Football 2013

[oldbluefox]

FIVE - yes five goals for Luton. They're scoring for fun down there in the Conference and now have a goal difference of 50. Amazing. I think I'll ave to send a couple of scouts down to run the rule over them.

We played well in the first half and deserved a 2 goal half time lead but Ipswich were a disappointment and didn't present too much of a treat even when we took our foot off the gas. Vardy is proving a sensation for us. He's like a little wasp and considering we picked him up (albeit for 1 million) from non league football he has done extremely well. I would hate to play against him.Another 3 points so another good weekend ahead. And QPR and Florist lost!!!

Not such a good day for Mob, Barney and Romig. But I see RB's gooners won.

[Romig1]

A bloody awful day for Town. Outfought and outplayed after the first 20 minutes. It appears that opposing managers have realised that if you get close to our players we simply get stifled and can't play the wonderful passing game which has been seen at times this season. We simply don't have a plan B.

Foxy...your lot look to have run away with it!

[oldbluefox]

Looks like it Romig but that's what we were starting to think last season................
I'd like to see Burnley go up too. Sean Dyche has done a great job there without spending a shed load of money. All credit to him. And fair dues to TWWTB at Derby. Wigan are the dark horses now.

[Frank Manning]

FIVE - yes five goals for Luton. They're scoring for fun down there in the Conference and now have a goal difference of 50. Amazing. I think I'll ave to send a couple of scouts down to run the rule over them.

We played well in the first half and deserved a 2 goal half time lead but Ipswich were a disappointment and didn't present too much of a treat even when we took our foot off the gas. Vardy is proving a sensation for us. He's like a little wasp and considering we picked him up (albeit for 1 million) from non league football he has done extremely well. I would hate to play against him.Another 3 points so another good weekend ahead. And QPR and Florist lost!!!

Not such a good day for Mob, Barney and Romig. But I see RB's gooners won.

Hi OBF; as they say in Luton "Gitcherfeevinansorf" our players. Anyway if you go to watch Luton play at Kenilworth Road I'll have to go and see the game myself, then if Luton win, I'll buy you a post match drink!! If they lose I'll call you a Jonah!

I've got everything crossed for the poor old 'Hatters'.

[RB1961]

Yes a good win for us. It's been a difficult few weeks due to some high profile games.

Long way to go yet.

RB

[oldbluefox]

It's just like watching Brazil!!!!!!!! Another good result for us today and with Burnley beating the Sheep it stretches the gap between us and 3rd place. It's now 13 points gap.

RBS and Barney won't be so happy today but good wins for Romig's lot and Mob's lot.
Looking at Huddersfield's team there are some good players in there. I see you have Keith Southern. I used to watch him at Blackpool and what a good player he was. Very quietly Robins is putting together a good team. It will be interesting to see what they do next season.

[Dark Knight]

the Mighty Rams were down to 10 men
so we didn't have much chance other than to play for a draw

[Romig1]

Great result for Town today. 5-0 against a poor Barnsley side. Barnsley edged the first 15 mins, but our keeper made a wonder save to keep it at 0-0, and we kicked on from there, ending up with 5 different scorers!
Nakhi Wells showed why we paid over £1 mill for him - despite not scoring he created 4 of the 5. However, Danny Wilson will be asking his two centre-halves how they were out-muscled by a slight, short player such as Wells, time and again.

Foxy, Keith Southern has hardly played this season, but he was immense today - breaking up the opposition play and winning back possession on countless occasions. I'll be amazed if Robins drops him (or indeed any of the team) after such a dominant display. The crowd really appreciate his ability, and that he does the simple things, with minimum fuss.

Leicester look invincible, and there were plenty of points dropped by teams in the top half of the table.

[oldbluefox]

Not forgetting Frank's Luton who won 3-0

Great game at Reading. Yeovil ended up with just 8 men on the pitch. Bad news for all those still left playing when they get in and find all the hot water's gone!!

[Frank Manning]

I see no one has yet mentioned Alan Pardew's disgraceful headbutt in the match against Hull. I thought Stevie Bruce was very restrained afterwards. I also thought from MotD that Newcastle were a bit lucky. Three of their goals came from blatant Hull mistakes, and yet up front Hull looked quite good.

Violence by players or managers is very bad for the sport, and take that with the money involved and the petulance and poor performance of our national side and you have to ask 'when will the bubble burst?'

[oldbluefox]

I see no one has yet mentioned Alan Pardew's disgraceful headbutt in the match against Hull.

I think we were all rejoicing in the Hatters' 3-0 win, Frank.

I have to agree with you about the Pardew incident but I tend to feel a lot of people are going over the top. He was definitely wrong to react the way he did but it wasn't the best of head butts to deserve some of the punishments being described. Nothing has been mentioned about the Hull lad pushing him out of the way which sparked the incident. Pardew deserves a lengthy ban bearing in mind his previous behaviour and I see Newcastle have also fined him quite heavily. As for being hung, drawn and quartered and left to the ravenous birds of the air we need to maintain some sense of proportion.

Unfortunately our game has been tainted by money , greed and a belief by some players that they are better than they really are (probably due to media hype which they start to believe) to the extent they now see it as a right rather than a privilege to wear the national shirt. Petulance takes its place when things don't go their way. In England we seem to have lost national pride and whilst our neighbours in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland do not have the quantity or quality this is made up for by passion once they take to the field.

And that's what I think.

[Frank Manning]

OBF.... spot on!

It's getting tense in our household as the Hatters keep winning! I so much want them to be back in the Football League, that I dont want it snatched from them over the remaining weeks of the season.

David63 we need a smiley for 'nailbiting'!

[Romig1]

I see no one has yet mentioned Alan Pardew's disgraceful headbutt in the match against Hull.

I think we were all rejoicing in the Hatters' 3-0 win, Frank.

I have to agree with you about the Pardew incident but I tend to feel a lot of people are going over the top. He was definitely wrong to react the way he did but it wasn't the best of head butts to deserve some of the punishments being described. Nothing has been mentioned about the Hull lad pushing him out of the way which sparked the incident. Pardew deserves a lengthy ban bearing in mind his previous behaviour and I see Newcastle have also fined him quite heavily. As for being hung, drawn and quartered and left to the ravenous birds of the air we need to maintain some sense of proportion.

Unfortunately our game has been tainted by money , greed and a belief by some players that they are better than they really are (probably due to media hype which they start to believe) to the extent they now see it as a right rather than a privilege to wear the national shirt. Petulance takes its place when things don't go their way. In England we seem to have lost national pride and whilst our neighbours in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland do not have the quantity or quality this is made up for by passion once they take to the field.

And that's what I think.

Foxy, I agree with some of what you said, but IMO the start of the incident was when Pardew did the childish petulant trick of pretending to stop the ball with his foot,for the Hull player, but then lifting his foot at the last second to let the ball run away. This left him (somewhat) in the Meyler's path who pushed him (partly in anger and partly to move him). Such "gamesmanship" tricks are now the norm in football - happens all the time on the pitch, where players do what they can to delay the other team getting the ball (when they've conceded a free kick for instance). As more and more ex-players from the modern age become managers, we can hardly be surprised that such acts of childishness are being perpetrated by the managers, can we?

To give him credit, he didn't hide from his responsibility during the post-match interview, and gave a unreserved apology. I wonder though, if this was pre-emptive, in order to lessen any punishment - and he does have "previous" doesn't he?

[gfwgfw]

Sorry Mr Pardew, this time it is a "butt" to far

I seriously believe that your Football career is now simply untenable as a football manager

A suggestion . . . join the Rams as their "boot boy", cus rams have the natual instinct for head butting

[oldbluefox]

I think what happened is symptomatic of the game in general. In a week when we buried Tom Finney it highlighted the worst excesses of the modern game - rolling around feigning injury, winning at all costs, off the ball incidents, running the clock down, time-wasting, sly digs and trips, managers who go ballistic when things don't go their own way but suffer memory loss or dodgy vision at the antics of their own defenders; the list is endless and considering how much we now pay for a ticket I go to be entertained not only by my own team but by the skills on show from the opposing team. Blatant cheating and time wasting are unacceptable to me as a spectator and I wish referees would crack down on it a lot harder than they do.

As for Pardew I won't be losing any sleep over him. Nowadays footballers in the Prem, and in the Championship earn so much from their lucrative contracts that any punishment will hardly hurt. However if managers cannot behave in the technical area they deserve to be banished from the touchline for ever.

[Frank Manning]

I am wondering if I dare go to Salisbury to watch Luton. Or if I will put the curse on them.

[barney]

Once again, the Mighty Gills have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and unfortunately find ourselves back in the relegation mix.

Believe it or not, in League One, 13th place is only three points from the drop.

This season is going all the way to the wire (and then some)

We now have a massive home game against Crewe on Saturday.
Bet on a few goals from the two teams with the worst defensive records in the division.

Never a dull moment

[oldbluefox]

What are you moaning about Barney? You're only 14 points off the play offs.

[barney]

I'm just terrified of going back to that awful League Two

I quite often came away with a neck ache last season as the ball is in the air all the time.

I know our Luton friend aspires to this but trust me OBF, it ain't good.

Even the bad teams in League One ( I include us in that) TRY to play in on the deck.
League Two is hoofball to the highest degree. The biggest expense for most League Two teams is replacement balls

I went down to watch Maidstone Utd a few weeks ago in the Sticky Back Plastic League (or something like that) Jees, it was bad.

So when you watch the Foxes steaming up the pitch on quick counters, spare a thought for us who've been condemed by a bizzare Act of God, to support a rubbish team.

TBH, really wouldn't want it any other way. They may be rubbish, but they are our rubbish

[Frank Manning]

I have it on good authority that Luton are playng good football. They always were a footballing side rather than punt it down the middle and hope.

[oldbluefox]

As I often say Barney - 'I've followed my team through thin and thinner' and have more respect for the genuine supporters rather than those who jump on the bandwaggon to follow a team because they are winning. Our gates at the KP Stadium are now rising. Where were they all when we were mid table in the Championship?

I feel sure Luton play good football. That's why they're running away with the Conference title. And very fine chicken sheds they have too!!!! (Remember their plastic pitch?)

[oldbluefox]

What does everybody think about Sol Campbell bleating on this morning? Why is it when anybody can't have everything their own way they play the R card? He came over on TV this morning as rather conceited and full of his own importance. I liked him as a player but not impressed from what I saw and heard this morning.

[Frank Manning]

I've been there aged 14, when Luton had a gate of 30,000 for a cup match with Arsenal in the 1950's. The days of Sid Owen, and Gordon Turner, Bernard Stretten and Jesse Pye.

[RB1961]

Well we ground out a win at the spuds on Sunday. 3 wins out of 3.

Got chelski on Sunday and was hoping Galatasary would make a game of it tonight and have a bit of extra time. Never mind.

RB

[oldbluefox]

I went to the match against Blackpool on Saturday. We played well but I was beginning to think it was one of those days when the goalie was going to play a blinder and they were going to hang on to a single goal lead, pack the defence and walk away with three points. Thankfully our new January signing conjured up a goal from nowhere and after that it was just a matter of time. I can't honestly see us not getting promotion now and the finishing line is getting closer. It would need a total collapse and I can't see it happening.

Burnley are running us a close second. They have played well all season without spending big money and I hope they get promoted. Other teams are falling away which makes our job a lot easier.