The Man In The Stands That's it, I've made my deal with the devil.With us in cruise control, Cody pulled out a tackle Bobby Moore would've been proud to help bag our win at Stockport.

The Man In The Stands

That's it, I've made my deal with the devil.

With us in cruise control, Cody pulled out a tackle Bobby Moore would've been proud to help bag our win at Stockport.

League points in the bag, our giantkilling seems a now certainty on Saturday.

The Man will be one of the lucky few huddled around at Winterfield Road and if Paulton pull it of, fair play.

It means we can have a few weeks extra to get our injury problems sorted.

Lambo, Culverhouse and Gary Who-ares-ya? are big on fitness - so much so The Man suspects their expectations are not being met by the players.

Hence the niggles - and reoccurrences.

For now it seems a third string us is still good enough to go to most places and win - but at some point that will stop.

So either we need some reinforcements - if Lambo's already tried hundreds, there can't be many left - or he needs to go a little easier on them in training.

At least until the summer, anyway.

* * * * * * * * *

What on earth is all the criticism of Chrissy Martin about?

The guy is scoring goals, winning games - and all some of us lot can do is complain because he doesn't chase every lost cause.

The Horse does it, and that's enough. We don't want all our strikers ending up at right-back - however short we are.

Fair enough if Martin's not producing the goods - or behaving in the county's pubs - but if he's scoring meaningful goals on the pitch, The Man has nothing but praise for the youngster.

* * * * * * * * *

Could things be afoot behind the scenes at Carrow Road?

David Sullivan might look at it as a long way to walk, but he fancies a nibble at the club.

The Brummie board and our great leaders have always got on well, although whether David McGnarly would fancy giving up his job to Karen Brady is a different matter.

No. He might prefer the Michael Foulger option.

Foulger is apparently working on a way of getting some money together. Sadly, The Man doesn't know whether things are particularly tricky in selling poultry businesses at the moment.

Alan Bowkett has been tight lipped, and it may be fortunes on the pitch distract from what needs to happen off it.

But even Bowkett himself admitted there needs to be change and Lambert needs money.

So, while people are clearly trying, The Man's message is make it happen.

* * * * * * * * *

Ah, our fiends down the road finally know what it's like to win a game.

Lucky them, getting the chance to jump around in joy rather than frustration.

After all, it's only been conceding a load of 'unlucky' last minute goals that's seen them wait until the end of October to be better than the team they're playing.

Such a shame they didn't reach November with eight points - we all know who does well in that situation.

Worth remembering, Scummers, that we won back-to-back games, thrashed the eventual champions - and still got relegated.

For now, it's enough that the millionaires have screwed up their season.

They'll be scrapping round in a relegation battle for a while yet.

* * * * * * * * *

Good to see the European Superleague continues to bore the masses.

The Emirates was packed to watch the Arse out-football another side again; 4-1 up and, with minutes to go, the ground was virtually empty.

I think we'd have at least stayed to cheer the lads off, eh? However bad getting out of the ground is.