Well a few of our lads have been called up for international duty. Nobby and Gav the Lad have flown out for Peru to line up against eachother as Paraguay take on Peru.

Gus, if you could some how tape this game I'd be eternally indebted to you, well more so than I am know. And will find a way to repay you.

Gallacher has been called up for Scotland to take on the Frogs. Hopefully he'll do the right thing and "hurt" Lepoof in the game, to make our Wembly trip easier.

Dyer returns to the under 21's where he should figure prominantly in their win of Yugoslavia.

And finally two of Uniteds bairns make join the list of players away on international duty.

Michael Chopra joins the England U.17 squad on a trip Trinidad, where he'll hopefully play against Mexico, the USA and Trinidad. Just hope he doesn't get cuaght down the beach there, where reefers can be aparently found just laying around. Well so says the kiwi cricket team.

And one of the Caldwell brothers gets a call up to the Scotland U.21 squad. NUFC.com believe it to be younger brother Gary, and not older brother Steve. Which I think is pretty impressive as the lad is only 17. Oh and 19 year old Gary has just recieved a one year contract to play in the reserves next year, the day after it was released that he was one of a number of bairns from the U.19's who wouldn't be back next season. Congrats.

And Finally 18 year old Stuart Green, one of our impressive bairns along with and joining Brian Kerr, has signed a four year contract. That should keep Softie happy as he rates these two. Just hopefully they won't fall prey to the rising "cure of Softie" whereby any bairn who looks impressive in the reserves gets nominated by Softie to make the senior squad amd promptly moves on at the end of the season. ;)

Tre

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2000

Answers

Yep! Fingers crossed - last thing we want is any injuries/

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2000

Argghhh!

"Curse of Softie"

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2000

End of the season? They don't hang about that long :-)

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2000

Softie

Can you clear up the matter of the Caldwell lads?

I thought it was the older brother (19?) who had been transfer-listed by BR, then selected for the Scotland U-21's, and has subsequently been taken off the list and offered a new contract.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2000

Clarky

Yeah my mistake. I got this information from Niall and Biffa at nufc.com. They hadn't got all the information at the time and thought it was the younger of the Caldwells, Gary, who got the call up, but today they say it's Steve and it was their mistake.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2000

Bliddy hell man, record Paraguay v Peru!

How aboot I rip off me right arm and post it to ya!!!!

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2000

Gus

I knew you'd understand mate. Hey I was just wondering if it happened to be on Foxtel or the like as I assume that's where you got the Manu game from. I thought they occasionally showed international matches. I knew it was a stretch, but just wondered.

O'well I'll just have to scratch these four set-for-life scratchies meself.

;)

Tre

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2000

"O'well I'll just have to scratch these four set-for-life scratchies meself. "
Well if you must, but be warned put one finger in the wrong place and they'll be trouble.
Scratchy (on behalf of his family - "the Scratchies".

-- Anonymous, March 28, 2000

An update on our lads around the globe.

Peru beat Paraguay 2-0. Solano scored from the spot. Gavilan was a substitute and got on for the last 15 minutes. Chilavert missed one from the spot for Paraguay.

Sky Sports have a good write-up about Stephen Caldwell. While the official site reckon he was close to the best Scot on the field for the Scot U.21 loss to the french. Check out: www.sky.com/sports/football/premier/newcastle/story11.htm

Nial & Biffa and on Riks' "Hot Gossip" page, report that young Chopra scored 2 as the England U.17's beat/humbled Mexico (I wish I could get accent going: meh-hi-co) 4-1.

And finally the reserves draw 1-1 against Barnsley, whith Robinson (new Beckham do an'all scoring from the spot)(from Nial & Biffa). Our three rated bairns, Kerr, Green & G. Caldwell all got a run out.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2000

I just caught the end of he England U21 match on 5 Live last night. There was a worrying moment when the commentator (Mark Bright??) reckonned LKD had damaged his groin. However, he continued to play and seemed to run off the injury.

Fingers crossed.

-- Anonymous, March 30, 2000