Good Luck England

and good luck Milner, Hart and Lescott.

Phew! scrappy win, but a win's a win!!!
Need to keep the ball more, and Ashley Young.. what did he do apart from keep falling over? not pretty, but if we keep improving we might get somewhere, we won't win it, but they just might play to their potential for once...

Hey they did a City v QPR - thought Welbeck, Walcott and Lescott played really well. Think Woy is doing alright actually after all the stick he's been getting on here. Let's see if Sherek can help them win their last game.

It was a bit like watching City - last night watching England. Bloody anxious 'til the whistle went!!

We got past our bogey team at last, so that's a good sign! If we can only play like we did in some of the friendlies, where we kept the ball and stroked it around without going for the hollywood ball all the time (ahem... Gerrard!) And with Rooney coming back in, maybe he can pull a few strings too.
I'm not expecting anything great, but if we get out of the group we might just surprise a few people, I'd drop Young for The OX and see what he can do, Young's had his chance and done sweet FA.
Roy's got them playing well enough, considering he's only had a month, and loads of injuries, so hat's off to him, let's see what they can do without pressure.

Good call putting Carroll in although I don't care for the guy but fair play it was a great header. As you say he's got them playing quite well - although we don't need to be giving up goals galore even though we are scoring at the other end.

Hope Shrek can make a bit of a difference - Hart's been solid in goal but some of his kicks have been a bit nerve wracking. Milner got blamed for the second goal - hope he gets another chance.

Think Woy will play Young on the left wi Welbeck & Shrek up front.
Milner(altho he isn't an out & out winger) may get the nod ahead of Walcott

Walcott is as like AJ - a good weapon for the last 25-30 mins

Walcott a doubt with injury, no worries, play the Ox instead in after the hour mark to inject some pace, no doubt we'll need a couple to feel safe. Let's hope we defend better against the Ukraine.

I'll say something for Roy, he's managed to get them well drilled in such a short time. Anyone else notice us drop immediately into two lines of four when defending? Like watching West Brom.

But we need to watch the set pieces, we were nearly undone by two identical goals. I saw the second one coming and was astonished to see THREE yellow shirts in front of Joe and not a single blue shirt even remotely close.

Still, never thought we'd beat the Swedes and now we've got the potentially easiest game left...

Don't think it will be the easiest game left Leo in front of a home crowd - knowing us!!! But still - I shouldn't be so negative - it comes with the territory - being a Blue - LOL

First off,Ido not like saying it,but,Welbeck's goal was really something.To do it a that level is really special,I just hope

that the lads can get a result tomorrow.Jimmy Milner is havig

a good tournament so far,although he is not getting the credit

he deserves:)

Hope to God its Ashley Young who gets dropped - he's not performed well at all. I didn't like saying good stuff about Welbeck either Bob - but he's performed better than some - and seems to have confidence.

Milner will be dropped to save him for the Spain/Italy game where walcott's defensive frailties will be exploited.
Young will play because Rooney and Welbeck are starting up front, hopefully it will get the best out of him, otherwise I'd like to see the Ox on to replace him in 2 but because Walcott is a little fragile, the Ox will no doubt come on for him.

Watching the Spain game last night, I just thought they were very average, too, too much tiki-taki rubbish, for the sake of it, how many times did U see a simple incisive pass forward or to the wing ignored, if we get Spain, I will be hopeful of getting something, because Croatia were close to knocking them out.

I think against good sides, France/Spain etc where they keep the ball, we have to adopt the Chelsea v Barca method of soaking up pressure and hitting on the break or set plays, we aren't good enough to go tiki-taki to toe with them(!) and it's not our game.

You're right, we aren't. But then Roy has managed teams of a similar lack of on the ball panache and done okay, so I'd expect us to carry on with the defensive lines and hit on the break.

My concern now is that Shrek turns out to be the goose that lays the golden turd. Everyone was stressing about how we need him, yet we've not done too badly. I just have this suspicion that the team will get built around him and will be worse for it.

LOL - Leo

You are probably right though - all this hype about Shrek returning and he may be a total dead loss.

Have to applaud Wellbeck for having the presence of mind to realise that was the only way of converting - and in doing so, but wouldn't go overboard as in my opinion it's something that any remotely nimble minded Sat or Sun league player would also have attempted - get it in any way you can, even with an unorthodox back paddle - just get it going goalwards and just see what happens.

Just so happens that being a Prem footballer he has the balance and skill to increase his chances of connecting correctly.

In the past we have regretted putting preasire on the England team,I just hope that the pressure that Rooney is under does not come back to bite him.Regardless of his affiliation he really does not need it.

Good result for the boys tonight, not fantastic by any stretch, but again, we defended very well apart from the Terry goaline clearance!
Hart was "deecent" Lescott pretty solid, Milner looked a bit tired.
Italy will be a different prospect, we'll have to up our game and be more clinical, some of the decisions made by strikers weren't great at times, but we're thru, top the group too!
I think defence is the key to progressing, and taking any chances we get.
Rooney was poor apart from the goal, poor touch, lacks match sharpness, hopefully he'll be better for sunday

Thought England were chronic first 30 minutes. They settled down a bit - and looked more confident after Shrek's goal. Nobody played particularly well - we will not get away with playing that way in the quarter's. Get yer thinking cap out Woy.

Nobody thought we'd top the group - so a grudging well done but must try harder.

Defence is the key, if you look at France who have superior firepower upfront, we nullified them and exploited our set piece prowess to get a point.
Against Sweden we defended to deep after we scored, but fought back to win against a side that's just humbled one of the favorites, making them look poor at times.
We've atleast shown we can soak up pressure and score, and most importantly, not get beat.
I think Chelsea's win against Barca has made it ok to play that way, as going toe to toe with a gifted side will open you up to much, you don't have to play hollywood football all the time, there is a beauty in defending, as the Italians will tell you, and Mancini made it the foundation of out title winning season! As an ex defender myself, I have to say that Lescott has risen to the occasion at the Euro's once derided, he's stepped up and hardly made any mistakes, his following on the swerving shot Hart stopped, saved a certain tap in for Ukraine.

Roy's playing the percentages well, and getting the most from his squad, I don't think "Arry would have got us through, he'd have us trying to play sweeping fantasy football, it might look good, but we'd get sucker punched out of the Euro's.
Can we beat Italy? only if we defend well and take our chances, could Mario get wound up by Lescott , Hart and Co to get sent off? I don't think we can write off our chances just yet, but we will need to up our game

I agree with you for the most part Beware - certainly regarding 'Arry being the wrong guy to lead the team. We certainly do have to defend well - and Roy has got that part right. I still think we started the game woefully and looked very nervous - Ukraine could have had 2 goals. Anyway - they may have taken some confidence from winning the group. Hope so.

The top and bottom of it, we've not got the quality of the Spanish, Germans or Italians to go out, play with flair and panache and just outscore the opposition for fun. 'Arry would no doubt have tried anyway, and after getting a flukey win against the French, we'd have been dumped by the Swedes and humiliated by the Ukraine. And needing the plane home that the FA pre-booked.

We may not be playing fantastic, watchable football, but Roy has definitely done well to drill some defensive discipline into the team. I dare say we'll struggle against Italy, Germany and Spain, but if we can just make it hard for them to score, at least we have a chance of hitting them on the break and maybe nicking that one goal that puts us through.

No, it's not glamorous or exciting, but when a trophy is at stake, you've got to play to your strengths. And our strength isn't in champagne football, it's a pint of mild and a pork pie.

Could just murder a pork pie Leo - not had one for about 5 years now - sob.

I was trying to stay off the beer this week until the England game, but as I haven't had a sip since saturday ( and then only 2 dinky bottles) I may have to indulge! not sure about the pork pie though, as I a) don't eat meat b) allergic to wheat!
so, could be fish and chips from the local chippy, which are exceptionally massive portions, even for a 6'2" bloke I have to order small chips! stomach's rumbling now.......

As for the footy, I watched one night in Turin lastnight, brought back the memories of Italia '90, watching the German game at Sheffield Poly (Hallam uni as it is now!) on a massive screen thru the PA, less than a £1 for a pint too!! good old days....

whether or not we can emulate the 90 team, remains to be seen, Young, Walcott and Rooney all need to raise to the occasion and give us a few Gazza moments of brilliance in the knock out stages, be interesting to see how Mario plays, I imagine he'll be falling over a lot and trying outlandish shots from outside the box! let's hope he doesn't get a penalty in the last minute!!!

Well, wasn't that a waste of 2 hrs?
Defended really well, attacked like a wet turd....
Rooney was absolutely woeful, Young? worse, summed up by his penalty.
Defence can hold their heads up, attack, shame on you.
City's players did themselves justice at least, but it's a fair result, we were shite apart for half of the 1st half.
We didn't deserve to win, well played Italy, Mario had a good game too!

Bewar3them00n wrote:As for the footy, I watched one night in Turin lastnight, brought back the memories of Italia '90, watching the German game at Sheffield Poly (Hallam uni as it is now!) on a massive screen thru the PA, less than a £1 for a pint too!! good old days....

I remember going to that as well. I watched a few games there, the most memorable being in that small room off the Union bar with that telly in a box, with a hundred or so pissed up Irish lads, watching them go through on penalties against Romania.

The match was disappointing, though. Italy were by far the better team, but with the crappy luck they were having in front of goal (how did di Rossi miss from that close?) I thought we could just do it. And then we decided to have a defender take a crucial penalty - what was wrong with Carroll? Can't he kick a ball?

As you say, justice was done, if we'd got thru, it'd only ramp expectations up even further, and with the Germans in such imperious form, we'd be slaughtered or at least humiliated by them, or someone further down the line!
Saves the disappointment later on atleast!!
But I was very proud of the City players, to a man they let no one down, just a shame we don't have an English version of Aguero playing for City!!!

Milner did his job again - but those 606ers are all spouting that he was crap. What's wrong with them? Ashley Young was crap throughout the whole tournament.

The reason everyone on 606 bashes Milner is because they are largely total mongs who fall into one of the following categories:

1) They have a romantic notion that Milner was an amazing player for Villa and that we ruined him with money

2) He plays for City, so therefore he's a target

3) They believe everything that they read in the press

4) A combination of all of the above

It's largely because the average 606er has an IQ lower than their shoe size, they pander to popular opinion because it makes them look better and they tend to be online instead of listening to the person stood up at the end of the room who is being paid to try and give them an education.

Of course, not all of them are like that. Those of us on here with 606 accounts are exceptions for a starter!

Got all wound up again just like I do watching City sometimes. I know its hard to be confident to take penalties - but Ashley Cole shouldn't be nervous he's an old pro now. Knew Young would miss he looked so nervous- and he had a poor tournament - don't understand why he wasn't benched by Roy. Why didn't Woy play Baines yesterday? Rhetorical question.