''bring em home''

or maybe a better thread post would have been ''leave em there'' the typos are faint attempt of humour, bytheway.

I just hope we can beat the Swiss. The thugs deserve all they get - and probably some more. It does make me ashamed to be English - but we don't hear what the other nations are up to - are we the only ones? I doubt it.

Would it be fair to expect each Swiss team member to give their English counterpart a family size Toblerone if we beat them? And if they beat us we could give them some Kendal Mint Cake.

becks two goals england 3-1

I lived on the Algarve for four years and think it's a great shame that they're messing up Albufeira and surrounding areas. The area they call Montechoro in the papers is really Areias de Sao Joao, and I know it very well indeed. But I'll tell you something for nothing. These idiots will meet their match if they try taking on the GNR. They are out of their depth there. Allow me to tell you a couple of true stories that happened while I was living over there. Two groups of young men out for a drink in a nightclub in Areias de Sao Joao. They started eyeballing each other. Both groups had drank a lot of bevy so I've no doubt that a few verbals were exchanged. One guy pulls out a gun. A fellow from the other group also pulls out a gun, but this time he fires. The first guy fires back while his mates and the guys in the other gang all start pulling out guns and firing at each other. A full scale gun battle erupts in this bar. Everyone runs for cover, girls screaming, you can picture the scene. And what do you think the GNR were doing? Well ..... I've just told you. You see, both groups were GNR, but from different precincts, far enough away for them not to know each other. We've got two teams of Guardia Nationale Republic shooting each other up in a bar. Now I may be wide of the mark here, but surely police officers, or even military police offices in the absence of a regular patrol, aren't supposed to put the public's lives at risk in this manner, even if they don't like each other. Yup, the English thugs could well find they've bitten off more than they can chew if they take on the GNR. Another story. A man staggers into a bar late at night, obviously worse for wear. The barman refuses to serve him, so he pulls out a gun and shoots the barmen in the leg. GNR. And this one didn't even lose his job! Another story. Two GNR attempt to flag down a car. The driver refuses to stop and speeds past, so one of the GNR pulls out his revolver and ..... shoots the passenger dead. The passenger! A young girl! Just shoots her dead. Take it from me, English "thugs" do not want to mess with the GNR. And they shouldn't take on Portuguese bar owners either, for only a few short years ago Albufeira and the surrounding areas were nothing but tiny villages. They all went to school together. The GNR, the bar owners (not the English ones obviously), the fire brigade and possibly the mayor have all known each other all their lives. English "hooligans" would really be better off if they decided to behave themselves. Well, evidently so.

Sometimes, I suspect a Drop The Dead Donkey situation in all this: Damien, sent out to cover the English supporters in the Algarve finds he has nothing to report. All the news is from where the football is being played along with his rival reporters (no, they're not being played, but that is a matter for zyv). He gives £100 each to four of the hardest looking most drunk supporters he can find to kick off something at 2AM. Guess who is on primetime tv the next day? call me a cynic, I would.