24hoursfromtulsehill

Okay, the lad's had a few on the Sunday night before a Tuesday night game. I'm no athlete, but I reckon that ain't the best preparation. The thing is, that's for him to find out and sort out or, if Shez catches him shirking or stinking in training, for him to deal with. Also, we should not presume that just because we would give our right legs to pull on the blue shirt, that KK has made no sacrifices to do so. We should also not presume that we would do any different or better off the pitch if someone were foolish enough to allow us on to it, if you take my meaning.

So he's a professional sportsman. Big deal. Does that suddenly make it all right to turn supergrass?

I think it is exactly relevant who you are and what your league position is. I don't see anyone complaining about your average punter having a few too many of a Sunday, even though he or she might have work Monday morning. I also think that the players deserve to be able to make their drinking mistakes (if they are mistakes) without t'internet coming alive with...the sound of online grassing, for want of a better phrase. I've seen lots of people explain our poor run in lots of different ways, but I reckon this is the first time our crappy results have been put down to one player being on the sauce. Actually, on that very subject, if we win tonight and KK gets a hatrick, will you write something about how you reckon Sunday's lushness brought Tuesday's glory? We haven't even played yet, but as far as you're concerned, KK's drinking is responsible for the result. Preposterous.

What if the punters get a bit whiney and demand the dismissal of the fairground attendant?

I totally agree. After the Swansea game, in which, IIRC, KK was injured, someone posted that they had seen him out in Royton. Then he was a top man and one of the lads (even though he wasn't on the pop, by all accounts). I'm sure that when we start climbing the table, people who see the players out won't be carping too much about their behaviour.

Is it possible to not be so puritanical about players enjoying one too many drinks? Some fatherly, Catholic advice to all: never begrudge a man his vices.

Your anti-baseball rant is hardly in keeping with your status as a "Global Moderater". If I were in the Colonies, I might be quite upset and immoderate about your incendiary remarks.

Wrack is seaweed; for everything else use rack: rack and ruin, rack my brains, on the rack, nerve-racking etc. Hope that helps. What brain, incidentally?

Maybe an actual Gorilla would be better. Adopt a Gorilla

No one has yet mentioned Notting Hill, or Love, Actually or, indeed, About a boy. How the academy can look at themselves in the mirror after denying Hugh Grant the Best Actor for any one of his roles in those films is totally beyond me. And none of those films troubled the Best Picture Oscar judges. Scandalous.

Are you saying that Mickey, sooner or later, is going to put in the type of shift that sees him walking off the field a winner? You (and Mickey) will have to do better than Slovakia.

Christ! I've just seen the poll results and I detect some sweaty sentimentality in there. They don't deserve to qualify. Unless, of course, they beat the World champions at home, in which case they would deserve to qualify. We've got to rely on Israel and Andorra. I'd take Scotland's chances over ours, but I won't route for them until they've come down south and actually won a battle.

A man after myown heart. I said in the summer that I wouldn't watch England so long as "McLaren" was in charge, and so long as "Gerrard" and "Lampard" and "Robinson" and "Owen" were in the squad. And exactly where was "Mickey" with his so-called goal-scoaring-from-nowt ability when the chips were down the other night? Precisely nowhere, that's where. I feel confident that he'll break the England goal scoring record in friendlies and who-cares-what-happens matches, but he's not ever put a shift in for England--not once--and he's never got them us out of the . In my eyes, he's a bluffer.

Looks like my long wait to watch England again might be about to end. (I swore that I wouldn't watch until "McLaren" was no longer involved, or Mickey "Owen", or "Lampard".) Shame they didn't get rid sooner.

Usually, I charge when I engineer love.

I was in the umming and ah-ing camp until I saw that piece. In short: Lee Hughes has no place in football because I, Lawrence Bloody Donegan, say so. And I'm not in football either. Lawrence Donegan made me into a Lee Hughes fanatic.

The sports writers are obviously right behind the club but the "news" section and its editor couldn't give two hoots. There's something ungrateful and unpleasant about that. Could it be that the staffers in "news" (quick, there's a cat stuck up a tree!) resent the fact that if there were no OAFC, there'd be no Chron?

1. Everyone thinks he looks daft - The Wedding Present 2. Riff Raff - AC/DC 3. Second Hand News - Fleetwood Mac 4. Baby I got your money - Ol' Dirty 5. Lap Dance - N*E*R*D*

Murgh.

Foof.

Not even that. It was a foreigner.

How many folk singers does it take to change a lightbulb? Ten. One to change the bulb, nine to wax nostalgic about how good the old one was.

I somehow got to thinking that Big Bad Bazza (who he?) had some sort of say about who wins and when - a situation open to the most obvious abuses. (I love ya, Bazza, pick me.) If we're going to have competetive posting, we should be clear about the rules. Otherwise, there's no point. No point at all to posting in a topic titled "Last one to post wins". No point whatsoever - this is just a bleak nihilist exercise in pointlessness. The vast wastes of the universe shrink in significance compared to the grim nothingness implied by this topic. Endless void... *Goes for lie-down*

Normally, in this type of exchange, I'd expect those in on the in-joke to know what they're on about. I'll make an exception in this case. I win.

What's Big Bad Bazza got to do with anything? *Takes coat off hanger*