As I correctly guessed the Villa result and scorers, and then almost got the West Ham score and scorers too … I don’t know where this sentence is going, I’m going to abandon it. Was just trying to crowbar in what I’d done. That was it really.

Hull are at that level of doing well – relative to what people may have expected at the start of the season – that we have to sit through Match of the Day pundits picking out players from their team in a ‘there’s-only-a-top-six-or-8-and-the-rest-of-the-league-are-also-rans’ patronising manner: “Oooh look they have players who can kick a ball in a straight place, who knew?!” They picked out Tom Huddlestone recently. Lol. Anyway there’s a point in here somewhere, tell me if you find it. Of course, there might not be.

Another thing I was going to say is this: have I told you how much I love, and I mean ABSOLUTELY LOVE, how Steve Bruce’s physical appearance is a thing that people attack as if it’s fair game. I don’t.

Fletch is back which hopefully indicates he’s really back, and not that we’re a little short in numbers. I’m definitely going with the former – what an incredible thing to happen. Fletch, for me, represents one of the kind of players we’ve been missing.

Cleverley getting a good run in the team is good. Good.

Anyway, this post is all a bit serious … get outta here … save yourselves! Enjoy your Christmas.

Props to Ashley Young. He’s gonna need ‘em

Prediction: 2-3. Danny with his customary two. I actually think we’re going to come from behind twice, and it’s going to end up 2-2. I dunno. Chris Woods and Phil Neville to take off their masks to reveal they were each other all along, and the previous 40-odd years of their respective lives has been a sham, and it’s only now at Christmas that they can fully appreciate that. Did not see that coming.

I was in bits at the opening sequence. I managed to just about hold it together for the rest. I fell in love with Eric more (even more)(I didn’t think it was possible, either). And much goosebumps ensued.

Do you like being wrong? I like being wrong. Do you like being wrong? I like being wrong. Love being wrong. Love it. Yeah. It’s great being wrong, isn’t it? Yeah …  I like being wrong. Really like being wrong. Really, love being wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Love IT! Yeah, really, REALLY love, love, LOVE being wrong. Yeah … you know the best thing about being wrong? The best thing about being wrong? Yeah, the BEST thing about being wrong? The best thing about being wrong is when your friends remind you, you were wrong. Yeah, LOVE being reminded when I was wrong. BEST THING! LOVE BEING WRONG!!

When I first heard this documentary film was being released, I was expecting a Christmas cash cow, and was happy to tell anyone within ear shot how it would inevitably take the form of a thrashed-out slash straight-to-video slash regurgitated montage off all those familiar clips; a pre-prescribed emotional mugging. It unequivocally is not that. The production spec is proper; this has been taken very seriously, by proper film-makers. But that’s not even the half of it.

As the six players eloquently talk us through their story (joyfully abetted by the two Erics: Harrison and Eric), we’re reminded, not only of how special their story is, but of just how integral to it their relationships with each other were and are. It’s no surprise then that the moments when the film really excels are when the players are gathered together over their tea. It’s they themselves who tell this story best and the creators of the documentary provide them with the perfectly understated platform to pitch it from here.

A couple of little things: I understand there’s a formula to documentary film-making and key to this is providing a social and political context for the main narrative, but (just throwing it out there) perhaps one or two of the external talking heads accepted the invitation primarily to indulge in some professional self-serving – I’m definitely looking at you Tony Blair (Boo!). For my personal taste, the film could have done without these asides – not you Mani, you’re alright – as the television and media footage that was interspersed throughout did the job more than adequately. I also thought we might find out what happened to a few of the other graduates. I’ll shut up.

Though it’s really hard for me to watch this film any way but subjectively, I think there is enough in the relationships of the players, and in this new take on their real-life fairytale, for fans of other clubs, and non-football fans to get behind. For United fans it’s a no-brainer – you have to see this film.

To coincide with the release of the new Class of ’92 documentary film (@classof92film, Class of ’92 DVD) we’re taking six familiar faces, with six all too familiar names to Canvey Island: Giggsy, Scholesy, Butty, Phily, Gary-y and Becky. What?!

For this special trip, our Canvey Island family will be sharing the song that defined 1992 for them.

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As they were boarding the train, the conductor stopped them for a second to ask “if we’ll get to find out what happened to the other 86?! Hey?! Hey?! Lads?!” (Hey! That’s my joke.) and then helped them aboard, in silence, ‘cept for a distant death knell.

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There was only one train waiting to depart, there was only one destination …

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Canvey Island!

They stepped off the train and were ushered, like the others before them, towards the car park where they found the car-boot sale and the stall run this time by someone who looked suspiciously like ex-Manchester United player Eric Cantona. He always rotas himself in for the good ones.

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Eric had a message for them: “Bonjour mes petits amis spéciaux préférés … Hey! Je me demandais si nous pourrions obtenir pour savoir ce qui s’est passé à l’autre 86? Non! Attendez une minute … qu’est ce que c’est cloche pour? Quoi qu’il en soit, s’il vous plaît jeter un oeil à ce que la famille Canvey a choisi pour vous…”

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…And this is what the Canvey Island family members picked as the song that defined their own 1992, and why (in their own words)…

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Estranged by Guns ‘n’ Roses

Picked by Paul Ansorge

Harvest Moon by Neil Young

Under The Bridge by Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Picked by Paul Gunning

“I was only eleven years old in 1992. So, my first year in high school, a year of first, awkward, taking-an-age-to-build-up-the-courage-to-slip-my-arm-round-a-girl’s-shoulders dates at cinemas, first kisses with tongues, terrible clothes and ‘curtains’ haircuts.

It’s fitting that this song should be a love letter to a city, as 1992 was also the year that I truly fell in love with Manchester and began to feel the first flutters of melancholy and aloneness within my soul, perfectly encapsulated in this heart-rending track.

It’s such a powerful, evocative song that brings back flooding memories of important loved ones in my life, and a time of awakening and possibility as I embarked on the first, faltering steps of my teenage years.”

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Would I Lie To You by Charles & Eddie

Picked by Tom Pattison

“In my ninth year on planet earth it was ALL about Charles & Eddie Would I Lie To You and it basically still is.”

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Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits

Picked by our very own David

“When I was 11? Probably Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits!”

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End of the Road by Boyz II Men

Picked by our very own Brett

“One of the best things about this song – and there are lots of best things about this song (apart from perhaps the second half of the talky part, that goes on a bit) – is that it can be sung in a key that means anyone can proper belt it out, irrespective of singing ability. It also lends itself really well to the fist-clenching-grabbing-of-that-lingering-hope-and-anguish-and-pulling-it-in-close-to-your-chest move.

My only experience of music before my early teens (I was 13 in 1992), was via the medium of Atlantic 252 and the telly (Top of the Pops and The Chart Show). Naturally I was into some pretty dark stuff: Michael Jackson. Take That. Simply Red. NKOTB NKOB. MC Hammer. Jimmy Nail. And Boyz II Men. Though I do think End of the Road is one of the best pop songs of the past twenty-five years, it’s not the song in and of itself that marks it out as defining my 1992. It’s the memory attached to it (yes, there is more)…

It was the ‘Christmas Variety Show 1992′ at our school. The Christmas Variety Show at our school was really just a vehicle for the posh and confident and “talented” and popular kids to show off, as teachers and parents fawned over them. Meanwhile, the rest of us were supposed to watch on, gratefully. Paradoxically, we despised them all, yet (for no good reason) longed to be one of them. This year the headline act was to be a duet performed by the two school ‘hunks’ (I forget their names) and it seemed everyone was restless with anticipation – everyone, but me.  As the familiar slow drum roll from the backing track tumbled in and hunk #2 sloped towards the front of the stage and began to speak in a low voice whilst hunk #1 caressed himself, it soon became apparent that this was very much not cool. I’m not sure if I’d ever experienced the frisson of cringing on someone else’s behalf before that moment; certainly not to that degree; nor for that long; nor that intensely. 

I might have been achingly shy and tragically unpopular and a bit rough (themes that have stuck), but at least I wasn’t that. And I didn’t stroke my groin in front of the whole school, with the minimum of self-awareness. I went home from the Christmas Variety Show 1992 feeling comfortable in my own skin – happy I wasn’t one of them. Happy to be me.”

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And then we dropped them off back home, but not before asking if we’d be finding out what happened to the other 86… 

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To get your hands on a copy of the DVD > Class of ’92 DVD

To keep up-to-date with all the news about the film > @classof92film

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Remember, to see the original musical picks from any of the lovable members of the Canvey Island family simply click on their names.

If you want to become a member of the Canvey Island Family, then please refer to the train timetable at selected stations, or easier still, drop us an email.

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Also available in the series (see below)…

I was thinking: why don’t we try something crazEE this week, hey?! Go with me here guys … Why don’t we play Kags, right, Kags, yeah … in the hole, and I don’t know, try and WIN a game. As opposed to not playing Kags in the hole and losing a game. Just an idea. Call me crazEE. There’s old crazEE head, doing his crazEE thang! I’ll leave it there … if David Moyes, or Phil Neville, or anyone reading this (Hi Cathy Ferg!) wants to take that idea and pass it off as their own … be my guest.

I’ve been really hoping Danny’s gonna start this game, what with him being an unused sub midweek, but then I got to thinking that perhaps Moyes is really hoping and pushing for RVP to be fit – which he probably is. That could mean Danny starting on the left? It would be irksome to say the least though, if the “Rooney situation” means Adnan, Kags and Danny have to duke it out for the rest of the season, with Ashley Young, for the left-wing – a position none of them really play.

All things being considered: Moyes is doing okay, so whatevs.

Spurs…

Eriksen not being available is a very good start to this bit of the pre-match bit. I did think after that first game that he was going to take over all the universes, but he’s obviously waiting for the right moment – thankfully, not starting this weekend. They haven’t got Bale anymore, either – this pre-match bit just keeps on giving! What they have got is a team that we were all well jel of only a couple of weeks ago; capable of inflicting a lot of bad things on us. A reminder that everything is in stasis; what’s important right now, won’t be forever. Though, that’s more something to remember in actual real life, rather than in this game we’re talking about, that I’ve completely forgotten the name of.

Prediction: 2-3. I’m not going to say ‘Danny with his customary two’, because the last time I didn’t, he actually got two. And a Phil Jones onion-bag busting volley. Ryan Giggs to take off his mask and reveal he was Veron all along. Me to meet Paul off of the Rant Cast.

So, not for the first time this season, David Moyes is having to compete with a Real ‘dad for tomorrow’s headlines. I don’t geddit. No, seriously, that doesn’t work.

As much as I love Januzaj (and I do), I hope he’s rested in preperation for the Stoke game at the weekend. Danny’s got this. It will mean scrapping Plan A(dnan), but maybe Moyes could try something else. Just an idea. I dunno. Having said that we’re crying out for some consistency in the team line-up; squad rotation is all good fun until someone loses and eye (for eye read: lots of games of football you should win). Moyes has been tinkering more than Tinks Tinkerton from Tinkertown. See also Fergie.

Let’s douche this!

Prediction: 2-0. Danny with his customary two. Other goals from Jonny Evans, with an overhead kick, and Fellaini, lol. Phil Neville to remove his Phil Neville mask – in the wake of Chris Woods removing his Chris Woods’ mask, last week,  to reveal he was Chris Woods all along – to reveal he was Phil Neville all along.

p.s I very much advise getting your optical gear round this by @DanielHarris

Where has it gone wrong for Manchester United and David Moyes?