newsted

March 1971, beat Cloughie's Derby 3-1, Alan Foggon scored two. Me dad was going with his mate and it was a nothing midtable game (no money for League positions in those days), no big crowd or bother expected, nice sunny spring day, and I'd been whining to go for ages, so he finally gave in. Derby won the League the next season. Missed the UEFA Cup carry-on that season and the previous two (disqualified on age grounds) and we only qualified once in my next 23 years of match-going, when we got knocked out early doors and relegated the same season. FML.

"Pundits", man, I could count on the fingers of one of my paws how many of them I even listen to. It just sounds like "Yadda yadda, I'm raking the dosh in" to me. Failures. They couldn't manage, so they took the easy option. They won't get sacked from the comfy chair unless they go all Big Ron, all they have to do is repeat what everyone else says. I'll give G. Neville a decent mark for now, though, he pays attention.

More annoying to me is the physical jostling of the referee as in the Norwich-Southampton game on Saturday. At that level they should produce a yellow for each push - bang, bang, bang, bang - and reds if necessary. Then the refs in Sunday football and the like might not get beaten up as regularly as they do by violent arseholes. Just a thought. Respect, innit?

I have this mental picture that if I ever hit rock bottom and ended up in sunderland, there'd be hundreds of obese greasy keyboard warriors furiously typing out threats as I walked down the deserted windblown carrier bag-strewn streets, and the pounding of the keys would be all I could hear. It would be just me and the spam delivery guys out in the open. Fucking terrifying thought tbh, I'd have to end it before it got that far. Fucking mackems.

Apparently, if Chelsea come 5th and win the cup it'll go to 6th, not the runners up. That would be a bummer. Where does it say that? Some ranking of importance of qualification credentials, no doubt. I thought they were trying to big up the FA Cup to keep it a credible competition, but they are usually a bit thick, so I wouldn't be surprised.

Aye, wonder if this will be the tipping point for Moyes actually. 6th won't get them in Europe. The race for 5th is going to be interesting. Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton, WBA, only one will make it. Come on Steve Clarke!

Ipswich. Blackburn. Leeds. Newcastle. Come to mind in recent years. Not European Cup winners though, any of them. Or UEFA Champions League or whatever they call it. UCL FFS. I still laugh internally every time I mentally replay Denis Law's backheeled goal that sent them down. The best anti-celebration ever tbf. True. Guess only Leeds would come close that. Forest. tbh, and Villa. Forest, yes. Villa on their imminent relegation will be such a scream. Although Brummie seems such a nice chap I'd like to keep Villa 1 in the Prem for him to support and Villa 2 sliding down the Leagues for the bedsheet brigade. Sorry, that grudge ain't going anywhere.

Ipswich. Blackburn. Leeds. Newcastle. Come to mind in recent years. Not European Cup winners though, any of them. Or UEFA Champions League or whatever they call it. UCL FFS. I still laugh internally every time I mentally replay Denis Law's backheeled goal that sent them down. The best anti-celebration ever tbf. True. Guess only Leeds would come close that. Aye, they got robbed against Bayern Munchen back in the day iirc. 75? Served the cheating bastards right though, they never played fair. I can well remember as a kid turning to me dad and saying "Allan Clarke/Joe Jordan/Terry Yorath/any of their despicable players just handled that/fell over/fouled our man" and him saying "Yeah, that's how they win all the time." A salutary lesson I continue to ignore. Play the game!

Ipswich. Blackburn. Leeds. Newcastle. Come to mind in recent years. Not European Cup winners though, any of them. Or UEFA Champions League or whatever they call it. UCL FFS. I still laugh internally every time I mentally replay Denis Law's backheeled goal that sent them down. The best anti-celebration ever tbf.

I saw that earlier and wasn't surprised. What an idiot, though. They should prosecute imo and make an example of the twerp, it would draw headlines and maybe make other timewasters stop it.

The English champions went on to lose the tie 3-2 on aggregate. Citeh were playing? Wow. Manchester Something probably won it, that'll do. Invoice enclosed. Journalists are not to be trusted.

I hope you didn't mean this.

My favourite is "That shite long ball from krul all the way up to cisse for his flukey volley". Tbf Krul's distribution was much better than usual He uses that different body so well. Once he gets over the injury and gets the body transplant done again I'm sure he'll remember it all and be a better 'keeper. Go science!

Probably the most frustrating footballer ever for me. He should have been brilliant. In terms of application, possibly. Can well remember the home v Villa years back when he took about a 40 yard run up to take out Gareth Barry in the box and give away a penalty - we were all screaming "Titus, NOOOOO!!!" but his eyes had rolled back into his head and he was never going to stop. By the time he was 10 yards away we were wondering if Barry would be able to take the kick himself or if there'd be a red card and a stretcher. He survived, took the kick, 2-2 in the end I think. Fucking liability, but could have been good if he'd ever paid attention.

Debuchy hasn't got a positive score yet. He must be awful.

Wasn't gonna delete it, like, it'll make sense to me but I'll think it's shit for public consumption. Tomorrow. Right now I think I'm the puppy's parts. How wrong I am.

Missus likes him better.

Long day. Shutting down.

I'll assume something ferric or ferrous has just happened and I'm too happy to care, might as well be an American tbh. We've got Angie next? She's quite willing, don't know about the whole squad, like, she'll need a pep talk I should think, a few drinks as well. Marchons, citoyens!

Shola, man, Penalty King. Never a doubt. Get the pel, quick mental check, "Is Shola on?" YES!!! That's in, then. Ice in his veins or summat, still don't understand why Ba took THAT one. Mackem Slayer too. What a guy.

Checked and it's Shake

Poets' Corner.

And no touchline ban.. pathetic Having a rant at the fixture list. The bloke should go on Grumpy Old Men ffs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21391842 Has no qualms about splashing the TV cash on new players etc. like. Hypocritical old git. Hang on, I meant to say this:

Deadline day, on loan.