stevegrant

Yes, damn those opponents doing things to stop key players doing what they're good at

It's entirely up to the home team how the pitch is treated before and during the game. As long as the length of the grass is below a certain level, it's fine, which is actually a relatively new rule in the Premier League. Back in 2003 (I think) when we beat Man United 1-0, we basically stopped them playing by leaving the grass to grow really long, which meant they struggled to pass the ball. We knew what the pitch would be like, so played more direct, they failed to adapt and we won the game. Wouldn't get away with that these days though.

The referee!

A win

You have an email

No, the whistle already implies blindness If you could help out, that would be great. Should be a pretty easy game to referee, it's a glorified friendly. Not 100% sure Kidderminster have managed to get a full team yet, so we might even do 9 or 10-a-side.

Received this email:

Also looking for a referee - will pay £20 - as our usual ref isn't available this weekend (damn the cricket season beginning )

Sounded like the pitch got very flat on days 3 and 4, to be fair. The fact that their relatively strong bowling attack let us get nearly 400 in the second innings at a decent rate suggests it wasn't a deteriorating pitch.

Warwickshire have barely tried to score a run all day, and then it gets within 20 overs of the close and they start hitting a few pointless boundaries

Could still do with another couple of players if anyone fancies it

Which was the main basis for their complaint in the first place. West Ham were always going to do this (for the first few years, at least) to ensure they filled the ground - they already do loads of cheap tickets (kids for a quid, etc) on matchdays at Upton Park, so with an extra 15,000 seats to fill, they had to reduce the prices across the board. I certainly wouldn't complain about any club bringing in cheaper prices, that is certainly a good thing, as long as it's sustainable. West Ham's view will be that they can easily sustain those cheaper prices (although worth noting they've not actually said exactly how many season tickets at £289 will be available, and what the range of prices will be) when the new TV deal is factored in, as well as the increased corporate and sponsorship revenue they'll be able to get from being at the Olympic Stadium. The key will be whether those prices remain low or whether they'll wait a while until they've got a captive audience and then put the squeeze on the paying punters.

Nigh-on impossible in the Premier League these days. I'd expect QPR's wages-to-turnover ratio to have dropped to around 70-75% this season, as they've got the benefit of PL revenues, which they didn't have last season where these figures are based. As already mentioned, it's difficult to read too much into the figures when wage bills, performances, etc can fluctuate so much at clubs from one season to the next. Nobody outside the club knows what the total player payroll is this season - you can make educated guesses but as clubs tend to release their financial figures at the latest possible moment (3 months after year end for listed clubs, 9 months for unlisted), everything's already evolved in that period.

Defending 379, then...

Vince has 54 runs so far this season. The ridiculous part of that statistic is that they've been scored off just 55 balls

As far as I'm aware, he's not played in the first division before, so it might take him a bit of time to adjust. We're reasonably placed in this game, effectively 103/3 including the first-innings lead. 300+ would be a very tough chase on the final day.

I'm sure I remember someone revealing that the only reason Gob****e stayed as their sponsor this season was because it would actually cost them more to remove their advertising from the roof of the Fratton End than it cost them to sponsor the club again

As mentioned in the U21 final thread, the company who runs the data centre where our server is located has been having intermittent problems all day (which has led to "emergency networking fixes", whatever they entail). I'm not overly happy with the situation, the site performance today has been appalling. I'll hopefully get a bit more information on it tomorrow.

Lots of impressive performances tonight, I thought. Gazzaniga looked like the goalkeeper we thought we'd signed when we paid £2m for him, commanded his area superbly (apart from one iffy decision in the first half) and made potentially tricky saves look routine. Special mention to Jason McCarthy, though. An absolute rock at the back

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.

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