Yompa

you can remember getting free school milk.

Cannae remember my team (and I don't have copy on the PC) so if we're starting again, here are the Coffin Dodgers... John Prescott Fidel Castro Nelson Mandela Michael Foot (Joker) George Melly Dennis Healey General Pinochet Ronnie Biggs Malcolm Glazer Fats Domino

Feck me... see what happens when you go off on a fortnight's holiday! Brewster's tactical use of the media is REALLY starting to annoy me. Is there no avenue that the club can take via the authorities to stop the man from tapping up our players via the press? His manner is arrogant in the extreme and something needs to be done to put an official sock in that big mouth of his. Grrrr....

David Sutherland really put Thompson and Brewster in their place with his firm but direct response... "If it is meant to unsettle players and put pressure on us to accept, then I can only say our previous reluctance to sell is now a complete determination. Our manager, Charlie Christie, wants to keep his players, and it is unfair to try to take our players with our first SPL game on Saturday. It is also unfair to our supporters, who do not know the truth. For avoidance of all doubt, and to make any future media leaks futile, we will not be doing transfer business with Dundee United in relation to players who are important to our manager's plans. End of story." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love that last paragraph. "Fvck off and never darken our doors again". I sincerely hope Brewster comes to Inverness on 16th September sitting at the bottom of the league!

On holiday...

Just spent a week on the road re-living my youth... following the Baggies Scottish pre-season tour. As a result, I can offer the following insight into how some of our rivals are shaping up: Kilmarnock: They took a long time to get going in the first of the three games and basically weren't in the game for the first 45 minutes. However once they scored just after half time, they completely took over and looked seriously impressive later on. They've restored Di Giacomo to the front line alongside Invincible and Wales and with wee Naismith pulling the strings behind and alongside, they look to be a good bet for another top six finish. Motherwell: I'm happy to report that the post-Butcher team were very poor. The young keeper, Smith, looks dodgy and collectively, they look like a bunch of scrawny kids with a couple of old fatties (Hamilton et al). They didn't see much of the ball all afternoon and what they did have, they either didn't use or gave away. Dunfermline: Five days to the start of the new season and they played THREE trialists. That says it all! My bet for the drop, they have replaced Hunt with Whelan and I don't know about Noel, they've no feckin chance of avoiding another relegation dogfight. They played a trialist, Bamba, at the back (I thought it was Big Marv at first) and he looked okay and will probably get a deal, but up front they are shocking. I'd be surprised if they manage 30 goals in the SPL.

First saw The Who at the Birmingham Odeon in '68 on a bill that also included The Mindbenders, Free (before Kossof topped himself) and the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown. Saw 'em again at The Apollo around 1980 (great laser show for Won't Get Fooled Again too...)

If Marrison turns out to be a blunt object, we can just hand him in at the nick while the amnesty's on...

That's a very interesting debate guys, but at the end of the day, it's the dreaded 'agent' who appears to be stalling the move. These people are a cancer within the game and it's just unfortunate that some talented young players are represented by leeches who are out to line their own pockets in preference to doing what's best for the player.

Heskey and Sutton... what a strike force!

Laugh at him if you like, but Graham Taylor is another who tells it like it is. Butcher has always been one of the most honest of men and the summarising of both he and Graham Taylor have been top class throughout the tournament.

Lorramess, your wish is granted... the Mad Uncle wishes to contribute tuppenceworth... Jack McConnell is a politician (allegedly). He knows that in just under a year's time he faces an election, and quite probably eviction from his job. He has already confessed as much (also allegedly) to his mate Tony Bliar. McConnell is therefore desperate for votes and has quite probably hijacked the World Cup for his own political ends. Personally, I don't care who he supports. I've lived north of the border for 29 years and have grown used to (a) the English bias of the media [the English can't see it because they've never experienced it from 'the other side'] (b) the sniping of the Scots. I've also experienced working in an office in which people, quite seriously, have questioned why I should be living in their country (but I won't take the lid off that particular can of worms). It is unfortunate I guess, that every two years, during the 'off season', when we've all got no ICT related issues to get behind, that a football tournament comes along that England expects to win, and everyone else in the UK hopes they'll make a pig's ear of. That's life... Success in sport is short lived. The England rugby team have proved that. So have Greece... European Champions??? So I say enjoy each match as it comes (whoever your favoured nation happens to be today) but every time England win, I'm sure the Jack McConnell's of this world become ever more nervous that this time they might actually do it. Meeeeee :004: I doubt it.... :009:

Forget the aerial bombardment... let's have some carpet bombing... :tank: :004:

"The standards here may be too high for the Scottish team to have any real hope of progressing past the first round in 2010" And you accuse the English media of arrogance!!! I'd reserve that statement until after you've qualified if I were you mate... :016:

YOMPINHO

Too roight, DJS... for a week in moi life, oi'll revert back to moi yowth and folla the stroipes. Mind yow, it'll seem roight funny being in them SPL grounds and not shoutin' fer the Caley Thistle! :017: Boing Boing :011:

'66 revisited... Greavsie got injured in the group stages, forcing Alf to select Geoff Hurst for the knockout stages... the rest, as they say, is history... :016:

Like what it says on the tin, the 2006/07 fixtures are due out tomorrow...

I consider myself lucky... we have a state of the art (50s style) gymnasium at work that a mate of mine and I use for circuit training at lunchtime. Picture a traditional primary school assembly hall... stage and wooden floor... well that's our gym. One bench, lots of chairs and punchbag ( :017:). We take our own weights, plan our circuit to make the best use of this magnificent facility then grab a quick shower on the way back to the office. Fitness is what you make it... if you do nothing, you'll get nothing. If you do something, you'll get something.... :011: Of course our equipment is sh!te, but it feckin works! :010:

Jnr, the match was at the old Victoria Ground (now demolished) and we were on our way back from Brummagem to Uncle Mike's after I'd raced cross country in Sutton Park in the morning. You were two and a half so that'd make it the summer of 92, Ossie Ardiles was the manager at the time and the Baggies were in the old Third Division. :019: Only when we got to the ground (at ten to three) did I discover that the game was all ticket and we were indebted to a copper who introduced us to a bloke who had two tickets to sell in the away end at face value. Three into two doesn't go so you sat on alternate laps half way back dead centre behind the goal in the middle of the choir. That'll be where you first heard 'The Lord's My Shepherd'! :004: Anyway, we went 1-0 up halfway through the first half then they equalised with the last kick of the first half. Thirty seconds after the restart, Stoke went 2-1 up, only for the Baggies to hit back (kicking our way) not once but twice for 3-2. Well that'll be that then, we all thought, but it wasn't to be. Stoke pulled it back to 3-3 with ten minutes left then scored the winner on 85. :009: My own first game was Villa v Chelsea in September 64. Villa were 2-0 down with ten minutes to go, then up popped Tony Hateley (Mark's dad) with a double. I got pushed into the railings at the front of the Holte end, slit my eye open and ended up getting carried out and off to hospital in a nee naw. The olds weren't best pleased as we didn't have a phone and they hadn't a clue what had happened until I got home at 2am! :017:

RIG, that is an excellent comment and sums up why we're all glued to Zitelli. To be honest, I felt let down by Brazil the other night.... big build up, big names... zero hunger to perform. Ronaldo's performance summed it up for me. Got it all, no hunger anymore. I only hope they try harder (which I'm sure they will) later in the tournament cos if they don't someone like Spain or Italy will turn 'em over. :010:

Hey... don't get me wrong... I have nothing against the fans. I'll enjoy a beer or six with any supporters (yes, even the Wulfs) but when it comes to the manager telling his players to lie down and feign injury to try and get the game abandoned (on account of a few having already been sent off for serious foul play), then that manager has no place in football. Interestingly enough, I was on my way back from Starks Park that day (a boring 0-0 job in which Novo played like a proverbial headless chicken) with ITN Minor when the news came on the wireless that Sheffield United had run out of players. The rest is history... :017:

Ma ma was a creature of habit... Tuesday was always liver and onions... yum yum! In the winter, Friday was stew day, followed by steam pudding wi' treacle on't top. Top! An' on Saturday lunchtime, for some strange reason, we always used to get bacon and eggs... (and before Junior comments otherwise, that's B&E with both the bacon and the eggs :010: :010: :010:)

Certainly does look a bit like my graduation photo but I dunno about IHE and Coco the Clown! :015: :015: :015:

"Compared to other footballing nations of similar population, England have an abysmal record. When did they last win anything?" Compared to Spain perhaps... Ah yes, La Liga, the best league in Europe by all accounts. Pity the national team has never made it past the quarter finals in ANY World Cup then, eh? :016: :016: :016: