perfectOzblue

Our midfield is not to be trifled with this season.

Must be up there with Paperback Writer and Things We Said Today as the best song Paul McCartney ever wrote, hey?!

Let's say it with music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQvzvu2TZsY

Yeah, me too...I think Newcastle Knights would be better off without him, especially give the chaos they've endured over the last year or so. Glad he didn't end up with Latics 2bh.

From memory we gave Wednesday a decent match but they beat us 3-1....think that big Belgian/Dutch striker Gerald Sibon(?) eventually ripped us apart. Then they smashed us 5-1 in the second leg. We've never done great at Hillsborough.

Yeah, I remember that match... watching us lose and getting that sinking feeling that there was no chance we were going to be going straight back up to the Prem that season. Little did we know what the next 20 years would bring! When you look at that team it is still pretty handy (Nicky Banger apart!). A couple of them still had a few years left at a decent level.

Yeah, I think I vaguely remember that match. For some reason I can recall that Guy Ipoua (?)- a handy French striker - scored for Scunny. Can't for the life of me remember who scored for Latics. Maybe an OG?

Pretty much every single one of Neil Redfearn's goals in the Championship season..he seemed to specialize in 25-yard shots curled brilliantly into the net. And his pen of course....which was the best a) because of the moment and because of the bottle he showed taking it.

John Aldridge. Played for Trashmere in the early 90s when they stuffed us a few times. I just found him really, really irritating.

Whatever happened to good, well-thought out trolling on here? You just don't get it anymore.

Can we afford to wait that long though?

Big question though...where's he going to play? He's a left back isn't he? Mills must be first choice. Still, great addition to squad (on paper).

Can't argue with a lot of that but I would definitely disagree with Brentford and Rotherham to get relegated. I reckon Brentford might be a dark horse for the play-offs - they've got a decent squad and momentum. I think Rotherham will be okay too. I would also whole-heartedly disagree with your Latics assessment too - I have a feeling we're going to be pretty handy this season. God knows how - or why.....

Why the frig did we not give this guy a chance when he was with us?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28441743 Won't be coming back to BP...unless we get them in the cup.

Hopes: I'm getting more optimistic by the day for 2014/15. I reckon even now we've got an okay squad and it'll probably improve. Brian Wilson was a really good signing and Liam Kelly could be just as good as Korey. I think a tilt at the play-offs could be good, but realistically I want us aiming for the top 10, winning our home games to get the crowds back and scoring some goals. Fears: Any of the seasons under Dickov or Penney. Or we start bad, Johnson gets sacked/walks and we end up rebuilding and facing yet another slog. Basically, just no more :censored:. Please Latics, please. Expectations: I think, given the way we finished last season, plus the fact that clubs I class as smaller than us (Orient, Walsall, Port Vale) did okay last year, it's reasonable to expect a top half finish as bare minimum this year. I really think we'll do well this year though.

Can't argue with you Sly - and ain't it friggin' depressing? I used to engage with the typical 'we hate Germany' stuff when I was younger but now all I can do is admire them. They've built generations of good teams that play football the right way. Players like Lahm, Klose and Schweinsteiger are immense. Germany is also being rewarded for realising that having a successful national team IS the most important thing, not how much you can hype your own domestic league. Okay, I'd give a lot to Latics to one day make the Premier League again but it's completely killed any chance of England winning a major trophy (unless we get a good bunch of players together at the same time like in 2006, when we really had a chance).

Heskey still looked decent in the 2012/13 season for Newcastle Jets - he scored a few goals and looked a class above the league (which is about lower Championship/League One standard I would say). Last season though I think he was crocked a bit and when he did play he just looked like typical Heskey.....held the ball up and took punishment from defenders, but basically never looked like scoring. Admittedly he was playing for a team that missed out on the finals. I would really hope we would avoid signing him. On a separate note, he was pretty polite to me when I served him and his family during my ill-fated short stint working at the Leicester Odeon cinema as a student about 10 years ago. I think he and his kids were seeing 'A Shark Tale'. Maybe not the best footballer but a damn fine customer......

My main memory of him is being terrorised by Akinfenwa in a horror show loss to Torquay which looked like it had relegated us. But realistically was he really much worse than most of our other central defenders over the last 20 years? He was on a par with Shaun Garnett I'd say.

Agreed. It was partly fascinating, but had no structure. Just came out as the semi-coherent ramblings of an angry old man to be honest.

http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2014/07/02/melbourne-city-locks-manchester-trip Reading from this though Damien Duff would be a possible to play. Also, Melbourne City will need practice before playing their first match of the season (a new cup competition - the league itself doesn't start until October) so they'll probably be taking the matches seriously.

David Villa won't be playing but Damien Duff may. He has signed a one-year deal with Melbourne City. They are making some good signings- should be worth going along.

The Heart have struggled in the A-League since they formed a couple of years ago. They are in the shadow of Melbourne Victory, who are arguably the country's biggest team here. They had Orlando Engelaar, who played for Holland, in their squad last season. They were also managed by the former Pompey player John Aloisi for a few months but he was pretty disastrous. They are being linked with everyone since the link with City was established. The A-League (I think) is on a par with League One so it will be interesting to see how they match up, albeit in a friendly.

Former Latics goalie Dean Bouzanis has signed for Western Sydney Wanderers in Australia's A-League. Good move for him as the Wanderers have been one of the top teams since forming two years ago. He is unlikely to be number one as they have a handy keeper, but their best players seem to be leaving during this off-season so you never know.

Yep, the Notts County fans would have been in the Paddock. The match you are thinking of is the Rumbelows Cup 2nd round match that year (90/91). County beat us 1-0 in the first leg (scabby Tommy Johnson rebound from a penalty - I grew to intensely dislike him as he scored against us a couple of times and generally came across as a little ginger git) but we stuffed them 5-2 after extra time in the second leg. Currie scored a brilliant goal to get us back into it on a rain-soaked night at BP - dribbled round a couple and blasted in from 20 yards. Immortalised by John Gilder's brilliant "Currie - chance to make a name for himself...." commentary on the season video. For some reason (I'm sad, perhaps?!) plenty of details about that match have stuck in my memory, more than 20 years on. We also beat them at home just after that in the league (2-1, including a cheeky backheel from Ritchie) as well. County unfortunately beat us easily on two other occasions that season at their ground - one in the league and once in the FA Cup - but they made up for it by beating West Ham on the last day and helping us win the title!