Take some doing on this pitch. Terrible surface for Test Cricket… as was the one at Pakistan/Australia last week.

Why is losing Nyambe for free not a big issue? But Travis would be? You’d be saying the exact opposite if the contract situations of those two players were reversed…

There’s no point looking at the remaining contracted players and going ‘oh relegation battle next season’. Sure I heard the exact same thing last season. This is a division built on loans and a load more will come through our door. An academy grad might make a breakthrough like Wharton. So many variables and in such an even league we could finish anywhere.

‘ The officials have agreed there will be 4 minutes of added time’. Agreed with who? Mowbray? Balaji Rao? Fans near the dugout? Announcing (instead of just putting it on the scoreboard) not exactly bumper crowds to tee up away fans and ‘your support is f*cking shit!’. He somehow managed to speak throughout the minutes applause for Ukraine and Gordon Lee on Tuesday! Any ITK-ers give an insight into where this (obviously non local) fella has come from and what happened to the other bloke who’d been doing it for years until Christmas?

Ha, no I was being facetious. ‘Field tilt average’ is something to do with minutes spent in the opposition half minus the defensive half. And guess what, City attack a lot! Sign me up Opta!

Why are City do good? It’s because of their ‘field tilt average’, according to (you guessed it), James Gheerbrant in The Times. Who knew it was all due to a slanting pitch at the Etihad!

If folk think it needs refreshing for next season, especially if we fall away over the next two months, fair enough. But ‘worst manager in the league’. Come off it. His record in this division with the budgets he’s had shows that isn’t remotely true and is an example to how some on here have lost all objectivity with TM, and I’ve no idea why he riles some of you to such a degree…

Why? You see it across football, at plenty of clubs the manager is never more than a few defeats away from the sack, players still sign contracts. It’s an unstable industry, so footballers are looking after themselves, if it’s a good offer, they’ll sign.

I’ve stopped even thinking about new managers as these owners just don’t operate in a normal fashion. As long as a manager keeps things ticking over and they like him personally then he has free reign to crack on. That’s why I knew he wouldn’t get potted on that horror run last season, as we weren’t going to go down and he was under contract. Obviously the main difference this summer is the fact that said contract will have run out, so perhaps they will move in a new direction. But it could well be too much effort for this lot when they have a steady Eddie already in the building.

Tickets are available on e-ticketing from what I can see…

You a Billy No (ST Holder) Mates?

Blackpool are travelling in decent numbers this season, which is understandable as they are a club with a feel good factor after some horrendous years. Also they haven’t been to Ewood for a while, so no surprise that’s Cat A. He’s going to be in for a shock for Stoke and Boscombe though…

I’m all all about offers, more the merrier for me. But I did pick up a bit of resentment from some of the ST holders around me the other night about ‘all these offers, what about us that stump up every year?’ It’s getting to the stage where all these offers are starting to annoy some ST holders, but as they are largely shite and a dogs dinner anyway, you aren’t attracting decent numbers - whilst also pissing off your core. So a lose/lose situation. Complete shambles.

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A club serious about promotion, one who came into the window light on forwards, doesn’t make a 20 year old, who had never played a first team game, their only signing for that position.

Unfortunately I asked O2G on a couple of occasions to raise why these crap bundles are being promoted after failing year after year, for the other week’s meeting, it wasn’t raised by the looks of it. End of the day they expect Stoke and especially Blackpool to fetch decent numbers, so it’s Cat A. I get the rationale, even if I don’t agree with it when the run in should be about as many folk as possible in the tent. What do I think is a beyond stupid idea is this ‘Final 5’, which is trying to tie in floating fans, but at £120 (£24 a game) in the JWU, it becomes an unattractive price very quickly if you can’t make one (and many floating fans won’t be able to commit to all 5, that’s why they aren’t a ST holder already) - so said floating fan will obviously keep his powder dry and pick his games considering he’ll be able to get a Bristol City ticket for a tenner and a Derby ticket for £20 anyway. Crap maths, crap marketing, crap knowledge of the buying habits of their own floating fanbase. Complete clowns and it really needs a new broom from Waggott down.

£30-£36 a ticket then for Blackpool and Stoke. What a great way to help the team in the run in. 🙄 So if you are a floating fan that knows you can’t make some of the 5 games of that bundle (that itself is pro rata far more expensive than a half ST), you will have to pay those ridiculous prices. Absolute nonsensical ticketing policies down there.

Yes, they took a point from a team with a good home record and are still well in touch with the top 6. Job done.

Of course it should be. The 18 first class counties represent the historic counties of this country, not post 1974 admin areas. It’s been the home of LCC for 150 years, and is in a fantastic location in one of the country’s main cities. Should Surrey move to Guildford? Warwickshire move to Leamington Spa? What an odd comment.

Any reason why such a bad ref (and if sounds like those even within the referring world agree) get to keep a gig at a fairly high level of football year in year out? Is there such little quality coming through?

Is there suddenly a thousand plus extra ST holders (on top of the substantial number that miss plenty of midweeks anyway) not going tonight, due to ‘CBA-ness?’ How do you know?

Two home games on consecutive Tuesday’s doesn’t help. It’s not always pessimism keeping ticket holders away, some ST holders just struggle with those for a plethora of reasons.

Chaddy, as always, only sees things from his personal perspective. He’s from Accy, so of course it’s all about the Dingles and so nothing else can even be called a derby. He doesn’t realise that Bolton is a bloody big game for a Darrener, PNE is a proper rivalry if you live in South Ribble or Chorley way.

Greater Manchester isn’t Manchester. Just a name given to the ten boroughs that make it up (Manchester being just one of the boroughs). Just like the West Midlands isn’t Birmingham and West Yorkshire isn’t Leeds. Rochdale is still part of historic Lancashire. Modern rump Lancs needs re-naming as it just adds to the confusion and dilutes wider Lancastrian identity.