johnh

England win but they must devise a plan for bowling to tail-enders. Its been a problem for England for years. In today's game the last three Aussie batsmen put on 88 runs. England seem to bowl to tail-enders as if they were opening batsmen. Full and straight to tail-enders, if they miss, they are out bowled or lbw.

In the Telegraph Sport today, Martinez is quoted as follows when asked about missing out on the no.10. 'There were two big reasons for that, we had a few options where we felt the player could fit in from a technical point of view but not from a physical point of view. (???? my question marks) Also, I felt that having Osman and Pienaar fully fit from the start of the season is a good opportunity to see how significant they can be in the squad. The emergence of a more mature Barkley who can fill that role in a different way to 12 months ago is very important. I also feel Kone is becoming an important member of the squad after injury and that gives us a different option which means we don't really need the no. 10 that we were thinking of last season.' A rather convoluted way of saying we haven't got the money to spend.

Was talking to my brother the other day (Father Michael) he is 13 months older than me. We were reminiscing about school days and particularly about playing football. I started at St Matthews in Richard Kelly Drive in 1947. At 'play-time' there was always a 40 a side game going on and I quickly learned that there were only two questions to ask. 1. Which way are Everton kicking and 2. What's the score. It was amazing how equal the two sides were, Everton and Liverpool supporters seemed exactly split down the middle. One goal was on the school wall and the other was at the end of the playground on the brick air-raid shelter. The ball was an old tennis ball and you were lucky if you got more than a couple of kicks during the quarter hour or so. The winners had bragging rights until the next time. This continued every morning and afternoon, 5 days a week, winter and summer. I hope it still goes on at schools in Liverpool, the only difference being that the lads will now wear flash trainers and have a proper football. Golden memories though.

They do say that the average time a player is 'in possession', during a game, is less than 5 minutes. There is also a saying that its what a player does 'off the ball' that is important. Positioning, tracking runs, anticipating etc., The problem with watching a game on TV is the camera usually follows the ball, so you really only see the players who are 'in play'. It is very difficult to judge players from TV when they are doing some excellent work 'out of shot'.

This may not be entirely fair as I only see the odd televised games, but it seems to me that Barkley does not have a top quality 'football brain'. Think Scholes. If Barkley lays off a first time pass it seems as though he's decided to do that before he even receives the ball, but no other option is considered. If he starts running with the ball then his mind set is 'running with the ball' and often he does not see other options. This is why he often ends up in a dead-end out wide or doubling back to no purpose. The problem is that you can't 'train' this into a player, he either has it or he doesn't. He undoubtedly has many other fine skills and it is up to Martinez (and Hodgson) to play him in such a way that these skills are maximised.

Hodgasaurus plays Sterling for the number of penalties he is going to get for us. He went down very easily last night. Funny but I don't feel half as bad when he does it for England as I did when he did it for Liverpool.

Amused by the Telegraph Sport 'marks out of 10'. Delph, who lasted less than a minute, got 6. Oxlade-Chamberlain who played the whole 90 minutes got 5. Barkley, who played 89 minutes didn't feature. Funniest of all, Rooney got 7.!!!

Rooney is very poor, not worth his place at the moment.

Its only waterproof to a depth of 1,500 ft though.

When I were a lad... Harry Catterick was a player.

Not only was he lucky not to get a custodial, he was lucky he only got banned for 20 months. Anyone else, white van man etc, would have got a three year ban.

According to Sky the club who have done most deals is Watford - 15 players? I thought I read somewhere that they already had problems with too many players, too many foreign players, and that was before the window.

Looks like Mori and Lennon then. Oh, and the South American guy for £5m..................sorry got my zero's mixed up £500k. :jump for joy:

It was today, I'll grant you that!

7 pages in Telegraph Sport today devoted to transfer deadline day. The only mention Everton get is our refusal to sell Stone.

Everton 2 Chelsea 1 Lukaku

2 - 0 down at half-time, the ref will have to work hard in the second-half.

After 70 minutes (v Arsenal) Newcastle have had 25% possession, one attempt on goal (not on target) 5 yellow cards and one red. Losing 1 - 0 (og)

Spurs 2 - Everton 2 Mirallas

Incidentally, my local team Maidenhead United, were one of the 15 teams who played in the very first FA Cup round - 1871. They played local rivals Marlow. Bit of a coincidence because I was going to watch Maidenhead Rugby playing a pre-season friendly against Marlow this evening but its peeing down.

Not sure where to post this. Some years ago, I did an extensive family history search and on the way I decided to link various historical happenings, including football and Everton related issues, to the family history. My great Grandfather - Charles Henesy 1860 - 1948 Grandfather - Charles Henesy 1881 - 1953 Father - Charles Henesy 1907 - 2000 When the F A produced the first rules for the game of football in 1863 my great grandfather was 3. He was 18 when Everton football club was formed. He was 11 when the FA Cup was launched. He was 15 when crossbars were installed. He was 28 when Everton joined the league He was 30 when goal nets were introduced. Grandfather was 7 when the leagues started. He was 25 when Everton won the cup for the first time. He was 52 when Eveerton won the cup for the second time. My Dad was 26 when Everton won the cup for the second time.. (Didn't do any more as Dad supported Liverpool)

It doesn't necessarily have to be a lower interest rate. If the outstanding balance on the original loan is extended over a new loan period then the repayments will be less. It doesn't reduce the cost, it helps the cash flow.

This is true. Hitch-hikers I ignored. Two skin heads with an Alsatian. A guy with a ladder.

I read something in the paper about hitch-hiking and it reminded me of when I was an expert hitch-hiker back in 1954 when doing National Service. Before I was posted to Singapore I was stationed at Nottingham for three or four months and whenever I could get a week-end pass I used to hitch-hike from Nottingham to Leeds (no Motorways in those days). There was no point in hitching on local roads, so we had about a mile to walk from camp to reach the main road. One Saturday I had walked about half a mile from camp and a car stopped. The driver asked me if I wanted a lift and where was I going. I said 'Leeds' and he said 'Is City Square OK'. He happened to be going to Leeds and dropped me in the City centre. On another occasion I was on the A1 south of Doncaster, it was snowing. A bread van stopped and said he could take me through to the other side of Doncaster which was a big help. As there were two guys in the front they said I would have to go in the back, standing between the racks of bread, cakes and pies. We had just started off when one of the guys shouted 'help yourself to a pie. It didn't half go down well. In later life I did a lot of driving all over the UK and never failed to stop for anyone in uniform.

I see Liverpool's luck continues. In the Capital One Cup Arsenal are drawn away at Spurs. West Ham away at Leicester, Man City away at Sunderland. Liverpool home to Carlisle!