Three cheers for autosave; I spent 30 minutes typing this out and then it crashed when I tried to publish.
Football. I've spent the morning as I usually do, watching football games on TV while listening to the Bradford game over the internet. I overslept slightly and missed the first five minutes. Perhaps I should have stayed in bed; a 1-1 draw with Dagenham & Redbridge is not something to set the pulse racing. I had fully expected to lose the game....since relegation to the footballing dungeon we've had a terrible home record against teams recently out of non-League. Last season we lost to Dagenham at home, and had a somewhat streaky 4-1 win in east London in which yours truly got to stand outside in the cold and rain.
Both games were the same; aerial bombardment from long throws, corners, free-kicks, long balls in open play towards a team of towering physical players. We have struggled for many years against such teams and it sounds like today was no exception....for a home team to have 30% possession is quite something when you are second in the league. We are still struggling at home, but have somehow managed to lose only once. Hopefully when the glut of injured midfielders are back, some improvement in the play back to the level of the opening month of the season can happen.
As for the games I watched this morning, Liverpool's 3-1 win at Blackburn only served to underline how far Blackburn have fallen this season. Ince looks to be getting much less out of his players than Mark Hughes did, and I still don't understand replacing Brad Friedel with Paul Robinson. Friedel was worth at least 10 points a season to them. I think Ince should have spent longer in the lower leagues. I read somewhere this morning that on average, a Serie A manager in Italy has spent at least seven years in the lower divisions before moving up. For Ince to be managing in the Premier League after 18 months is a case of too much too soon.
As for the other game, Sunderland fans watching Setanta Sports could feel pretty aggrieved at commentator Jon Champion for remarking, as the clock hit 90 minutes "so we move into stoppage time, traditionally a time when Manchester United win so many games"; not ten seconds later a deflected long range shot onto the post rolled along the line for Vidic, playing as an auxiliary centre forward to bundle in. The commentator's curse strikes again. It's also refreshing to watch Premier League coverage not provided by Sky Sports, inasmuchas it's not an obedient, obsequious mouthpiece straight from the Premier League public relations office. Sunderland's non-attempts at winning the game would doubtless be described by Sky as "heroic" or somesuch. On Setanta it was criticised, and the winning goal "good for football". That might be a little harsh; I've visited Old Trafford and seen what happened when Bradford tried to play open, attacking football. We lost 6-0. To a side that was largely United's fringe players!
Hockey. The Flames really dragged themselves off the canvas last night. A pretty poor first 30 minutes in the first of a four game road-trip saw them 3-1 down to the St Louis Blues, a club not expected to make the postseason. Dr Coles was right....pretty ordinary 5-on-5 but deadly on the powerplay. A couple of stupid penalties led to two powerplay goals, before the much less deadly Flames powerplay clicked for once and made it 3-3. A breakaway goal in overtime won the game, Cammalleri finding the top corner following a sweeping move the length of the ice from Phaneuf and Iginla. Phaneuf had four assists last night which didn't move me up the pool as far as I would like as everyone has Phaneuf. I'm currently fifth, 18 points behnind the leaders. The Flames are in New York tomorrow, then Montreal and Detroit. A tough week ahead.
Football. I've spent the morning as I usually do, watching football games on TV while listening to the Bradford game over the internet. I overslept slightly and missed the first five minutes. Perhaps I should have stayed in bed; a 1-1 draw with Dagenham & Redbridge is not something to set the pulse racing. I had fully expected to lose the game....since relegation to the footballing dungeon we've had a terrible home record against teams recently out of non-League. Last season we lost to Dagenham at home, and had a somewhat streaky 4-1 win in east London in which yours truly got to stand outside in the cold and rain.
Both games were the same; aerial bombardment from long throws, corners, free-kicks, long balls in open play towards a team of towering physical players. We have struggled for many years against such teams and it sounds like today was no exception....for a home team to have 30% possession is quite something when you are second in the league. We are still struggling at home, but have somehow managed to lose only once. Hopefully when the glut of injured midfielders are back, some improvement in the play back to the level of the opening month of the season can happen.
As for the games I watched this morning, Liverpool's 3-1 win at Blackburn only served to underline how far Blackburn have fallen this season. Ince looks to be getting much less out of his players than Mark Hughes did, and I still don't understand replacing Brad Friedel with Paul Robinson. Friedel was worth at least 10 points a season to them. I think Ince should have spent longer in the lower leagues. I read somewhere this morning that on average, a Serie A manager in Italy has spent at least seven years in the lower divisions before moving up. For Ince to be managing in the Premier League after 18 months is a case of too much too soon.
As for the other game, Sunderland fans watching Setanta Sports could feel pretty aggrieved at commentator Jon Champion for remarking, as the clock hit 90 minutes "so we move into stoppage time, traditionally a time when Manchester United win so many games"; not ten seconds later a deflected long range shot onto the post rolled along the line for Vidic, playing as an auxiliary centre forward to bundle in. The commentator's curse strikes again. It's also refreshing to watch Premier League coverage not provided by Sky Sports, inasmuchas it's not an obedient, obsequious mouthpiece straight from the Premier League public relations office. Sunderland's non-attempts at winning the game would doubtless be described by Sky as "heroic" or somesuch. On Setanta it was criticised, and the winning goal "good for football". That might be a little harsh; I've visited Old Trafford and seen what happened when Bradford tried to play open, attacking football. We lost 6-0. To a side that was largely United's fringe players!
Hockey. The Flames really dragged themselves off the canvas last night. A pretty poor first 30 minutes in the first of a four game road-trip saw them 3-1 down to the St Louis Blues, a club not expected to make the postseason. Dr Coles was right....pretty ordinary 5-on-5 but deadly on the powerplay. A couple of stupid penalties led to two powerplay goals, before the much less deadly Flames powerplay clicked for once and made it 3-3. A breakaway goal in overtime won the game, Cammalleri finding the top corner following a sweeping move the length of the ice from Phaneuf and Iginla. Phaneuf had four assists last night which didn't move me up the pool as far as I would like as everyone has Phaneuf. I'm currently fifth, 18 points behnind the leaders. The Flames are in New York tomorrow, then Montreal and Detroit. A tough week ahead.
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