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Up in the North East today it was really miserable so I got moving early to get back for training today. Arrived a few minutes after they started and got a warning from Mark Bowen for being late! Good to see though that everybody was out there training except for Robinho and Nedum. Adebayor for his first seesion since last weekend , Tevez for his 2nd and RSC after a bit of an illness.

All looking good and great spirits in the warm up which ended with the keep ball circles. When they finished that they were given a 2 or 3 minutes to themselves which for some meant having some fun shooting with SWP in goal.The challenge isn't just scoring against him but doing it by showing how short he is. Plenty of chip shots being the main practice. The banter was great with Benjani having a great time with everyone. After splitting the group into 2 they worked on some passing attacking routines ( against no defence) which to be fair were not too great and it finished with a great cross from Vlad which Bellers met and headed weakly wide which was then followed with Bellers bollocking himself loudly.

They went into a full match which for the first half was 3 touch and then onto a full game on half a pitch.Plenty of good play but no goals I can remember. It wasn't a long session but at the end afterthe majority had gone in 2 groups stayed for some extras. Bellers/Vinnie/Vlad/Garrido taking free kicks and then some shooting practice. At the other end Ade/Petrov/SWP/RSC were doing some finishing routines and were largely excellent. One and two touch stuff giving the keepers a torrid time. Probably RSC's best little session doing this so hopefully bit by bit it's coming back for him.

Ade followed one blocked shot in , sold a great dummy to the keeper who was desperate not to be beaten so got up quickly again only to be sold another dummy but then with him on the floor admitting defeat Ade somehow messed up and walked the ball wide.Petrov spentt most of his finishing practice using his right foot only. Pretty good too , which shows how he is feeling about his game. Excellent throughout.

The expectation is that all will be fit for tomorrow but there is always a possibility of some reaction to today's training.

welcome back, and did you bring a letter from your mum saying why you didnt go all week [ to watch training ]

Cheers Doug,

Great to hear Ade is back!! He should be raring to go and ned and robbie hopefully soon enough should be ready to go I hope!! I cant wait for tommorow, I reckon we could stuff them!!

Svensational wrote:Top stuff as usual Doug.

Great to hear that Ade is back in action, I hope he starts 2moro!

Did Bellers look fit for 2moro?

I would expect Ade to start if there is no reaction overnight.He didn't look brilliant today as I am sure he was feeling his way back a bit but he was enjoying being out there and i got the impression looking forward to playing. Bellers looked absolutely fine to me running well , shooting well and complaining well.

Cheers as always DH. It's great to hear that the likes of Benjani, althou having no hope of a start or even a place on the bench at the mo, still conducting themselves in a professional manner

Chinners wrote:Cheers as always DH. It's great to hear that the likes of Benjani, althou having no hope of a start or even a place on the bench at the mo, still conducting themselves in a professional manner

One slightly weird thing re Benjani is that, although he stayed for the shooting practice at the end , he didn't actually take part. His overall work in the training was really good both in terms of attitude and quality but as yet he hasn't got the go ahead or maybe just confidence to hit shots as hard as he can. I am not 100% sure what his injury was but it seems he has concerns that it might " go" again if he isnt careful.

Superbly informative piece as always. Makes great reading for those not fortunate enough to be able to get down to Carrington. Keep up the good work

Thanks again Doug. Seems like Hughes brings in RSC late in games to give him some on-field time, and I hope that he can find some for Jonners too, as he badly needs it, and will be a good asset later in the season. I hope he starts to find some sharpness in training though

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

Svensational wrote:Top stuff as usual Doug.

Great to hear that Ade is back in action, I hope he starts 2moro!

Did Bellers look fit for 2moro?

I would expect Ade to start if there is no reaction overnight.He didn't look brilliant today as I am sure he was feeling his way back a bit but he was enjoying being out there and i got the impression looking forward to playing. Bellers looked absolutely fine to me running well , shooting well and complaining well.

Good to hear nice one Doug.

TOP MAN! First post i look for.

Doug, does RSC look lazy in training too? Does he just stand around?

I should point out that last season it wouldn't be an issue. We just happen to have some very hard workers now.

We were going to send out a search party Doug.

Benjani it is then, main striker!

dazby wrote:Doug, does RSC look lazy in training too? Does he just stand around?

I should point out that last season it wouldn't be an issue. We just happen to have some very hard workers now.

No he doesn't. He is pretty good in training and is a regular for staying back for a bit more.He isn't a Bellamy or Tevez chasing all over the place ( although Tevez doesn't do too much of that in training). I just think having watched him in full training now for a while that it has taken time for his touch and confidence to come back.

As someone who goes to training most days, any idea why Lescott has lost his pace. Last season he was as quick as most defenders, certainly quicker than Zamora, but yesterday, Zamora beat him time after time in a straight foot race over 20 yards in fact on one occassion in the first half, Zmaora gave him a yard start and beat him a yard over 15.

Leaving aside the problems of having to continually cover for Richards having gone walkabout, we have some games coming against quicker forwards than Zamora, will he be able to cope

shortagain wrote:As someone who goes to training most days, any idea why Lescott has lost his pace. Last season he was as quick as most defenders, certainly quicker than Zamora, but yesterday, Zamora beat him time after time in a straight foot race over 20 yards in fact on one occassion in the first half, Zmaora gave him a yard start and beat him a yard over 15.

Leaving aside the problems of having to continually cover for Richards having gone walkabout, we have some games coming against quicker forwards than Zamora, will he be able to cope

Tis a strange one. Nothing has really shown up in training although there has been the odd time where he has had a bit of extra work with a fitness coach and he was ill a couple of weeks back. He did seem a bit slow and even looked heavy to me at times yesterday but to be fair 3 of the back for yesterday looked all wrong!

But did the other two Lescott/Toure suffer because they were trying to cover for Richards wayward positional play. It happened plenty of times last season and resulted in Dunne being moved on because he was exposed on more than once.

One other point on the training, does Given ever practice coming out for high balls, yesterday we had their keeper who caught 95% of our high balls into the area, especially those in or near the 6yd box and we have Shay making wonder saves from efforts generated from high balls into our box. Unfortunately he couldn't stop the Dempsey effort, but he could perhaps have come out to catch or punch it. Two of the goals at OT came from low crosses, Fletcher didn't even have to jump for one of them. I know the defenders should deal with them, but they don't seem to be

shortagain wrote:But did the other two Lescott/Toure suffer because they were trying to cover for Richards wayward positional play. It happened plenty of times last season and resulted in Dunne being moved on because he was exposed on more than once.

One other point on the training, does Given ever practice coming out for high balls, yesterday we had their keeper who caught 95% of our high balls into the area, especially those in or near the 6yd box and we have Shay making wonder saves from efforts generated from high balls into our box. Unfortunately he couldn't stop the Dempsey effort, but he could perhaps have come out to catch or punch it. Two of the goals at OT came from low crosses, Fletcher didn't even have to jump for one of them. I know the defenders should deal with them, but they don't seem to be

I wouldnt want to make excuses for Richards but I don't think the other 2 suffered because of him , at least not much.Neither of them looked fully fit to me.

As for Shay , yes he does practice coming for high balls in most sessions. The reality is that although he is a top keeper he isn't that great at cross balls and never has been.