Rioch's Braves

I think we'll put up a decent performance against Spurs, we're expected to lose, the pressure is all on Spurs, this may go to extra time.

Only competition Spurs have a chance of winning, so not that big of a surprise fielding a strong side.

It will be one of the shocks of the weekend if we managed to turn the Baggies over don't think it will happen, so I'll go 2-0 West Brom with us hardly having a shot on target.

Lets hope the lads give us a Boxing day treat and give us a good game and win, I'll go 2-0 Boro.

Merry Christmas Everyone and a healthy Happy New Year to one and all.

Then again after the initial excellent save where the *** was the midfield to put a challenge in on Clucas.

Quite correct he hasn't.

I just don't see that if Woodgate fails as a manager that makes him thick and unintelligent, it just makes him a poor manager/coach nothing more.

Totally agree Woodgate was a superb defender, only injury stopped him gaining a multitude of England caps. Yes, you would have to question the management at Spurs and Real Madrid wanting to sign such an unintelligent footballer, they obviously didn't know what they were doing. If failing as a manager makes you thick then there's a lot of unintelligent ex footballers kicking about.

Although Fry has been far from his best there's no way in my opinion that McNair, Friend or Shotton should be in front of him, Shotton always looks like an accident waiting to happen, even I panic when he has the ball and I'm not even on the pitch.

The 1st half was a bore fest, going a goal down was the best thing that could have happened to us because it seemed to wake us up. and forced Woodgate's hand.I thought that apart from the goal the defense played well, Pears did nothing wrong, it was the midfield that was letting us down. Saville offers us nothing and Clayton 9 times out of 10 is looking to pass to Ayala or Fry rather than play a forward pass, however I'd play him ahead of Saville every time. Early doors for Walker but he looks a long way from being a 1st team player. I like the look of Spence and I feel Coulson is improving every game. Its easy to see that Tav is the most skillful player in the squad but he can't do it on his own though he's having a bloody good go at it. I mentioned on an earlier match thread about Wing and Tav's shooting ability from outside the box, should be encouraged to keep doing that whenever the opportunity arises. We should have beaten Huddersfield away, never mind cautious, go for it from kick off, drop Saville play Wing, if Britts not fit then I'd play Gestede, because as stated above I don't think Walkers up to it yet.

What Saville does is make us look like we've only got 10 men on the pitch, he is one of the worst Boro signings for the money we paid, I'd take a loss and bin him in January awful player who offers nothing.

I hope we're not asking Burnley to pay part towards his wages after taking 15 mill from them, I think it'll go down like a lead balloon.

That's a good idea sell Fry and we can play in his place erm, erm I'm sorry I don't know, can anybody help out.

The things some of these players will do to get Christmas off, looks like plenty of Guinness and Turkey for Paddy.