Donaldo, in "the good old days" that never would have been a foul on their GK. I would say he collided with Mandeville, not the other way around. An oldie like me remembers Nat "I hit it with my nut" Lofthouse when he flattened Harry Gregg at Wembley!

For anyone interested in Soccer City USA, the Timbers did beat Vancouver today so won the Western Conference and have a bye in the first round of the play-offs as do Seattle who finished second.

Sorry i didn't mean my comment to sound dramatic.
Its just i think if we are still in this same situation at the last weekend in November that its a good time to say adios DF and thank him with sincerity and take the chance during the "FA Cup break"to look for a replacement

Micky: well done to your local team then. So now for the inevitable play-offs in the country that seemed to have invented them. In any other sport it would doubtless be the "World Series". Nevertheless, I expect that the general standard probably matches Championship now, based on my very occasional viewing of your matches.

Lanza: I'm not ready to give upon Ferguson; the squad is still young and he should have at least till the end of the season to complete his project. It's clear that the players respect him - far more than they did his predecessor; they praise his coaching and his ability is widely recognised in the game generally.

I suppose if you have to travel from North Yorkshire though, the long journey home on winter nights can be very miserable when they fail to perform.

It's nigh impossible to give up on them completely though...

Don i want df to succeed i enyoy the atmosphere that surounds him but i dont want another relegation
I am not ready to give up on him yet but our form since we gained promotion before the end of last season is woeful.
Making the same mistakes time after time is really annoying.
But I am not an advocate of management change for the sake of it but something needs to change

Donaldo,

Thanks. Yes, we now have the weird wonders of the play-offs. It seems crazy the winner of the season has to go through play-offs to qualify to play the ultimate Eastern Conference winner. Betting at the minute is the Timbers will win the Western play-offs and Toronto the Eastern play-offs. If that happens, guess where the Championship final will be played? - Toronto! The rule says the final is at the ground of the finalist with the better overall record during the season. The "logic" is there will be a good crowd whereas if both supporters had to travel a long distance, attendance would be poor. When the Timbers won it all two years ago it was at the other team's stadium.
The women's final gives some support for the "logic". The Portland Thorns beat North Carolina and it was played in Orlando. The crowd was only about 8,500 and the Thorns averaged 18,000+/game over the season. Orlando is a long way from Portland, but we sent nearly 1,500 supporters.
As you say, at least in soccer they are not using the term "World Champion" - that would be hard to take after the World Cup embarrassment!
By the way, the Timbers have only one player (Nagbe) in the national squad. Our star this year has been our Argentinian mid-fielder, Valeri, who in 32 games scored 21 goals and had 11 assists, including scoring in 9 consecutive games (a MLS record). We'd have been nowhere without him!

Here are the results from the weekend's game.

Only Uthred foresaw anything short of victory, but even he could not envisage defeat. He, in common with 5 others, scored full marks for the crowd to maintain his overall lead - well done!

Walsall L 0:3 7391
..........Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo…… 2..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 2.... 51…..... 53
PDXMickey. 1..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 1..... 41...... 42
Yorks Lad.. 4..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 4..... 31...... 35
BVZ……….… 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 5..... 47...... 52
Crazy………. 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 35....... 40
Uthred…... 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0 ....... 5…. 59........64
Mooligan…. 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 5.... 50…..... 55
K Chomprr. 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 5.... 30....... 35
Small Azza, 4..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 4.... 38....... 42
Aussie Lad. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 5........ 5
Azza….…... 2..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 2 .... 39…..... 41
Chltnham.. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 0........ 0
Nookie.….. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 6........ 6
Selby………. 5..... 0..... 0..... 3..... 0....... 5..... 31….... 36
..............43.... 3...... 0..... 9...... 0.... 43.... 463.... 506

King Chomprrr predicted a 3-1 defeat Donaldo

Thanks Mooligan and apologies (and very well done) to His Majesty. I noticed that I had erroneously carried over some numbers in the results column too.

So this is how it should be I think:
Walsall L 0:3 7391
..........Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo…… 2..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 2.... 51…..... 53
PDXMickey. 1..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 1..... 41...... 42
Yorks Lad.. 4..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 4..... 31...... 35
BVZ……….… 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 5..... 47...... 52
Crazy………. 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0.... 35....... 40
Uthred…... 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0 ....... 5…. 59........64
Mooligan…. 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 5.... 50…..... 55
K Chomprr. 5..... 0..... 3..... 0..... 0....... 8.... 30....... 38
Small Azza, 4..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 4.... 38....... 42
Aussie Lad. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 5........ 5
Azza….…... 2..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 2 .... 39…..... 41
Chltnham.. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 0........ 0
Nookie.….. 0..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 0...... 6........ 6
Selby………. 5..... 0..... 0..... 0..... 0....... 5..... 31….... 36
..............43.... 0...... 3..... 0...... 0.... 46.... 463.... 509

Cheers Donaldo
You are doing a great job sir.

I'm beginning to feel like a manager that has just suffered a heavy defeat. Having got one points score wrong led me to check back on some other figures which I have produced. I have used the help of Mr Excel, but not enough it seems because until now I have relied on working out the crowd points via my failing mental arithmetic. I now realise that subtracting or adding the necessary hundreds and parts thereof has not been entirely accurate. Where I have erred it has usually been to the extent of a point either way, but I have to confess to a dozen such minor errors.

I believe that my revised system with added Excel assistance will be more reliable and I apologise for getting things wrong.

There is a difference of only 4 points in the overall figures.

Walsall L 0:3 7391
………………..….Crowd Scorer Score Result Bonus Total Pts B/F Cumltve
Donaldo ………… 2 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 2 ……. 52 ……. 54
PDXMickey ……. 1 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 1 ……. 43 ……. 44
Yorks Lad …….. 4 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 4 ……. 30 ……. 34
BVZ. ……..…….. 4 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 4 ……. 45 ……. 49
Crazy …….……… 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 5 ……. 35 ……. 40
Uthred …….…… 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 5 ……. 58 ……. 63
Mooligan …..…. 4 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 4 ……. 49 ……. 53
King Chmprr …. 5 …… 0 ……. 3 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 8 ……. 29 ……. 37
Small Azza ……. 4 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 4 ……. 39 ……. 43
Aussie Lad. ……. 0 …… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …….. 5 ……… 5
Azza ……..….…… 2 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 …… 2 ……. 37 ….. 39
Cheltenham …. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……… 0
Nookie ……….… 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 6 ….…… 6
Selby …….……… 5 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 0 ……. 5 ……. 30 ……. 35
…………. ………. 41 …….. 0 ……. 3 …. 0 ……. 0 …... 44 …. 458 ….. 502