freewheelinotter | the stars are out tonight and you’re the brightest one shining in my sky |

Wooo! As the title of this post says! The O.C returns to UK tv this week! God knows why C4 thought it’d be too long a series to show all in one go…well it was a silly decision, now we’re even further behind the Americans - never a good position to be lol. Well for lucky people who have sky/digital/cable they get to see the show tonight (9pm, E4 incase you don’t know), but for the rest of us we have another 6 days to wait…(Sunday, 2pm, C4).

A quick update for those who’ve forgotten what’s going on…at the end of the last episode (The Countdown) it’s just turned New Year 2004 and Ryan and Marissa are kissing, Sandy and Kirsten are about to start, Seth and Anna are on his bed going at it too and Summer is kissing too and pulls back to say “you’re not Seth Cohen” - so basically everyone’s kissing. That’s the end anyway, if you wanna know more click here

Having to recover quickly from Wednesday’s show, Wigley was facing a much more dominant side in the Premiership with Chelsea and Arsenal the only remaining teams to have only won their games this season. And Saints came out with an explosion to start off the game, with Beattie scoring the quickest goal in Premiership history (apparantly) just after 10.5 seconds, don’t quote me that though, everywhere it’s a different number - but no more than 13 seconds! There was no danger as Beattie headed into action 30 yards out and hit the ball just too high for Cech and dipping behind him to drop under the cross bar - score! The first goal Chelsea had conceeded this season so far. But Saints couldn’t celebrate long as Lampard nearly scored 2 minutes later after setting up Gudjohnssn who headed it wide.

It wasn’t to be Beattie’s day after all when he scored a bizarre own goal on the 34th minute, equalizing the score. The ball was crossed in from a corner and it was headed towards Gudjohnsen and Beattie who put his leg out to divert the ball, but instead it headed towards to the back of the Saints net, despite Le Saux making an attempt to stop it. He managed to knock it onto the bar but could not keep it out. But Saints fans managed to see the funny side by singing: “Same old Beattie always scoring!”

Another corner was played into a crowded goalmouth and referee ruled it had struck a red and white sleeve as the players jumped. It looked as though it might have been Lundekvam who was penalised and Phillips and Delap were both booked for leading the furious protests. But Lampard smacked the penalty into the top right corner with Niemi starting to go the other way. Saints were not playing badly like the Bolton match, but Chelsea were electrifying, cutting through at will with pace and power.

Ferreira’s 30-yard shot was deflected massively by Gudjohnsen to completely wrongfoot Niemi. He could only stand and watch helplessly as the ball rolled agonisingly towards the gaping goal but just wide of the right post. Telfer then made a great tackle to stop Lampard at the expense of a corner which almost brought a second own goal. Delap’s header back would have crept under the bar but Niemi tipped over.

Saints fans thought that maybe Crouch could manage another show like Wednesday night when Folly was replaced by him, however, it just wasn’t to be. Instead, Prutton almost got a second yellow card for bringing down Duff from behind in full flight on 76 minutes. A much better performance from Saints, just not enough for the big time club, Chelsea.

Goals: 1′ James Beattie - Saints, 34′ James Beattie - Saints (OG), 41′ - Frank Lampard - Chelsea
Yellows: 40′ Kevin Phillips - Saints, 40′ Rory Delap - Saints, 63′ David Prutton - Saints, 81′ Graeme Le Saux - Saints
Reds: -
Attendance: 40,864

“Steve Wigley received a painful reminder of just why he previously said he did not want the job of manager!”

Sums it up really. The first match I’ve managed to get to this season, hardly worth it really, but if the managers are walking out on the team, where would they be without their fans?!

Saints beforehand seemed ready and fairly unaffected by Sturrock’s swift departure, but once again Saints were flat on the field. Supposed to have turned a new corner fans expected a well fought battle between the 2 teams, especially going by last seasons performance but Saints struggled to go forward and were too lax at the back giving away easy opportunities to Bolton.

It all went down hill from when Stelios received the ball in the 3rd minute off Davies’ toe and prepared to shoot. Saints failed to recover and Higginbotham was too slow to move for the offside trap and the ball was crossed into the area in the 6th minute. Then it was down to Davies and Pederson on the back line, and despite the stumble, Pederson managed to get it past Niemi - 20 minutes later there was a uneasy feeling of de-ja-voo, when the score was taken up to 2 - 0.

Bolton should have had a penalty when Le Saux barged into the back of Davies, but for once, Dunn waved away the claims - only for Higginbotham to make sure Bolton had the penalty when he pulled down Stelios. Okocha stepped up and made it 2 - 0 when he sent Niemi the wrong way. That’s when Saints fans started to voice their opinions about the reason to why Sturrock left, but they still gave their support to the team - no matter how deserved it is. Lowe has sent a total of 7 managers on their way in the same number of years - maybe he should look closer to home for the problem…As for the team, there were stuck in neutral, going nowhere fast. The defence were just too strong (and tall) for Saints strikers. As for the goalie, well if you’d taken him off the pitch I reckon the score wouldn’t have changed - he barely caught the ball all night!

When Crouch was brought on I was sceptical, I’ve seen him play before, depending too much on his height rather than his skills - but Saints needed someone over the 6 foot barrier! 6 minutes before time (something about 6s for Saints I think), Saints won a corner, a glimmer of hope for the Saints team. Le Saux played a short corner to Telfer - finally realising that the Bolton defence were just too strong (and once again, tall) for the Saints attack. Telfer then struck it in, Bolton’s keeper, Jaaskelainen, once again fumbled the ball and Crouch was there to show him that was a bad thing to do!

Not long before the end Fernandnes managed to get the ball and cross it in past the Bolton defence into the perfect place only for Lundekvam to ram into Phillips and for them both to miss the ball which could have gone in - no matter how unjust.

What doesn’t seem believable is that both teams had pretty much the same shots on and off target - it was just that Bolton were in a different class to the performance that Saints gave.

Goals: 7′ Henrik Pederson - Bolton, 27′ Jay Jay Okocha - Bolton (P), 85′ Peter Crouch - Saints
Yellow cards: 30′ Rory Delap - Saints, 52′ Ivan Campo - Bolton
Reds: -
Attendance: 30,713

My mate sent me this website url, it’s really quite funny, just generally takes the piss outta “Chavs, Neds, Townies, Kevs, Charvers, Steeks, Spides, Bazzas, Yarcos, Ratboys, Kappa Slappers, Skangers, Scutters, Janners, Stigs, Scallies, Hood Rats” as they call them. Just a load of random pictures (including “Chav of the Month”!) just light-hearted humor really

2 - 1 down with 22 minutes to play, not looking good for Saints - especially as Saints haven’t come back from behind to win since November 2002 (Arsenal: 3 - 2), and even worse, they’ve never won their opening home fixture since the beginning of the Premiership!! So to the Blackburn fans, if they knew those facts, then I expect they were thinking there was no way Saints could catch up - ah but they did!

Keven Phillips’s strike got Saints the lead they wanted for the first half, but when the 2nd half began Saints were flat, no desire to extend their lead, and within 4 minutes the scores were level. Souness (Blackburn manager) made a subsitution and then the scores were 2 - 1 to Blackburn due to poor defending on Saints behalf - at least the attacking end were better this game! 20 goals in 14 games under Sturrock’s lead compared to 23 goals in 24 games whilst playing for Strachan.

Then all of a sudden, 6 minutes after going down Anders Svensson scored - his first since April last year (Leeds). Beattie managed to stop a goal going soon soon after that and scored the winning goal from a highly debatable penalty on the 90th minute - for a manager he’s supposed to dislike.

Much better play from Saints players all round - bring on Bolton

Goals: 32′ Kevin Phillips - Saints, 50′ Barry Ferguson - Blackburn, 68′ Paul Dickov - Blackburn, 74′ Anders Svensson - Saints, 90′ James Beattie - Saints (P)
Yellow cards: 78′ Paul Dickov - Blackburn, 82′ Barry Ferguson - Blackburn, 85′ Nils Johansson - Blackburn
Reds: -
Attendance: 27,492

i decided to add a poll down the sidebar, will change it often, prolly once a month or something. please feel free to vote - doesn’t take long

A dissappointing start to the season basically - however, this is not a new sight for Saints. according to the official Saints page they’ve only won their first game since 1988! but at least then they look like they were putting up a fight. in the match vs Aston Villa, they looked like they would rather be down the pub or something. the actual match was scrappy, Saints were creating fights amongst themselves rather than with the other team! the only thing that they did do right was improve after half-time (guessing Sturrock had a word with them!) - the phrase “little too late” comes to mind.

However, a lot of Saints heroes were missing; Beattie, Oakley and Michael Svensson all injured and any of them would have improved Saints chance significantly. for example, Oakley’s experience would have calmed the midfield players and helped make links between midfield and the front line - something that was missing greatly. Svensson would have held the defence together by using his authority. the defence on the day was all over place and even arguing with each other - including one of Saints best ever goalies, Niemi! and as for Beattie, his motivation was sorely missed and so the tempo upfront was poor. but we can’t use these injuries as an excuse!

Many of the fans blame the new manager, Sturrock for this bad performance but Saints had many a bad times under Strachan’s influence. two of the best players for Saints had to be Prutton and Fernandes as always they never gave up even when a loss was inevitable. and of course Niemi who, despite letting in 2 goals managed to keep it at that, without him it definitely would have been more!

Hopefully they’ll have a better match against Blackburn next Saturday…

Goals: 12′ D Vassell, 34′ C Cole

Green Day’s greatest hit album - released nearly 3 years ago in November, 2001 so not their latest one (Shenanigans having been released since and their new album, American Idiot due to be released in September, in the U.S). however, they have had lots great hits which funny enough, are on this album - but not all of them i think. some of the best songs on the album i think are “Waiting”, “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”, “Warning” and “Walking Contradiction”. but i think a song that should have been included is “Deadbeat Holiday” from the “Warning” album. and lots more but they had to stop somewhere lol. anyway, looking forward to the new album - whenever it arrives in the U.K!

well just got back from the Caribbean, went to Antigua - was awesome to say the least. the resort was great, and the sea was yummy. i managed to get up and sailing by myself - ok not a big boat, and not an amazing standard neither but i could sail. the water was so warm it didn’t matter if you capsised - apart from the jelly fish. that party wasn’t fun! but i did manage to see a turtle when i was sailing which was great. went snorkling and saw like hundreds of fish. what else, alcohol = very cheap! like a 350ml bottle of vodka is about 6$EC which is apparantly just over £1.20!! i know!! food was good. weather was amzing. yeah…photos to come. this is the resort from above from the website (click here)

just something i’ve been doing when i was bored. nothing much just a bit of help if you need it. click here