Whitey Grandad

Thanks for your good wishes. I used to live up your way from 1953 to 1964 at Dovercourt and my dad went to watch you in the early 1960s when Alf Ramsey was in charge. Our specialist shopping was either Ipswich or Colchester but my train set was bought in Ipswich as a Christmas present. The Wembley pitch is the international standard of 105m x 69m. Portman Road is 102m x 75m St. Mary’s is 105m x 68m Not a lot in it but your home pitch is at least 6 metres wider.

Isn’t Stewie out of contract?

I rather suspect it should be Rolf Bögli The British are piss poor when it comes to spelling the names of forriners with weird characters in their names.

Maybe he doesn’t have the nerve to take us further. Maybe he’s not brave enough. Maybe he’s the Billy Liar of the division, chickens out when it looks like he might get what he wants.

I remember that game well. That was in the days when we used to go to away games.

Or we might have scored ourselves and picked up all three.

I’ve just come back from the Hurtigruten Coastal express from Bergen to Kirkenes and back. I went with an open mind and enjoyed it far more than I was expecting even though I hate the cold. Nearly 5000 km of watching the coastal scenery go past. At the northernmost point there was fresh snow up to my knees and it was lovely. Perfect for snowballs. I went for a dog sleigh ride and also a snowmobile ride in the middle of the night. I even saw the Northern Lights for a short spell which wasn’t a lot but I was mesmerised. I shall go looking for them next winter too. Maybe Iceland or Canada. I might go again next year.

It’s only a one game ban. I’m sure we can find somebody to stand in for one game. Stephens maybe?

What about the bench?

Defending set pieces: ‘very strong’ Shurely shum mishtake

Who isn’t?

Why do you say that? One point at this state is irrelevant.

I thought he should have kicked that sooner. A draw was meaningless for us.

You have just demonstrated that xG in this respect is rubbish.

I’m with you in this.

There has been a lot of criticism along similar lines but I am struggling to remember any similar shots being saved by any goalkeeper. There’s simply too much pace on the ball for the hands to be raised in time. The shot goes past the keeper before he has time to react.

Our defence has not been playing as a cohesive unit. When you have a settled back four they play and position themselves by instinct. For some time now we have had gaps between players all across the back. A common feature of all three goals last night was the amount of time and space that we allowed them to have. Middlesborough’s goal on Friday illustrated the same disarray. Defenders playing like an under-nines games. All running around chasing their own individual targets.

Indeed we have. Clean sheets are rare.

Punch

Pinmill

Troo dat. He’s so clever that I haven’t got a clue what he thinks he’s doing.

And the same as Ipswich.

Stephens

Do you respect anything that Martin says? All I saw was crap defending all round. That’s symptomatic of a constantly changing defence and there’s only one person to blame for that.

And much the same for their second.