Gloucester Saint

And disrespects the EFL. Watford’s owners thought relegations didn’t really matter, they’d keep bouncing back first time - until they didn’t. Norwich too in a way, less cynically than Watford’s. I’m not sure SR are pursuing yo-yo, I think they’re just totally clueless with Phil Giles’s tea boy from Brentford in his skinny 👖 wild on the equivalent of a cocktail of E-numbers with somebody else’s money. And plenty of vape 💨 breaks of course.

My parents were at the home and away games, mum was in the early stages of carrying me in fact. I remember them saying years later that Van Der Elst’s winner was iffy. Anderlecht had some form for match fixing in that era https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/dec/11/nottingham-forest-anderlecht-match-fixing-scandal-1984 Not suggesting Glockner took a bung but Anderlecht’s President was capable of match fixing. Glockner refereed the 1970 WC Final tangentially. My folks stopped in Bruges on the way to Brussels and the locals were begging for Saints to beat Anderlecht. They are hated in Belgium then and now.

Nearest thing Saints will get to a clean sheet this season is Ramsdale wiping his cock on the hotel curtains.

Sorry, I meant that 8 would be less than Derby’s record of 11. As would 7, 9, 10 etc. but yes, 8 feels difficult and 12 or more quite challenging as it stands.

Agree, and what a contrast between the middle class areas like Saltaire and Bingley, with Bradford itself. Friendly people but as a place rough as a badger’s arse. Like to see them doing better in the football, down here to play at Cheltenham tomorrow night.

Mixed views on him at Plymouth and pissed on his chips at Ross County with the comments there about the standard. Bradford are a mystery to me, very big stadium for that level, 14k STHs, should be L1 top 10 minimum. Not sure he likes skinny jeans 👖 or vapes so a Turkish third division manager he’s seen with Goztepe in the Turkish cups who will drink apple tea all day is probably more Rasmus’s bag.

I saw their cup win at Torquay, a club they’ve effectively traded places with albeit Conference North and South. They are doing well though - FGR went down with a massive budget last season, although Duncan Ferguson replaced by Deeney as a manager was never going to work. Cotterill as manager now. Carlisle second bottom with new and wealthy owners, Morecambe might get rooted in last. Up for sale and a whole new squad.

It’s how you go down though, although we clearly will. 20 point plus from now and a bit of spirit gives you hope. 8 points and Derby’s record - I don’t think the club recovers from that for the foreseeable. Right now, I cannot see us winning a single PL game unless it’s a total fluke.

Yep, Lavia wasn’t crap but was made of glass, Edozie jury is out on, Bazanu definitely 💩and that 11 year old left back who hasn’t been seen for two years. Shields was as much a charlatan as Rasmus, surprised they didn’t get on and compare skinny jeans and vape flavours. The lack of a striker after betting the farm on Ramos/Gapko was astonishing after AA hadn’t worked out the previous summer.

‘Shy Trump voters’. Interesting thought. That said, there’s a famous American Historian who has predicted correctly for the last 40 years the Presidential race outcome and he says Harris https://www.american.edu/cas/news/harris-trump-lichtman.cfm 🤞 Allan Lichtman is correct again.

They even have the equivalent of a 9-0 defeat https://www.skysports.com/rugby-union/news/19081/13133766/gallagher-premiership-northampton-saints-crush-gloucester-rugby-90-0-in-record-breaking-scoreline although there were some specific circumstances! Kingsholm has a good atmosphere especially when Bristol or Bath are in town and whilst their league form is little better than Saints, they did win silverware last season. I’m keeping tabs on Cheltenham Town this season. Natives slightly happier after their win at Colchester and the Cowleys, only slightly happier though with Michael Flynn.

Agree with the overall post but with Ralph you’ve got to look at the run since the West Ham cup game the previous season, and it was dismal form bar a little rally in early September beating Chelsea and Leicester. He looked fed up and with the lack of investment, and then the right investment by Rasmus/Shields I could understand why. Rumours that he badly fell out with a number of senior players, Jan being one of them, as well.

I like him, first instinctive finisher we’ve had since Ings. Big step up from AA, different player to Adams who is a second link/hold up striker really but not an instinctive finisher at all. Him and Onachu are our most dangerous forwards this season, not that it’s saying a lot! His movement warrants earlier deliveries than he’s been getting.

Attwell was poor. Barrott and Allison are good, Samuel Barrot is only early 30s, lots of time to improve. Hope PGMOL attitudes don’t ruin him like they did Jarrod Gillett, who was a breath of fresh air when he started. Sam Allison slightly older at 44 but would like to see him get more PL games to shake up the old order a bit.

Had flu, couldn’t use our tickets and had to listen to that game and watch the highlights. Riley IIRC had an astonishing stat at the time for how many penalties he’d given them and quite a few memes of him in a Man U shirt.

Will do. Last time I saw one was in Bermondsey and it was £100 or something daft. Best way is probably on my next work trip to Brussels. Cafe Delirium might have one for £20-25 which I can handle. Westveleren Trappist ales can get like this on supply, demand and price too, especially the ABV 12

I think that was spread over two games. One iffy penalty given and we had two very clear shouts, and the Sky pundits agreed.

At least he worked the keeper, more than he did 18 months later at Pride Park… Andrew Davies, who scored from the disputed free kick, ended up signing for us from Boro (loanee at Derby) the following season. Good player, friend of mine who scouted for Pulis recommended buying him and we were in the crap financially. Tony wasn’t happy as he was pretty much injured all of his time at Stoke! Edit - the quote about Idiakez should have embedded.

And had a full time job at Royal Mail!

The Worthington one showed he had some previous with Frank, probably from his Bolton days. The Jimmy Case Red at the cup game was a joke. Bryan Robson of 1983 might have raced through from halfway on goal but not the 1990 post-multiple shoulder operation slowed up version. And his shoulder issues weren’t finished as he broken down again v RoI at Italia 90 IIRC. Yellow card certainly but red, not even today.

It was prior to the locality rules hence why Webb couldn’t do Sheffield games later on. I thought he was firm but fair, maybe strict on yellow cards but no obvious bloopers I can recall. Toms used to get some stick from the lower East for offside calls but I bet the majority were correct.

Souness was manager, he knew how dangerous it was as for the type of player he’d been. And Elm Park was a shithole and Reading fans are still berks (from Berkshire) although hope their club doesn’t go out of business as it’s been threatening to for a while, and that they get new owners.

Probably easier to recall the decent refs. Paul Durkin with a Dorset combination of Wendy Toms on the line was always solid and fair, widely considered the best official of his era. That mantle went to Howard Webb, only the one Saints blemish for him and Neil Warnock said they didn’t get him at Sheff Utd and it frustrated him as he rated him as the best of the best. Eddie Walthamstow let the game flow, you got a good game with him but would penalise anything cynical, as it should be. Michael Oliver looks good at times but difficult when there’s so much crap at PGMOL and Stockley Park around you. Has time on his side to be a class act. John Brooks has a mixed record but no complaints from anyone about his performance at Wembley. When a lot of the officials are on it, they can perform a very demanding job well, but there’s a few in this list who were/are terrible everywhere they go/went. Mistakes will always happen but there technology is now there to catch the obvious, if used judiciously. And there’s the rub!

Very good memory of the events, it was September 2005 but otherwise perfectly recalled. Brilliant goal by Fuller.

Kettle was notoriously bad, wasn’t just us. Whole division hated him as did the EFL when he was relegated there. We never had issues with him that I can recall but Barry Knight made some shockers to the extent Big Sam and their CEO banned him from Bolton games as his safety couldn’t be guaranteed. Rennie never made an out and out blooper but was so arrogant that WGS said at a fans forum that he was the only referee with an agent. Draw your own conclusions.