Whitey Grandad

Of course I blame Rusk, who else is there? Packing our own penalty are with an endless string of last-ditch interceptions is only ever going to end one way. How manty times does it need to be said? Your defending starts in their half of the pitch. Playing five at the back is an admission of defeat before you even start. The extra defenders simply get in each other's way and leave the midfield undermanned. It is an abomination and anyone who champions it should be sectioned.

Sulemana was a disappointment again. Twice he was facing an opponent and all he could think of doing was just blasting the ball against him. What did he think was going to happen?

Their second goal came straight after Dibling tried to be clever on the edge of our own box. There is a place for tricky footwork and it’s not there.

That just proves that being in the lead at some stage is not a winning position.

He drives a Tossla

The wrong person to bring on but we were always going to concede another.

I think you have your reason why right there.

Aribo was on the bench and he brings on Bree and Dibling.

A spanking?

Learning by playing or learning by watching?

Not just yours.

Please don’t tell me that you believe that we’d have got automatic promotion with McCarthy in goal all season?

I’ll settle for anybody as long as it’s just the four.

Ideally your keeper wouldn’t need to make any saves.

I completely agree that we need better but I would prefer him in goal to McCarthy. you cannot isolate a goalkeeper’s performance from the team that’s in front of him. He may be playing in a weaker league but doesn’t that also make mean that the defences are weaker?

And? What’s your point, if you have one? We finished in the playoffs. That’s all that counts.

You cannot possibly say that. It might be more accurate to say that we wouldn’t have been in the playoffs without him in goal. As a goalkeeper he is nothing special but he’s not as bad as some of you make him out to be. It was the move away from Russball that made the difference.

My wife was always telling me that there was a heatwave just after she was born in April 1949. By the time I came along in July it was over. The highest temperature reached 29.4C on 16th April. How on earth did anybody survive?

The longer he doesn’t play for us the worse he gets apparently. He played the major part of a season that saw us promoted.

From Heritage to Outrage

I had a wireman technician called Peter who worked for me over about fifteen years. He was ex FAA and had served on HMS Eagle and one of the Leander class too. He came from near Malvern.

Does it have large sideburns? A few years ago we were on a post cruise trip from New York to Charleston and on the way we spent a night in Gettysburg and we did a battlefield tour next morning. Knowing what I know now I would have chosen to stay there longer but my wife would only allow me ten days altogether. I did managemto squeeze in a couple of hours at Antietam though and ten minutes at Harper’s Ferry.

I was at my unit in Hamble when she came home and we went down to the shore to watch. I remember it being a very hazy day.

I took and passed mine in about 1962. Mind you, this was in Dovercourt next to Harwich where cars were only ever used on the occasional Sunday.

My dear wife and I went down to Lee on Solent on Good Friday evening to watch her leave. A very sobering moment. I was also in Portsmouth Harbour when Invincible came home. I was in my Mirror Dinghy. It was a beautiful late September day and I launched her up Fareham Creek but there was no wind and I had to row the first couple of miles. Down at the Harbour it was bedlam with boats everywhere churning up the water and she came in later than advertised so I slowly sailed down to the Harbour entrance and saw this big ship coming at me with fire tugs spraying all over the place and everything that could move racing to keep up with her. I thought she would come in at a stately few knots but she must have been doing fifteen or so. I decided to nip behind a couple of catamarans that were anchored just off where Gunwharf Quays are now situated and dropped my sails in the hope of protection from the swells. She was soon alongside with all the festivities and bands playing, a sight that I shall never forget. Later, as I was working my way back up the Creek her Sea Harriers took off whilst she was tied up alongside. I didn’t know they could do that. Then they did a circuit of the harbour in a farewell salute and headed west towards Yeovilton. In this photo I am off her starboard side hidden by the funnel.