Lighthouse

Yeah, thank f**k that happened. The 3 wins, 2 draws and 8 defeats since then have been a breath of fresh air.

When we signed Lallana I thought it was the most mind-bendingly obvious thing in the universe that he was nowhere near PL fitness and was highly unlikely to start any kind of string of consecutive games. How can you be struggling to understand this?

Without all the money to be one of the better teams, it’s just as bad, if not worse. This league isn’t sh*t, losing is.

It wasn’t moving and the ball was, if anything, further from the goal than where the foul took place. Neither of those are excuses, we were just naive and asleep for a set piece.

So 4-6-0 I guess.

Where has this myth that passing football started with Pep, and that everyone just wants to copy him, come from? Spain dominated football from 2007-2012 playing a neat, passing, possesion based game, when Pep was coaching Barcelona's reserves. They weren't even the first team to do it then either. Ralph and Poch played a pressing game, Jones was direct and old-school, Martin's teams pass and keep possession. We've seen all three of those strategies fail when not played correctly, there's no 'correct' game plan.

It was nuts. When I saw Palmer had scored four goals in 19 minutes, I didn't realise he'd also hit the post and had one disallowed for a tight offside. Not to mention the other one they had disallowed for (I think) Jackson. That line would work if you were defending against Grant Holt and Matt Le Tissier but against Chelsea's attack it was just weird.

Whenever I watch Daws play, I just think that England's loss is Hampshire's gain. To have a player of his calibre regularly available for all formats is an absolute priviledge. Turner on the other hand has been called up to the white ball squad and not bowled a single ball for them.

Wow, imagine going from January all the way to Novermber 9th, without a single clean sheet.

19 minutes, and here we are discussing which of our strikers is the best bet to score four goals in a season.

After a pretty ropey start to the County season, we've come good to an extent. Best of the rest behind Surrey is probably as good as we could have asked at the start of the year. Some thinking to do in recruitment now, particularly with the white ball.

Feel a bit sorry for Ali Karaki. He gets bumped off and they don’t even have decent picture of him to stick up.

All these photos are from Butlins in Minehead.

This dog’s arse wanting me to stay another day.

You don't find it the least bit strange that Hamas are the de facto rulers of a country which is the complete polar opposite of their own belief system? We've never seen an Islamist elected to Congress from Alabama, or an ISIS militia overthrow the government of Finland and yet it always seems to happen in the parts of Middle East.

So you're asking us to give a chance to the guy who's made 12 appearances without scoring (who the manager clearly doesn't fancy) because you're fed up with watching the guy who's made 6 appearances and scored twice. For the record, I'm not making a case for either. Both were very poor panic signings, I just don't get the clamour for one when he's done nothing above and beyond another player who was universally derided.

I wish I got Clubcard points for every time somebody fails to understand this. I think one of the objectives Israel have, long term is to create a power vacuum. It worked to their advantage ten years ago in the sense that ISIS never actually attacked them. They were too busy fighting Asad/Russia, the Kurds, free Iraqi forces and a whole bunch of other factions to actually care about the Jews.

Except here, which is kind of the big one as far as we're concerned. TP has scored plenty of goals in Turkey and Belgium, just like Cenk Tosun and Jozy Altidore. Their comparative records in England: GC - 10 games, 0 goals PO - 12 games, 0 goals

Even if he does, I’ve no idea why anybody thinks he’s any better than Carrillo.

TP is not going to be in the team, everyone needs to accept that and move on.

Seven ducks and counting so far too. Didn’t we get a points deduction last year for the condition of our wicket? Is there anything untoward here I wonder, or just a consequence of playing cricket in autumn.

But are any of these ancients justified?

I’ve never seen that before, Abbott bowls them out for 136, only to have it declared a n/b because the towel flew out of his pocket.

That’s not what happened at all. Most of them agreed reluctantly (but correctly) that he was at serious risk of getting them relegated and had to go.

It's the kind of game where you'd hope and expect the likes of BBD, AA, Aribo and Smallbone to have enough to get the job done.