den

This is a bit naughty, but.............. did people really think we would be better off without Big Sam? Did people really believe that getting rid of the bigger wage earners and investing in young and hungry players was the way to go when we were half way up the Premier League?

More of a trance with nobody having a clue what to do about it, or prepared to do anything about it. A club with owners who have no physical contact with their management and running the business completely via phone calls and emails can never prosper can it?

Wales. i haven’t seen much of SA in this comp, so don’t know how good they are. The norm for them is big, tough and very physical.

There’s very few of today’s team that would survive under Hughes.

45 mins to defend two goals and we allow them three? doubt it will alter anything at Ewood.

North Enders have waited a long, long time to get one over us. Now we are so poor they look at us for an easy three points. no way is this anywhere near to being acceptable. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT VENKYS.

I think it must be best ever performance as well. Absolutely destroyed New Zealand. superb.

Thinking about Parsons question about which is the better of Brereton and Gallagher, the only talent I can see from either is that Gallagher can jump higher. He can’t head it very well at all, but he’s taller. dont see anything else.

This squad is all over the place. Time to get back to basics of a solid 4-4-2 buying players able to play that game. Under a new manager preferably.

No.

Have they got more men than us?

Thought England were superb. strong, pacy where it matters, strong in defence. Pretty flawless to be honest. Australia pretty much second best all over the pitch. play ‘em again, we’d beat ‘em again. ? nice to be able to say that.

I’m talking about the policy, not comparing players.

It’s not just Mowbray, but this club needs to get out of this idea of blowing big money on one player, while the team isn’t good enough. Rhodes, Brereton and Gallagher for starters. That kind of money in this league is ridiculous and for me casts doubt on any managers ability to improve a team. a manager who will build solidly from the back is the pre-requisite for success at any club.

Working for me, but not working for someone else I know.

Not sure what Gallagher role is in this set up. What’s he trying to achieve?

Anyone know if this game is on the red button? Doesn’t seem to be recordable as it usually is.

Thomas Cook airlines were profitable. Why has that not been sold or supported?

German arm of Thomas Cook - Condor Airlines - is getting a €380 million six month KfW bridging loan from German Govt/ Hesse Govt/ - continuing all flights, and keeping all 4,900 jobs and will “free itself” from insolvency claims against Thomas Cook

Well..... we’ve been in touch with the villa company and they have offered to refund us our deposit of €460 because of the circumstances - which is very kind. They’ve given us a couple days to decide. Looking at replacement Tui flights (the only company showing on skyscanner for our dates) the prices have gone up around 50% since yesterday. It seems to us that we should get the flights refunded because we booked direct with Thomas Cook on a credit card, - and while we can get the deposit for the villa back we should go that way. Anyone paying for flights via an agent and using a credit card might find it not so simple.

If you booked a flight only, you very likely don’t have ATOL protection.

We have flights for the whole family booked and paid for totalling over two and a half thousand pounds. If they go bust we will be covered via credit card. What compounds it, is that we also have a villa booked that we could lose a deposit of over four hundred pounds on.

Denley - really? never a test batsman IMO.

Got flights already booked and paid for for next year.

You guys watching it on tv will have had a better view than me in many ways, but one thing you don’t get a feel for on TV is pace. The Aussie fast bowling attack are quite fearsome when you see them live. They always had that aggression that England can’t match. That’s the big difference between the sides for me (apart from Smith of course). I though we had a match for them in Archer, but I’m coming to the conclusion that he simply can’t sustain his pace even in short four or five over spells. Whether he can attain that level of energy or stamina I’m not sure, but I really hope so.