no one is out of order in Goaty's scenario. the employer has the right to remove the armband/job if he sees fit and the line manager has the right to disagree and withdraw his labour.
in Terry's case the FA have to think about the bigger picture which includes England's reputation and the long overdue attempt to rid football of racism in the UK. With Terry as captain he again becomes the story rather than the team. imagine the problem if England won and then Terry didn't enjoy Saint Harry's luck in court. For once the FA got it right.

Well done Iain on securing an interview. The most interesting questions are about the longer term - club finances, investment in the team when we are back in the Prem and the Stadium decisions. None of this will be worth your effort if all we get are platitudes and spin. If he wants our respect as well as our money please remind David that honesty and straight talking are a good place to start.

I know it's a difficult job but I thought the ref was shocking again today (apart from the favour of sending Nolan off) and every game I'm left thinking our ref's show no feel or instinct for the game - most of them give me a strong sense of never having played football and consequently get conned on a regular basis. Just me?

Apart from the three points, the best thing about today will be the enforced absence of Nolan. Hope our next line-up puts in a really good performance to show Sam we are better balanced and more creative without Nolan.

Noble MoM with Cole not far behind. Parker's departure has left Noble with more responsibility and he has risen to the challenge and been top class most of the season. He's got quite used to doing the work of two and to be honest losing that fat useless lump for a two footed tackle made little difference to Noble - he just got on with running the game.
Decent battling performance and a vital win but have got to remember we were at home playing a rubbish team lacking confidence - where was the attacking intent?

Agreed. Big fan of Tomkins as a defender but not in central midfield. He worked hard and did ok but let's get him back where he belongs.

best non story of the day - Talk Sport telling us that Birmingham wanted Piq if they could offload the unwanted lighthouse Zigic. the same Zigic who scored all four goals against Leeds tonight. Timing is everything.

fair point, but i was worried he might get snapped up this jan and leave us with untried keepers for the promotion push. i reckon green is worth several extra points over a season. hope they sort out a contract for him but if he goes in the summer and if we are back in the prem, we should be able to attract a decent replacement.

trying to look on the bright side - we kept hold of tomkins and green for the time being. morrison could be anything - another nutter (we attract them) or a star in the making. vaz te has 10 goals in a struggling side and caused us a few problems earlier in the season + should mean we don't see piq brought off the bench to stroll around on the wing. maynard could score some goals and we got him on the cheap.
not the names we dreamt of but not the end of the world, given the jan transfer window is never easy. the bigger issues are surely a lack of team spirit and fight and the team's turgid style of play. will feel a lot better when we beat millwall.

that level of performance against millwall and Gold will be rebuilding upton park quicker than he thinks.