Jerseybean

Wow that post represents hours of research and work, credit where it’s due. The one from Erimus74

A German female referee gave a red card to Turkish player, Karim Demirbay. On his way off the pitch he looked at her and told her ‘you should stick to the kitchen’. The referee wrote that in her report and FIFA ruled that he would be suspended for 5 matches and as part of his suspension he would officiate one women’s football match. While refereeing the match he issued 8 red cards to 8 different female players. When asked why he did that, he replied: ‘women should remain in the kitchen!’ Oh boy, this guy is really stubborn!

Happy Easter fellow-Reds. Easter quiz 1. How many Easter eggs are sold in the UK every year? 2. Which country started the tradition of the Easter bunny? 3. In Switzerland, what animal delivers Easter eggs to children? 4. What popular game is traditionally played at Easter? 5. Where is Easter Island located? 6. Where was the UK's first Easter egg produced? 7. Where did the world's largest Easter egg hunt take place? 8. What dance traditionally takes place at Easter? The game is on Sky from 5:15 with kick off at 5:30. On 15 February 2022 their opening MDT for this corresponding game included: ‘The team formerly known as Bristol South End haven’t got much to play for at the moment. They’re 17 points above the relegation places and 12 behind us, with ten teams separating us in the table. It’s a bit early to break out the deckchairs down by the Avon, but their indifferent form hints at a team playing with little incentive beyond professional pride. They’ve recently lost to Swansea but they did beat Reading, which is cheering for those of us who’d like to see Reading consigned to the wastelands of League One for consistently spending more than twice their turnover on wages.’ We won that game 2-1. In some ways it’s a similar story again and let’s hope it again ends with us winning. We drew 1-1 at theirs back in November when Max O’Leary was superb: https://www.mfc.co.uk/news/2022/november/06/highlights--boro-1-bristol-city-1/ At the Riverside we allowed Howson too much time and space so need to prevent him influencing this game. They have won three, lost two and drawn one of their last six games. Last Saturday they were beaten 4-2 by Huddersfield and on Good Friday they lost 2-1 at home against Burnley. Nigel Pearson has almost ruled Kal Naismith out for this one, and Tomas Kalas and Alex Scott are certainly out of this fixture as he errs on the side of caution with their recoveries. We will also need to see if Omar and Tommy are available as both picked up knocks last time out. NP: Referee is Tim Robinson, linos Craig Taylor and Jonathan Hunt and the fourth official Andy Woolmer. On 24 October 2022, Michael Carrick was appointed as their head coach. Middlesbrough were 21st in the EFL Championship at the time, with 17 points from 16 games, just one point above the relegation zone. Now they are fourth with 67 points. He has had a huge impact as one of their fans said, ‘from the moment Carrick took over, I can honestly say this is the best I've ever seen Middlesbrough play. I go to every match now expecting Middlesbrough to not just score, but to score multiple goals, which is practically unheard of for a Middlesbrough side this century.’ Unsurprisingly, he’s been linked with Premiership clubs, including West Ham, who media reports claim could target the former Hammer if they sack David Moyes. Carrick remained at Manchester United after retirement, having been handed a position on José Mourinho's coaching staff. When Mourinho was sacked by United on 18 December 2018, Carrick briefly became caretaker manager, prior to the appointment of another former United player Ole Gunnar Solskjær whoretained Carrick as part of his coaching staff. On 21 November 2021, after Ole Gunnar Solskjær left his role as manager, Carrick was named caretaker manager. During his three match reign as caretaker manager, he recorded two wins and one draw. Since our first match against them in 1901, we've played each other 86 times, we have won 28, drawn 23 and lost 35 times. Our last 10 matches against them have seen 4 City wins, 2 draws and 4 defeats. Players who have worn the shirt of both teams include Albert Adomah, Neil Maddison, Lee Tomlin, Tomas Kalas, Gary O'Neil, Leroy Lita, Matthew Bates and Andre Bikey. Of course NP once captained Boro, manager Bryan Robson signed him for £750,000 in 1994. Pearson captained them to promotion twice and to three domestic cup finals. Pearson retired from playing in 1998. After losing out on the managerial role at his former club Middlesbrough to Garry Monk, Pearson was appointed as the manager of Belgian First Division B side Oud-Heverlee Leuven on 22 September 2017. He was sacked on 3 February 2019. Recently their captain Jonny Howson signed a new contract with the club. Howson signed a one-year extension to his deal that was due to expire this summer. The midfielder will turn 35 in May but is as important as he's ever been for Boro and has started all but one of the 22 Championship games since Carrick took charge. Famous fans James Arthur Middlesbrough born-and-bred, Arthur came from nowhere to win the 2012 series of former ITV show The X Factor and immediately thrust himself into super-stardom. Bob Mortimer Another famous face to be born in the town, Mortimer has been a Boro supporter for all of his life. He's best known for his comedic partnership with Vic Reeves, presenting shows such as Shooting Stars and he continues to appear on television shows to this day. Chris Rea A chart-topping singer with two number one albums, Rea is another one of Middlesbrough's famous sons and even re-recorded his 'Let's Dance' song in 1997 for the football club. He is best known for his 'Driving Home For Christmas' tune which despite only reaching 10th in the UK charts is known around the world. Mark Benton Born in nearby Guisborough, Benton has started in British shows such as Early Doors, Northern Lights and Waterloo Road during his acting career. Chris Kamara Another famous son of Teesside, Kamara was born and grew up in Boro and is known to be close friends with the club's owner Steve Gibson having grown up with the businessman in their youth. Both would attend matches together but despite becoming a good footballer, he would never go on to play for his hometown and boyhood club, although he still supports them to this very day. Glen Durrant Perhaps the most vocal on this list about his love for the Boro, Durrant is a darts champion having lifted the BDO World Championship three times in a row between 2017 and 2019. Answers 1. 80 million 2. Germany 3. The Easter Cuckoo (bird) 4. An Easter egg hunt 5. The Southeast Pacific 6. The UK's first chocolate egg was produced in Bristol in 1873, by J.S. Fry and Sons 7. Florida 8. Morris dancing

Story with a lesson for life. Ignore the labels other people give you! During a prank, a student stuck a paper on his classmate's back that said "?'? ??????", and asked the rest of the class not to tell the boy. As a result, the students began laughing on and off... In the afternoon the maths class started and their teacher wrote a difficult question on the board. No one was able to answer it except the boy with the sticker. Amid the unexplained giggles, he walked toward the board and solved the problem. The teacher asked the class to clap for him and she removed the paper on his back. She told him: "It seems that you don’t know about the paper your classmate has stuck on your back." Then the teacher looked at the rest of the class and said: “Let me tell you 2 things about Life: First, throughout your Life, people will put labels on you with many nasty words to stop your progress. If your classmate known about the paper, he wouldn't have gotten up to answer the question. ??? ??? ???? ?? ?? ?? ???? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ????? ????? ??????????? ??? ???? ?? ?????, ???? ??? ??????? ????????." "Second, it’s clear that he doesn't have any loyal friend among you all to tell him about the sticker. It doesn't matter how many friends you have - it is the loyalty you share with your friends that matters. ?? ??? ???'? ???? ??????? ??? ??? ?????? ??? ?????? ???? ????, ??? ??? ????? ???? ???, ??????? ??? ??? ??? ????????? ???? ????? ???, ??? ??? ?????? ??? ?????." Ignore the labels others give you.

Player ratings https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/bristol-city-player-ratings-stoke-8333904?utm_source=bristol_live_newsletter&utm_campaign=bcfc_newsletter2&utm_medium=email

Post-match comments from NP and AM https://fb.watch/jM4ZPNlOaU/ https://fb.watch/jM4_UA_wiC/

Me too, but delighted by the result and second half performance. Last season we beat ‘em at their place with an 84 minute goal, this season it was with an 85 minute goal…….

Delighted by that scoreline and our second half performance, a game of two halves for me and won our half much better than they won theirs! Really great vocal support throughout, well played the traveling fans. Our record away at Stoke is actually very impressive.

Sorry CR posted at the same time

Conway replaced by Cornick

First half thoughts We started poorly, consistently giving the ball away and inviting pressure Wells should have put us in front DaSilva has looked good Stoke given far too much space = 1-0 Overall the HT scoreline reflects the balance of play, Stoke on top for most of the half and although we’ve worked hard we haven’t created much Ref very lenient Lets hope for a big improvement in the second half

Thanks R f A and oops, I like to include the odd deliberate mistake to be sure everybody is paying attention. Bill, who gets mentioned, is in Oz and has just messaged me ‘Hope you don't have a Good Friday.’ I have a bad vibe about todays game hope I’m wrong.

Alex Neil presser: https://www.stokecityfc.com/news/2023/april/06/press-conference-bristol-city/

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65199597 Been confirmed that FL is it until the end of the season

The last time Stoke did the double over us was the 2000/2001 season. Nigel Pearson was their assistant manager!

Good day fellow-reds. To get things off to a topical start here’s a Good Friday quiz: 1. On which date was the first ever Good Friday celebrated? a. Friday, April 30th, 12 A.D b. Friday, April 5th, 30 A.D c. Friday, April 3rd, 30 A.D d. Friday, April 3rd, 33 A.D 2. How many times do Church bells toll around the world during Good Friday? a. 26 b. 30 c. 33 d. 36 3. In German-speaking countries, Good Friday is often referred to as Karfreitag which means what in German? a. Great Friday b. Holy Friday c. Mourning Friday d. Death Friday 4. What is the day before Good Friday known as? a. Maundy Thursday b. Good Thursday c. Divine Thursday d. Easter Thursday 5. Why is Good Friday also referred to as “Black Friday”? a. It was the day Lucifer (Satan) fell from the Heavens into Hell b. It was the day Jesus Christ was crucified and died at the cavalry. c. It was the first ever shopping sale ever recorded in history d. The sun never rose that day There will be no pay on the day tickets available for travelling supporters at the bet365 Stadium on Friday. Over 1,000 supporters are set to travel to Staffordshire for the fixture. A poor performance at our place just before Christmas gifted them a 2-1 victory. We were sunk by goals from Liam Delap and Jacob Brown either side of half-time as Nahki Wells' opener came to nothing against the Potters. Highlights : Officials are Oliver Langford with the whistle, assisted by Mark Stevens and Hristo Karaivanov the fourth official is James Bell. Mark Sykes will be the guest commentator for Robins TV global coverage of the game. My mate Bill who is a Stoke fan offered his thoughts: ‘When we played you at Ashton Gate in December Stoke were a team plummeting to league one, we were conceding early goals and losing. In the previous six games we had scored seven goals and conceded 11, and were averaging a point a game, true relegation form. Fast forward four months and we are a team on a charge. In our last five games we have scored 13 goals and conceded just four. We have beaten both Sunderland and Coventry by four goals, (playing away,) drawn with Middlesbrough and Norwich and beaten Blackburn Rovers. YE HA. So we are a team transformed. We average over two points per game; promotion form. How did that happen? Well in the January transfer window we sold Harry Souttar to Leicester for £15 million and then invested some of it in loans. The outstanding full back Hoever from Wolves, (he's already scored four goals,) Ben Pearson from Bournemouth who is a faster Glenn Whelan but equally bloody-minded defensive midfielder. We also have defenders Dujon Stirling from Chelsea and Axel Tuanzebe from Man Utd, who have stiffened our team. Add them to Will Smallbone on a season long loan from Southampton who has developed into a clever, athletic and goal scoring central midfielder, we are, as Alex Neil acknowledged on Saturday, "a very well balanced, complete package." Given that we beat Reading 4-0 in late January with the prototype of our current team, you could well be in for a drubbing, let's just say that it looks as though it's got 4-0 written all over it.’ Last weekend they blew Coventry away winning 4-0 away, https://www.stokecityfc.com/news/2023/april/02/extended-highlights-coventry-city/ a result which Stoke brought Coventry City's nine-game unbeaten run to an abrupt end. Of note of the 16 Stoke players who played on Saturday only five are contracted to Stoke for next season. Omar Taylor-Clarke met the media ahead of the game: They have lost 1, drawn 2 and won 3 of their last 6 games and have scored 13 times, and are fifth in the recent form league table. We have won on our last four visits to their place, however, we have failed to score in our last four away games, losing three and drawing one. Matija Sarkic, Emre Tezgel and Nathan Lowe are all in the treatment room and aren't expected to play a part. We will be without Kal Naismith, Tomas Kalas and Alex Scott. On deadline day Leicester agreed a fee of £15m plus £5m in add-ons with Stoke to sign Australian defender Harry Souttar. In some respects I’d suggest they are in a similar situation to us, having been sorting out a financial car crash, getting rid of players and changing the culture, Alex Neil is certainly starting to make some head way after a difficult and disappointing season, they have been in decent form this year. Their fans seem to be looking forward to next season and are keen for some of their on loan players to sign permanently. It’s also interesting to consider their approach on loans. NP pre-match: Potted history of the Potters Stoke City are one of the oldest English football teams. They began as Stoke Ramblers, but have been known as Stoke City since 1925. One of the best periods for the club was between 1933 and 1953, they played in the top division and managed to reach fourth place twice. They have also a Football League Cup victory from 1972 and would reach the FA Cup final for the first time in 2011. Despite a lack of success Stoke have had a number of famous players over the years such as Stanley Matthews, Gordon Banks, Jimmy Greenhoff and Denis Smith. Stoke City's record appearance-maker is Eric Skeels who made 596 appearances between 1959 and 1976. There top senior goalscorer is John Ritchie with 176 goals. Owner and managers In 1986, Peter Coates became majority shareholder at Stoke City and was appointed chairman in September 1986 taking over from Sandy Clubb. The club had been through a tough period with poor finances and a humiliating relegation in 1984–85. Coates backed Mick Mills in 1986–87 for a promotion push but they fell short and Mills had to sell players before making additions. In preparation for the 1989–90 season Stoke spent a combined £1million on new players with a then club record of £480,000 for Ian Cranson. However results were appalling and the team finished bottom of the table and fell into the third tier. In 1990 the Stoke City board consisted of six directors and it was agreed that a new share issue was needed, with the majority wanting the supporters to be free to purchase. Following disagreements regarding this share issue, several board members left and the board then consisted of Peter Coates, Keith Humphreys and David Edwards. Coates appointed Lou Macari for the 1991–92 season and he guided the club to the Second Division title and victory in the 1992 Associate Members' Cup Final. Supporters were dismayed with the board after Mark Stein was sold to Chelsea in October 1993 for £1.4 million and shortly after Macari left to join Celtic. Macari returned to Stoke the following season and the side nearly gained promotion in 1995–96 losing to Leicester City in the play-offs. The board decided to move to a new all-seater-stadium following the 1996–97 season after deciding it would be too costly to upgrade the Victoria Ground to meet the Taylor Report. The first season at the new Britannia Stadium was a disaster for the club as unexpectedly Macari left and was replaced by his assistant Chic Bates. Coates was coming in for a lot of criticism from supporters for his lack of spending and after a embarrassing 7–0 defeat at home to Birmingham City on 10 January 1998 around 2,000 angry supporters invaded the pitch at full-time and some attempted to enter the directors box. After more fan protests Coates resigned as chairman although he remained a majority shareholder, whilst Keith Humphreys was appointed chairman as Stoke were relegated to the Second Division. In 1999, a group of Icelandic businessmen formed a consortium to buy the club led by Gunnar Gíslason. The consortium Stoke Holding paid around £3.5 million. The deal was completed on 15 November 1999. The Icelandic consortium eventually took Stoke back to the First Division via the play-offs in 2002 and consolidated the club in mid-table but were unable to mount a promotion attempt. The consortium made one last effort to gain promotion in the 2005–06 season after sacking Tony Pulis and replacing him with Johan Boskamp. He brought in a large number of foreign players and ultimately only managed a mid-table finish and the owners left at the end of the season. The Coates family through a bet365 subsidiary company completed the purchase of Stoke City F.C. for £1.7 million. Coates later stated the Icelandic consortium had left the club in a "mess" with debts of around £9 million. Coates re-appointed Tony Pulis as manager ahead of the 2006–07 season and the team almost made it to the play-offs. They did achieve promotion to the Premier League in 2007–08 finishing in 2nd place. Stoke secured survival in 2008–09 despite being favorites for relegation. Stoke broke their transfer record in August 2010, paying Sunderland £8 million for Kenwyne Jones. They reached their first FA Cup Final in 2010–11, losing 1–0 to Manchester City. Stoke again broke their transfer record in 2011–12 spending £10 million on Peter Crouch. Supporters began to get frustrated with the style of football played under Pulis in 2012–13 and so Coates replaced him with Mark Hughes. The style of football improved under Hughes and Stoke enjoyed a good period finishing ninth three seasons running in 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16. Problems began to emerge however as Hughes began to move on the longer serving players and replace them with his own with £18 million spent on Giannelli Imbula in February 2015 and Kevin Wimmer in August 2017 with both making little impact of the team. Coates came in for criticism from supporters in December 2017 with the team in deep relegation trouble and pressure mounting on Hughes, He dismissed the fans concerns with— "I don’t know what all the fuss is about". He sacked Hughes soon after and replaced him with Paul Lambert who was unable to keep Stoke in the Premier League. Gary Rowett was appointed manager going into the 2018–19 season and despite spending over £30 million on new players he was unable to mount a promotion bid and was sacked in January 2019 and replaced with Nathan Jones. Stoke made a poor start to the 2019–20 season and were cut adrift at the bottom of the table by November before Jones was dismissed. Northern Ireland manager Michael O'Neill was brought in and he was able to guide Stoke to Championship survival. In September 2020 his son John Coates was appointed as joint-chairman. On 28 August 2022, Neil was appointed as the new manager of Stoke City, after the dismissal of Michael O'Neill. Stoke stuff Sir Stanley Matthews never ate the crusts of bread - he always cut them off. So who knows, kids, if you stop eating your crusts then perhaps you too could become a world-class footballer. The Stoke City squad once included a vicar in midfield. Father Elijah Smith took off his cassock to play for the Potters in the 1880s. The half-back, who was in charge of a church in Stoke, starred in the club's first ever league win, over Notts County – but he didn't bless the team with much luck on their travels. The vicar started 12 away league games and lost 11. Neil Morrissey grew up in a children's home in Penkhull, but did you know that's where his tattoos originate from too? He has reportedly said that other children at the home threatened to beat him up if he didn't agree to 'being inked', and that he now regrets not opting for the beating. The tiles on the floor of the Houses of Parliament were made in Stoke-on-Trent, by Minton. Robbie Williams is the most famous pop star to hail from the city. Many of his songs refer to Stoke-on-Trent, either directly or indirectly. These include "It's Only Us", "Burslem Normals", "The 80's" and the spoken introduction to his duet with Jonathan Wilkes of the song "Me and My Shadow". The song "Angels" was partly inspired by the golden angel at Burslem Town Hall. In 2015, three streets in a new housing estate in Middleport were named after Williams' hit songs: Supreme Street, Candy Lane and Angels Way. Staffordshire oatcakes (very different from the Scottish version and traditionally made in corner-shop style oatcake bakeries) are a much-loved local culinary speciality. They remain popular although are no longer the cheap alternative to bread. Stoke-on-Trent is the smallest city to boast two professional clubs in the English Football League. The club bearing the area's name is Stoke City. The city's other professional football club is Port Vale, who were formed in 1876. Pubs Power League Sports Club, Dennis Viollet Avenue, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 4TN Harvester - Trentham Lakes, Trentham Lakes District Centre, Stanley Matthews Way, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 4TL, https://www.harvester.co.uk/restaurants/eastandwestmidlands/harvestertrenthamlakesstokeontrent#/ The Poacher's Cottage, Stone Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 8AA, https://www.facebook.com/HarvesterPoachersCottage/ The Plough, Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 4EN, https://hotelescon.com.es/The-Plough-Motel/ The Gardeners Retreat, 6 Sideway Rd, Boothen Green, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 4BJ, https://the-gardeners-retreat.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral The Terrace,185 Leek Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2BW, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100072011134582 Bulls Head, St Johns Square, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST6 3AJ, (01782) 834153, www.titanicbrewery.co.uk Old-fashioned two-room tap for Titanic with up to ten real ales (including guests) from horseshoe bar, also good selection of Belgian beers, real ciders and wines; well cared-for interior with varnished tables on wood or carpeted floors, coal fire; monthly live folk music, bar billiards and table skittles; drinking area outside (may be barbecue if Port Vale are at home), open all day Fri-Sun, closed till 3pm other days. Glebe, 35 Glebe Street, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 1HG, (01782) 860670, www.joulesbrewery.co.uk/our-taphouses/our-pub-list/glebe Well restored 19th-c Joules corner pub, their ales, Weston's cider and good reasonably priced wines from central mahogany counter, William Morris-attributed leaded windows, bare boards and panelling, some civic portraits and big fireplace with coat of arms above, wholesome bar food (not Sun) and all-day deli counter, friendly staff; live music Tues, open mike Thurs; children and dogs welcome, benches in small garden, quite handy for station, closed Mon evening, otherwise open all day. Holy Inadequate, 67 Etruria Old Road, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST1 5PE, 07771 358238. Drinkers' pub with five well kept ales including Joules Pale and maybe one from on-site microbrewery, good range of British craft kegs, German lagers and lots of bottled beers, snacky food such as pies and scotch eggs, friendly staff; dogs welcome, outdoor covered terrace, open all day Fri-Sun, from 4pm other days. This is a good area for decent beers. Quiz answers 1. d. Friday, April 3rd, 33 A.D 2. c. 33 3. c. Mourning Friday 4. a. Maundy Thursday 5. b. It was the day Jesus Christ was crucified and died at the cavalry.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65196241

As he was 59 by the time his ban was lifted, he was never involved in football again.

As per the title! https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/sports/seamus-power-hits-consecutive-holes-in-one-at-masters-par-3-contest/3231111/

NP makes his position clear ? https://www.bristolworld.com/sport/football/bristol-city/ship-has-sailed-bristol-city-boss-dismisses-links-with-leicester-city-job-4093929?fbclid=IwAR2dL3aHJmB2tebGiS_kFK7Gm7ebVAS6Br945GirgjoZz8f4Ixk-eVOZ5Rw

In other news ref gets a twelve match ban for kneeing someone! https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/65183032