Whitey Grandad

Abject schoolboy defending. Ten players in the goal area and the other one just outside it. We might as well line them all up on the goal line between the posts. For this alone he has to go.

Pure fluke , perhaps, but Aribo turns sideways on to the shot and makes himself as thin as possible with his hands behind his back. There’s no need to do that this season as long as the defender’s arms aren’t outstretched like a goalkeeper.

Or both. There were at least three unmarked Ipswich players around the edges of our penalty box. Criminal.

Erebus

Indeed. Just imagine if he had someone to support him and keep the defenders occupied.

Nothing wrong with the ref. We just didn’t score enough goals as usual. And it was for the lack of trying. Too much rolling the ball back and forth across the back four. And wha5 the flippin’ heck was going on with that free kick we had up in there half. We somehow contrived to pass it back towards our own keeper and lost possession.

You’re right. I hate it. If xG had any meaning the actual goals would be a lot closer to the expected goals. Which they never are.

IFAB 24th January 2023, “If an extra ball or other object enters the field of play during the match, the referee must: STOP PLAY (and restart with a dropped ball) only if it interferes with play* ALLOW PLAY TO CONTINUE if it does not interfere with play and have it removed at the earliest possible opportunity“

Absolutely. A better team would have punished us.

We needed to score more than one and we spent most of the game trying not to.

He needed support up alongside him. Playing on his own with two marking him tightly he was never going to get much joy.

I don't know how you worked that out. They had plenty of good chances, 15 to 20 or so. The only surprise was that they didn't score earlier

I meant financial but both senses apply.

If it’s The Richest Game in Football™ then why are we so poor?

It can never be a night tempo game if moving the ball upfield ten yards requires taking ten passes moving the ball a hundred yards.

Front row never used.

Of course it is. Just as it’s impossible to say that without those we would have had a decent start.

Without those 2 shit passes and terrible penalty we’d still be sitting on 4 defeats but with a slightly better goal difference.

How can any of them have been winning positions if we lost the games?

He’s 18 of course.

Eerily similar to Cameron Archer’s on Saturday. Same stutter to the left, same placement, header saved.

To keep her quiet?

I presented a technical paper to the Arab Sates Broadcasting Union in Damascus in 1981. The flight out was direct non stop on a Syrian Arab Airways 747SP which went fine. The return was on a British Airways (?) 707 which stopped at Beirut for an hour. I was very nervous whilst we were on the ground. The flight patch was very conservative. We took off, flew a long way north, then west and out to sea, then dropped very low and flew in the last hundred miles or so at low level. Presumably this was to avoid any ground to air missiles. The flight home was similar in that we kept very low until well offshore.

Kentucky Fried Cats. You read it here first.

Fair enough.