Too Be honest lucas has been good going forward since we first had him, it has always been defensively people pointed out he could improve. He has had 2 fantastic games and if dropping him from the national team does this maybe he should retire from international games, same with brett! Harry Kewell can stay there edit: Oozy you could try Here? don't know whats on there but they normally have most of highlights on teh night of the game!

Great perfomances in there, especially Lucas. Very good repsonce after last week. 3 points on the board, next spuds!

Have you ever tried to catch a ball(tennis or otherwise) while looking into the sun, i'll tell you for free(put your money away) it is damn hard. I have had one in a match but many in practice and you don't catch many, normally if in the deep you play for the bounce! I have to say jones did well to get in position for the catch and you could tell by his reaction he could hardly see it! probally more the umpires and designer of teh grounds fault!

Harsh! So he cost us 1 goal, we still would have lost. Hopefully he won't concentrate on this mistake and will put in the performances we know he can in the next few weeks. This may sound strange but losing 3-1 might work more in our favour than losing 1-0. As with last season after boro and chelski we changed our way of play and became a much better side. The game against fulham takes on much greater importance now, and i feel hughes must go out and look for a half decent centre back, as if nelsen or toddy get injured we will have to endure most games like that! Not a good day!

God, thsi is like last season. 1 good half 1 bad half! We need to find a way back into this!

Got quite worried for a bit there, but we held on til half time and looked good even at the end of the half! I hope we get an early second goal!

1. Chelsea 2. Arsenal 3. ManUre 4. Liverpool 5. Middlesbrough 6. Tottenham 7. Bolton 8. Everton 9. Rovers 10. Aston Villa 11. Man City 12. Newcastle (+ sacked manager) 13. Charlton 14. Birmingham 15. West Brom 16. West Ham (+ sacked manager) 17. Fulham (+ sacked manager) 18. Sunderland 19. Wigan 20. Portsmouth (+ sacked manager)

Never doubt the power of forum posts! All credit to warne, lee and kazp for giving us some early morning entertainment! Not the big momentum wave i thought we'd get but at least it shows the players we can do it and maybe we can push on and take the lead in the series! But it's england so who knows!

Sorry to quote myself but it's the first prediction i've got right in a while So it's nip and tuck from here! (assuming we wrap up the 2 aussie wickets) Good to see us have some momentum going into old trafford! Who knows if we go 2-1 up we may end up nicking one of the tests when glenn is back and the ashes can stay where they belong!

No chance they'll have a bad day on monday! After all the celebration drinks on the sunday! As has been said, the key to england having a good day is getting early breaks into the aussie top order, and it hasn't been too differcult in recent times. Personally i think it'll be an even day, with england having about 50run lead going into the saturday! But if england take 2 or 3 early wickets or the aussies get away with a few it could go to either extreme! It's going to be an interesting days cricket!

good to see warne and lee bringing up their 100's!

Maybe lee was typing friedel and fell asleep half way! Would make sense if the 2 keepers were at the start of the list! Guess if we wait for the live commentary we'll find out

Not sure which way round it was but we lost 5-0 to them then we whooped them 5-1! Sweet revenge

The aussies seem to manage it! found a few diamonds in those turds though! The golden age, when all the old aussies finally call it a day! At least their losing alot more matches than they used to, the transitional period in world cricket. Look what happened to the west indies! To go back to the turd analagy, every dog has it's day! Will andy symonds be in attendance at his home ground on thursday?

Audio Bullys - Bang bang (we shot robben down) Jack Johnson - Where'd all the good people go I still like the final countdown but i think thats because it was number 1 when i was born

and gilchrist is older so it's to be expected!

Profile Apart from the 60 test match catches in 16 matches! Ave. Catches per match! Gilchrist: 3.81 Jones: 3.75 hehe shamon!

Ian Bell is one of the most highly rated english batsmen and has been for the past 4 years! He should have been introduced against the aussies when we had already lost the ashes last time to give him the experiance of playing them, even if he was then dropped afterwards. But he wasn't and now he gets thrown in against the best test match team in the world and is expected to pick and play some the best bowlers in the world! I've seen him progress at warks and in his heard of his winter spells abroad and he will do well for england! The good point of thorpe quitting is that bell is almost 100% for the rest of the ashes and he needs that platform to push his current 70+ county average to the test team! Seeing as kev can bowl spin, why are we playing giles who hasn't had the best of summers so far, due to injury. While a top form giles is worth a place, surely getting another batsmen in that line up wouldn't harm the bowling attack that much? going for 3-1 to the aussies!

Tresco can and to some extent it seems strauss can! Think bell would have been ok if he hadn't been unlucky with the ball not spinning as it should have! Kev is looking very good in the middle seems confident against all the bowlers! The groundsman should stick all the covers on so it takes them 30mins to get them off again Good old british weather! Rain Dance! damn there back on!

if you were blind then i'd believe that, but you can never say never in football! Could it be a loan deal? might be good for porto to get rid for a season to a team that wants him and he wants to go to. Until we have the funds to purchase him?

I know their aussies but thats a bit below the belt I think we'll lose the first test! but claw the second back and it'll be nip and tuck from there in!

Do all the shop staff get informed of our transfer policy?

Yeah your right, theres no way the aussies can hold out the england attack for more than a day

Any pictures from the game of brad or enks? or failing that whats the keepers top like?

I'm always rubbish at these but hey! GK: Friedel DF: Toure DF: King DF: Carragher DF: Todd MF: Duff MF: Carsley MF: Fabregas MF: Giannakopoulos FW: Henry FW: Bellamy Subs: Carroll, Fortune, Greening, Zamora! i normally go for a top class midfield, so this time i have weighted defence and attack over midfield as it's cheaper!