Heady days for us indeed and I think we should get some credit for the results and league position when you consider how the team are coping with a constantly changing squad.It must seem to the players like a visit to the opticians with, phrases like “is it better with this guy or worse ?” or " better with this or the first?"
It is a hard league to play in and made even harder where teams aim to head us off at the pass from kick-off to final whistle.
Good luck to all our clubs and devil take the hindmost.
Onward
The draw for the 2012 European Championship in Poland and Ukraine next summer is,
The FIFA rankings are in the brackets.
Group A: Poland (66), Greece (14), Russia (12), Czech Republic (33).
Group B: Netherlands (3), Denmark (11), Germany (2), Portugal (7).
Group C: Spain (1), Italy (9), Croatia (8), Ireland (21).
Group D: Ukraine (55), Sweden (18), France (15), England (5).
Could have been a lot worse but still some hard graft ahead.
Lovely draw for England, but what a stinker for Ireland! Hammer, you’re too hard on your boys, they’ve done well in a really hard division. As for my lot, its a bit like the wife, good at home, but playing away, not so good! Real shame about Lucas for Liverpool. It must be maddening for the manager, just when the team is gelling, up pops a serious injury. You have to feel for the lad. Was it depression that poor old Gary suffered? Its the one the players will never mostly admit to. Anyway lets hope we all get what we want this weekend. Thats football wise by the way!
Hi John,
I don’t think anyone knows what was troubling Gary so much, except of course his very close family.
I would think Ireland will relish the fight and they might just surprise a few folk.
I do agree we have done better than I ever though so far but nothing looks comfortable, it is as if every match is a struggle when we should be able to relax a bit and coast for a while.
It would bring a lot of enthusiasm back to the whole squad.
Cowdenbeath drew 3-3 at Albion Rovers, plenty of goals at least and they are still in pole position.
West Ham slipped up yet again at home, going down to Burnley 1-2 but what a coincidence, Southampton too tasted defeat against lowly Doncaster so both clubs stop in their top two berths.
Lincoln too went down by an only goal at Newport County so a mixed bag of fortune for our members and Liverpool are playing at Craven Cottage Tomorrow, dare we hope for a repeat of the 5-2 victory of last season? Maybe will be a lot closer!
Yes Bob, by all that I have heard we dominated the game but like so often conspired to pluck defeat from the jaws of victory and as it turned out we would have headed the table.
At least the situation in the table has not changed
However, it aint over yet, at least a team in claret and blue won it and I hope to see us bounce back against Reading next.
One bad aspect was Matt Taylor, he limped off early into the second half in his first start since returning from a month’s lay-off after appearing to aggrevate his leg injury.
Our injury situation just gets worse.
The FA Cup Third Round Proper Draw.
Ties to be played over the weekend of 7 and 8 January 2012
1 Middlesbrough v Shrewsbury Town
2 Nottingham Forest v Leicester City
3 Manchester City v Manchester United :twisted:
4 Dagenham & Redbridge or Walsall v Millwall
5 Crawley Town v Bristol City
6 Doncaster Rovers v Sutton United or Notts County
7 Bristol Rovers v Aston Villa
8 Tottenham Hotspur v Cheltenham Town
9 Sheffield Wednesday v West Ham United 
10 Milton Keynes Dons v Queens Park Rangers
11 Hull City v Ipswich Town
12 Coventry City v Southampton
13 Brighton & Hove Albion v Wrexham
14 Fulham v Charlton Athletic
15 Birmingham City v Wolverhampton Wanderers
16 Norwich City v Burnley
17 Arsenal v Leeds United
18 Derby County v Crystal Palace
19 Fleetwood Town or Yeovil Town v Blackpool
20 Swindon Town v Wigan Athletic
21 Barnsley v Swansea City
22 Chelmsford City or Macclesfield Town v Bolton Wanderers
23 Newcastle United v Blackburn Rovers
24 Everton v Tamworth
25 Sheffield United v Salisbury City or Grimsby Town
26 Liverpool v Southend United or Oldham Athletic 
27 Gillingham v Stoke City
28 Chelsea v Portsmouth
29 Watford v Bradford City
30 Peterborough United v Sunderland
31 West Bromwich Albion v Cardiff City
32 Reading v Stevenage