Two goals for Jemal Johnson this afternoon.

He would have had more of a chance of playing Centre mid again, if he had showed even the slightest idea of what playing that position involves.

I'll stick my neck out here - He'll NEVER make a central midfield player.

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He's 21 years old and is obviously going to need time to learn the role. He has all the technical attributes to make a central midfielder.

Lucas Neill's coversion to right-back certainly wasn't seamless. And 5 years ago people used to say that Ashley Cole would never make a top left-back because he had no positional sense.

- What a fantastic player Bentley is! OK he scuffed one and was a bit slow starting but apart from that, who the **** is Carrick in comparison?

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Not sure why Sparky switched the midfielders around but he really shone in a central midfield role.

I thought he'd be too lightweight and drift in and out of games too much to play in that position in a 4-4-2 but the way he got on the ball and tried to make things happen was almost Tugay-esque.

We should certainly be looking at winning our next 5 games. 3 home games against mid-table opposition and 2 away games against very poor teams in Sunderland and Pompey.

Spurs are the equivalent of a cricketing 'flat-track bully'. They dispose of mediocre opposition pretty comfortably but haven't beaten any good teams this season. So far, they've failed to win against any of the top 8 - Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, ourselves, Bolton or West Ham.

Whilst many in the media rave about Carrick, he doesn't have a big impact on games if he's put under pressure. Wigan did just that in their 2-2 draw and he was totally nullified. They were forced to go long ball, were pretty dreadful and the crowd were getting on their backs. He, like Jenas and Murphy, is a bit lightweight. If we can get stuck in then we can get the better of them in midfield.

I don't buy into that particular extreme either to be honest with you. I think that 20,000 as a core support is more than good enough given our other rather firm financial settings to maintain a premier league team for a good length of time, certainly longer than a lot of those around us.

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I agree. With sensible management of the wage bill, the effects of poor attendances can be more or less negated.

For example, not having Flitcroft (circa 20K per week?) on the wage bill for next year is the equivalent of having around 2,500 extra paying adults on the gate for each league game.

Lennon is apparently homesick and looking for a move back up North.

Del Horno was totally clueless against him. Messi was entitled to stay down after getting booted 6ft in the air for the seventh time. Andy Gray's biased commentary was beyond belief.

I remember watching that match and whilst I was pleased to see Stead doing ok, I couldn't help but think "he's nowhere near the level of that Bentley lad - he's gonna be some player."

We might not have many English players (add Reid to the English list - he's about as Irish as I am) but we have plenty of British lads.

Plus, its much easier to have a natural affinity for players from English-speaking nations such as New Zealand, America and Oz.

Motson and Lawrenson are the most inept commentary duo possible.

After the Crouch goal, Motson declared, "It may even have come off the post!"

Of course it did, you senile buffoon! We all saw it clearly hit the post.

At Plymouth, Tony Pulis was probably the worst possible appointment for young Matt.

Pulis is reknowned for his use of long ball football to big target men. He's got a decent record in the lower leagues but his teams are always horrid to watch.

I too didn't think the performance was that bad and I wouldn't say there was a lack of effort from anyone. We kept possession well and probed away without being able to break down their 8-0-1 formation. I thought Tugay should have been introduced earlier.

Kuqi could also have possibly been brought on earlier. Everton always sit very deep because of their lack of pace in defence so there was absolutely no space in behind for Bellamy or Pongolle to run into. With them being so deep, route one into Kuqi with people looking for knockdowns would have been our best chance of scoring.

I was sat in the lower section towards the corner flag and didn't hear anything that's been said here. Not doubting at all that it was sung but it must have been a very small number of cretins.

A point about the Everton fans in the Park Stand to the left. At most away games you can have a good bit of banter with the home fans. At Goodison though its a lot more hateful and vicious. A number of people round me moved because of the constant stream of abuse. I'm up for having a laugh and trading banter but you can do without stuff being thrown from the top tier and having neandertholic chavs offering to fight you outside the ground.

I don't give two hoots about Boro but one thing about McClaren that really infuriates me is after recent games when he says, "we're not defending properly and if you're conceeding goals like we are then you're not going to win games."

You're the manager! You sort out it then! If he was England manager would he shrug his shoulders in the same way when we get knocked out of the World Cup 3-0 by some non-entity like Sweden or Mexico?

And apparently after the game, some unhappy Boro fans were waiting at the front entrance. When Mark Viduka was leaving, he responded to some accusations that he was spineless and lazy by laughing, blowing a kiss to some of the crowd and sarcastically thanking them for their support.

Bet24.com will appear on the shirts for the next 3 years.

Link:

http://www.rovers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/New...~777423,00.html

I'm sure there's a bit of Welsh influence gone into the 3rd away one! Is best of the lot though - looks good.

I'd be surprised in Peter is involved. The front 6 picks itself if Bellamy isn't fit enough to start.

Kuqi - Bentley

MGP - Savage - Tugay - Reid

Richardson - unless he does something bizarre like move Ferdinand into midfield.

As Joe Royle so eloquently put it in 1995 when Everton beat Spurs 4-1 in the FA Cup semi final, "@#/? to your dream final! And you spell that with two l's!"

Phil Dowd has wimped out of giving Wigan a penalty twice. Bottled it, plain and simple.

Knowing the sort of character and player he is, you can bet that Sav would be the first to stick his hand up and want to take a pen.

Leeroy Jenkins - absolute legend....

http://www.break.com/index/leeroy.html

That picture definitely features Rovers fans rather than any of the Bolton contingent - I recognise one of them as being a regular at away games.

About 4 or 5 Bolton fans unfurled a flag with BWFC on it and walked along the front of the Riverside for some reason. They were laughing and taking the ###### until around 15 people decided to jump out of their seats and give them a bit of a kicking.