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As of yesterday, there were only a limited number of restricted view seats available for tomorrow and I imagine those would have sold out now. I personally think our numbers have been decent so far, with the two caveats being Hull and Rotherham on a Friday and Wednesday, and both being on Sky. The next few away games have either sold out or will sell out, too; I expect the next low turnout to be at Huddersfield, closely followed by Blackburn, in December.

If you want to pick hairs, you are right

Jordan knows it, most of us know it, the Lansdowns know it. Two decades on and they still don’t have a clue.

Yes, I thought that was obvious!

That was v Blackpool in 99/00. Brennan came off the bench around the hour mark with the scores at 1-1 and bagged three assists before scoring the fifth in 5-2 win. Pretty sure that was his last game for us before he went to Forest. Byfield definitely came off the bench and bagged a brace in a 2-2 draw at home to Burnley in 07/08. Pitman did the same at home to Palace in 11/12, then Marv at Carlisle in 12/13.

15 points from a possible 30 is a reasonable return. We’ve only been outplayed once (by Birmingham) in the league so far IMO, which has surprised me. If we hadn’t had injuries to Conway, Vyner, and Naismith at various stages we would be in the top six, so I think it’s fair to expect us to kick on now two of those are fit again and Vyner shouldn’t be far away. We’ve got nothing to fear from the next block of 10 either. Leeds and Ipswich will be big tests, while Cardiff are on a roll. But we should beat Sheff Weds, QPR, Boro, and Huddersfield to get at least 12 points and we can get at Southampton if Martin’s still in charge.

Roberts — he’s a CB or LB by trade and his cameos so far have been in the left midfield. I don’t think that’s a fair yardstick to judge him by, but I’d like to see him played in his best position before forming my opinion. Gardner-Hickman — he was poor tonight, but I think he looks weak and is easily outmuscled. Like Roberts, too early to tell and I’d like to see him in midfield.

He’s a top prospect and streets ahead of Bell IMO. He looks bigger as well so the comparison with Vardy is a good one. His deal runs until June 2025; spend some of that nest egg and sign him up, Steve, if only to protect a potentially huge asset.

Get in. Lovely ball from King, cute finish from Conway. That should be that…

What a ******* goal, Tommy

Anyone know who this co-commentator is tonight? He sounds local. Dave something

Dire first half bereft of any quality whatsoever. Knight and Williams look off the boil; every time they’ve found a pocket it’s been met with a heavy touch or a loose pass. I don’t know how we didn’t get a penalty for a foul on Bell, but it doesn’t surprise me anymore.

Lovely idea. Vizag holds about 40,000 and Hyderabad is around 55,000, so I expect there to be no issue for you getting tickets. Both are bigger than Mumbai (33,000) where I was in 2016. I really fancied Dharamsala to mark my 40th, but the only ways to get there was via one flight a day on a tiny plane from Dehli or a long bus trip. The missus wouldn’t sanction me leaving her with the kids for a fortnight!

@ralphindevon What Tests are you planning to go to? The grounds are so much bigger than over here that tickets are never a problem. We bought tickets for all five days of the Mumbai Test for around £15 in total a day before it started. The queue (below) took about 10 minutes. Assuming you can get to the venue, for example Dharamsala will be much trickier to get to than the other venues, you should have no issue getting tickets from the ground.

Historically, maybe, but not this time around as the rebuild did not result in relegation and that’s a testament to the job Nige has done IMO. And where has this “money you don’t have” come from? We made circa £35m of pure profit in 2023 and have spent less than 20% of that. I haven’t seen anyone advocating a reckless approach or calling for us to spend all of that; just add one or two quality players in key positions. “What football makes, football can spend” - Steve Lansdown

I think, yes, in a few weeks’ time we could play 4-4-2: Max; Tanner, Vyner, Naismith, Roberts; Sykes, James, Knight, Pring; Wells, Conway. There’s a nice balance and a real threat about that XI.

New owners are a much bigger priority than the manager IMO.

“We” being the Lansdowns? The answer is blatantly no. If they were serious about promotion, they would have spent the last two decades getting their ducks in row to ultimately create a winning environment — and that goes beyond bricks and mortar. It means having the humility to hire people in senior positions who are, or have the potential to be, better than you; who can challenge your opinions freely and openly, and drive success. It means having a culture where people can be the best they can be in every department everyday, from the ticket office and the marketing team to the branding and kit deals that impact on how we are perceived. Things like that would help to make us PL-ready off the pitch, and the sad reality is we could not be further from that if we tried. I’d even go as far to say we’re getting increasingly amateur off the pitch and the irony is, IMO, that things are moving in the right direction on the pitch, even if that is slow progress because of the unnecessary austerity imposed on the manager.

I’ve always thought Pring’s best position is LW, but I think we currently lack a No.9 or someone (Sykes?) gambling to get on the end of his deep crosses which are often to the far post. I think we’d be better defensively from that side if we made that change and that in turn would help Naismith is he has to play CB. I would bench Bell to accommodate Roberts, which might be harsh, but I think he offers little defensively and still has spells where he’s anonymous for large periods. That a different debate, though.

I suspect we would be stronger down that left side with Roberts at LB and Pring further forward. As for Naismith, I think he’s better in midfield but until Atkinson’s fit, Roberts is the only CB alternative. Other than that, it’s the academy boys. If only we had some cash to address that lack of strength in depth! I like Naismith; his vision and ability to pick a pass is essential. But he’s a costly mistake waiting to happen at CB and it’s pretty clear Vyner was mopping up behind him as well.

It’s an opinion, one I’ve held for a while; I might’ve exaggerated it a bit but it’s not a ridiculous statement at all. Put it this way, I don’t think acoustics were even on the list when they went to the architects and I know they’re not bothered at all about situating ‘singers’ near away fans to generate vocal support. They clearly wanted a different demographic of fan with the redevelopment IMO and I don’t think that would’ve been any different if we were at Ashton Vale. Sat in the Dolman again today, I heard sod all for most of the game, tried to change it, and found it disappointing again.

Totally fair points, Kev.

I didn’t, Wise Old Elf!

It always is nowadays IMO. The old Gate was far better for atmosphere. Listening to Paul Barber, the Brighton CEO, in the week, he mentioned making the most of the atmosphere in the ground as a key consideration. The people running our club could not give less of a shit about that IMO. It’s all about treating us as customers.

You’ve forgot Sean Dyche vs Preston in ‘97 then?