sandwichsaint

Liverpool had bigger fish to fry and eased back at 3, Wolves don't. They have looked good in pretty much every game so far and will want to start scoring the goals their approach play deserves. They will have far too much for us, 4-0 min, 5 or 6 is possible. Cardiff and 'udders are likely to go down so really only one place to play for, Newc and CP are poor, then it's us/Burn/WHam/Fulham as the worst of the rest. Win that mini league (how!) and we could be 12th., not out of Sept yet and most people now would take 17th if offered!

Shares in vestergaards seem to have tumbled alarmingly in a very short space of time. A few short weeks ago they were seen as a decent investment and just what our portfolio was crying out for. Fast fd a couple of weeks and they appear to be ponderous and ill-suited to our needs, and we probably need to go to market, again. Spoiler alert: I've not actually seen him play but it looks to me like he's probably as good as we are going to get for our current level and budget, FWIW I think he'd make a decent pairing with Yoshi, in a big man/quick man combo.

Generous! Bong looked (on telly) one of the weakest players in the PL. God only knows what he (Bong) was doing on that header, Cedric-esque only more so.

Presumably it's all part of being on MNF? a Sky give us loads of money on condition we put on a firework show 2 or 3 times a year? b Sky gives us loads of money on the condition we spend a minuscule part of it on a fireworks show 2 or 3 times a season? All part and parcel of the modern world but ultimately you do have a choice, I'm sure Eastleigh would be very glad of your money. I've been to one game in the last two seasons and don't really miss it at all.

Never going to be in a top 5 but CMFG away at Ipswich was a proper 'I was there when' moment.

Could do with playing all our home games at Selhurst Park really. After yesterday we've won 5 of our last 7 games there. Can't think we've had many stronger sequences on an away ground just about any when in our existence!

Much more of this thread and Vestergaard will be.

So, after all the grumblings and rumblings, what's the verdict on the 'new' shirt/kit after seeing it in the actual heat of battle a couple of times? I said I liked it on first seeing and i haven't seen anything to make me change my mind - I still like it. Is it wrong to like Watford's stripey kit? It's a bit Aussie rules/rugby league but I think it's something a bit different.

#WeMarchOn, the first team to have floodlights to the first PL team without floodlights in 50 short years. #mess Hopefully the dug outs are still there though?

I remember when Celtic had ambition .....

And the one obvious improvement - bring in central timing, the ref indicates when the clock is running/stopped, big stadium clock, when we get to 45 mins it's a rugby style finish.

Fair comment, there is no obvious control group or baseline against which to judge it (except the purely subjective measure of how much you 'enjoyed' watching the previous version of football as against the current one). You have swapped a net gain of 'more correct decisions' for a game that now appears to have more diving/cheating/appealing, more breaks in play, possibly more pressure on the ref (v refs bottling big decisions and relying on somebody else to have a second look for them). Halves that routinely run to 50 mins+. And arguably fewer (LOL!) talking points; controversies and we wuz robbed stories are part of the game's weft and weave. Take those away and it's all run by three blokes in a car park 500 miles away. I've never been to a VAR game but it must be bizarre, players and fans standing around for two minutes plus with no idea if you're supposed to be celebrating a goal or not. I'm sure the modern family-fans and the Xbox/FIFA generation lap it all up but it's not for me.

Time for an exclusion zone around refs? We had got rid of a lot of this in our football a few years ago and did for one season (?) (send for the9) have a policy where only the captain could speak to the ref. The mob handling/rushing/appealing everything is spoiling what has otherwise been the 'best' WC for me since Argentine 78. Once the ref blows his whistle for a decision any player encroaching within 5m of the ref yellow, within 2.5m of the ref, red card! I never wanted VAR and would be quite happy if they binned it tomorrow and went back to just goal line technology. I accept that won't happen and that it's still in it's infancy but even with that it is shambolic as currently operated (it needs big screen replays and audible comms between the ref and the truck). It can't cover for a weak or incompetent ref, I just LOL every time there's a bad decision at all those who thought it would be 100% and we would never ever ever see a wrong decision again. We have seen just as many 'wrong' decisions with it as before we had it.

poor man's Maguire?

Let's do it, AGBOOLA BALL CHANNON DAVIES RON EKLUND FRANK SAUL GOLAC HOLLYWOOD DENNIS IAN DOWIE JONES PAUL KEEGAN LAMBERT SRL MARIAN PAHARS NICK HOLMES OSGOOD PAINE TERRY Q RICHARDS DEAN STEVE MILLS TERRY CURRAN ULLRICH VAN GOEBEL VAN DIJK (booo) WILLIAMS STEVE X Y Z Proper footballers and I've seen them all.

Where does CMFG fit into all this?

Going out on a limb here (kill me now), I quite like it! There's only so many things you can do with red n white stripes; grab a red tee shirt, cutesy black trim, slap a deckchair canvas on the front, what's not to like? It's not Sunland Stoke or Sheff Utd, it's a modern take on a traditional classic. I like the black shorts, it would have been a leap of faith to have blue shorts but that would be cool too. Black and red hooped socks are a bit Littlewoods catalogue/Scottish Div 2 but you can't always get what you want.

Profile on Gareth Southgate on 5L last night mentioned it, it was a good piece with Alan Smith (ex Palace manager) who was managing the Palace youth teams at the time. He would have been released from Saints at about 13-14 by the sounds of it (references in the piece to him playing for Palace 15's and 16's), I don't know how long he was actually with us?

Slightly premature, my understanding is that as an Egyptian passport holder he can visit for up to 6 months a year, but he can't work. At the moment he has no 'work' role at Chelsea, so he can drop in and out as he pleases. Whether it pleases him to come to somewhere where he's person non grata is a mute point. Maybe Ken Bates has got his name back in the headlines at just the right time? Or not:mcinnes:

Didn't realise golf was so popular in Nairobi?

Cracking series, definitely worth going past the funny voice effects yesterday to listen to the content. I caught the one with Nigel Owens (gay rugby ref) last week, brilliant stuff. Also the one with Bobby George was good too. All available to download.

What a knobb.

What a pair of deadweights, neither of them would get anywhere near our side.

Anybody see tonite's game? Cute flick from Jonno Quick.

Side on, side on, ..... none of them received a standing ovation.