Doing it easy is just, to easy!

Football really does damage your health. From the cold sweats to the over aggressive celebrations, the heart and most of the body aren't really built to take the punishment but some how we battle through, we watch, we enjoy!

Sometimes our passion goes further, it makes us take part, maybe when we're not good enough, or fit enough, or don't really want to. At times in the last few months Diego Maradona would have felt a whole new feeling, that maybe, for once, he wasn't good enough. Throughout his career Diego has always been too good. But it was always at playing the game, managing the game is like a whole different sport, one which many talented players have failed at.

And the Argentinian legend had seemed to be one of those as well, having taken the position of national manager Diego has put his almost Godesque status in his native country on the line, he has struggled. So, going into the final match of the qualifying campaign away to Uruguay, Argentina were on the brink of not getting to a World Cup for the first time since 1970.

Having been the villain of the piece for many months Diego threw on young Mario Bolatti as a late substitue and just four minutes later Argentina led 1-0 and that was that, the old enemy were heading to South Africa.

With Maradona at the helm Argentina look week, frail, and all together at a loss as to how play football. Scary thought considering they posses the world's best player, Lionel Messi, and several other rather decent players, Tevez, Higuain, Veron, Mascherano, Gutierrez, Heinze to name but a few of them. And if they continue playing the way they have been the World Cup will not last long for them.

Unfortunately for their rivals they wont continue to play this way. The World Cup does magical things to footballers, especially those who have suffered adversity on the way to said event.

Rewind if you will just 4 years ago. The Italian national team arrived in Germany on the back of one of the biggest scandals to hit any footballing league in the world. Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio, three of the countries biggest teams were relegated to the 2nd tier of football, whilst Milan and Regina picked up points deductions. The scandal meant players such as Italian captain, Fabio Cannavaro, would be playing in Serie B, imagine John Terry in the Championship if you will.

The Italian side were not expected to do too well with the scandal expected to be on the minds of all of thier players. In the group stages the Italians were good but not exceptional, beating Ghana and Czech Republic then drawing with U.S.A, the Azzuri topped their group as was expected. Four years earlier Italy had gone out in Round 2 against Guus Hiddink's South Korea, who were helped by a dreadful Italian performance and some rather awful home refereeing decisions. This time round they faced Australia, managed by none other than Guus Hiddink, this time it was Italy who got the rub of the green, being awarded a 95th minute dodgy penalty to make it 1-0. The quarter final was a 3-0 run over of the very average Ukraine.

Suddenly the semi's were upon us and excitement had reached fever pitch. The Italians scored two late goals in a magnificent extra time match against the Germans and the final was set up, the determined Italians vs the French, a team who possesed a retiring Zinedine Zidane. I could write a whole post dedicated to that man, possibly one just dedicated to the picture of him walking past the World Cup trophy and down the tunnel after his sending off. The Italians of course won on that night! They fought through adversity, through pain! They won when they perhaps felt they weren't good enough, were too emotionally injured and perhaps they didn't even want to be there!

Any one writing off Argentina, in the same way that many wrote off Italy, would be stupid. In 2002 Brazil were written off after a dreadful qualifying campaign, of course they won the World Cup that year. Meanwhile England this year qualified easily and head to the World Cup full of expectation, that will be furthered by the media's and fan's view that we will win the World Cup. Maybe we need a touch of Argentina, although with Wayne Rooney in our ranks we may just have an English Maradona!

Essential work horse or time for the glue factory?

There is a man amongst England's current strike force who, when he scores England win. Oh how I wish it was Wayne Rooney. Admittedly only once in a competitive match have England failed to win when Mr. Rooney has been on the score sheet, although this was a rather big match in Russia back in October 2007.

There is a player amongst England's current back line who has played 57 times for England (at time of writing) and scored 6 goals. England have never lost when said player scores, although they do have a draw against Brazil on one occasion. Unfortunately John Terry doesn't score often enough.... oh wait the first player is Emile Heskey, oops!

Yes 'Big' Emile has never been on a losing side, or even a drawing one, when he has scored for England. But then his international record reads played 57 scored 7, JT is only one goal off!

The list of when Heskey has scored his goals is as follows; Malta, Spain, Germany, Denmark, South Africa, Slovakia, Kazakhstan! Some decent enough opposition, well Spain, Germany and Denmark at least.

But the simple stats and that list don't tell the full story. Heskey's first goal, against Malta in a friendly, was scored way back in June 2000, his first competitive goal came in that match in Munich, you know the 5-1 victory for England!!! Since then he has scored two, yes only two, more competitive goals for his country, at the 2002 World Cup against Denmark in the 2nd round and against Kazakhstan in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. That goal, which is his most recent goal for England, was scored one week short of the 7th anniversary of his previous competitive goal, now there's a striker!

Fast forward to the present day and the Aston Villa striker, that's Heskey not Terry by the way, has come out and said he may need to leave his current team to guarantee his place in the squad for next year's World Cup. This is no surprise. Fabio Capello has made it clear that the players in his squad will have to be playing club football in order to get into his squad and Heskey simply is not. Of course I've already pointed out Heskey's goalscoring problem, but even during his most successful club spells, at Leicester and at Wigan, the ex Liverpool striker wasn't a great goalscorer. What is probably more worrying is a statistic surrounding Wayne Rooney; if Heskey is in the side to set up Rooney why is it that the Manchester United striker has scored 6 goals without Heskey on the pitch and 5 with him on the pitch since Capello took over at the helm. Now of course there isn't a great deal between the two figures and it isn't complete proof of anything but it does beg the question of whether Rooney, who is supposed to be the main beneficiary of Heskey's presence, is really benefiting from him being there.

Meanwhile across the land there is players such as Jermain Defoe, Carlton Cole and Darren Bent playing regularly and scoring goals for their club sides. Furthermore Cole and Bent add goals to their game of height and strength, something Heskey has never been able to do. Added to the list of possible partners, for the almost undroppable Rooney, are Gabriel Agbonlahor, who may well get to play in place of Rooney against Belarus, Peter Crouch and even Michael Owen. All these players are capable of scoring more goals than Heskey and each have their own attributes which could be vital to any World Cup campaign something Heskey can boast less and less about.

On Wednesday England play Belarus at Wembley in the last game of the World Cup qualifying campaign, it doesn't matter all too much, in terms of result, but for some players, specifically Emile Heskey, it could well kick start their campain to get on the plane to South Africa next summer.

Football's West Lothian Affair!

Welcome to the English Premier league, home of some of the world’s greatest teams, players, managers, coaches and stadiums. Not all of them English admittedly, and I mean that for the players, managers, coaches and to an extent the stadiums, although the choice of Australian builders for Wembley wasn’t what you’d call an inspired choice, but the teams are most certainly English.

Welcome to the Scottish Premier league, home of some of Scotland’s best teams, players, managers, coaches and stadiums- well it has all of Scotland’s teams, for now!

There may be no greater tragedy in domestic football if than if Glasgow’s powerhouses of Scottish football, Celtic and Rangers, were to join the English leagues.

There can only be one reason for these two sides to want to join the elite this side of the border, money. Many will suggest it is for success but it is clear that this is an afterthought as it is money that breeds success and not the other way round in most cases. In most domestic leagues throughout, certainly Europe if not the World, there is usually only three or four clubs who are likely to win the league. I don’t need to go through the list of the main players in England, Italy, France, Germany, Spain or Scotland we know them all. But look at Russia, Austria, Belgium, Israel, Portugal, Ukraine, Holland it is always the same teams competing in the European competitions, we can only assume it’s therefore the same teams picking up trophies domestically.

It is also the same clubs who win the big prizes in Europe, mainly from England, Spain and Italy. There has of course been the odd surprise from, say, Portugal or Germany. There is also the ever unpredictable UEFA Cup/Europa League which throws up winners from all over the place, although this may end now with the new set up favouring consistency as it’s more esteemed cousin the Champions League. Consistency means the strongest teams will always rise to the top and lowers the risk of upset. So expect Champions League drop outs or those who struggled domestically last season, and ended in the 2nd tier of European football, to be competing in Hamburg come May.

The point here really is that Celtic and Rangers have no divine right to the money that the English league generates, funny way to suggest it I know, but basically being the most successful club/s by a country mile in a below par domestic league is not exactly a one off, unique in only Scotland. It happens everywhere, and yet there isn’t to my knowledge any question of Anderlecht and Standard Liege joining the Dutch leagues just because the two countries are neighbours.

Actually the whole thing is extremely laughable for one big reason! In 2012 there will be some small multi-sport event in London, you may have heard of it, the Olympics I think it’s called. In said event there is a football medal up for grabs. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have never competed in the football at the Olympics. The reason for this is because at the Olympics the four nations compete together as Great Britain, at football they compete separately with separate Football Associations. With the Olympics being held on home soil the BOA (British Olympic Association) thought it would be a jolly good idea to enter as many, if not all, sports available. The English F.A thought a football team in the Olympics would also be a jolly good idea. The Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh F.As on the other hand were all worried about their status as separately competing nations when it comes to footballing matters. I think we all agree a fair argument. How then can it be a good idea for Celtic and Rangers, the two sides from Scotland with any remote chance of making an impact internationally, to compete in English competitions, where they have little or no chance of qualifying for said international competitions? Way to show some patriotism!

Some north of the border have suggested that it would be good for the Glasgow monopoly on all competitions to flee. After all it would bring serious competition back to the league and bring the crowds back to the grounds. Cue all those south of the border with Sky Sports channels switching off as soon as Inverness vs. Aberdeen kicks off. A lack of Celtic and Rangers in the league would not make the rest of the clubs better teams, it would just get of the two decent sides. The league might come down to more than just the four Glasgow derbies in a season but only a few seasons of Aberdeen and Hearts reign (these clubs are an example) would mean they instantly became a lot richer than the likes of Falkirk due to European money, suddenly two new ‘superpowers’ of Scottish football and we’re back to square one, great!

Meanwhile down in England! “Welcome to Parkhead on this cold Saturday afternoon as Celtic take on Portsmouth”, just think of the hoards of Pompey fans wanting to make the long, and no doubt, expensive trip to Glasgow during these times of recession. Fans of both Celtic and Rangers will tell you that atmosphere’s at their grounds are amazing, and no doubt the games I’ve watched that these teams take part in have seen great crowds, but then again I only watch derby games and European nights so it’s hardly surprising. The fact is that most, if not all, team’s fans are the same. Loud away from home, loud at big games, loud when the mood suits them, but quiet a lot of the time and there to watch football being played and not make ridiculous amounts of noise all the time. The other thing I’d say for the fans is that I went through Manchester the night after Rangers UEFA cup final loss and I’d rather not see my city looking like that again thanks, one off maybe but I still don't want another potential Milwall or Leeds.

Celtic and Rangers aren’t good enough to compete week in week out in the Premier League, maybe one day, with all the money the Premier League generates, they will be. But that’s the point; they have done nothing to warrant all that money. I’ll tell you what my Sunday league football club could do with all that money and then we’ll start our Europa League campaign!

Just Fab-ulous!

Whoa! Bad nights sleep last night. Never mind the fact I've been sleeping on a blow up mattress with a broken sleeping bag for the last couple of weeks. But last night, when I eventually got to sleep, my mind wandered and I start dreaming, well it was more of a nightmare, after United's dreadful performance, and may I add, Sunderland's excellent one, I was thinking of when United last played so poorly. Suddenly it came to me, that horrible night last May! The night of Iniesta, of Messi, of Xavi, of Guardiola, the night of Barcelona. They were awesome, and in my nightmare I saw them all celebrating with the trophy in hand. And suddenly I shot up, wide awake, and in a cold sweat, it was horrible.

It got me thinking about all walks about football, specifically I was thinking about Barcelona, about the midfield with Xavi and Iniesta and how good a pairing they are, last week I wrote about two good midfielders and their passing ability, there isn't many better than the Spanish duo though.

And then I got to thinking about England, who play Ukraine this weekend- a game I won't be watching due to the farce that the match is only being broadcast online for a fee- and how the last time England played particularly poorly they came up against the same duo. By the way these three paragraphs are all just leading up to the actual thing I'm writing about, which hasn't even been mentioned yet! The point is that Barcelona's youth academy is awesome, has already produced Iniesta, Xavi and Messi into their first team and will also be responsible of Bojan when he eventually breaks through. "So what?" I hear you cry! You already knew all this

But think again, who of you watched Arsenal's match on Sunday? There was a man on that pitch, only just a man, who ran the game like someone of many more years experience, at the heart of nearly everything his team did right against Blackburn was yet another Spanish central midfielder, one of only 21 years of age, one who, had history played out differently, could have been in central midfield back in May for Barcelona, of course Cesc Fabregas.

Fabregas was simply awesome against Blackburn. The passes were sublime, coming straight out of a text book and onto the foot of a more advanced player, usually leading to a goal or at least a shot saved by the excellent Paul Robinson. Fabregas is 21, just 6 and a half months older than myself, which is both scary and unfair. He has been handed the captain's armband very early on in his career and though it is far from the best part of his game it is unfair to judge him on it and he can only grow into the role.

The squad around Cesc is young and inexperienced and, certainly Premiership wise, he is one of the most experienced players in the squad. Having a player of Andrei Arshavin's quality will only help to mould the Spaniard into a better and better player. A match winner he most certainly already is, the curling volley against Blackburn proved that he has the goals in his arsenal (pun intended) to win any match. If Fabregas can add a little more consistency into his game, something that will no doubt come with age, then he could become one of the best players around, if he is not already.

It is this last sentence that must frighten Arsenal fans. Not because he is frighteningly good, or because they're scared of great footballers, after all they've already had one of the best players to have graced god's green earth play for them (Thierry Henry before you ask) but because he may become one of the world's best playing for the club you might say he was born to play for, Barcelona.

Being one of the best in the world you expect to win trophies, Arsenal are trophy less since 2005, not good enough for one of the "big four". Arsenal have also recently been the most likely of this quad to fall out of said quad, although maybe not this season. The fact remains though, without trophies both Cesc and the man who has changed the face of Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, will eventually decide that the Emirates is not the place to ply their trade, for the latter it may mean retirement. If Wenger does not retire then there is a chance Fab could follow the Frenchmen but Cesc may leave sooner than that with rumours of a return to Catalan unwilling to go away.

I for one, surprisingly enough, hope he stays in England. It's nice to have the greatest players on earth playing in front of our eyes week in, week out. The Spanish league can't measure up for all round brilliance, even with this seasons additions of Kaka, Ronaldo and Xavi Alonso (yet another world class Spanish central midfielder- hardly fair). Don't get me wrong, the Premiership will still be great to watch without him, but you can't say the same for the brand of football his team play. Arsenal are brilliant to watch, in both their positives and in their failures. The loss of Cesc will not be the end of their lovely football, but the loss of Wenger will be, and once Cesc is gone there may only be a matter of time before the Professor is gone to!

Passing the Test of Time

C.S Lewis once said that “Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.” For the 'old men' of the Premier League apparently you start living them again once your old as well.

Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are 34 and 35 respectively, in the young mans game that is Premier League football this is absolutely ancient. No doubt that the youngsters of today's game with all their trickery and pace have brushed passed these old veterans showing them how far football has come since their heyday of the mid to late 90's! Or not!

While players such as the Brazilian Anderson and the Portuguese, successor to Ronaldo, Nani have struggled this season, the godfathers of the current United team have really shown the way. On Saturday against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium, a tricky place to go, Scholes had pulled all the strings in the first half but the forwards had no luck in breaking the Stoke defence. Meanwhile prowling on the touchline was Giggs, one week on from his match winning performance in the derby game. Nani had been the picture of inconsistency, going from lovely runs to pointless step overs in an instance.

It has been difficult for the young Portuguese winger since joining United, and even more so now he seems to feel pressured into replacing the now departed Ronaldo. After 55 minutes of doing his best to replicate his countryman on came Giggs as Nani's replacement to prove it should be the timeless Welsh wonder he replicates. Within 7 minutes it was Stoke 0-1 United, and inevitably Giggs was the provider with his ball into Dimitar Berbatov to score.. Just 16 minutes after that and it was game over! Stoke 0-2 United, and again Giggs with the ball into the box, this time for John O'Shea to head home.

Two quotes jumped out after the game to truly tell the story.
"They (Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes) are both great players but Scholes was magnificent. He (Paul Scholes) was the best player on the pitch by a country mile. Then Giggs makes the two goals." That by Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager who you felt could have gone on about Scholes's contribution for hours.

The second came from Phil McNulty, who perhaps best described why Giggs is just so good and Nani is far from it.
"Let's hope Nani was taking a note of how Ryan Giggs set up Dimitar Berbatov for his goal. Football is essentially a simple game made complicated by players like Nani." Never has much a truer word been said.

How many times have the ginger maestro and his Welsh compatriot been retired by some critic or other. Scholes especially has had a hard time of it the last few years. Injuries have kept him out for long periods of time, worries were especially high a few seasons ago when he had double vision and dizziness for months people feared for his career. Back he came the season after, playing a massive role in getting United to the Champions League final with an awesome goal against Barcelona in the Semi final. Again last season people were questioning how much longer Scholesy could continue, overrun and losing possession more in some matches than he had in whole seasons previously. Now suddenly he has returned to his best once again. United have only lost once away all season, against Burnley, and who wasn't in central midfield to keep possession that day? Paul somebody or other!

Surrounded by a team that is growing in confidence and experience Scholes and Giggs do not need to supply the pace, there is plenty of that. Nor do they need to throw themselves round the pitch; though Scholes still does, rarely winning the ball of course, for that there is Wayne Rooney and Darren Fletcher. Instead Paul and Ryan can concentrate on winning games and in helping others take the limelight with goals they are instead stealing it themselves.

Down in Sunday League it is the opposite. When some players come back old and injured they cannot handle the pace. Delusions of grandeur are also commonplace in Sunday league, mix in the two problems and you have a player who is a waste of space. Even more annoyingly someone who argues their way into a team, and then is awful. Thankfully said person is now out of the team and has retired himself, he is no Scholes, no Giggs, he is barely worth typing about. After a two week break we sadly succumbed to a 5-1 loss against a weak side, manager and player errors a like caused it but we'll be back, unfortunately after yet another two week break.

Back to the good old duo! What is perhaps most telling about them is that Sir Alex still plays them both. He is not one for sentiment, when you're past it you're past it! And remembering the amount of times these two have been written off they mirror their boss, down and out for one minute, world beaters the next- they may not quite be his children but in footballing terms they may as well be! All this without a backflipped celebration in sight!

The Pride of Manchester!

It's so difficult to describe that it makes it easy! I am of course talking about yesterdays amazing derby! And I mean that it made me so speechless the only way to describe it is "it left me speechless", well not quite, for the first time ever I got to watch a derby with my dad, who supports Manchester City couldn't exactly stay silent could I?

Fortunately for me, my dad agreed, United deserved their victory, or perhaps more they just didn't deserve not to win. Helped by some shoddy City defending yes, but without the shocking mistakes that were at fault for two of City's goals they'd have been well out of it!

Perhaps the point is to look at City after this game more than United! We know what Manchester United are capable of, from Rooney's slick skills and cool finish for goal one, my how he's growing in stature from match to match, we also know that one on one in the box you always want the ball to be at Michael Owen's feet, unless you happen to be Shay Given. But it is City who we learnt most about this weekend.

Hold on City fans your team is about to be complimented! Your players were outstanding, OK the defence might need a kick up the backside, apart from Kolo Toure who looked pretty good other than defending at set pieces. The main thing to look at is the City side of 12 months ago. Would they have lost that match 4-3 with the last kick of the game? No! They would have lost 4 or 5-0, OK they may have got one.

Shay Given was outstanding, if Michael Owen loves playing against him then he's probably given Dimitar Berbatov one or two nightmares, Gareth Barry looks every bit as good as he does for England in his City shirt, Carlos Tevez was at his damn near best and was unlucky not to score himself late in the first half. Of course there was also Craig Bellamy, in the team only because of injuries and suspensions, Mark Hughes nearly ended up grateful for that boot to the face last week, Bellamy was near impossible to play yesterday, helped out slightly by Rio but nevertheless the Welsh strikers performance was over shadowed by only one other- and he really is the Welsh master. I don't know what vintage wine from Wales is like but based on Giggs' performance it must taste bloody good!

Remember aswel City were without two of their superstars, the man who kicked it all off last season Robinho and the man who, according to Sir Alex, is City's best player, Emmanuel Adebayor. How much difference those players would have made on this occasion is debateable but certainly these are players who will make a difference in many matches this season and suddenly City, after two good displays against two of the best in Europe, will have to be taken seriously. Look at another team looking to break into the top four this season, Spurs, they have wilted against both United and Chelsea.

Of course it wasn't all good for City, despite coming along way their defence was still pretty pitiful. I personally thing Wayne Bridge is average at best, and regular readers know my opinion on the overpriced and average Joleon Lescott. Micah Richards had a bad game but if he can get back to the player he once looked like he could be Micah could still find he may have a seat on a plane to South Africa next summer. Another man not covering himself in glory after yesterday was of course Mark Hughes. I can understand his frustration but he must know that the extra two minutes were there for a reason, and not just because they were at Old Trafford and United were looking for a winner. Never mind the fact City also could have used those two minutes to find a winner there's also the fact that "The 4th official has indicated there will be a MINIMUM of four minutes added on time" Nuff said!

As for Sunday League football, well there was none this weekend unfortunately, although that gave us all time to recharge the batteries and watch the derby so no bad thing.

One last note to go with an article that appeared in the Times on Friday! As it said "Birmingham remains the UK’s second city in population alone. In all other respects, next to our kid, it’s bobbins." After yesterdays brilliant derby, Manchester may well just becoming England's first city- in football alone that is!

Excuse My French!

Oh how I laughed! Just a few days after the transfer window closed shut, with not a lot of buying or selling from Chelsea, the shock news was announced on Sky Sports News. Chelsea have been banned from making transfers for the next two windows, meaning no new players for the London side till January 2011. Come on who of you out there, as long as you're not a Chelsea fan, didn't snigger. Mainly because since the Russian revolution down at Stamford Bridge your team has probably either lost your best player to them or lost out on a top player to them. Suddenly that won't be happening for a while and they'll have to make do with their current squad.

OK, I say make do! But let's be honest for a second- Cech, Terry, Ashley Cole, Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Drogba, Anelka- love them or hate them, that's the team as a whole or singular players, they're bloody good!

Back to the issue at hand, no doubt many shared my initial reaction, and then after some thought, many probably also shared my next feelings. These were ones of some shock and slight bemusement. Firstly because the charges towards Chelsea are very serious, the term 'tapping up' is thrown about so often in football, especially round transfer window time. But the use of the phrase 'inducement to breach of contract' is new and seems to hold more weight than mere chatting to an agent. I am of course no legal expert but to me it seems Chelsea are in big trouble. The second reason for bemusement or perhaps worry is a selfish one of course, ie. "If Chelsea have been caught out for this, what about United".

SHOCK! Just a day or so later and United had been accused of the same thing, minus the FIFA ban, United are in the same or certainly a similar position! And behold another French team at the heart of it. Now I'm generally not one for conspiracy theories but I can't help but start thinking something fishy is going on. Lets not forget it's not long ago since Eduardo was banned for two matches for his diving expolits, hardly something that never happens in world wide football yet a ban against a player for an English team. And what's this, now another English team, specifically Manchester City, have been accused of the same thing. I know it's getting a little silly now. Oh yeah forgot to mention IT'S A FRENCH TEAM!

You might be getting the picture here! Mr Uefa, or Platini as he was once known. Used to be a very good footballer, he's probably still better than plenty around today. But that's besides the point! We've already learnt in the past that world class footballers don't always make the best coaches or managers but I'm starting to think they don't make the best administrators either. I'm not soley blaming him for all the accusations but it seems that ever since he's got into power Michel has been on a one man tirade against English clubs. Sorry you're right! Mr Uefa has his pal, Mr FIFA! Yes everyone's good friend Mr Sepp Blatter, how could we forget him. Platini and Blatter doesn't quite sound like a law firm but it does sound like a disaster for our beautiful game.

Down in Sunday League football we don't have such issues, after all a transfer just requires the player, his current club secretary and new club secretary all signing a form and £5 admin fee. Easy! Meanwhile results have been interesting to say the least. Following the opening day loss came a midweek match with Crumpsall, if you've forgotten, this is the team who we usually beat in frendlies only to lose not long after in a league match. So after a 6-3 win in a friendly 8 days earlier I wasn't the only one shocked to see another 9 goals fly in. Although this time all 9 went to Sporting JLGB! Yes a 9-0 victory to make our negative 4 goal difference into a positive one just a few days later. And 6 goals came in the last 25 minutes. Then came the third game in a week and once again Freddy Road to take on Republic of Mancuina, an average team but a beatable one. Although not on this occasion! After the first 43 minutes were 0-0 with Sporting the better side an injury to our goalkeeper and a slip in concentration was pounced on and Mancunia led 1-0 at the break. The added to their lead late on as we looked to find an eqaliser, still though we ended the week with a positive goal difference!

Of course there's always some comparisson with 'real football' and our football! Down in our league it might not be an administrator but certainly one man, a referee, trying to ruin our fun. We had a run in with this ref last year, and despite our team trying to put it behind us this man in black clearly can't. This week he reported us to the league for kicking off 2 minutes late, this man is pathetic! Sorry it needed saying!

Right so I'm off to play some 5-a-side football and tomorrow to watch England qualify for the World Cup by beating Croatia, hopefully Defoe starts! And I'll finish this week by watching the English Premierleague! That's before Platini gets his hands on it anyway!