Galey's View

On Carlton Cole

I think Carlton Cole deserves a lot of praise for his performances lately. He lost a bit of confidence at the start, but he has really come on in recent weeks. He scored a great goal against Sunderland, a good header that he perhaps wasn't given enough credit for, and he led the line as a lone striker for a lot of the match against Portsmouth very well. If you can outmuscle big boys like Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin at any time during a game, then you have done well and Carlton used the great strength he possesses to do that. You have got to remember that he still young but he shouldn't be afraid of using what he is good at, his brute strength, his ability in the air and his quick turn of foot.

On Robert Green

Now, what has Rob Green got to do be in the England team? Nothing more than he is already doing? His effort against Grant Leadbitter in the Sunderland match was one of the saves of the season for me. Mr McClaren can't ignore him much longer....For me, not only has Rob been in fantastic form this season but he has carried it on from the end of last year especially when we had that impressive run. Carlos Tevez may have got a lot of the headlines for the goals he scored, but it was also Rob's fantastic form which saw us through. I think we are very lucky to have such a great goalkeeper, and good back-up from Richard Wright and Jimmy Walker, at the club.

On Meets and Greets

I must mention a recent box-holders' evening that I attended at the club in which Curbs and some of the players - Lucas Neill, Dean Ashton, Hayden Mullins, Matty Upson and Scott Parker, all attended. It was really superb, a great chance for some of the punters to meet the players and manager first hand and ask them some questions. The boys committed themselves really well to all that was asked of them. I think it should be known as these things don't often get noticed and I know that everyone enjoyed meeting them all.