*Official* English Football Season 2008-2009

[Craig]

Rovers. We are ****ed. Good job I haven't watched a Premiership game in over three months, think it has been that long since we actually won a game.

Mark Hughes the difference, or not?

Anyway, I'm looking at the FA Cup 3rd Round Draw:

Portsmotuh v Bristol City
Sheffield Wednesday v Fulham
Preston North End v Liverpool
Birmingham City v Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Ham United v Barnsley
Middlesbrough v Barrow
Hull City v Newcastle Untied
Hartlepool v Stoke City
Chelsea v Southend United
Manchester City v Nottingham Forest
Cardiff City v Reading
Ipswich Town v Chesterfield/ Droylesden
Charlton Athletic v Norwich City
West Bromwich Albion v Peterborough/ Tranmere Rovers
Torquay v Blackpool
Leyton Orient v Sheffield United
Southampton v Manchester Untied
Millwall v Carlisle/ Crewe Alexandra
Histon v Swansea City
Forest Green Rovers v Derby County
Queens Park Rangers v Burnley
Leicester City v Crystal Palace
Tottenham Hotspur v Wigan Athletic
Morecambe/ Cheltenham v Doncaster Rovers
Arsenal v Plymouth Argyle
Notts County/ Kettering v Eastwood Town
Bournemouth/ Blyth v Blackburn Rovers
Macclesfield Town v Everton
Watford v S****horpe
Sunderland v Bolton Wanderers
Coventry City v Kidderminster
Gillingham/ Stockport v Aston Villa

Can Neil (or somebody else?) shed any light on the non league teams, in terms of quality etc.? Hak probably know's

 

[Craig]

Mark Hughes the difference, or not?

Anyway, I'm looking at the FA Cup 3rd Round Draw:

Portsmotuh v Bristol City
Sheffield Wednesday v Fulham
Preston North End v Liverpool
Birmingham City v Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Ham United v Barnsley
Middlesbrough v Barrow
Hull City v Newcastle Untied
Hartlepool v Stoke City
Chelsea v Southend United
Manchester City v Nottingham Forest
Cardiff City v Reading
Ipswich Town v Chesterfield/ Droylesden
Charlton Athletic v Norwich City
West Bromwich Albion v Peterborough/ Tranmere Rovers
Torquay v Blackpool
Leyton Orient v Sheffield United
Southampton v Manchester Untied
Millwall v Carlisle/ Crewe Alexandra
Histon v Swansea City
Forest Green Rovers v Derby County
Queens Park Rangers v Burnley
Leicester City v Crystal Palace
Tottenham Hotspur v Wigan Athletic
Morecambe/ Cheltenham v Doncaster Rovers
Arsenal v Plymouth Argyle
Notts County/ Kettering v Eastwood Town
Bournemouth/ Blyth v Blackburn Rovers
Macclesfield Town v Everton
Watford v S****horpe
Sunderland v Bolton Wanderers
Coventry City v Kidderminster
Gillingham/ Stockport v Aston Villa

Can Neil (or somebody else?) shed any light on the non league teams, in terms of quality etc.? Hak probably know's

BTW the link

OT I had no idea that former Blackburn and liverpool defender Markus Babbel was the new manager of Stuggart. I had wondered what had happened to him (after he went back to Germany).

 

[analyst]

Was I the only one who thought Ronaldo was trying to imitate Maradona at one stage when his hands went up, I am a great fan of his but I fail to buy this fresh story.

 

[TT Boy]

Mark Hughes the difference, or not?

Well I haven’t watched Rovers or any English football in three months so I wouldn’t know how they played recently but from what I watched early on, Ince seemed to have ditched the more combative and defensive minded tactics that Hughes favoured, whilst a few of the new recruits, particularly the Man United defender looked pretty woeful. It also doesn’t help that David Dunn is injured and he was critical in the engine room, combining dog-work hatchet man defensive duties with an inch of class and creativity. Tugay is probably the wrong side of 38 now as well and it is likely be game over if Roque goes in January.

 

[analyst]

Surely if you are a premiership team and you can't defend for even 10-20 minutes let alone a whole match, you deserve to get relegated. No offense to Rovers fans intended, because last night, they came back brilliantly against Pompey and they threw it away.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Can Neil (or somebody else?) shed any light on the non league teams, in terms of quality etc.? Hak probably know's

They're not very good.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

They're not very good.

Good review for mine.

 

[grecian]

Torquay & Histon are the worst kind of non-league detritus, in my opinion. Kick and rush merchants who use physicality instead of any kind of footballing skill, the type of teams that made conference life so unbearable. Don't buy the romance of t'cup with those two, cynical and unpleasant sides. Glad Histon beat Leeds, am glad anyone beats them, but would of rather it had been Forest Green who are a much better village/pub side, IMHO.

Don't know much about the others even though I'm sure we played Kiddy and Droylesden (horror result) recently, I'm trying to blank it all from my memory, to be fair.

 

[GIMH]

Now I don't want any of that non-league ****e in here, thanks

...

Torquay & Histon are the worst kind of non-league detritus, in my opinion. Kick and rush merchants who use physicality instead of any kind of footballing skill, the type of teams that made conference life so unbearable. Don't buy the romance of t'cup with those two, cynical and unpleasant sides. Glad Histon beat Leeds, am glad anyone beats them, but would of rather it had been Forest Green who are a much better village/pub side, IMHO.

Don't know much about the others even though I'm sure we played Kiddy and Droylesden (horror result) recently, I'm trying to blank it all from my memory, to be fair.

 

[grecian]

Well he asked the question, I can't help being nice.......

 

[Barney Rubble]

Yes, and what's your tenuous link to supporting the team with the most trophies in recent times?

Basically the point Brumby was making is spot on. A Man Utd. game on the telly in the pub brings out all the casual fans for a pint and a natter, then when Arsenal v Chelsea comes on (hardly a Bolton vs Newcastle dire-fest) people just go off.

Yeah, totally agree TBH.

Have a female friend who claims to be a Man Utd fan, yet when asked to name some Man Utd players, she said Beckham and Cantona. Obviously there are casual fans who support Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool, but there are far, far more who support Man Utd. I can understand how Man Utd fans could feel a bit victimised from time to time, but if we're speaking purely in generalisations, then Man Utd fans are the most casual of them all without a doubt.

 

[Loony BoB]

I know of casual non-big-four fans, too. My girlfriend claims to support Newcastle and Celtic, yet when Manchester United played Celtic the other day she asked which colour "we" were wearing, and when I asked which team she meant, she said "United." She didn't even realise it was Celtic playing!

Despite this, she can spout out the offside rule, yells at the TV when SWP falls over easily (again and again, the other day...) and can tell you the name of the United players and which country most of them play for. I have converted her.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I have converted her.

I bet your parents are proud.

 

[Uppercut]

Yeah, totally agree TBH.

Have a female friend who claims to be a Man Utd fan, yet when asked to name some Man Utd players, she said Beckham and Cantona. Obviously there are casual fans who support Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool, but there are far, far more who support Man Utd. I can understand how Man Utd fans could feel a bit victimised from time to time, but if we're speaking purely in generalisations, then Man Utd fans are the most casual of them all without a doubt.

In my experience there's just as many casual Liverpool fans, Chelsea and Arsenal not so much but still a lot more than any other club. To be fair, I've sat in the North Stand at Old Trafford and it's properly grim up there. They had a minute's silence to commemorate the Munich disaster and i didn't notice.

"Sitting" in the Stretford end is far, far better. The fans there are as passionate as any.

 

[Tom Halsey]

Yeah, totally agree TBH.

Have a female friend who claims to be a Man Utd fan, yet when asked to name some Man Utd players, she said Beckham and Cantona. Obviously there are casual fans who support Arsenal/Chelsea/Liverpool, but there are far, far more who support Man Utd. I can understand how Man Utd fans could feel a bit victimised from time to time, but if we're speaking purely in generalisations, then Man Utd fans are the most casual of them all without a doubt.

I understand this and agree with most of your post, my gripe is that they're termed Man Utd fans at all, because then when someone makes some massive sweeping statement along the lines of all Man Utd fans being ****s, you're having a go at the lot of us. There's not really a lot we can do about our massive plastic following.

EDIT: Actually I'd dispute the notion that United have far more plastic followers than the rest of the big four, too. Know quite a lot of plastic Arsenal and Chelsea fans, no plastic Liverpools though, this probably comes from where I live.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Mitchell has a point, tbf. ManUre are the non-football fans football team. That's not to say all United fans are like that, but the chances are that if you only have a passing interest in footy you'll probably follow ManUre or one of the other big clubs.

Well yeah that's true. I was basically taking issue with the way that Mitchell was insinuating that all Man United fans are glory hunters ect, which is obviously not the case.

EDIT, what Halsley said.

 

[GIMH]

Big game tonight. If the scousers win they might actually have a reason to believe it could be their year.

Bellamy 1-0 though, IMO

 

[cpr]

****s all left the pub once Man Utd were done. Being a United fan is almost akin to saying ' I have no interest in football'.

Quite a few left our pub after the game, took a good number of paddy wagons, thats for sure. Thing is, trouble started by 1 Utd fan trying to headbutt another (really picked the wrong person n all). Thank **** I watched it at home. Just know on derby day all the ****ty wine bars (yer wetherspoons etc) wont open because they dont want the hassle, leaving the proper boozers packed with strangers and invariably some of the ****s we've barred sneak in and cause trouble.

The CCTV footage of it is awesome though

 

[BoyBrumby]

Can hear the sound of choking at Anfield. No disrespect to yer Irons, but a team who has serious pretensions to the Prem should be beating them at home.

If the Hammers can see this through it's been a great weekend for ManUre.

 

[sledger]

0-0 means 12 points for my fantasy team so i'll be quite pleased with that result for various reasons, not long to go now.