to the north, to the north

OH HI INTERNET. it's been a manic few days to be honest - packing away your life has its stressful moments, and it's turned me into a bit of a bloody female. like how women um and ah over outfits and calories and all that bollocks i've been equally undecided in what the hell i take and what i don't when i make the move back up to sheffield tomorrow. it's truly incredible how much crap one can amass over the space of a year or two.

hmm. reading that back i come across as a right sexist bell end. worry not dear reader for that is not my alignment. last year in fact i wrote a (grade) killer essay on judith butler and simone de beauvoir and it was rather interesting. in the sense that i never realised how far procrastination could take me.

WHEY.

that was poor. we move on. my last entry gave you a brief insight into my emotionally shattered state of a few days ago, but FEAR NOT for everything appears to have been resolved. this uni business has had me on a pleasure beach roller coaster for the past two years, but things appear to be on the up this time which is great news. when you mentally prepare yourself for a whole year of what will no doubt be intense work, a few setbacks can really leave a dent on you. thankfully i'm back on track and ready to kick third year english literature so hard in the balls that they'll be hanging out of its figurative mouth like a set of swings. BOOM.

enough of me. this weekend sees the irons taking on stoke at at the britannia stadium with an early kick-off to boot, and suffice to say i'm a bit nervous. see last week i wasn't so devastated as fellow fans were over losing to chelsea. yes yes in the end it was more than comfortable for the blues but we didn't give so bad an account of ourselves as the newspapers and online reports or those dicks on talk sport suggested.

our midfield managed to conjure up a good few moves for our attack and we had the chelsea defence backtracking on more than one occasion. i feel had we been a bit sharper then we might have put a few of those chances away. obinna looks lively up front and if we have barerra featuring a bit more then a can see those two linking up rather nicely. none of our forwards look sharp enough at the moment and that needs to be rectified. i can't really see benni mccarthy being our saviour in that department though. apparently he's been 'sorting himself out' recently. the only thing i see him sorting out for himself is a nice batch of pancakes doused in maple syrup with lashings of cream and butter for dinner right now. the fat bastard.

OMNOMNOMNOM

but the main concern, as it has been for a while, is the defence, which at times has looked to be comprised of a bunch of schoolboys. and this is what worries me for saturday. that big fucker kenwyne jones is going to make upson and co more nervous than an awkward teenager at the school disco. and despite their absolute negative approach to playing football stoke have a fairly handy midfield to supply balls to jones. if he gets the best of us then we're truly fucked.

i hate stoke. and pulis as well. something about him just comes across as incredibly smug. that stupid baseball cap just screams the 'I'M A TRADITIONAL ENGLISH MANAGER HOW D'YA LIKE ME NOW?' vibe. and yes, i know he's welsh. point remains. i hate the mentality of these managers. kick around the opposition and play shit football and then defend it afterward as 'maintaining the integrity of the english game.' no, it's holding this country's football back. pass back, pass back, pass across, HOOF TO THE BIG MAN. it's ugly.

^^ prick.

in any case, we need a win on saturday. so so bad. i'm never one for writing off west ham (06/07 anyone?) but if we don't sort ourselves out soon it's gonna be an absolute beast of a mountain to climb if we're gonna stay in the top flight. COYI.

and with that, i'll leave it. enjoy your football this weekend whoever you follow. this might be the last blog in a while from me because i'm not so sure what the internet situation is in my sheffield yard. hopefully we'll be up and running asap so all five or so of you readers wont be deprived for too long.

keep it tidy.