Why, Oh Why, Oh Why?



Trust me Steve, it looks far worse
with both eyes open.






What is this obsession with appointing average footballers to high profile jobs when they have no experience whatsoever? Steve 'Stan' Staunton was a left back of reasonable standard, he played 102 times for the Republic of Ireland and that was good enough to get him the job ahead of some better qualified, but non-Irish, applicants for the job post Brian Kerr.

Losing 2-5 away to Cyrpus, an island best known for its night clubs, RAF base and illegal occupation by Turkey must be the second lowest point in the history of Irish football, the first was giving Clinton Morrison his first cap. Ireland thought that this was a winnable group, or at least second place was attainable so giving them a better draw for the South Africa World Cup - now they'll probably finish third at best and find themselves with an impossible qualification task.

How Do You Spell Prat in Welsh?















You knew it didn't you? You knew that if your goalkeeper gets a fancy haircut to celebrate his 50th cap before the match you are going to get hammered. I assume the 50 stands for caps and not age because to be honest Paul Jones footwork was slower than you expect from a professional sportsman in his early thirties. Four of the five goals were down to him, the second one proving Ruud Guillit's old theory that if goalkeepers were footballers who could think, they wouldn't be goalkeepers in the first place.

I had to laugh watching the match at Alan Parry's co-commentators assertion when the score was 3-1 to Slovakia that it's a good job the next game is against Cyprus because at least Wales can pick-up three points.

Funny enough I think Steve Staunton probably said the same to his players after the game in Germany in September!

England In Not Very Good Shock!

Oh what a surprise, England can't be Macedonia at home - let's see, where's Sven when you need a scapegoat for a poor performance?

Too many players are not playing well for their clubs so expecting them to be good at international level is asking a bit much, although having said that we should be able to beat sides so far down the FIFA Rankings you get neckache looking for them.

Paul Robinson, Ashley Cole, Ledley King, Stuart Downing and the boy Rooney aren't doing it at club level at the moment.

Croatia are a far better side than England technically and so we'll have to out-battle them in the middle of the pitch or get down the wings. I actually think Rooney is going to need another month or so before he gets anywhere near full fitness, let's just hope he doesn't get another injury trying to over compensate for his lack of fitness with a burst of aggression.