Leveller

Continuity and a settled side are part of it too. You can’t just throw together eleven players who are on the best league form.

But people, it seems, are buying a season ticket virtually for the price of a shirt, then blocking a seat for other fans who want to go occasionally. I agree it’s only a major problem if we sell out, but if these kids aren’t going to any games then they’re not the fans of the future anyway. I’ve got no problem if they only go to some games - we all miss one occasionally- but they shouldn’t be blocking a seat if they very rarely go. The very low price is, I guess, tempting parents to reserve a seat in case their kids want to attend a very occasional game.

I think the cheap season tickets for kids is a real issue. A nice idea for those who actually attend regularly but wide open to abuse. The club must be able to monitor which tickets are actually used. Perhaps deny renewal to those who just buy the ticket then rarely use it? Say, ten games minimum attendance?

What has Warnock ever done in the top flight?

Funny how we see things differently. The paper gave him a 7 too, but to me I just noticed masses of mistakes, schoolboyish miscontrols and dangerous lunges. I accepted he needed the experience but thought he looked like a non leaguer.

I thought it was quite bright - we dominated but were sloppy and/or unimaginative in the final third.

Dodgy futures trader I think. ?

Yet the rules suggest that standing over the ball to stop a quick kick is cautionable?

Our average this season is about 20000 isn’t it? So why the surprise? The outliers will be where away fans are particularly low or high. Reading are close and bringing plenty so 20000+ was always likely.

Playing on consecutive days is crazy.

Have the two of you ever been seen in the same place together?? Red-Robbo-Red.

Stopping a quick free kick seems to be cautionable, yet it’s allowed all the time.

I can’t see anything in the rules about having to wait to take a free kick. Is there anything? Is it all at the ref’s discretion? I agree with others that it doesn’t seem fair that the offending team can gain a second advantage by stopping any momentum the attacking team has.

David Kelly kept doing so well against us, I was convinced we were going to sign him. Never happened.

It's hundreds for the home games. And for some of the men's away games! Tens? One bus?

Saka’s been watching his Andi Weimann videos again. Snap

Although you believe that Nige is God, there may be unbelievers out there.

I totally agree. I just prefer a rule that requires intent, as judged by the ref. It’s simple and more just.

For all that, it was obviously accidental, not an attempt to cheat. Simply missed the header, and his arm was in a normal position for someone jumping.

Funny how fans often don’t like intelligent articulate footballers.

It’s a bit odd to consider fans in one stand to be older or more dedicated than in another. I moved from the Dolman to the Lansdown after the rebuild, for the better view (no sun in your eyes) better legroom and newer facilities. I’m sure that is true of many others. It’s a better experience in the new stand, that’s for sure.

In the early 19th century days before codified rules, there were different types of football played in different places including public schools. The split was back in the 1860s though. Handling the ball was quite common at Rugby school and some others. So they went one way while others banned handling and set up the Football Association. Soccer comes from the abbreviation of Association, in parallel with the abbreviation of Rugby to "rugger", which is less often heard now. One sport evolved into two, and soccer and rugger were the common names used to distinguish the two, at least at public schools, though I think football was always used more amongst the working class clubs. "Footer" was certainly used in the early twentieth century, but not just for soccer. "Footer bags" were football shorts! “The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting "Heil, Spode!" and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: "Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?” "The Code of the Woosters" (PG Wodehouse, satirising Oswald Moseley and his Blackshirts, in the ludicrous figure of Roderick Spode and his Blackshorts).

If Sky have used the Soccer name for 30 years, why do so many younger fans (wrongly) think it’s an Americanism?

I worked that out! Was it just on a Saturday?

Never heard of it - but then I’ve never subscribed to Sky.