Laivasse

BRILLIANT! Excellent, excellent counter attack... I haven't seen much of Ireland in this half, but great weighted pass to Bent and the second attempt from Bent was his best finish this season easily.

Yeah, that one was Cuellar.

Was Keane - who's looked excellent. Gives us a different option. I thought he meant the through ball to Bent just then, no worries.

Cuellar's passing from the back has been excellent.

Beauty!

Why the **** didn't Keane slot through to Ireland there :| EDIT: if it was actually Hutton, I can understand the decision

Ridiculous that that's given as a foul, ref and commentators are utter mugs.

Math major at university? Forty things our fullbacks dont like.... pace and OXlade-Chamberlain and Walcott have that.... cud b a torrid game for them! Maybe matty meant that Walcott has pace AND he has Oxlaid-Chamberlain..?

Is Eck doing the commentary from the dugout? 'No doubt' that Collins is better than Cuellar, Hutton 'very useful', 'one of the quickest fullbacks'...? I half expect to hear we're a renowned for our 'total football' next.

I don't often agree with macandally (EDIT: eh, whoops, I meant brummybloke I thought it was macandally, can't remember how much I usually agree with brummybloke ) , but his analysis of the Wolves game is much more accurate than bickster's. While we dominated the first 10 minutes (not 20-25) of the first half, our only good chance from open play was Gardner's early header. After that, they tore us open over and over again. They attacked down our left as if we had no players there and could have been out of sight by HT, if they hadn't repeatedly blasted the ball down Given's throat. No, we could not have killed the game and got '3 or 4' with our 10 minutes of positive play. It's all very well saying how clever it was to start without Warnock, except that doing so cost us one goal directly and one indirectly through inviting all the pressure that gave them their corners. Bringing Warnock on at HT was a good move, but it really was the only sensible choice, since Baker is untested and pinning a defensive turnaround on him would have been bonkers. It also requires the benefit of some doubt to say that McLeish would have made any subs at all if not for Gabby being sick. Personally, seeing as how McLeish has failed to make subs in dire situations in the past, IMO no changes would have been made if his hand hadn't been forced - HT tactical subs haven't been his style at all so far even when we've been sinking without trace. Furthermore it's all very well saying that leaving Clark on was a masterstroke, but the fact is we missed Gabby. Clark did very little in the second half, and despite having the better of play we continued to create very little. Their lack of dominance came from the fact they gave up attacking our left, whereas they'd spent the entire 1st half doing so. That's without accounting for the Frimpong injury and the red card. Individual efforts are what won the game. We equalised while Frimpong was still on because our equaliser had nothing to do with momentum or tactical superiority. Keane making two great strikes is not the same as having a successful gameplan. If McLeish deserves credit for anything about the Wolves game, it's for getting Keane in - and I'm eating my words here, since I thought Keane would be useless. He was a gamble that very much paid off, however, and I'm delighted that he won the Wolves game on his own, but that is what he did.

*sigh* I keep seeing this but people need to drop 'O'Neill' from this list tbh. You're taking the opinion of Houllier and McLeish, not O'Neill. O'Neill didn't often play Cuellar at CB, it's true. But what's also true, and more significant, is that, in his last season, nearly 100% of the time he played Cuellar over L. Young, who is a better RB than Hutton any day of the week. It's my opinion that MON thought the back four was too frail without Cuellar, and so he sacrificed some attacking mentality (Young) in order to have an extra CB supporting Collins and Dunne. The defensive performances of this season and the two prior make this look like a good opinion to hold. It's an important distinction, because if that really was what MON thought, then it doesn't mean he thought Dunne and Collins were too good for Cuellar to get in at CB. It means he thought Dunne and Collins were too weak to allow us to play Young at RB.

It's true that Houllier didn't prefer Carlos (as if we should care what he thought), but not remotely true that MON preferred 'Dunne, Collins and Young'. Cuellar played week in, week out under MON. I don't know why people insist on speculating that playing him at RB was because he thought Cuellar was an inferior centre half to Collins. What on earth would be the benefit to the defence for MON to play a CB he didn't have confidence in, in a position he was bound to play even worse? If anything, Cuellar was played at RB because he was considered our most versatile CB, not because he was our best full-back or our worst CB.

I nailed 100% completion on this a couple of days back. I can't really see myself returning to it, like I have done with GTA4, but it was a lot of fun while it lasted and hey, who knows. Could be one of those games that starts calling to you again 6 months down the line. I think it needs to be said how great the voice acting was for the male char I picked - Male Voice 3, the cockney growly voice. Really good comic delivery and half made the game what it was for me. So I checked out the VA and it's the same guy who does the Medic in TF2! A guy called Robin Atkin Downes. My friend says the russian female voice is pretty classic too. In fact there are some surprises hidden in the acting credits that I had no idea about - Hulk Hogan does the Angel bloke, for instance. Finally, for anyone who hasn't completed the main storyline yet, I won't spoil it but the final mission has a choice in it. After completion you have the freedom to re-attempt the mission and take the other choice (which is required for 100% completion). The thing is, one of the choices makes a fairly naff change to the cityscape. If you want to avoid that change, it's important to take that choice (it's obvious which one will have an impact on the city) first time round, since on the re-attempt the naff change will be undone. I know it's kind of pathetic, but it annoyed me that I did it the other way round and was left with the results of the choice I hadn't wanted to make in the first place.

I think it's a fair guess. McLeish has failed to make HT changes in situations where we needed them even more than yesterday. In fact I can't recall a tactical HT change he's ever made for us, so it's my opinion also that his hand was forced. He's waited until the 80-85th minute to make (wrong) changes in games we've sorely needed subs before. Warnock on was a good thing, but Eck didn't balance up Gabby's loss in any way. The second half was more even than some here are admitting. Keane's goals were unexpected blessings, the kind of get out jail cards we used to get occasionally from eg. Sidwell. I'm massively grateful for them, because without them it didn't look like we had what it took to equalise, let alone win.

We haven't looked likely to concede since we forsook that starting setup.

Second half's been ours but there hasn't been much in it. Without two moments of excellence, we'd still be behind. First, they dominated. This is for sure a lucky win (fingers crossed).

ROFL fantastic goal. I want to see footage of the blowjob Eck gave Keane at HT.

Great flick from gardner.

Alby's had a much better second half. Crossing hasn't found any heads but it's been into dangerous areas, plus he looks much more full of piss and vinegar than he did in the first.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. Delighted. As well as being a dirty piece of shit, he's also a total **** moron - such an obvious 'covert' stamp.

Game's gone off the boil. I think it'll stay quiet until a final 5-10 minutes of sustained pressure, but it's impossible to say from which side. This is when you need to take the game by the scruff of the neck with a good sub.

Alby attempting goal of the season. Oh well, I've seen them struck worse.

They've completely stopped going after us down our left, which is AOK.

I think you're thinking of Sidwell clattering Ghedioura.

There's a lot to like about the way Frimpong's been playing, have to hope Petrov didn't shatter his face or anything.