Matt Carver

[quote]Ward Fleming McKay Doherty Drury Holt Charlton Brennan Jonson Svensson Henderson[/quote] I seriously hope you''re joking here, else you haven''t been taking your pills...

[quote]All I can say is that the teams who came down last year where confidant that there going straight back up and not even got in the play offs.[/quote] Indeed, in fact the only team I can think of who pulled off the ''immediate bounceback'' in the last few seasons has been the Baggies in 03/04, as the promoted teams the last few years have been ''upcoming'' teams like Fulham, Pompey, Wigan, Brum etc; Sunderland took 2 years, Leeds 1 and counting, Wolves have yo-yoed up and down without coming back up (despite a strong finish to the season) as have Leceister. Casting the mind back a few years more: Forest... Owls... QPR... Swindon.... It''s not going to be easy. We have a better squad than before, but surprised a lot of people by winning the league (how many people honestly thought we''d do better than scrap for 6th place?). For every bounce-back Baggies there are half-a-dozen who haven''t cut the mustard in the lower league. We''ll win games, we''ll do well - but top 2 is a tall order unless a lot goes well, consistently, all season. But I think we *can* do it.

[quote]There are 3 of us in Headington, but we are going to the game[/quote] Cheers for your reply. Hope you enjoy the game! Hopefully I''ll find a pub somewhere in Oxford that shows it...

I have been told by my "mates" in college in no uncertain terms that the common room sky will be tuned to ManU-vs-Southampton, so will anyone else be watching the game in a pub/college common room anywhere in Oxford? If so let me know and I will post an email addy so we can get in touch and meet up. I did meet a solitary female canaries fan in the City Tavern back in the autumn for the home game vs Everton, so I know I''m not the only one in Oxford...

Since that table was published, we''ve had 4 yellow cards, to Spurs'' 8. Obviously the scores in the other columns are impossible to work out, but it looks promising as we''re only 0.01 points behind. HOWEVER I would rather *every* player get booked against Fulham than not, as long as they scrap for every ball and get the result we need. There''s a real danger they could think twice before tackling, with half an eye on a plum UEFA Cup tie next season. I''d rather never qualify for Europe again than go down on Sunday.

Has Souness being poached from Blackburn more or less sealed their fate? He took them into the UEFA Cup but despite his best efforts they''ve been struggling... does his departure ultimately mean that they''ll fragment and go down? I hope it does (while I''ve got nothing against Blackburn), coz at the end of the day the more sides that struggle the better!