stevegrant

The company that runs the data centre that hosts our server has been having intermittent issues all day. Can't say I'm particularly happy about it.

We have a game arranged against Kidderminster's fans team (Kidderminster play Eastleigh on Saturday) on Sunday morning (11am kickoff) at BTC Sports Ground on Stoneham Lane, and I'm looking for a few more players. If you're interested in playing, please let me know.

Replied

I don't see Bournemouth dropping any points from those three games, none of their opponents have anything left to play for this season. Bournemouth and Watford as the top 2, I reckon.

It's nothing like Wimbledon.

A decent effort but we ultimately paid for letting their last 4 first-innings wickets go for 170. Showed surprising signs in the second innings that perhaps our bowling might not be quite as weak as first feared. We seem to have been pretty attack-minded with the bat in both innings, looking at the scorecard, 13 of the 22 innings had a strike rate above 50, compared to 7 from Sussex. Perhaps a more circumspect approach in the first innings might have helped, who knows.

As sickening as it sounds, it's a lot easier to pin something like that on a discarded cigarette when there are thousands of people in the stand than on a non-matchday when the culprit list would be rather more defined.

Indeed, but that's basically because Bradford City isn't a particular big name (compared to, say, Liverpool with the Hillsborough disaster which rightly gets loads of coverage) and the anniversary date (11th May) often used to be after the end of the domestic season. I find it incredible that not one local journalist at the time of the various fires in the area put two and two together - the bloke had even been interviewed by the press where he was bemoaning his bad luck, but nobody bothered to delve any deeper!

Interesting. The cynic in me suggests that if we can bowl them out so cheaply then we'll struggle to get anywhere near 378, but who knows...

We don't seem to have bowled too badly to their top order, which is encouraging, but once again it's the lower/middle-order that's caused us the most pain. They're 51/3 in the second innings, but with a lead of 260+ already and more than a day and a half remaining, they'll be in no great hurry to score quickly.

Hmm. Bournemouth-based Keith Stroud will referee Reading v Bournemouth tonight. Nothing iffy there...

People seem surprised that someone with a long injury record and a 39-year-old might have fitness problems Once again, we've done alright against the top order but let the lower-middle order take the game away from us. Luke Wright and Ben Brown got 250 of their 444 runs at 6 and 7. Still, get up to 350/400 with the bat and we shouldn't lose.

Well, quite. Ready-made replacement, and we all know that McInnes and Awford fell out ages ago. No, that was Steve Evans, sadly.

Seems fairly clear that Gary Waddock will get the job on a permanent basis, he's got a fair amount of experience at that level already, and won promotion with Wycombe in 2010/11.

Noooooooooooooo! Awful sacked

He's not getting another high-profile job any time soon, certainly won't be in the running for the England job when Hodgson eventually calls it a day, and he only released an autobiography last year. There is literally no reason for any self-respecting journalist to attempt to keep in Redknapp's good books these days. Fortunately, it seems as if Ben Smith doesn't fall into that category.

If he can tear himself away from the bookies for long enough

And according to that not-entirely-believable table that was on here a week or so ago, he's being paid more than £2k a week for the privilege

Reading failed to beat Blackpool last night, I don't think that's much of a concern

It's had a European place for years. Since 1967, in fact, although initially UEFA stipulated that the winner could only participate in the Fairs Cup if they were in the top division, so QPR (in 1967) and Swindon (in 1969) didn't qualify despite winning the League Cup. When UEFA ditched the Cup Winners' Cup and expanded the UEFA Cup instead (later to become the Europa League), there were "considerations" to removing the European place for the winners, but they were never pursued and so England and France's Coupe de Ligue both continue to provide a Europa League place to the winners, but as the lowest-ranked position, so they enter in the third qualifying round.

The "second domestic cup winner" position in both England and France (who are the only two nations with two EL-qualifying cup competitions) is the lowest-ranked position, so had Sheffield United gone on to win the League Cup, they'd have gone into the third qualifying round. As Chelsea won it, and they've more or less already qualified for the CL, the EL place for that competition reverts to the next position in the PL. As a result, it's possible to have the oddity whereby Liverpool win the FA Cup, finish 7th, but go into the EL group stage whereas the team finishing 6th has to play in the qualifying rounds.

Not true, or at least the wording of the decision by the UEFA organising committee in 2013 is ambiguous enough to not state that exactly. The bold bit is the key, it makes no mention of having already qualified for the Europa League via the final championship standings.

If it's an Arsenal v Liverpool final, we have no concerns (or, indeed, as long as Arsenal go on to win it, regardless of final opposition). Potential scenarios: Arsenal v Liverpool, Arsenal win: Arsenal in the Champions League, so Europa League (group stage) place goes to the next highest place in the Premier League instead. Arsenal v Liverpool, Liverpool win: Liverpool get EL place (group stage), Arsenal already in CL, Liverpool likely to have also qualified for EL through PL, so the PL places shift down one (if Liverpool finish 5th or 6th, that would mean 5th/6th into group stage, 7th into 3rd qualifying round) Arsenal v Villa or Blackburn, Arsenal win: Arsenal in the CL, so EL (group stage) place goes to the next highest place in the PL. Arsenal v Villa or Blackburn, Villa or Blackburn win: Villa or Blackburn get EL place (group stage). 7th in PL does NOT qualify. Reading v Liverpool, Liverpool win: Liverpool likely to have already qualified for EL through PL, so Reading get EL (group stage) place. However, IF Liverpool only finish 7th in PL, Reading would miss out to 5th/6th in PL. Reading v Liverpool, Reading win: Reading get EL (group stage) place. Liverpool only in EL if they finish top 6 in PL. Reading v Villa or Blackburn, anyone wins: winner gets EL (group stage) place. 5th also gets group stage place, 6th in 3rd qualifying round.

A pleasant surprise for you