Hang On, You're Going Too Fast

I'm having trouble keeping up with this week, it's rocketing by and leaving me trailing in its wake. Still, there you go, something to do with getting old I suspect.

The weekend followed a fairly predictable path with us getting mugged by Bolton as usual and the Mangled Wurzels providing a superb night's entertainment at the Charlton. Sunday was, predictably, approached with a slightly less than clear head and so it was that I dozed through most of the Clash of the Titans. Can't say I minded missing it too much and the result is the best we could really have hoped for as we've only dropped a point against the pair of them: that's recoverable.

Fulham tonight. Now we *need* a result. Come on you Gunners!

UPDATE: Bollocks. We'll be back and I'm going to stop doing the "we need a win" thing as I'm coming to the conclusion I'm jinxing us.

Weekend Preview: Bolton And The Mangled Wurzels

I'm not too sure which is the least attractive prospect, to be honest. The Bolton game has turned into an annual horror show, though I still reckon we'll get a result tomorrow. We're certainly due one, after all. TR7 is out, as is WG10. Thankfully the latter would seem to be making a speedier recovery than was originally anticipated. RVP11 is suspended. Whilst I'd love to see The Beast get a start I suspect we'll see EA25. Come on you Gunners!

Meanwhile, back in Shepton, the Mangled Wurzels are appearing at the Charlton Inn on Saturday night. I appreciate that most people would view going to see a Worzels cover band as a clear sign of insanity but I have to say they provide a bloody good night out. Perhaps I've been down here too long. Perhaps living next to Europe's largest cider factory has done for me. Who knows, anyway I intend to be there.

UPDATE: TH14 is out of tomorrow's game. As good a time as any to give The Beast a start, I think. Some people are suggesting TW32 but I'd rather not see Bolton have a whole game to kick him around the park.

And Number 7 Is Liam Brady

The campaign to get Perry Groves' autobiography to outsell C***ley C***'s - proving jolly successful, BTW - has now reached the pages of the BBC website, who're running an "Ask Perry Groves" feature. Pop along to the football section and ask what you will of the Ginger Genius. Oh, and buy the book...

Bolton for us at the weekend. Away. Surely it's time we finally got something out of this truly wretched fixture? Still, The Beast is back and he's just the sort of fellow you want in this sort of game. Bring it on, I feel a win is there for the taking - we really need one, too, since one or both of Chelski and ManUSA *have* to drop points on Sunday...

The Boy And The Beast

I'm back from the internet-access-free wilds now, so it's time to play catch up. Saturday's result was hardly encouraging but there you go, at least we didn't lose. I've still got a good feeling about our Premiership chances this time around; time will tell if I'm justified or just deluding myself.

Last night's 3-1 win sees us with a toe in the door of the CL knock-out stages - we just need a point at Porto (who, as it happens, also only need a point). TH14 will be out of that game having yesterday collected his third booking of the first stage.

Looks like I'll not be seeing the OJ programme as it's been pulled: its broadcast was stopped as it was deemed in "poor taste" - surely that it would so be must have been bloody obvious at the planning stage? Oh well, no doubt in due course it'll find its way onto the 'net.

November Is A Surprisingly Long Month

Maybe it's just the weather, but this month is looking interminable. Having an utterly pointless international friendly in the middle of it probably doesn't help, either. Last night's game was truly dire. The match pitched an absolutely hapless England "team" against an almost completely disinterested collection of Ductchmen. It wasn't fun to watch and it's certainly done nothing to alter my opinion that McClaren is the wrong man for the job. Meanwhile, both Russia and Croatia won in real qualifying games, pushing England down to third in their group. If England carry on playing as they are they'll be lucky to stay that highly placed...

The whole OJ Simpson thing is going from weird to weirder to just plain incredible at a rate of knots. I think I may have to see if I can find some way of getting to watch the "hypothetical confession" interview that's due on one of the major US TV networks in the next day or so.

An Even Older Trout

Well. The Boss's 44th was a truly roctastic beerfest with some very fine curried goat and jerk chicken thrown in. Everybody had a great night (and I suspect a hangover of some considerable quality the following day) and I reckon the excellent Queen's Head is now firmly back on the map (if you're trying to find it on said map - and I'd recommend doing this and then visiting in person, particularly for the orgasmic cauliflower cheese at the Sunday carvery - then try Fishponds Road, Bristol, just opposite Eastville Park). Congratulations to publicans Carol and Bill on the very fine job they've done with the place since taking it over a mere few weeks back.



The evening's entertainment started off with Ned's superb acoustic set - a fabulous choice of songs beautifully sung. There were a few women looking for drier underwater after his efforts, I suspect. Bastard :)



Bristol's newest Rock 'n' Roll stars, Mister Savage, gave us a couple of superb sets, aided and abbetted by/handicapped by a couple of guests (your author included). They were *bloody good*, let's just be clear about that.

You should, if you're lucky enough to be around Brizzle, get the chance to see them over the next few months. Give it a shot, you'll have a great night. Top Tip: their versions of "Play That Funky Music" and "No More Heroes" are to die for.



Kate made sure she kept up the family tradition...



Caz had spent the day in the kitchen and produced some absolutely wonderful food - curried goat, jerk chicken, rice and peas et al. I didn't get to eat any as I'd got rather tied up with other things when they started serving and it'd all gone by the time I'd finished. Since she'd catered for over 100 people I guess this suggests the food was popular :)

There's a lot to add to this post (and I will as I get more photos in), so please call back from time to time...

Head Now Clear Enough For The Weekend Roundup

And what a splendid weekend it was too. Saturday was the day of The Boss's birthday party, of course. Many people got spectacularly and happily drunk. Very cool. So cool in fact that many repeated the experience on Sunday. Hence no post yesterday... Full report on the bash in a separate post.



A fine win on Sunday against a still-out-of-sorts Liverpool. We played very well, I thought, (though Liverpool didn't - still, you can only beat the team they put in front of you) and it's nice to see goal scorers popping up from all over the team. WG10 seems to do everything with a huge grin on his face ATM: compare and contrast this with the scowl now permanently etched onto Cashley C***'s phisiog. He he.

What A Difference A Day Makes

Gosh, I have a day off sick and loads of shit happens... Dubya loses control both US houses, Britney Spears files for divorce (at last) and ManUSA lose to Southend. Wow. Looks like I've got some reading to do or I'm going to be way behind.

Last night saw EA25 take us through to the last eight in the Carling Cup with a late goal away at Everton. More Graham Poll controversy, apparently, too. A good result and a game that saw MP21 get his first game for us as a second half substitute for MA24 who'd taken a knock earlier on.

More later, there's gossip to be studied...

Carnival Week: Bah Humbug

West country carnivals may well be a great and popular local tradition but their seeming reliance on another great local tradition - inept local government planning and traffic control - sticks in my craw somewhat. Everywhere quite needlessly grinds to a halt as the council choose to use absolutely the least sane spots to park the various carnival floats and close roads with a seemingly wilful intent to make life as difficult as possible for local residents and workers.

Congratulations to the Scum for helping make our defeat at Upton Park somewhat less disastrous than it might have been. Liverpool next (if you're not counting the League Cup, and most people don't, though I have to say I always enjoy it) - surely we can beat a team that seems hell-bent on losing at every opportunity?

Arsenal vs CSKA Moscow

Well here we are then. We can't guarantee qualification with a win tonight whatever the other results - CSKA can. A win, though, realistically should do the job for us. Expect an Everton-style game from CSKA. With any luck we've learned enough from recent games to deal with this. Come on you Gunners!

Team news: WG10 in the middle at the back with KT5. Cool.

HALF TIME: 0 - 0. Extraordinary. We've utterly dominated this game and have managed to miss a number of absolute sitters. This is worrying. Good to watch, but only if you're a neutral I suspect. Man of the half? Well I would have gone for TR7 until his miss (even worse than FF4's), so I'm going for JL1 who did what he had to do when he had to do it despite being a spectator for most of the half. Come on you Arsenal, we need this!

FULL TIME: 0 - 0. What a weird game. We played them off the park, but couldn't score despite loads of chances. As in the first half, JL1 was there when needed. This sort of thing happens and we played really, really well so I'm not going to lose any more sleep than the wretched bug demands.

West Ham next. That one we *do* need to win.

Wednesday Team News

Ruskies in London? Surely not... It now looks as if JH31 will be fit for tonight's match against CSKA, as will GC22. No one else is back though, so we'll once again be without FL8, EA25, JB9 et al. We need a good performance tonight, and so does football in general after last night's playground romp in Barcelona.

It's been a fine sunny morning down here in Somerset, let's hope the rest of the day goes as well.