I went there once watching Rochdale Hornets v Hunslet. The gate was about 800. It felt weird sitting in a large almost empty stadium.

You're right. I had a pal who was a professional scout and he would always insist on scouting players at away games. He reckoned that was where you saw a players true character.

We we're discussing Big Sam and Everton.

Lets see where they finish in May.

Some times you do, sometimes you don't. I always went on thinking it though. If you don't you shouldn't be going on at all.

Only as far as the score was concerned. In terms of play even at 2-2 we hadn't exactly set the world on fire after the first ten minutes had we ?

I'm not, only 3 halves all day. I've been cutting down since Xmas so I don't have to lie to the Doctor again. I'm sorely tempted tonight though.

There'll be a few more after today's banging at home.

I expect there'll be a few at Everton who wanted Sam gone that are suffering from a bit of sellers remorse at the moment.

Whatever anyone says about Sparky's teams nobody ever said they lacked fighting spirit. Some Southern softies thought we had too much !

Oh dear, poor choice there matey.

That Stella must be stronger than you think.

Maybe but they didn't get dicked 5-2 at Brentford.

Far be it for me to make excuses but you can go 2-0 up too soon in a game away from home. You're in a bit of a dilemma, do we keep going and get another or do we play it a bit cagey and hit them on the break. Your opponents can only play one way - go for goal. Anybody else at Maine Road about 20 years ago when we were 2-0 up after a similar amount of time only to lose 3-2 to a bloody David White hattrick ?

I've had to come on in similar situations and what was going through my mind was _ " Well at least I can't do any worse than this lot ! "

And on top of all that our Cricket team has rolled over like lambs out in the West Indies .The Dingles steal a point, Wales slutched a win last night ! Thank God for the Rugby Union lads.

We needed three today to just get a draw.

Well that's a first, I only go back 60 years but I can't ever remember us being 2-0 up after 10 mins and losing 5-2 ! High fives and happy selfies out on the piss don't equate to team spirit in my book. Rolling your sleeves and meeting fire with fire against physical teams does. Resilience in the face of adversity has been lacking at the club since at least the Big Sam era. None of our subsequent managers have been able to recreate the fighting spirit that Sam's team had to a good extent and Mark Hughes team had in spades. Cheer up guys I believe England beat Ireland so I'm going to watch it in a minute. Let's see some players putting their bodies on the line.

Souey was a lunatic on the pitch in his day - pre massed TV cameras. Didn't he break a blokes jaw with an off the ball punch ?

That'll do for me !

Yep, I'm sure the players realise they owe us for those two non performances.

He needs to be giving him some game management lessons first. The lad want's to watch how Dack changes pace, slow your opponent down first then you can accelerate. Dack's about half as quick as Chapman but he regularly goes past opponents effortlessly. If you run directly at defenders they have to stand still. Of course you need to change direction at some point.

I wasn't too impressed with the last minute 3 at the back against Newcastle. I knew we were stuck for bodies but I think Bennett-Nyambe-Lenihan-Bell as a 4 would have been a better bet. As it was we looked lost and only got into the game after about 1/2 hr and by then it was much too late.

We should have been up for the Wigan and Preston away games but we were shambolic. I usually wait whilst after the game before I make my predictions. It seems to work better that way.

Weren't we paying that to Rhodes back in the day ?