derry

I've heard a rumour that Yoshida has pneumonia and is in a private room at the General. How true I don't know.

Until we buy a couple of strong mobile goal scoring strikers we would be mad to let him go. His recent four goals have been pretty important and his cross to Austin for the winner at home to Arsenal was sublime and worth two valuable points. The Watford goal was all his and wasn't too shabby either.

There is a massive inbuilt flaw in some of our defenders. Yoshida, especially Stephens, Bertrand, Vestergaard, JWP, Hojbjerg they will always try and avoid putting the ball in the back of the stand, instead pass to a player under pressure, or as Stephens did at Watford, Bertrand at Everton last season roll the ball in play up the touchline to an opponent. Armstrong committed a cardinal sin when one goal up he unnecessarily came inside across the field and was bullied off the ball, Long had made a good run in the corner a simple pass and no danger. We have another flaw, when leading we don't need to leave ourselves light at the back. That is the time to shut things down, cut out the pretty tippy tappy and stick the balls into our runners. Not the prettiest but it sure frustrates the hell out of the opposition striving for an equaliser. How many times this season have we been hit on the break, luckily against Watford JWP our last man!!!!!!! took out the runner in their half and was yellow carded. We need to be more ruthless and park the bus in front of the opposition and press hard. I don't mean back off into our penalty area. Make the middle of the field a congested battle zone. Yesterday Hojbjerg and Stephens passed across the field to an opponent, the Stephens pass ended up with Gunn denying Bournemouth a last minute winner. We need to get the ball out to the lines and break up the play and keep it out of play as much as possible down the touchline and in the corners.

I got to know Mike and some of his brothers really well through golf. They are really nice down to earth people. In particular Mike gave his time free to compere some charity events. One of the best around.

WTF do they do all week. That was a self inflicted defeat brought on by stupidity by international players that would struggle to make up a brain between them. First goal, Yoshida passes to Hojbjerg who is instantly closed down and loses the ball. When in doubt in those positions hit the front men. I've lost count of the tippy tappy stupidity outside our box that has led to goals. Second goal, lost the ball out on the touch line, Perez 10 yds behind Bertrand, Perez busts a gut to get to the cross whilst Bertrand on reaching the penalty area slows up and Perez gets past him. Bertrand would have got there first if he had kept going. Third goal Bednarek like Yoshida last week aimlessly heads the ball straight out and again we get punished. JWP is a very limited midfielder who lacks pace and is no full back. We played three up front and were playing Puel / Pellegrino football out of defence instead of hitting them early. We paid the penalty.

Yesterday we missed numerous chances to put Sims in. He made runs as Long does but players ignored it and passed sideways for possession. We really do have to spot those runs because when we do we cut the defence to ribbons. Far better to lose the ball then than the numerous times yesterday with poor passes and dithering in our own half. Nice to see more throws going down the line although we didn't really get them close enough to the line or get a number of players together making life difficult for the defenders.

I brought this up years ago, it's been bad for that long. IMO apart from the proper long throw into the goalmouth which we can't do, there are really only two safe throw ins. The tap back to the thrower is a busted flush as we usually lose the ball. Firstly the quick throw to unmarked players under no pressure and the throw down the line. Throwing down the line isn't aimless. It needs good organisation. Put three players quickly within range of the thrower about two to three yards off the line then throw the ball hard between them and the line, their markers will then challenge and mostly the ball will be forced out for another throw in. Just continue the process as the defenders mostly won't be able to get outside the ball and concede another throw. When within range of the bye line play the ball towards the bye line and try and win a corner or get a cross in. As the team knows what is happening they can close the space down inside making it a safe action defensively. The aim is get into the opponents last third by just gaining ground. opponents will try and disrupt it but it is really almost impossible to defend against without conceding another throw/corner. The only time I've seen us do this is trying to defend a lead in the last minutes but it works. However if we win a corner we have to still have a defensive cover unlike Friday night, not for the first time get sucker punched. Losing a goal to your own corner is a nonsense. Whilst on that subject we need two about the halfway line, not level, one further forward then another between them and the penalty area. If the likes of Salah make a break the first player can block him, play the man like the top clubs, only a booking because no last man. We were really thick against Liverpool.

It's nice to see us in a bit of reliable form. We just need to keep it going. I hate the arrogant attitude at Liverpool but a negative result wouldn't be the end of the world, I hope we can repeat the Spurs result. Hasenhuttle has got us providing goals from midfield which is a real bonus. We have six games then to get some more points together.

Like the penalty he gave against Saints when a free kick hit someone in the wall on the side of his head. V Man Utd in FA Cup. God knows how many penalties he's given them at OT. It wasn't fair to Cardiff for the goal but the last man decision was correct. We had the Austin goal against Watford disallowed for 'hitting' Yoshida and recently the penalty at Burnley when Crouch had a big lump of Stephen's shirt in his fist whilst climbing all over him. Unfair but it couldn't have happened to a more biased manager.

The colour blindness issue is conjecture. When I was enrolling in a Commercial Licence course I had to go to the Central Medical Establishment for a full medical. Fail any part of it and I wouldn't have been able to start the course. This was in spite of passing the RAF aircrew initial medical previously. Tillotson was previously on a CPL course which he didn't complete. I can't see how he got that far if he was colour blind but he might have been. What seems to be fact, he had a PPL but did not have a night rating which again is strange as it only requires 5 hours night flying and 5 hours ground study. What is criminal. is that the passenger was totally misled, probably thinking that it was a professional organisation and a professional pilot. Whatever anyone says I will never believe that the pilot didn't know he wasn't allowed to do the flight, at night in an unauthorised aircraft over water. The footballer was the innocent abroad. All the others involved will get theirs in due course. We have yet to hear anything about or from David Henderson who according to his videos has been operating the aircraft for some time. The authorities will be following this trail. The only ones to come out covered in roses are the insurance companies who can wash their hands of any claims.

It looks like there was negligence with the organisation of flights. There was incompetence in the understanding of what constituted a commercial flight. All flights that are paid for are commercial flights. They were mixed up regarding scheduled and unscheduled charter flights. It has been reported that the flights were mostly by the same type of aircraft which was unsuitable for over water flights whether crewed correctly or not. I'd be very surprised if the insurance issue isn't dead in the water.

That was an interesting read. Firstly there are significant system differences in the new aircraft, secondly for operators with more than one marque of 737 pilots can be expected to fly both marques. Interestingly it looks like the QRH (check list) has a simple drill where this is treated as a stabiliser trim runaway. Hold the column, electric trim, disconnect autopilot and auto-throttle. If no result, hold trim wheel and operate both stab trim cut-out switches then manually trim (good luck with that). That should give back control of sorts. As I remember all the Boeings had a similar drill but the 737 (I never flew the 727 or 747) was the only one with a trim wheel that flew backwards and forwards as the electric trim was operated. I would have expected a competent crew to deal with a runaway trim, not easy but not difficult either. The key is the exposure to the failure in the simulator and familiarity with the QRH. My company had a three year cycle so that every failure was covered in the simulator. Every flight I scanned drills in the QRH and did a touch drill that gave a comfortable familiarity. I also committed to memory the pitch angle against power settings to give basic climb/descent level flight if no speed indication. I once had a full nose down trim command on a Q400 which is computer controlled. The column load took both pilots to hold in the cruise. It was better lower and slower but made the approach interesting. I ended up fixing it on the phone to engineering by going to the computer cabinet and doing what I was told by the engineer then doing a maintenance check on the flight computer which showed the problem fixed. I then flew the aircraft back to base with no problems. Engineering found it ok. What price a computer controlled car. Not for me.

Showing through thin cloud. It was then covered by cloud not long after the start.

I think Lloris won the toss and played towards the Northam because the sun was out over the Chapel end.

Yoshida stood off Lukaku for the last goal, If he had got closer he could have blocked him. It was disappointing in a way but we did well. It won't do us any harm standing up to good teams even if like today the result goes against us. It will help to raise our performance next time out. Play well against Spurs and we can carry that forward. I do think we backed off too much in the last twenty minutes. I do feel we should have packed in front of them and pressed the ball in the last ten minutes. We probably played too well in the last ten minutes and left ourselves too open. We gave them the space to get at our back line.

There will be an inquest in front of a directed Jury. It was touch and go whether the Kegworth jury would bring in an unlawful killing verdict. In the event it was accidental death. The Chief Pilot of BM when cross examined stated that despite the pilots having little conversion training on the 737-400 the company had a right to expect that they would carry out their duties. That evening we had a visit from BM's QC who spoke to Patrick Phillips QC, BALPA's QC and told him that because of the CP's testimony, if the jury brought in an unlawful killing verdict they would be withdrawing their cover from the company. In the event it didn't happen. If the jury find that it is an unlawful killing then there will be hell to pay from all quarters. David Henderson hasn't surfaced yet and he is supposed to be the one who managed the aircraft.

I've got a season ticket but I didn't use it. I watched the game at home while watching a great cricket match 808 runs, 16 wickets, God knows how many sixes. They know how many didn't use their tickets as the computer will tell them how many were swiped at the turnstiles. Not enough heads have rolled, a few scapegoats but one of the biggest culprits is hanging on.

McKay is quoted saying that it was not a cost sharing agreement as "Emi wasn't paying anything" and that he was going to pay "whatever Dave (Henderson) was going to charge" That pretty much sums up what was thought. An unqualified private pilot was flying a commercial flight in an aeroplane that wasn't approved to fly commercial flights. What a **** up. I can't see how an insurance company would ever pay out as this was a criminal act.

The thing about Gibraltar is the runway length. The sea at both ends. I wouldn't want to lose an engine or burst a tyre just below V1, stopping is hairy. A lot of people practicing just that with a fully loaded aircraft on the simulator didn't make it until well practiced. Taking off I was ready for anything.

What is not generally known is that the pilot's approach charts have a diagram which shows wind angle and strength on the rock. This chart shows quadrants that close the runway if the wind exceeds given speeds from some directions. I wouldn't call it dangerous. We used the simulator to prepare for the approach etc and the actual flights proved pretty routine in spite of the rotor effect which needs to be understood in advance so that the right actions are carried out.The approach and engine out escape route at Innsbruck is interesting.

The effects of flying through cloud cells vary enormously. The frontal weather which generated the weather cells was in normal circumstances perfectly safely flown through by properly equipped aircraft crewed by professionals. The first ten years of my flying career was operating schedules in and out of Jersey and Guernsey and I've experienced that type of weather during climb and descents in that area without problems. On the other hand I've experienced enormous thunderstorm cells over Africa, Asia, Europe and the US which would be absolutely tempting fate to fly into. The only way is stay out of them and carry enough fuel to deviate around them.

I've operated into Gibraltar on many occasions. On my initial trip we had to go to the control tower to view the wind tunnel tests done by the RAF. The photographs graphically show the rotor affect of the winds coming off the rock from certain directions. The rock because of it's shape in effect generates what can only be described as wing vortex. I've experienced the rotor effect on the approach which providing it is appreciated can be coped with satisfactorily. I've seen the video and this aircraft looks too high to be within the area that the rock induced vortex would affect aircraft on the approach. The wind effect I've experienced was in the latter stages of the approach.

You know what! Despite a season ticket I personally have had it with the incompetent clowns that are dragging us down. The same players time after time making the same mistakes through stupidity or arrogance, mostly Bentley class cars and millionaires, I just don't want to see another game with the unnecessary disappointment of the last three games. I don't think I'll even bother going. A bad result against Fulham I don't need. I get it, some of those ****s are doing their own thing despite the manager emphasising clearing out of the danger zone.

This report pretty much confirms that an unqualified pilot for the conditions faced, flew a single engine aircraft into conditions neither he or the aircraft were equipped for. The aircraft had a de-icing system but was it working and more importantly did the pilot know how to operate it. Just looking at the altitude and track time line it looks like control was lost through a combination of turbulence, cloud, icing and a pilot without the training, experience and qualifications to carry out that flight. A weather radar was vital to navigate clear of the weather. A commercially qualified crew in a twin engine aircraft with anti-icing plus a weather radar to fly around the cells which would show up clearly would be the absolute minimum requirement. I'm pretty sure any experienced professional pilot wouldn't have attempted that flight in that way in that aircraft in those conditions.

Just before both goals Stephens had the ball under no pressure and with the team moving forward, he strolled forward and was dispossessed then Arsenal counterattacked and scored with us light at the back. Stephens losing the ball as he did against Cardiff led to both goals. He learnt nothing from the Cardiff game. I watched the whole game not just the highlights.