carrabanana

I'm not having a go at Beckham. It would be a travesty if he wasn't allowed to collect his 100th cap (in much the way Lineker lost the chance to be top goalscorer). It would be an even greater travesty if this debacle was his last England game.

 

He created the one goal we deserved tonight, that's one more assist than anyone else managed, and if nothing else I think his presence at least lifted the fans for a while. But I'm afraid we now have to accept that we should look beyond him for the future - he will never regain the fitness he once had, he will never play 90 minutes at the highest level.

 

Gerrard was shocking. But my special prize for humiliating the shirt goes to Lampard. The fact he managed to keep it (his shirt) clean says it all. And the fact he got man of the match says everything you need to know about the cockney s that go to Wembley.

Lampard got man of the match? what for? Cos he scored a penalty? I was panacking incase he was gonna miss! Should have been Beckham on the scoresheet.

The FACT is!! He didnt start, they brought him on at half time to do something and he did, he created a goal!!! What more can you ask ??

 

If you want to attack someone attack Gerrad and Lampard who have done NOTHING through the whole campaign. Beckham has produced and produced for england for years and years. These two havent. Sorry but I think attacking Beckham is a cheap shot.

I agree. Beckham came on the pitch and did his job, love to see him make it to 100 caps after everything he's done for England

Lampard and Gerrard were both completely anonymous and it just shows that they can't play together and personally if I had to chose who to drop then I'd drop Lampard no matter how well he does for Chelski.

We didnt deserve it on any appearance since Mclaren took charge. we have been absolutely shocking. two nil down in 15 mins is not good enough. Crouch was the only player on ( a diabolical) Wembley tonight who deserved to wear the shirt. Mclaren out, Rednapp in, Lamps and Gerrard cant start together. get Hargreaves in there. play passing football, not the big boot stuff we saw tonight, and for god sake, close down your man!!!

 

just another point, i dont think Mclaren will be the only man in the job centre tommoro, the Wembley groundsman could well be as well

Agree about Hargreaves. Should have played him as the holding midfielder and played Barry on the left instead of Joe Cole because to be honest, I don't see what on earth he brings to the team. All he did tonight was lose the ball

That performance was just terrible. So nerve-racking! Can't get over how close Bridge was to scoring an own goal. Everytime Croatia were in possesion I was scared they were going to score.

On a positive note (yes there was SOMETHING good)

Beckhams cross and Crouch's goal. Showed you what we've been missing when Beckham was dropped

Dynamo Kiev

lol this is fun, better than doing coursework

And as for Zebra FC's lit, oh how very original :P

Derby

Oh ok, we've started again

Bolton Wanderers

Zebra FC

Is that actually a real football club? And does that mean we're back on A now?

Everton

Nothing on the Big League Weekend 2. Yet they still find time to mention black pudding....

Couple of mins in, there's a guy talking with a Latics graffiti hat on and he's wearing a necklace and a light blue jacket. I'm in the background with a black jacket, a Latics scarf on and headphones round my neck. Very attactive shot of me rubbing my nose :P

it's up on the fissial site now

Linkage

absolutely fantastic emails and letters those.keep up the good work.

i have sent one myself via the councils website,and also one to mr meacher,i was sending one to mr woolas,then the main site featured his thoughts,so i dont need to do that one.

 

all we need to do now is get some backing off local celebs or something,scholesy would be great.

Scholesy would generate a lot of publicity but is anybody here in a position to get backing from him?

Nope, tell him to get on here!

Trust me, I've tried :P he's hopeless and either stops listening or just forgets whenever I bring up joining OWTB

I reckon I can come, will be bringing 2 people with me if I can. Problem is, father will think I'm joking so if anybody uses the messageboard on the official site and fancies convincing him, I'd be much obliged his username is mikejh45 or summat along those lines

thats great news.just got in so its made my day.

if they approve that heres hoping the rest will follow.

 

hope someone takes a picture of the nimbys faces.be a reet good laff that would.

don't see why they won't approve anything else. Imagine though if we had one proper state of the art stand and the rest just stayed the same :P

I'm gonna make a controversial statement here (I think). But I'm not too bothered about Rooney missing the game, I think the Owen/Rooney partnership is pretty poor. Owen's best games for England have come when he has a big Striker playing alongside him, he suddenly started finding the net again with Heskey alongside him. So I reckon an Owen /(and dare I say it) Crouch partnership would be the best solution for this (hopefully) crunch match. Although I think he's probably over the hill a bit now, I also think we might need Beckham too. We will need some quality balls into the box, and there is no-one better than Beckham for this; plus you get the added bonus of injury time 0-0 and we have a free kick at the edge of the area. Who would you want taking it?

 

I guess Im on my own here but.......................................................

 

Believe it or not you're not on you're own here. I for one will be glad to see Peter Crouch on the pitch because I'm of the opinion that he wouldn't be playing for a big club and wouldn't be named in the national squad if he wasn't a quality player.

And I still think that Beckham deserves his 100 caps. Like you said, there's nobody better than Beckham to get those quality balls in the box

but hell be at libpool in 2 years so through and through he isnt

original lyrics only plase

You don't KNOW he'll be at Liverpool so I reck the chant'll do for now

Wish people would stop pinning the blame on Crossley. If he was fully fit, then you can boo him all you like but I don't think anybody has the right to get on his back like that when he obviously wasn't fit. And granted he hasn't played well in other matches but when the discussion is about why we lost yesterday, other performances don't really come into it.

THE BOYS A BIT SPECIAL

Neal Eardley, Oldham

Born 06/11/88, Llandudno Position Right-back

Nickname Eards

Club Supported As A Boy I've always been a huge Liverpool fan and grew up watching the likes of McManaman and Fowler.

Strenghts As a right back, I love getting forward and getting crosses in for other people to get on the end of. As a defender, obviously I'm there to do a job at the back but you can't beat the buzz of doing some damage in the opposition half.

Weaknesses My heading's not the best and my physical conditioning needs a bit of work but I'm much stronger this season than I was when I made my debut. It takes time to adjust to the hurly-burley of League One but the more I play the fitter and stronger I'm becoming.

I play a bit like I don't like to compare myself to ther players but I look up to the likes of Gary Neville - much as I hate United. He's a great pro and a brilliant example to any youngster coming through. He's never in the papers after a late night or a boozy session, he's just a top player.

Highlights Making my Oldham debut and coming up against Peter Beagrie when he was at Scunthorpe was great. Making my senior debut for Wales was a real honour too. I came on the second half against Bulgaria and think I did myself justice. I'm still in John Toshack's squad so he must have agreed!

Lowlights Losing in the play-off semi-final against Blackpool was devastating.

Toughest Opponent Martin Petrov. He was so quick and strong it was frightening.

Best player played with To train with Craig Bellamy and Ryan Giggs with Wales was just unbeleivable. To start with I was a bit overawed. I don't think I spoke for half an hour.

Biggest Influence My mum and dad were always there to ferry me from North Wales to Oldham when I was a kid so they've always been fantastic. At Oldham, Tony Philliskirk was the head of the youth team and was a brilliant coach.

Biggest practical joker Andy Liddell, by a country mile. He's always in the mix with the banter and you can't ever shut him up!

Latest car I've got a Peugeot 207 Sport at the moment. I was driving a Seat Ibiza but I got it written off. I had it parked outside my girlfriends hourse and some idiot smashed into it at 3.30 in the morning.

Flicks I went recently actually to go and see Mr Woodcock because it had that bloke from American Pie (Sean William Scott) in it. It wasn't the best to be honest, not side splitting.

Chicks Apart from my girlfriend, I've always had a thing for Kimberley Walsh from Girls Aloud.

Preferred holiday destination This summer I went to Zante with the lads and it was superb, I'll be back there.

If I hadn't been a footballer I was never the brightest at school - the GCSE's didn't go too well - but I would have gone back to college and got a sports diploma. Then who knows?

Tell us something we don't know I once had a trial at Oldham with Micah Richards. I can't remember how he did and he shot off to Manchester City soon after. Lucky, because I might struggle to hold down the right-back slot if he'd stayed!

If I could play alongside any player I would love to play in the same team as Steven Gerrard. He's just a superb player - one of the best in the world.

Most embarrassing moment I was playing for Wales Under-21s against France in Grenoble. It was 0-0 and everything was going nicely until I popped up and scored an own goal. We lost 1-0. I was gutted.

In five years time I want to be playing at the highest level and testing myself against the best players in the world.

I heard it was the lure of the chicken Balti pies at Walsall. All this is so confusing...was it tikka or Balti, we should be told!

I don't know, either way, they're luminous and I refuse to eat them

and questions about his sexuality

is that an actual rumour or did you make that up?

Anyways, my rumour. After indulging in a pie eating competition with Greegs, Michael Ricketts found that he had eaten too many chicken tikka pies and was starting to emmit a slightly luminous orange glow. Ricketts was so embarrassed by his condition that he begged Shez to send him to a club whose kit didn't clash with his new look

Me father heard off some dude he used to work with that it was Chris Taylor that Ricketts smacked

Although I'd rather it wasn't true that Ricketts smacked either Smalley / Taylor, it would kind of explain Ricketts departure cos he's been playing well and I thought it was pretty random that he was suddenly dropped and then shipped off on loan. Either way, dunno whether to beleive it or not

Would if I had a way of getting there but as it is, I'm skint so the train is a no go, and I can't drive so can't do that either :P

Don't get all this about fans not turning up to FA Cup matches or JPT matches. Personally I try and get to every match I can to support my team, whether it's a League match, a pre season friendly or a crappy Cup match like the Rose Bowl :P