The Swan and Cemetery

Decent pub quiz question would be: name the grounds with a capacity bigger than the population of where they’re located? Ross County can accommodate all of Dingwall. No idea if there are others.

Plus some quality time in a “pub league”.

Plymouth have never been in the top flight. Over their full history PNE’s honours way ahead of others, but lots of it relatively dim and distant, so guess not necessarily bigger than us/others.

Luton definitely have more exciting times than us: Division One after we were last there and now back in the top tier, won the league cup, 30 point deduction and non league. My optimistic side holds onto the fact that at least another team that was in non league football in last decade, with a ramshackle ground (apologies to Kenilworth Road for the comparison), isn’t showing signs of getting to the Prem anytime soon.

Whilst they’re not the most popular team on here, personally don’t mind them and think there’s something strangely wonderful about this vs the standard issue stadia of recent times:

We could have a whole new list of Leeds (either transferred from them/to them or played for them at some point - quite a broad criteria admittedly, but feel as if we’ve had more Leeds connections than we have with most other teams?): Shaw, Gavin, Rennie, Jordan, Hunter, Shutt, Taylor, Cooper, Baird, Ayling etc.

Not saying it’s all down to the supporters, but 10th in the home table (12 points more than Everton) vs bottom in the away table (8 points fewer than Everton), does indicate they’ve played a decent part in keeping Forest up and how the right atmosphere can help a team.

Southampton x 1 (as a sub).

Edited above.

Still the only player to have played in all four divisions of both England and Scotland?

Mark Gavin.

Nothing offensive about that opinion, but is equally easy to argue the other way: coming home and feeling more comfortable allows him to give his best (endless tales of homesick footballers for whom a distant club doesn’t work out), he wants to impress friends and family who are at every game, inspired to help his first/hometown club get to the hallowed land etc. Clearly may not work out that way, but personally see it as more plausible than the easy life argument.

Rennie/Shelton blend with subtle notes of Wimbleton. Possibly.

Agree, think they’re a decent watch, hardly the Crazy Gang in their pomp. Not sure VAR in the final is an obvious problem for them either, they’re allowed to adapt to circumstances.

And if just reasonably likely he’ll be off, he won’t get another chance to say goodbye, so might as well today. Doubt many will be livid if he pops up at the Old Cothamians 3rds community game in July having signed a new contract - “Scotty’s a ******, he said his goodbyes”.

- Luton (just wonder if Sunderland had their fill of wonder goals today and will run out of steam) - Bolton - Bradford - Notts County avoid all the above and your chances of winning a few bob will have increased significantly.

Last season 81st minute onwards we were GF 12 GA 15, this season GF 5 GA 5. Whilst some of that will be down to game situations and would be great if we’d scored as many as last season, think it points to improved resilience, both physical and mental, which hopefully we continue to build on into next season. If we can, then rather than converting losses into draws (4 more draws this season than last), we can move some draws into the wins column and get the 2 point benefit of doing so, as per Blackburn.

Agree with all the positive comments, we’ve made huge progress through difficult circumstances, improving in pretty much all areas whilst sorting finances and culture. Transfer window clearly key - rough and ready calcs suggest a plausible first team squad of 22 (including Harvey, but not everyone with a squad number), of whom 6 might well not start next season: Benarous, Kalas, Dasilva, King, Scott and Wilson. Whilst getting 3 in early will be great, think we’ll need more than that unless NP, BT and co are very confident in more academy lads breaking through. Maybe Kalas stays (good), Wilson makes the progress necessary and King can still do a job here and there, but on the face of it, 3 in feels light. Therefore hopefully some action later in the window as well. Guess initial 3 might be via Semenyo money and leavers freeing up wages, later in the window reliant on Scott money?

And only 10 points from a chance of promotion vs 15 points above definite relegation.

Whereas the Premier League looks likely to be won by a real outsider…

Less than a week to the final seems a bit harsh in terms of organising ticket sales and transport. Rail strikes will make it trickier as well. Good that two decent sized clubs will be coming up from non league this year - all for a competitive pyramid structure, but I’m more Notts County than Sutton.

Solid as in 1st team at (eg) Rotherham, not leading the line for Burnley. Not sure they would be folk who’d bust budgets, particularly if out of contract.

Fair play to Rotherham, relegated straight back down the last 2 times they’ve come up to the Championship (and then immediately promoted again). Despite that yo-yo-ing they’re a pretty consistent team, since 2013/14 their finishing positions in the league pyramid have been: 48, 41, 41, 44, 48, 42, 46, 43, 46 and this season 39th with a game to go. Whilst some teams just improve or get worse over time, whether or not you get the thrills and spills of regular promotion and relegation, can be down just to whether your ‘reversion to the mean’ falls mid table (us in recent times) or closer to the bottom/top of a league.

Think we need some relatively dull, but important additions. Aka solid Championship, oven ready, aged 25 to 30-ish. Given the costs of top notch game changers, think the route to a great attacking midfielder or 20+ a season goal scorer needs be from the academy, lower leagues or Prem loans (I’m sceptical of the latter, given costs and costs of replacing once they’ve gone). But if we’re going for it next season (sensible going for it, not ruin the future going for it) then we need players who can hit the ground running from day 1 and lower league transfers tend to need time to get up to speed/fitness and academy is a big leap, with obvious exceptions. So 2 or 3 decent, but won’t be extraordinary - why would they come to us, Championship players feels like sensible use of a chunk of the AS money (assuming it happens). Goalkeeper, defence and central midfield would be my priority areas to add depth… so basically everything apart from attack, where hope our existing players can be coached to be a bit more effective. Concede 5 fewer and score 5 more and we could be there or thereabouts.

Totally agree that being 3rd with Luton’s for/against would be great, but feels to me like a more significant rebuild to get to well below 1 GA per game, vs a bit more success in attack. But will happily take either (or both!).