So the Carling Cup entertained us no end over the last two nights. The semi-final draw now pitches City V United in a Manchester derby. Man City seem to be going gung- ho for this trophy and one would imagine that City at full strength should advance to the final. However as we all know, derby games are such a lottery and it will be interesting to see whether Fergie fields a full-strength side. United already have the upper hand on City following their dramatic encounter at the end of September which United stole late on courtesy of Michael Owen. Ferguson will not want to relinquish that position.
In the other semi-final, Blackburn Rovers will meet Aston Villa after they defeated Chelsea on penalties last night. Rovers are performing well in the absence of their manager Sam Allardyce who is recovering from heart surgery and will pose a threat to Villa's quest for silverware. Villa advanced on Tuesday night last defeating Portsmouth 4-2. Tuesday night's other game saw Manchester United advance safely following a comfortable 2-0 win over Spurs.

In other news, the whole Sepp Blatter, F.A.I. saga seems to be coming to a halt, FIFA President Blatter yesterday issued an apology although some may argue over the sincerity of the apology. Bitter as we may be, we have to accept the position that we are in and move on. Some have called the way in which the F.A.I. approached FIFA, i.e.("Hat in Hand") as embarrassing. Asking to be included as a thirty-third team was hopeful to say the least. Evidently the F.A.I. were clutching at straws, but they were made to look silly by the patronising manner in which Blatter spoke about the request at his press conference. I agree with Liam Brady that Blatter is a disgrace. He is a bundling babbling bufoon who as far as I can see has been unpopular for years. People will surely remember being booed at the '98 World Cup in France? One point which Blatter should make a note of, over 20,000 Irish supporters travelled to the French capital that night and not a single incident of crowd trouble was reported. We'll move on from this setback and make sure that we are all in our camper vans in 2012 travelling across Europe to Poland and Austria for the European Championships. I can picture it now, Christy Moore's "Jockser Goes To Stuttgart" on repeat the whole way over. Magical...