stevegrant

The pitch seems to have just died on its arse today, don't think we've necessarily bowled badly (although Fuller's first spell today was pretty wayward) but it's been very easy for them to accumulate runs this afternoon. Frustrating as this is one of those games where we'd have targeted victory against a team below us, but we'll extend the gap to the relegation zone by a few bonus points, and we have Worcestershire home and away in the next three games.

Not sure you'll see any captain or coach of that sort of disposition these days, think it's been well proven by now that those types of "leaders" just don't work in the modern era.

Looking at today, Essex still 49 behind with 7 wickets left. If we can chisel out the first 3 or 4 of those before lunch then I think we'll have enough time to win it. Fail to do that and we probably don't leave ourselves enough time to chase what would then probably be a target of about 200.

Proper weird innings, this. We were pretty fluid right up until about 5 overs from the bonus point cutoff at which point the runs have largely dried up, to the extent that Kyle Abbott has just hit our first boundary for 25 overs Haven't been watching as the test match is on, but surely it can only be as a result of Essex going all-out defence and putting numbers on the boundary and bowling negatively down the leg side, etc.

The other 3 sides are "just" stadium. The Itchen has too much infrastructure - offices, hospitality, dressing rooms etc - in the way Think I remember them saying the foundations for the Itchen had to be much heavier to accommodate those extra facilities, so developing that side would be very difficult if not prohibitively expensive. The others are obviously much more straightforward.

Never warmed to Nigel Quashie at any stage during his relatively and mercifully brief time with us.

Well that was abysmal tonight. We've filled the team with so many allrounders that James Fuller looks at least two places too high at 6 and there's way too much pressure on the top order to go big. We probably gave them 20 easy runs in the powerplay which made the chase tougher than it needed to be, but no demons in the wicket and we just kept hitting the ball straight to fielders. It didn't have any impact on the result, but having former Surrey all-rounder Ian Blackwell umpiring and not giving blatant wides against Mitch Santner or spotting the big front-foot no ball Chris Jordan bowled when he hit Fuller on the head doesn't do the "they're all neutral" argument many favours. Although he also missed two probable run-outs despite having access to the third umpire.

Depends how they price it, I reckon. Anything more than a tenner and you'll have most people saying "can't be arsed, not worth the effort", I suspect. So obviously it'll be £20...

If those seats are already free (i.e. they're not reserved for an existing season ticket holder) then you can do it online now without having to speak to anybody, or without having to wait until the renewal deadline to pass. However, I think we sold somewhere in the region of 20-22k season tickets, so there likely won't be that many seats available right now in areas that people will generally want to sit/stand in.

I think the one thing I'd cut them slack on is the Vince situation. While obviously the disruption has been known about for a while, I get the feeling those in charge were a bit blindsided by his decision to uproot his family to Dubai, and it didn't leave them enough time to source a suitable replacement, even if there were such a thing available. Mark Stoneman had test experience at the top of the order so I suspect they thought it was a "least bad" option for them as a stop-gap (hence the one-year contract) which would simultaneously plug a gap in the top two and allow others to bat in perhaps a less exposing position. Fair to say it's not worked out yet. That said, I still rate Yorkshire and Worcestershire as comfortably worse than us, and based on our game the other week Warwickshire too. And we've been inconsistent rather than outright dreadful so far - the wins were both very good and two of the three draws were after being on top in the game and running out of time due to the weather. But as mentioned by pretty much everyone, we have known that the top order has been fragile for years, really. It was generally Vince or the middle to lower order bailing the others out, and without Vince that leaves fewer bail-out options. I think the bowling has mostly been OK. Abbott has been excellent again, Fuller continuing to prove deceptively important, Dawson good when needed (surprisingly infrequently this year so far due to conditions or opposition team collapses), and Wheal, Turner and Baker have shown glimpses, but they are young players who don't have all the answers yet and will get it wrong sometimes.

I imagine your best bet is to renew your existing seat to lock in the price, and then once the renewal deadline passes next month you'll then have a much wider selection as all the ones reserved for existing season ticket holders but which haven't been renewed will become available. There is a form to fill in - link here - so I am assuming there's not going to be an automatic way of doing it, unless you're happy to take a seat that wasn't a season ticket holder's seat last season.

Would largely agree with that assessment, Robinson looked head and shoulders above anybody on either side in terms of just an all-round game and having both the physicality and spacial awareness that you need at senior level, so he's the one I would expect to see in and around the first team next season. Dom Ballard is an unrivalled centre forward when playing against his peers, but his senior record in a few loan spells in League One doesn't yet suggest he's going to be troubling the likes of Adam Armstrong for first team minutes next season, he's a very willing runner (and to do so for 120+ minutes was undoubtedly impressive) but while he's got a little burst of pace it's probably not quite enough to make a difference against experienced pros, and while he's not a pushover physically he's not big or dominant against players of his own age. I don't want to write off someone who's still very young in his development and has shown such promise but we've been here before with the likes of Ryan Seager and even Cosimo Sarli for those of a slightly older disposition where banging the goals in at reserve team/U21 level doesn't necessarily translate to the first team. Will Merry was one player I'd not seen before in the flesh, but he looked more attack-minded last night than I'd thought him to be, two or three excellent driving runs through the heart of Palace's midfield (which was their main weakness, I'd say), his cameo curtailed by a shin injury, assume he got closed down late by a defender when he took a shot from the edge of the area that was well saved by their keeper - one of about 8 saves varying in quality from decent to outstanding. That game could genuinely have ended 6-6, 8-1 or anything in between, such was the openness of the game. Not sure such an open game will work to our benefit against Man City in the final, but we'll wait and see, I guess!

So exactly the same as two years ago, then?

Might be on Palace's YouTube channel but wouldn't expect them to announce anything until very close to kickoff to maximise ticket sales.

And we have catering that is the envy of the Premier League...

5pm on 12th June.

Likely people who basically had no intention of going again this season, so they noticed they hadn't finished paying for their season ticket and just cancelled the direct debit via their bank. I imagine the club would have first tried contacting them to reinstate the payments but after that they probably just blocked the ticket. If I remember rightly, the early St Mary's days featured voucher books for season tickets as they had the free bus passes attached as well, so there probably wasn't much they could do about fraud (and let's be fairly clear, that's what this is/was) because every ticket voucher was the same and nothing was scanned to authenticate that exact ticket.

I only looked at my own renewal price, so I don't know if it's replicated across the board, but an adult ticket in the Northam was £499 this season and if you use the payment plan this year it's £497.70, so it's still effectively frozen. Given the apparent number of people who abused the payment plan this season, we seemingly have them to thank for the extra expense.

Yeah, basically this. Apparently numbers "in the hundreds" simply cancelled their direct debits midway through the season because they couldn't be bothered to go anymore. Quite surprised the club doesn't have any recourse on that through the Direct Debit guarantee (the main aim of which is consumer protection but surely should protect the "service" provider in cases of deliberate non-payment of agreed amounts), so I guess their way around that is to levy a charge and to ensure payments are complete by the end of the calendar year. They've said that anyone with an outstanding balance on this season's ticket won't be able to use the payment plan for next season. Quite surprised they've not just said "no season ticket for you", tbh, but I guess money talks.

Three drops in the slips already

Happy to be corrected but I didn't think Kraft had put any money in?

And a number plucked from thin air which would probably undervalue the club even as a Championship one. Ultimately every club is for sale if the price is right, it doesn't need the owner to be engaging M&A specialists to find buyers to prompt a sale when there are seemingly loads of willing buyers looking for a football club to invest in.

I think it'll be difficult for Villa to be playing twice a week for a month, academy players aren't used to that sort of schedule. They've also got the FA Youth Cup final against Man City after four of their six remaining games, so I think I'd put City as massive favourites for that final right now. Maybe they get the 11 points they'll need from their remaining six games, but I don't think it's a foregone conclusion at all.