Hat tip Vital Lincoln

Sir Graham Taylor is doing a London to Paris bike ride in aid of the British Legion and this is something I admire from a pensioner. 4 years ago I did the same ride and it is bloody tough and I was 34 at the time.

Fantastic effort by Sir Graham and watch out for the killer hills on the North Downs, this is appeal

The Club Patron of Lincoln City FC and Patron of the Lincoln City Supporters’ Trust is looking for Imps supporters and others to back him in a charity event.

“Hi,

At long last I am doing something worthwhile!!

I am one of approximately 300 people who are going to cycle from London to Paris in an attempt to raise in excess of £500,000 for The Royal British Legion. Starting at Greenwich Park on Thursday September 2nd we all hope to be celebrating when finishing at the Arc de Triomphe on Sunday September 5th.

Obviously I am now looking for as many sponsors as possible, and hopefully this is where you come in!

You can support me by making a donation by visiting JUST GIVING GRAHAM TAYLOR and/or texting ‘graham` to 70222. The text message costs £3 plus standard network charges.

The Royal British Legion is the nation`s leading Armed Forces charity providing care and support to all members of the British Armed Forces past and present and their families. It is also the national Custodian of Remembrance and safeguards the Military Covenant between the nation and its Armed Forces. It is of course best known for the annual Poppy Appeal and its emblem the red poppy.

Finally as I come to the end of my first year as an O.A.P I cannot think of a better way of celebrating it than cycling from London to Paris. Can you? Thanks for your support.

Best Wishes

Graham Taylor’

Since the Mirror story broke last night it was going to always be obvious that it would split fans between those who say ‘good riddance’ and those who say he should stay.

There is no doubt whatsoever that Stan Petrov divides support amongst the Villans and for various reasons. However to address the naysayers I will post this defence of Stan, I expect many not to believe what I write or think I am talking cobblers, your choice really.

OK lets look at the PL Stats first and remembering Stan is a defensive midfielder

TACKLES

He made 143 tackles last season with a success rate of 76%. This put in 5th in the the list of tacklers with the 2nd best % rate behind in both cases Mascherano.

FOULS

He is 46th in the the list conceding 46 fouls all season. For comparison Mascherano was 7th after conceding 67 fouls.

He won a total of 84 fouls last season putting him third just behind Kevin Davies and Steven Pienaar

PASSING

Made 1412 passes putting him 28 in the list. Milner made more passes at 1514. Of these passes 1140 were successful putting him 22nd, Milner was even lower at 1084

YELLOW CARDS

Stan was top with 11 along with Muamba

So what do these stats say. To me it shows in the tackling area he is very effective and does the job of a defensive midfielder. Somehow he does get given a lot of yellows but more for petulance I think as I can barely remember a bad tackle. Passing wise is possibly the area with an average success rate but Milner’s was worse, this suggest to me more of a problem with the team’s ability to create space. What it does not show is the constant cry we hear of easy passes backwards or sidewards or otherwise it would be an higher success rate.

Sky LINK for Stats
Telegraph LINK for Stats

So to address some of the other complaints about Stan

- he tires out after 70 minutes – this is purely a personal standpoint and yes would agree not as early as the 70th minute but later he can. However could this because Milner is very offensive and Stan has to cover a lot of the ground, makes the case for a 4-3-3 more compelling

- not a leader – well watch him on the pitch, he commands the respect of all around him, surely he would not be captain after all. He is the captain of Club and Country, you do not get those positions unless by accident

- does not create or score enough - does he need to, that is not his position

Finally this post from ‘chads’ on VT if true sums up why Petrov within the Villa ranks IS appreciated and why if true Roy Hodgson (whose stock has never been higher) may actually rate him higher than ourselves.

let me give you the point of view of a villa player…yes player, who sees, trains and plays with him day in and day out:

when some friends of mine met fabian delph in a birmingham nightclub (last season before he got injured) one of them them told him he should be playing instead of petrov because petrov is shit etc, and started talking all the bollox some people on here who also dont know what they’re talking about usually come out with…slow, doesn’t score enough etc..

Delph ordered him to get down and give him 20 press ups because it was such a ridiculous comment. delph said that petrov was ‘the best player at the club’, and we would be nowhere without him and his midfield calm and control. he went on and on apparently and i wasnt there so cant convey his whole argument but this is a young and exciting footballer trying to takemake a name for himslef in petrov’s position so surely his opinion is worth its weight in gold in this argument? case closed?

Whilst it is not clear that playing in tonight’s CL qualifier against Braga would make McGeady ineligible for Villa in the Europa Cup he has been left out of the starting line up tonight. He has travelled but not even named as sub so he will be off, Spartak got to be favourites you would think.

Johnjohn2 on VT has posted

Lots of rumours rom the Celtic fans that McGeady is going to Villa for 8mp + Heskey.

but not seen anything on their forums

Would add of course he has travelled, not injured but not playing and just which other team is in Portugal tonight ?

Jackso55 says on VT

Just heard on Sky sports news via the commentator on the Celtic vs Braga update that Mcgeady has been left out of the squad for the tonights game, with very strong rumours coming out that he is about to sign for villa in the next few days. I AM NOT ITK, Just passing on the info that I heard, it was at about 9.05pm.

BBC now reporting a back injury