ONeills Free Kick 82

I''m watching Sky One. Somehow I doubt the long range efforts by Phelan and Townsend at Old Trafford in October 1988 will feature. But turning that game round in the last few minutes that night was better than sex. Does anyone else remember the game?

There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that Huckerby was the only player worth watching this season (apart from Hughes - to remark upon how on earth he can possibly be a professional footballer). How did a clogger like Doherty get player of the season for God''s sake? What does that say about this team?

Writing as an avid live supporter for 34 years, I can''t quite understand how anyone who just listens to the games on the radio can have any right whatsoever to express an opinion on anything to do with the team''s performance. Surely they can only agree with whatever Chris Goreham / Roy Waller / Neil Adams say? Anyway, having actually experienced all the home games this season I really do think that this has been by far the worst season I have ever seen. The standard of football played by most of the opposing sides has been absolutely rubbish (including Reading) and to have finished 13 points away from the play-offs was a disgrace. Look at Worthington''s signings this season and last season (apart from Ashton and Earnshaw) - Charlton, Jonson, Helveg, Jarrett, Robinson, Hughes, Etuhu, Colin, Louis-Jean, Doherty, Thorne. Not to mention paying premiership wages to Johanson to sit on the bench and to Rehman to sit at home. How did we manage to win 6 consecutive home games before today? What on earth does that say about the standard of the division we have been playing in? Oh and don''t forget that we were outplayed at home by the worst Ipswich team in living memory. We desperately need to have a clear-out before the start of next season. Unfortunately I can''t see the manager doing this as it would be an admission of guilt. Therefore the board desperately needs to get rid of Worthington before things get even worse. My prediction however is that we will let Worthington carry on until about October by which time it will be too late and by the end of next season we will be lucky to still be in the Champuioship let alone the Premiership.         

Sounds good to me as well but I think it''s the Chris Sutton of 1994 I''m thinking of.

The worst ground I have ever watched the first team play at is without any doubt the grass bank from which I witnessed us being embarrassingly dumped out of the FA Cup by Wigan in the late ''80s. Mind you, the most embarrassed I have ever felt was at Carrow Road - at half-time the other Monday when Delia made us the laughing stock of the footballing world.  

Best player is probably a bit difficult. How can you compare a goalkeeper''s job to that of a right winger for example. The best team though (assuming 4-4-2) is surely as follows: Kevin Keelan - Ian Culverhouse, Steve Bruce, Dave Watson, Mark Bowen - Martin O''Neill, Martin Peters, Ian Crook, Darren Huckerby - Chris Sutton, Ted MacDougall. Surely we''d win the Premiership! 

Probably the craziest moment was Darren Beckford scoring a hat-trick against Everton in the early ''90s! Although other things that spring to mind were the Man Utd ''riot'' of ''77, the ''coining'' of Jimmy Rimmer in ''80, the League Cup Semi-final against Chelsea in ''72 which was abandoned because of fog with us five minutes from Wembley, the ''03 (I think) FA Cup tie against Brighton which never kicked off because of floodlight failure and who could forget that game against Reading in the late ''90s when I got hit squarely in the face by a deflected effort by Trevor Morley!

I''d agree that Akinbiyi would take some beating. But what about Jim Blair, Darren Beckford or that lanky Dutch winger who Bryan Hamilton signed and whose name temporarily escapes me - de Waard or something?

The message I always give to my kids is that it is they who should be taking the mickey out of those who are sad and treacherous enough to desert their own roots by "supporting" a team from Manchester, Liverpool, London etc.

I wonder if we offered say £10,000 a week with a fat bonus if we got promoted but the agent wouldn''t take the risk and advised his client to stay at Man City on a guaranteed £20,000 a week?