Ken

...and England have lost the toss and are sent out to chase balls all day in that stifling heat.

2-0 ladies and gents. Fortunate for England that they'll have an extra half day to prepare for the WACA wicket. Practicing their ducking and weaving should be top priority. Extra padding and abundant supplies of paracetamol will be a must as well. Jajajajaja

I thought Pardew paid too much respect for this Manure team when the teamsheets were announced. Oh how I was wrong, and I happily admit it. He had it spot on. Fair dues to him. Not getting carried away here but the team clearly believe in him with his tactics. Going into Christmas/New Years has got me yearning for more, so long as it aint a Europa spot in the end.

Having a rest, Gemmill, it's a marathon not a sprint. The third test match starts 3 days after the end (if it lasts five days) of this one. Need to ensure they are fresh not only for the coming onslaught in the second innings but also on a beautiful bouncy WACA wicket next week. Looking forward to that? Don't think Cook and co are And as a outside observer I think it may be time to part ways with Andy Flower too btw and get in an Englishman who can put the fire back in their bellies. Worked for us getting rid of Mickey Arthur and bringing in Darren Lehman, the turnaround has been quite spectaculor. If I were a supporter of the Poms I wouldn't be too happy with the way Flower intimated that he and Lehman should get together to speak about sledgegate which he was given the cold shoulder to, and also calling for us to not bowl so many bouncers is an embarrassment and just shows weakness which has permiated through to the team. But of course as an Australian I'm just loving this!

Not a good morning, lads and lasses, I've got to say. The signals from this England side are that they have given up the fight. Your middle order are gutless - how can you crumble as easy as they did on such a slow wicket? Poor Monty being used as target practice by the Aussie quicks - but at least he stood firm and showed some resistance. Same from Bell, who should be at first drop, Root who took a few for the team, and Carberry who was unlucky to get out from a top catch. But there is very little else to heap praise on apart from those shiny aero-dynamic helmets some wear out to the middle. I can see a 5-0 series result looming here.

Game over. Well it looks like a draw at best which means your lot will have to turn it around big time (if you avoid a loss here) after you get your arses kicked in Perth, and win back-to-back tests in Melbourne and Sydney. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. Oh well, you've had a good little run...

Don't know why CA caved in and removed that tbh. Who gives a fuck what Piers Morgan thinks and says.

Yes, Verbitam.

Pretty good insight there. Not only can they develop stress-related illnesses as with Trott and Trescothick, but they are susceptible to developing obsessive compulsive disorders as well. Hope the poor fella recovers. ...and on a much lighter note; http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/cricket/new-song-taunts-english-selection-policies/story-fni2fnmo-1226769415898

Warner just doesn't have the nuance/intelligence to connect with anybody over here and for that he's been castigated for a long period of time. As a test match cricketer he is starting to become top notch, which makes the comments he's made about others who have proven themselves over a long, long period of time way out of line, others have achieved more than he. While he does say what most believe over here, icluding me, it isn't for him to make public about. Blame management for that. But with his attitude it comes back to the fact he is generally a fucking moron, which will never change, who is too comfortable with his keep due to the coin he has earned in the IPL - a detriment to the fundamentals of traditional cricket in my opinion.

England team conspicuously quiet (even to their own media outlet) in transit today. Not sure what is being spoken about over there but I hope the English media would not be trying to blame the sledging on Trott's early departure of the tour.

Good morning lads. Things are looking even more grim for your lot today if that's at all possible. Been fine viewing watching Swann and Anderson having their spirits ripped out of them as the day has progressed. You'll be able to watch (presumably, if Australia declare) England bat for the final hour of play. Only 6 sessions to defend and avoid a brutal defeat.

A bit of an implosion there by the Poms. 6/9 Just reiterates my belief that this English team aren't as good as they try and make themselves out to be. They've just been playing oppostion that has been poor up until this point, and this Australian lineup is arguably weaker of the lot from recent times. So much for Stuart Broad's assertions from his 'psychologist' about his and his teammates' so-called mental toughness, and I wonder what super-captain Michael Vaughn will be tweeting today? Oh, and Gloomy, Chris Trmlett is the white Shola Ameobi of cricket. Runs in like bambi and delivers piss weak sweet nothings.

All? Only one blunt clown that put one on Root's chin is the only mouthing off I can recall.

IF HE DOES WHAT HE'S SUPPOSED TO DO... the fact is he's moved away from that for the reason you've stated, we've all witnessed his downfall over time - he thinks he's someone he isn't.. And now he's become unfavourable in team selections, and the clock is ticking on his contract which reduces his value even further. What a waste! Should have sold him.

Yep, as I would have. He was (rumoured to be triple the amount) worth a shit load back then. Now he's back to what the club paid for him. Signing Anita was what we all thought was a decent replacement for Tiote. But Pardew initially played him wide righ for some reason. We supposedly have two screeners as it were now, One athletic who can run (supposedly box-to-box all game) in Sissoko, and the other with a deft touch in Anita who could given the time and as he is now showing control the tempo of a game. I would have also sold Cabaye given the right fee. He wants bigger and better things, he won't get that where he's at. I'd have sold him and scoured for a few unearthed gems, parden the pun.

Where do you start? How Debauchy can boast of having been capped for France is beyond my comprehension. What a useless player. Ben Arfa was marked out of the game and so he just gave up. Pappis Cisse has been able to do nothing for so many games now. The amount of open space allowed for the opposition was embarrassing. Some of the players don't even know what role that's expected of them out there - where is Moussa Sissoko supposed to be playing? Is he not a box-to-box player? So why then is he not playing deeper and using his athleticism and strength in transission or was this all just a myth about his abilities before he joined? Is all of it his fault? And are the faults of the other players theirs? As much as the players are to blame for the lack of fight in them, and that in itself is a major worry going forward, again it is a poor refelction of Pardew's abilities as manager. He is out of his depth. He just doesn't know how to work with technical players and mould them into a cohesive unit. It is clear that the players haven't been put through many drills on the training ground and it is clear he still doesn't understand the strengths and weaknesses of some of the players and how to get the best out of them. Never mind his abiltiy to recognise when to change things up during a game and by that I don't mean to hoof it up and hope for the best. And as easy as it is to blame it all on the lack of ambition by Ashley to strengthen the squad, and of course that argument has a lot of merit, that is no excuse for the performance against a team favoured to go back down and who lost key players mid week through injury just to add insult to injury. Pardew is a a one-dimensional, one-trick-pony manager. His only strength is to use his words to inspire and motivate his teams to do well for him but when most of the squad have a limited grasp of the English language, who can easily be lost in translation and who can't draw on the message that Pardew intends for them then you have a bit of a problem there. And so it must come back to team shape and team tactics and his inabiltites to address these issues become painfully exposed for all to see. I don't think I'll bother staying up to watch them again now. It has become too much of a chore and is not worth the sleep-in anymore. The highlights show will be enough time devoted from here on in I think.

Ah right. With that purely in mind, who do the UK govt focus their attention on? Who gets a nice cup of whoop-ass?

Yup. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4440664.stm

Moral highground? http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/us-forces-used-chemical-weapons-during-assault-on-city-of-fallujah-514433.html http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/nov/15/usa.iraq http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/10/fallujah-birth-defects-ra_n_571119.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4440664.stm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/20/iraq-war-anniversary-birth-defects-cancer_n_2917701.html

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/26-08-2013/125496-syria_questions-0/

Something stinks about this one. Read an article yesterday (authentic in its entirety that I was alerted to by a mainstream radio presenter yesterday) from the Daily Mail. It has been censored by many sites now. I could only get this which only shows the article's headline on this dodgy site; http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=77999 A lot of things don't make sense; Why would Assad allow weapons inspectors in if he instigated this chemical attack himself. I mean if I were him and I did something as henious as that I sure wouldn't allow a third party to come in to verify it. That would just about be a sign off on my death warrant considering Obama's rhetoric about the use of chemical weapons a few months ago. What will a surgical strike acheive? Unless it's not a strike at possible sites of these chemical weapons stockpiles but rather a strike at the military infrastructure in order to allow these rebels to over run govt controlled territory and eventual overthrow of Assad's regime. Don't Islamic Fundamentalists make up a large portion of these rebels. So if Assad's regime topples won't they gain control? They'd be worse than Assad's regime. Russia claims that this chemical weapons attack was a a possible act of outside provacation. They alledge that reports of this attack came hours before the attack actually occured.

This is what people who think too much say...

This is the biggest thing that concerns me most right now. The vast majority of the foreign legion that makes up the current squad won't want a part of it in the Championship. Doesn't leave many left when you take them out, and It is more than conceivable that this team will get relegated. Watching that game against West Ham was so deflating when thinking about what lies ahead.

Raad my previous posts about this then. Nobody here realises this more than I.