stevegrant

Likewise. The first half was pretty nervy, but other than that excellent McCarthy save at the start of the second half, I never felt we were in any real danger after that. Their substitutions helped us, I think - they were causing us problems by getting the wing-backs wide and putting crosses in, but they took Olsson off to get Abraham on, so they had three strikers but nobody on the left side to actually put the ball in the box for them. Carvalhal then doubled down by taking Naughton off on the other side for Narsingh, and they ended up with two central midfielders at full-back in a 4-3-3, which provided no attacking threat at all and allowed us an easy out ball of playing it long to Long who was always going to beat Sam Clucas in the air. If Austin could have found a corner rather than the centre of the goal for one or more of his chances, the scoreline would have been much more comfortable, but I don't think the result was in any doubt once we went in front.

Yeah, that Pochettino chancer was dreadful, wasn't he?

Not at the current level of spending, their wage bill is around £2m The infrastructure there has improved immeasurably, but they're still only averaging crowds of 1900, which is also skewed by their occasional "free entry" deals for midweek games. They've been paying silly wages for mediocre players for so long, it's going to be difficult for them to attract players even of the standard of their existing squad on the wages they should be paying them.

Alex Crook is saying that he doesn't want to come, so I think we can take that as confirmation that he'll be signing as long as the two clubs can do a deal.

This, basically, although as stated above, I'm pretty sure that if he'd got proper representation he wouldn't have received a banning order, or at the very worst a reduced-term one.

Different City side this year, they've got a keeper behind them they can trust to mop up everything which allows them to play much higher up the pitch. Last year, they had Claudio Bravo who has been a shambles for them, and it was also a period when John Stones was making a lot of mistakes. They're simply not as vulnerable defensively this season, which means they can play with more freedom going forwards.

That "record" is up there with Huddersfield's 50-game unbeaten streak which featured a 3-0 defeat in the middle of it. They drew 0-0 with Wolves. Penalty shootouts are used as a method to determine who advances in a competition, but it doesn't affect the result of the match itself.

If he wants to get his paymasters to send us a £300m (conservative estimate) transfer kitty, plus a similar amount for wages each year over the next five years, maybe then we'll be in a position to go to the Etihad and play an open, attacking game against them.

Disappointing, as he'll keep them up. Unsworth's done a great job there.

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

Worth noting that Ian Holland was second in both batting and bowling averages this year. There are a few glaring statistics that stand out looking at our season: 1. Our highest batting average is 38.12 (Bailey) 2. We registered only seven centuries in 14 matches (Bailey, Vince and Adams with 2 apiece, Ervine with the other) 3. Five bowlers averaged less than 27 runs per wicket (Abbott, Holland, Edwards, Dawson, Berg)

Still, they won the transfer window, didn't they, lads?

Got away with it two years running. If that's not a big wake-up call to those in charge down there, then nothing will be. As mentioned above, they've been great servants for many years, but it's time Adams and Ervine were taken out of the equation. That's two spaces for starters, anybody decent in the second division who we could tap up - someone like Duckett or Bell-Drummond, perhaps?

Unrelated note, Graham Onions is leaving Durham as he wanted a two-year contract and they were only willing to give him a guaranteed one-year with an injury-free clause triggering a second year. Would be a good signing, IMO...

Having a day rained off (well done, Edgbaston's world-class drainage system, once again ) might actually have worked in our favour. We now know exactly what we need to stay up, after Somerset were bowled out for 236. They can now only get a maximum of 20 points from their game against Middlesex, which means that we only need 8 points to be safe. If I'm George Bailey tomorrow, I'm choosing an uncontested toss and bowling first. Get 9 or 10 wickets to ensure 3 bowling bonus points, and then make sure we don't lose. Thursday will be a washout as well, so it's effectively a two-day game. Surely we can't lose in that situation...

A new low?

The thing with United at the moment is that their big wins have come against teams who just seem to be a bit weak mentally when they go behind. West Ham conceded twice in the last three minutes, Swansea conceded three in the last ten minutes, Everton three in the last seven minutes, so as long as we can stay in the game, we've got a chance IMO. Despite the goal difference, I don't think they've been especially impressive for the vast majority of the time, but they (like us) have had a pretty kind run of fixtures to start the season.

Martina was unusually competent, Schneiderlin was mostly anonymous until he conceded the penalty to make it 4-0.

Martina against Rashford should be fun

Yep. A lot more than I expected, actually. Around £150m over the course of two years - of course we recouped around £160m in sales, but our signings while he was here all just seemed so much more sensible and carefully-planned.

According to transfermarkt.co.uk, Koeman has spent TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY MILLION POUNDS since he became Everton manager. He has somehow managed to manufacture a squad that has at least three number tens but not a single centre forward to finish off any chances that might be created, and the only player with pace has been out for more than a year with a knee injury. Baffling.

Middlesex are comfortably below us and also won't get anything out of this game, so I think we'll be fine. We've also still got to play Warwickshire, who look utterly hopeless and just want the season to end. They could be relegated this week depending on how the other games finish.

It's no great surprise that van Dijk is pretty rusty, that game on Monday was his first game for nearly eight months. Suspect he'll need one or two more U23 games (or behind-closed-doors friendlies, depending on the schedule) before he's anywhere near a first team recall.

Pretty ****-poor that they're playing a County Championship game at an out-ground in September. We'd have had nearly two full days' play at Lord's with its proper drainage.

All Companies House documents are free these days, I think.