ant

And he's united the fanbase! Unanimously against him, sure. But a win's a win at this point.

We've got a squad lacking in quality, grit and commitment to the cause, which has been further hamstrung by inadequate recruitment/staffing and unfocused, self-aggrandizing senior 'leadership'. Yet still some see fit to turn on their own...

Abject performance aside, if tonight wasn't the nadir of our support, I don't want to know how much lower it goes. I'll stand up for our yoof all the time they bring the atmosphere. Tonight? Silence in the stands - yet come half time they were giving it the big 'un in the concourse. Not least through bashing the divider to Block 43 (ooh, that'll spook them!) Somebody even let off a flare down there, FFS. Of course it was all phones in the air; got to record it for Instagram. 🙄 And once back out for the second half? Silence. I'm far from an old fart, but I'm bloody jealous of those of you that got to experience the 'proper' version of this.

Gonna be a good ebening for their fans.

There was a pigeon on the pitch during the Arsenal match - particularly noticeable during our goal. Some of their fans seemed to be going nuts about it, saying it had distracted Ramsdale. 🙄

We used to score goals of this ilk with impressive frequency circa 2014 to 2016. A very pleasant surprise.

Just look at our points tally and league position. We don't have the luxury of being picky about where our wins come from.

Yeah, they were 100% released in the 95/96 season - remember getting them for Christmas as a lad. Doing a cursory bit of research, the Souness one is regarded as rare (and worth a bit of dosh now).

Pretty disgusting, when you consider the amounts of money thrown at footballers per week - and the relatively small annual figures required to get all employees up to a Living Wage. It's not called the Living Wage without reason. And if employers aren't looking after their staff it's likely the taxpayer that's having to subsidise earnings. We talk a good game about being a community-focused club. Time to show it.

At the end of the day if any given buyback is activated, the player will have had to have been pretty godly for us. We're a selling club anyway - we'll never be able to hold world class talent for long. Yes, it means we wouldn't see a VvD-esque fee. But 2 years of top-class service from a player and turning a profit isn't to be sniffed at. I can see why some would tend to think that means a player's never truly ours. But they no less are than, say, Mane et al were.

Attended Reading Fest in my youth, from 2005 to 2010 (inclusive). Never got involved in any of the nonsense, but without any wider experience I thought the way people behaved there was the norm at festivals. It isn't. Been to dozens of others across the UK and at most of them people simply want to have a good time. You see some hijinks - but mostly in good spirit, and not to anybody else's detriment. Reading and Leeds seem to attract shitheads like moths to a flame. Predominately mummy and daddy's little 'cherubs', let off the leash for the first time. Can't remember whether it was 2009 or 2010, but the last night was tantamount to a riot. Telegraph poles being pulled down, just about anything being set on fire... Including a tent which contained two young girls. It's no exaggeration to say there were baying mobs patrolling the campsites. Crowd control were sent in with riot shields etc. Never understood why it doesn't make the news. Football crowds are angelic in comparison.

Great list. Would also add this one about Barry Fry at Peterborough. Some incredible moments, including Fry (upon completing a transfer) hitting a comedy gavel and exclaiming "Sold to the fat bastard in the blue blazer!" 😆

You've mixed two people up there, and this is a pretty below-the-belt comment anyway.

Changing personal circumstances meant I thought I wouldn't be able to renew this season. So when I realised I could, I did - without really spending enough time thinking about what others around me would do. Missed the Leeds game, so today was my first of the campaign. Couldn't believe the drop-off of familiar faces; many of whom I'd seen fortnightly since I could first afford a ST. And realistically who can blame them? A largely inadequate playing product at home for years. Some of our most loyal supporters chided and whittled away at, whilst opposition fans roam free. Petty, jobsworth stewarding over engaging 'trouble makers' like human beings. None of this screams "fun day out that's worth paying a bloody premium for."

Surely not an evening for picking holes in the semantics of women's football or the minutiae of commentary? A nice thing has happened. Crack a beer and celebrate us winning something, FFS.

Can't say I blame anyone, given the notoriety of Spurs' forwards for giving our back line a hard time. Also haven't seen much in pre-season to suggest we've matured in defence or eradicated the daft errors. I don't think it'll be doom and gloom all season. We've a few promising players which I think will come good. But it's a bloody difficult start.

Or perhaps people that would've posted in this thread became jaded by the vocal minority that only intend to scoff, or to keep needlessly commenting on the amount of activity. If it's not for you - and that's a collective 'you' - fine. We get it. But coming back again and again to tell us is pretty tiresome. I'm really looking forward to tonight, and will crack something decent if we win. But what's the point trying to converse about it on here when it'll be derailed within a few posts?

Yeah, after reports from other matches I was anticipating a 'pre-season friendly' atmosphere. It was anything but. Don't know whether the Friday night element helped. Either way, our group had a cracking time. Was nice to have the England Band working with the fans, rather than trying to overrule them. Bizarrely ended up only two seats from my brother, despite buying separately in the random allocation. Seemed to be about 1k to 2k empty seats, which was a shame. Was an empty set of 6 or so in front of us. I guess some speculatively bought tickets; it was only £15 pp in our section.

If you click onto the Football homepage/landing page of any website, funnily enough you'll see literally everything relating to football. The separation/segmentation you describe if available on just about any relevant news site I can think of. Want to see content about a specific League? Cup? Team? All possible - and then you can indiscriminately click through subsequent links to your heart's content. Is this just a misunderstanding of how categorisation works? Lack of Internet savvy? Or is there a more pig-headed stubbornness at play?

Of the 24 things you can currently click through to from the OS homepage, 4 relate to womens football. 4 mentions of the womens team on Facebook from about 30 posts this week. We've tweeted about 70 times this week; there's 10 tweets directly or tangentially linked to womens football. It's 4 from 36 on the BBC Football homepage. 6 from 26 on the Sky Sports Football homepage (albeit 3 on Bronze - and 2 link to the same interview). And let's not ignore that on virtually any website worth its salt you can filter news, and/or view by specific league. If we're going to talk about things being "forced" upon us, shall we at least speak in facts?

As opposed to the men's game, where most only tend to know so much about it (and have heard of XYZ player) because year-on-year there's ever more coverage and reporting. Not sure this is the slam dunk you think it is.

The Premier League record is held by Beckham with 18; JWP needs 5 more to beat that. At 27 and fit as a fiddle, who'd bet against? Craziest thing is that 8 of his 14 in the Premier League have come since 1st November 2020.

Only remember a single lad trying his luck in darting towards us; their fans were placed directly opposite, so it was a bloody long trek round. He made it about halfway before bottling it (or the stewards catching him?) if memory serves. Anyway, yes - I've rounded up a small group for this one. Keep meaning to head over to Totton for some matches but life's been conspiring against. Seemed worth the extra effort given where it's being played, the opponents and the situation in the league!

Changing work circumstances mean it wouldn't make sense for me to renew. Albeit even before that I was wavering on whether it's something I *need* any more. Have had my seat from the first season I was earning enough to pay for it outright (2010/11, I think?) so it'll be a bit of a wrench to start with. Though saying that most of the people I used to go with dropped off long before this season.