The bus that the Coventry team were on broke down a couple of years ago. They had to get the tube to the ground, fortunately Jay Tabb, ex-Brentford knew the tube map well enough to get them there on time. Micky Adams still didn't pick him though!

Seems like I've misread the Luton attendance thing. Attendances in general have been low in this round...

Forest v Morecambe 4,030
Sheff U v Port Vale 7,694
Wycombe v Birmingham 2,735
Palace v Hereford 3,094

League Cup 1st Round is always low attendances, Leicester had 23,500 on Saturday and (I think) just over 7000 on Tuesday. These games always used to be free on season tickets but often aren't nowadays, plus they're just not perceived as important - the League Cup is a competition where you prick up your ears if you're still in it at the 3rd/4th round stage (or semis if you're a BRC).

Or when you get a lovely draw like away to Fulham. Looking forward to that :))

Well we're beating M****n K*****s D**s 1-0 at half time

But have had three players taken off injured

2 0 now PBF

Bolton losing to Northampton, with 2 goals from Akinfenwa. Haha. Hartlepool are beating West Brom too.

I think it's safe to say Ledesma's the real deal. Hat trick tonight to add to his goal on Saturday, and he's laid on most of our others. Let's hope he stays healthy.

Well done Cardiff.

Will the real Leeds United please stand up?! A changed side, more steel in midfeild, Douglas fantastic at doing the donkey work and the rest of the team fed off his fighting spirit. Up front we hassled them and they couldnt cope, Beckford and Bechhio looked on the same wave length for the first time. Great night all round, even Warnock said nice things about us. Can we carry it on in the league against 6 hitters Bristol on Sat or are we a cup team this season...

First off, congratulations to Hartlepool. I listened to most of the match on local radio last night and switched off - very unhappily - after their third goal.

I'm supremely fucked off, so I paste a lengthy get-it-off-my-chest diatribe I posted on an Albion message board. Enjoy. Or laugh. Whatever you think fit:

Okay, my two cents worth. Take them as you wish.

I had an inkling last night that we were going to slip up, but any suspicions were amplified into pure dismay by both result and performance against Hartlepool. We were crap and Hartlepool deserved it. It's a shocker and I f*cking hate every minute of its small yet significant repercussions. I feel like avoiding any sports pages of any newspaper or any football section of a newspaper website. It's that humbling.

Okay, that's that.

Secondly, in general, and this'll cause a groan or two, having seen and heard reports of our last two league games along with this result, I really do suspect that our dour, unflattering pre-season friendlies have affected and are affecting us. We have, and don't we know it, chewed the fat over it a zillion times, but I feel that the overall opinion of them - for match fitness - has hidden a subtle sucker-punch that's had us totally unprepared for the underwhelming start we've had. Mowbray's constant swapping of team personnel and interminable pondering on systems to use may have instilled match fitness, and may have even honed a major part of our passing game, but what it has seemingly failed to do - currently, at least - is this: add cohesion, unity and character.

It's a bit like missing a glue that holds things together. Or, to stretch a metaphor even further, right now, it's a bit like seeing a cast of well-trained actors going on stage and just reciting their lines instead of doing the most important thing: acting. We're struggling to do now what we should've been doing in pre-season, which is to temper a team spirit and desire with the intelligent and adventurous play we know we can achieve. But Mowbray had approached a pre-season in a casual style that bordered on cavalier. Just the moves, and none of the need. Seemingly treating the Premiership as a huge adventure (perhaps rightly) instead of looking with consideration at how much of a bastard this division really is (Mowbray is an intelligent man, no doubt, but there you can sense flaws in him). A pre-season prior to a campaign in which we'd be up against not just the cream of Europe but also some more-than-handy mid-table candidates yields only one win against Northampton. What kind of preparation is that?

Mowbray is culpable of this. No question in my mind. You can search for new team squad members while instilling a core of character and desire (that old chestnut) in the existing one that would help enormously while that search continues. But those summer months of flaccid, almost languid pre-season planning have caused their own little bit of damage in themselves.

It's a criticism of Mowbray, not a call for his removal. Bloody hell, that would be against sense, but it's up to him to get his act together or, on current form, meagre, lean pickings from a month of arguably potentially possible results would reflect badly on him - and it shouldn't. His reputation with us as a forward-thinking manager with a penchant for intricate football far removed from the likes of your-common-or-garden slug-it-upfield outfits is well-earned and deserved, it would be the height of irony if such a reputation was undermined by the man himself.

Would a win or draw against Bolton stem the tide of negativity? Maybe. But that would still leave a hundred questions to be asked. And a result against Bolton is not a guarantee.

Last season, Mowbray said that the first six months in the Championship were a learning curve. And he learned from it, big-time, or we wouldn't be here.

Here's where we find out if he learns from a higher, much more problematic league. I hope he does. The ball, as they say, is in his court.

west ham losing at home to macclesfield at HT

natives not happy

Bowyer comes to Curbishley's rescue. For now.

Looks like West Ham's fitness and numerical superioity came to the rescue as they smacked three more in. Curbishley's still a twat. How a man who signed crocks like Bellamy, Dyer et al can then moan about injuries hitting the squad is beyond me.

Third round draw is on Saturday at 12.30

And for once, I care...

Here you are. Blackburn away - could have been a kinder draw ...

Fucksticks - if we'd have hung on for 10 more minutes we'd be away at the Emirates.