Tough day for England. New Zealand starting to get the upper hand now.

I really hope so. The fact this sideshow McCricket has been given prime summer slots is an outrage in itself. From my friendship group and family I know probably 10-15 people who regularly watch Lancs and or England only 1 would consider going to this. The ECB seem to think there are swathes of untapped cricket fans. I just don’t see it. If you’re not going to cricket now why would a bizarre format of mostly the same county players with 40 balls less suddenly get the punters in

So far so good. But with England even at 241/4 it could still be 280 or hopefully Buttler/Stokes can take the game away from them quite quickly. Not seen roots wicket but he’s horribly our of form. I’m guessing lbw or 22nd slip.

Test match starts at 10pm tonight. Will try for one session before conk out. If was going to New Zealand playing a weakened team I’d be a little miffed. That said that bay oval looks great 360 degrees of grass banks. Must admit never heard of it before. Apparently pitch is green but meant to be flat.

England are dreadfully poor at the back. Better teams will carve us to pieces.

Yeah a lot of these passes are very poor either wrong weight or wrong direction. I think the pitch might be crap don’t know if it’s one of those plastic hybrid things. Looks fine aesthetically but lots of slips and rank misplaced passes from both teams.

Surreal this. All the locals with the George’s cross cards during god save the Queen.

Pretty much since the Venkys took over I’ve felt a bit like it’s been the club vs the fans and there’s no sign of that stopping nearly a decade on.

Yeah that was a decent game and imagine it no mass disorder. Was also a decent crowd and following at turd moor. And once again shock horror no trouble.

Usually we rock up to places as the most hated nation going.

Just watching a bit of build up. Funny to see England fans and team seemingly getting almost a heroes welcome in pristina. From the locals they’ve interviewed seems to stem from a bit of gratitude for our contributions in preventing them from being wiped out by the Serbians.

Just getting my head round the qualification 24 teams qualify that’s the 20 teams that finish in the top 2 of the 10 groups. Then a further semi final/final play off of 16 teams which include the 3rd place teams and various odds and sods who won their rubbish nations league groups. It would probably just be easier to say Malta, San Marino and Gibraltar can’t play the rest are in.

Crap offer. Crap football. Crap manager. No thanks.

That’s no doubt the official party line. I wouldn’t be too fussed about watching the academy vs anyone other than our main rivals or a perhaps a final. Can barely be arsed watching the first team. But the thing that bugs me is they’ve taken the effort to move the game from 7pm to 1pm. Had it always been 1pm I’d have just dismissed it as a fixture wouldn’t bother with. So school kids can’t go. People who work can’t go without taking an afternoon off. Basically they’re looking to tap the niche market of retired folk who can be bothered watching academy football. That’s probably down to 10s of people.

Initially it was tongue and cheek but the more I think about it Scotland fully deserved their lowly reputation. They’re below the mighty Cyprus in their group and only got 9 pts in a group which also contains San Marino and Kazakhstan. Haven’t really threatened qualification in 20 years even when let every sod in.

It’s an absolute waste of time playing teams like that. Barely a professional standard. Appalling defending for most goals particularly those last two. The whole qualification process needs a total overhaul. San Marino, Lichtenstein, Latvia, Malta, Andorra, Estonia, faro Islands, Scotland, etc, etc, should be playing qualifiers when the main tournament is on in order to qualify for the qualifiers. So only the best of the dregs get through. Ps. Slightly disappointed there were boos for Gomez coming on. From what I understand of the situation if anyone should get booed its the perennial idiot Sterling.

Hameed has joined Notts. I genuinely hope he does well (not against Lancs). But for whatever reason under the guidance of the brothers grim he didn’t know what end of the bat to hold by the end.

I can’t believe the dingles game has been moved from 7pm to 1pm. With stuff like that and pricing for the first team it’s almost like the club doesn’t want fans to watch Rovers.

.

From a mate of mine in that area: “There are a few lads on our football team who are wycombe fans and they love ainsworth obviously but there is no science to his management. They smack it long to the beast. Nothing wrong with that but if fans are expecting a young, Eddie Howe-type tracksuit manager they’ll be very disappointed” Personally I’d take the punt on him.

The denial of our situation reminds me of this.

I have that sinking feeling. The thought of Tonebola in the dugout vs Barnsley is depressing yet sadly inevitable.

The main reason I think folk will have is fear of the Venkys incompetence. Or he’s a nice guy who likes choccy biscuits. Neither are good enough.

Free hit today as no one expected anything but 5 points from 24 is relegation form by anyone’s definition. International break... DO THE RIGHT THING FOR ONCE.

Yes that could prove costly over the season. Much like a certain managers win at old Trafford.