sadoldgit

Very sad news. I remember him hitting the bar from about 30 yards in a cup game against Spurs at WHL many many years ago. Was excited by his signing at the time as he was an established Div 1 player from a “big” club and he never let us down. RIP.

I think it is just something peculiar to some football fans, like booing people who are making a statement about racism. It takes a special breed and they only seem to follow one sport. You get them on Internet forums too making snide digs about those who rightly call out this pathetic behaviour for what it is.

I totally agree with you. I remember endless arguments about how he shouldn’t be involved in recruitment as that was the manager’s job and how he should not be involved because he knew nothing about football. Now every club has people like him doing those jobs. I also remember peers outside of the club at the time saying that he was ahead of his time. For all of his faults I think he was often misjudged and it can’t have been easy keeping the club going on the restricted level of 15,000 at home games. Lowe himself was a hockey man so that was another reason that he shouldn’t be involved in the club but I seem to remember him being responsible for signing Killer and Niemi, they turned out to be not too shabby for us. I remember someone who hated him with a passion admitting that he did his best for the club. That is all we can ask of anyone. Who will forget his famous statement about Spurs claiming that he wouldn’t be pushed around by a bunch of North London yobbos?! I don’t care for his politics and can see why he was disliked by so many, but I think in many ways he was much maligned.

They may well be “silly songs” but it is a simple matter of showing basic respect to your opponents. It is the same as players shaking hands before and after the game. Perhaps they should spit in each other’s faces? It is sport for goodness sake, not a war.

I don’t do Twitter Duckie. There are too many WUMs and right wing bigots on here for my liking as it is. Twitter takes it to a much higher level.

What on Earth are you talking about? If I vote for any other party than for the Tories where I live then that vote doesn’t get me anything and I am wasting my time leaving the sofa. Under PR my vote goes into the same pot as everybody else’s rather than a tiny pot that is virtually full of Tory votes at the start so it is well worth casting my vote, it’s value being that at the point of being cast, it could actually make a difference. I won’t know if it does or not until the votes are counted but under FPTP I know immediately that my vote will not get me anything.There is no contradiction. One vote has a value, one doesn’t.

No not at all as I have explained many times but you have probably had your stuck in that pointy hat too long. Under PR every single person gets their proportional amount of representation according to the votes cast therefore every vote means something unlike your favoured system which means that hundreds of thousands of votes don’t mean a thing, even before the count has been completed.

Dear god Duckie. You really don’t get it do you? Yes, I understand perfectly well that it is possible that under PR your vote might not get you a seat in Parliament, but your vote still means something to the party you voted for. It gives you a chance and if enough people want the same thing across the whole of the electorate you will get a seat. Therefore it is worth getting off your backside and casting your vote. In safe seats it gives you nothing. Zilch. It is a pointless exercise. There is no perfect system and PR undoubtably has its issues, but it is infinitely fairer than FPTP. Every vote means something within the system, even if certain parties don’t poll enough to get a seat.

They do mean something. They mean that you are voting for a party that hasn’t got enough support to win a seat in Parliament which tells you something about where your vote is going and how much or little support is has. If you launch the Lord Duckhunter Xenophobic Alliance Party and you get one vote, that vote means something. It means there is no support for your policies so maybe you should either give up or change your policies. Why do we have tactical voting? It is because people in certain areas can’t change the situation by voting for the party of their choice so they vote for another party instead. On what planet does that make any sense? With proportional representation every vote counts because you get the level of support in the H of C that the electorate votes for. If your party doesn’t poll enough votes for a seat that tells you something about what you are voting for, therefore it counts because it has a value, albeit it a negative one if you are the one who voted for the LDXA party. If you are not a Tory in a safe Tory area you get absolutely nothing. If you voted for the LDXA Party your vote means something. It means that you and the party you voted for either need to rethink your values or to work harder to try and convince people to vote for you.

Of course it counts because every vote influences the number of seats that any given party wins. Another example for you, the Green Party have 1 seat under FPTP. Under PR they would have 12 seats. Surely even you can see there is a huge difference affecting the number of votes that actually mean something. You are just put out because your beloved Johnson would have a much smaller majority if everyone votes meant something. I have always lived in safe Tory seats so no matter who I vote for my vote will not affect a change. Under PR my vote means that I contribute towards on opposition candidate getting a seat in Parliament, therefore under one system it doesn’t matter if I vote or not whereas under the other system my vote counts. As I say, it really isn’t a difficult concept to grasp. My original point was the every vote should count, which under the current system for the losing parties, they don’t. If you were the supporter of a minority party I am sure that you would see that there is a massive difference between 12 seats and 1 seat. Go and try telling the Green Party members that their votes make any difference outside of Brighton.

Charlton said that he felt fine and could have run all day but you can see why Ramsey took him off as well as Peter’s to save their legs for the semi final as we were well in control of the game at that point. Don’t forget we were playing at high Ltitude too. The Germans felt that Beckenbaur was released to a freer role after Charlton went off as he was man marking him and that is what turned the game. There were many rumours of dark arts. Bobby Moore was falsely accused of stealing a bracelet and was arrested for a time. Gordon Banks said he thought his beer was spiked causes his stomach problems and withdrawal from the game. A bunch of Mexican fans kept a load of noise going outside the England hotel until 4am in the morning of the match and the police did nothing. There were a number of other issues that threw curved balls at our preparations. Some thought that the CIA were behind it as they wanted Brazil to win for political reasons! Its hard to imagine Brazil not winning it as they we awesome at the time. We probably had a better squad than the WC squad but couldn’t touch them.

Blimey! Who’d have thought that England could win a match without loading the team with defenders? Who’d have thought that an England squad loaded with attacking talent could score goals for fun if given the chance? For those having a pop at those of us who were disappointed with the earlier negative tactics, give it a rest. We were perfectly entitled to feel aggrieved at the defensive attitude when we have so much attacking flair in the squad. There are more than one way to win football matches. Southgate chose one particular way that involved extreme caution where he probably could have got a win with more attractive football. What is wrong with expressing an opinion about that? We do it all the time with our own club. it is perfectly possible that if Southgate had set his stall out to play expansive attacking football from the start we would be in exactly the same position as we are now. If you want to put it down to some kind of tactical genius (stacking the team with defensive players) so be it. As I said before, no one will give a stuff how we play so long as we get to the final, less so if we win it. And just for my own personal internet stalker, no I am not moaning. I am as happy as everybody else about our progress in this competition and am happy to give credit to Southgate, his coaching team and the squad for getting this far. I am also happy about a very favourable draw 😉. Denmark will be no pushover but they did look very tired at the end of their game whereas we look like we have plenty in the tank. Expecting an Italy v England final.

It really isn’t a difficult concept Duckie. Let’s take the Liberal Democrat’s in the last election. They polled 11.5% of the votes but only have 11 seats in Parliament. Under PR they would have 75 seats in Parliament. Therefore every single votes counts whereas under the current system it doesn’t. Get it?

I know that you are not completely stupid (at least when you are not stoned) but then perhaps you could explain to us all how the number of votes per party against the number of seats per party translates into something that is a fair reflection of the way the nation votes.

Absolutely. Everyone’s vote should mean something. People bang on about democracy but there is nothing democratic about the current way we elect our representatives. Minorities just get drowned out. It’s a crap system and it has always been a crap system, no matter who wins.

Another cracking game of exciting, attacking, end to end football. It is just so refreshing to seeing teams but so much effort into trying to score rather than not concede. But then I will be told that it didn’t work for Belgium as they are going home. Thing is they might also have gone home if they had played with multiple full backs. If you are going to lose, that is the way to go out.

As expected he split the Labour vote and once again Labour infighting nearly cost them a seat. It is about time they all realised that they need to pull together to get this incompetent bunch out. You can’t change anything from the outside. People like Galloway are doing a lot of Johnson’s work for him. Time for the different factions within the Labour Party to put their differences to one side and to focus on the long game of getting elected. Time also to work with the opposition parties to work together in every seat to get this lot out. This country needs change not more of the same old self interest from those looking to feather the nests of themselves and their mates. A country’s biggest asset is its people. Time to put the people first.

Did I detect a click of the heels as you said that? I know you are a bit of a fascist Duckie but you don’t get to bark orders at people. Smoke some more weed and chill out man.

There were still boring, pragmatic teams and exiting, attacking teams back then. There have always been teams who set out on the front foot and go all out for a win and those who sit back and play it safe. Funny how some people couldn’t wait to see the back of Puel but are praising Southgate for adopting similar tactics. Before the usual suspects kick off again, I am not unhappy about getting out of the group and beating Germany but before we wet our collective knickers, we need to win three more matches before Southgate is up for a knighthood and every Premier team starts loading up with full backs.

It makes you wonder how Brazil ever won a World Cup? Surely the two aren’t mutually exclusive and it is possible to win a completion by playing attractive, attacking football? I get it that some teams don’t have that in their locker and need to grind out results, but it isn’t as if we don’t have players who can really play.

I didn’t say that I wasn’t happy with the result, or the previous results. Why would I be? I was commenting about about the way we are playing. I also think that no one will give a stuff about the way we play if we make the final, me included.

Your usual nonsense. I’d be more than happy with £1m. I’d be happier still if you stopped posting on social media 😉

Southgate has found an effective way to progress in the Euros but so far we have been one of the most boring negative teams in the competition. A tightly buttoned grey waistcoat has become a metaphor for the way we play our football.

Here’s another thing, if you play boring negative football you will also get beat but surely it is better to get knocked out trying to win than to get knocked out trying not to lose? As for the best sides, Denmark look pretty good to me.

Two great games this evening with the perfect ending. How great was that! I told Mrs SOG he would miss that. Get in!