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Been calling Maidstone "Made of Stone" lately, so expect that one to pop up somewhere on here during the 5th round (keeps me amused)

Yeah, he was happy in a drunken haze of football stats, analysis and video clips but he's miserable now

Stick with it, kidder. The week where it's us in the Prem scoring 8 in two games gets ever closer, by the decade.

Twine central (occasionally leftish) .... Bird more central?

It's like that every other home game at Plymouth this season ...

Enid Blyton wrote "Mr Meddle's Muddles" in 2009/10 about Steve Lansdown and the Coppell/David James years ....

Goal-hanger Abbey?

Tbf, until we actually do or achieve something then to clubs like yer Derbys we will always be a bit of a nothing club. It's not the most outlandish slur that could be laid at our door.

In Jane Austen's Prowed & Prejudice, Mr Bennet, facing the ignominy of his youngest daughter's disgrace with the cad Whickham, says to his favourite child Elizabeth: "For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?" which is pretty much Bristol football and this forum in a nutshell.

Good read, that. Thanks. "Data is not predestination." I like football to be, still, about the intangibles, the art as well as science of coaching or management. "Are you up for the fight, Liam?" As we are quite probably neither going up or down this season, getting all het up about results now is daft, we will get a better idea about LM after he's had a summer window and a pre-season, before the Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday kicks in and the recovery-meetings-play-recovery-meetings Klopp refers to.

What stays with me watching that is the sound of the crowd anticipating a certain goal that does not materialise: "Yeaaa-hhh .... ohhh! " Sums up 87/88, sums up the 1980s, the last 40 years ..... proper ball boys back then mind, City ski hats, kicking the ball out of the back of the net, celebrating with the players

Aye. Last time I bought the local Sunday Independent for example was 4 May 2014, I still have it in fact. And no, @Never to the dark side, you can't have it.

That was a thing of beauty, but an impossible standard to maintain.

Now, now Port Said. That's for other threads. Let's keep the focus on Ralphie ....

Outrageously gifted on the pitch, poor lad struggled off it. In his short time here he left us with a couple of memorable moments

Indeed. Another one bites the d signs for Bournemouth, and another signs and another one signs, another one's off to 'muff; hey! (Steve walks warily down the street, with the brim pulled way down low; get a few mill in for Pring, and the next one ready to go .....) Hey! Oh, bite .... sign fer 'muff, baby .....,

It depends, which emotion are you referring to? There's more than one you know (not that you'd know it, taking in a Liam Manning interview). Would the emotion of curiosity or disgust feed poor decision making? What about prowed? I thought we played quite emotionally v West Ham, not that we'd get away with ruffling the opposition's emotions like that every week in the Championship, not at Elland Road.

Not forgetting there will be Coventry fans in Coventry, too. And Liverpool "fans," wherever you go.

We often are

Count yourself blessed to feel that way, and young enough never to have encountered theseirritating little "look at us!" ***** in any real or meaningful way (ie playing them).

To paraphrase Ms Kelis: his milk floats brought all the milk, and many a Fewer, to the Mem (la la la la warm it up)

Due to rising sea levels, mate, we'll all be living cheek by jowl by then, it'll just be a case of making an announcement "would Ivan Testimitanu, Famara Dhiedhiou or Hordour Magnússon please report to the VIP entrance so's we can bring you out at half-time" over the Dolman tannoy ....

Imagine his children were starting or in school about the time he was here so stayed put for that?

Yes, every week they appear to be having a lively game at Home Park, and few problems finding the back of the net, or creating opportunities. Maybe it'll be different next season. You just wonder how we find creating opportunities and putting them away so difficult given we have been at this level for years.

It's not many goals, is it. Not a lot of "action," not in the opposition's penalty area. I notice that Plymouth, newly promoted Plymouth, have scored twice as many as us at home. You might expect Leicester or Leeds to score that many more than us, but Plymouth? Perhaps Preston and Millwall get all the way down to Devon and the sea air goes to their heads and they "bomb" forward with gaya abandon, like they never do here. I don't know. But dear me - to borrow from another thread - how bleedin hard is it (for us) to score goals? And it's not just Manning, it has been four or five seasons of largely dour football served up at Ashton Gate. It's a wonder the attendances continue to be around 20,000. In previous times, crowds would've dropped off significantly given such poor standard of attacking football.