stevegrant

Summary from that report: Zero cost up front Repayments only made when graduate is earning £21k or more Repayments are a fixed 9% of salary over £21k (e.g. if you're earning £25k a year, you pay 9% of £4k a year) Repayments stop if the graduate stops earning £21k (could be interesting for those that go straight into self-employed work...) The interest rate on the loan is the same rate at which the government borrows money Any balance remaining after 30 years is written off.

Dress codes for the nightclubs vary massively. Most of them will have promoters hanging around the hotels during the day giving out promo entry vouchers, so it's a decent idea to check with them before you head out for the evening. For example, there are basically no dress code requirements at all in Coyote Ugly (in New York, New York), but in Studio 54 (MGM Grand) it's much more "smart casual", no trainers, etc. Studio 54 is highly-rated, but having been there last year I thought it was a load of crap. Overpriced and overcrowded.

Correct.

I've always subscribed to this theory as well, and yet professional managers up and down the country have been bringing every player back for corners for years. I think I heard someone on Goals on Sunday a year or two ago say that the idea behind it was that the more defenders you've got in the area, the harder it is for the opposition to score, but there are clearly major flaws there.

To be fair, I'd suggest that might be more to do with Tranmere only having one player in the area for those corners than any particularly pre-determined tactic. There's no point bringing everyone back to defend a corner when you already massively outnumber the opposition, and I doubt it would have been something that would have been expected, especially in the first half at 0-0. That said, I'd rather we left at least one player up for corners, simply because of the problems associated with bringing everyone back - if you clear it the first time, you're still giving the opposition the chance to put in a better cross from the second attempt.

Brighton have been very fortunate with the run of fixtures they've been given at the start of the season, IMO. Before today, only 2 of their 10 games had been against teams in the top half. They drew at home to Rochdale, and lost at Sheffield Wednesday. As you say, they didn't really show much in today's game that would concern me. Bournemouth failed to muster a single shot on target until the last-minute penalty (what an incredible decision that was, by the way), and yet they were barely deserving of the lead. Peterborough, despite all their goals, have failed to go unbeaten for more than two consecutive league games so far. Before today, Huddersfield had lost three in a row (without scoring), and Sheffield Wednesday have looked way below par after a decent first month. This league is ripe for the taking - if we can build a bit of momentum with the wins we're now starting to pick up, it could be difficult for anyone else to stay with us.

Tranmere were crap and showed very little ambition to actually win the game (they had a whole ONE player in our area when they had a corner in the first half, allowing us to leave two players on the halfway line), but that sort of game has still been our problem for years, and it's a test we passed very comfortably. Good to see Guly get a start, and he certainly justified that selection with a great performance, and shows that sometimes it genuinely does just take a bit of time for players to settle in. For the second week running, I can't think of anyone who had a bad game, Lambert looks like he's getting somewhere approaching full fitness and sharpness - quite what the story is there, I'm not too sure, but it's been a big problem for us which we're now hopefully overcoming. The biggest improvement I've noticed since Adkins arrived has been Dan Seaborne. Previously, he seemed to lack the confidence to do anything other than take a touch and then launch the ball to Lambert's head. Obviously that's not been particularly fruitful this season, and also not really the way that's likely to help us win games, so credit to him for adapting and becoming more confident with the ball at his feet. Next week will be a massive benchmark to see where we stand. Huddersfield have had some iffy form lately (today aside), so they're still going to be a bit vulnerable, but they are still one of the promotion favourites, and it'll be a harder test than the two sides we've played in the last 7 days who have barely turned up at St Mary's.

Arcade should now be working

Slight issue still to be resolved with the arcade, so that'll have to wait until Sunday, I'm afraid. The rest of the upgrade has been done though.

England away grounds: Vienna Chorzow Cardiff Barcelona (Montjuic) Copenhagen Moscow Zagreb Paris Amsterdam Frankfurt Stuttgart Geneva

Someone's been listening to Barry Glendenning on the Football Weekly podcast...

As per the title, really. I'll be installing a minor upgrade to the forum tomorrow (Friday) night. There are various bug fixes included in this upgrade (although I don't think any of them have actually affected us), and it'll also give me the opportunity to reinstate the arcade. I'm not 100% sure what time the upgrade will be done, but it's likely to be some time around 9-10pm or so.

We all did. We completed the internet after killing Dr Robotnik

Thanks to everyone who helped with the load testing, looks like the changes I've made have made a significant difference. About bloody time... While we "only" had just over 300 people online, it's the weight of adding lots of new posts to the database simultaneously that has been causing the problems in the past, and having generated nearly 7 pages in 15 minutes, I'm now satisfied that it should now hold firm against heavy levels of posting. :vuvu:

Pretty sure they said that last time, when they (and Leicester) were told to go away and come back again when they actually had the relevant documentation.

You could still join in by hammering the F5 key

I've been testing it on my laptop over the last couple of days, I'll put it live along with a minor version upgrade on Thursday night.

Looks like it's impossible to get back that night due to engineering works. £14 for the single fare from Euston to Carlisle, but fairly pointless if you can't get back again. £46 is the cheapest single fare for the journey back on the Sunday.

Sunday, hopefully...

Re the booing, I remember watching the game back having recorded it on my Sky+ box, and I remember the commentator having a chuckle at Liebherr getting a massive cheer and Cortese getting a "much more lukewarm" (I think they were the words used) reception. I'll have a look again tonight if I get time.

In an ideal world, I guess I'd rather have "affordable success", but as we're not in Germany, we're caught between a rock and a hard place, as you rightly identify. The upper echelons of football will implode at some point - there will come a time when those who have managed their finances well over a sustained period of time will be the ones who eventually rise to the top. It may not happen in the next ten or twenty years, but I am sure it will happen eventually. If we are to be successful, I would rather it came as a result of genuine hard work and being deserving of it, rather than just chucking money at the cause with no real thought process behind it (hello, Manchester City). At the moment, that appears to be the way the club is working - there are some aspects that many (myself included) aren't overly happy with, but we all have to make some sacrifices every now and then. I still firmly believe that this club has the infrastructure and support to organically grow and be successful. It'll feel much more rewarding to keep it that way, IMO.

I don't think Howe's said anything at all about it, sensibly.

Would be good if he's anywhere near the player he was when he was here previously, but by all accounts he's been crap for Preston in the last year or two. A move could be what he needs.

I don't think there was much "speculation", per se, that they didn't get on - that seemed fairly obvious from the rare statements and comments attributed to NC that he wasn't happy. I know a couple of people who have had contact with AP on a professional level over a number of years and the one thing they all relayed, with exact wording, was that AP was "always watching his back". I wouldn't say it's necessarily a bad thing if a chairman and his manager don't get on, you need some friction otherwise it all gets a bit too cosy, but it seemed to become a hindrance in the end. As I think a few people suggested on one of the other threads, it's possible that the cause of our pretty pathetic levels of fitness at the start of the season are down to AP feeling as though he's for the chop at any given moment so why should he put that much effort in to get the players fit for someone else to then grab the glory. The fitness is certainly the area I feel AP has badly let us down in over the summer. The speculation that AP was going to be fired didn't start gathering momentum or any sort of press recognition until very late in the season - certainly the Echo didn't print anything about that speculation until mid to late April (will try to find the first article they ran - think we're probably in agreement that they'd have been the first to run that sort of story ), and then there was the MLT, Keegan and McMenemy comments which particularly got NC's goat. I can't remember whether anything had been going on prior to the JPT final in terms of NC doing things that had been controversial in the eyes of the wider fan base to get the reaction he did when the camera panned to him. I remember at the time someone suggested it was because the "Markus, give us a wave!" chant had been ignored and it was just coincidence that the camera panned to NC at that time, although I'm not entirely convinced by that If it genuinely was NC advocating for AP at the end of the season - which I personally find unlikely (it was ML's club, if he wanted him gone, he'd have just done it over the top of NC if necessary, IMO), but appreciate that not everyone will share that view - then that still screams out that he only had to do so because ML wanted him gone, hence the speculation was entirely accurate at the time.