DoofersDad

Just belatedly seen this. A fantastic effort from the youngsters!

Stratford scored for Hereford in a 4 - 1 defeat by Swindon last night. Scorline suggests Lionel might have been playing as well :)

No.

What! No goals in the 2nd half! Did Andy Barrowman make a guest appearance?

It all sounds good for us but best not put any money on Clach winning the Highland League.

New FIFA rankings today England are up 1 to 7th after their heroic world cup campaign France down to 21st

Excuse me if I don't join in the elation. I think Esson did a great job last year and I have no doubt he can perform well in the SPL. Clearly we need cover but it looks as though Max Johnson will provide that very nicely. I accept that in the SPL you probably need a third keeper but probably a young lad learning the trade. Whilst Tuffey knows what he's coming to, I wonder if Esson and Johnson knew what lay ahead when they signed their contracts. Esson will not have signed to be number 2 and Johnson won't have signed to be number 3. I think we will have 1 or maybe 2 very unhappy keepers in the squad. I also don't buy the competition is good line. Remember all the hoo ha about England and the lack of clarity about who the number 1 keeper was? Everyone was saying how this was a confidence thing and the keepers needed to know they were considered as number 1. The thing is that if you feel that any mistake means you're on the bench next week then you lose confidence and are more likely to make that mistake. To be honest, I've not seen enough of Tuffey to make a judgement on whether he should be number 1 or 2 but although clearly he's highly rated I don't think we need him and I don't think Esson and Johnson are going to be too happy tonight. What we need is at least a couple of good signings in the back 4 and presumably the signing of Tuffey limits the available cash for that. I look forward to a keeper being sold in the January transfer window at a sizeable profit. The new season can't be too far away - the moaning has started again!

I think you would find him interesting. He is quite capable of doing a Ronnie Radford but it would be a 50:50 chance of whether it was intended as a shot or a pass back. The lad has obviouosly got a lot of natural ability. It is a question of how capable he is of learning how to use his talents and what guidance he gets on and off the park. With a good leader in the defence to keep him right I think he could do a useful job - as long as you don't mind your heart being in your mouth from time to time.

Put it this way - we get Ryan Esson from you and you get Dan Stratford from us - that's fine by me.

I was wondering this myself....they have won it something like 3 times previously. Pretty amazing feat! They won it twice but that was when the tourney was just invitation and treated less than seriously. Only in 1966/1970 did it become something of importance. Apart from this year, they've only made it past the first round twice since 1970 and failed to qualify in 5 out of 10 world cups since that date. Better than Wales sure but not 'decent'. Renowned for cheating too. Spitting, injury-attempting tackles, injury-feigning (before the rest of the world caught up), timewasting. It's a pity that's now the norm. I agree they have a less than savoury reputation in the past but I've been impressed by them this year. They have played really well as a team with Foran being outstanding. I've been impressed with their attitude. There has been none of the old Uruguay this time round but I think they have suffered from their reputation and decisions have gone against them. They should have had a penalty against Ghana before all the drama and Van Bommel should have been red carded before the Van Bronkhorst wonder strike. They've reached the semi-finals of the world cup and are ranked 16 in the world. For a country with a population just 60% of that of Scotland, that seems pretty decent to me. For me, they have been one of the plus points of a generally disappointing world cup.

Absolute perfection - but he should never have got the chance. The referee should have blown for a horrendous, potential leg breaking challenge by Van Bommel which could and probably should have seen him red carded. If the Uruguay lad had writhed around like the Dutch do rather than just picking himself up and getting on with it, things may have been different. The more the match went on the more I wanted Uruguay to win.

Looking forward to seeing the Israeli lad Blumenshtein firing a few shots at the Arabs.

I like to think that the numbers 1 to 11 are taken by the players the manager feels are his best starting 11. By the end of the season when there is nobody on the pitch with a number under 12 you can see just how wrong he was.

He already has.

Some intersting stats on Germany's games against the English and the Argies. In both games Germany had less possession, fewer shots at goal, fewer shots on target and won fewer corners than their opponents and yet were comfortable winners looking very much the better side. The thing is that they are playing really well as a team and that is good to see as football is at it's best when the team works as a unit. They are well organised and force their opponents to shoot at distance. They are then counter attacking well, keeping their composure and actually looking to find their team mates rather than shooting speculatively. Much as it pains me to say it, I'm almost wanting Germany to win this now. Argentina were poor. They relied on their stars to do individual bits of magic. There was no plan B when the Germans snuffed out their threat and Maradonna was revealed to have a coaching brain more in line with his right foot than his left. Hopefully that will be the last we see of him.

I agree with most of what Renegade says but an interesting point here is that the referee took play well beyond the allotted added time before all that last gasp drama. There had been no reason to stop the watch after the 2nd 15 minute period had been up. You don't stop the watch in normal time to allow corners to be taken so why do it at the end of the game. Had Ghana scored, Uruguay would have been right to feel agrieved and in any case are now without one of their best players for the semis. I am also not convinced that the handball by Suarez was malicious. It was head high so my first reaction was why did he not head it clear because he would have got much more distance. I think the fact that it was going straight for his face means that it was an almost instinctive reaction to protect his face. I think it was in the zone where there was not quite enough time to head the ball properly but there was just enough time to withdraw the hands from the initial instinctive reaction and move the head slightly so that it hit him on the forehead rather than the face. Definite red card but I don't think the guy should be pilloried. He's had a great world cup and has shown a lot of good honest endeavour - they'll really miss him in the semi-final.

I see Beckham was at Wimbledon. Clearly he had the same inspirational effect on Murray as he had on the England football team.

I always thought there was something not quite right about him. I wouldn't worry about it. He'll be fully Scottish again tomorrow once he's lost to Nadal.

Here's a suggestion to address the problem of footy free days. After the group stages and each subsequent round they could have separate knock out competitions as a mirror image of the main competition for the winners. Every team would end up in a position of 1 to 32. This would allow good teams who disappointed to restore some lost pride and play some more relaxed and attractive football. Games could be scheduled so that there were matches on every day. Venues could be used in towns where folk don't normally have a chance of seeing international football and prices could be set to allow local folk to watch the matches. Rooney might even get to score!

Arguable . England are currently ranked 8th in the world and Scotland 43rd. Scotland are ranked 13 places below the lowest ranked team in England's qualifying group. Despite England playing well below the level they did in the qualifiers, none of the 3 teams in their qualifying group beat them and neither would Scotland. Anything can happen in a one off game but there can be little doubt that England are a very much better side than Scotland at the moment.

Check the thread title. If we are going to keep on subject then it's a bit unrealistic to expect many English supporters to wax lyrically on the subject. Now, if it was the Greatest Ever Goal by England there would be a few more to chose from

I hope the Japanese lad who missed his penalty has not fallen on his sword.

Brazil were impressive tonight. Defensively they were everything that England were not and despite a lively and committed Chile side trying all they knew, Brazil never looked like conceding. With that solidity at the back and the obvious ability up front I think it will take something exceptional to beat them. Now that England are out they've got a real chance :(

Oh well, I guess it's thick skin time again for the English amongst us - but then we're used to that. At least we have done better than the French and Italians. It's difficult to understand why England have been so bad. Everything has been so inept from tactics through to performance and substitutions. Why did Capello play players out of position in a system they don't like? Why did so many top quality players play so far below their club form. Gerrard, Rooney, Terry and Upson have been poor all through the competition and would be lucky to get in their clubs' reserve teams on performances like that. Playing out of position is a factor but only up to a point. Why, in particular was the defence so poor? The way they were pulled out of position was schoolboy stuff. Why did Capello take off the two outfield players who might just about have got pass marks today and replace them like for like? And why did they not go for more than a one nil win against Slovenia to top the group? Had they done so they could have expected to avoid Germany and Argentina and would have had a real opportunity to get players playing to their potential leading into the semis. It's always disappointing to lose, but if you go out being beaten fair and square after giving your best then fair enough - going out with such a display of managerial and player ineptidude is deeply frustrating. Of course, had England not been cheated out of a perfectly good goal just as the team was beginning to click, the whole momentum of the match and the campaign would have changed and we would probably have gone on to win the competition.