I only caught the second half, but watched it in the pub with a hammers fan and he was very complimentary about McCarthy and Ooijer. From what I saw we looked the better side but our final ball from both sides of the pitch was weak to say the least. Bad decision for the corner too.

Just to say sorry to everyone for not doing the preview as I was meant to!

My harddrive decided to die on me and I haven't been able to get my computer up and running till today, so sorry about that.

Made me chuckle, even if I don't know what half the words mean!

Very good, rover6!

I might actually make a prediction for this one and say 3-1 to Rovers.

We've gotta win sometime after all!

So that's 3 penalties given, none of which sounded legit. Doesn't say much for the standard of refereeing.

Quite surprised Henchoz's only 32, thought he was a bit older than that.

We're gonna lose.

Lawrenson's fault for saying this; "they've still got a lot of quality and I tip them to win here".

My endearing memories of Kuqi are a 10 yard first touch and skewing several shots wide from 4 yards out. Did score some vital goals though.

Except Ashton's out for months, and anyone attempting to play Cole upfront on his own doesn't deserve a job in football.

That was me trying to fit in as many of Harry's midfield signings as I could!

Tottenham's starting XI

Robinson

Chimbonda - Dawson - King - Ekotto

Lennon - Malbranque - Zokora - Tainio

Berbatov - Keane

And West Ham's

Green

Pantsil - Ferdinand - Gabbidon - Konchesky

Benayoun - Mascherano - Reo-Coker - Etherington

Tevez - Ashton

And Pompey's

James

Pamarot - Campbell - Primus - Stefanovic

O'Neill - Kranjcar - Mendes - Davis - Taylor

Cole

Look very strong to me, with a lot of useful subs to add to that list.

Don't think our starting XI is a million miles behind that lot, but we could do with some quality strength in depth, particularly in midfield.

He's a right-back, but he's useless.

What about United?

You have a point actually, I'd missed Mikel's transfer off. I'll rephrase it to "the club that made the biggest profit"

Though if Kuzczack cost £4m, then they're in the red. I've only put him down as a loan so far.

I've just spent my lunch break playing around with excel and catalogueing everyone's transfers. By my reckoning we were the only Premiership club to make a profit in the transfer window.

Don't worry lads, Lawro's predicted us to lose.

An easy win in the offing now!!

1. Chelsea

2. Manchester United

3. Liverpool

4. Arsenal

5. Tottenham Hotspur

6. Newcastle United

7. Everton

8. Blackburn Rovers

9. Bolton Wanderers

10. Aston Villa

11. Portsmouth

12. West Ham United

13. Middlesbrough

14. Charlton Athletic

15. Wigan Athletic

16. Manchester City

17. Reading

18. Fulham

19. Watford

20. Sheffield United

Can anyone recommend a fairly short read (say 100-200 pages long) i'm going to France in a few weeks and its only for 4 days. So i'm looking for something like a modern classic. Any recommendations?

I'd reccommend Blackbox by Nick Walker as an excellent book that you can blitz through in a few days. Has a style similar to that of 24, if you like that sort of thing.

Am liking the new Lost Prophets album, few awesome songs on there.

To get us off Oasis for a bit...

Only 2% of the worlds population are supposed to be able to solve this problem (according to Einstein who set it).

http://www.manbottle.com/trivia/einstein_s_riddle

Surely that must be wrong, as I managed to do it!

I saw it yesterday too (missing the 2nd half of the WC Final ) and it was great! Johnny Depp was his usual brilliantly bizarre self, even - and it pains me to say this - Orlando Bloom put in a sterling performance.

Funny, action-packed and laid the groundwork for the third film nicely. My only complaint was one very ovious bit of blue-screening when Captain Jack Sparrow was fighting "the beastie".

Stark contrast to yesterday, lame game of football with the Portugese doing their reputation no favours whatsoever! Referee's been pants. How have Portugal got this far with the two worst strikers in the competition in Pauleta and Postiga?

Best XI

GK: Buffon

DR: Sagnol

DC: Cannavaro

DC: Ferdinand

DL: Lahm

MR: Ribery

MC: Muntari

MC: Pirlo

ML: Barnetta

FC: Klose

FC: Podolski

Those two goals just sum it all up, absolutely wonderful. Best game of the finals by a country mile.

And how often can this be said, the ref's not put a foot wrong!

I thought there'd been a hatful of chances, just not a great deal on target

Both sides showing the kind of invention that you just wish England could show.

Absolutely terrific game so far, brilliant football being played on both sides. The only thing missing is a goal!

Cybermen. Daleks. Just wow!

Mintisco, #5 - like it!