I know this is lazy

....but yesterday at the Villa (2-1- Yes!) there was some lovely banter between the two sets of fans. One or two were doing that snarling and agressive 'I'll kill you' type of thing but mainly it was fun. At least that's how it felt to us as we were winning the whole game.

I was trying to find the words of one of their chants because it sounds like it's quite inventive but the exact words get a bit lost in the Brummie accent. I couldn't find it but I did come across this.

While I'm (back) on the subject of noise and chants, Stan Collymore said in his commentary that 60,000 at the Emirates feels like 15,000. It's not just us Spurs fans that call it the library.

Chants of the season
By Chris Charles

Music

Middlesbrough (Bon Jovi's Living On A Prayer):"Ohh! We're half way there! Ohh-ohh! Aliadiere!"
Man City (Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall):"We don't need no Phil Scolari,We don't need Mourinho,Hey! Thaksin! Leave our Sven alone!"
Bishop Stortford (Toni Basil's Hey Mickey - sung to St Albans goalkeeper Nick Eyre):"Hey Nicky you're so fine, you're so fine, you're two behind, hey Nicky!"
Arsenal (The Jackson 5's Blame it on the Boogie):"Don't blame it on Henry, don't blame it on the injuries, don't blame it on the referees, blame it on Eboue!" (notice how their chants are directed at their own players- weirdos)
Man Utd (Black Lace's Agadoo):"Anderson-son-son, he's better than Kleberson,Anderson-son-son, he's our midfield magician, To the left to the right we'll dance the samba beat tonight, He is class, our midfield brass, and he dumps on Fabregas!"
Newcastle (The Beatles' Let It Be):"When we find ourselves in times of trouble, Kevin Keegan comes to me. Speaking words of wisdom, Geremi!"
Tottenham (Elvis Presley's The Wonder Of You):"That's Ju-ande, Ju-ande Ramos!"
Everton (Black Lace/The Tweenies' Music Man):"I am the Music Man. I come from far away. And I can play (what can you play?) I Play The Pienaar! Pi Pi Pi Pi Pienaaaaaar!"
Chester (The Outhere Brothers' Boom Boom Boom - to Simon Yeo):"Boom, boom, boom, let me hear you say Yeo, Yeooo!"

Blackburn (Christmas standard Santa Claus Is Coming):"You better watch out,You better beware,He's good on the ground and he's good in the air, Santa Cruz is coming to town."

WHAT DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
"You're just a fat Paris Hilton."Arsenal fans to Liverpool's Andriy Voronin.
"There's only one Tina Turner!"Doncaster's big-haired Jason Price gets the treatment from Forest.
"You're just a fat Annie Lennox!"No More I Love Yous from the Spurs fans to West Ham's Dean Ashton.
"There's only one Roland Browning."Bognor Regis fans taunt big-boned Eastleigh sub Steve Watts.
"He's big, he's Scouse, he looks like Mickey Mouse!"Sheffield Wednesday fans take the mickey out of Franny Jeffers.
"You're supposed to be a gnome!"Millwall fans to Northampton's pint-sized full-back Danny Jackman.
"Sit down, Pinocchio!"Spurs fans to Boro boss Gareth Southgate.

Yesterday Ashley Young got 'You're just a shit Aaron Lennon'

GALLOWS HUMOUR
"Que sera sera,Whatever will be, will be,We're going to Forest Green,Que sera sera."Newly-relegated Wrexham fans against Hereford.

"Can we play you every week?"Man City fans while 6-0 down to Chelsea.
"Can we play you every week?"Man City fans while 7-0 down to Middlesbrough. .
"Easy! Easy! Easy!"Man City fans when the score reached 8-1. (all credit to them- I was told they were conga-ing around the terraces too)

"We're going down in a minute!"Gillingham fans at Leeds.

"Who needs Mourinho, we've got Dave Pacio."Droylsden fans get behind their manager as they finally win their first game of the season - at the 14th time of asking.

"We should have stayed at the funfair."Watford fans after going 2-0 down to Southend.

"Let's pretend we've scored a goal!"Bradford City fans during a 3-0 home defeat to Accrington Stanley, followed by all participants going crazy.

And a few more:

"Does your livestock know you're here?"Colchester fans to Norwich.

"We can see you washing up!"Swindon fans to the occupants of the flats in the corners of Leyton Orient's ground.

"I love Tottenham more than you!"Spurs fans to their loved ones back home while watching Tottenham on Valentine's Day in Prague.

"Are you Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch in disguise?!"Wrexham fans.

"Does your butler know you're here?"West Ham to Fulham fans.

"Can we play you every week?"Havant & Waterlooville fans when 1-0 up against Liverpool at Anfield in the FA Cup.

"Vera's dead, Vera's dead, Vera's dead!"West Ham fans away at Man City following the death of the character Vera Duckworth in Coronation Street.

"You should have banked with The Woolwich!"Derby fans to Northern Rock-sponsored Newcastle.

My dad will beat up your dad

From the Guardian today, this is a rare peach:

Cristiano Ronaldo was involved in a confrontation with Newcastle's Steven Taylor in the players' tunnel at half-time of Manchester United's 2-1 victory at St James' Park on Wednesday night, calling the Newcastle defender 'a rubbish footballer' and having to be calmed down by his captain, Rio Ferdinand, and the referee, Steve Bennett.
Taylor had been booked for a rash challenge on Ronaldo before half-time and the pair exchanged angry words as they made their way to their dressing rooms. Ronaldo reportedly started the exchange by calling Taylor a rubbish footballer, to which the Newcastle defender responded by allegedly saying that, at least, "he wasn't ugly".
Ronaldo repeated the claim about Taylor being a poor footballer and the exchange ended with the defender apparently saying, "I know, but you are still ugly" before Ferdinand and Bennett intervened.

Ronaldo is a petulant, over protected, arrogant, spoilt brat. And, when you think about it, isn't the adonis he thinks he is with those whiney pug features. However, I have to say that Taylor's retort was pretty feeble. I much preferred it when he smashed him across the face with his forearm. I just wish he'd connected better.

I shall never drink Carling again!

Too many cliches occur and block my efforts to express the feelings and experience of Sunday's narrow defeat: roller coaster, passion & pride, sick as a parrot.

Suffice to say the boys done good and we're proud of them. Or to use Harry's exact words: 'I'm well pleased with the lads.'

This is all apart from:

a) Pav's free kick (nyet, nyet, I take, I am striker, look.... Chyort voz'mi! I hit big screen)
b) Bentley's penalty. He can put a ball in a skip from a hundred yards for a Rolex (see below) but can he hit a sodding barn door or Ben Foster from 12? The answer is no.

It was actually quite emotional. Most fans stayed to cheer the players when they went up for their medals (compare Chelski fans last year who were heading back to the Bridge before the final whistle blew) and there was none of the churlish 'I didn't care about this mickey mouse cup' attitude that I remember from '82 when Liverpool beat us. At the end of that game we sang 'Stick your milk cup up your arse'. It was a bigger trophy in those days too.

more in hope than expectation

We play Shaktar Doenetsk (not sure of spelling) tonight. Ominously, they were the last team to beat Barcelona about 20 games ago. We are without 9 first teamers. Ulp. On March 1st we play Man Yoo in the Carling Cup final. Our tickets are a few rows forward this year. If we keep getting to the final and our tickets move forward at the same rate, I should actually be able to see the game by 2013. I'll be interested to see the odds before the game. United are pretty unbeatable (by us at least) even when they are playing shite. At the moment they are playing like the whole team has been kitted out with sets of Tiger & Scorer patented 'Billy's Boots'. They may call them Nikes or whatever but there must be some subterfuge going on there.

It's been a while since my eyes glistened with pride in the team's passion and performance. I'll be blubbing like a baby if we do the impossible at Wembley. Just to put me in the mood I thought it was time to revisit a real magic time.