Yankee_Jack
Key Player
Don't forget to keep your electrolyte levels up ... plenty of hydration and Brains Bitter.Cliff’s warmup is very much like mine, but there the similarity ends. Still I’m only 84, perhaps in another year I’ll reach his level.
OTHER FOOTBALL
- Thread starter ivoralljack
- Start date
SA? The infamous 'Skull Attack'. I was never a beer drinker so I'm no judge but some of my pals were militant beer drinkers and reckoned that Brains didn't travel well - that it only tasted good within a 10 mile radius of Cardiff and, the further you went, the worse it tasted. Anyone else ever hear this?
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
or substitute Pils or your beverage of choice.
Holstein Pils was Ducks' beverage of choice. He used to swear that after 6 bottles his slight double vision became single and he lost the faint trace of a slur he had in his voice. That's why Ducks had to give up football following a clash of heads in a game where I'm told his life was on the line for a while during a lengthy hospital stay.
KVetch
Key Player
The playoff matches were quality football. Every team was playing at a higher level. That is an important fact to remember if we ever make the playoffs again. I thought Southampton would get the win but West Brom looked the better side. Sadly cheering for Leeds because we'll get a £2 million payout from the Piroe transfer.
I see that former Swan Josh Sheehan will captain Wales this evening against Gibraltar k.o. 5 pm. Despite never having started for Wales, six cap Sheehan will lead the team with many regulars missing for one reason or another. Page says this is a transitional team and he's playing a lot of youngsters with one eye on the future. This is a nothing friendly against a team that a decent LOW side should comfortably beat. We shall see.
We did see. Gib have lost their last 13 games, are ranked #203 in the world and the last two teams who failed to score against them were, wait for it, Faroe Islands and Grenada!! Yet they earned a 0-0 draw against an absolutely abysmal Wales team who didn't have a clue how to breach an 11 man defence.
It was truly awful and I can't find enough words to express my disgust, anger and shame with our performance....... if you can call it that. The only efforts worth mentioning were from Liam Cullen in the first half and Lewis Koumas in the second both of which brought sprawling saves from the keeper. And Josh Sheehan who hit the inside of the far post with a fluke corner.
I've better things to do than waste my time writing about that lot. Suffice to say that the pundits said that Robert Page cannot defend that debacle and that it's yet another terrible result to chalk against his name. 'Nuff said!! They also commented that the players should have taken more responsibility, hinting that if Page's game plan wasn't working (I assume he had one but I failed to recognise what it was) they should have just played what was in front of them. Reasonable thought but the player's execution of their duties was equally as bad as Page's and few came out with any credit.
Okay, this was a team of youngsters and 2nd/3rd choices but they were playing Gibraltar for pity's sake!! And the likes of Dan James, Brennan Johnson and Kieffer Moore were brought on to grab the win. Truth is there was a slight improvement but they didn't come close to scoring. It was just a friendly, a learning game, but the only thing that was learned, imo, was confirmation that Page hasn't got a fucking clue at international level.
It was truly awful and I can't find enough words to express my disgust, anger and shame with our performance....... if you can call it that. The only efforts worth mentioning were from Liam Cullen in the first half and Lewis Koumas in the second both of which brought sprawling saves from the keeper. And Josh Sheehan who hit the inside of the far post with a fluke corner.
I've better things to do than waste my time writing about that lot. Suffice to say that the pundits said that Robert Page cannot defend that debacle and that it's yet another terrible result to chalk against his name. 'Nuff said!! They also commented that the players should have taken more responsibility, hinting that if Page's game plan wasn't working (I assume he had one but I failed to recognise what it was) they should have just played what was in front of them. Reasonable thought but the player's execution of their duties was equally as bad as Page's and few came out with any credit.
Okay, this was a team of youngsters and 2nd/3rd choices but they were playing Gibraltar for pity's sake!! And the likes of Dan James, Brennan Johnson and Kieffer Moore were brought on to grab the win. Truth is there was a slight improvement but they didn't come close to scoring. It was just a friendly, a learning game, but the only thing that was learned, imo, was confirmation that Page hasn't got a fucking clue at international level.
Wales lost again totally stuffed 0-4. Robert Page booed in the last two matches and he got pelters tonight from the pundits on two different tv channels. I won't waste time rehashing what went wrong but we're playing like a second division side with no identity, no organisation and no fight. It's surely time that the donuts at the FAW put an end to the farce we've become as an international team. Page has made us a laughing stock and he has to pay the price.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
The last video link was it a good one.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Agree that Page has to go , but so does Ward , he inspires no confidence whatsoever between the sticks , a 12 year old would have made a better effort for their first goal , the second was a good sharp strike but a keeper should never be so comprehensively beaten at the near post . His distribution was tedious and never put us on the front foot and don't get me started about his flapping at crosses, how lucky was he when the ballcame back off the bar and into his hands . Simply the worst keeper display I have seen for years !
Broadbent ?(no.23 ) couldn't control the ball when passed to him and lost possession every time.
Broadbent ?(no.23 ) couldn't control the ball when passed to him and lost possession every time.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
there is also absurdity of starting Sheehan when our own Oli Cooper isn’t even in the squad,
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Broadhead not Broadbent ! Yet another senior moment !
He plays with Wes Burns at Ipswich and Kieffer Moore was there on loan as well last season. The way they played for us looks like they all knackered themselves getting Ipswich to the Prem!!
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Moore also had a poor game with his passing going astray and his hold up play non existent.
Thing is would they have dared play for Kieran McKenna the way they did for Robert Page? I suppose they would argue that at least McKenna had a gameplan and good tactical nous. This was one accusation the pundits levelled at Page, above all others, in that when Plan A didn't work (not that many could understand what that was supposed to be), there was bugger all left on show.
Based on those highlights I'd say Ward was actively trying to get Page fired. Never seen such a non-effort to make any saves whatsoever. That performance was like when you're playing five-a-side with your mates and there's always that one guy that refuses to take his turn in goal, and when he's finally pressured into doing it, he just lets everything in so he'll get taken back out asap
Reading an article today in the Sun who reckon that Richard Evans would win a competition for having the most famous names in his phone contact list. This would include the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Romelu Lukaku amongst many others. So, exactly who is Richard Evans?
Well, he played for Bristol Rovers and Exeter City among other lower league sides before joining his boyhood club Swansea as a physiotherapist in 1999. There he met Roberto Martinez forming a close friendship and working with him at Wigan, Everton and the Belgium national team. And now he's a part of Martinez's Portugal backroom staff as their performance manager.
Evans, who is preparing Portugal for their opening game against Czech Republic on Tuesday, quit pro football to study for a sports science degree at Loughborough University and another at Brunel University. He said that he'd have been happy if he'd played just one league game and scored at least one goal, which he did, and never thought that he'd go on to work with some of the best players in Europe if not the world. He reckons Ronaldo, who likes to mimic his Welsh accent, is a really nice guy who's just 'one of the lads'.
When he was with Belgium (just after Wales' famous victory in 2016) he recalled a humurous first meeting with keeper Thibaut Courtois who asked him where he was from. When I told him he said, "I hate Wales." Then he asked him where in Wales Evans was from, which worried him because Chelsea had often struggled against Swans. So he told Courtois that he was from Swansea only to get the reply, "I hate Swansea, too."
So, again, who is 56 years old Richard Evans? Well he's the son of former Swansea winger Brian Evans (died 2003) who played more than 400 games for the club earning 7 Welsh caps along the way. Older posters and fans will remember Brian as a very tricky winger who could turn his man inside out at will when he was on his game. Very under-rated by his country, Brian, more often than not, was on his game and he was a hugely popular player who gave great service to the club. He was certainly one of my favourite players of the time and I've always felt that he never got the recognition that his talent and ability deserved. But I'm sure he won't mind that looking down and seeing how well his boy is doing. RIP, Brian.
Well, he played for Bristol Rovers and Exeter City among other lower league sides before joining his boyhood club Swansea as a physiotherapist in 1999. There he met Roberto Martinez forming a close friendship and working with him at Wigan, Everton and the Belgium national team. And now he's a part of Martinez's Portugal backroom staff as their performance manager.
Evans, who is preparing Portugal for their opening game against Czech Republic on Tuesday, quit pro football to study for a sports science degree at Loughborough University and another at Brunel University. He said that he'd have been happy if he'd played just one league game and scored at least one goal, which he did, and never thought that he'd go on to work with some of the best players in Europe if not the world. He reckons Ronaldo, who likes to mimic his Welsh accent, is a really nice guy who's just 'one of the lads'.
When he was with Belgium (just after Wales' famous victory in 2016) he recalled a humurous first meeting with keeper Thibaut Courtois who asked him where he was from. When I told him he said, "I hate Wales." Then he asked him where in Wales Evans was from, which worried him because Chelsea had often struggled against Swans. So he told Courtois that he was from Swansea only to get the reply, "I hate Swansea, too."
So, again, who is 56 years old Richard Evans? Well he's the son of former Swansea winger Brian Evans (died 2003) who played more than 400 games for the club earning 7 Welsh caps along the way. Older posters and fans will remember Brian as a very tricky winger who could turn his man inside out at will when he was on his game. Very under-rated by his country, Brian, more often than not, was on his game and he was a hugely popular player who gave great service to the club. He was certainly one of my favourite players of the time and I've always felt that he never got the recognition that his talent and ability deserved. But I'm sure he won't mind that looking down and seeing how well his boy is doing. RIP, Brian.
Yankee_Jack
Key Player
1969-70 .... Brian Evans on the left wing, Len Allchurch on the right wing, Dai Gwyther and Herbie Williams #10 and #9. Conventional 4-4-2. Geoff Thomas and Willie Screen central midfield. Vic Gomersall and Dai Lawrence as LB/RB. Mel Nurse and Alan Williams as CBs. Tony Millington in goal.
A lot of fun in that team. Roy Bentley on the bench with Harry G.
A lot of fun in that team. Roy Bentley on the bench with Harry G.
The Blobster
Prediction Champ
Used to rush from my Saturday morning game to take my spot on the North Bank, loved that team , class in every position !