Cornish Steve

Because he's in form, has a point to prove, and he's Spanish and understands better how European teams play. That's my reasoning, at least.

Oh geez. Is this whining thread ever going to end?

Whenever I think of the Scottish national team. I think of players who are not the greatest in the world but they make a game of it by playing with passion. Play carefully with a strategic plan, and they'll lose every time. Play for the upset by throwing everything into it, and they have a chance. For me, this is Naismith all over. Slow and steady never wins the race for him. He thrives when the team goes all out to upset the biggest teams. It's no wonder he scores many of the goals against the Top Four teams. Mark my words: He'll score the winner in the Europa final.

I want free tickets to fly the Atlantic to see the start of a pigeon race. It's as reasonable as your request!

Just how many incidents do there have to be before there's an inquiry into why questionable refereeing decisions always go in favour of the richest teams? As always, follow the money. That should never have been a penalty against Preston.

Am waiting to hear who Preston will play in the next round.

Here you go.

Would you like me to explain quantum physics to you?

Robles Coleman Stones Jagielka Garbutt Barry McCarthy Mirallas Barkley Oviedo Lukaku

Everton 2-0 Leicester Lennon

Congratulations this time around to Deacs, who predicted the score correctly. Since Everton scored no goals, that means 8 points. Deacs now leads for the month of February. He's also overtaken Romey for the best average per game. Romey still leads for the season.

I'd like to see us alternate them for the rest of the season.

Traore: scored at a rate of a goal a game.

Freudian slip?

When we used to have cable (and Fox Soccer), he was the best of the bunch there - which doesn't say a lot for the others. Eric Wynalda was absolutely the pits, and the two clearly didn't like each other.

In case you need a little reminder...

If they had any sense of sportsmanship, they would have scored once and left it at that. Disgraceful. When I used to coach my son's team, and the other team had (because of bad traffic hold-ups, for example) too few players to field a full team, we would play short-handed ourselves. This was the norm when I grew up. These days, it seems that there's no such word as sportsmanship.

Great goal from Michael Bradley - although I doubt he meant it!

Thanks for that. Ball, Harvey, and Kendall. There's a midfield trio for you! Now we have McCarthy, Besic, and Barkley - and they could aspire to the same greatness.

Nice to see Raith Rovers knock Rangers out of the cup.

Distin will never start (PS - I see that you corrected this). It will be Oviedo, although I'd prefer Garbutt. McGeady was rested and will start ahead of Lennon. Barkley was rested, and I would hope he'll be the difference between the teams. Mirallas was rested in part and will start.

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Chelsea 1-1 Everton McGeady

Which is why I'm mystified by the calls for Lennon to replace Barry - "totally different players with totally different jobs." Taking off Barry would have undermined the focus on a solid defence and represented a big risk. Replacing Mirallas with Lennon was like for like. And Mirallas was no great shakes today. Besic and McCarthy, on the other hand, were immense.