Mammoth10

We're coming into Marylebone for 11 o clock - Anybody recommend a pub near there before we go to the pubs nearer the ground

Decent pub opposite Baker St tube station called the Globe, think it's no more than 10 min walk from Marylebone...

That will do nicely - Thanks

That will be full of Mancs tomorrow for the semi final - would avoid like the plague

Found this out! In fact was open to Shitty fans only!

We're coming into Marylebone for 11 o clock - Anybody recommend a pub near there before we go to the pubs nearer the ground

Decent pub opposite Baker St tube station called the Globe, think it's no more than 10 min walk from Marylebone...

Not sure why this is a "massive piss take against us". Odds reflect the bets that have been placed, nothing more.

Not true they're 'fixed' odds on the football coupon.

The odds will fluctuate pending where the money go's mate.

The odds on the in-store coupons don't change and they are printed days before the game. :?

They change regularly online but the coupon prices are fixed ahead.

This, on very very rare occasions the fixed odds coupons in bookies will change, usually as the result of some dodgy betting patterns which the shops relay betweeen themselves and adjust accordingly.

Not sure why this is a "massive piss take against us". Odds reflect the bets that have been placed, nothing more.

Not true they're 'fixed' odds on the football coupon.

booked the train yesterday 25quid return from new street direct to sheffield

Was that with a railcard?

Anyway anyone looking at train travel don't get ripped off, there are currently returns avaialble for £11.50 e/w however this requires selected trains (as opposed to the on the day fare of £37.80)

If you are prepared not to have booked seats though split your tickets into a day return New St - Derby (£13.70) and day return Derby - Sheff (£8.80), totalling £22.50.

Also to add you won't need to change trains doing this either!

I don't like this at all, I really want City to win a game or two to keep Mancini in a job. If he's sacked MON will get the job and get them playing as a team again.

MON wouldn't be able to handle City

Bit rich this really, a good mate of mine who's a nose got a nice 2 inch gash after being coined by some retarded Villa fan in the Upper DE, it's not all 1-way.

1. brommy: I am not sure why it is so hard for some to understand...but they seem to be having difficulty. I have said in every way I can that MON was intimately involved in the deal...the fact that Milner played on such and such a date doesn't impact on the deal that was made.

I presume this is a response to my question so thanks for that and I won't go into the matter any further. I would appreciate a more personal and less condescending response next time, as in from my personal viewpoint this is the first time I've questioned the matter and it does apparently seem this might be why to quote you 'it's so hard for some to understand'. Do hope that's ok?

4. jack_bauer87: I have no idea where you got your information but you are wrong. The deal was absolutely something that MON was intimately involved with.

General, do you think that in hindsight, the giving of power to MOn and the eventual taking away caused the toys to be thrown out of the pram? I still think the Milner deal was good business. He is a miss, but was never a 16m plus 8m Ireland player. Plus he wanted out, so in my opinion, not worth having. Sames goes with the manager, if you want to run a club from top to bottom, go and buy one i say.

I hope GH will be given that cash to spend a bit of it across the pond.

Hi General, I think JB87's original post has possibly been mis-interpreted at best, you state that MON was intimately involved in this deal, now correct me if i'm wrong but MON left the club on 9th August, James Milner played for the club on 14th August is this to say that MON still had dealings in transfers at a club he was no longer managing, presumably not? Therefore, JB87's question still stands, without a manager in place at the time of this deal being completed who was responsible for/sanctioned it?

Many thanks. Apologies for covering old ground, but I don't feel a satisfactory answer has been given regarding this matter.

I think as much as anything, today's announcement is designed to direct the frustrations of fans onto the player and away from the club.

amen to that brother

my feelings exactly

Spot on to both, and so it should be, as I'm sure it's been said before the club's bigger than any player....

I am sure pubs in Aston will be open. No need to worry.

They will indeed as they were for the last couple of home and away games vs this lot. One thing I would say though is that police are advising that the pubs are ticket only (not necessarily paid for) so they can restrict who goes in. This is definately the case for the Manor Tavern....

Did anyone think Burnley would get a result? Our big game is Everton!

Big game not Citeh????

A point is disappointing but unsurprising.

Once again, being reasonable, we weren't bad by any means and once again we've learnt nothing from that game - we struggle against teams happy to sit back and as soon as Wolves took the lead it was clear that was all they were gonna do.

Friedel - 6 - Wasn't overly tested.

Dunne - 6 - Decent

Collins - 6 - Similar.

Cuellar - 5 - Struggled with Jarvis, not the best of games for him.

Warnock - 6 - Again not bad.

Petrov - 6 - Some feisty tackles that could well have got him sent off, but also some great play from him first half. Second half he was quiet, the yellow and Wolves being less up for a surge forward saw lose his main role in the side.

Milner - 6 - Would have been a 7 but for a pretty unfortunate OG. Was involved all the good we did, as per.

Downing - 5 - Not the best game he'll have.

Young - 7 - Like Milner, involved time and again, seemed up for it. Some iffy deliveries still, an annoyance.

Carew - 7 - He's becoming a bit of an RVN, doesn't do alot and pokes in a couple. Can't complain at that even if I do prefer a bit less of an anonymous role for a striker.

Heskey - 6 - Given dogs abuse in the match thread (shock horror there), so I'll say this for him - First half, we played some lovely passing moves and attaced with vigour and time again he was vital to linking those. He also played at least 1 glorious pass to Young first half out to the right, and he was vital in the equaliser. He's never going to score many, but when we want to play he's very useful. As we chucked the kitchen sink at it and stopped being quite so pretty in favour of the direct approach, he's anonymous.

Albrighton - 5 - Didn't do alot.

Sidwell - 6 - Much like Marc above, except he managed to get an assist.

Never going to be an easy game, we really should have built on the first goal and done better, we were the better side for much of the game, first half the better by acres at times. Sadly 2 bad goals to let in undid us and placed us in exactly the position we didn't want to be, chasing agaisnt a side dreaming of points, any points.

Tactically, I can't see a lot wrong. One of those I guess. Disappointing but I'll not lose my head over it.

Bloody hell a post that doesn't sound like we've just been relegated! Agree with almost all of this, with the exception of comments on Warnock really, thoguht he had his worst game to date for us. Also, spot on with comments on Heskey how the hell do 90% of our fans not see what he does for the team, and what's worse they have no desire to even get off his back and give him a chance, some of the abuse in the lower Holte directed at him throughout the match was nothing short of disgraceful, there's not even the element of supporting whoever wears our shirt from some of ther idiots down there.

Thinking of going on the trains Via Banbury and a coach to Oxford. Anyone know if the coaches from Banbury to Oxford are regular and if I get them from outside the train station?

I've done this route once before after slammin' Vinyl at the old sanctuary so my memory of it is hazy!

Not sure if you caught my earlier post on this but make sure you pay for Bham - Banbury day return and Banbury - Reading day return, costs £25 ish instead of £40 and can buy it all at New St.

I went last season but I didn't arrive in the ground until 5 minutes after kick off due to rushing from work. It was quite intimidating for me to walk back to my van with a claret and blue scarf on, especially after they pinched it in the dying seconds. There was a great atmosphere inside the ground but there was some trouble afterwards which sort of put a downer on precedings from their point of view. However, I will be going again this time around, are there any away fan friendly pubs near to the ground or am I better off grabbing a quick pint in the city centre before venturing out to the ground? And how far is the train station from the Britannia?

It's about a mile from the train station to the ground. Last season the polive took us straight off the trains (well replacement buses) at the station andput us in a decent pub over the road, then we were put on buses outside there straight up to the away end at 2.30. Would imagine it will be more of the same this year for rail travellers.

Should anyone be thinking of going to this by train then don't pay the £40 ish return fare, but split your journey by return BNS - Banbury £14.80, and return Banbury - Reading £10.... this is assuming there are no cheap tickets available.

Can't see the kick off being 3PM as the sky programme for this starts at 2.45PM. More likely a 4PM kick off ??

Pretty sure it is 3pm Sky aren't as arsed by this as they don't have the sole right, think BBC will be showing it too, would say most build up coverage if any will be on there.

You might be right mate, though it would be strange to have just a 15 min build up for a final and yet they have at least 30 mins for most league games, if not more.

There may well be a 12.30 or 1pm ko that they're showing this day too, so they sometimes have these short gaps between. In fact the week before we play Burnley at 2 and for this reason the 4pm ko is moved to 415!

Can't see the kick off being 3PM as the sky programme for this starts at 2.45PM. More likely a 4PM kick off ??

Pretty sure it is 3pm Sky aren't as arsed by this as they don't have the sole right, think BBC will be showing it too, would say most build up coverage if any will be on there.

Yeah cheers lads and lasses, I was fine until I came on and read this thread, now I'm off to spend half the afternoon in the shitter at work! Due to finish at 5.15 but no chance now, thank god for flexi-time!

MON did the one that was needed, taking Heskey off as he was offering about as much as a blind man driving a grand prix car

Really, again i thought he threaded up a lot of our better play, granted he can't do 90 mins these days but did his replacement/everybodies hero Big John offer anything more? No he offered **** all but still gets wan*ed over

Definitely agree with that. When Carew came on I gave a sigh cos I knew that big lump offers no more than Heskey does, and our style of play wouldn't improve one bit. In fact, he looks half the player Heskey does at the moment.

Blimey one person that agrees with me, well not me but that Heskey offers something.....35,621 to go now!

MON did the one that was needed, taking Heskey off as he was offering about as much as a blind man driving a grand prix car

Really, again i thought he threaded up a lot of our better play, granted he can't do 90 mins these days but did his replacement/everybodies hero Big John offer anything more? No he offered **** all but still gets wan*ed over

Just a waiting game now...annoying because we were meant to leave Selly Oak at 9 and I've got someone coming from Redditch so he won't leave until he finds out now, piss take. Hope it's on.

Agreed, hope it's on, the only glimmer of hope as someone pointed out is that it's that clown Atwell making the call! What a pisser of a week this might end up being.

is the weather really that bad over there,or is blackburns pitch just shit,i was really looking forword to this game..

I'm afraid the weather really is that bad up here.

4 or 5 inches lying and it's still snowing. I live less than 1.5 miles from the Town centre and it took my neighbour over 20 minutes to get there and that was 4 hours ago and it's constantly snowed since then

Slightly off topic I know but do you think there'll be any effect on Saturdays match?

Ah **** it, hope it's on I really do, but i'm using my non refundable train tickets and going for a drink in Preston anyway!

Snap - we are booked in the Preston travel lodge. Unless its called off before we leave at 12, a night on the pop in Preston it will be !

Same here! Although on the 2.20 train leaving work at 12.30

Ah **** it, hope it's on I really do, but i'm using my non refundable train tickets and going for a drink in Preston anyway!