Tyrone Shoelaces

Yeah and all of those worse than Mowbray with the exception of Ince are in the Venkies era.

I agree and if you rolled them both together you wouldn't have a Danny Graham.

I also thought the ref had a game to forget all in all. Missed the elbow in the boat race early on, allowed herself to be barged over by a player ( you'd get about 12 games for that in Rugby League ) , bottled the pen near the end as well as the red card for the quitener out by the touchline in time added on. She should be on the plane home tonight.

I remember Aarie Haan scoring a similar free kick for Holland against Italy in the World Cup Finals.. He was just inside the Italy half out on the wing but he hit a lovely flat free kick right into the far top corner.

It kicked off before that with the back pass decision and then the " offside " England goal. Both decisions were correct, the England player was just on side and the Cameroons goalie should have walloped the back pass instead of picking the ball up. After the goal it was mayhem for about 5 minutes at least, I thought for a while that the Cameroons were going to walk off completely.

England were poor today. I know the circumstances weren't ideal but our decision making was terrible. How many times did we persist in playing little complicated triangles when a simple pass out wide was on. Why do we insist on trying to walk the ball into the goal instead of having a shot ? If Cameroon's goal would have stood I could see us really struggling, we allowed Cameroons to out muscle us at times. We'll need to be 100 % better to beat Norway. I watched the USA women the other night against Sweden and they're 4 goals better than England on current form.

I saw him play and he was deeply average even taking his youth in account. That report says a lot about modern football in my opinion. Having said that weren't Real Madrid supposed to be watching Henley when he first got into our first team.

I always look at it this way. If I'd have made the grade as a winger who would I rather play against ? Nyambe or Bennett ? I'd be thinking Nyambe is quick and decent in the tackle so I'm not going to do him for pace especially on the outside. His positional play isn't great, he plays a bit too near the centre halves so I could take advantage of that if I stay out wide. Bennett is only average pace wise so I'd be fancying my chances there especially if I'm running on to the ball played inside him. Neither are great headers of the ball so there's opportunities there with the long ball over the top. All in all I reckon Nyambe would be the toughest opponent one on one.

Yeah and you can have a Tugay to "recycle possession " and you can have an Evans to "recycle possession " but the difference in end product is massive.

I suppose you need to have played and hit the wall yourself to know what it feels like. Instead of smoothly moving onto the ball you find yourself sort of reaching for the ball all the time. Your touch isn't quite as sharp, your passing isn't as accurate as you would like etc. It comes on pretty rapidly too. You can be fine in August and struggling in December. That's why I'm always concerned when we sign players well into their thirties.

The mental side of his game is still that of an 19 yr old lad. Maybe he's just not that smart.

I don't think I ever saw him actually run. Possibly one of the most ineffectual " Marquee " signings we've ever made.

"Whilst he's not in his mid twenties and the middle of an England career ". Whittingham wasn't and Downing isn't. What's the difference ?

I like the lad, if you can score a bag full at Rochdale you can score anyway. Age is against him now though. Having said that he's probably younger than Downing.

You could have said all those things about Whittingham before we signed him and look how that ended up.

I prefer the signings that play on grass not paper. Whittingham was a big gamble, as is Downing. What happened to that Edwards lad that ran us ragged out wide last season at Ipswich ?

I wonder how that will effect our interest in their player/s

I wish it was still 2006, Downing would have been a good signing then.

Carlton Palmer got 19 caps for England and he was about as good as Smallwood.

The difference between the Waggy's and the modern equivalent is the Waggy's would have made a bob or two out of the game but still needed to earn a crust to get by. The Downing's and Rodwell's will be millionaires and if they don't fancy it all of a sudden so what ?

I agree with a lot of that but what wouldn't you give for a Kevin Moran now ? You're right, bravery on the field come in different forms. Berkovic hadn't got a tackle in him but he'd receive the ball in any situation under all sorts of pressure and try and make something happen. He'd get a crack and still show for a pass straight away.

We need a couple of battlers more than anything in my opinion. I'm tired of seeing heads go down when we concede and I'm tired of seeing us concede in the last 10 minutes of games. My old Union Convener had a phrase for guys like that " Spineless Bastards ".

Somebody had to blow the balls up.

What we are crying out for is one or two players with a winning mentality. Players who might not be the most skillful but will come in and inject some fighting spirit and backbone into the team when things aren't going well. Downing, for all his previous skill and ability, never came across to me as the sort of player who likes a tackle and who's up for a physical battle. We've already got enough who like to fold when the game is slipping away.

To sign an upgrade on Conway isn't the most difficult managerial task ever.