After coming on as a second half sub. Shola, has a part in making the second England goal and scores the third one himself, as England beat Finland under 21s.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Answers

And the forth. hehehehehehehe

the future is bright, the future is Black and white. 4 - 0 game over.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Young Shola came on at 70 minutes with England leading 1-0, but struggling to increase their lead even though dominating the game.
John Terry almost immediately scored with a good header from a FK won by Shola. Shola then knocked in Greening cross in from close range but with the ball bobbling horribly just in front of him - I thought he took it well. With 2 minutes to go Shola rounded off an excellent performance by England by taking another pass from Greening advancing into the area, shimmying to put the keepr on his bottom (!) and then casually chipping over him into the net.

This kids going to be a good un, and he's got such a smashing, unaffected grin. Hard luck on Nigeria, but good on yer young Shola.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Excellent stuff! Just what we need!(:o)

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

great player, makes you wonder why we needed Lx2 when Shola is doing a fantastic job

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Got to agree - it actually makes you wonder whether anyone at SJP knew anything about Shola before they had no choice but to put him in the team 'cos everyone else over 5'6" was injured.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Forgot to mention that both Seth Johnson (Derby, and one of Tre's favourites)and Sean Davis (Fulham) looked terrific in the middle of midfield - either of these two would be great acquisitions for the Toon.
I also liked the look of Jon Greening who I believe is available at OT, and probably within our reach.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Makes you wonder who else could come good if brought up from the reserves. Cant recall Shola getting rave reviews. Hows about Gavilan getting even half an opportunity.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Gavilan has looked awful in the Reserves recently, spud. But you know, I have this feeling that the lad is utterly lost, lacking in confidence and generally unhappy with his career at this point.
For instance, Screacher, Rik and me I saw him playing at Whitley Bay in the Northumberland Senior Cup a few weeks ago. It was an absolutely perishing cold night, and the game was played on a ploughed field against a team of local lads determined to kick anything that moved.
How on earth can we expect players like Gavilan and Bonvin to develop their skills, and perhaps just as importantly, maintain their motivation playing on pitches like that, and in the force 10 gales which are a permanent feature at Kingston Park?

Assuming we can get the 3-4 points needed for safety, I really believe we have to give one or two players like Gavilan 2-3 games in the 1st team to see how they look at that level. My suspicion is that we still have a talented young footballer in Gavilan, but that he is never, ever going to show it in the Stiffs. So, we'll probably end up giving him 'a free' and wasting yet another £2.5 million - probably to the benefit of some other Club who'll give him the time and attention required.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Oh Shola Ameobi Oh Shola Ameobi Oh Shola Ameobi Arms stretch knees bend Oi! Oi! Oi!

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Gavilan has shown touches of class in the few reserve games I've seen him in - I suspect YBR will give a few younguns a run in the 1st team once Europe is out of reach - oops I meant safe from relegation.

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2001

Pablo Bonvin seems to be the best player in the reserves at the moment, although Beharall has also done well at centre back. Mark Boyd also seems to be a talented young man, but I am more excited by the two seventeen year old strikers Offiong and Chopra. 39 goals between them this season for the under 17s. They played in an under 19s game last week and did well.

Today they are likely to play against the MaKems at cleadon. KO 11 AM , no doubt Biffa will be reporting on this one this afternoon.

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2001

However, woithout doubt the funniest thing I have seen on telly all weekend was the U21 Finnish goalkeeper 'trying' to save John Terry's goal on Friday night.

Terry rose above the dfenders and planeted a firm header towards the top left corener of the goal as an attacker would look at it. The keeper struggled to move anywhere near it before it was in the goal. After realising he was going to get nowhere near it he dived theatrically into the air about two seconds after the ball had sailed into the net!!

Tremendous.

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2001