Tina Turner - Simply the Best

James - Laid

Except in 3 weeks, of course!

Tbf, you can perhaps criticise the defending but Sunderland's goals last night were top drawer, some great football involved. Worth watching if you get chance. Agree with above comments about Pukki, deadly at this level but too slow to be a top tier striker.

The Mamas and the Papas - California Dreamin

Meatloaf - Dead Ringer for Love

The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name (Sorry!)

Hard one to call this due to our inconsistency, but Luton are having an iffy season by their recent standards and only drew at home last night to Coventry. We have more than enough to win this comfortably if we approach it with the right mindset, almost regardless of personnel. Hopefully our recent history there as a club doesn't weigh heavy; there's only a handful of players & staff who were involved in previous grim defeats there (iirc we drew last season?), but enough to help JDT understand & prep for the anti-football "tactics" they will look to mete out. I don't normally advocate switching style or personnel for the opposition, but might make an exception here. We have 24 hours on them fitness wise, but it's a long coach trip there & our front 3 put in a big shift on Tuesday so I'd expect some rotation. That said, Dolan & Hedges were superb & we can't drop BBD. Not sure I'd risk Dack against this lot given his injuries, might do more harm than good. Maybe Hirst for Dolan just for the extra height & bulk, then bring Dolan on in a supersub role against tiring legs? I also wouldn't be averse to switching Morton for A Wharton, who seems like he's a bit more robust, or possibly even Mola (I know little about him but think he has the versatility & stature to compete well there). No arguments over the same back 5 for me. Markanday must at least be on the bench imo. I believe he's been a bright light in a poor start for the U21s & hope he doesn't become the next Chapman. I'm saying a 2--0 away win.

King - Love and Pride

So chuffed with what we saw last night. Was a great team effort across the board, with a solid defensive platform creating a base to build from. We were out of the traps fast, and there were some wonderful pieces of 1 & 2 touch football and some lovely bits of individual skill. Highlights for me were the build up to the 1st goal, BBD's curler that was a whisker past the post, Dolan's sheer peskiness, Hyam's goal, Hedges' round the corner above, and his sublime, perfectly weighted through-ball to BBD from the middle of our half whilst being pulled back. On Travis, he'd be a bugger to play against. In that incident with the "punch" (hard to tell exactly how bad it was), if you look at the lead up to it seconds before Travis seems to tangle legs with Pedro, whose reaction might've been a retaliation to that? I agree he pushes the line a bit but he's clever enough to know what he can get away with, and sure does wind opponents up. One of those players you love if he's on your team, hate if he's not (like Savage). Onwards & upwards; Luton next, a poor hunting ground but only drew 2-2 with Cov tonight so shouldn't hold any fear for us.

There you go! ( or Voila if you're coming from the French bit!!)

Sorry, who?? 😄

Fixed it.

7 - 13 for me.

I have no objection to tomorrow's game being postponed, albeit I recognise it's a matter of personal preference. I wasn't intending to go & have sympathy for those who will lose out financially. To me this is such a historic moment for the nation. 70+ years of dedication to the country, never shirking her responsibility, right up until 48 hours before her death. We need to take a step back sometimes & reflect on the significance of events outside of our day to day. This is one such occasion IMO.

But that's just it, I don't think the next 3 games will tell us anything definitively about whether he will be successful overall or not! 10 league games in 8 weeks, only 4 of which will have been with his complete squad post transfer window (and even that shorn of 1st teamers like S Wharton, Brittain & Gallagher for close to half of them), isn't a big enough sample of games to draw firm conclusions as to how the season will go, imo,given the situation he inherited.

REM - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight

For goodness sake, with stretched resources and from a starting point of 8 first team squad departures, we've got 12 points from 24 and are in 7th place, plus 2 decent cup wins. We would all have taken that on July 30th. There've been some great performances, some average ones, and some poor ones, with results to match; that's what thus league does!! We've won some matches in style, & been hugely underwhelming in others. The bad results & performances (Bristol C, Sheff U & Reading) have been balanced out by impressive wins that we didn't achieve last season (Swansea, Blackpool & W Brom). I find this talk of "He's not his usual cheery self, has he bitten off more than he can chew" & "he can't lose too many more games or he won't get chance to continue the project" quite premature & overly critical. He probably is a bit tired after the chaos that is the transfer window, coupled with full midweek fixture lists, but that doesn't mean he's suddenly regretting his choice to come here or is not up to the task! He & his team need time to adapt, to implement their ideas, to grow the players. If whilst doing that it takes another few weeks of WLLWWL (whether we win or lose by 1 goal or 3) then that's more than fine by me for the first half of his first season.

I get what you're trying to illustrate gav but that's not an entirely fair comparison imo. This was a Tees / Wear derby between 2 clubs in big towns in an area where there's only 4 or 5 clubs of any note within a 100 miles radius, happening for the first time in 5 years. Middlesbrough has a population of 150,000, Sunderland nearly double that. Both have large catchment areas beyond their boundaries with not much competition for fans. The towns of Blackburn & Burnley have combined populations of about 200,000, and 3/4 world renowned clubs within about an hour's drive of each, plus maybe a dozen others. If you compare last night in that context to the E Lancs derby to come, I have no doubt that there will be as much passion, pride & bouncing on show at Ewood as there was at the Riverside.

I've just read online that apparently Wout Weighorst was drop kicked on the pitch by an opposition fan whilst playing in Turkey at the weekend. How the mighty fall...!

I'm not sure our poor run of results there over the last decade or so is much of a factor. How many of our current squad have experienced defeat there? 4, 5 players? Not enough for it to be thought of as a bogey ground for them. Moving on, it's a game we should win. I'll be disappointed if we don't, but at this stage what would be more important to me would be to see a solid performance where we can look back and say we deserved 3 points from the game, whether we get them or not. It's far too early to be writing the season (or JDT, or any individual player) off if we lose. Having no midweek game for the first time since week one I think, should allow time to get some good training in re patterns of play, set-piece development, transitions etc. & to bed in the JDT way into the squad. Plus further time for injured players to get fit. I'll plump for a 2-0 away win.

Likewise.

The only way I can agree with you is if you mean consistency within a range of expected performance levels, eg. mostly between 5 out of 10 to 8 out of 10, with the odd outlier above or below that. But I suspect that's not what you mean, that you expect 7s or 8s week in week out. That's what I believe is unrealistic as there are just too many variables to expect or demand consistency at such a high level IMO. Form, confidence, the opposition, your teammates' performance, off-pitch issues, manager's instructions, weather conditions, the playing surface, the list goes on. This is not making excuses, but rather accepting reality. If such things didn't impact performance, then the game would be far more predictable and all the less enjoyable for it IMO. Minimising the negative impact of such issues & maximising the positives is part of the key role of management & coaching, to know the person that is behind the player. It'll take Tomasson & his team more than a couple of months to work that out.

Sorry but that's completely unrealistic Rigger, way too black & white. Players are human, not robots (Haaland aside!). They have good days when they feel & perform at their best, and bad days when nothing seems to go right, just like you & I do. Even at the top table the same thing applies. Look no further than Rashford today, who scored 2 excellent goals after a number of dire performances. Or Pogba, or Koulibaly, or Grealish to name a few.

I agree with the first two lines. However isn't the the last line just entirely indicative of the Championship? Reading got stuffed by Rotherham, but despite that are sitting pretty in 3rd. Norwich lost their first 3 or something but are now 2nd. I'm not saying everything is hunky dory or that Tomasson is a tactical genius; imo he got the subs wrong at HT, he should've removed Morton & moved Travis into midfield with Buckley going to RB, as we missed Travis' bite in midfield, and got Dack playing further forward as he was too deep 1st half. But as I've said before, there's too much overreaction to each defeat. We're weeks into his 3 year tenure, we've won 4 of 8, won 2 cup games, & most of that was with a very thin squad. We'd all have taken this on the day of his appointment, yes? He's got a lot to learn about the Championship, about the club, the players, support staff. I'm sure he knows that more than anyone & imo he shows the attitude, aptitude & intelligence to develop & adapt.