downendcity

On my Wembley Ball thread @Roger Red Hat posted this picture. It elicited some replies regarding the boots featured and reminded me of an early pair of boots I had. My first few pairs were run of the mill boots from Perry's Shoe shop in Staple Hill. Then I had the chance to have a hand down pair of my cousin's Gola boots that he had grown out of . I cleaned a dubbined them so they were as soft as you like. They also had a long tongue, which was the look you wanted back then . However, the red letter day was when I bought my own boots for the first time from the sports shop by the Top Rank ( can't remember the name ) A pair of Adidas Santiago were the dog's b*******! When I got home and showed them proudly to my Dad ( who had not the slightest interest in football, he asked how much they cost. When I told him £4.99 ( I think it was) he couldn't believe I would pay that much just to kick a ball around! Later on I had Stylo Matchmakers ( not the all white ones) then Patrick boots for a long time before using Puma until I finished playing in the late 80s

...by the ghosts of shoppers who died while trying to find their way out if the store!

"Alice, Alice who the **** is Alice?" Mind you, it's always good to keep a clean sheet!

Paternoster lifts The stuff of nightmares - I think I'll take the stairs!

My body shape changed substantially in just a week - Christmas week!

Ah, green shield stamps. Anyone else remember their Dad's driving round for miles, looking for the garage offering quadruple green shield stamps and nearly running out of petrol in the process? Back then I remember, in my Guinness Book of Records, that the boss of Green shield stamps was the highest paid man in Britain.

No, but the bloke you tackled didn't get up in a hurry!

The hot knife trick started as a good idea, but just a slip and you ended up with a hole bigger than the one you started with!

Bit earlier for me SR!

Does this bring back memories of Christmas/birthday wish lists? As I remember it was a bit too bouncy on Oldbury Court school playground, , but stung like mad if it caught your thigh ( we all wore short trousers in those days!) on a cold day. Also remember trying to mend with a hot knife to weld the plastic together after a puncture on the rose bushes around the play ground.

For using their sharpener?

It's ok Dave, he did his working out on paper..........

If you think his level is league 2 then cashing in on him would net us, what, about £200,000? He scored 1 in 4 in his first full season in the championship straight from the academy and you think he's a league 2 player?!

What else does Scotty do?

You're right of course. Having trounced Watford - both score wise and in performance terms - tonight was disappointing. However, it is still 4 points from 2 away games and at the end of the season tonight's point could be the difference in getting into the top 6! Recently under LM we seem to have found our scoring touch, but we definitely lost it again tonight. It felt like if Mehmeti had netted one of his chances, we'd have gone on to a comfortable win. As it was, and seems often to be the case, a team fighting for their lives and defending to give nothing away, give us little space in the final third. For a long time this has been an achilles heel, as there seems to be a mentality in the team which means players are almost frightened to take a risk - either taking a man on or playing a killer ball - that will open the defence and create a chance in this type of game. Scott could do it, but we are unlikely to see a £25m+ premier league player with that ability in our team any time soon! Perversely, it's easier against a better team like Watford, as they will tend to play more open and attacking, meaning they automatically leave more space in behind on the counter attack and which were able to exploit. Birmingham almost played more like the away team ( as we often did at AG under NP) keeping things tight to stifle our play. It will be interesting to see how our playing style develops under LM and whether we are approaching this type of game differently later in the season.

P.S. The other positive is that in many previous season's, after 3 great results and against a struggling team, we'd manage a poor performance and then contrive to lost the game at the death.

Taking a positive viewpoint. If, before Christmas, someone had said that we'd come away from away games at a very in form Watford and fighting for their lives Birmingham, with a 4-1 win and a dull 0-0 we'd have taken that.. It's that the results were the "wrong" way around that makes it seem frustrating.

After 3 wins this is a game where after such a lacklustre performance ( especially after Watford) we need to come away with something. A loss could stifle all our momentum

On the other hand, it has all the makings of a game where we go into the last 5 minutes all square, having been on top all game, and know exactly what will happen next

I've not been able to watch recent games but following tonight's stream in anticipation of seeing more of the recent football we've produced. Have closed off the stream in the hope that this will restore "normal" service!

Had those chances fallen to Wells we'd more than likely be 2 up now. If Anis had a few goals under his belt he'd probably have taken one of those without thinking, but when a striker is short of goals those are the type of chances that they seem to miss

I would imagine the players are far less tired after winning 3 on the spin, than they would have been had they lost the last 3. After such a great result and performance at Watford, I suspect they can't wait for the next game and this goes a long way to countering fatigue. I bet the Brum players are more tired after the roasting they got from WR after their last game!

Was it during his time managing Brum, that Barry Fry peed in each corner of the pitch, thinking that it would lift the gypsy curse that was allegedly jinxing the team at the time?

WMD 40 is the extra strong version of the popular oil product. It loosens absolutely everything!

Comes to something when having bins in the photos would have improved the quality of the area!