Murrr

Normally I'd be standing firmly in the "shut up, fuck off" camp... BUT this is West Ham after all, anything that causes them further disruption is only a good thing in my book .

Did anyone see the article in the EE the other day? Some of the responses from members of the public were ace... "I think Scotland should be independent because I am a true Scot!"

Good een.

i thought Agbonglahor from Villa was gonna be added to the Scotland team?

Oh Jesus...

Granted, some of them are just being pricks about it, but there's a lot of people have been very critical for a long time. Very rarely has he got the best out of the side.

Which is fair enough. Just can't stand tools who sing his praises one minute then yelp "JIMMY OUT!" as soon as a result doesn't go out way.

Drive-by Truckers - "A Blessing and a Curse"

Eyehategod - "Dopesick" (lost my old copy, gutted)

Crowbar - s/t

You're never further than 3 seats away from a feeble mind with a loud voice at Pittodrie! I had such an unbearable imbecile behind me I had to move at half time. It's the shouts of "half the cunt!" "Brak his fucking legs min!" that amuse me the most. Good advice.

Yeah tell me about it; learned all about such twats after holding a season ticket for three years. Still, some of the stuff your typical Aberdeen casual barks is dimwitted to the point where it's fucking hilarious.

Is anyone else a Brewster fan, or am I the only one? A lot of the chimps on various AFC fansites seem to have a completely irrational hatred for the man (I assume it's because he's old). Alright, he's slow but he's one of very few Dons players that actually knows how to use his brain. Decent hold-up play and he's good at bringing others into the game... brings a lot more to the table than Mackie & co. in my opinion.

We need Seve in midfield and someone to add a little more creativity I think (hopefully De Visscher can fill this role). I'm not the biggest Chris Clark fan to be honest... he'll run all day for you and work his balls off, but his positional sense is dreadful and every time he got anywhere near the box yesterday it looked like he didn't have a clue what to do with the ball.

Can't believe the amount of kneejerkers that have popped up over the past two weeks as well; have Aberdeen fans always been this fickle? Two bad performances (alright, so "bad" is a bit of an understatement) and people are calling for Jimmy's head? Ridiculous.

I saw some pleb bigging up Archie Knox for the job as I was walking from Pittodrie yesterday. Jesus wept.

realistic physics do not make it more fun! that's my opinion anyway. and the amiga version shat on the megadrive version from a mighty height. it's a silly argument though because it's being released not to compete against pro evo and fifa but purely for the fans. there is a huge amount of gamers who spent an obscenely large amount of their young lives playing sensible soccer and destroying many a competition pro or zipstick joysticks and who wish to do so again.

graphics and physics have very little to do with the joy of putting together a sublime series of one touch passes and finishing off with a diving header from just outside the penalty box using only one button. yes it's nostalgic but it's also so stupidly simple that it will still stand the test of time when it's released on xbox live arcade(so long as they've not fucked it up like the new version last year).

Absolutely spot on.

If SWOS was being designed as a "realistic football simulation" then comparing to PES would be all fine and dandy, but it's pretty much the total opposite (in fact, I reckon it has a closer resemblence to a game of pinball than a game of football). It's just simple, one-button fun and a great way to waste an hour or two.

Don't get me wrong, I fucking love Pro Evolution Soccer, but SWOS is a completely different kettle of fish.

Anyway, how ace was the manager mode?!

Took the trip down to Pittodrie today, which was a pretty shoddy decision. It's been a while since I witnessed such a limp, lifeless performance from an Aberdeen side. I just can't believe how bloody negative our play was... I mean, playing long ball is fine if you have a bloody target man to take the ball down, hold it up and bring others into play, but lumping it up to Steve Lovell and Darren Mackie? Come on, that's ridiculous...

I rate Jimmy as a decent SPL manager but his tactics have been absolute rank so far this season. Severin and McNamara should have swapped positions, and if he insists on playing this long ball stuff then we need Miller or Brewster up front to take the ball down.

We just never really took the game to Hearts at all, it was incredibly frustrating to watch. Their goal was avoidable too (good finish mind).

Diamond did have a very good game though.

To top it off, I ended up getting stuck in front of a couple of absolute neeps... "BREWSTER MIN! YER SLOW AS FUCK!"... what you expect you fucking idiot? He's 41...

graphics don't mean shit. sensible world of soccer is the most playable game that has ever been created and captures more closely the fun and pace of a football match better than any fifa or pro evo game.

how is xbox live shit?

and murr: it's not a new one, it's the original amiga version of swos with some extra graphical tweaks(mainly in the crowd).

anyway, i'm looking forward to it immensly. yea it's mainly nostalgia but swos is my favourite game of all time so of course i'm going to be excited about playing it again.

That sounds cracking tbh. I fired up the original version a couple of weeks ago... couldn't stop playing it. Honestly, who gives a fuck about graphics? The original version is still infinitely more fun than the latest FIFA releases...

hasn't aged that well. not quite as good as pro evolution...

That's a very silly comparison indeed.

Sensible World of Soccer

i'm so excited i've gone all moist.

New SWOS? Fucking ace. Hope it's better than last year's "update" of Sensible Soccer...

Toon 3 - 1 Bolton, get in.

Sounds like we absolutely pissed on them for the first 30 minutes too, love it.

Athletico Shitbox is gonna fuck you up .

Feel sorry for the fans really, this is what happens when you're club is run by two seemingly clueless mongs (Ridsdale & Bates) in quick succession.

West Ham to be in the same situation in 5 years time? I wouldn't bet against it...

Weedeater - "God Luck & Good Speed"

Alabama Thunderpussy - "Fulton Hill"

Not usually my kind of music this, but I think the track is ace. I particularly enjoyed the instrumental section from 1:30 onwards. The vocals aren't really my thing but I can live with 'em, and the production is phenomenal .

Your artwork is pretty hot too, good work!

They actually made an album out of this bobbins? Jesus wept...

normally i'd agree on the internet bullshit but this guy's connected to the club and he's usually spot on about this sort of thing. Guess we'll know in time.

Smith/Viduka combo could be a winner for the toon but it still won't help that abysmal defence will it?

Fair enough. I'm pretty cautious about the whole thing, it's difficult to understand why the hell he bought Newcastle in the first place... oh well, we'll see what happens.

Viduka and Smith... christ, that's a slower frontline than Wigan's deadly Sibierski/Heskey combo. I reckon Big Sam will use Smith as a mildfielder though, because we're pretty stacked up front. Decent enough player, lots heart & grit, but is he productive enough?

Defence needs to be sorted out ASAP, it's a joke at the moment (not that you need me to tell you that). Taylor is a decent prospect but is far too rash, don't know anything about Rozehnal, and the rest (Carr, Babayaro, Ramage, Huntington, etc...)? Pffft. I don't know too much about this Brazilian lad from Lyon we're bringing in but he seems like a canny player; has captained Lyon for the past 5 years, plenty of CL experience... could be just what we need.

On the Newcastle front, I heard from a pretty reliable source that the new club owner (Mike Ashley is it?) isn't a big fan of big Sam and wants to give him the boot already! Hence Allardyce not getting decent cash to make big signings over summer; looks like they want to push him out before the season's even started!

Heard that too, assumed it was internet bullshit .

Signing Alan Smith tomorrow apparently, not sure what to think...

I hate to admit it but Spurs are looking might dangerous this season, but 16.5m for Darren Bent is absolutely ridiculous. He's a decent striker and all, but is he really worth more than Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer in his prime? The market for British players is pretty stupid at the moment though, lets be honest... Jason Koumas for 5.5m, Michael pissing Chopra for 5m and Kieran Richardson for 5.5m... what a joke. How much did Villa play for Ashley Young, 9m? Jeesh...

As a Newcastle fan I kind of hope Gordon does go to the Mackems. With the signings they've been making so far it looks like they'll be heading for the Championship straight away and I don't really want that; what is the point in having a rivalry if your rivals aren't even in the same bloody division? Craig Gordon could save them 8-10 points this season... or maybe I'm just over-rating him. Meh.

Newcastle United: the rest of the transfer window will be absolutely crucial for us, as we are currently at least 4 or 5 players short (add another if Dyer fucks off to West Ham, which, for the record, I hope he does). If Big Sam can get in a couple fullbacks, an experienced centre-back and a holding midfielder then there is no reason why a European spot isn't a realistc goal.

The squad at the moment is very, very thin though, especially in defence (when Steven Carr and Celestine Babayaro are your two first-choice fullbacks you know something is wrong). We could do with a younger defensive midfielder because Nicky Butt - as good as he was last season - hasn't got much left in the tank. Wingers, not an issue; with Duff, Solano, N'Zogbia and Milner there's a nice mix of youth and experience, and we're pretty tasty up front too.

A cup run would be ace, but I don't expect us to challenge for anything until after a couple of years of steady progress really.

I like what Big Sam's done so far though, he should get a knighthood for peddling Bramble alone . He's everything Glenn Roeder isn't; a manager with an impeccable grasp on the fitness side of things and a man with an uncanny ability to get the best out of his players... hell, it even looks like Albert Luque could be useful for us next season.

For the first time in many years I'm optimistic about the future of my football team; I'm not sure if I like it, really...

New Dekapitator album. Thrashtastic.

Didn't he just recently finish filming a reality TV show in Gardenstown with Malcolm McLaren and the blonde one from Hearsay? Or did I just imagine that?

RIP Frank!

if they were that great, most of us would've in fact heard of them.

Aye, because popular always = great. Good een.

Electric Wizard.

That is all.

i don't bother looking into pre season results too much - all pre season is about is getting the old fitness levels up for the forthcoming season.

Word to that.

Although the Toon are beating Sellick 2 - 0 at the moment, Luque scored, ho ho ho...