italian dave

£6 for 10 minutes 'drop off' now. And £100 fine if you dare to try dropping off anywhere else on the site. And they certainly police that: twice I've had someone in front of me stop to let passengers out of the car, and both times a van with a camera has appeared from nowhere and slowed down to film it.

Yes, agree. And like Bellingham, it's not just his footballing ability, what he's also got is a football brain that belies his age. You mentioned Scott and Semenyo - as young players coming through from our academy, I always felt Scott had that, less so Semenyo.

Not a myth. When you book, just sign up with them for their emails, and they send you one every month or so. Last one I got was the one @elhombrecito gives above. And it will reduce the price from ludicrous to ridiculous!

Agree. I could even see him as a future manager.

I think we probably benefit from the rule more than Forest - I think its a great rule!

The 59th Street Bridge Song…….Simon and Garfunkel

Oh, You Pretty Things……..David Bowie

I’ve not read the whole thread, but have seen little or no mention of the officials last night. Generally, that would be a good sign. They seemed amongst the better this season to me.

Agree with the last two paragraphs. I think you just have to take the ‘glass half full’ view of the first two, and take the positives.

And if Groundhog Day did fans forums……..

I think maybe your first paragraph is the point. We’ve had three matches against PL sides and haven’t looked outclassed. Last night was just one of those nights. We met a very good Leeds side, who are in a fantastic run and who played some wonderful football. We managed to chose that night for a good number of our players to have their worst individual performances for weeks. It happens. I hope that’s all it was, anyway . We won’t have to wait too long to find out!

Except that they don’t, do they? Starting after the Xmas/New Year games: We had 6 matches during January. The teams we played were West Ham (who had just 3 games in January), Preston (4 games) Watford (5 games) and Forest (5 games). And turning to February’s games: When we met Leeds that was our 7th game since new year, their 6th. When we meet Forest again, it will be our 8th, their 7th. At Boro, it will be our 9th, their 7th. Southampton, our 10th, their 8th. And QPR our 11th and their 8th. So, in summary, not a single one of our opponents during that period has had or will have the same schedule as us. And in some cases the schedule will have been very significantly less taxing. And that’s before you get onto the issue of the squad sizes of most of those opponents, as @GrahamC has mentioned above. So, you can declare my argument “invalid” all you like: I’ll stand by it unless you can give me some facts to suggest otherwise.

Leeds are a very very good side. And it’s always the case that you can only play as well as a good side like Leeds let you. But what was disappointing tonight is that we didn’t even reach that standard. Too many players just had poor games. I reckon the whole back five had probably their worst games for ages, all on the same day. I don’t know if it’s just the number of games catching up with us. But if so, doesn’t bode well for the next few weeks.

Agree, and it’s not like we’re getting any joy down the right. Far from it.

Drops off at the old Megabowl. Two stops. Going back, you might as well walk. Best check the times though, with a 8pm KO. I’m not sure when it closes. You can get the bus a couple of stops, it’s slightly closer.

What a great story, and one of the real good guys. And as @exAtyeoMax says, that's a tough gig he chose too, albeit I'm sure rewarding. Not sure I could do that.

Sitting on the fence there, Dave

On Twine, is there any obvious reason for Burnley pulling him from Hull and loaning him out to another Championship side? I’m just hopeful that you can read something between the lines in that, even if there’s nothing in writing. But maybe that’s reading too much into it!

Maybe we used the same person the R*****s use?

In which case, it would be this afternoon!!

I imagine the club will have an idea what sort of numbers we're talking about. I was certainly surprised at how many Birmingham had on their list. It left one a bit surprised that there were so many people left in the ground that evening!

As I said, you can argue all you want about the rights and wrongs of what was behind it - doesn't alter the fact that's where we ended up - and it needed resolving. Second part - of course not, but it works both ways, and starts at the top!

Thanks for all this Phantom, much appreciated. And I hope @Tim Monaghan won't mind me hijacking his question with a comment. It's a great idea, and pleasing that there are plans to do something. But I hope that the planning will include some 'learning' from what happened when we visited Birmingham a few weeks ago. I don't know if you were there? They had what seemed like an annual event to mark those who'd passed away during the year - I assume they do it at the end of the calendar year. They had names on the scoreboard and read them out. And to begin with it got attention and respectful applause. After 2-3 minutes, when they'd reached the letter "C" in the alphabetical list, it became apparent that this was going to last a long long time - most of half time in the event. And it just lost all impact: people ignored it, chatted over it, and it just felt like it was never going to end. Hopefully, we'll find a better way to do it.

Yep, all fair points, and wouldn't disagree. Personally, I don't think they handled the comms well: I'd have rather they were honest about it - but maybe there were reasons not to. But they certainly came out with some bluff and bullshit! But it should - in the longer term - be good for the club to not have that level of mistrust at the top. And next season will be telling in terms of whether that 'should' is becoming 'will'! I'm not expecting miracles, but I'd certainly expect us the be at least challenging, and to be playing some good football. As always, it's about being realistic (as you say) and also about some things outside our control. Who goes up/comes down will play a part. Being able to keep a stable squad and starting XI too. But I'm hopeful!!

The club that deals only in “undisclosed fees” is never, ever, going to tell you that!!