The View From Churchmans

With the chance to put City down, nothing realistically to play for ourselves, and the North Stand's End of an Era (TM), last night could have been one of the biggest end-of-term parties ever. But I thought it was all a little bit nervy and not even as much fun as the Coventry match. Maybe it was because the football was poor, maybe because City brought such a ... More...

Easy win against a side who didn't live up to their recent form. Hartson put himself about a bit but there was nothing else to worry us really; Hartson's strike partner Bothroyd (who a relative in the Coventry entertainment scene tells me is the most arrogant person he's ever had the (mis)fortune to meet) was exceptionally useless. In fact, although the game was far from the slaughter we ... More...

Somewhat retrospectively, but for what it's worth, a few comments! Wonderful reception for Sir Bobby, fantastic atmosphere before the game in general. We were easily the better team (I think Newcastle had three goal attempts in 95 minutes) but it was one of those afternoons where we were determined to make it difficult for ourselves: Armstrong's missed sitter springs to mind. But some encouraging points too. And a ... More...

We should take it as a compliment that of the many different sides available to the increasingly mad swivel-eyed Frenchman, he chooses to put out his match-killing line up for little old Ipswich. Not even the defensive-lineup-plus-Michael-Owen which he fielded in Barcelona to try to nick the away goal, but the full monty Central European All-Star Match-Killing Select XI: almost an entire team of Transylvanian giants who you ... More...

Great result, dismal afternoon. I thought we'd turned the corner with a respectable performance (if unlucky scoreline) against Leeds and a reasonable effort against Arsenal. But this was not encouraging. It started brightly enough, with some decent forays down the right wing, and a couple of reasonable chances. The tactics were obviously to exploit new boy Mark Burchill's speed, but in practice that meant lots of hopeful punts forward ... More...

Well, the stats show that we can't complain about an Arsenal win, but we so nearly got something out of the game, and certainly impressed all the Arsenal fans I was near. A battling performance, and we shouldn't get at all downhearted about the result, because if we keep that standard up to the end of the season there are 10 or 20 more points to come, for ... More...

Nothing like a bit of controversy not favouring us to get this list going is there? And quite right too. I've calmed down now, but it's not often you get that angry after a game. The referee was consistently bad, but the linesman in front of the Cobbold was worse than bad: he simply had it in for us. Why? Who knows. The bizarre way he kept his ... More...

It's a long time since I've taken such satisfaction from a goal, but the first one this afternoon was glorious. Not because it was good (it was a bit lucky). Not even because it resulted from one of those irritating defender-shielding-the-ball-into-touch things going horribly wrong. Not even because it's always wonderful to see a pained expression of any sort on that git Robbie Savage's face. But mainly because ... More...

I just got up having had the strangest dream, that we were back in the First Division, playing teams whose tackling makes all that studying to be a surgeon worthwhile, but whose primary aim in a match is to see how many times they can catch the opposition offside. Oh no! It wasn't a dream! I don't suppose it was a deliberate tactic by Francis to drag the match down to their level - ... More...

What's the mark of how far we've come this year? Beating Tottenham? Beating Tottenham easily? Or beating Tottenham easily and nobody being that surprised? OK, so Tottenham were rubbish - probably the worst team we've played all year, although Middlesbrough might run them close. But let's keep reminding ourselves, they might be just about the worst team in the Premiership at the moment, but we were expected to have that honour all season. Let's ... More...

Cracking game - from a neutral point of view, perhaps the best game yet this season. If you're fascinated by watching a succession of teams pitch different styles and strategies against us each week, this was another one to add to the collection; Chelsea are a team with a lot of skill, limited game plan and no team spirit or motivation. Almost diametrically opposite us, in fact. Giving away two goals at a point ... More...

Ah well. Can't have everything. Having taken grateful receipt of three Old Trafford season tickets, we found ourselves in the directly-opposite corner to the Town support, right at the top of the tallest stand in Britain. To say the players were tiny was an understatement. But to say the Town support was superb was equally an understatement. Take it from those of us seated two million miles away lads, it was fantastic. The thing ... More...

It's like watching a game of chess really, first teams can't handle us, then they work out how to do it, then we work out how to beat those tactics in return. And that's exactly how it should be. Certainly another Derby looked on the cards in the first half, the difference being that with a slightly different lineup there was no Johnno to carry the can for an overall lack of imagination ... More...

Oh no, no, no, this was a bit rough. But with the pro-Ipswich media hype reaching silly proportions (how do the players find time to train in between interviews and newspaper columns?) and of course the Manager of the Month Kiss Of Death, well, what else were we expecting? I don't think we should worry about having lost, but we should worry about not having scored against a tediously efficient Derby side. Sometimes ... More...

A better performance in my opinion that some people seemed to think in the post-match chat. Without Jim as our holding player in midfield, Burley stuck to the conventional 4-4-2 (Clapham on the left in midfield) but obviously told the boys to play it through to the front line much more quickly than usual. The result was some slick play which was a blur when it worked but fizzled out disappointingly when it ... More...