League 2

It was noticeable that the full-backs were tucking inside into midfield roles when we had the ball, a style Man City have previously played, obviously we just weren't as effective. Pickering was picking up the ball centrally in the first game.

I left at half time of the second game, but Batty had been poor

It's the Yorkie players doing the dropping unfortunately.

Or 2, as has been the case in this innings.

In theory - the tail is fairly strong. In theory.

This was on the BBC the other day. Conceding loads more extras, dropping catches and having a non-keeper is hurting. Man for man - there's not many other than Root that you'd probably have in the Australian team. But we're giving them a game, just throwing it away every time. The numerical facts are that England have scored 1260 runs off the bat to Australia's 1245. After Stokes' eight-wickets-down declaration and Australia's two-wicket win at Edgbaston, followed by a 40-wicket second Test (only the fourth Lord's Ashes Test out of 37 in which all possible wickets have fallen), both sides have lost 38 wickets. Thus, England's batting line-up has a collective average of 33.1, Australia's 32.7. England have, however, conceded 60 more extras than Australia (118 to 58), leaving them 45 runs behind in total, accounting for the 43-run margin at Lord's and the two runs by which the Baggy Greensters overtook England at Edgbaston. England are the 274th team in men's Test history to find themselves 2-0 down after two Tests of a series. As you would probably expect, none of the previous 273 had a higher collective batting average after those two Tests than the opposition against whom they have lost consecutive matches (and only a handful have come close).

You wonder what Stokes we need to see here. There's only one player made any decent runs so far - and he went on the attack. Does Stokes play sensible and try and slowly build a score - or does he go for it like Lords?

Root drops one...then catches one the next ball.

I thought the link with Will Collar was going to be the most underwhelming collar of the summer. I was wrong. Looks good other than the collar.

I'd forgotten about the Wigan game. He also scored the winning goal in the game after Cardiff (his last game for the club) in extra time. Presumably he hadn't noticed they'd switched ends at full time.

Are you talking about Adam Armstrong here?

Was this not all around the same time he rejected a new contract and put in a transfer request?

You must get minimal benefit from seeing the line ups in advance though? You get your money back if the first goal is scored before your player is on the pitch if he's a substitute.

Fair enough. The charges relate to 2017 - so either the 2nd half our our league one season, or the first half of a Championship season. I could understand an advantage on a market where you'd expect a lot of bets to take place (For example if Liverpool were playing Arsenal in the cup and you had information that Liverpool were fielding a team of teenagers before it was common knowledge), but I'm not sure how much money is being won/lost based on leaked Rovers' team news. It might be a much bigger market than I realise.

Who would pay for our line-up 10 minutes before it was released? Just interested into what benefit someone gain from the information.

West Brom at home to start.

Well I obviously want England to win. I've also put a tenner on the draw at 8/1 in case the rain comes back. So the only outcome can be an Australia win.

Bohinen was one of my favourites. Unplayable on his day.

The fact Aguero tended to bob around the 28-33 goal mark for 6 seasons would suggest not.

Rovers' salary bill represented 146% of our turnover in 21/22. No other businesses would ever operate like that.

Not sure if it's a mistake? They're all Raith Rovers directors?

Xavier isn't incorrect.

Presumably he's still being paid off by the last two clubs that have sacked him in the last 12 months as well. Must be amazing being a football manager - especially an unsuccessful one. You get a massive payout and then people keep hiring you.

Wish I'd have known earlier, I'd have prepared some 😂