Ossydave

Reading at home in 1988, sat in the Nuttall Street with my old man. Finished 1-1 and was a bit shit tbh, persevered though. Always considered myself lucky, caught the tail end of harder times but obviously got to enjoy the good times. I've seen my team with the premier league, the league Cup and followed away in Europe including the champions league. Young lads now have it tough, hopefully the good times return!

I was at the Bolton game yesterday and despite shifting more season tickets than us the standard of football was dire. Had a Bolton supporting workmate with us and asked if it was just because it was a dead rubber, he said that was a decent performance for them 😳 on the flipside the hospitality there put ours to shame, really good day.

Over 7000 sold so they've extended phase 1 to the 14th May, why not just bin the bloody phases off? Must admit I'm fairly surprised we've shifted that many (although it's a poor figure). Suppose the decent run recently has made people have a change of heart, if the shocking form had continued we'd be around 4-5k I reckon

Christ that Dennis header was definitely this seasons Hedges miss at Preston, truly awful. I was quite happy when we signed him but what a waste of space he's been, granted injuries haven't helped but the return on those wages has been one hell of a waste. What a shame the season ended when it did, 10 more games would have been handy. As many have said we never thought we'd be anywhere near 7th but it's not really much of a consolation. I'm more worried about the players we may lose than who we may sign or not sign to be honest. Brittain, Tronstad and Travis must have admirers. Mr Marmite Dolan as inconsistent as he is still needs replacing with someone of at least equal ability, hopefully better though. On the flipside I really think Toth can kick on and be a real asset, I don't think it's a fluke that we're unbeaten since he has been playing and he looked good again yesterday. I was worried about him I must admit, possibly still mentally scarred from Wally Wahlstedt, he HAS to be first choice though now next season. I feel the league may be a little tougher next year, some decent squads coming down and if Brum and Wrexham flex their cash there's a good chance they're up around the play offs.

No sport in the world can make you feel like this on the morning of a game, remind me again why we love it so much? I'm 2 nervous shites in already 😵 It should be VI's easiest team talk yet in terms of motivation, "you know what's at stake, take a look at those fans in their thousands and what it means to them, go make yourself heroes boys." Its that simple.

Absolute bollocks, I haven’t come across any dingles with that mindset. If it did all go tits up they would of course claim they wrecked our play off bid, probably come up with a pathetic chant about it like.

Yeah there was always going to be a pay day spike, just like there would be end of May, June and even July. Arsing about with phases though means that will pretty much be it after today. Unless of course we somehow manage play-off glory but that's a huge stretch.

A load of pointless waffle as expected. And despite taking weeks to doctor the minutes or whatever the fuck they do and nobody can spell the managers name right.

I'd hazard a guess at them saying initial sales are encouraging despite the current economic climate making things difficult for some people. There'll be some figures comparing our prices to other clubs in the league too. That will be it, so not sure why you're so arsed OEB. I've never read the minutes and though "corrr I didn't know that!". How much of the discussion is excluded though I've no idea. Something I am surprised is being kept under wraps (to my knowledge, haven't seen it mentioned, yet) is that the ground needs some fire safety work completing by the end of the year to protect the steel. Its an expensive job, into the millions I'm told. You'd expect that's going to be done between June and August when nobody is attending. Maybe it's being kept in reserve as an excuse for not spending in the transfer market pre season 🤔

He's all but signed for Derby if you pay attention to their fans and in fairness based on what I've seen of them - he'd probably be their star player, they'd pay him well. I think he'd much rather stay here, he's clearly a family man and his sister often accompanies him on match days. I guess Derby isn't that far though at the end of the day. He's been great recently, now - is that putting himself in the shop window OR has VI got a tune out of him that's often been lacking in games this season? He speaks highly of Eustace but he wasn't great in a large percentage of his games here. Hedges or Dolan would be an absolute no brained if it came down to that choice (to the fans anyway).

Yeah Sunderland are in dreadful form and whilst they've technically not really had anything to play for now for a few games, it's a rut I'd rather not be in going into the play offs if I was a fan! In the last 6 games only Millwall are ahead of us form wise, we all know who they lost to though, rather emphatically.....

One positive omen for Saturday is I'm not going. Weeks ago accepted hospitality with work for the Bolton game thinking ours would be a dead rubber, although their game definitely is now, free booze helps though! I've been to Bramall Lane many times and don't think I've ever seen us win! Just in recent years there's the FA cup quarters, a 3 nil tubbing early season and the midweek game when Khadra missed the penalty, beyond that I can remember a few other cup games that didn't end well. So maybe it's a me problem 😕 If we somehow do make the play offs we'd end up playing them too so I'm gonna have to exclude myself IF all goes to plan.

Yep he's very Pearsy with the mistakes he makes. If Stoke somehow went down Johansson would be just splendid though. They'll just about survive for another season at least though you'd have thought.

No chance, they will want to win the league (they sing about winning it at Ewood often enough). Personally I wouldn't give a shite about it, it's winning promotion outside of the prem, nothing else! That twat Ashley Barnes would potentially have a different opinion mind.

Sheff Utd posted that because we’ve sold out they’ve introduced loyalty point requirements for home tickets too, not sure why they’d confirm it before our club. Actually yeah wtf am I on about, it shouldn’t be a surprise at all that they confirmed it before us.

The fact it always takes 2 weeks or so is already a big fuck you to be quite honest, there's no way on this planet people are too busy to edit them before then it's a joke. That being said they're usually pointless anyway. Whether that's because their 'editing' involves removing anything interesting, or that might reflect negatively on them is anyones guess.

I hadn't realised how much Coventry's away form had dipped, no wins since early March at Oxford after they were flying just before that. On the flip side Luton have only lost to the famous Blackburn Rovers at home since Sheff Utd mid Feb. Worth noting they've also played Leeds, Boro and Bristol City in that time! A number of reasons for us to live in hope for a bit longer. However, it IS the championship and Coventry winning 8 nil is also possible.

A lot of people will have been paid this week or early next, probably waiting to see is there's a spike to add those to the figures......unfortunately for them, they'll end up bitterly disappointed as its not going to add thousands on!

One of the main reasons Stoke are in the shite still is their defensive record this season, Philips is their second most used defender appearance wise. Whilst it's obviously not all 1 players fault he can't have been that amazing. He certainly ain't gonna be the defensive equivalent to Adam Wharton and will probably have a career as an average championship defender.

Pretty obvious the winner here. The commentary is etched in my memory from the journey home to the Rishton Arms as people watched it on repeat on their phones. You hear the GO ON first from our fans Then a gasp Then Hit, magnificently A quite astonishing goal from Andi Weimann Out of nowhere! What a shame the clown officials ruled Dolan offside, we'd be 1 point behind Coventry now 🤬

Why on earth would Ian Wright be interested?

Vardy will end up at Wrexham if they go up, the owners will pay him a decent wedge.

Post Christmas Watford have been horse shit, no 2 ways about it. Played 21, W 5, D 4, L 12 Even we've won more than that now despite our obvious 'issues'. Despite that they actually gave the twats up the road a challenge the other week, should have gone 2 up really and it would probably have been a different game. Alas they went down to 9 men, but even then had a few decent chances to score. Monday was literally the most perfect day results wise, I don't want to be a negative gimp but it's highly unlikely we'll get another of those. Head says we lose this one 1 nil and the season officially dies a death. BUT Coventry are an early kick off, there would be a massive wave of excitement if they lose, knowing a win takes us within 1 point of them. Of course with that comes pressure though again and we don't seem to like that....you just never know in this game do ya 🥲

Great news, been crying out for a close cheapish sunny jaunt for years!

Maybe not initially but if we dropped to league 1 and were right up in the promotion mix, you'd expect some half decent crowds too, the winning feeling will always stir interest on that front. From what I've seen, league 1 is the poorest it's been for a while this season as well so even with departures we'd probably be up there with a team we cobbled together. I don't think Swag especially would be too concerned about relegation given his short term/selfish goals....