Palace Theatre

Congratulations to Crystal Palace for winning the play off final today.
Great to have Ian Holloway back in the Premier league, and possibly a last fling for Kevin Phillips who will hopefully carry on for another season.
History suggests it could be a one season wonder for Palace, but you never know?

Struggling

Biopunk
Really struggling finding a picture of Lampard and Di Matteo from 2001/2.
Please accept this really badly bodged cut up until I find something better :)

Premier Predictions The Final Score

Congratulations Biopunk :)

Just 76 days till next season :)

Premier Predictions (Week 38) The Final

Here we go the last week of the season, 10 games all on Sunday.

As far as the Premier league goes there is only one thing left to sort out.
Arsenal or Tottenham to finish 4th, Tottenham look to have the easier game at home to now safe Sunderland, Arsenal go to the slightly improving Newcastle.

The prediction competition is still wide open, as although I've taken the lead my lack of draws means any of you will overtake me with an outright win :(
So here they are ... good luck all.

Chelsea v Everton
Liverpool v QPR
Man City v Norwich
Newcastle v Arsenal
Southampton v Stoke
Swansea v Fulham
Tottenham v Sunderland
West Brom v Man Utd
West Ham v Reading
Wigan v Aston Villa

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Useless facts from this years prediction competition (so far) :)

3 Pointers (Correct Scores) - Biopunk 43, Paulo 42, Longy 37, Lee 36, Gobshyte 35
1 Pointers (Correct Result) - Lee 136, Biopunk 132, Gobshyte 131, Paulo 123, Longy 119
Highest Weekly Score - Lee 18, Gobshyte 14, Biopunk 13, Paulo 12, Longy 11
Games Predicted - Biopunk + Lee 369, Paulo 368, Gobshyte 363, Longy 345

Premier Predictions (Week 37)

Just 2 weeks of the season left and still a few things left to sort out.
Most importantly our prediction competition which has shaped up nicely with all 5 of us with 6 outright wins so far.
Wigan's defeat in the week means they are in deep trouble and a trip to Arsenal in the week (who are still chasing a top 4 spot) could seal their fate, Newcastle Norwich and Sunderland might only need a point.
Games on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.

Aston Villa v Chelsea

Stoke v Tottenham
Everton v West Ham
Fulham v Liverpool
Norwich v West Brom
QPR v Newcastle
Sunderland v Southampton
Man Utd v Swansea

Arsenal v Wigan
Reading v Man City

The Championship

So Cardiff and Hull make it up, plus one from Leicester, Palace, Brighton and Udinese reserves.
From what I've seen of them they are all going to struggle next year.
Cardiff have been the best of a bad bunch but will need to spend some serious cash to survive next season, and Hull must already be odds on to finish bottom.
Personally I think Brighton, Palace or Leicester if they go up stand the best chance next year.

Mourinho

Premier Predictions (Week 36)

Just 3 weeks left, and anyone can still win.
Extra games this week with re-arranged games in midweek on Tuesday and Wednesday added to the regular Saturday to Monday games.
Wigan will be desperate to get something this week or they could be down when they play the Cup final.

Fulham v Reading
Norwich v Aston Villa
Swansea v Man City
Tottenham v Southampton
West Brom v Wigan
West Ham v Newcastle
QPR v Arsenal
Liverpool v Everton
Man Utd v Chelsea
Sunderland v Stoke

Man City v West Brom
Wigan v Swansea
Chelsea v Tottenham

Lucky Luis

Premier Predictions (Week 35)

3 Days of games, the titles over but the (non) Champions league spots are still up for grabs.
If City fall apart again under battering ram Carroll they could join the mix?
Wigan are getting desperate and would have prayed Bale's injury flared up again, Reading and QPR get to fight one last week before the inevitable.
Villa must perform better this Monday against Paololand.

Good luck all :)

Man City v West Ham
Everton v Fulham
Southampton v West Brom
Stoke v Norwich
Wigan v Tottenham
Newcastle v Liverpool

Reading v QPR
Chelsea v Swansea
Arsenal v Man Utd

Aston Villa v Sunderland

Chomping At The Bit

I'm starting to like Luis Suarez? yes he's a diving, cheating, racist, horse faced cannibal but his actions give us all a chance to take the piss, and have a go at the untouchable scouses in the process.

Here's the best I've seen of this weeks :)

Say what you like about Luis Suarez but you can't question the lad's hunger, He's shown he still has a great appetite for the game

Liverpool accept £35m bid for Suarez from Borussia Munchonacentreback

Luis Suarez putting the eat into cheat

Liverpool have confirmed they will warm up for their next game in McDonalds uniforms to show support for Luis Suarez

Steven Gerrard says he feels a bit guilty for saying to Luis Suarez in the tunnel "Watch that Ivanovic he's a bit tasty"

It's a good job Luis Suarez didn't play in the Premier League 10 years ago for his own sake.He might of ended up with a mouthful of Seaman

If you'd have offered Luis Suarez a point before that game he'd have bitten your arm off

He cheats, he dives, he'll eat your arms and thighs

Luis Suarez will miss the rest of the season with a ban imposed by the FA, Branislav Ivanovic will miss the rest of the season with rabies

Luis Suarez Great footballer, but sometimes he really makes a meal of things

Luis Suarez has revealed that sinking his teeth into Ivanovic is an affectionate term for mate back home

He was only getting revenge on the Eastern Europeans for making his friends and family into value beef burgers

  What's Luis Suarez's favourite day of the week?
  Chewsday.

  Luis Suarez hopes to play against Bayern Munich one day,
  because he would like to try a shoulder of Lahm.

Paolo Fever

It's nice to see the loveable loony has got Blunderland playing again :)
If anyone else was in charge of them I'd be wishing relegation on them, but I can't bring myself to slag off Paolo.
Weather he will still be there next season is anyone's guess but if you needed someone to kick the players arses to get them going he was the man.
Also glad all the press bullshit seems to have subsided and they can leave him alone, and who knows they might actually start looking at all the dubious characters who are now running a lot of our teams?

Premier Predictions (Week 34)

Straight on with the weekends games, 7 Saturday, 2 Sunday and one on Monday.
All the teams chasing 3rd have tough games so nothing's likely to get sorted.
Much as I like Martinez and the way Wigan are playing lately I hope the Hammers can help send them down for Dave Whelan's sake :)

Fulham v Arsenal
Norwich v Reading
QPR v Stoke
Sunderland v Everton
Swansea v Southampton
West Brom v Newcastle
West Ham v Wigan

Tottenham v Man City
Liverpool v Chelsea
Man Utd v Aston Villa

Premier Predictions (Week 33)

Extra game this week due to the re-arranged games in midweek and the cup semi's.
Arsenal, Everton, Fulham, Man Utd and West Ham play twice.
No games for Swansea, Tottenham and West Brom.
Games on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Arsenal v Norwich
Aston Villa v Fulham
Everton v QPR
Reading v Liverpool
Southampton v West Ham

Newcastle v Sunderland
Stoke v Man Utd

Arsenal v Everton

Man City v Wigan
West Ham v Man Utd
Fulham v Chelsea

Wembley Woe

Finally Southend made it to Wembley for the first time, but sadly the team didn't really turn up :(
A combination of stage fright and the fact that Crewe from League 1 were just that bit better on the ball than us meant we needed a big chunk of luck to get anything from this game ... and it never happened.
The referee had a nightmare obviously weighed down with the bung that Crewe must have given him as he denied 3 good looking penalty appeals and disallowed our goal, while giving free kicks to Crewe for minor offences and one really obvious dive (I haven't seen them up close yet so maybe he got some decisions right, but I doubt it).
Crewe's 2 goals were mistakes by us, the first we failed to spot Murphy totally open on the edge of the area and he had plenty of time to tuck it away, the second came after Bilel Mohsni got caught in possesion about 30 yards out leaving us wide open.
Mohsni had our best chance meeting a cross 3 yards out which produced a stunning save from Phillips.
Phil Brown threw on Barry Corr and Reeves and later Freddie Eastwood but none really made an impact, Eastwood made one good run and shot late on but it was blocked.

The crowd was impressive 43,000 turned up of which 31,000 were Southend fans, our end was packed, there's was looking pretty empty.
The Crewe fans were singing before the match "30,000 fans jumping on the bandwagon" and to be honest it was true :(  I'm one of them as I can't pretend to have been a regular at Roots hall for quite a few years.
Our 31,000 was probably made up of 5,000-6,000 real fans about 10,000 part time fans from the area who really support other teams like the Hammers like me, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea and the rest a collection of locals just enjoying the day out.
We should have given the team some brilliant support but the singing never really got going, it's hard when only small pockets of the crowd could be bothered. Crewe's 12,000 were getting behind their team much better and I just missed the sort of atmosphere you get watching West Ham away when the singing hardly stops.
As for new Wembley it's way better than the old one, but it didn't impress me like the Millennium stadium did and £4.70 for a plastic cup of piss flavoured lager is a rip off too far.

A couple of pics, here's the Southend end.

... and Crewe's small but noisy end.

Premier Predictions (Week 32)

7 Weeks left of the season and the predictions competition, and unlike the Premier league anyone can still win this :)
If Man U win on Monday they'll only need 3 points for the title, and Chelsea and Arsenal will be hoping for an Everton win at Tottenham.
Probably the biggest relegation battle is Villa at Stoke, if Villa win Stoke are suddenly right in the mix, QPR and Reading look certs for the drop but could upset Wigan and Southampton.
West Ham go to Anfield and to be honest I've almost given up hope of us winning there as we haven't done it since 1965 and with Carlton Cole leading the line it doesn't look good this time :(

Reading v Southampton
Norwich v Swansea
Stoke v Aston Villa
West Brom v Arsenal

Liverpool v West Ham
Tottenham v Everton
Chelsea v Sunderland
Newcastle v Fulham
QPR v Wigan

Man Utd v Man City

Paolo In Blunderland

Well this is a dilemma?
I love Paolo Di Canio and hope he goes on to become a great manager (even at West Ham one day).
But due to the banter I've been having all season with my Mackem mate I really want to see Blunderland drop like a stone into the championship.
Appointing Paolo could be a master stroke or the biggest blunder they have ever made? either way I can't win.
If he fails the press would treat him like a joke, or if he does pull Sunderland from the mess they're in I'll have to endure another season of shite :)

Of course it is April 1st so this could be the best joke of the day :)

Silly Season

Silly season continues with Martin O'Neill shown the door with only 7 games to go?
Don't really have much sympathy for him as his buys have turned a reasonable side into a really average side, proving he's not half as good as he thinks he is.
At the bottom Wigan's win has really shook things up, and if Villa can do what they did at Anfield again Sunderland will be in deep shit.

Premier Predictions (Week 31)

Internationals over back to the real stuff, 8 games Saturday and one each on Sunday and Monday.

Sunderland v Man Utd
Arsenal v Reading
Man City v Newcastle
Southampton v Chelsea
Swansea v Tottenham
West Ham v West Brom
Wigan v Norwich
Everton v Stoke
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Fulham v QPR

A Wigan win probably drags everyone up to Fulham in 10th into a relegation battle, can't really see Reading and QPR doing enough in their remaining 8 games to escape but some nervous games coming up for the rest of us :(

Confusing

Yet another odd managerial sacking?
Paul Sturrock was today sacked as Southend manager and has already been replaced by Phil Brown.
The really odd thing is that Sturrock has been told he will be back as manager for Southend's first ever Wembley trip against Crewe in 2 weeks time but Brown will be in charge for Friday's game against Bradford?

Sturrock has said he planned to leave in the summer when his contract expired which might have a small bearing on the decision but once again you have to feel a bit sorry for him.





When he came in for Steve Tilson in 2010 it was a bit of a shock, but he performed miracles getting a team together before the season kicked off, with 24 hours to go Southend only had one contracted player and had a transfer embargo meaning no-one could sign until it was lifted.
He managed to persuade about 17 players to sign pre-contracts including a collection of cast-offs and non league players and luckily permission was given the night before game 1.
They finished mid table in his first season, and lost in the play-offs last year, this season we are just 2 places from the play-offs with 7 games to go.
All this with a back drop of constant winding up orders and no money to spend, so I reckon he's done pretty well considering.
I do like Phil Brown but I'm not sure how long he will stay around even if he is given a chance, although he's been out of work for 18 months despite over half the league teams changing managers recently so maybe Southend was his only option.