England v Poland.....

The Jocks won 2-0  

Nothing like a summer with a world cup to watch

Rooney fantastic tonight, great team effort my faith in england somewhat restored, no we wont win the world cup but we could do ok, fair play to roy he got better has the qualification went on.

Another summer of those stupid little flags they sell in Halfords that you put on your car.

Chemical Ali wrote:

The Jocks won 2-0  

Who cares? Snodgrass? Sounds like a Bash Street Kids character.

Thing is most England fans will be happy if the players perform somewhere near to the form they show for their clubs. Tonight and Friday was somewhere near that.

Well we got up for long enough to see off the dross in qualification, we shall need to step up two or three levels to do owt to set the pulses racing on the Copa.

Could be done, the raw talent is about, we just need someone better than Woy to bring it out, er, no, I have no suggestions on who.

The only England manager to assemble anything worthwhile since 1996 has been Glenn Hoddle.

One of the questions in a pub quiz the other evening was, 'Which two countries fought at the Battle of Flodden?', which of course was England and Scotland. One member of a team asked (after I gave out the answer) who won. I replied, 'The English did. We normally do"........ and all I said after was, ' I'm surprised the Scots even qualified'.
Lorna, a lovely Scottish Lady and one of our friends, hit me for no reason.

Good result for you lot. I was almost correct in my assessment though as England dropped deeper and deeper as the second half wore on and they tried to protect the slender lead. Poland had more than enough chances to chuck a spanner in the works, as England had plenty of chances earlier to be fair, but for some reason they forgot their shooting boots.

The Polish support was brilliant to watch but I reckon it could've cost England qualification. It was like a home game for Poland and a definite disadvantage for England. The money men always make decisions that could cost far more than the immediate gain they make out of ticket sales. Same thing happened with Scotland a few years ago when they agreed to play Macedonia at 3pm so that it could be shown on Sky and it was 40 degrees at kick-off time. The pale, ginger fuckers had no chance.

Townsend looks good in that role and Rooney looks like he's forgotten about being a greedy bastard for a while and is playing right up to his best again. Baines is better for the team at full back than Ashley Cole and will create chances with his surging runs and his delivery from set pieces but Cole will get the nod if he's fit.

Scotland continue to improve under Strachan and that was a great result beating Croatia 2-0 as Croatia needed to win really to ensure they made the play-offs, but luckily for them other results went for them and they're still through. Really exciting side to watch technically are Croatia but lacking in discipline and easy to hit on the break.

So another shite qualifying campaign for Scotland but with a bit of luck in the Euro's draw we have a better chance than we have had for quite a few years under Strachan, who is ably assisted by Mark McGhee and Stuart McCall.

Scotland's younger sides are also doing well so more hope for the future there. Now it just remains to be drawn with Germany, France, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine and Belgium with only one side qualifying automatically  

Flippen 'eck Jock there are 53 teams competing for 23 places at the next Euro's. Surely even you boys can qualify for that....?

Great game and great result, tense as fook but we would have been wronged if we hadn't won that game. Credit to Ledonowski? absolute quality player, better than anythin g we had and great on the break. I thought the whole team put a great shift in and deserved to win.
Shrek proved what an ignorant fucker Tis is, who else pops up in the right spot like that time and time again?   he also played some quality passes. Thought Gerrard had a cracking game as did Andros, Welbeck and Sturridge seemed to be carrying three poles each around the box all night but that gave room to the wings, tbf to the poles a valiant defensive display.
Good to see the team led by Stevie G and Shrek, with the youngsters starting to fire I am a lot more optimistic about getting through into the knockouts now, not saying we will win but the quarters or semis have to be our aim.

Not too hot in Brazil in June either. Mid 20's. Should allow the sort of high tempo play we saw last night.

Credit to Woy, bold team selection and attacking play. 6 wins, 4 draws from a potentially tricky group is very respectable. I like the fact that he's prepared to select players like Lambert, Townsend, Baines etc and bringing G Neville into the coaching setup was a shrewd move and seems to be working well. Can't wait for the summer, bring it on.

IsThatHHP? wrote:

Credit to Woy, bold team selection and attacking play. 6 wins, 4 draws from a potentially tricky group is very respectable. I like the fact that he's prepared to select players like Lambert, Townsend, Baines etc and bringing G Neville into the coaching setup was a shrewd move and seems to be working well. Can't wait for the summer, bring it on.

dream on with the world cup win lol. England should think reaching the quarters a success.

Angry.............what is life without dreams ?

Sing along bheys:
Two world wars and two world cups do da, do da, two world wars and two world cups do da do da day !!!

Iggy wrote:

Shrek proved what an ignorant fucker Tis is,

Well that's it, pop up here, like Shrek on speed, trying to get you whining schmucks to talk about summat other than the size of your 'stand' and all I get knockers.

Course Shrek is a very good player and the 7 he has got in qualifying might well have been the difference, the problem is Woy normally sets the whole team up to rely on him and he lets us down. Last night the team was set up to provide options up front, there is still a problem with the three stooges shuffling about trying to play through the middle, hence the three poles each impression, but if persisted with they will get better at it, that doesn't of course mean they will be anywhere near as effective against better sides, see how Moldova battered Monty last night, you would fancy the sweaties agin Moldy, well almost.

Shrek still gave the ball away far too easily last night and didn't deserve MotM. I thought Baines, Gerrard and yes, call me old fashioned if you like, but Hart stood up when asked the question.

I still fail to understand how people don't get Carrick, he didn't give it up the once last night and was always, well nearly always, in the right spot to protect the space directly in front of the CBs, unfortunately Smalling had a tad of a mare, he's good but he ain't a right back plus Townsend is not a lot of use back there.

Big trouble in little England could be the age issue which some more enlightened pundits have mensched, Cole, Gerrard, Carrick and Lamps are over thirty now, some way over, the WC isn't for another 9 months and there is a fairly hard season coming up 'tween now and then. Not to mention that it can get a tad warm in Brazil even in their winter, albeit we are apparently to be based initially in Rio which is none too bad for temperature although humidity will be a drain on the old'uns, the Boxheads have shown the benefits of young legs and good engines. Should we sneak through and get a game inland the old boys will need personalised iron lungs, on that subject didn't ol' Shrek look a bit of a funny colour after his shift?

Either way we are in the hat and the auld enemy will be sat around scratching their nuts as usual, good age groups? How did the U21s get on agin England?

IsThatHHP? wrote:

bringing G Neville into the coaching setup was a shrewd move

Word is that it was Nevs who went to bat for Townsend while Woy wasn't keen.

Lord Tisdale wrote:

IsThatHHP? wrote:

bringing G Neville into the coaching setup was a shrewd move  

Word is that it was Nevs who went to bat for Townsend while Woy wasn't keen.

I thought Neville was looking very pleased with himself, in a pole faced sort of way. 

Real pace and the ability to jink past players, is the only way England can scare a few of the big boys. Hopefully Lennon will be fit to provide cover and even Theo might pull his finger out. With Baines and Walker at full back, the potential to do some damage is real.

Wouldn't surprise me if Baines kept his place ahead of Cole. He looked quality going forward. Although Cole is probably a better defender. Nice problem to have.

I would keep Baines in the role.

After the world cup i can see more than one international retirement with Lampard and Gerrard being hot faves to do just that. So i can see Woy being keen to give younger players like Baines more of a starting role in preparation for this.

Of course and Wilshire gets the gig, so one of Carrick or Lampard probably won't. Furrymuff imo.

Freathy wrote:

Nothing like a summer with a world cup to watch

or Winter!

Truly fecked by FIFA!

can't we call upon the decent polish players to bolster our squad ?  

The Germans usually snap them up first, i know they've had a few Polish born players over the last few years, Podolski and another i can't remember.