It's about points not cracked skulls you fools

What else is there to say about today's game? It is a match that most intelligent fans - and there are some of us on both sides of the divide - wish wasn't happening for fear that the idiots will once again tarnish the names of our clubs. The memory of the bloodbath at Upton Park is sadly too fresh in the mind and Green Street the movie is a pathetic clarion call to the morons.

The police have issued their warnings, as if that will make any difference, and the prisons are bulging at the seams anyway with this summer's rioters. Irrespective of what is said and done, some dicks will seek notoriety by putting their own selfish agendas above those of the clubs they purport to support. If one team or the other is losing heavily, some might even see the agendas merge, thinking that if they can create bovver, it may result in the opposition losing the points from the game. God help us!

But putting all that aside, this is just another match, a game with 3 crucial points at stake. There is the little matter of a team to pick. Does Allardyce stick with the personnel used against Pompey, or does he go for changes? Most of the team surely picks itself. Green, Tomkins, Reid, McCartney, Nolan, Lansbury, Taylor and Cole will all start if fit. O'Brien will probably get the nod at right back and some will argue that to question his place in the team is unfair given how well he has played, the Pompey game apart. So Doctor Evil is scratching his head over two positions. Does Faubert or Bentley start on the right? And who holds, Noble, Collison or Papa Diop?

The knives are being sharpened even as we speak. Let's hope it passes off without trouble and that we return home with the points!