Laivasse

That attempted through ball from Ireland to Heskey... an example of why it's so painful to watch the big man up front. Gabby might have actually turned it into a foot race with Djourou, as opposed to a sloth vs cat race.

Agreed with Stevo. I can see where you're coming from, Puss, because I too have gripes with Steam from a consumer rights angle. There are some interesting horror stories about the terms of the license agreement with Steam, and how people have lost entire game catalogues, worth hundreds, due to glitches and misunderstandings, because Valve reserve the right to shut down accounts at their own discretion. If you ask yourself what recourse you would have if Valve one day decide that you're not allowed to access your games, the answer currently is 'not much'. Steam games obviously also have no resale value and it's very tough to ever get a refund. However - and I say this as someone who is principled to the point of fanaticism when it comes to companies taking liberties against consumers - these are the times we are living in. Out of all the forms of DRM and all the digital distribution platforms, Steam is among the least offensive, certainly the least offensive 'big name'. Valve are one of the few companies who seem to understand that when you take something away from the customer, you need to give a lot back in exchange - therefore Steam has become a very useful entity in several other ways, like chat (available in-game, even for non-Steam games), voice communication, auto-updates, finding bargains, promotion of indie titles, easy taking of screenshots, etc... It's no real kind of burden on system resources either. Like I say, back when HL2 was released it was a monstrosity but now it gives a lot back. Steam probably rejuvenated the PC games market almost on its own, also. For their own games, too, Valve appear to recognise the value of customer good will. TF2 got free, huge updates for ages and is now free to play. The add-on campaign for co-op play in Portal 2 was free and my understanding is there will be more where that came from. So I can see you're approaching this from a point of principle, but what does it accomplish if boycotting/bypassing Steam screws up your enjoyment of a game you want to play.

There's no reason why that distinction should matter to the consumer. 'QA' in many people's minds refers to the process by which the bugs are reported and then followed up on, so if the bugs are sent back to testers 'working as intended' then it's still bad 'QA' to the end user. Not that I'm disagreeing about the reason why bugs stay in games, though... I've read a lot about how dismissive devs are of their testers. Tales From the Trenches makes for a good read.

As mentioned, Steam has an Offline Mode which you can switch to if you mainly play single player games and your connectivity is often interrupted. If you own the game then finding a cracked version is unlikely to be worth the effort, since illegitimate copies of FM lack automatic updates and are known for having persistent glitches. I can see why people would dislike Steam, but it's a much more useful, less obtrusive program than it was back in 2004. Just use Offline Mode and you'll barely notice it.

Evander Sno also recovered from a heart attack on the Ajax training pitch to play again in the Eredivisie. They gave him an internal defibrilator.

Working under McLeish would be a stiff challenge to the professionalism of any footballer. An egotistical showoff with a troublesome streak being crowbarred into McLeish's 'Dutch' 10-0-0 formations was never going to end well.

Yeah, from what I understand they are very similar. Still, I bought from them a couple of times when I was over there for new and used titles and had no complaints - friendly staff, OK prices. Then again, the fact that it was $2 to £1 exchange rate at the time didn't hurt

I don't think GAME itself has any stores in the USA, but Gamestop would probably be the American equivalent. Gamestop are massive and thriving, also among the top contenders to take over GAME. That's why I think this isn't a case of 'the death of retail' or anything similarly apocalyptic.

I think he needs to be part of a five man midfield to get the best out of him, but tbh the same can probably be said about most of our midfielders and wide types atm.

McLeish didn't 'make' Ireland good. Eck deserves some credit for being the first manager to give Ireland a sustained run in the second striker/in-the-hole role. By exactly the same token, he deserves every bit of abuse that gets chucked at him for the abysmal win percentage and performances this season. McLeish's job doesn't revolve solely around getting performances out of Stephen Ireland, but Stephen Ireland's job does.

I thought he was solid yesterday, possibly his best defensive game, but I didn't understand all the superlatives I was reading in the reaction threads, because going forward he was still complete rubbish, with laughable crossing.

Could be because Ireland's doing a good job and McLeish isn't? Not sure about this 'inconsistency' schtick either. Barring Keane, Ireland's consistently been our best performer for something like 10 games now (when he hasn't been dropped idiotically or subbed on too late).

MotM - the Mexican commentator. Hearing him shout for 'Cueshar', 'Al Brinkton', 'Agbonlowrrrrrrrrrr'and the 'GOLLLLLLLLLL~~~' kept my spirits up. Delighted by the win, delighted for Weimann. At least we know we'll almost certainly be in the Prem next season. I think we showed we were creatively much better than Fulham but much less well drilled than they were. Almost all their possession was effective, hardly any of ours was. It took sustained periods of possession for us to even start to push up the pitch, then we'd drop back to the basement every time we lost it. A bizarrely cautious mentality for a match we were dominating, and it nearly sealed the draw. The N'Zog withdrawal was absurd, but considering the goal was made by the subs then you can't really say much. Without them we may not have scored - but then again if our players had been given proper tactics to follow in the first place we may not have been so desperate for it after 92 minutes, so swings and roundabouts. Gabby didn't look with it at all, it's like he doesn't know what the hell type of player he is any more. Albrighton too was sadly terrible. Some of our crossing was just laughable. We got the points though and we'd better savour them because with performances like this they don't come too often. Like Gabby I just want this season to be over.

Couldn't help but burst out laughing when that move culminated in Cuellar trying to whip in a first time cross from the left.

Look at the way they pressure our back line when we're in possession on our 18 yard line, compared to the way we back away from their CBs when they're in possession near the half way line.

Not sure if you're joking, blind, or you don't know which player N'Zog is. He was clearly among our 2 best players 1st half.

Zog looked about as happy as the fans sounded. Don't be surprised if he soon turns back into early-season-Zog.

What a load of horseshit.

Beautiful through ball from Ireland, Gabby on his heels and wasn't ready... Ireland understandably pissed off.

We don't start to push up unless we have a sustained 10+ minutes of possession. When we lose it we then drop right back into our own third and they get an instant boost.

There was a brief interview with Gabby on Soccer Saturday before the game. When he was asked about the pressure to score more goals, he brushed it off and started talking about how he wants to be bringing other players into the game. I think that's the problem with what he's trying to do in this game. IMO this needs to be knocked out of him, at least temporarily. It was essential in the early season, when nobody was performing and Gabby was the only person who seemed capable of feeding bent. Now we have Ireland and Nzog performing decently, Petrov attacking more and with no Bent, Gabby needs to drop his delusions of being a playmaker and get back up front ready to run off shoulders and knock goals in.

They could have gone 0-1 up just before HT, closer than we've come yet. Gabby and Alby are underperforming. With Alby, I think it's his confidence, trying to do too much and not getting simpler things right. With gabby he often drops too deep when we don't have the ball and then drifts too wide when we do have it - basically he's trying to fill roles we already have filled, by players who are better at them than him. I wouldn't make any changes at HT, we just need to improve our attacking ideas. Maybe a Bannan for Albrighton swap at some point.

I'm not too impressed with this new 'Al Brinkton' fella we've signed.

We were all over them, but didn't create anything clear cut and they'll soon settle. Johnson got that shot away far too easily.

Another corner not given. Hope the officials don't rob us as bad as they did QPR.