View From The Top

Living where I do 20% of people support Wolves, 20% Stoke, 10% assorted others but the remaining 50% either support Utd or Liverpool. I therefore take great pleasure in watching both struggle especially after the grief the lad took through the summer from their plastic fans.

Not unless time goes backwards I won't be.

FFP means we will have to sell at least 1 player for big ££ every season or so. Everyone bar the biggest will have to.

I have to come here every school day.

Lard showed himself up to b a right muppet with his anti-Adkins rants and then ran off and hid when the man took us up two divisions.

Gator Skins were out of stock so gone with Michelin Pro 4 Endurance.

Got my bike back last weekend so did a decent 100km on Sunday and a flat 35km night ride Tuesday and a lumpy 55km on Cannock Chase in Friday. Was due to go out early today for a decent 150km ride but then preparing and checking the bike last night I found a small 5mm cut in the sidewall of the front tyre with a small bubble of tube pushing through so that was the end of that. Smashed myself to bits instead on the turbo doing The Sufferfests "A Very Dark Place". New tyres have been ordered, Gatorskins for the winter, so I'm planning in a long one next weekend and some coastal miles in Dorset during 1/2 term.

Sorry to hear that.

Love my club.

Now that was a pen' all day long.

Interesting post. Personally speaking I was delighted, in some aspects, to test my mettle in combat having missed The Falklands but I was also damn lucky that my ship suffered no damage so I didn't have to deal with anything horrific but being sat at the EWD's desk in the ops room of a T42, knowing that those who sat in those chairs on Sheffield and Coventry became casualties got my arse twitching when you have inbound business. Tiff friends of mine had their action stations in he computer room. They were shiit scared. We referred to them as the BBQ boys. Cousins (RN & RM) and friends (RN) of mine who are Falkland vets have had no issues but clearly some have. Hearing your shipmates screaming behind a Zulu door and not being able to do anything about it must haunt some minds. War is hell, as they say but if I'd had the opportunity to go down south in 82, even knowing what I now, I'd have done it in a heartbeat.

The uniform was the very 1st thing changed. Polyester and heat really didn't go together. Also, grimly, the computer room escape routes needed to be reassessed as the poor buggers could be heard burning to death on both 42s. Formica, it was discovered, doesn't get on well with 500lb bombs and shattered and flew around like razor blade Frisbees. Damage control, portable pumps etc all came in to play and the hoods with the air bottles.

It was a 21, just couldn't remember which one.

I know, just didn't want to mention his name that was all. He and I have spoken about it before, some years ago.

FFS. I'm not right impressed.

That's what they told me. I'll be f**k off if it's wrong as I'll have dipped out on games!

It's both. To get decent priced tickets for U17s then you have to have 2 adult tickets. Why not just price kids tickets sensibly in the 1st place across The Chapel as was the case in previous years? I wrote to the club when the prices were released, as I posted at the time. Got replies from Ralf and the commercial manager and both stated that the cost of living impacted pricing. We now pick and choose games and any home games will always be at the lowest price point.

Heat of battle mistakes are made. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and is always 20/20 but the general consensus in the fleet in the mid-80s was the loss of both Sheffield & Cov' were avoidable but understandable. Mistakes happen in combat situations. Seen it happen myself. It was also a simple f**k up that caused the Atlantic Conveyor to be lost.

Except Saints it's 2 x adult to 1 x kid in the family section. That isn't the case at Stoke so no, my lad and I don't have that option.

We can't buy tickets in he family stand at St Marys. It's 2 x adult to 1 x U17s. Still, keep trying.

Put simply, Cov' turned the wrong way. If she hadn't then Sea Wolf kills the Sky Hawks. It was the general consensus in the fleet as well.

They found that out the hard way. Type 21s were great to serve on but no one wanted to go to war on one! There is a poster on here who is a Falklands Type 21 veteran. Not sure that he wasn't on the Ardent.

The problem was, as anyone who has served on a T42 will tell you, is that land clutter degrades your ability to fight the ship. Coventry, simply put, should have been further out to sea for her Sea Dart to have been effective. The Sea Dart / Sea Wolf combination should have been a plane killer but the 1st line of defence should always be CAP. T42\ CAP interaction was a cornerstone of that type of ship. CAP, Dart, Wolf, close in weapons, pray, luck. That was your defensive layers.

It was a good watch but failed to mention so very important things in that 1) Coventry and Broadsword declined CAP assistance and 2) Coventry turned across Broadsword stopping her from downing the Sea Hawks. The onwatch EWD on Broadsword was my instructor at Dryad when I did my LH course. Was always scathing of Cov' for doing that. Had a couple of Sheffield and Coventry (as well as plenty of other Falklands vets) lads on the Exeter. Helped calm the nerves of the younger kids when we headed to the Gulf in 91. A few Falkland vets post on here actually. Joining the Andrew in the mid-80s meant that lots of lesson learnt down south were being put into practice, such as only having cotton kit and that aluminium ships melt!

I'd happily do the ride as it's only 160miles but f**k the fundraising, hammered enough people for the Ride London 100 on behalf of my local hospice.