Well it’s that time again, yes, The Ashes have returned and it’s seemingly business as usual for Australia (I’m going on the first 2 days, I’m currently watching the 3rd days’ play). It is, so far, quite a carbon copy of how The Ashes started last time. At Lords Australia beat us well and truly but the next 3 games, well, we all know what happened there so I’m not starting to get all depressed about it just yet. However I must say that for me, we shouldn’t be playing Harmison or Giles. I can’t think of a replacement for Harmy so I’ll concede that but I would play Monty over Giles any day of the week regardless of the fact that Giles can bat. Monty gets wickets and I’d have 5 for over 30 runs any day of the week.
In other news United managed to lose to Celtic mid-week and if I’m honest, Celtic deserved their win. The free-kick, although shouldn’t have been given, was masterfully put away. I haven’t seen one taken that well in a long time and to lose, well, I’d rather lose to a goal like that than some goal-line scramble. I mean yes, we had a penalty and the keeper did well to save, but where Saha put it, any goalkeeper worth their salt would have saved it as long as they guess the right way. It certainly puts an interesting spin on the game against Chelsea on Sunday. I’m really looking forward to it because if we win, our lead at the top increases to 6 points, lose and we’re even again. If I was being honest I’d settle for a draw.
Going into gaming (a new topic for the blog) I’ve been playing a lot more Football Manager recently, in-particular doing Lower League Management (LLM). I find it a heck of a lot more rewarding staving off relegation or scraping promotion in the bottom leagues than taking Man United to glory. It’s harder and a true test of you abilities as you have to be canny. I also follow guidelines from the LLM forum at Sports Interactive’s website to make it as close to life as possible. So I only buy players I’ve scouted etc, certainly making the game a lot more fun. You can see how I get on in my current game here or, for future games, here.
