VILLAMARV

Utter Disgrace. No way should England play in yellow, looks totally wrong. Bring back the red and white.

cheers maqroll anyways, That bit of Robert Cray made me go hunting for Old Love that he co wrote with Clapton. My favourite bit of Eric. haven't listened to this in ages. Old Love

Think he's over here this year doing a little tour to promote his new album, you just reminded me! wonder if there's still tickets available....... nice, chilled me out a bit after this: Went to see Walter trout a couple of years back, still mint but there was only one Stevie

Well done to Burkina Faso, but so gutted for them and Pitroipa in particular. If that ref wasn't on the take......... I dont know. He was SOOO blatantly biased towards Ghana. Blatant penalty for Burkina Faso after about 5 mins not given, Ghana's goal was a really soft penalty. Burkina Faso also had a perfectly good goal disallowed for what?? and then get their best player sent off for being blatantly fouled in the box so he misses the final. Much like Blanc for France someone else's wrongdoing robs him of the chance to appear in the biggest match in the nation's history. No way they'll overturn the red card coz no governing body ever does. The ref shouldn't be allowed near another professional match.

there was one where he got tackled by the mascot? and showed us his silky skills. love how the guy on 55 secs gets one of the signed balls and just gives it to his mate

This is the same governing body that fined Bendtner 100,000 euros for wearing his "lucky pants". If it had said "**** Off" sponsored by Paddy Power they'd have committed a crime deemed 10 times as bad it seems. Good job they weren't wearing orange miniskirts at the time or they'd all have been removed from the ground wouldn't they? Whether there were racial implications or not its an interesting point of debate on the modern game really, so it can be spun as overly officious by the media but probably crosses some minor indiscretion in the EUFA rulebook. Although Ive never seen such a thing and can easily be persuaded that they actually make it up as they go along!! It's a weird one for me domestically as I know both lifelong Man City season ticket holders and Chelsea fans that went through years of shit with their respective teams and it's great on a personal level for them to have their moment in the sun. Who would have thought 20/30 years ago that these 2 would be two of the dominant forces in European and English competition? I'm surprised there's no section of the media that spun it as "Ajax fans get club fined for showing support for the new EUFA FFP legislation"

I will go and book myself in for some psychotherapy now, but I'm feeling strangely confident about Sunday. 2-1 Villa.

you missed out: How many Stephen Irelands signed by Faulkner will be sold for more than we "paid" for him?

Before West Brom game 39 league games 2 goals 6 assists Since West Brom 3 games 0 goals 3 assists. You've even tried so hard I'll remind everyone how close you came to scoring against Newcastle keep it up Charlie. keep it up.

yeah but its only "UEFA badge level 1" defending that needs training right?

All this match fixing stuff coming out in the press makes me even prouder to have Farina associated with our club.

Lets hope there's some unknown conspiracy to lengthen the odds on us staying up at least.

what about the fans?

yeah, I feel it! but the table on 85mins on saturday looked alot different to how it does now. not saying we'll definately pull clear but there are lots of twists and turns to come. For me the time to start praying will be after the double header against Reading (a) and QPR (h). Come the end of march we could be 9 points richer or looking to beat Man Utd + Chelsea in a 7 game win streak to survive and the only thing I can really say with any certainty is that that's not gonna happen We'll be ok if they just stop ripping our hearts out at the death every week!!

yeah, he's there till the end of the season, they have an option to buy apparently. He will still have no work permit, have turned 30 and have one year left on his contract this summer so the option cant be for much!!

Relegation has been on the cards for a good 3 seasons now. late rally when Houllier got Ill saved us. Last year we couldnt score enough goals in the last 5 or 6 games without Bent and how we scraped through I still dont know. This year we've been crying out for a bit more fight and some better performances and to be fair, late goals aside we've seen that in the last few games. They have to keep it up for the rest of the season whoever is playing / injured. If they do, I see more hope in this team doing enough to stay up than I did last year. Watching games where we know we're going to concede is more fun when there's also a chance that you might score a goal. This imho is why Lambert is doing a better job than McMuppet, whatever the stats or table may say at this stage. Whether they will keep this level of performance up or not remains to be seen obviously. But it is by no means in the lap of the gods just yet and while our own fate is still in the hands of the team, I'll keep believing. VTID.

Saw a van drive past me with "BJ's Builders" on the side last week. made me chuckle.

This has GOT to happen hasn't it? I very much doubt he's registered I may be wrong, but I'm sure he was registered in our squad at the start of the season. lets hope that's true then, coz Chelsea at Villa park, Big Crowd. Would be a fitting end if that's what it is to be. Whatever our league position. ref should let us bring him on with 19 seconds to go at least

This has GOT to happen hasn't it?

Bastos's debut goal for Schalke was a pearler!

Dont forget the club and Trapatoni had a falling out over Dunne and the Euros. I dont blame the fella for playing if he was carrying an injury, but then I'm not Irish so it doesnt bother me if they get embarrassed in every game and sent home. It does bother me IF that means we lose him for months and are still paying his wages. If they put him in the squad now and he picks up another strain it would be a PR nightmare for the FAI. as for him making it up. well... its a groin injury, not a broken arm. there's no "oh good he's fixed in a set amount of time" moment I'm afraid. He'll be ready when / if he's ready. Considering he's always had a reputation for being a clean living tea totaller though I'm sure his recovery has been super swift........

I'm not so sure on that. Given started the first 2 league games but was dropped after the Everton game. Guzan played LC against tranmere kept a clean sheet and made some great saves earlier in the season. the roles reversed after that. Even in the 8-0 to Chelsea Guzan saved a penalty and made numerous good saves to keep the score down. I'm not saying Given is a bad keeper or knocking him at all. he did ok last year I suppose. But personally I've never been THAT convinced of him either here or at Newcastle or Man City. The only problem for me is that you're basing this on something you saw years ago rather than what's happening now. I understand what you're saying about giving him a break, but we did that and went out of 2 cups in a week as has been said before. Also the lad's been waiting years to get a chance here and really impressed when he was given that chance. On top of that I still think Man City did better out of us signing him than we did. Given is no Enkleman for sure, but he's not in the same class as Spink, Bosnich, Schmeichel or Friedel for me, and my heart would pick Sealey and Guzan ahead of him too.

it seems he's started his own footy website....... http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~3064823,00.html

So THATS what happened to Enckleman