A Bit Of Spice

A funny old footballing day.

With some fairly lack lustre performances I gather.

Fulham unable to beat off Swansea.

Pompey and Man City slogging it out with Portsmouth just managing to pull a couple out of the bag on the back of a determination to show support for the decision to get rid of Adams.

Chelsea in a scoreless draw at half time with lowly Watford.

And Leicester made me hold my breath for a while this afternoon until they equalised against Swindon.

Lets hope the indian takeaway I'm having for my supper has a bit more spice.

Surprise! Surprise!

Another quiet 24 hours in English football then!

A brace of managers bites the dust.

Unlike Tony, I'm not really surprised that Pompey has let him go.

Bit more taken aback at the timing of the Che$ea sacking though.

Still what do I know?

I'm just a girl.

With more important things to think about.

Like how did this happen?

The Good The Passionate And The ... Er.... Confusing

Sometimes a girl following football is so busy she doesn't have time to post.........

So it was yesterday.

I got home and had just enough time to light our brand new woodburning stove before my guitar teacher arrived. Whilst I was having my lesson my lover made tea.

After eating a delicious veggie shepherd's pie we headed off to the pub to watch the Arse/Tottenham match.

Whilst waiting for the match to start we got chatting to the barman. He revealed that his 13 year old niece is very poorly with an aggressive and degenerative bone marrow disease. She wrote to a charity who try to make the wishes of poorly children come true. Her wish was to have a laptop and meet the Portsmouth squad.

The landlord then proceeded to show us photos of her visit to Pompey, which included her with Sol Campbell, 'Arry and of course the lovely Crouchy (who was sort of bent in the middle so he did not tower over her too much).

As for the match itself - blimey! What a battle!

An in form Arse playing some wonderful football vs the less talented but greatly impassioned Spurs.

Nailbiting to the very last seconds.

Now that - as they say - is real football.

(PS - Looking at the picture above I'm left wondering how many arms and legs Crouchy actually has)

Dethpicable

I've heard some 'disappointing' stories from the world of football today.

The poor Portsmouth players who had their F.A. Cup winners' medal stolen.

The booing of both Portsmouth and Cardiff fans when the national anthem of the other team was played at Saturday's match.

Drogba's claims that he was encouraged by Jose Mourinho to deliberately get yellow cards to get a bit of extra holiday time.

And McClaren has been offered another job as a football manager.

I have only one thing to say to those thieves, those fans, Drogba (and Jose if it is true) and McClaren.

And that is this.

Sweet F.A.

I have had the sweetest of days today.

First I awoke to the morning radio discussion about the F.A. Cup, whilst getting ready to walk down into town to the Farmer's market.

My lover and I cruised around looking for goodies to purchase in readiness for the afternoon's extravaganza. Organic, free range Scotch eggs (mine a veggie version of course). Olives. Fresh bread. Strawberries. And an almond croissant.

A trip in the car to Aldi followed, listening to more F.A. Cup build up. More goodies purchased. Some vintage cider and white chocolate.

We were ready.

Quarter to three, We're on the settee with our feet up, tucking in to the eggs and other savouries, washed down with a glass of cider.

1 - 0. Half time.

Sharing the almond croissant with strawberries as garnish. Accompanied by a coffee.

1 0. Full time. Up Pompey!

A little after match celebration.

And now posting whilst my lover prepares crayfish tails and salad sandwiches.

Followed by one of these.

So that's what they mean by Sweet F.A.

The Peasant's Revolt

What a weekend it has been.

"Surprising Saturday" and "Day of the Underdogs" are two of the descriptions I have heard.

As if Barsnley's heroic win over Chelsea wasn't enough yesterday, Cardiff have made it a double by beating Middlesborough, who looked a complete shambles. Even Portsmouth's triumph over Manchester United was against predictions.

You have to wonder what on earth is going on. Is the gap between Premiership and Championship football narrowing? Is the passion for the FA cup competition and all it represents burning far stronger in the second division and below?

Whatever the reasons, everyone is saying it is one of the most exciting FA competitions ever.

I think there's something quite exciting about the football underclasses rebelling against the status quo.

Let's hope they don't lose their heads like the last leader of a peasant's revolt.

May You Live In Interesting Times

When I originally selected LCFC as my team to support, my lover said "You have picked an interesting team at an interesting time in their history"

How prophetic his words were.

It has been a non-stop roller coaster since the moment I made my choice. The passion of the new owner. The drama with the various managers. The variability of performance ranging from the extremely dire to flashes of complete brilliance (a la Chelsea match for example).

Nothing has quite prepared me for tonight's news that MILAN MANDARIC HAS BEEN ARRESTED however.

It is still breaking news even though the arrests were made in dawn raids this morning. Five men have been arrested in total, including Harry Redknapp. They have all been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and false accounting. The allegations relate to the period Mandaric was at Portsmouth.

It is important to remember that at this stage these are arrests. I am not yet aware of anyone being charged. It would therefore be inappropriate for me to comment further on the specifics.

It does make you realise how close the world of football potentially is to the world of crime though. Rumours have been rife for a long time about corruption in the game, leading to the Stephens Enquiry which reported earlier this year of course. Then there were the recent arrests at Luton. Now this.

Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase " May you live in interesting times".