Happy New Year!!

Just writing a quick post to wish all my readership a happy New Year, have a good one!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Just in case I forget to say I hope all my readership has a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year!

Back to the blog!!

I have not updated my blog for a long time, for various reasons mainly due to using facebook to communicate, so I thought I would move back to blogging. This weekend Hull City, the team I have supported for a long time drew with West Ham at the KC Stadium! Unfortunately I couldn't attend this match as I was at the Scout Associations North East training day in Middlesborough! So hopefully this blog should be regularly updated once again as it was up to the 21st World Scout Jamboree in 2007! So look out for the new more regular posts as everything gets back to normal!

Hull City 2 Leicester City 0

Long time no post, but I have been very busy! Hull City sealed a first win in five league games at the KC Stadium thanks to a first-half goal from Caleb Folan and a second-half strike by substitute Fraizer Campbell. I was in attendance at the KC Stadium to see this game so I was happy with the result.

The home side took the lead on 17 minutes when Dean Windass flicked a through ball over the top of the Leicester defence towards Folan who chased it down and registered his first goal for the Tigers as he neatly slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net.

Hull were given the chance to double their lead in the 78th minute when Bruno N'Gotty brought down Windass in the box with a late challenge. Windass took the penalty himself but his right-footed effort hit the post. However, substitute Campbell was the first to react, and the Manchester United loanee fired home the rebound from close range to confirm Hull's victory.

Hull City 2 - Ipswitch 5

"BACK IN THE RELEGATION ZONE!"

Hull's hopes of avoiding relegation suffered a major setback as they were thrashed at home against Ipswich. Hull took the lead when Dean Windass smashed home after Stuart Elliott's header hit the bar, but Francis Jeffers levelled with a close-range finish.

Ipswich went ahead when Jaime Peters curled a shot that deflected in-off Sam Ricketts and Alan Lee fired in for 3-1. Jason de Vos poked in and Danny Haynes rifled home a fifth before Windass got a penalty after John Welsh was fouled.

However Hull boss Phil Brown said after the match that: "It isn't over by a long way. We've slipped into the bottom three but maybe that has given us a kick up the backside for Saturday against Preston. We are limited to who you can select and hopefully we can get that right. It is up to us to maintain that belief, stay together and force the belief into the supporters that we can stay up," he said defiantly.

Personally being optimistic I think that the result tonight means that what could have been achieved in 11 games now has to be achieved in 10 and that’s all I am going to say about tonight’s performance directly. Lets stick together, people will look to see how we handle adversity and if as fans we do it together and united, the team will follow. Well that is my optimistic viewpoint anyway!

Sorry if I am supplying old news but Blogger is out of beta!

Google has taken its Blogger service out of beta and has added features for customizing layouts, organising postings, and making blogs private.

The new Blogger beta product, open to a limited number of users in August, is now live for all users.

The key changes include the addition of tags, which Google has always called “labels,” and an option to create a private blog. You can also now sign into your blogger account using your Google credentials, and Google has made editing the template and posts significantly more user friendly.

Derby County 2 - Hull City 2

Phil Brown had the last laugh on his return to top of the table Derby County at Pride Park as his gutsy Hull side rescued a priceless point to move out of the relegation zone and put the brakes on Derby's promotion charge.

The opening 15 minutes saw both teams signal their intent. Derby seemed relaxed on the ball, passing it around in defence and building attacks through the vision of David Jones. Hull defended stoutly and looked promising on the counter, with the pace of Nicky Forster and strength of Jon Parkin keeping the Derby defence on their toes. Neither team, though, could muster a clear-cut chance.

Despite a catalogue of desperate clearances and blocked shots, the ball somehow failed to end up in the back of the net. Instead it fell on the edge of the penalty area to Stephen Pearson, who left the Hull defence in his wake as he raced into opposition territory. He slid the ball across the penalty area to the advancing Gary Teale, with the winger placing the ball into the far left corner to score his first goal in a Derby shirt.

Rather than imploding as usual, Hull searched for an equaliser. They didn't have to wait long as Darren Moore committed a needless foul on Parkin. From the resulting free-kick, Andy Dawson flighted a unstoppable 25-yard shot past Bywater to draw the Tigers level. The goal seemed to have given the away side a lift, as Myhill denied Pearson's header with a reflex save. But deep into first-half stoppage time, Hull were undone as Moore found space to force home Jones' in-swinging corner.

Hull were also very wasteful. Forster and McPhee both skied the ball into the stands after forcing the Derby defence on to the back foot. Hull persisted on the counter-attack, but Derby never looked in danger of conceding.

Both managers made changes - Davies looking for the goal that would put daylight between the two sides, and Brown desperately seeking an equaliser. A third for Derby looked on the cards as Barnes' snapshot from an acute angle forced Myhill to tip the ball away. Hull pounced on some flat-footed defending to snatch a good equaliser.

Evolution of the Internet!

Quite a cool video all about the evolution of the Web:


Via Technosailor.

U.K. Government Pledges £1.5m for Scouts' Centenary

Ed Miliband, Minister for the Third Sector, today put almost £1.5million behind plans to host 40,000 scouts from 216 countries at this summer's Centenary World Scout Jamboree.

The Office of the Third Sector, in the Cabinet Office, will give the UK Scout Association £1.495m to support the event in Hylands Park, Chelmsford, between July 27 and August 8.

However, when you compare £1.5m to how much the government are funding other projects with it puts the whole thing into perspective!

£1.5 million is quite a hefty amount from a government that doesn't give us much normally.

Anyway, we should be grateful for anything, so thankyou UK government for your backing, it is very much appreciated! For anybody else interested there is a petition over on the number 10 website which says throwing money at us simply isn't enough we need senior politicians making big statements as to how much Scouting means to the UK and the world. So please do sign it!

Hull City loose Craig Fagan!

Hull City's Craig Fagan will join Derby County this week in a deal that could be worth £1m. Peter Taylor originally snapped him up for the tigers in March 2005 for a undisclosed sum, which I think was probably around the £500,000 mark at the most. So not a bad return overall, in that we probably doubled our money in two years!

Hull City 1 - Middlesborough 1

Nicky Forster poured more misery on Premiership Middlesbrough after he came off the bench to force a replay as Hull earned a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup third round. Australian international striker Mark Viduka seemed to have given beleaguered boss Gareth Southgate some cheer as he slotted home in the 73rd minute to give the visitors the lead.

But Hull, who sit one place above the Championship relegation zone, were not to be denied and Forster scored with 11 minutes remaining, just three minutes after replacing Stephen McPhee. By that stage Boro should have been over the hill and out of sight but Nigerian forward Aiyegbeni Yakubu was at his wasteful worst, missing two glorious chances before the break.

He could yet have made amends with three minutes left and an opportunity to win the game, but once again his finishing let him down. Yakubu found himself clean through on 22 minutes but even after rounding Boaz Myhill, the goalkeeper managed to get enough of a touch on the Nigerian's shot to slow the ball and allow Danny Coles to get back and clear the danger.

Two minutes later Yakubu ended up in the net but he had failed to take the ball with him after Myhill missed Stewart Downing's left wing cross. Middlesbrough were dominating as expected with Downing to the fore in much of their attacking work, but the absence of Australia goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and on-loan Real Madrid defender Jonathan Woodgate left them vulnerable at the back.

And that proved decisive as Boro's defence went absent in the 79th minute, allowing Forster to head David Livermore's free-kick past stand-in keeper Brad Jones.

**WELL DONE HULL CITY**