WestMidlandCanary

I think mine would have to have been the 2003/2004 promotion season at Portman Road. It was my 40th Birthday that very day and having been offered a choice of anywhere in the world (within reason) for my birthday destination, I chose Ipswich away with a dinner at Delias the night before. I''d never been before and really had no idea what to expect. I have to say the memories from that day will live with me forever.

Fair point Mr Brownstone, but I think Branston Pickle summed it up perfectly in his post at 12.01. We could have all saved some time and effort if the initial posts from Rucker had been a little less aggressive. Either way, lets see what happens next week.

Wiz, Much as I''ve tried to give Cureton the benefit of the doubt, comments about him in the press saying he was blameless for not scoring against Coventry just give him more rope in my opinion. Of course he wasn''t blameless but if he begins to believe that kind of writing he is seriously deluded: in truth the article should really have read he was clueless. It is the job of the main goal scorer to take the blame in some cases for our shortcomings, not to apportion blame elsewhere when it is his job on the field to go looking for chances. At MK, I can''t recall him having any input and the best thing to do at present is to relieve him of the pressure to get his head straight. To say he always plays off a big man is missing the point. There are penalty misses and also penalty saves out there. I have no trouble with penalties that are on target and then saved; you can''t ask anyone more than to at least get it on target. If the keeper guesses correctly and saves it, then so be it but to be that far away from the target yesterday was unacceptable. You can''t deny that over the last season and this, he has missed some absolute sitters: some of those alongside a big man in Dublin. The best way to go easy on Curo at the moment is to drop him because the boy is suffering out there and with the quality of defence that Birmingham have, the pressure will be immense come Saturday.

He lives in Stratford upon Avon, not Leicester. That''s an extra 40 miles or so each way.

[quote user="San Miguel"] When I first read this I thought ''ha ha ha, Sunderland are having a bubble aren''t they!?'' but seriously, it does show that Keane & Co have high ambitions if they think they can attract players like Forlan to a fan-less grotty club in the North! I know they have the advantage of an ex-Man U manager with lots of big contacts and a rich board behind them. however, should we be aiming higher in our transfers? so far Grant (who I know has little to go on) has been looking at the smaller clubs in the SPL (except Celtic with Marshall) and unwanted Championship and lower league players - Brown, Ostemobor, etc... perhaps Grant can use his contacts to get us someone half decent from a team above us not below? Carlos Tevez maybe? (!) [/quote]   "A Fan-less Grotty club in the North"? That''s a bit disresepectful don''t you think? Have you ever been to the Stadium of Light? Of all the clubs we''ve visited as away season ticket holders, the fans of Sunderland and Newcastle lead the way for hospitality and friendly banter. Nowhere in either City were we made to feel anything but welcome. Given that there was always a link between us and Sunderland from the past, your comment is out of order, even if it was meant as a joke.

I kind of hoped that this thread would reflect what this club stands for in the general scheme of all things football. What I''ve just read over the last three pages is fairly typical of nearly every single thread on here. For crying out loud you lot, just bloody grow up and take your arguments elsewhere. Note to moderators: How on earth you pass personal sniping posts is beyond me. Most forums would block the amount of personal insults on here. By all means allow a vigorous conversation regarding matters of the club, but you just seem happy to let this sort of stuff fly. By removing or editing the posts, you remove the need for reply thus defusing the situation. OTBC

Champions please, much as I loved the day in Cardiff (result excepted). I really can''t see a day in the surrounding area of the new Wembley being half as agreeable as sitting in the sun outside Cardiff castle either!

Personally, I love going to Gresty Road. I think the Crewe fans are just excellent and the away stand just adds to a fantastic atmosphere. As earlier said, those of us fortunate enough to be there on our last away day of the promotion season will never forget it and those people helped make that day. Of the new stadiums, Pride Park clinches it as the fans at Wolves let it down. As for the person wishing to go to Ninian park...I just hope you''re aware of the absolute fanatical hatred about to be directed at you by about 1000 screaming teenagers away to your right......   OTBC

Gabor Kiraly at Palace is up for grabs. We could do with him at the moment.

The only thing that amazed me about Ashton''s leaving was that Newcastle was (for me) the absolutely obvious place to go and replace a man who plays football exactly like him in front of a crowd who would have worshipped him like a god. How on earth he ended up at West Ham is beyond me, and I''m not meaning any disrespect to WHU, just that the competition for places there compared to St James'' at the time was massive. HeyHo, if we get a slice of the sell on clause, its all good isn''t it?   OTBC

[quote user="Dan Grant"]i''m 50/50 on this one because if we go on a run of form this would b a good thing because when you are winning the games can''t come quick enough. but if we end up losing are next couple of games we could get in a rut and lose most of our remaining games.[/quote]   I agree with Dan''s first comment. Games can''t come quick enough when you''re in a winning streak, and we must surely get one of those soon!?

As the song goes... "There''s only one F in Fleming!"... A top player, great professional and a thoroughly decent bloke. All the best Craig, Thanks for some great memories.

I can''t argue with your post either. Your last paragraph ought to be printed on the dressing room wall. I''ve become so disheartened with performances of those cheap players this season that I''ve cancelled my away season ticket after four years, preferring to go as and when I please, rather than being obliged to do so. Some might call me a glory hunter for only wanting good times, but following some of the dross I''ve seen so far, I simply can''t face a Preston trip on a cold Tuesday night, knowing full well what to expect when I got there. I don''t know exactly how we move forward; there are plenty of ideas obviously, but a Phoenix rising from this mess at present looks unlikely without spending serious cash..cash which isn''t or can''t be forthcoming. Conversely, neither can I see much in the way of a financial knight in shining armour looming on the horizon.  

In truth Cluck, how else can anyone hope to move forward without new investment? especially when taking into account the vast amounts the Prem teams will soon be earning. Let''s face it; even if we (or any other Championship club) were breaking even at the time of promotion, the £30m windfall would buy virtually nothing of note to be truly competetive in the Premiership, making that the absolute minimum spend required. Otherwise, all that remains is fighting for survival year in, year out taking the £30m each season while the movers and shakers rob us of obvious talent and the gap between the upper and lower echelons grows wider still; in the meantime, those left below in the Championship just sit back and wonder as the void grows deeper before them. While I don''t agree that the board is doing all it can to ensure upward motion, I do agree with Delia''s comments that there would be little point in her and MWJ just taking their share of the cash and leaving the club in exactly the same position financially. Whoever might be thinking of coming in must be made aware that they need to make significant extra funds available.

That was quality Blah.

For the past few weeks, all the posts on here have been stating that at least three quarters of this side aren''t good enough for Championship football. That amount of players effectively make up "the dressing room". Posters on this board have also said that they can''t wait to get rid of the dead wood, the majority of which, again, make up said dressing room. So what is the point of this post exactly? The players aren''t good enough as we stand here talking about it; Grant has lost nothing simply because the majority of the dressing room at present don''t deserve to be there. If we were talking about losing the dressing room when we were in the Championship season, I''d worry about it, but for the time being, boot the crap out to the reserves and get the kids in, because playing with no fear and 100% effort HAS to be better than players who don''t seem top care their contracts are up for renewal.

[quote user="Greg Sayer"] the day i lost respect for Mcveigh, was the friday night before the man utd game a couple of years ago, its was about 10-11pm at the tuckwood roundabout garage, he was loading up on alchopops. i remember thinking, if i was him even though i wasnt playing that to turn down the chance to go to old trafford for our arguably biggest match of the season showed a lack of team spirit and interest in his own team. that there must be something wrong there. [/quote]   Didn''t PMV score at Old Trafford?

And how many people back in September were slagging this bloke before he''d even pulled a shirt on?

Did you actually go to Wolves? Hughes and Robinson both had good games, Hughes in particular. We need players in the squad that can do the business, and Ryan Jarvis and Henderson don''t; plain and simple. Personally, I''d bring out Chris Martin to give a few games to but apart from Rob Eagle and Andrew Cave-Brown (excellent at Torquay before injury) I have yet to be impressed with our youngsters. Selling Danny Crow was one of the biggest mistakes Worthy made in my opinion.

Could also be due to the fact that despite walking out of the Moulinex on Saturday with no voice, we still managed to be disappointed. However, at Carrow Road, it does seem deathly quiet at times.

Birmingham and Steve Bruce are another team who did it.

I''d rather pay £20 to stand at the Lamb and boost their coffers than pay £35 to sit in the hole that is Selhurst Park

I''d just like to say though that as an away season ticket holder who rarely makes home games, the first game I got to see this season was Sunderland and I was shocked at the lack of noise from around the ground, so in a way, I can see his point.We all go on about what wonderful support we are, but really, it was like going to Highbury it was so quiet. Most of the Jarrold could also do with learning the words for such basics as "Come on you Yellows" as they don''t seem to want to sing even that, let alone me, the mrs and one other being the only ones singing On The Ball in our immediate vicinity. The way to react on Tuesday is not to chastise Grant, but to show him and some of the players who are undecided on staying exactly what you''re all capable of for the whole 90 minutes, and keep on doing it for all the home games. This is something that has to happen if we are going to create a strong atmosphere at home. We can hardly refer to the place as Fortress Carrow Road if it''s as intimidating as a library can we?   OTBC

"There''s always someone ready to jump in and take over"???? Have a word with yourself Wiz. Are you really suggesting that if they say "stuff this, we''re off" and put the For Sale boards up outside that we would have a cluster of multi millionaires queueing down Carrow Road? And even if there were, look at some of the owners that some managers have to deal with (Peace at WBA, Jordan at Palace, Deadly at Villa until recently, the bloke up at Hearts). What makes them any less self centred? A sentence involving the words "Out of the frying pan" springs to mind. OTBC

Unfortunately, we don''t have the strength of players in depth to play pretty attractive football. Yes, I agree we should be looking to do that, but the results surely must come first? We find it hard enough as it is to attract new players and we''re hardly likely to do that in 19th place by playing good football and getting battered. It often doesn''t work in this league. Look at WBA for instance; how many games did they win 1-0 on the way to the title? All the people that criticised the style of hard and boring football were eating their words when that first Premiership cheque dropped on the mat. And worse still, what happens when we really DO play attractive football? We get nailed away at Southend because we think we''re Brazil! No: For me, we must get results first and a good solid place in the table. From there, we push on....preferably with style