Congrats to the Norwich City fans on here. Amazing achievement considering where they were just under 2 years ago the day before Paul Lambert took over.

Well done Norwich. Congrats Carnelian xx

 

Quite. I don't know why they're in any English league in the first place. Congrats Carnelian 

Yay thanks Crunchy, Veggie and velvet donkey, Portsmouth certainly made it tough but a well deserved result. 

 

Can hardly believe we're back in the Premership, can hardly believe Cardiff choked so spectacularly and never expected to go up tonight!

 

 

Thanks Prom,  just got to keep hold of Lambert now.

well done carnelian xx..bet you're 'over the moon'.....

 

we watched the game......one of my mates hubbies is a norwich fan......he burst into tears at the end....we were willing the ref to blow the whistle cos we were all getting tense too..

Another Weegie managing in the PL, Fergie will be delighted seeing as they all bow down to him and let him win whenever ManU play them.

Not to mention all the ex ManU players that roll over for him too.

 

*moan moan whinge whinge*

 

Paul Lambert has done well with Norwich though, I'm looking forward to seeing them in the PL, I reckon they will make a much better fist of it this time around and you have some quality players who are attractive to watch too

Im just looking forward to seeing them go up against the rags...

 

 

 

"Green & Gold til the club is sold?"

Son told me that when he went to the Chelsea game at OT the Chelsea fans were singing 'Are you Norwich in disguise?' at them for most of the game

Paul Lambert's totally turned the club around and from the very start turned unmotivated players to players up for almost every match.  Getting Paul Lambert in was due to David McNally, who came in as CEO (from Fulham) to replace the clueless Neil Doncaster.  McNally put some steel and purpose into the club and a certain amount of ruthlessness.  He got his man whereas Doncaster just wanted to be everyone's mate.

 

The thing that's different about this Norwich side to the one that went up with Worthington is that this team is an attacking passing team, whereas the side under Worthington played deep and was prone to not turning up in certain matches .

We had a lovely tea round at a packed friend's house. No-one expected Middlesbrough to have a silly win again, but indeed! Tony Mowbray (he's one of us) turned us around a lot quicker than we thought that he would. Glad we did our bit for Norwich too! Meanwhile....... May I just say that in spite of having Bryan Robson and Steve McClaren as managers that we have never, ever, rolled over for Manchester United. Their feet wouldn't have touched the ground.

Last time we played Man U, we beat them 2-0

I note that everyone is still against United! "we're not going to get the decisions in these big games, I'm afraid." said the purple faced dick. I do hope that someone points out to him that Arsenal had two good penalty calls turned down in the first half, not that I'm bitter about losing a few poonds. Oh no.

Madrids perfectly good goal chalked off... Mascherano tripped up and the ref decided to disallow it. Seriously poor ref so far, looks to have killed the game off.

 

3-1 now but Madrid struggling to get out their own half. Can see why Mourinho decided not to show up.

You do know he was banned?

 

He wasn't banned from the stadium, just the coaching area.

 

Disgusting to see the cheating face-clutchers going through, I hope Man U win the final with two penalties that never should have been given with various face-clutchers (Alves, Mascherano et al) being sent off en route.

I very much doubt Mascherano will even play in the final unless they have about 7 defenders missing like they did the last time they played Man U in the final.

 

 

From last nights match.... I wonder if Andy Gray or Richard Keys put Kevin McNaughton up to this assault on Sian Massey?

 

Big mistake if they take that route imo. They'll need their best actors players to get a sending off or a penalty out of Man U. Alves, Mascherano and Busquets first on the team sheet I would have thought.

 

Only think about Masch is he will be more familiar with United than the other Barca players. I honestly think it is a cakewalk now for Barca, I don't think United have the answer to them. Messi is virtually unmarkable, Vidic may keep him quiet but they have so many other players (when they actually play football that is) of such a high standard. Each time United have been tested recently they have failed, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, City all beat them in the last few weeks.

True! But we can only pray to the football God that Manchester United are successful. Only an arsehole would want Barcelona to beat them.

...... Assuming they beat the guys from the Ruhr Valley!

I agree with you RiverRock and as I've said previously and stand by it, I don't think Man Utd are equipped at all to deal with Barca. Man United's midfield is far too weak and for all Vidic is a great defender, his real weakness is quick players running past him. Messi will be a nightmare for him. Fletcher will have to do a man marking job but then there's Pedro and Iniesta as well.

 

Barcelona will have to have a serious serious off day or injury crisis to lose this final. Or Man United will have to bribe Wembley to produce a Chelsea style sandpit pitch to stop them.

A note on Messi being 'unmarkable'. Pepe had him in his pocket for the whole of the first leg and we all know what happened to him don't we? Best not to mark him at all, it's not worth a red. The ref tonight was giving free kicks if any RM player even looked at Messi.

 

I'm not disputing Messi's quality, he's a brilliant player, just saying what Man U are up against. Barca are favourites obviously, but they are also truly repugnant on every level imaginable to any real football fan and I wish them nothing less than a truly resounding defeat in the final.

Well we weren't equipped to deal with Bellamy, Bothroyd, and Chopra.

Gave me a right chuckle seeing Adebayor out there, had no interest in the game whatsoever... just went out to boot anyone in his path

 

lol, I wondered if he was on orders 

Pepe is a hell of a good player though (much better than anyone Man Utd could put in to do that job), despite his crap attempt at a kung fu kick that totally missed Dani Alves but still got him sent off anyway. Silly boy!

It would have been funny if Real had pulled 2 late goals back given that Adebayor had given up all hope of playing in the final so didn't care about being one booking away from missing the final

You were!

With hindsight!

 

I think Jose sent Carvalho and Adebayour out there with specific orders. Kick the shit out of them and push them all over because if you don't, they'll act like you did anyway 

Chopra was crocked and only came on as a last resort.

Bothroyd is over rated (imo)

 

You lot had been on great form so it wasn't that much of a surprise that you restricted Cardiff to hardly even a sniff other than a handball appeal and the sitter by McNaughton.

I have to say that a lot of us took 3/1. After the Hull game we thought anything possible.

Exciting stuff! Barcelona Evens. Draw 2/1 Manchester 11/4 Tempting or what?

I was actually only joking about this being deliberate when I posted it the other night. But i noticed today it's in the national news

I'm not a betting man Joe but I'd say Man U are worth a quid or two. They could beat them easily if they attack from them from the start. Nobody does that against Barca, which is why they win so often. The were cack against Real in the first game till they got a one man advantage and needed the ref again in the second leg to wipe out a Real goal to help them on their way.

 

An in-form Man U could easily take them. I'd wait to see if we beat them on Sunday first. If we do, they'll be in panic mode I wouldn't bet a penny on them. If they win, get your poonds out.

Difficult isn't it. Out of professional courtesy do they play a ninety minute draw and then go for it? I may have a few quid on United.

They absolutely controlled and cruised the first leg even more so before pepe was sent off. The first half especially was like a walk in the park. I thought they were more comfortable in the first half of the 1st leg than last night. Totally agree with the Real goal being disallowed last night by the way. Accidental fall it may have been, but if that was allowed then we'd have players 'accidentally falling' into the backs of peoples legs all the time.

I actually think Man United's best bet is to do an Inter on them, defend, sit back and hit them on the counter attack with pace. If they try and control the game they'll get absolutely murdered.

 

 

Edit: and like i said yesterday if Man Utd can somehow get the wembley ground staff to ruin the pitch and make it into a Stamford Bridge style sandpit, that will help stop Barcelona doing their thing.