LondonBristolian

Bit late to the thread but it has to have been a Wells goal. The whistle went before Naismith put it in the net.

On my way back to Blackburn station, a Blackburn fan spotted my shirt and amiably wandered over to tell me we were brilliant, passed superbly and throughly deserved the win. That was nice.

My guess would also be that that is the only change from midweek.

This weekend I am in Stockport. The reasoning being I have friends in Manchester, it is a base I can get to Blackburn from and there were a few places I could use h g Art Pass I was given for my birthday. I have been joking all week about how ridiculously unglamorous my destination is but, having got here, it a surprisingly nice place with a really great park, a couple of interesting Tudor buildings to explore and some air raid shelters I am off to see tomorrow. All in all, it is well worth a weekend away. But it made me wonder if it was worth having thread of tourist recommendations for surprisingly good British towns to visit. Any recommendations?

I think the major difference is that the women/girls involved didn’t have a voice, or at least not unless they said “the right things”. The music press wrote approvingly and extensively about bands likeLed Zeppelin and their teenage groupies and there were a few “superstar groupies” - some underage - who were interviewed about their exploits because it fed into the rock star Mythos but the music press of the time was focused on selling to teenage boys a dream of being a rock star and then being able to have sex wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted with whoever you wanted. There was no space for stories of women who did not like how they had been treated because the feelings of those women were pretty much irrelevant. Social media means that a woman who believes she has been raped or sexually assaulted has a space where they can say “this happened to me and this is how it affected me” and people actually hear the experiences from the other side, which is makes it far more uncomfortable to ignore.

My first away trip of the season and my first visit to Blackburn. I am expecting goals for both sides but this’ll be a test of how good we now are.

Two things I really like are 1) the consistency of strategy from the club. We’ve been told for weeks that we are only selling for the right place and only signing if players leave and the club have stuck to the strategy without panicking. 2) the character of the squad. Scott, Semenyo and Wells were the three rumoured departures and I am not worried about any of the three throwing their toys out the pram because they did not get a move.

I agree. Pearson was pretty clear in his press conference we were only selling players on our terms and part of that was time to get someone in. Plus, by all accounts, Semenyo does not come across as someone who is going to be a dick about a potential move. Theoretically we could still agree a deal with a loan back until January or Tuesday the end of the season but that kind of deal is mooted by fans far more often than it actually happens in reality. My guess is the transfer window is essentially closed from our perspective.

The fact I have such fond memories of the competition is exactly why I hate the “condescending to the lower leagues”/“bootlicking to the Premier League” mess it has become. The fans of clubs in League One and Two deserve so much better than being dragged into a training exercise for Premier League youth teams.

Back in the dark days of 2020, me and some friends in a WhatsApp group past the time with a “crest cup”. I was the only City fan involved so did not have that much influence on the result. We beat Worthing in the semis to set up a final against Swansea, who overcame Derby. The plans for the final then got so convoluted it never actually happened. Nonetheless I think Four Four Two are talking nonsense. Mind you, I think a lot of people miss the B-shaped Robin and the C-shaped ball so they are not alone… PS just read the article and realised Swansea have a far worse crest now than they did then.

Nah - even if Leicester’s crèche pull it back, being 4-0 after 12 mins will still be funny.

Three takeaways I got were: 1) He now isn’t prioritising with a central midfielder 2) we are sticking with three at the back 3) those who suspect he doesn’t rate Pring are probably right.

Both of them, presumably? Any other answer would be silly.

I have to admit I'm quite worried about Kalas. He's not played for quite some time and the uncertainty around his return makes me think it may be something that is not straight forward. It's far from clear when he'll be back, when he'll be ready to play two games a week and whether there's a risk of recurrence. I also think that we brought in our current formation around the time he got injured so he's never played with Naismith, barely played with Klose and we don't yet know how he will fit the system. I think Vyner gets some unfair flack but I do think - between his inconsistency and Kalas' fitness - that is likely to be our Achilles heel assuming no funds suddenly appear before Thursday.

It's long been rumoured but is a real loss. Him and Williams were immense together in 2019/2020 and he played a big part in keeping us above water in the early parts of last season. Best of luck to him for the future and I hope he builds a life he enjoys away from playing football.

Let's compare him to Semenyo, who is 18 months older. In 2019-20, Semenyo really struggled to make an impact on this level. By 2020-21, he was playing reasonably regularly and producing moments of excitement but was wildly inconsistent, many thought he was not good enough and he struggled to score goals. It's a massive change in a short space of time. Massengo is now around the age that Semenyo was mid-way through 20-21. He needs to be more consistent, he needs to get more goals and assists and he needs to start realising his potential but it is far too early to write him off.

It's interesting in that I feel he was under-used but I also don't think he'd fit into the current side. Hell of a cross on him and a very good player. Good luck to him in Greece.

Despite the outpourings of panic from a few posters, I think most of us knew the team was a bit better than we showed in the first two games. Since then we've found a bit of form, which is great. I don't think we've suddenly become world-beaters, and there will still be set backs, but we've found a system of playing, the defence is settled and we've got an attacking combination that works in Semenyo's absence. I think we're better than last season and I think we'll keep picking enough points to be competitive in the division but I think it important not to get carried away as that only increases the woe and hysteria after the games where, inevitably, not everything will go our way. Still, the consecutive clean sheets have a nice and unfamiliar feeling to them!

I think realistically within our resources we'd struggle to find a player who was better than Vyner but willing to play second fiddle to Kalas on the right side of the three. If we had money, I'd love us to sign a right sided Atkinson equivalent from the lower leagues who could grow into the team. But we don't so Vyner is what we've got. And right now he's taken his opportunity well.

For now, I'm just going to be pleased he seems to be knuckling down and putting the work in even though he is in the final year of his contract. Of course, you could rightly say it should be the minimum expectation but we know full well it does not always happen and it is positive that Massengo - and indeed Wells, Vyner and Bentley for that matter - seem to be in a frame of mind to give their all even amongst uncertain futures. I'd obviously love him to stay but, if he does not, I'd rather we got a good year out of him than he kicks his heels. That said, being a bit cynical, I wonder if he's realised that he's not had the level of offer he expected over the summer and that he's still got a lot to prove if he wants the sort of move he wants next summer. But I'll take that over a player downing tools.

I think what is really positive is the fact we now have options and, as a result, are less vulnerable to injuries curtailing our season Semenyo is a superb player and Weimann Semenyo Martin is a fantastic combination but Wells and Conway dovetail really well. I still think Semenyo will be a big loss if he was sold but, whereas two weeks ago it felt like that might leave us in a lot of trouble, it feels as though we have plausible alternatives.

In that case, I hope you are on your second or third.

I don’t really get the point of character witnesses in this sort of trial. If someone is accused of assaulting their partner, surely how they behave around their work colleagues or their boss is completely irrelevant as it is an entirely different dynamic? I struggle to imagine a murder trial where a defence team presented a number of people who were still alive to say they weren’t murdered by the accused and that be presented as some sort of defence and the logic feels similar…

In fairness to Leeds, their fans have made the most impressive noise I've ever heard at a football match. When they came back to draw with us from 2 down at Elland Road a few years back, it was because their supporters willed them back into the game. Admittedly I've only been to Forest at points when they've been struggling in the league but - despite the entitlement - their ground is a bit of a library.

The other thing is - and this is not aimed at Bamba, whose circumstances I know nothing about - not all footballers are good at managing money so he may or may not have money put by. If he is getting £1500 a week, that's still £78, 000 a year, which is a very good professional salary. Outside of football, he may have no obvious route for earning potential or it could be to earn a lot less than £78, 000 a year. There are way more ex-players than management, coaching or media opportunities. I don't find it surprising a footballer would take what salary they can get whilst they can.