Pietersen needs to learn how to catch. Had that chance been taken I think England could ahve gone into the interval happy, instead they need wickets. Three chances dropped in one match is horrible, especially when two were straight forward. Doesn't matter how many runs you make, if you drop catches as well then you are making a mess of your own good work.

Well, Australia will be the happier at lunch with them being effectively being 80-1 and having looked relatively untroubled in the spell before lunch. England need to get more stuck into them and try and cause the same top order collapse that has happened regularly throughout the summer so far.

Im not very happy with the fact that Brian Lara Cricket has no fatigue setting for bowlers, bit unrealistic, hopefully they will come out with a patch or something to fix that, glad to have my copy though it is a good game.

I actually think England should be pleased with the mornings work so far. Despite the fact that it is low scoring 35 is really nothing in a test match. All they need do now is go out and bowl well in conditions that suit them, then it is up to the top order not to be the idiots that they were yesterday.

By the way, the holding the ball up when you get the fifth wicket makes you look a right prat.

And the other half of the team, but now Flopsy we shouldn't turn to the next Ashes. Poor batting yesterday but we've shown that they can't handle any of our four pace bowlers. England on the other hand only have trouble with McGrath, I'm still feeling very optimistic.

Well then you should probably save your own comments until this test is over...

This test will be decided by the first session of play tomorrow. If England can muster up another 50-60 runs (minimum) and put them around the Austrlalian score then it is very much game on, all to play for and no one with any real advantage. Even if Australia skittle England out in the morning how they then start off their second innings will decide the match. If it is another short innings of around 200 and England are left chasing 250 with 2-3 days of play left then you'd have to make them favourites, despite what has gone on in the first innings. If Australia come out and bat for a two days and England are left clinging on for dear life in a backs to the wall job that has to last 4-5 sessions then I will be very nervous. The lack of figures like Butcher and Thorpe mean that I fear that too many in this team are likely to make mistakes and not get stuck in. As great as it is having a fresh team not scared of the Aussies it would be nice if there were one or two more in there who had been there and done that, made the mistakes in the past and maybe had a bit more sense about them. We missed them today, let's hope in the second innings the England team are asked to do what they are made for, chase down runs, rather than do what those who weren't picked would be perfect for.

Oh touché

I'm sure as they have had to deal with it for a relatively long time that they have some very good methods, however, I don't think we'll be seeing tanks rolling down the streets of Muslim areas and missiles blowing up buildings...could be wrong though.

Another turn for the Rebel Breezers Keepers: Friedal Carroll Defenders: Terry King Toure Carragher Southgate Midfielders: Reid Giannakopoulos Murphy Fabregas Barry Forwards: Rooney Bellamy Horsfield

Yes, essentially that has been the motivation for all three of the semitic religions at one point or another. However, in modern times Israel seems the only one willing to basically eradicate all opposition in order to achieve this. While you cannot justify the suicide bombers you have to understand that desperate times call for desperate measures. While you cannot condone what they do and they certainly deserve a much worse fate than even they recieve, with their nation on the brink of eradication and their people suffering it is not hard to understand why people with little weapons or training fighting against one of the best armed and trained armies in the world would turn to this sort of thing.

I would agree that the majority of Israeli's do wish to live peacefully and would accept a seperate state, however I don't believe their government and the powers at be are looking for this sort of settlement.

Disagree with that. Israeli policy has shown that it is simply interested in claiming more and more land, which means until there is no more Palestinian state their actions will not cease, regardless of any suicide bombings or other violent acts, that simply provides them with an excuse. They are intent on claiming back land that they feel is rightfully theirs based on religious regions, no opposition or lack of opposition will change this.

Well it depends if you consider the actions Israel takes as retaliatory, personally I don't.

Actually, I'm not defending what they did, rather I'm attacking what you are saying. I'm not trying to say what they did wasn't so bad, I'm trying to say what you are all preaching is equally as horrible. As much as there may be a common theme as to how many killed in the name of islam there is an equally common theme as to how many are killed in the name of judaism, for example.

I'm not making an exuse, but there can be no doubting that the reason there are muslims anywhere in the world doing what they are doing is because of a fear and hatred of the western world being spread throughout the religion based on the actions we take in islamic areas. Of course I don't agree with this and most muslims would agree that they have nothing to fear and that they are in no way being made targets, but it is still what they feel.

Yes, normal people do horrible things. Just because they are muslims suddenly the fact that they were otherwise normal but committed a horrific crime is made into a shocking and terrifying fact. There have always been lunatics who, for one reason or another, have been willing to do horrible things, they have been black, white, arab, asian and they have often been rather regular and normal people, who no one in their community would have thought anything of. It is because of this that we cannot then say that we shouldn't let anyone in, that you have to be a pure British white citizen in order to be in this country and if you aren't you better have a damn good reason exactly why you're here, like being a footballer. It was their fear and hatred of what this country could do that led them to do what they did, sadly, it is the fear and hatred of many that could, if we lisened to certain members of this board, lead us to do something equally horrible, to not only kill 50 odd people, but to deprive thousands, if not millions, of of law abiding and safe lives in a country that they love. What you preach is no better than any muslim cleric calling for a religious war.

Maybe it was someone's birthday, or an enthusiatic French household celebrating the 14th.... Sorry to say though but Europe did not fall silent. I think everyone here would offer their deepest sympathies to all of those involved but no one really noticed any two minute silence.

"No arrests were made...of course" You say that as if it would seem surprising that people are not arrested when they do not break the law, shocking stuff really, isn't it?

I don't think I'm always right, but obviously if I hold a belief for that time at least I do believe it to be the right one. If you can say something that changes my mind then all credit to you, it is possible, but as of yet your mindless rants and insults have yet to ever do it. My actual point was that I thought you had the right to your opinion and because of that had the right to post that opinion, but I also then had the right to post mine. This was actually a direct reaction to the fact that a few of you right wingers had been complaining about the fact that flopsy was posting his opinion, one different to your own. Now it may just be me, but you are coming across as a bit of a hypocrite right now. So regularly the few of you who hold such extreme views ruin debates like this by forgetting the issue itself as you are bombarded by facts and opinions that go against what you believe. What you do to respond to this is to pick on the individual post or detail and take the discussion off topic, you avoid further embarrassment but your ruin the debate itself. It would be nice if for once one of you could avoid slipping down into personal insults simply because someone doesn't agree with you. I don't like what you say, but doesn't mean I then insult you because of it, I just try and prove you wrong and prevent as many people as possible from becoming the sort of illogical bigot that you are.

Half of Hakan Suker...they'll really be in trouble

The only reason any of you have any problem with the moderating on this topic is that a moderator happens to disagree with your rather extremist views, like most others I must add, and because of this you can't believe you are possibly being put in your place by someone who you believe should be staying neutral. Moderators should not be prohibited from participating in discussions, and one of this sort means that when you voice your opinion, especially when there is such a wide spectrum on show on the messageboard, you will offend some. I can't believe that some of your opinions are given air-time on any website, radio station or tv channel, I can't believe some of them even run through people's heads, but you are entitled to them and are thus able to post them on this board, my duty is then to respond to them and to try and attempt to point out why they are wrong. Flopsy is simply doing the same, don't change the topic because someone is simply making you think fast about why you have certain views.

Well dan I hope he or she is alright and it's all just a mix-up or something.

Of course. To be honest so much of it is simply guessing you may as well do it now. No matter if you had waited for the transfers to be finished almost no one would have predicted Bolton or Everton to finish as high as they did nor West Brom to beat the drop, while the middle is just one big almost inseperable muddle. EDIT : I may however review my table once it gets to August and most of the moving is done. I'd say wait until August 31st but a bit unfair to do it when there are a couple games of the season gone.