Sweet!

RAVE: A good result and all the better for the revenge from the Boxing Day match. A good game with a good result against our nearest Championship neighbours.

We deserved to win although went to sleep for 5 minutes in the second half and nearly blew it. Then we missed a penalty , although Whitts kept his "Whitts" about him to put in the rebound!

RANT: How many penalties have we missed this season? I've seen 3 - have there been others? Lets hope the Wembley game doesn't go to penalties or we could be in trouble!

As usual, a team from the top of the table looked ordinary. It emphasises yet again that there are no outstanding teams in this division.

(Many thanks to Eleri David for the photograph, although it is not actually Roger Johnson's heade goal but an earlier similar move.)

Essex Boys.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Well - the third game in a week turned out to be one too far. Yet again we struggled against a poorer team who were up for the fight -and after taking the lead too! Mind you, after 3 consecutive clean sheets we should have realised that the statistics were stacking against us and someone would score - a fantastic strike by Johnnie Jackson (see pic) although nothing more than Colchester deserved according to most reports.

Yet again we have struggled against a team near the bottom of the table - recent struggles against Sheffield Wednesday (twice), Leicester, Coventry and now Colchester have shown some of the frailties of the team. However, as I have said previously this is such a competitive division and any team is capable of beating anyone else on their day. I now no longer feel that there are any outstanding teams in the division, unlike the Reading and Sunderland of recent years.

Well - our next 3 games are all at home - Bristol City, Southampton and West Brom, before the trip to Wembley. 3 wins would give us real confidence as well as move us up the table. however, at the moment the Southampton game is likely to give us most trouble!

Premiership - you're having a laugh!

RAVE: A great result for the boys who were obviously still up from the win over Mddlesbrough. Somehow we have become a difficult team to beat - as long as we have Loovens and Johnson playing together at the heart of the defence. The second biggest crowd of the season saw a rare goal from Stephen McPhail after one and a half minutes and watched aswe comfortably held on for the rest of the game.

NEITHER RANT NOR RAVE: Hull are occupying one of the playoff places at the moment but still look ill-equipped to think about moving to a higher level. The more this season progresses the less likely it is that any team can go up from this division and hold its own in the Premiership. Cardiff are not the only team in this division who are capable of following five consecutive wins with five consecutive defeats. Its a question of last man standing and the last team to have a good run could find themselves in the same position as Derby - and look what's happening to them! Amazingly, despite the recent league form even Cardiff could make the playoffs if they string together 4 or 5 wins.

The championship is undoubtedly the most exciting league at the moment but I'm not sure it prepares anyone for the Premiership.

Our Cup Runneth Over!

RAVE: Thats all I can say- Yes, I know I said that there is no way we could win the FA Cup, but I am going to say I've changed my mind. The odds are against us but who cares? At least one trip to Wembley. I take back all my criticism of the FA Cup and say well done boys!

This result is well documented everywhere and you all saw it on TV so you don't need me to say more than Boro wer rubbish and we were brilliant. Lets hope we can carry some of this enthusiasm into our league form.

RANT: The court case gets heard today (12/03/2008). Lets hopw we can get that out of the way aswell.

Drawn a blank.

Its really difficult to get the full flavour of a game via newspaper and radio reports. However, the quotes from Dave Jones do suggest that this was a much better performance - it could hardly be worse than the Leicester game.

RAVE: The report by South Wales Echo reporter Terry Phillips was also positive, although I'm not sure that any player can be worth 8 out of 10 in a nil-nil draw except perhaps a goalkeeper. I trust Terry Phillips' judgement more than any other local reporter - his opinions on a game usually are very close to my own, unlike certain writers for the Wales on Sunday who sound as if they have been to a different game. Terry gets a "RAVE" for his work throughout the season, not just for this game.

Today's Daily Mirror reports that Arsene Wenger is going to launch a bid for Aaron Ramsay - worrying but not surprising. The lad must have his price, and if he is to go lets hope its a good deal. Keeping on the good side of Arsenal may be useful if we want loan players in the future.

And so to the Cup match. We have nothing to fear from Middlesborough, although we must be underdogs. I wish the boys luck, despite my previous misgivings in this blog about cup football, and I will willingly swallow my pride and admit my hypocrisy to go to Wembley for the semi-final should they get through!

Toothless!

RANT: Dreadful.Awful. Incompetent. Useless. The only vaguely redeeming feature about this performance is that at least they appeared to be trying for some of the time. Of course, they were useless but at least they were trying. Even young Arron Ramsey (see pic) had a dreadful game. We couldn't have scored if we had played till Christmas and it was very much a reminder of our early season performances where we seemed unable to create anything.

RANT: Darren Purse. I know the goal was unlucky, but Dazza seems to have become very accident prone and it is difficult to know what he can do about it. Mistakes, penalties and now an own goal. I suspect we will need another central defender sooner or later.

Yet again, lets hope that this season doesn't drift away like the last 2 - we have as much chance of relegation as the playoffs, but surely we can't play that badly again?

(Thanks to Eleri David for the picture)