Lets get serious baby

How's your Wembley fever? Mine's slow burning at the moment, but I'm sure it'll increase in intensity as the days progress. At least it's better than having swine flu I suppose.

Within the confines of the Abbey Stadium, excitement is apparently not on the agenda. That's because everyone is taking this years final very seriously. Very very seriously in fact.

"There will be no suits, no specially recorded songs or anything like that this year. We'll be wearing the club tracksuit and polo shirt and that's how we want it done," Cardy told the CN, for some reason eschewing the chance to produce a follow-up to that seminal opus We're Going up with Jimmy and Willy. And scousers liking tracksuits eh, who'd have thunk it? Next you'll be telling me they're partial to the odd hub cap.

Meanwhile, chairman George has been sticking his beak in as well: "We haven’t done anything yet, though, and what we don’t want to do is just see it as a day trip to Wembley and for everyone to come back saddened by it.

"My personal thoughts on last year are that we didn’t prepare properly for the game. We got it totally wrong in a lot of areas and the fans were very much let down and I think the board of directors were let down as well by the scenes that went on beforehand," he said.

All jokes aside, these are admirable sentiments, and it's great that the management seem determined not to let the occasion over-ride the importance of the match.

But it's a bit rich of Mr Rolls to stick the boot in on Jimmy for what went on last time. If the managers preparations left a bit to be desired, perhaps his boss should've stepped in and suggested we do things differently. Who was Jimmy's boss at the time? Oh yeah, that would be you George.

Far be it from me to defend JQ, who was never the most likeable of individuals, but I don't remember too many people complaining about his methods at the time, certainly not in public anyway. If you ask me our chairman would be better off concentrating on the business in hand rather than having digs at someone who isn't around to defend himself.