positivepete

A proper gent. Thanks Nigel, and thanks to the club for making that tribute to his reign. A great couple of years, and a special time in our history.

Could be worse, think of the Baggies fans having to watch that every week. They played like an away team hoping for a nil nil.

It may be Gary Rowett the Birmingham City manager. We are keeping tabs on him.

Has anyone done the calculation of how much the total cost of the away tickets was for last season and compared it to the price of a season ticket in the Northam stand?

We can't change what happened so that is a fair apology to those of us who made the trips away. Was that a promise to give us a domestic cup run this year?

Steve, I am bringing Dave up but Jordie can't make it.

He can still get a transfer to Qatar, their transfer window closes 30th September

Spurs should be banned from incoming transfers for three windows to give them time to learn to strike a deal between the clubs, rather than trying to do a deal after using the press and agents to disrupt players. Their derisory offer for Morgan last summer, for Victor and Berihino this summer leaves you to wonder if they do it deliberately to distabilise their potential rivals.

The theory goes that instead of an out ball to the player left up the field, a series of short passes and enough players breaking out of defence gives more options for the transition. And of course the more players back to defend. We are currently conceding more from our own corners than our oppositions.

The reaction of Fonte after his free kick in the second half suggests he thought the same.

It really pi**es me off to hear the constant criticism of Targett and JWP by our so called fans. Two young lads who have been with the club since they were eight years old making their way in the game. They may or may not make the grade, that is not the point, but if we heap pressure on them by constantly moaning when the make a mistake they will start to play with fear, and that will be the end of them. At the ages they are they should be allowed to make mistakes, that is how they learn. It is the club philosophy to bring our own through and by that the club accepts the mistakes they will make. If we make it a fearful place for them to come into the team we will never bring anyone through. Even yesterday when both had good games you could still hear people groaning rather than supporting them. It was also noticeable that two players who appeared most gutted by our exit on Thursday was Targett and Prowsey. They care, give them a break and support them.

Trying to console myself, Bruges would have been good but Naples is a hole, but I am sure I would have stayed somewhere nice outside of there.

Didn't like the group destinations we would have ended up in anyway! Straws, clutching......

Last night summed up by Bill Edgar in The Times: "Their stylish qualification for the competition was forgotten amid a series of long balls aimed at the head of Graziano Pellè, their forward, that rarely brought concern for Midtjylland." Says it all for me

Enjoyed the trips, if not the last two matches. Shame it all ended before the group stages in a reprise of Bucharest. RIP. Hope we do not have to wait another 12 years.

Feel really flat after that. One thing that annoys me when we beat a better side is the comment that that side played badly rather than we played well. So firstly hats off to the winners tonight, I hate their style of football but they did a job on us over the two games and deserved to win the tie. I do not often disagree with Koeman but having said what I have above we did not play better then the opponents for more than about a ten minute spell after Tadic came on and we changed the shape. As soon as they readjusted to our change it was back to the same pattern over the whole tie. I would expect with our superior players that we should be able impose our own game rather than get dragged into their negative style. We looked like a poor West Ham, Stoke or West Brom. Why have we abandoned our passing style of play? I would not mind losing if we played with some cohesion. I accept that that was in part because our opponents executed their game plan well, but I would expect to have overcome that. Let us hope for some retail therapy in the remaining days of the transfer market, though I fear our exit from Europe may well put potential signings in doubt. Off to bed now. Train back to Copenhagen in the morning, and a night out there to get over this performance, then back to the Norwich game. Hope the players respond positively on Sunday.

It was so reminiscent of Bucharest. A wet evening and we couldn't score after a 1-1 draw at home. Very disappointing. I hope the players make it up to us on Sunday. What the average fan has spent on this trip is like a Saints player paying out 50k of their cash. I have enjoyed the trips to Arnhem and here, if not this performance, and I am gutted not to be going to Dortmund, Florence and Monaco in the group stages, but it will save me a bit of cash.

What, like Sunderland did with the Man U cast offs...........

I am going

I am sure we have only sold two players this summer, both of which were predicated and replacements brought in straight away. BFS makes it sound as if we have sold five players as we did last summer. At least we buy players with a resale value, I can't think of many BFS signings that have been worth anything after he has had them. Our strategy is much more sustainable than his.

Interesting points for discussion, perhaps we can continue in the hotel bar in Denmark! See you there.

That is unfair on Targett. He was booked early on in the game for the foul that stopped Lukaku scoring, so he ran a high risk of being sent off for any further mistimed challenges. Learning how to deal with that is done by getting experience. We had lost the game by half time so full marks to the management for keeping him on and giving some of that experience; much better than pulling him off at half time. He will be better player for that experience.

9 aways from last season. Got my ticket this morning! Now to sort out train and hotel........

And since we have had four qualify for the Champions league, only once has the team that conceded the least goals not qualified. Back to the topic, looking forward to Saturday. The strength in depth of the squad makes the options for the starting line up and the substitutes very interesting. This depth will also push our home grown players, they will have to earn their place in the match day squad by improving and showing well in training.

Same for me, that is at least 4 of us who payed on the gate at Stoke. Well at least the (cup) game was good!