Lombardo

A French referee in this match? Interesting yet not surprising considering the referring choices this tournament.

He's actually Irish.

If anything I thought the referee gave Armenia alot. The red card on Doyle was very harsh as well as a few questionable free kicks for us that weren't awarded. We deserved the win last night by the skin of our teeth. Should have put them away after our second goal went in. To concede after that was poor. Shay made a bad mistake on their goal too...

I was hoping Keith Andrews would get sent off last night. He offers absolutely nothing to the Irish team. Put Coleman in in his place or even McCarthy and we would have a half decent midfield.

We're certainly the best northern hemisphere team

we have won 1 6 nations in history due to a Welsh missed penalty and we are best Northern Hemisphere side. Ridiculous

I presume he was talking about form side at the moment which of course is also up for debate, to be settled on Saturday I guess.

Cheers lads. Immigration is cleared in Dublin now for going to the States so I don't think I'll have to clear it again over in Chicago. Just praying security is not too bad. I dont mind running so that won't be a problem.

Anyone had any trouble ever getting connecting flights tgoing through O Hare? Have an hour and a half to get from a flight arriving in from Dublin to a connecting flight to Portland.... Is it a nightmare to get around or is it ok?

Worrying sign that he has been recalled.

I think I'll have to take refuge in here. Really bad reactions to tonights match. Some of them just seem ridiculous. I admit I haven't seen nor heard commentary on the match but at the end of the day if it psyches us up for QPR Sunday I'll be happy. Maybe a kick up the arse is what some of the players need.

If I said that in the main forum I would probably be shot!!!

Gaylick football sounds extremely manly.

5 minutes on the pitch would change your mind Its the equivalent of Stoke vs Stoke everyweek

So basically, all we see is Rory Delap's, long, hard, explosive weapon whipped out every 5 minutes. Launching into a goalkeepers box at rapid speed before someone finishes it off by getting their head onto it.

Not sure it would.

That piece in bold sounds like a description of a really bad porno flick....

Feckin Dubs... We've heard about 1995 for the last 16 years... This is going to be even worse.

Already the bandwagon jumpers are evident on facebook etc... Hell!

He was at Bodymoor Heath during the week.

Going back on topic again, I reckon Bent will be really fired up for the game tomorrow. Considering the abuse he took off them last season...

An absolute colossus of a performance from Dick today. Wouldn't sell him for love nor money.

Went with Niza cars in the end. Was decent but as Bully said above, they never said that we would have to pay above the odds for a tank of diesel. Didnt use all of it - left about a quarter of a tank. Worked out about €40 a day for the car. Expensive enough considering we were only using it to get from one hotel to another and parking up for a few days....

Only catching the end of it. They are clearly stuck for guests with the line up so far!

That did cheer me up!

As has been mentioned before, all you need to do is look at games where Stan has not played in and see how we have fared without him. Petrov doesn't necessarily always stand out at what he does but what he does, he does it well and is part of the team. In the past 3 years it has been proven that whenever he is not in the side we have struggled for fluidity and movement through midfield.

He does not do the spectacular but he is always there to pick the ball up off defence etc, without which the team would not be able to function... As has been said before, 3 managers can't be wrong.

I posted this on another forum. It is the reason I feel the way I do about Petrov mainly. Take is as you like:

As an aside because his names been brought up, for me, regardless of his departure, Barry was 10 times the player and 100 times the captain Petrov will ever be. There was that one season where Barry inspired losses into wins or draws(remember the penalty for the 4-4 with Chelsea. Every neutral in the pub in Dublin was willing him to score and cheering when he did) I can honestly say, I don't remember Petrov ever "turning" a game for us in a positive way as captain. I remember to badly the 1-0 against Blackburn then 1-1 which he was responsible for then them getting a man sent off and us losing 2-1 which as I recall was the fault of Petrov letting his man glide past him. So many times he's been an absolute joke in games we've lost. Like a winger in rugby that can't tackle for shit and all the tries get scored on his side because he's such a pushover. I've played football since I was 6 and I'm not an amazing player but I think I know the game well and I've always thought Petrov is a poor poor player in one of thee most important, hardest to play well positions on the pitch in CM. Never thought he was capable in such a integral position but he's been blessed with being paired with some outstanding players as Barry, and Milner and even Reo-Coker when it comes to tackling and he really has and continues to get shown up for his defeciencies when he doesn't have such a player next to him.

That's heartfelt. Respond as you will.

The words broken and record spring to mind.

Anyone hired cars in Spain? Looking for a decent but cheap company to hire from in the Malaga area....

How much notes would you be talking for a weeks hire?

This is what I like about that Madhur Jaffrey book, only a handfull of different ground spices are used throughout the book, which makes the dishes a bit more affordable. Cayenne pepper tends to appear in a lot of her recipes.

The main issue i'd level at "Camellia Panjabi's 50 Greatest curries" is the sheer number of ingredients required for a lot of the curries. By no means criticising the authenticity or quality of the meals, but building a large collection of ground spices can be quite expensive, and the idea of forking out £3 on mace, is probably a bridge too far.

True. Thanks to her I do now have a heroic selection of spices. They're nothing like £3 (or €4) to buy though. Go to a proper spice shop and you get them for £1. Plus it takes years for them to go off. And having the selection that I have makes it easy to go experimenting

Which Spice shop do you use Brian out of interest?

How thin does the grated tomato have to be Brian? Put them through a blender?

I value the opinion of a european cup winning CM more than some bullshit stats dragged up from some obscure website.

Besides, why are stats only relevant when people want them to be?! And why is it that it seems nobody is allowed to make a judgement on a player simply by seeing him with their own eyes?

Ive seen enough of Stan to last me a lifetime thank you very much. I KNOW hes not good enough.

Do you not value the opinion of 3 separate managers that have all viewed him high enough to have him among the 1st player to be down on that teamsheet every week?

Petrov.... easily the best CM midfielder at the club for the past few seasons

:shock:

Hope to god you aren't a talent scout.

Who else has there been then? And dont throw out the NRC comment because he can't pass and hasn't been able to pass for years. Petrov played a role for us and played it very well. It was no coincidence that when he came back into the team at the end of last season that we started picking results up again.

Kiwivillan in slating Petrov shocker... Never would have guessed that one.

Super stuff.