Scally Bob

It's 1,600 tickets not 16,000. Surely different coloured tickets could be issued and all those ticket holders could be told they have to get to the ground half an hour before the gates open? I've been to every game we've played at Cardiff but can't remember if the barriers are electronic but I seem to have it in my head they are. Can't it be programmed to reject the stolen batch and if not, why not? They certainly check tickets before the turnstiles. There's so much heat on these tickets now most won't get near the ground but if the FA had any guts (some chance!) they would sort this out. It's not really the Club's fault but they should have put the tickets on sale earlier. That way fewer would ask for them posted and there would have been more time to come up with a solution if they'd been nicked a week ago. The Club or the Royal Mail does need to find out who was on the inside on this though.

His agent is Willie McKay. I think it would be safe to close this thread or move it to the general.

I work in Manc so have first-hand experience of this. Being supportive of Scousers never came naturally to Mancs but decent ones did support us (and have continued to do so) after Hillsborough. But there are plenty of idiots and they will perhaps be sympathetic for a while then revert to type. I don't remember the Munich Disaster but my uncle told me the whole country was in mourning, quite rightly so, yet a few years later morons are singing songs and doing aeroplane impressions. People are stupid. And people from hillbilly towns who've spent years in the lower Leagues don't inspire confidence that the mould is being broken. Burnley, Stoke, Sheffield, Barnsley, Wolverhampton and all these places are a nightmare.

It depends on when the report was compiled. In the couple of years post-Hillsborough there was genuine support for the truth of what happened that day. The trouble is that idiots have changed that perception: supporters of other Clubs, Boris Johnson, Worsthorne and other Tory or southern-based hacks. Remember that Scousers have always been fair game for the establishment-they couldn't say what they say about us if we were a distinct ethnic group (although I think I am!). I think many people still don't like to show support for the City of Liverpool. It's probably a fairly predictable thing that the people of Sheffield did not like the accusation that their own were to blame for the Disaster and they have had some lies purporting to be the truth to help bring them to the conclusion that it was our fault. You only have to make a comparison across the park: I would never have believed that fellow Scousers would gleefully chant "Murderers" at us. But in 1989 after Hillsborough (and post Heysel) they were magnificent. It seems that the younger clowns are the worst and the reality is that they probably don't even recall the events.

Wouldn't he rather be back in Liverpool with all those friendly Evertonians he told us all so much about?

They're hillbillies, that's the problem. A few idiots in a distant bar shouldn't taint your view of all of them but the problem is that it's still 1973 in Sheffield as evidenced at the League Cup semi a few years ago. They were picking off kids and scarfers and there were a few chants that I hadn't heard in years. Neil Warnock, God help us.

Trying to be objective here as I've seen him about ten times this season. He's OK but not better than what we've got. He has lapses in concentration or simply positions himself incorrectly. And this is regularly, not just every now and then. He's much better going forward than he is at defending yet his final ball isn't that great-he often fails to get crosses beyond the first defender. As for his attitude I don't know but it seems to me he's coming the big I am asking for a move after Jewell plucked him from obscurity. Certainly not the additional quality the squad needs to challange for the League next season. In my opinion.

Most Dutch players seem to like conflict. Look at their international set-up! Mr. Ed should know that Ferguson's ego is more important to him than anything else. He made a mistake binning Stam and hopefully he will come to regret this as well.

Any chance of a picture of a common predator handling an exotic bird with care?

Like Andrew Neill in Private Eye, there are times when you just have to ask if by any chance there's any photographic evidence. Mr Ed leaving Old Toilet

One very positive thing about all this has been the Evertonians' dignity surrounding it all. They really seem to have matured. Last season all we heard was it was all our fault and County Road would be burning and everything. This season not even any complaints about having to share out the CL money. Well done Bitters everywhere!

There are no names on the tickets but the Clubs (and the FA presumably) can trace them back to whoever was allocated them. Trading Standards will have a token go at it after the Final. I think the "non-transferable" waffle is a kind of warning saying if you are allocated a ticket and it ends up being reported as touted you will get done/struck off the list/eaten by Brian Barwick or whatever. Obviously it doesn't apply if you are an FA suit/sponsor/hanger-on. Thinking about it, under the Data Protection Act shouldn't there be access to these records?

Wins the £5.

Where the tear-off stub is there is an Ingerlund three loins hologram. Apart from that the rest of the ticket would be easy to forge. Best to insist on going to pick it up at their house.

The reasons there are fewer spares are that the allocation has been reduced because the FA view sponsors and assorted hangers-on (who were guaranteed seats at the larger Wembley) as more impotant than the fans of the participating Clubs, and because the tickets sold at Anfield are actually being bought by people who want to go to the match. Previous arbitrary allocations to all STH's or even on a voucher given at a game before the Final meant that people with no intention of going were getting tickets. There were very few spares for the Chelsea game at Cardiff: even for the Munsters at Cardiff I managed to get hold of six so the kids could go. The Chelsea tickets were based on loyalty in previous rounds. It's not perfect but it does at least mean there won't be any idle STH's just trousering Final tickets. If we'd drawn someone from League 2 at home in round 3 that really would have made it interesting.

Talking of Savage, did you see that one that dropped out of the sky to him in acres of space? He trapped it further than I could leather it. Garbage. I wish Blackburn had missed out on Europe. Their Manager's a Manc (with some credit over April 15) and their captain is Lucas Neill. And if a few kids with a drum and inane "mumble mumble blue white army" equals atmosphere I don't get it. Small town in Burnley. But always a good day out.

You'd better take an axe with you then. The only seats available this morning were UN1 to UN4 (at the back as well) for £25, L39 to L42 at £50, U38 and L38 for £65 (bargain!) or U4 to U8 for £90. Getting credits on your fancard doesn't get you access to the best seats apparently.

I went this morning. Of those available today the £25 seats are at the back of the North Stand, £50 at the front of the North Stand, £65 in one block at the top corner of the North Stand and the £90 in the upper block of the East Stand. The bloke in the TO said that they hadn't released all the tickets yet which probably means the tickets along the sides will be released for Moan Stand/Kemlyn supporters and the tickets behind the goal for Kopites. It hacks me off a bit that with 5 FA Cup credits I couldn't get a seat in the middle tier but I suppose I should be used to it. Got there about 7.55, back in the car for 9.15.

I agree. The media will be having a field day. A good coach would make the decision now and ensure the squad kept their focus but Eriksson's not a good coach.

If fit anyone would take Rooney. But he isn't and the likleyhood is that the whole of the group stages will be overshadowed by will he/won't he be fit nonsense. It really is a gamble. But Eriksson will take Rooney because he is absolutely clueless, has no plan B and is afraid to stand up to the media. Same with Owen and with Beckham in previous competitions. Eriksson, like the media today, will be in a state of blind panic. A good coach would just get on with it and would have though long ago about how to alter the side and/or the tactics if key individuals were unavailable. But Butcher is an annoying Ingerlund scrote. I just don't do nationalism.

Pollitt's not a bad keeper but he's about 83 and he's not international quality. Most keepers are good shot-stoppers, it's their decision making, organisation and command of the box that makes great ones. Pollitt is a decent mid-table option but not for Ingerlund.

Can't stand him. Archetypal geezer manager, always good to his Mum and left his doors unlocked. In his world all good players are all cockneys from the sixties and Venables is the next Messiah. And not a hint of xenophobia/borderline racism for the Ingerlund job. I'd love to do an audit on all his transfer deals. What's he ever done anyway? I think I've lapsed into Life of Brian mode now.

Well the Bitterness hadn't kicked in then and I was of the old school that sort of said if we can't win it I'd rather it was Everton. The problem was that it would have given Everton the Double before we'd won it.

I want the Mancs to lose every game they play. The 1985 Cup Final was purgatory but I still wanted them to lose even if it gave the Bitters the Double. It's just a pity Rooney couldn't have got injured about a month ago because they would have dropped points. It would also have meant he might get fit for Ingerlund.