Whitey Grandad

Sorry, I thought it was a more common term. It’s referee jargon.

Many, many years ago the manager of Bognor came to talk to us at a referees’ meeting. He said then at if we showed him the wage bill he could tell us where the team would finish.

Frankfurt now scored against West Ham. Cresswell had been sent off for a DOGSO.

Should never have put them there in the first place 🤨

Usually accompanied by a chant of “You don’t know what you’re doing” What could have gone wrong?

Having nothing better to do I went through the second half of extra time with a stopwatch as best and as honestly as I could bearing in mind that BT do their best to prevent you actually watching the game. It’s not easy to hear the referee’s whistle and you can’t see what is happening on the pitch on account of the endless meaningless replays and shots of the managers or the crowd. Nevertheless, I ended up with a stoppage time of 3 minutes and 8 seconds. On that basis he blew up ten or fifteen seconds early but his watch would have been stopped at different moments to mine. Not a lot in it. I know that there are some people who will refuse to believe this and they are always welcome to try the same exercise themselves so please don’t let this degenerate into a load of puerile personal digs,

No kidding

For some it's not possible to move on. Their lives have been affected, some very badly.

I think the substitutes changed it, on both sides.

Of course, but it is indicative. Three minutes seemed about right to me.

Not really. 3 minutes is typical for a 45 minute half so for 15 minutes its actually quite a lot.

The referee is the sole arbiter of time.

Nearly, but not quite.

We can only hope. I can’t stand these screaming commentators as it is now.

A City Liverpool final would have been unwatchable.

That Rodrygo looks good. CHDAJFU.?

His first thought was “how does this affect me?” rather than empathy for the poor lady.

Start with a new wife?

One game?

One that you have to pay a lot of money to watch.

Nothing much really but this is probably the first season where the team is most of Ralph’s choosing and he’s been here long enough that we might expect his ideas to be bearing fruit.

Saturday was an example. We seem to want to always take another touch, to walk the ball into the net, when a first-time shot might have better results. The only one who seemed to hit the ball first time was Adam Armstrong. There was some criticism of him that he needed a lot of shots for each goal that he scored. We never get round to taking that shot. The only chances that I remember in the second half on Saturday were the two wild shots from JWP and S Armstrong that were as near to the corner flag as they were to their goal.

I wonder how much effect Ramadan has had on this. It’s asking a lot for a highly trained athlete to be at his best if he goes without food or water for nine hours or more. As far as I know we have Diallo, Djenepo, Salisu, Elyonoussi and Valery who observe Ramadan. I wonder how other clubs cope with this?

Entertainment.

You too sir! Jolly decent having this discussion with you. Let’s hope for something better next season, in every way. 🌝