The Weekend

Take That Robbie (there's a joke there somewhere).
I might be rubbish at predictions but a 5-4 win for me over part time pundit Mr Williams :) we both got only one correct score but I take it on four correct results.

West Ham pushed Arsenal all the way and were unlucky to lose in the last minutes, Rob Green played a blinder but poor finishing again cost the Hammers.

Chelsea showed some title form coming back against Blackburn in a tight match.

Comedy moment of the year in the Man U Spuds game :) Nanny falls over and catches the ball, Gomez picks it up and runs 10 yards and drops the ball, Twattenburg is clearly signalling play on, Nanny gets up and kicks the ball in the net, goal to Man U and the Spuds suddenly demand a free kick? Obvious question is if Gomez thought the ref had blown for a free kick why did he run to the edge of the box before dropping it when the handball was near the bye line?

Liverpool grab a late away win in a dull encounter with Bolton, Newcastle hit 5 against Sunderland (didn't see that coming), Everton continue to improve, Fulham actually win and Wolves beat Man City proving that No Tevez = No Chance.

One game left this week with the newly promoted Blackpool and West Brom play, both have had a bit more success than they could have hoped for so far but despite the impressive results Blackpool are still only one point clear of the bottom 3, but with only 2 wins separating 5th placed Tottenham from 19th placed Wolves it's still wide open.

Football Memories - 1980 FA Cup Run

By the 1980 season I had been a regular at all home and a lot of away games for 4 years - working lad living at home Booze, birds, records and Football .... the usual :)
The 1979-80 season was our second in the 2nd division and after finishing a disappointing 5th in 78-79 we also missed out this season mainly due to the cup run.
We had a great team at this point with class acts like Phil Parkes, Ray Stewart, Billy Bonds, Alan Devonshire and Sir Trevor Brooking. Backed up former Man U striker Stuart Pearson, journeyman striker Dave Cross, young Paul Allen in his first season, Alvin Martin, Geoff Pike, Patsy Holland and slim Frank Lampard.
We had beaten Aston Villa 1-0 in the 6th Round which meant a semi versus Everton at Villa park, luckily my number came up in the draw for tickets and meant a Sunday morning trip up to Upton park to get my ticket.

The game ended up 1-1 with our equaliser memorable due to Stuart Pearson lying injured and being ignored by the Everton defenders and suddenly getting off the floor and running on to a through ball to score.
Brian Kidd getting sent off after his punch up with Super Jock was another great moment.
The replay was hastily arranged for the following Wednesday which meant a quick trip up to Upton Park on the monday afternoon to get a ticket and and having to book a coach trip to Leeds and also pleading with the boss for a short notice day off.

An interesting day having to leave at mid day and getting to Leeds around 6pm, the game itself was only memorable in the first 90 minutes for the brilliant non stop singing of the Hammers fans, extra time was probably my greatest 30 minutes of football supporting as we kept plugging away at our higher rated opponents and were rewarded when Alan Devonshire beat the entire Everton defence to tuck in a superb goal, Latchford equalised and the scoreboard showed that a second replay was arranged for Highfield road Coventry on the following Monday meaning going through all those hassles getting tickets, transport and time off again :(
With seconds left Frank Lampard somehow got his head to a cross and we had won 2-1 ... amazing.
Didn't get home till 4.30am the next day and had to be up at 6.30 for work but it was worth it.

The final meant queueing up for hours at Upton park on a Sunday morning to get a ticket. £3.50 shows how times have changed :)

The day itself worked out brilliantly with us beating Arsenal 1-0 although the old Wembley stadium wasn't the greatest place to watch football, when Brooking scored we were at the other end and so far away we really couldn't tell if it was a goal for a few seconds until the wave of cheering spread around the ground.

Football Memories - 1975

The 1974/5 season was the first year that I made regular visits to Upton Park and it turned out to be a great season, we finished a respectable 13th and won the FA cup.
I managed to get a ticket for the Semi final but didn't have the money to go to the replay and couldn't get a ticket for the final.
We had beaten Arsenal at Highbury 2-0 with Alan Taylor scoring twice in the 6th round but were still underdogs for this game as Ipswich were top 3.
This game at Villa park ended up 0-0, the replay at Stamford Bridge saw us win 2-1 with Taylor again scoring twice.
The final saw us beat Fulham 2-0 with Taylor again the hero :)

I did manage to get a ticket for the Charity shield at the start of the next season where we were beaten 2-0 by League champions Derby.

Football Memories - 1974

Here's a shock for you, my first major final attended wasn't a West Ham game it was arch enemies Tottenham!!
My uncle was an avid spuds fan and had taken me to a couple of games in this season, he had got a few tickets for this first leg of the final and luckily he invited me to go with him and my cousin.
The match ended up 2-2 after Tottenham had twice taken the lead, they lost the second leg in Holland 2-0 the week after.
Probably the last time I cheered for Tottenham, I was only 13 and didn't know better :)

A glitter badge from the 1995 Merlin premier league set.

Predictions (Week 10)

Week ten of my increasingly bad predictions, if I'm gonna be wrong I might as well go for a Hammers victory over the Arsenal .. it's not like we haven't won there in recent history so you never know.
A few local derbies this week with Villa v Brum and the Toon v Mackems can see both those finishing as draws with a few red cards thrown in.
Chelsea have a tough one but expect them to hit Blackburn on the break a couple of times, Man U v Spuds could be difficult for Fergie's mob but I'm hoping for a vintage Manc victory, and Liverpool could come unstuck at Bolton but maybe they've got a bit of confidence now and might scrape a draw if they can keep own goal specialist Carragher out.

Arsenal v West Ham 1-2
Blackburn v Chelsea 0-2
Everton v Stoke 2-0
Fulham v Wigan 2-0
Wolves v Man City 0-1
Man Utd v Tottenham 3-1
Aston Villa v Birmingham 1-1
Bolton v Liverpool 2-2
Newcastle v Sunderland 1-1
Blackpool v West Brom 2-2

Just for added interest I'll be taking on Robbie Williams as he posted his predictions on the Beeb site, although he seems to have forgotten the Blackpool match?
Robbie's version -
Arsenal v West Ham 3-1, Blackburn v Chelsea 0-1, Everton v Stoke 2-1,
Fulham v Wigan 2-0, Wolves v Man City 1-2, Man Utd v Tottenham 2-2,
Aston Villa v Birmingham 1-0, Bolton v Liverpool 2-1, Newcastle v Sunderland 1-1.

Predator

Rooney

Trying to take our minds off the Tories latest attempts to kill the poor, we've had the Rooney saga ... yawn.
My first thoughts were he wants more money, he's on 90k a week at the moment they probably offered him 120k but he'd read that City were paying Yaya Toure about 220k so he thought he tried a bit of bluffing to get a bit more, as it goes it has turned out to be a masterstroke from his agent Paul Stretford, Rooney takes all the shit but walks away with 160k a week at least and no doubt Stretford is getting a nice little percentage.
The whole story about him worrying over United's ambitions just didn't ring true, the words used in Rooney's statement .. well you just couldn't imagine Rooney coming out with anything as intelligent as that.
I imagine Chelsea and Everton will be disappointed at the outcome, Chelsea's only real challengers are Man U and with Rooney gone you just couldn't see them scoring enough goals to keep up the pace, Everton I believe have a large sell on clause on Rooney so would have liked a slice of the reported £50m fee

Predictions (Week 9)

Much better last week with 4 correct scores and 6 correct results :)
This weeks tips as follows -

Tottenham v Everton 2-1
Birmingham v Blackpool 2-0
Chelsea v Wolves 3-0
Sunderland v Aston Villa 1-1
West Brom v Fulham 1-1
Wigan v Bolton 0-0
West Ham v Newcastle 2-1
Stoke v Man Utd 1-1
Liverpool v Blackburn 0-0
Man City v Arsenal 0-1

Big game of the week City v Arsenal, if Arsenal really think they have any chance of the title this is the sort of game they must win, if they lose then it looks like City will take their place in the big 3.
Man U usually step up when the pressure is on and this is the ideal week to do it even without Judas.
None of the other games really stand out although the Hammers v Newcastle game brings back some good and bad memories for me, an 8-1 win in the only season we challenged for the title and a 5-0 opening day win many many years back but also nearly being petrol bombed on a visit to St James's in the Eighties :(

Malcolm Allison R.I.P

Sad to hear that Malcolm Allison passed away today.
A legend in the early seventies after he had coached Man City to four major trophies in partnership with Joe Mercer, and became (with Brian Clough) one of the faces of TV football at the time, never short of a controversial quote he seemed like the original Mourinho.
As has been said today he introduced the pre match diet for footballers that is widely used today 30+ years before Arsene Wenger thought of it.
After leaving City he never had that level of success again, but was always entertaining.
A sad loss :)

Classic Match

Man U v West Brom this weekend and I thought of this match from way back, I remember watching this on a Sunday lunchtime in Brian Moore's "Big Match" which showed highlights from the previous days games, and it rated as one of the best matches I'd ever seen and I (obviously) still think of it.
Late seventies memories - Big Ron, short shorts, dodgy haircuts, racism, muddy pitches, Bryan Robson's perm!! all things we're glad to have seen the back off, but some of the matches were just brilliant.

This one ended 5-3 to WBA with some classic goals none better than Cyrille Regis's fifth, the West Brom team at the time were one of the most entertaining around with Bomber Brown, Len Cantello, Laurie Cunningham and Cyrile Regis.
Laurie Cunningham looked superb in this game and you can only wonder if it was down to the racism of the times that he wasn't an England regular, although I have read since it didn't help that after signing for Real Madrid he hadn't asked for an international release clause which caused him to miss a lot of England games that he would have been selected for, sadly Laurie died in a car crash in 1989 :(

Liverpool Redsox

For non Liverpool fans like me this has been quite a fun week :)
Every day a new twist with court battles here and in the US while getting closer to the day that RBS were demanding their money back with a possible 9 point deduction if Liverpool were forced into administration.
"Yanks out" seems to have been the choice of the scousers, but now they must be really confused as their saviours are another bunch of yanks?
Hicks and Gilette always seemed like a pair of shysters who didn't give a toss about "soccccer" but had seen an opportunity to make a few quid, that being said they did stump up a hell of a lot of cash for Benitez to waste on a bunch of foreign nobodies who have got them into the state they are at the moment.
If they had dumped Rafa straight away it could have been a success story and the Liverpool fans could have carried on doing what they do best - slagging off every other team especially Man U who also ended up with dodgy Americans in charge.
I hear that Hicks and Gilette still have a chance of making their fortune after filing a claim for 1.6 billion dollars against the Liverpool board who sold the club from under them, this story will probably run and run?

If anyone wonders why I have a downer on Liverpool it's a throwback to my active supporter days and my "closest to death" experiences all came while attending Liverpool v West Ham matches (Home, Away and Neutral), the tragedies that happened later on involving their fans came as no surprise to me.
Several discussions with Liverpool fans ended up with the comment that "Liverpool have the greatest fans in the world" while they were trying to knife me!!

England 0 Montenegro 0

Bad enough having to traipse around Basingstoke trying to find somewhere that was showing the match, ended up in a Beefeater bar with the game showing on a small screen with the sound down and drinking expensive pints.
If England had looked like scoring maybe some of the business types and pensioners might have shown some interest in the game but it wasn't to be.
I quite like Crouch as a player but as soon as he's in the team the rest go to pot and just try aimless crosses in the hope he'll get his head to them? as it was I can only remember one cross that he had a chance of getting his head too anyway.
Bad passing and terrible free kicks were back and we once again looked like the team we saw during the World cup.
England are still in a good position to qualify in this poor group but with away games in Bulgaria and Montenegro and 2 matches against Wales to come they will have to improve a lot.

Serbia

If these had been England fans the Chilean miners wouldn't have made the news at all this week.
Team shirt, Match ticket, Team scarf? no I'll just take my skull shirt, balaclava and wire cutters.

Predictions (Week 8)

Just 4 correct results and no correct scores out of the last 20 matches makes me remember why I gave up putting money on these a couple of years back ... sigh!
But being a glutton for punishment (it's a West Ham thing) here we go again ....
Live from someone else's computer, the might be results from this weekend's Premier league matches.

Arsenal v Birmingham 2-1
Bolton v Stoke 2-1
Fulham v Tottenham 1-1
Man Utd v West Brom 3-1
Newcastle v Wigan 2-0
Wolves v West Ham 1-1
Aston Villa v Chelsea 1-2
Everton v Liverpool 1-0
Blackpool v Man City 1-3
Blackburn v Sunderland 0-0

I can't see Blackpool upsetting City's mercenaries unless they've all got injured after the international break, but stranger things have happened?
Will Everton heap more misery on Sir Roy in the mersey derby?
At least Karl Henry will be suspended for the Hammers visit to Wolves so they might end up with 22 complete legs at the end?
Chelsea go to Villa which is not one of their favourite fixtures with only one away win this century! although they stuffed them at home 7-1 last time.
Unbeaten Fulham go for another draw at home to the Spuds, but a win would be nice.
The other games look pretty bland but you never know? West Brom's attacking style could cause an upset or a hiding?

Sir Roy

I think Roy Hodgson is doing a wonderful job, Liverpool in the bottom 3 after losing at home to Blackpool, following on from their home defeat by the mighty Northampton and Torres is injured again as well.

I've dreamed for years of Liverpool getting relegated to shut up every Liverpool fan you meet who still thinks the reds are likely to win the league and only miss out due to not getting the same amount of blind biased refs that they had every game during their heyday.
Yeah I know West ham are below them but if it finished like this I'd have some consolation .. all I need now is Tottscum to finish in the bottom 3 as well :)

Congrats to Longy after Chelsea beat the arse bandits 2-0, wonder free kick from Alex settled it after Chelsea looked second best for most of the game, as predicted Drogba scored ..... well I had to get one prediction right surely?, the rest were sh*t.

West Ham v Tottenham Part 2

I heard today that Tottenham have also been in contact with the London Olympic committee about the possibility of moving to the new Olympic stadium after the games, although Harry Redknapp on the radio tonight seemed a bit bemused by it all especially as permission has just been granted to expand White Hart lane up from 36,000 to 56,000.
The obvious question is could either Spurs or West Ham fill an 80,000 capacity stadium? that would depend on prices and the success of the teams, I have been part of a 55,000 crowd at Tottenham several times in the early eighties and 40,000 crowds at Upton park in the seventies before both grounds capacities were reduced for the all seater's.
Personally I'd give it to Tottenham or Orient or anyone else even though it's on our doorstep as the thought of a half empty stadium with a running track around it doesn't inspire me much, it just makes me think of when I went to see Billericay play in the vase final at Wembley many years back although about 18,000 were there it just seemed empty, I still miss the days when the Upton Park stands were right against the pitch and as a kid I'd pat Trevor Brooking and others on the back as he took a throw in.
My feeling is that neither team will end up there as the politicians seem set on keeping the stadium as an athletics track and it will end up being subsidised by the tax payer until eventually someone pulls the plug and the thing gets knocked down and sold off to a property developer at a knock down price.

Predictions (Week 7)

After last weeks terrible predictions I thought about not bothering, with only 2 correct results (and one of those 26 goals out haha), but I'll keep it up for the duration so here's some more -

Wigan v Wolves 1-1
Birmingham v Everton 1-1
Stoke v Blackburn 0-1
Sunderland v Man Utd 0-2
Tottenham v Aston Villa 1-1
West Brom v Bolton 1-0
West Ham v Fulham 2-1
Man City v Newcastle 2-0
Liverpool v Blackpool 2-0
Chelsea v Arsenal 2-1

Big game of the weekend obviously Liverpool v Blackpool :)
no I mean Chelsea v Arsenal, recent games would suggest if Drogba plays Chelsea should win as he seems to like playing Arsenal and usually scores, we'll have to see if he can bully the new almost unknown pairing of Squillacci and Kocsielny (spelling unsure?) like he usually does, although Arsenal had one bit of luck with Almunia's mystery injury and sub Fabianski looking quite good in the week.
Fabregas and fat Frank are expected to be out.