Whitey Grandad

I went there too. Miles out of town on an industrial estate if I recall. Not much in the way of food and drink and I got questioned by Her Majesty as to why I had eaten in Frankie and Bennys.

Ok, I’ll bite. A truly loyal away fan would be one who went to every home game no matter where they lived.

They aren’t behind play.

I’ve just had a quick look. Apparently an on field review (OFR) by the referee going to the monitor can only happen on the advice of the remote VAR. That doesn’t seem right to me.

I agree. For such matters the onfield referee should have the final decision.

I’ve just tuned in to catch the last stages of the Liverpool Everton game. Absolutely terrible coverage by the BBC. There’s supposed to be a game of football going on but they keep showing shots of anything providing it doesn’t have a ball in view. Close ups of players, close ups of the back of Jones, shots of Koop, shots of Ancelotti - 8 different views in 10 seconds - aerial views of the two stadiums, shots of the crowd, shots from down by the corner flag, and all this whilst the ball is in play. It’s impossible to just sit and absorb the game. Bloody amateurs.

No, the Assistants are much more accurate that that. Their decisions may not agree with yours, but they are correct. They don’t have to keep up with play, they position themselves in line with the second to last defender.

No thanks, we’ve stuffed them once, we wouldn’t want to completely demoralise them. Or would we?

The draw is on BBC1 tomorrow (Monday) evening from 19:35 just before the Arsenal v Leeds game. A home draw for me please, anything not Premier League.

VAR decisions are still made by referees.

That’s a fallacy. We might have scored a bit earlier but the rest of the game would have been different.

There was a bit of an issue with the row in front of me in the central Kingsland. Three young ladies turned up and took their seats and then two young gents came along with duplicate tickets for two of them. How can that happen?

He was trying too hard to impress. Wasn’t relaxed and in control of the game. This can happen when a junior referee gets given a higher profile game. They tend to get fussy and pernickety and you can end up with a stop-start game.

Well, that was painfully slow at times. Vestergaard was playing as though he had a bag of cement tied to each ankle and has the turning circle of a mini continent. There were too many sloppy passes that could have led to a goal from better opposition. Long was unlucky, didn’t look offside to me and you can’t draw lines across the width of the pitch in two dimensions and hope to get an accurate result. VAR is destroying the games as we used to know it. A win, a clean sheet, goals for two of the youngsters but not much apart from that. The seats around us were filled with occasional visitors and toddlers. I spent most of the game having my seat kicked by the toddler behind who was playing on his Nintendo thingy. Later in the second half he started to get quite involved in the game and was squealing away like a geriatric regular. I wonder who we’ll get on Monday?

Indeed he did. I’m glad somebody else noticed that.

It does if you take the view that VAR reduces the likelihood of scoring a goal. You could also say that a team that is used to playing under VAR might have an advantage, such as playing a different approach to a defensive offside line. Apart from that there is the line of thought that all games should be played under the same officiating environment. The Laws of the Game may be the same but their interpretation will be different.

It all depends which one turns up.

Nice thought. Is half a season enough for revenge?

I watched most of last night's game and Sheffield Utd didn't really give it a go. They only seemed interested in keeping the score down and had no belief that they could get anything out of the game. All in all a waste of my time

Are we writing him off before the match? I thought he didn't look out of place at Chelsea and played a full part in a winning team.

I read that as 'season 3 of mourning'

Half a tomato is still deadly poisonous. I avoid them whenever possible.

Good point!

Yes, me too. To be fair to the poor chap he's got a column to get out so I wouldn't read too much into it but I thought it was interesting that we had three players in there. Perhaps we are starting to get taken seriously.

Tony Cascarino in The Times (sorry about the image size, I’m on my iPad and am limited in my actions) It came as no surprise that Harry Kane suffered an injury in Tottenham’ Hotspur’s defeat by Southampton. Until he was taken off, Kane had played every minute of his side’s five games since December 15. He looked off the pace yesterday and Jan Bednarek, the Southampton centre back, was all over him. The consequence of playing him when not at his best? An injury that could keep him out for several weeks. Contrast this with Danny Ings, whose winning goal sunk Spurs. The 27-year-old is every bit as important to Ralph Hasenhüttl’s team as Kane is to José Mourinho. He has scored 13 Premier League goals this season — more than half of his team’s tally — and yet Hasenhüttl chose to rest him for the trip to Chelsea, which Southampton won 2-0. Yesterday, he looked hungry and sharp. The numbers point to the benefit of rest. Kane has played 435 minutes in Tottenham’s past five games, scoring twice. Ings has played 364 minutes over the same period but found the net four times. Part of the problem for Spurs is that they do not have a clear alternative to lead the line. I have argued before that Tottenham need at least three players and that is without considering a move for a forward to put pressure on, and deputise for, Kane. Tottenham must find a way of reducing the burden on such an important figure.