Steve Watts

That, and the cat they've sacrificed and hidden underneath the stocking.

I think the keyword there is "offered" not "required". If WHam decide to give us more then I'm sure the club will take this. As someone else said though all it takes is for one STH to buy their seat to make the block unavailable to us - unless they relocate them after purchase, which is highly unlikely.

A few still popping up here and there - probably being released from unchecked out baskets I imagine.

Must've been on the same coach as me for Orient. Funnily enough the coach driver got lost, so followed a coach full of red and white, only to find out it was Man Utd fans when we turned up at, yep, Upton Park!

This has probably been mentioned, but I do like how the booking fee on kids tickets is more than the cost of the ticket itself!!!!

Hoodies look decent quality as well. Of course, if the club were to stock them they'd charge about £65 for those!

We had no stock before last Christmas either, but that was down to the supplier and kit manufacturer. Thankfully we've changed that so shouldn't see such an issue this year... Oh...wait....sorry, as you were.

There are big numbers.....there is a total of 1 people who identify as a cat. Now I'm sure you'd agree that is a big number I've used there!

The kid in red? I was stood next to the idiots who started the "Who's the fatty in the red". I called the ringleader out for it. "You can't be shouting that a kid. FFS" The response was "it's just ******* banter mate lighten up". They were knobs for most of the match with one of them shoving a steward when he approached them to stop them vaping. They clearly have an issue with stewarding as he went down to the front and nothing more was done.

The kid in red?

Of course I wasn't offended, ya wally! T'was just playing with the words. However I do disagree that that specific tactic won us the game. The first 30 mins we would receive the ball and almost immediately turn to face our own goal. We won the game when we started taking it to them. Started the second half in much the same way as we started the first and we lost a 2 goal lead within 7 mins. Their equaliser was a fantastic example. Playing the ball about the defence thereby inviting pressure, Tanner received the ball, looked one way (backwards) and was dispossessed. When we took the game to Boro again we won it. Anyway, that's for another thread. I would imagine that the "taking one for the team" offences would be the type of thing that would be covered by a sin bin. Pulling a shirt to stop a breakaway when too many men have been committed forwards for example.

Too much backwards passing? I was offended by that specific tactic on Saturday....

Kids sizes are all over the place. The sizing is weird as hell. 7-8. 8-9,9-10,10-11, 12-13, 13-14.... Where's the 11-12 range? Just randomly miss it out, why don't you! And have a guess where my lad fits into that sizing range! It's possible that in store stock may be better. but as I've always got my lad with me it'd kinda ruin the surprise on Christmas Day. It just seems to be a same person, different hat situation. Last season I struggled to get stuff for Christmas, and now am looking at a repeat of the same this year. Circumstances stopped me from getting it in early this year, but I'll have to start getting stuff whenever it comes out next season to avoid more of the same. So bloody frustrating, as Christmas should be a massive influx of money for the club and every year it's the same!

If someone could raise kit suppliers that'd be grand. We left Hummel because of supply issues and now we find ourselves with a massive shortage of stock in the run up to Christmas, especially online. What is being done about that? (An explanation of the thinking behind the Splat would also be great!)

This is it, 100%. And as always certain poster/s drop in and provide their pearls of "wisdom"!

It's bizarre enough that it could've been an NTTDS thread to be honest!

Because we were talking about footballers and he doesn't qualify as such.... Bas was in the so bad he was good category

I don't think it shows how sensitive we've become at all. Enlightened, maybe, but not sensitive. We're living in an age now where people are happy to call out shit like that for what it is. Bullying and massively disrespectful. There's just no need for it. Obviously there are also still plenty of throwbacks who like to throw the word snowflake around to anyone who would want to call out people for being dicks. Many of these hark back to the seventies as the "good old days". I was born at the tail end so don't remember any of the decade and am told that the 80's were far tamer than the seventies. If that's the case I'm glad to have been born at the end of the decade! Times have indeed changed, and mostly for the better. Society is more tolerant, but that's countered by social media giving a global voice to all and as always, the negative shout louder.

Thought this might refer to us and our penalty conspiracy but it doesn't line up with when we were sponsored by that random betting firm! But seriously..... As a coach at grassroots level, I get really disappointed to see the stuff that goes on, and some of that comes from the opposition coaches! @Silvio Dante and I teach the kids to respect the referee and hush them up if they start moaning at them. Naturally we call for decisions, but that's it. If it's not given it's not given. No amount of bitching is going to change their minds. Many of these referees are kids themselves and the stick they get is awful, especially given their age. As other coaches on here will know, parents tend to mysteriously get a phone call when we head in their general direction with a flag, leaving us to run the line. This exposes us to the parents of both teams for one half. Several times I've turned around to parents to tell them to get off the referees back unless they want to pick up a whistle themselves, but that shouldn't be necessary. One match this season, the opposition players (under 12's, mind!) were bitching and moaning all through the match, but you could see exactly where they were getting it from as the coaches were doing the same, often straying 5/10 yards onto the pitch to remonstrate a decision. Change needs to happen across all levels and all types of participant though whether it be coaches, players or spectators. As an addendum and bit of advice to other coaches, we seem to have finally cracked the flag duties problem, by asking for two volunteers to do a half each on rotation. When they know they can concentrate on what their kids are doing for half the match it makes them far more agreeable to doing it every few matches. The hypocrisy is not lost on me though that Silv & I can't solely focus on our own kids at all because we're keeping an eye of all of their kids as a team, but we'll take the win where we can!

Ffs Dave.... don't come at me with logic!

Still struggling with the concept of pillars in a 21st century built stand!

The craziness being that if the offence happened a yard further forward it wouldn't even have been a foul as we all know there's no way we're being given a penalty unless he's shanked by every member of the opposing team, including the coaching staff! That's the inconsistency that bugs me. If a defender brings a player down with the keeper still in position it's a red. If a keeper brings a player down but there's a covering defender it tends not to be, in my experience. (Though I may be imagining things there) I like the second highlighted paragraph. Denied by a handball offence wherever it occurs (except a goalkeeper within their penalty area)....why the bit in brackets when referring to handball offences?!? Clearly if the keeper is in the area there is no offence if he handles it! It's like they go out of their way to make things ambiguous!

Do the questions need to be submitted beforehand? (In crayons, obviously) I'd love to hear the reason behind the splat, especially as the template was on page 1 of Google images. Seems both pointless and lazy.

And I can find no record of this anywhere to offer an explanation!

Well the answer to that conundrum is to get Nakhi fit. He (especially) and Williams are both big misses for us at the moment. I've said it before, but a front three of Wells, Bell and Conway would be a defenders nightmare.