Birthdays & Elections

Birthdays, Elections and Accrington Stanley's Incredible Fans

First off, Daniel was Five on Wednesday - he was made a fuss of at school and gave out sweets to his friends before I picked him up. Then he came home to play with his presents and eat his football cake. He's got a big party tomorrow with all his friends and been invited to another in the afternoon!



Election Day on Thursday. It made me laugh with all these people turning up at the last minute to vote and then complaining when they clearly didn't know the rules - and the law! If it was so important the Polling Stations were open at 7am - don't tell me you all worked 15 hour days?!

Now we have a hung parliament and it doesn't sit well with me. Gordon Brown should be booted out on his arse yet after losing he doesn't have to leave! It's all corrupt and we'll probably get shafted by whoever takes over.

Cheltenham Stay Up By The Skin Of Their Teeth!

I took Daniel to Whaddon Road to see his first Cheltenham Town game and cheer them onto staying up in League Two. Bottom line was that they did it with a 1-1 draw and finished one place above the two relegated teams, Grimsby and Darlington. It was right up there with some of the most awful, tedious and un-skilful games I've ever seen.

However, there was huge entertainment during the game - it came from the away end.

Accrington Stanley brought 150-200 fans, the majority of which made a noise more befitting to 3000 fans - they would do the Premier League proud making that sort of constant noise. They sang loads of different songs including "I want to be Stan-a-ley" to the Sex Pistols "Anarchy" track! They even briefly sang "Sh*t support My Lord" which made me laugh!

Then during the first half (which even saw them lighting flares) something happened in the middle of their lot and one guy got injured and everything got very lively. The police waded in, one web-toed got arrested and so it continued for 5 minutes or so.

Then in the second half some lads had gone over to the left side of the Carlsberg Stand to collect a huge flag - when they attempted to take it back to where they were sat all hell broke loose as the stewards and Police wouldn't let them - more arrests and another injury.

A very surreal last 10 minutes followed as half of their supporters had disappeared. The A/S supporters entertainment far outweighed that of the tripe that was served up on the pitch! A few of them had banners with "SA" on them - couldn't quite work that one out - I don't think they'll forget their trip to Whaddon Road in a hurry.

Luckily Daniel saw none of it and was almost asleep for the last ten minutes (like most of home support) although he had enjoyed his day!

Chelsea Beat Villa

Wembley - The Same Hollow Feeling

First off, the trip down was fantastic - like old times on the Marchants bus, stopping for a couple of hours for drinks. Deep down I knew this would be the best part of the day and I wasn't wrong.

Aged 4 years and 11 months Daniel was a very lucky boy and got to see Wembley Stadium - as expected, parts of it passed him by but he did sing along at times and was really well behaved.



The game went as expected, we huffed and puffed but ultimately fell short in quality. The penalty we weren't given was a disgrace - Howard Webb should be strung up for that - but honestly, even possibly 1-0 up I don't think we would have won. Once they scored I knew the game was up - I don't think we seriously tested Cech at all.

Without wanting to single anyone out, Stuart Downing was abysmal for us, offering nothing and looking like the very average player I always thought he was at Boro.

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UFC 112

Anyway, Stuart Downing wasn't the only major disappointment. On returning to watch UFC 112 I had to suffer the misfortune of watching Anderson Silva defend his belt against Demian Maia. For two round he showed a total lack of class and respect as he fought hands down, chin up, taunting Maia at every opportunity.

Then he just stopped fighting. It was pathetic. No wonder the entire crowd booed him - it was a complete joke and made a mockery of the UFC and MMA. I hope Georges St Pierre gets his hands on Silva and makes him pay for that disgraceful display.

At least Dana White was honest....

Please Stay Martin!

Martin O'Neill - Tell Tale Signs....

It's pretty easy to see when a manager is under pressure by how he handles the media & press conferences. Yesterday Martin seemed very down, talking in a past tense.

He's really had the hump a couple of times with the support at Villa Park - once at the first game against Wigan and then against Wolves. I don't know if his reaction has been that clever in those situations but he seems to be really taking it to heart now.

Of course we have our grumbles. Why is Carlos Cuellar being turned into an awful right back rather than a decent centre half? Why is Luke Young so rarely used? Why even bother persisting with Emile Heskey? Why did we buy no one at all in January?

But hang on. These are the same grumbles any team (barring the top three) might have. M.O.N took over from the appalling David O'Leary, since when we've finished 11th, 6th and 6th again. This season we have a good chance of being top 6 again, got to the League Cup final and now the FA Cup Semi Final.



Of course we're going to moan about individual things at certain games, but overall we have to look at where we are now and be very happy in my opinion.

It would be a disaster if Martin O'Neill left us. Someone new comes in and starts all over again - and if you see what's available out there I'd advise we stick well and truly with what we have.

I hope we can get over what happened last week at Chelsea. Hey, we can always ask them how many European Cups they've won! Come on Martin - chin up!

UFC 111 Dan Hardy v GSP - Come On Dan Hardy!

Dan Hardy will be flying the flag for England and the UK on Saturday night against Georges St-Pierre at UFC 111 - If he wins he'll be the first Englishman to hold a UFC Title Belt.

The build up has been great and the UFC Primetime programmes have been revealing - Dan did Taekwondo like me and trained with the shaolin monks in 2000 for a couple of months - quite the contrast to GSP who claimed that Hardy wasn't a "Martial Artist". Plus they showed Dan training with Matt Serra who was helping him with the ground game.



The majority of the UK will have no idea about this but I'm sure many hardened MMA fans will either be staying up late or watching UFC 111 first thing in the morning on ESPN.

Like previous fighters, Mike Swick and Marcus Davis, Dan Hardy is getting inside GSP and winning the mins games pre-fight. For me, the heart says come on Dan, you can do this, you know you can knock him out and you know your stand-up is better. The head says GSP is the total package - look at the way he dismantled BJ Penn for instance - if GSP is right on his game he should win.

Predictions: Frank Mir to win and get ready to face Brock Lesnar and, I'm going out on a limb, - shock of the night as Hardy wins and brings the belt back to England with him! Come on Dan!

UFC 111 Review

GSP was awesome - dominant from start to finish. I'm struggling to think if Hardy landed a shot on him. Patriotism blinded me in thinking Dan could possibly win, but one thing - Hardy has a huge, huge set of nads for going the distance and not tapping with the arm bar & kimura.



The fight's end result came as no surprise to anyone who has watched GSP fight before. GSP took Dan Hardy down at will, beating him up and just neutralizing him. After 4 rounds of dominance I was willing Dan to just let his hands go at the start of the 5th - just a flurry, or something to ruffle GSP. Great as GSP is, I was gutted that Dan lost.

GSP can do nothing more to cement his status as the best welterweight in UFC history. The only competitive fights for him lie in the middleweight division. As for Dan, he can be a great fighter in this division for years to come. His next fight should be against Jon Fitch or Josh Koscheck.

Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir:

Shane Carwin came into the fight with an undefeated 11-0 record, with none of his fights going past 2:11 seconds of the first round. Frank Mir came into the fight with a very impressive submission win over Cheick Kongo, in which we saw a new and improved Frank Mir.

The fight was supposed to be a pretty even match-up, and for a few minutes it was. Then Shane Carwin unleashed his unbelievable punching power, and dropped Frank Mir with a few clean left uppercuts. Now, a fight with heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar awaits him.

Villa Lose The Final

Things That Make You F*cking Angry About Losing A Final

Empty seats in the "Freeloading" sections of Wembley. I've been to the arse-end of Europe supporting Aston Villa but because I don't have a Season Ticket now I have zero chance of getting to a game like this. Yet empty red seats adorned a Final I'd have loved to have been at.

Not only were there seats empty for the entire game, but hundreds were empty for up to 10 minutes of the second half as people meandered back to a game that clearly meant very little to them. I know of a Spurs fan who went along as his company gave him "a jolly up".

The FA make me fucking sick - and they've been doing it for as long as I've been going. Nearly 30,000 seats in that Stadium belonged to people that didn't deserve them - there should be a equal split of the full stadium for the teams - but of course, that will never happen.

Then you have a "bottle-job" like Phil Dowd - as baltant a sending off as you can get, but because it's Man Utd and because it's only a few minutes in he doesn't even book him! Wanker.

I think we've played alright today and gave a good account of ourselves. Maybe the service could have been better (esp from Cuellar) but it was certainly better than the pitiful effort 10 years ago at Wembley that's for sure. I stopped watching as soon as the whistle went so I haven't heard what's been said afterwards.

I still think Utd are a one-man team up front - without Rooney they have very little, although if we were without Gabby we'd be well and truly fucked too!

Up The Villa.

UFC 110 Australia Bonnar Blood!

UFC 110 - Bisping Loses to Silva In Australia

This was a big one for Michael Bisping, coming off a good win but needing to cement his position in the 185 standings. It didn't happen - it was very close - what annoyed me more was how all those judges saw Wanderlei Silva win the first round despite getting taken to the floor several times.

The second round was close with Bisping getting a takedown and Silva going straight to an arm-in guillotine - the bell coming at a handy time for our boy! The Aussie crowd were giving Bisping loads of stick, probably still frustrated by the fact their cricket team had lost the Ashes to England again.

The third round is even again and with 30 seconds left I'm just hoping Bisping will take him down and see out the round. At the 10-second warning, Silva lands a right hook that drops Bisping to the ground. Silva swarms, but runs out of time and Bisping is saved by the bell.

The main bout was Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira & Cain Velasquez with the latter winning by TKO in the first round.



Both Anthony Perosh and Stephan Bonnar spilt loads of blood for the cause - both fighters continued until they were told to stop.