Thanks for that, Greatness
Helluva side, on paper. Even without King (who may have a real fight on his hands, for his place).

If like me you were wondering, the LCFC site names the subs for tonight (helluva bench) as -

Weale, Ball, Tunchev, Oakley, King, Moussa, Schlupp, Waghorn, Dyer and Kermorgant.

Would be grateful for updates as I'm stuck at work!

Still 0-0. Sounds pretty even to me, Bursaspor are clearly no push-over. Bamba seems to be having a good game.

Thanks greatness - decent picture as well !

Kasper doesn't fill me with confidence though.

Sven looks cool in his cap !

Anyone have any idea what the half-time handbags was in aid of?

Half time: 0 - 0
City 48% possession.
Shots on target 2 v their 3

Peltier having a handbag scrap at 45 mins with a few others joining the fun - scrap scrap scrap !

fatfox my signal went weak it looked like their player and peltier had an off the ball issue of some sort.

Couldn't pick up any incident on the replays. Maybe the verbals just got overheated? They seemed *very* peed off at each other!

Two subs:

King for Wellens
Waghorn for Howard

Interesting that when Mills (the captain) went off and gave the armband to Oakley, Oakley then gave it to King.

How did mills do?

Well we look UP FOR A FIGHT !

All finished at 0-0. Berner made Bamba Man of the Match. Cat and mouse stuff from the sound of it, spiced with handbags.
A clean sheet for the first time in a while, hurrah.

thanks for the weblink

it would let me say l ink

Hmm. If they can get that wound up about a bit of shirt-pulling in a 0-0 friendly, I can see us needing some anger management classes. I'd barely class it as handbags – more like hankies at two paces really – but it still seemed a bit prattish.

Not entirely convinced by the performance (of either side) it has to be said. We looked a bit of a threat in the first half but clearly lacking firepower up front.

Hoofing long balls is not what we are doing in training! Lacked any kind of creativity in the second half when Wellens, Danns and Gally all went off. Need to do better on the creating chances.

We will no doubt get the same old "it was a good work out" and that "we kept a clean sheet" but really it was dull, lacklustre and the only exciting bits were actually the hanker-bags at 2-5 paces!?

Are Nugent, St Ledger etc badly injured or do they just have niggles??

You've got to love this from the LCFC official report -

".....the Bursaspor number three crashing a magnificent 25-yard drive against the face of the crossbar, though the flying Schmeichel would have been close had it been a foot lower."

Or "...had he been a foot taller"? Or "...had the ball been a foot wider in circumference"?

And even then, only "close"! But hey, I love it.

If the aggression of the players in that 'nothing' game is a taste of what to expect then thank fook that we'll have a large squad and decent back-ups.

It's been said that Peltier, Danns, Mills are all hotheads, with tarnished disciplinary records. I fear that any smart manager will target them, and we will suffer for it.

It's great that they are 'up for it' and showing ols school 'pashun', but I have a niggling feeling that we'll break a few records in yellow cards and possibly red cards in the next season.

I do hope I am wrong.

Another excellent workout and another 90 minutes towards the new squad/team gelling together. This is what pre season is about so some those expecting a polished excellent performance are naive.
Also dont forget that Bursaspor were the Turkish Champions last season and so a Champions League outfit, so I stand by what I said....another excellent workout for the team.....bring on Valencia next !!

Totally agree Miami Fox - Bursapor are quality opponents who are ahead of us in pre-season as they play a qualifying round next Thursday. Had we lost by the odd goal or two then, this still would have represented a good work out. I'm glad we have a bit of steel in the team now as last season we were rolled over a little too easily. Just a couple of quality strikers (Maynard and Ebanks Blake) and winger (hopefully Routledge) and we'll be sorted.

Our issue with the way Sven plays might be scoring goals. We play lovely possesion football but we lack that cutting edge up front.

We either need a top striker who will score his 1 chance a game, or more creative players who are capable of making more chances (like Routlede). If we get at least one of these, I'll be comfortable going in to the season.

The problem we had last year was that we were poor at the back - the signings we've made in this area give me every confidence that won't be the case next year.

Dont worry about the disciplinary side of things. Weve got a big enough squad to cope.