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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?

I don’t think the Gate will ever be a fortress. The board wanted a watered down, prawn sandwich atmosphere and that’s what they’ve got IMO. The atmosphere affects the players. Today it should’ve been bouncing after going 2-0 up and instead it was pretty passive as usual.

If he’s fit enough to be on the bench, he should be fit enough to play longer than the few minutes he did. If he’s not 90% fit, he shouldn’t be on the bench IMO.

I thought both Tanner and Sykes looked to be carrying knocks, which isn’t ideal when we have two more games in quick succession. Whoever made the subs chose to roll the dice and it backfired; it happens. I’d have like to have seen Conway earlier and alongside Wells, but we didn’t lose because of the strikers or the subs IMO. We gave away some shite goals and were lacking in quality and game management.

Meant to say, “we didn’t deserve to lose that…”

We deserved to lose that, but it’s so painfully clear we are bloody desperate for some real quality to make a tangible difference in games like these. When’s even a small portion of the nest egg going to be made available, Steve? You talk about PL but that will never happen if you don’t win games like that, and a bit of quality is the difference.

Some of the Scott money could’ve bought one or two players with a bit of finesse, mind.

No, it’s wasn’t the Robbie Savage; he never played for Bolton and didn’t make his debut until the mid-90s.

Thanks for sharing that, what an insightful watch. For me, how they approach things - from ticketing to atmosphere, succession planning to the boardroom and much more - is poles apart from how we do things. And it only reinforces my view that we will achieve nothing under the Lansdowns unless we are very lucky or they copy Brighton’s approach (not that I’m advocating copying anyone).

Just looked it up, I think that was in March 2000 - 23 years ago! I remember those big bastard dogs as well while also having a quiet drink out the front of the Ship that night!

I can vouch for it being cold up there as I recall freezing my nuts off when Tinnion scored from the halfway line many years ago. What a goal that was, mind. I’ve never had any time for Stoke. The LDV Final, bottles flying outside the Ship and Castle, scrapping before we lost up there under GJ. Horrible club in a hovel.

He’s worked hard with little reward, but I’ve never been convinced playing as the lone striker gets the best out of him. Put him alongside Conway again and he would be back on the goal trail. I doubt that’ll happen though as it’d involve reverting to three at the back in all probability.