Stanley

Such an historic town, and good football club deserve better than to be represented by Cowling. Through nothing more than a bruised ego, he has decided to punish law-abiding football fans, and create enormous friction between the two set of fans.

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What has flummoxed Stan, is that neither Essex nor Norfolk Police, or indeed the FA have intervened in this scenario. Surely when a decision that affects crowd safety is made, based on the sentiment contained within the following statement, a third party should have done something?

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Coming a close second, of course, would have to be Boxing Day 2003. Not for the game; a relatively drab 1-0 win over Forest. But more for that Huckerby-moment, when the great man came onto the pitch and the news that he had indeed signed for us was made official.

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In his man-management, his tactics, substitutions and preparation, Lambert looks the real deal. Crucially, his old-school pragmatism is not compromised by the challenges of the modern game. In Paul, we trust…

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The way that Lambert, Culverhouse and Crook have gone about turning the rag-tag collection of half-paced individuals who kicked off that fateful day in August into the resiliant unit we presently have is little short of remarkable.

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Charlton, too, continue to push on – but things look fragile at The Valley. A couple of injuries and it could all get rather sticky for Parky. Indeed, Stan fears that Hoofroyd’s Colchester and the MK Dons may prove more long-term competitors for the second promotion spot than our former London role model.

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Lambert is certainly one to do the unexpected and you sensed that there is a lot of real-politik driving many of his decisions. He’s not going to let pride stop him from bringing a player back if he deems he’s the best option available, and credit to both Lambert and the Doc, it worked a treat.

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Lambert’s team look organised, and well drilled and they sure aren’t going to roll over and die when they go behind. In fact, all he needs to do to prove he’s the real deal is spot the defensive link between Saturday’s opposition goals!

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Well, that's another footballing first for Stan to cross off his 'Things to do…' list: attend a Johnstone's Paint Trophy match.

True, it wasn't listed as high as 'Watch Norwich play in (and win) the FA Cup Final…', but there you go.

It was, moreover, a pretty enjoyable experience.

The game petered out after about 65 minutes, but the first half was played at a decent tempo and saw both teams – mainly us, thankfully – …

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Unable to find writing inspiration in the usual ways, Stan has decided that the answer to his impotence lays somewhere within the bottles of Carlsberg Export that were/are chilling in the fridge.

Thus, prepare for an increasingly incoherent waffle through the NCFC week just gone!

Somehow two games, 12e goals, a new manager and even the return of 'the curse of hooliganism' have failed to set Stan's creative juices flowing.

This Stan …

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