Dr Gloom

my inlaws accuse me of being a scrooge but i'm sorry, for me christmas starts the week before and end on jan 2nd. if you put your tree up now it'll be dead come christmas day

i'm personally a big fan of their current stadium, the mestalla. nice steep stands right on top of the pitch

there was one interception campbell made on sunday that was just different class, reminded me of watching him for england in france 98. all our other defenders were backing off and he just stood his ground and made a perfect challenge, the attacker running at him seemed to bounce off him, campbell stayed on his feet then found a black and white shirt when he cleared it. he's old, but he's still good enough.

Campbell/ Collicini centre back is one area we're fairly well covered for once.

hell yeah! not going to happen but you never know. fucking hell, if only we had some ambition and threw a bit of money around - not loads but enough to attract that sort of player. if we could add johnson, bellamy and carrick to the squadf - all players who you could potentially lure with the right cash, we'd be close to being a top side.

bitter dour jock tbh. i accept he was a class player but he's been a shite manager every club he's been to bar rangers and maybe galatasaray so why the fuck do sky keep wheeling him out as an expert match analyst. may as well have joe kinnear giving his full time thoughts

taylor and campbell both looked solid. we're probably better off for central defenders than we have been in years. you could make the case for any of them being in the starting eleven. taylor and sol aren't a bad backup pairing. we're not looking as blessed up front mind. shola annoyingly reverted to type ysterday after some decent performances this season. ranger coming off the bench is still raw. agree that we're crying out for someone with pace to get on to the end of carroll's flick ons. he won everything in the air yesterday but shola was always the wrong side of his marker to get on the end of anything. so annoying that we didn't bust a gut to get bellamy. with him and carroll up front this season i reckon we'd be challenging for top 6.

It killed me that, I said literally 15 seconds before the goal if we can hold on for one more minute we'll win this. Best I've seen Kalou play to be fair, and I think he's shit. Does anyone know what Souness said? it was along the lines that the players feel; the pressure from the fans. hard play to play because we graon ever time shola gives away the ball. apparently it's the crowd's fault for shola having the touch of a rapist.

Routledge should do that more often. He's got the beating of Cole for pace

Trademark Taylor to go missing when they're in a dangerous position. Wonder who he pointed at afterwards? Anyway, 1-1 is not bad. We've looked half decent in patches. Ameobi has looked poor, Routledge has no end product and Jonas hasn't been involved enough. On the flip-side Tiote has been good (spare what could easily have been a penalty), Guthrie's a different player in the middle. Their movement is so dangerous when they get forward, we need to be anticipating their runs and defending not only where the ball is but also where the ball is going to be. routledge looks a bit scared to take his man on. I wonder if he's been instructed to get early balls into the box i stead of trying to beat cole

So Chelsea are back in it because of the crowd? Fuck off souness, bitter twat

Bad time to concede but on balance it's been a good first half. Good game plan from hughton. We still look dangerous when we go forward. Agree Carroll is crying out for a pacey front player to get to his flick ons cos he's winning absolutely everything in the air.

when doesn't he! He's just less shit in some games than others He was brilliant against the mackems and against Chelsea in the carling cup

Shola having a bit of a stinker

So far so good. Knick an early goal and defend well and look to get forward when we can. Looking dangerous when we do go forward. Chelsea having lots of the ball but not creating much so far

That's a bold attacking line up? Shit or bust

If we can bat till mid afternoon we could put them in with a target they can't chase down in the time giving them a session and a half to see out. The wicket is pretty lifeless but the Aussies won't fancy that, especially if the real swanny comes to the party. His first Innings was the worst I've seen him bowl since he got into the side. Another 150 runs on the board will make it interesting. This is proper test match cricket with swings both way in momentum. Bring it on! One things for sure, that Australian attack is the most toothless I've seen. The barmy army were singing "one Mitchell Johnson" at one point

I never knew he was a dirty rag like? What a bell end Our school never played cricket, it was just for the grammar school toffs. I can appreciate the technical side of it like and also enjoy it as a backdrop to a day on the sauce. I only really take an interest if we're playing the Australians though because it winds them up to fuck if we win. Basically we've gone from likely to lose this test to it now looking like an odds-on draw. No bragging rights then as such but it was just nice to see the resiliance from an England batting display with backs to the wall. Strauss was on a pair when he came in so the first ball must have felt like the equivalent of a world cup penalty to him. And a draw's still slightly better for us than them on balance as we only have to draw the series to retain the Ashes. How a draw though, surely if we get more points than them we win? You pulling my chain now, Steven? I know fuck all about cricket. Do we just say to them, look we'll just call it a draw eh? I'm a cricket JCL myself, but I can answer this one: let's say England get skittled out tomorrow with a lead of 300, and Australia go in to bat. Three results can still happen: - England bowl the Aussies out for <300 = England Win - Aussies knock off the runs = Aussie win - Aussies don't knock off the runs, but haven't lost all their wickets come the end of the day's play = Draw

i don't want to tempt fate but strauss and cook both looking good so far though cook has played and missed at a couple. lot of work to do but the wicket looks lifeless. just need one or two big partnerships to make a game of it.

Henman mark II tbh albeit marginally better

quality little rabbit punch from "two jabs"

ah well, that morning session was the turning point. a couple of wickets taken when we were on top and it would have been a good even contest. anderson should have picked up at least a couple and the aussies rode their luck at times but the wicket never came in time, they survived and we've a massive job just to save the game now. our batters need to bat for at least 4 sessions and make a proper score. it's looking like another case of the gabbatoir.

we've been unlucky. anderson's been all over hussey. just need the breakthrough

get out of jail card for hussey there with that review, looked out in real time

perch at right mid?