WessexPest

Much better fans too.

Exactly - Exeter go to Ipswich in the New Year on League business for the first time since the 1950s. Ipswich, who have domestic and European honours to their name and a very nice stadium. Not the ramshackle p*sspoorial mound with its Punch and Judy pavilions and a team that got papped out of the FA Trophy in the first round. Roasters.

I told that joke to Belshaw but it went right over his head.

Everyone’s cup final…

YESSS! UTGrecians! ?

Yes, we could end up with unscrupulous buyers - if that meant success no one would care. Of course things could get worse, I’m not blind to that. But better under the current regime? Slim to no chance.

Yes, I realise there aren’t exactly a busload of wealthy buyers at hand but the Lansdown family have engineered a slow and steady malaise of our club while making some boneheaded managerial appointments. Yes, Pearson’s time is up - I don’t know what I expected from him but after two years at the helm it was certainly more than this rancid cheesewater - but why would you trust the morons at the head of our club who couldn’t organise their s*** into the pan to get it right next time? The whole rotten lot needs to go. Short term there’s no outcome other than League One football. Unacceptable but sadly the reality.

Bordering on SOD or Pulis, these remarks. Pearson’s a dead man walking. Sally forth and take the helmets who run our club with you. League One incoming.

Get rid. But, until Lansdown finds a buyer nothing is likely to get better.

It would be massively unpopular and would probably have the opposite effect to uniting the UK. Witness the outcry when a Team GB was cobbled together just for football at the Olympics. I was delighted when they lost to South Korea. The four constituent countries of the UK have been moving apart since the advent of devolution, and there’s no bunging that toothpaste back in the tube now. Forcing a combined football team to compete in WCs and the Euros would be plain daft, an outrage to the vast majority of us and thankfully, will never, ever come to pass. On a separate note, we wave goodbye this week to the tense final group matchday where four teams simultaneously decide their fate (and each others’). The 48-team World Cup means teams will contrive results - those of us old enough remember the “Disgrace of Gijon” in 82. 32 teams is optimal for the tournament - not only do exactly half of teams get eliminated at every stage of the competition, but it’s pretty obvious when you get to that number you’re starting to see teams of very dubious quality. There will be a lot of dross in 2026, but you know how FIFA operate - if ain’t broke, pour some petrol on it and light a match.

Thanks for i. The Laugh ii. Reminding me why I wholeheartedly embrace my baldness.

Sort of. Everyone in Great Britain is of mixed genetic stock, though. The Welsh didnt sprout out of the ground from the Rhonda and were “comeovers” themselves albeit earlier (I think from Azerbaijan). The Scotti hopped over from the Emerald Isle and absorbed the Picts. The “native” population of the island is a blend of Romano-British, Saxon, Angle, Norman, Jute, Viking.

Indeed. Centuries of being a nation. Unlike Italy and Germany which are relatively very recent constructs.

It’s just the typical, hackneyed “brave plucky Celts” trope that is always trotted out. That and “gave their all” - by no stretch of the imagination could you say Wales showed pride at this WC or even gave their all. They were dreadful. Euro 2016 they did superbly well but here? No. A better example, I think, would be the Faroe Islands - clearly a proud nation distinct from Denmark but not with complete sovereignty. Yugoslavia and USSR obviously competed under one banner. I’d never support a United UK team and I suspect the overwhelming majority of football fans in the four Home Nations would concur. To me, as unpalatable as us merging with the Rent Boys from the P*sspoorial Mound to form Bristol United. Would it make us more successful? Arguably. Would that be a price worth paying? Absolutely not.

Desperately trying to prove how Welsh he is. Kieffer Moore couldn’t knock out a w**k.

Definitely not to be taken lightly but England never beat one of the top nations (I’d include Netherlands in that bracket, three times finalists) away from Wembley and I wouldn’t be confident of breaking that habit. True, the Dutch haven’t ripped up trees but they are a much better side than what we’ve faced so far. When we’ve played less fancied countries in knockout games at the WC (Paraguay, Ecuador, Denmark, Cameroon, Colombia, Sweden) we usually find a way to go through.

Have some of that, you toilet-wrecking troglodytes. So ashamed by that performance they’ll want to change their team name after this. This aged exceptionally well…

Are those for sweeping all of Joey’s indiscretions under the carpet?

Remember - it’s all the other clubs who have missed out, because: dA gAS aRE eVERYONE’s cUP fINAL!!!

Yes - there does seem to be a dearth of “romantic” ties in recent years and the Prem team tends to get drawn at home. another underwhelming tie for City, quelle surprise. To call that a “Derby” is a bit of a stretch. True, we disike one another but neither are each team’s main rival - not sure if put hem in the top three. Sadly after the antics of their brainless fans in the league game we’re going to have to give them a bigger allocation for this one per cup rules. They’d better not play up again.

FAKE Fanta News…

How many indecent Gas loserz?

Along with their FA Trophy First Round Runners Up Trophy and Blue Square Premier 12-yard Kicks Lottery Vase…

Wired in? Which cowboy outfit did they use? Same one that put in the pathetic Gas shower that was improved by installation of Bath?