Probably inm some way or another yes, but he played anyway...

Arsenals dropped point looks better as sha held United 1-1 at Sty Andrews. Fletcher was sent off with 5 minutes to go.

Rafael-Brown-Evans-Evra was Uniteds back 4.

Just saw it, and noticed the ref decided it was appropriate to add SIX minutes of added time... was there any real reason behind tht, apart from the fact that one of the teams playing was Manchester United?

I didn't see the game to be honest, only the last 20 or so. There was a few fouls and then the red card and goal, but not sure where he got 6 from.

That's easy enough.

It's all not going well at Man City, it seems. A few players want out (rumours that GazBaz wants to return to Villa). Given and Bellamy being others. I think some are just annoyed that their already huge squad has been added to with Vieira joining.

Typical paper talk rubbish for the next one. Apparently we're going to give Milner a raise so he won't want to go to Liverpool. As soon as the papers realise why he left Newcastle, they'll understand why what they're saying is ********.

there was alsmot 2 minutes wasted while the decision was made for the OG, cuz the linesmen disallowed it for some reason.

Very pleased about this. Portsmouth are in real trouble at the moment and need all the help they can get. If it helps them beat Coventry, even better.

+1 to Villa for doing the right thing and letting Portsmouth use the training facilities.

Well done.

Damn that club is so classy!

A few FA Cup 3rd round replays earlier tonght.

C*ventry lost 2-1 at home to Portsmouth. They took the lead, Pompey equalised to take it into ET, then Aaron Mokeona scored a goal in added time in injury time to send Portmsouth through.

Battle of the unbeatens as West Midlands took on East Midlands. small heath, unbeaten in 13, beat Nott'm FOrest, unbeaten in 19, 1-0. Barry McFerguson with the winner.

Liverpool-Reading FA Cup 3rd Round Replay currently on. Liverpool lead before Reading equalised with a 94th minute penalty. Reading then took the lead 5 mins into ET. 15 minutes to go and Reading still 2-1 up.

FT Liverpool 1-2 Reading. Their first ever win at Anfield.

Gosh.

Was it a fullstrength side?

The hubcaps in Liverpool will be unsafe tonight!

Liverpool: Cavalieri, Degen, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Lucas, Aquilani, Kuyt, Gerrard, Benayoun, Torres.

I'd say that's pretty much full strength. Johnson is injured and I think Mascherano is suspended, so neither of those would have played anyway. I'd say only Reina is missing.

Though Torres and Gerrard were taken off at 1-0, because that useless waste of time is too arrogant for his own good.

okay, just checking before I did this:

Scouser Fail is rapidly becoming a favourite expression of mine.

Adebayor in Arsenal shirt

I know it was a terrible event and such, but are you really that stupid? Why is he wearing an Arsenal top?

That's in pretty poor taste. He nearly lost his life, his friend died in his hands, and he was under gunfire for half an hour.

He is anything but thinking straight right now.

Torres and Gerrard were both injured, that's why they were taken off.

As for Benitez, I cannot understand why he's still in a job there. Liverpool are turning back into the Houllier shambles of a decade ago, and Benitez is too stubborn to admit he's getting things wrong and change them.

He signs classy players like Voronin and Babel but freezes them out immediately, using them occasionally as subs. With management like that it's obvious he's not going to get the best out his team.

Poor taste or not, I find it ridiculous.

What is the World coming to, we can't even joke about things these days (Mine wasn't even a joke!)


I agree that he makes strange decisions. But the only bad decision was signing Babel in the first place. The guy is terrible. Watching him at Liverpool I've almost felt sorry for him, he's clearly not cut out for it and I'm embarassed for him, some of the open goals and 1-on-1s he misses are just bad.

Didn't say it was, I implied slagging his intelligence off for wearing his former club's shirt after the hell he's just been through seems in bad taste.



Babel is a great player totally wasted at Liverpool. His record for his county is excellent, and he was great for Ajax.

Villa 1-0 up against Blackburn in the carling cup semi final first leg at Ewood Park.

James Milner was the scorer.

We hate Villa in this forum.

Yep. We all support Birmingham.

Amen.

Dislike with passion would be more accurate.

Quite right, Big Eck all the way

People only hate for a reason. Birmingham aren't hated by many because, let's face it, who gives a crap about the 3rd biggest team in a City?

£33 for ticket and travel. £20 on drink. 10 hour round trip. A Cup Semi Final win away from home. All in all, a very good day and night.

MON.

How many beers did you have?

I don't drink beer personally, just vodka based stuff. Enough for me to fully enjoy myself, but not too many so that I do something stupid.

Bah, that's dull! (Course, you also don't wear fancy dress to the last game of the season like other Villa fans. I dare you to do it this year!)

I couldn't drink too much as they refuse to let you back on the coach. I didn't really fancy spending the night in Blacburn! Went out when we got back though.

I might do if I can get a ticket. Think our last away game in Man City, so it'll probably be difficult to get one.

EDIT: In other news, Torres out for 6 weeks, Benayoun out for 4 weeks, Gerrard out for 2 weeks. According to the BBC.

Finally, you've understood! If you talked about them less yourself I would consider them even less important. You bring 'em up all the time it seem like you do give a crap.

I do give a crap about them failing. The papers here always big them up as if they're some great team, even when they were in the Championship. So despite being Birminghams 3rd club, people see them as a rival to us. So yes, when I have how amazing they are shoved in my face in all the local papers, I care about them failing very much.

I was just saying that outsiders won't hate them because there's nothing to hate. They don't have to deal with their fans, they don't have to deal with our papers. We do.

The first part of their name is Small... that's all I know...

Liverpool drew 1-1 with Stoke. They lead from a goal from Krygiakos, Huth equalised in the 90th minute.

And then Kuyt hit the post 3 minutes into added time...

Stoke 1-1 Liverpool
Chelsea 7-2 Sunderland
United 3-0 Burnley
Porsmouth P-P small heath
Spurs 0-0 Hull
Wolves 0-2 Wigan

17:30 KO: Everton-Man City

I see that Chelsea is really struggling with Drogba, Essien, Kalou etc all out at the African Cup of Nations.

Strangely enough they were doing terrible with them of late.

HT Everton 2-0 Citeh. 2nd goal right before HT was about the sofest penalty ever given. Oh well.

How cool are Stoke!?

They can **** off.

Awesome

But English CBs can't use their feet and Ashley Cole is over rated..

Well they are. But then you give Doink the clown to Carlo Ancelotti and he'll make him a ballet dancer. Sorry couldn't resist putting in a blind fanboy statement.

Anyway, this is a 100% record month for Chelsea...just like it is for us. Their fixture list is easy during the ACN for the Blues.

I've seen Kaladze make good tackles that does not mean he can defend. There will always be some exceptions to the rules. I do think Cole is overrated. He is good just not as good as he's made to be. That was a perfect touch to bring the ball down by the way!


Whenever they don't play 'fool they can!

I caught this Everton match yesterday, if anyone else saw much of it, can you give an unbiased assessment of Donovan's play? He seemed good in the first half, with an eye to attack a lot, but in the second half it seemed like he shied away from pressure and wasn't keeping or winning possession under pressure much, which [possession] is basically like the Achilles' heel of the US team. I'm just as much an Italy fan as I am of the US team, if not more, but I want to see the US do well as it will help the game's popularity here, so I'm trying to follow what Donovan does in his brief EPL stint a bit.

kurt - I agree, I was really surprised to see that penalty called. It was a clear shirt hold, but still I was surprised. Everton was impressive in this match, though.

He's the best left back, maybe even full back in the World for me!

Donovan is playing well for Everton so far, good for him.

I rate Ashley Cole as the best LB too. But imo, that's because the rest of them are crap. He's one of the few who's got enough brains and legs to attack while not forgetting to defend.

I guess Evra comes second?

kurt...how much of a difference do you in Ashley Cole's game from Arsenal and now at Chelsea. Or is it still the same?

I'm not a big fan of Evra personally, don't think he's that great defensively.

He's better defensively now than when he was at Arsenal I'd say, but his overall game hasn't changed much. He's always been good going forward. I think he actually started out as a striker.

Anyways, finished 0-0 against West Ham today. They came for a point and got it, we had 16 corners for Christ sake! Carew had a goal disallowed for offside and it looked like the wrong decision. We broke 4 on 3 late on and as soon as it looked like we might sore he blew up for a West Ham player that was down. Another poor officiating display.

Unless they can clone Clattenburg and get him to ref every game, it'll continue in this way.

EDIT: Just read that when Petrov smashed the ball into the stands, it went into the 5 Live commentary box, hit Robbie Savage in the face and gave him a nose bleed. What a legend, I'd retire the #19 shirt just for that.