mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
Having not seen the game, can someone put Ferguson's comments about injury time after the Leeds game in context for me.
 

don_quixote

Trent End
in all honesty i was surprised it was as much as five minutes. i missed about 15 mins of the second half because i was having lunch, but the man is having a fucking laugh.

honestly it feels like he's said this at the end of every game he's lost this season.

the fact is united were appalling. beckford missed a great chance late on and leeds also hit the bar from snodgrass. united were played off the fucking park. so for him to go on about injury time, when i don't even recall any injuries is a joke!!
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
ferguson was being a twat today. five minutes injury time was a joke, agreed completely. usually you'd have to have quite a few injuries for it to even reach 5. And saying leeds were lucky - do fuck off fergie.

as dq said, Leeds were far the better team. Beckford looks a handful for any defence, and brilliant free-kick from Snodgrass. Thought their central defence looked pretty good too. Shoulda been 2-0 Leeds if anything.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
AFAIK SAF was saying that five minutes was too long and Leeds didn't deserve to be put through five unjustifiable minutes (i actually missed all but the closing stages of the game so couldn't comment), to be fair. i may have this back to front but the way i read the below quote, well, idk.

normal MO at the swamp is for the ref to keep playing until United score a goal, so today was a pleasant change.

"The referee gave five minutes," said the United manager, referring to Foy's decision to add five minutes of added time during the third-round tie.
"That is an insult to the game and the players out there," added Ferguson, who admitted Leeds had deserved to win.

L***s have got the tie of the round in the next round too, so fair play to them.

second consecutive match in which Tranmere missed an open goal - flukey Wolves.. ;)
 

mos dan

fact music
i've got to say i really really enjoyed the leeds win (sorry rich). i just get an unhealthy pleasure out of seeing alex ferguson unhappy. also i am a bit yorkshire.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
must be odd for Leeds to have most people in the country rooting for them...I've always had a soft spot for their, er, anti-populist stance...
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
AFAIK SAF was saying that five minutes was too long and Leeds didn't deserve to be put through five unjustifiable minutes

This may be the moment when Scott's fair-mindedness teetered over into madness.

Didn't realise til now that Vidic pulled out with mystery injury. Boy can't wait to escape the Manc winter.
 

mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
AFAIK SAF was saying that five minutes was too long and Leeds didn't deserve to be put through five unjustifiable minutes (i actually missed all but the closing stages of the game so couldn't comment), to be fair. i may have this back to front but the way i read the below quote, well, idk.

normal MO at the swamp is for the ref to keep playing until United score a goal, so today was a pleasant change.

When I first saw the quote I thought this was maybe what Ferguson meant, but then the BBC made some comment about how risky and controversial it was - especially in light of his recent FA charge - so then I wasn't sure if he was complaining that they didn't get longer, but seeing as he had just slated his team anyway it wouldn't serve much purpose i.e. deflecting criticism which is usually what these comments are for. Was it in a television interview that he said it? That would clear it up, not that it's actually that important.
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
my distaste for United is well-known and as mrfaucet rightly points out, it doesn't really matter, but judging from the interview in which Taggart made the 'insult' comment (see embed below) i think my initial guess was correct. after all, his being a contrarian (no matter which direction he's pushing) will be assessed as risky and controversial no matter what.

well, i'm reading it as saying he thinks the ref didn't need to add as many minutes as he did, in context it sure seems that way to me, plus he admitted it was the right result.

have a look for yourself if you're arsed.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

slightly OT, but Grayson - who i have a lot of time for in general - but, please, come on, spare me the 'our 4,000 fans at Bristol Rovers' and other such hymns to your fans, a city the size of Leeds, with only one (senior) team to boot, you should be selling out every game (and more besides).. ...obviously i realise of course he's going to say that and is well within his rights to want to big up his fans (i certainly enjoyed their taunts of the home support yesterday ;) ), but, you know, let's get it in perspective
 

don_quixote

Trent End
can i pimp out a football (statistics) blog i'm starting; first up a straight look at the claim by the fa that these were the best attended fa cup matches in 30 years:

spirallingdebts.blogspot.com

coming up; who is the biggest team in the championship? (newcastle, obviously) but how you can sort of show it (a bit) objectively. and which team is second ;)
 

mrfaucet

The Ideas Train
Not to go on about it, but just saw this on SkySports:

Ferguson could also not resist a dig at match official Chris Foy, believing there should have been more than the five minutes of added time at the end.

I guess Fergie probably doesn't know what he meant either.

Blog looks interesting don_quixote. Will probably end up forwarding it to my brother as his pet football topic is the shocking state of punditry and how it's never back up with any solid evidence.

Also, anyone know why Maxi Rodrigez has fallen out of favour at Atletico? Seen that he's been linked with Liverpool.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Not to go on about it, but just saw this on SkySports:

Quote:
Ferguson could also not resist a dig at match official Chris Foy, believing there should have been more than the five minutes of added time at the end.

That's been the assumption everywhere. But then these guys follow Fergie for a living, so you can see why the might have misconstrued the fair-minded reaction of a true gentleman with the bitter, barmy ranting of a compulsive whinger.
 

don_quixote

Trent End
Is he any good? Saw the reports, but just assumed he was another one of Rafa's rubbish wingers.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value=""></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

no idea if he's actually any good but he did do this.

there was a shorter video with bbc commentary but this is SO MUCH BETTER
 

scottdisco

rip this joint please
That's been the assumption everywhere. But then these guys follow Fergie for a living, so you can see why the might have misconstrued the fair-minded reaction of a true gentleman with the bitter, barmy ranting of a compulsive whinger.

are you calling him a sour, one-eyed grudge holder?! for shame..

can i pimp out a football (statistics) blog i'm starting; first up a straight look at the claim by the fa that these were the best attended fa cup matches in 30 years:

spirallingdebts.blogspot.com

coming up; who is the biggest team in the championship? (newcastle, obviously) but how you can sort of show it (a bit) objectively. and which team is second ;)

awesome.

and intriguing re the second team. obviously we know who you support, but, current average gates alone, it's Derby, no? (clearly it's not just gates, i know i'm being mischievous!)

i remember about 12 years ago now the BBC's (i think short-lived) MOTD magazine had a big pull-out where they 'rated' the biggest teams in Britain, all league teams of Scotland and England (Welsh teams in the English structure), gates, history, all together, league table style.

it was pretty solid really, it certainly read fairly reasonably, you had the Old Firm, 'Pool, United, the big London teams, etc, up there, the likes of Villa, Everton, Leeds and City quite near the top.
probably also the likes of Huddersfield higher than if it were just average gates etc. Forest of course w their record :cool:

they also had a fascinating section about away fans by team wrt the number of travellers each team got as a percentage of their home gate (sorry that's not explained very well). i remember Birmingham and West Brom scored highly for that category at the time.

speaking of more stats, i thought the Championship was the fourth best supported league by average gate until i read this (August 2008 piece admittedly, but the updated stats from a year later are very, very similar)

Yet statistics can lie, and it is also true to say the average gate in the Championship last season was 17,028, which means it was not even the most popular second division in Europe (the average gate in 2. Bundesliga was 17,207), let alone better-attended than Serie A (23,186) or France's (21,817).

Confused? The fact is that Championship teams play 46 games a season, compared to 38 in Italy and France, 34 in Holland and Germany, 30 in Greece, Bulgaria and Kazakhstan. It is greatly to the Championship's credit that 9.4m people saw its matches last season, but playing more games ultimately means only that the same spectators are counted more often. In terms of aggregate attendance the Championship can say it is fourth highest, though that stat is produced by the sheer number of games. In terms of average attendances, surely the only acceptable measure for purposes of comparison, the Italian league is fourth most popular in Europe, which is roughly what you would expect, while the Championship trails home in eighth behind the big four plus France, Holland and Germany's second tier.

my mistake to conflate fourth biggest by aggregate with fourth biggest by average attendance, per game.

p.s.
Tuesday's Blue Square Premier game between Altrincham and York has been postponed because of heavy frost.
The match will have to be rearranged for a second time after their initial clash was called off on 28 December - but no new date has been set.
The game is Altrincham's fifth postponed match in a row, meaning they have not played in the league for more than one month.

meh.
Alty's last Saturday home game was the 14th of November.

he's supposed to be quite tidy isn't he, Rodriguez?
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
they also had a fascinating section about away fans by team wrt the number of travellers each team got as a percentage of their home gate (sorry that's not explained very well). i remember Birmingham and West Brom scored highly for that category at the time.

No fair, they're in the middle of the country with dozens of clubs little more than a hop and a skip away. Now, despite being 50 miles from the nearest club and more than a hundred from the real football heartlands, Brighton regularly take....OK, I'll shut up.
 
Top