This is my attempt at a match thread for Wales v England. I think with a week off from Swans games threads, Scott should have done one, but anywayâ¦. Wales have had plenty of critics since the appointment of Gary Speed as boss six games ago, but will be feeling buoyed by their Friday night performance against Montenegro. They gained their first point and their first win in the group, and I think with this confidence and with the pressure all on England, we will see a similar performance to Friday night from Wales. They seem to be growing in to the system that Speed wants to play, and like Aaron Ramsey said, are playing with a touch of arrogance. However, England looked pretty comfortable against a poor Bulgaria, and did enough to make me think they will have to really switch off to lose to Wales. With their next and last game of the group in Montenegro, England can pretty much seal their qualification with a win at Wembley. Rooney had a great performance against Bulgaria, and he will obviously be Englandsâ biggest threat, but I think itâs in the wide areas, and particularly, the plethora of wingers England have to choose from that will have most effect on the game. Wales will be without their talismanic gobshite Craig Bellamy and the engine of the team David Vaughan, who both serve suspensions, and replacing those two will be Walesâ biggest attacking problem. James Collins will be back from suspension to replace Darcy Blake, who may move out to right back and I think Earnshaw will play instead of Bellamy. With David Vaughan out, I would pick Joe Allen in the centre, but I think it will probably be Andrew Crofts. One or two selection problems for England with Richards, and now Bent, withdrawing from the squad through injury, so I think the team will be similar to the one put out against Bulgaria. Cahill certainly did enough to keep his place in the team and so did Scott Parker in my opinion, so the big question marks are over whether Lampard will be selected over Barry, and in what order and shape Capello will use his 5 wide players. I thought Ashley Young did pretty well centrally in the last game, but his natural position seems to be wide left and Downing was solid as usual, so that will be a tough choice. I wonât be giving a score prediction because my Welsh pride will get in the way of predicting a realistic scoreline that wonât come back to haunt me, but this is my starting line-up prediction; Wales Hennesey Blake Collins Williams Taylor Crofts Ramsey Ledley Bale Earnshaw Morison England Hart Smalling Cahill Terry Cole Parker Barry Walcott Milner Young Rooney
Well I was going to today, but I don't need to now... Cheers mush, and good effort! I really hope Joe Allen gets the nod, I think he needs this kind of game to step up again.
I think Speed will go 4 - 5 - 1 with Collison in not Earnie. Gunter will stay at right back but Darcy could play midfield in front of the back 4 (not Crofts) as he did well for City at Pompey. I worry about his distribution though. The advantage of playing Collison is that it will tie him to Wales for the future. I agree Joe allen could use a run but more liekly to be from the bench. Kiwiqpr - I don't disagree with your score prediction but nevertheless live in hope of a good result of some kind for Wales.
Methinks you could be right, can't expect a similar performance from Wales without Bellamy and Vaughn, only thing to hope for is that England go into the match thinking they've already won it
Leon! Why have you posted a match thread on the Cardiff board with the words: Quote (Wales will be without their talismanic gob****e Craig Bellamy )
I think he is after a bite, but not getting it, personally cant see Wales getting anything in Wembley, but then again who really cares.
Personally I couldn't give a to$$ about the rugby. TV coverage of the little tournament in New Zealand will probably interfere with what we see of the world's most popular game. I can't see Wales rugby competing with the southern hemisphere teams anyway.
I know my thread doesn't compare to your match day threads, but assumed you weren't going to do one for this game. You can rest your keyboard blunted fingers till the next swans game!
I didn't specifically post that 'Bellamy is a gobshite', just on the Cardiff board. I did a match thread on Wales v England which I included in the 'England' board, the 'Welsh' board, and the 'Cardiff' board. It wasn't a WUM, I just thought 'talismanic gobshite' was a very good way of describing him. Whoops, I called him a gobshite on the Cardiff boards again.
Why have you posted an article on the Cardiff board expecting Cardiff fans to contribute but refer to Bellamy as a gob****e. All you do is devalue your article. Remove the word gob****e.
Well it doesn't seem to have put anyone off yet. So far, one QPR fan has commented, one Swans fan, and four Cardiff fans. Expletives are just as much a part of the English language as any other word, and sometimes expletives are much more descriptive than other words. If used to excess, it can become crude, but one word in 500 is hardly devaluing my article. I am not going to remove any words to appease one over sensitive fan
Leon! You refuse to remove the word dog****e? Remember I have given you the opportunity to amend one word. Then clearly the quote in your article was intended as a wind up and I will treat it as such. Did Craig's goal against you at the liberty really hurt you that much?
is it me or was ledley totally anonymous in the montenegro game? i didnt even know he was playing for a while and he's supposed to be centre mid! in all seriousness, we'll struggle as we do against any team it seems nowadays. i think the group is now about avoiding embarrassment at england and trying to carve out wins against bulgaria who i dont think we've played yet? for englands standards, its looks a very weak midfield. barry and milner are no where near gerrard or lampard for example, whereas its a shame bellamy is suspended because he could have given smalling a torrid time. its a shame our top players wont be playing but i've come to accept that at any given time we will have several key players not playing
Bellamy IS a gob****e! Just the way it is! Not because he scored the winner against us at the Liberty, and not because he's from Cardiff - but just because he is one! When you get into as much trouble as he has, he brings these descriptions on himself! It's the same with Joey Barton - there's no defending these guys, they are pure gob****e. BUT that doesn't mean that we don't support him when he's playing for Wales, I know that with Bellamy on the pitch there's a better chance of Wales winning! However, he's like that one guy in your group of mates that everyone thinks is a knob but you're all still mates with him even though you don't really want to be...
Thank you for your kind offer of amendment, and yes I will remember. You can treat it however you like, it is not intended as a wind up. I honestly believe what I said, irrespective of who he played for or where he comes from, and I think most fans would agree with me. P.S. I called him a gobshite, not dogshite
Guys, isn't this meant to be an England v Wales match thread? not a Cardiff v Swansea or even a Swansea v Swansea thread? We're not really covering The Land of our Fathers in too much glory eh? Back OT...realistically, I can't see this being anything other than a home win. Other than bragging rights (and maybe some crazy ranking points), we have nothing to gain, which in no way implies we wont be trying to get a result. I just hope that we can take some of what we saw on Friday onto the Wembley pitch...albeit with a few of that team missing. Speed's squad is still developing and, in this group at least, they wont find a better place to test themselves than Tuesday night. just my opinion