Gerrard slating is over the top THE papers were quick to crucify Steven Gerrard after he was spotted having a drink in the early hours of Tuesday morning, but I can't see what all the fuss was about.

Here at Oxford United, we have a strict rule whereby you cannot drink alcohol within 48 hours of a game, and any player would be heavily fined if he broke that rule.

But Gerrard played for Liverpool at Newcastle last Sunday. So what if he went out for a meal and a drink on Monday night?

If you're talking about players being absolutely blind drunk, falling over and being sick, then it becomes a problem.

Gerrard's a fit boy and if people go out for a drink on a Monday night before a game the following Saturday, that's acceptable. On a Wednesday, Thursday or a Friday it's not, as it can affect your training.

Thereare so many people out there who want to put people down, but Gerrard is a big, big talent.

I can understand he's got to say sorry to Sven-Goran Eriksson because the country wants England to do well today.

But who cares if he was out at 2am on a Tuesday? He's fully committed to England, to Liverpool, and he wants to do well. If he's apologised, he's probably learnt a lesson. Ted won't watch! AFTER we take on Plymouth today, we'll be watching the England game. At least, I'll be watching it. Ted (McMinn) won't be, because he's Scottish.

If England think it will be easy, they've got another thing coming, because anybody can beat anybody in international football.

Look how good Holland were when they played England at White Hart Lane - they absolutely walloped us. Then they went to Ireland and were battered.

But if England do things right against Greece, they will qualify. Hard work is starting to pay off THE last three results have been great for us and to have conceded only one goal in that time is absolutely fantastic.

We had a convincing victory against Southend, we probably should have won at Kidderminster, and a point was probably a fair result at Bristol. They are a big, strong side, are well supported and will be there or thereabouts in the shake-up, or they should be.

Even then, the goal that Rovers got came off one of our player's heads - it's not as though they broke us down.

So, with just that little bit more luck, we might have won that game.

The boys have worked extremely hard in training, doing it the way that Ted McMinn and myself want it done, and it's paying dividends.

To go to Bristol and get a point was great, but we should be saying we got seven points out of nine rather than five out of nine.

A lot of teams regard us as one of the big guns who came down. They are all out to make it difficult for ourselves, Bristol Rovers and Luton.

We know the Plymouth game today is going to be very hard. A lot of times they play 4-5-1 away from home, so it's up to us to break them down.

We have certainly been creating chances. At Kidderminster, their goalkeeper got man-of-the-match and it was justified.

We haven't been overdoing it in midfield, which is something we have to look at, but Sam Stockley and Sam Ricketts are firing over crosses and

Manny Omoyinmi has done quite well and he has got to continue to do that, but it was a body blow to lose Scott.

We're a passing team. But every now and again you've got to mix it, throw it up to big Paul and squeeze it. We're starting to do that, and all of a sudden results are starting to come.

This group have set themselves high standards. The back four were Conference players and now they're third division players and have to learn to play at this standard. But now everyone is looking to make this club a good place to come.