Gloucester Saint

There’s some truth in this but also some balancing factors missing. Universities I was reading today also have an additional NI bill of around £400m in a sector which is already cutting jobs. GPs, social care and charities also impacted as you’ve highlighted. However, around £20bn of the deficit costs left behind by the Conservatives was Brexit leaving costs so we can’t have it both ways. If you think a hard Brexit is great, that’s up to you but whoever won in July had to pay the bill and there isn’t a magic money tree. 52% of the electorate wanted it and 100% of us have to fund it, self-defeating though I think Brexit was. Also, we need to get more of the workforce fit and ready for work. There are yawning skills gaps and the welfare bill has been too high for a few years. Finally, there is no way Badenoch is winning the next election. Her target is to get the majority down to 60-80 seats. That would represent significant progress. Whether Starmer gets more than 5 years is a different story.

To celebrate our first league win of the season, Attic Brewery’s Rolling Waves Gluten Free pale ale from Birmingham. I’m not Gluten Free but saw it and thought it might be interesting. Not surprised it poured cloudy but don’t mind that. Passion Fruit, Mango and Grapefruit on the nose, the grapefruit and passion fruit come through in the taste but not as bitter or sharp a finish as I’d expected. Hint of sweetness in a fruity and mild finish. Very good brew that.

Moving the ball faster - when we did that Everton struggled to cope and the goal was a classic example. We need to mix it up more and try more shots from the edge of the box, work their keeper more. Sometimes you get rebounds or an error and cash in. Ramsdale is getting worked harder every game and need to ask more questions of the opposition.

Quality goal that of the type we scored frequently under Nigel, Poch, Ronald and Ralph.

Fully agree, I know he had a shocker v Stoke but Cornet needs more minutes as if we can get him fit and back to his Burnley and Lyon form, he’ll be another to add to the fluidity and athleticism.

Again, the best spell in the game is when we moved the ball quicker and overwhelmed Everton. When we reverted to Martinball, we were back to being a constant risk of conceding and flat.

This is the point - the team were far more effective in the second half when they moved the ball quicker. It’s so fucking obvious too. When we go back into the slow shit, we’re ponderous and at constant risk of conceding without a strong Romeu/Victor/Morgan to protect the defence.

We just don’t work the opposition keeper enough, but sick of posting about varying our patterns of play.

VAR check for last man. Don’t think it will be.

Tragic that the club are repeating Lowe’s mistakes with PR people infiltrating supporter forums. They are getting so obvious now on their trolling as Rupert’s lot did. I except Notnowcato from this, has different views from 99.9% of the site but he and Lighthouse are actual fans who happen to be big fans of Martin’s - disagree but still respect them.

Just hit the inside of the post, nearly 3-0. As we know, the style of football their manager plays is effective for medium-smaller PL outfits, but then their owners are clued in like ours used to be.

Businesses got plenty of help through the pandemic and we’re all paying that back for generations. Getting NHS waiting lists down means that we can get more of the working age population active to help close the skills gaps which helps all types of businesses. A hard Brexit means a £40bn black hole annually until some of it can be undone. Agree on the Truss bit. Also, our economy is far more complex than public v private these days. GP practices, charities, FE and universities technically in the latter and will be impacted hugely by the NI increases but it does fund other infrastructure they need.

Best way is to laugh it off - the manager and board have set out their stall and Dragan will have to underwrite all of the losses which arise. SR regard us fans as plebs but it turns out we know rather more about what works as a mid-lower PL club.

Not unless the EFL has a second go at reviving the Anglo-Italian Cup so we can watch Saints v Venezia in front of 8000 fans.

Hardly surprising given the manager’s tactics….

Goff’s White Knight after work. Was in the local 15th century pub last weekend with the family after it being saved with a new buyer. Quite a traditional pale ale this one, no Cascade or US hops involved here. But sometimes that can be good, floral notes from UK and European hops, dry finish. This brewer’s favourite beer of mine is Cheltenham Gold though, never been able to source their Blackberry Stout in the winter.

Rodney took a heavy tackle just prior to the incident, can’t remember who it was but VAR would have had a field day with it. Marsh is an obnoxious prick so fair play to whichever Saints player it was. Good player but widely reckoned to have derailed City’s title push under Malcolm Allison in the early 70s.

Whitey Grandad was correct, first used in 1970 WC and were the idea of an English referee Ken Aston https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-23634720 You were also correct that 1976 was the English league introduction. George Best was sent off on the opening afternoon of their use at the Dell but a winger called Dave Wagstaffe received the first earlier that afternoon for Blackburn who were playing at Leyton Orient (scene of our promotion two years later).

For dissent - ITV covered it as part of The Big Match. I remember the red cards being aimed at Branfoot during the Port Vale FA Cup game right near the end of his time with us.

That’s still steep - it’s less than that here and this is quite an expensive part of the Cotswolds. Decent lager I grant you, but that’s the sort of price you pay at Deya in Cheltenham for top grade beer.

Hard to know if Biden thought he was helping her or getting revenge. I almost wonder if it was a bit of both….

Both sets of comments about Southport were a disgrace - the Speaker had to remind them to rein it in. Neither of them will make a PM as long as they have a hole in their arse. Keeping the seat lukewarm for a serious candidate like Andy Street if he wins a seat later in this Parliament.

The PA should play this as Saints come out onto pitch, to go with the Russball

Absolutely, politically what she’s chosen is more practical. Would have been a huge risk politically to rely on most employees realising that the NI cut was unfunded even with the dire and accurate IFS warnings. And to think the Tory right were demanding Hunt and Sunak did far more - they’ve learned nothing whatsoever from Truss.

I half agree in the sense that sacking Martin - which is so blatantly obvious to the point it no longer even needs to be said to anyone associated with English football as the club’s results must come first - will not be a panacea or anything like it. The person/people who appointed him, Nathan Jones and have had a mostly disastrous last 5 transfer windows are still there as co-owners of SR. Nor is SR’s structure working with the industry expertise and resources it has. Dragan basically needs to get a co-investor with a bit more industry know how, additional capital to spread the risk and the ability to see through Rasmus’s snake oil. Best way to do that is an expanded SR board where him and Kraft get outnumbered and outvoted. A good DoF - not someone in charge of an ECL club’s academy system but with real operational top leagues experience - would break the cycle you describe.