Neil

Cue abysmal comparison to Messi and Barca.

Blasczzkykzclalclzzalzalzacczzsssasazazaowski with the pen.

Russia 17 Ireland 15 Armenia 14 Slovakia 14 All played 8. Ireland have Andorra (0 points from 8) away, and Armenia at home. 6 points there and there's every chance they could even finish top. Russia have to go to Slovakia, could get beat. However Armenia, as well as going to Ireland in the final round of games, have Macedonia at home before that, so they'll also fancy their chances. Intriguing stuff.

In fact, Ireland are almost in the driving seat to top their group arguably! And Armenia have a serious chance of finishing in the top 2. Well there you go. Oh, and unlucky Matty.

Great result for Ireland like. Slovakia were in the driving seat after Saturday but now...

Well, at least Parker's coming on.

Scooortland 1-0 up.

I had San Marino +4 at 6/4 with paddy power, ridiculous odds! Nervy few minutes for you!

Slovakia 0-4 Armenia? The fuck?

Parked me backside on the edge of the seat. Could cut the tension with a knife when we were passing it around the back 4.

Barry, Lampard and Milner in some assortment of central midfield combination. Oh dear.

Think you've answered your own question there mate.

By role, you mean no pace and sideways/backwards passes? Can never have enough mediocrity. As I've already said, give someone like Cleverley a go in games like this. But no, Capello. Cling onto stuffy Barry, because he's solid and stuff. Thankfully, we have someone like Wilshere - albeit injured currently - who is the future, not Gareth Barry.

Somehow Ireland got a point there.

How the hell did he miss that?

Impressive match stats like.

I rate him and didn't want to get rid of him, but injuries have taken their toll. Last 12-18 months he's been off the boil so he's not as much of a miss as the media are desperately trying to make out.

a) I'd imagine Santos will be a first-teamer b) Don't think they'll build a full-strength team around Arteta but with injuries, and Rosicky and Arshavin's poor form, you have to imagine they'll be relying on him currently.

"So you think Cleverley and Parker are the future?" I can see it coming now.

Cleverley. I already said.

Ah, a common mistake to make. Apologies.

Hear, hear! At least get it right.

Myself, Brummie, 1878, Leffe, Martin Jol, Kingdawson, the rest of the Spurs ITKs, Gash, Froggy, jukeboxromeo and our faithful hound Wearside will not be amused if we're the only ones to suffer a lack of forum functionality.

Fair enough, might just be something my laptop/net isn't agreeing with at times. As I say, nearly all the time there's no problems and it's hardly ruining my experience of the site or owt. Just thought I'd mention it in case anyone else is finding anything similar. Keep up the good work to all concerned.

More generally Rich, or anyone else, is the server starting to get pretty stretched now? Just noticed over the past few months this site has been markedly slower to load than other web pages. I don't mean consistently slow, most of the time it's fine but I dunno about anyone else, but I've been getting more and more 10-15ish minute periods where pages are very slow to load.