The games over, and no thread started - understandable apathy I suppose.
Bloody turgid game and another defeat, if a little undeserved. We were beaten by wonder strike and should have had penalties.
Jesse James and the posse at the back did OK, and Heskey was unHeskey-like - did canny. However, he got little support from midfield. Parlour was utter pants, Barmby not bad, Butt's replacement Carragher was anonymous (I'd forgotten he was playing actually), YKD buzzed around a bit (as he does) but didn't really create anything, and apart from one or two good long balls into the channels for Heskey in the 1st half I thought Beckham was hopeless - he must have passed to a colleague no more than once every three or four passes in the 2nd half.
Peter Taylor thought it was an excellent performance - good for him. Hope he enjoyed his day in the rain.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

Answers

Cheers clarky. I was hoping somebody would say something. Haven't seen/heard anything.

Shirley Temple: pants? i'm amazed....

If Beckham's an England Captain, i'm a professional footballer...

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

So Dyer had a rather poor game? He's probably saving himself for Saturdays supermatch.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

and the dirty Mackem?

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

Did he get dirty? I thought he wasn't good enough to play.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

apparently. I didn't watch.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

Isn't that three games now since Big Al retired and we haven't scored a single goal? Bloody crap that Shearer - never did owt for England.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

Watched the highlights on MOTD and thought we were unliucky not to get at least a draw.

Alright, the game wasn't the best spectacle you've ever seen, but there were a few good points to come out of it.

James was pretty solid between the sticks, held most things that came his way, although he did fumble a couple in the first half, but I think that was the wet conditions as much as anything else. He didn't have a chance with the goal.

The defence were alright......

Dyer and Beckham did a few good interchanging passes in midfield, but they both seemed to try and feed everything out to the wing and it became so predictable that in the end it was blocked almost every time.

Barmby also played canny just in front of the midfield but Heskey was the revelation......who taught him to play football all of a sudden? He was turning the defenders, he held the ball up nicely and was twice upended and one of them was a definite penalty. He hd one cracking shot in the first half and if anything had gotten in the way of it, (Hand, Post, Bar or Net) it would have broken it.

No chance with the goal........what a cracker.

If I was SGE I reckon I would be fairly happy to see a performce like that from a team of pretty much untried 'youngsters' - they are the future first team....not all striaght away, but they will all be challenging for places.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

Oh yeah.....the munchkin came on......nuff said

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2000

Best player on view for Scotland last night - Don Hutchinson, but wee Craigie plays him in his best position, not like monkee-heed

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

Personally I thought we did alright! I thought Dyer ran himself into the ground with some beardo type runs and was all over the place. Becks seemed to be tracking back all the time and not just pumping in long balls from the side lines. Rio Ferdinand was exceptional, and Heskey was showing some of the form he has shown for Liverpool in the PL. If this is the future of the England team, then I am not complaining. Remember they were mostly inexperience players at this level going up against a very strong Italian side. Now it will be interesting to see SGE first team. I hope the likes of Ince and sheringham and Adams are now out of the running. The players who couldn't play last night - Scholes, Owen, Wes Brown, Bowyer, Woodgate, and MacManamanamnamaman, should fit in quite nicely, I think.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

Hutchison WILL score against us co she'll be eager to prove to the goat-worriers that he is no longer one of us.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

I`m pretty much with ITK on this one. In the circumstances, I didn`t think they did badly, and a draw would have been a truer reflection.

As for the captain`s job, well let`s face it, Shearer is a hard act to follow, but IMHO Beckham seemed to be taking it very seriously, and seems genuinely thrilled. I think it affected his playing a bit last night, but I hope he keeps the job. I think he could rise to the challenge and be a decent captain.

Thought Shearer was looking relaxed, and is looking more and more comfortable on camera.(:o)

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000