Boo To You Too

I know, I know, we pay the money we can react how we want. I know I know, you’ve seen Donny’s last two results and you now know everything about Doncaster and how bad they are and Norwich should have won by at least seventeen goals. I know, I know we’re meant to be Premier League.

Or not.

Lest we forget this time last season we were in League One, and the year before that we were mercilessly getting beaten with inept performance upon inept performance. And Donny were in fact one of the most attractive teams to watch outside of the Premier League last season, with a very talented manager at the helm. They’re not a whipping boy scraping by in the Championship anymore. And we’re not supposed to be in the Premier League, if we were, we would be.

A very low-key performance didn’t yield a loss, in fact it could have been much, much worse for City. Forest dropped points at the league’s bottom club and we’re still within touching distance of second. Less than a year after promotion back to a league we haven’t finished higher than 9th since the Premier League days.

I Donny Think So

Just when you think this season has had it’s fair share of crazy this season, Donny have brought in a note to try skip PE this week.

After shipping six at home to Ipswich and then a respectable three at Swansea, Doncaster have tried- in their words or to the effect- to do the rest of the Championship a favour by attempting to call off their trip to Fortress Carra. Lack of numbers, they claim.

They say having only 13 senior outfield players to pick from is unfair to the rest of the Championship by being forced to take such a depleted squad to a promotion chaser. Yet they did the exact same thing to Swansea just three days ago and humbly took a three-nil defeat without a shot in anger. And last time I checked, it only takes 11 to play football. We could even have a game of rugby league, they of all teams should know that.

But isn’t this what a youth system is for? Worst come to worst stick a youth player on the bus if need be. Were Donny in League One or Two they would go to their games regardless, fielding a goat at right back if they need to to fill a shirt.

Too Late, Too Late

With the Rugby World Cup starting in September, England could barely be in better form for it. Beating Australia in their backyard and then backing that up with a win at Twickers and so far looking very strong in the Six Nations seems to have put them well and truly in the frame.

Well not if you’re Sean Fitzpatrick.

He claims the rich vein of form is “too late” for them to accept the tag of serious contenders for the Webb Ellis trophy.

Well, let’s just stay at home then. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing, going all that way only to be told we didn’t submit our entry for “Winners” early enough.

Maybe he hasn’t heard of the playoffs. Squeeze into sixth on the last day of the season after being in trouble earlier in the season means you already have play-off success in the bag (I’m looking at you, Leicester City).

This is the most exciting England side since the nineties, playing heads-up rugby, expansive, aggressive and pragmatic at the same time. Most importantly though it is settled.

Never Thought This Would Happen…

It’s been a pretty strange few weeks of sport these last, erm, well, few weeks, topped off with Gary Neville giving everyone a little lift by announcing his retirement from football.

He’s been labeled the best right back in Premier League history (are we forgetting Thomas Helveg had a brief stint in the Prem at Fortress Carra??), been ridiculed for his ‘admiration’ for David Beckham and irritated everyone, I would say outside of the red half of Manchester but that wouldn’t work… and been, in my opinion, possibly one of the most cynical players to play football, up there with Muscat (Maybe that’s a bit harsh, even on the GNev).

He may not be very close to my Favourite Footballers XI- in fact he’s not even on the bench of my Players-Whose-Existence-In-Football-I-Acknowledge-Let-Alone-Appreciate reserve team- but I’ve developed, today, a begrudging respect for him.

Yep, that’s right.

He was one of the very, very few one-club players left in the modern game and I know that if he had donned the yella’n'green for the entirety of his career I would have the same affection for him as those United fans do. He’s one of those (cliche alert) love him if he’s on your side/hate him if he’s not. Not only that he was one of the best at it, Robbie Savage and Lee Bowyer pale in comparison. His heart takes up his whole sleeve, he’ll give you every drop for his side and there aren’t too many of them about nowadays.

So there it is. I won’t miss him, though.

No way.

His announcement was almost the antithesis to the chaotic events of Monday night.