Stoke and Watford

Stoke turned out to be as easy as normal at home once Zab had made the break through. Sergio’s injury is a major blow spesh as Nasri’s out, and Ya ya’s off for 6 weeks in the sun. Pulis reckons that there’s £220M difference between our two clubs – funny that he doesn’t say that when the rags beat them. And what happened to “You can have all the money in the world, but if you haven’t got the team spirit, blah, blah….” When such teams beat us?

Notice that Tim Dalton was there and The Hoff. Now I wrote to the MUEN about him declaring himself as a rag on Soccer AM, but the useless bastards edited out my last line which read : Perhaps he WILL reconsider when he arrives in Manchester.

Went to an ex players ‘do’ the other night and left my Us and Them book with autographs in it behind. Not found so if you see it advertised on e- bay let me know. Danny Wilson at the Warrington branch last night, top man,very impressive.

Bit of handbags between Mario and Roberto on the training ground, blown up out of all proportion. Is he autistic?  Will a hat-trick v Watford get him back in the good books? Should we have sold him in the summer  when his value was high?

Busy with the zine at the mo, thanks for everything sent in so far, brilliant stuff. KK202 almost sold out so having a day off from standing in the wind and rain tomorrow.

So to the FA Cup tomorrow, here’s the It’s A Fix extract:

21A) SATURDAY JANUARY 5^TH : F A CUP 3^RD RD

Soisson Neuf day for Mr Ed! A couple of years ago we went one down within a minute at Leicester but recovered and went on to win the Cup. Last season rags referee Chris Foy put paid to our hopes, sending off Vinny after 10 minutes as we went on to lose to the cheats 3-2 after being 3-0 down at half time.

This season it’s Watford at home. We’ve previously played them in the League Cup (3-1 H 3^rd rd 1987/88 Full members Cup (3-1 H 1986/87) and in the FA Cup it was:

1985/86 4^TH RD : 1-1H; RP 0-0 A; 2^nd RP 1-3H

1996/97 4^TH Rd : 3-1 H

League form at home won 3, drawn 2, lost 2.

For City it’s : DLLWDWW

This season so far they’re in 6^th place in the Championship with 40 points from 25 games,  and 6 wins 2 draw and 4 losses away from home.

Comment: Zola’s boys are doing well in The Championship and whilst we probably won’t field our strongest team (but why not?) to start with, certainly Sergio, Nasri and Ya Ya are out,  we shouldn’t underestimate them. Only known face is Almunia, the ex Arsenal goalie. Danger man is Matej Vydra, 12 goals so far.

Dave