stevegrant

I find it difficult to believe that they thought this would go any way other than badly

The last part is almost certainly true, but a significant reason for that is his absolute cluster**** of a transfer policy. Rather than shore up a defence that was crap in the Championship, he decided to spunk a load of money on wingers and strikers, and proceed to not pick most of them. I'd seriously contest that he's "done great" for them - he got the better of Brighton and Watford in the playoffs, but they were only in the playoffs as a result of an 88th-minute winner against Peterborough. They were top after his first game in charge, and won only one of their last ten league games.

Players' tunnel Potentially expensive clean-up operation there...

Match abandoned

Wycombe 1-0 up in their cup final

I'm more concerned that you were watching the One Show

You might be able to get a ticket in the home end, the Cat B/C games do sometimes make general sale after their various levels of membership have had their chance.

Impossible to tell, but as we took and sold it last season, I would expect that'll justify them taking it again this time around.

It seems this game is where they disregard last season's away attendances and only use this season's to judge eligibility. Seems fair enough, we've had 4 league games and one cup game - they're actually counting the Barnsley game in the criteria, but not Stoke as it won't have been played when tickets go on sale. Tuesday 29th October: STHs with 3 aways Thursday 31st October: STHs with 2 aways Monday 4th November: STHs with 1 away Wednesday 6th November: All STHs Friday 8th November: General Sale (yeah, right ) Adults £25.50 Over-65s £11 Under-16s £10

I assume their response to that would either be silence (as has been the current trend) or "that's for Premier League games only".

To be fair, as much as I like to put the boot in on the absolute cluster**** that is our ticket office operations - and they certainly give us enough ammunition - the blame for this one can't be laid at their door. Take your pick from Sunderland AFC, Northumberland Constabulary or the Football League.

Pretty much. I think David Stockdale (now back on the bench after Stekelenburg returned from injury last night) has made the most saves out of any keeper so far this season. On a complete tangent, I was amused to read that Marouane Chamakh has an impressive shots-to-goals conversion rate of 100% in the 8 PL games he's played this season. Unfortunately for him and Palace, he's only taken one shot in that time

Fulham have returned 1000 tickets so block 43 is now open for home fans.

3 games organised by the end of March. Plenty of time.

No argument needed, he's by far their best player.

Got battered 10-1 - they were a very good side to be fair to them, much younger and fitter as well. 6 of our 11 were over 30. Thought we played some decent stuff in patches, created a few chances especially in the second half when their defence switched off a bit. I don't think City are able to get a side down to us for that game, unfortunately, as they've all organised a trip to Munich the week before to watch them get their arses handed to them on a plate by Bayern again.

Yep, I'll be there for about 10:30ish. Rich, messaged you on Facebook, let me know what size boots you need and I'll ask around.

Assuming they don't get drawn into a "group of death", Belgium will go further than both Italy and Netherlands. I'm willing to put decent money on it. Don't forget, the Dutch didn't get a single point in the Euros. Switzerland were the only team to beat Spain in the last World Cup and haven't lost a competitive game for more than two years (and only 4 competitive defeats in more than 5 years). It's rather rich of you to accuse someone else of defending a viewpoint, especially when I've actually got statistical data to back up my opinion unlike your usual reactionary gibberish.

As the loan came from a public body, would information on this sort of thing be available through a Freedom of Information Act request?

That's like saying you cannot see how Portsmouth, twice winners of the old First Division title, are currently ranked 83rd in the country. Seeding is based on how likely they are to perform at the forthcoming championship, based on the statistical data from the most recent matches played.

Er, they have, it's called using the FIFA rankings system. It's not perfect, by any means, but it does measure performance over the last 4 years, with the most recent results given a higher weighting. Switzerland and Belgium topped their groups unbeaten, winning more games than England did over the same period, and in groups with (surprisingly) higher average rankings. We had two genuine minnows in our group, while Macedonia and Cyprus aren't anywhere near as bad as Moldova or San Marino. Draws get you a third of the points as wins do, in both the group tables and in terms of ranking points. Teams who play more competitive games (the South Americans played 16 in qualifying compared to 10 in most European groups) and get results will naturally end up higher in the rankings. Uruguay also got to the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup, which will have (some would argue artificially) boosted their ranking as it's deemed a competitive tournament and therefore given a higher weighting than friendlies.

No It's the Football League's own set of rules, which are significantly different to UEFA's.

There would (should) have been discussions between the clubs and the police before the date was announced - don't forget, it took a week after the draw was made for them to confirm the date, so you would assume that time taken was because they were discussing with the police whether they could play on the Wednesday as well as Newcastle (whose game was confirmed for the Wednesday pretty quickly as Sky chose to televise it). The fact it was announced as the same night suggests the police originally allowed it, but have since made a U-turn on that decision.

Yep, kit is all provided

Had a couple of dropouts so could do with a few more players if anyone's interested. Jimbo, Davey, Rich, BedfordSaint?