James Milner, Carlton Cole, Hull and The Clowns

I know it is going to be a good day today; I just have a good feeling. No post-mortem today also, but I can tell you that James Milner was man of the match with 30.7% of the vote - followed in second place by The Ginger One.

I'm not doing the post-mortem for reasons that might become apparent later this week but I might also do it tomorrow. It's a long story and I wont bore you with it all just yet, I'll just say, it might be coming, but I'm on the road and it takes more than what my phone can deal with.

But it was a fairly decent match last night and it played out much how I thought it would. They went with a variation of 451, in so much when they were defending they had one up, but when they went forward they had three up and they sat back and tried to soak up the pressure. It didn't work.

One of those moments of trying to sit back resulted in some sloppy defending which let Gabby in and uncharacteristically, he fired a shot on target and into the goal. Sorry Gabby, but you have missed a few opportunities lately and I was surprised.

After that, they came at us and the game opened up and turned into an end to end game for the remainder of the first half. In the second, we seemed to sit back a bit but used this to counter well and on one occasion they brought down Milly in the box and he, very professionally and as expected, slotted home the penalty. Job done.

And it really was a case of job done last night. Hull, while almost certainly relegated was not going to be an easy place to go and win and win we did. It happened because we wanted it to happen last night and we won the game; Hull didn't lose it. It takes balls to win games like that and we showed we had balls last night.

Thursday Rumours

Talk is we are wanting to pay £12mn for Carlton Cole. You know, I like Carlton Cole, but I also liked Peter Crouch. If John Carew is leaving, why not just get a younger model in and plan for the next five years.

I like Carew, he scores goals and is a bit of a lad by all accounts, but he is getting on a bit and if we can get one or two for him, why shouldn't we cash in? He has done a fine job with Villa but he was never going to be Villa - so lets say thanks and lets reward him by singing his name when he comes back, but lets get better and believe it or not, I think Cole could be better.

Sunday bloody Sunday

Tomorrow is the day we start looking at Sunday. It is just another game, but it is one we need to win for reasons that are clear. They don't have to win or lose - they have managed to survive this season which if I'm honest, has surprised me. I really did expect them to be relegated.

But, I suppose, one team always does well in their first season up and they did well last time. They'll go down next season, probably bankrupt. I hope they do a Pompey and slowly vanish into nothing.