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Five things have massively ruined the FA Cup for me in the last 20 or so years: Semi Finals always played at Wembley. This is ridiculous and a money-grab by the FA to to continue to pay for the white elephant New Wembley, also takes the prestige away from actually reaching the final. It was before my time, but I bet anyone who went to the Everton SF in 1989 or the Sunderland SF in 1991 would concur with this. Not playing The FA Cup Final on a stand-alone day, once all four leagues have finished. This shows complete contempt for the competition. Kick off times now moved to random times to cater for foreign TV coverage. This just damages attendances, lets be honest if a 3rd Round match is scheduled on a Monday at 8pm kick-off during the second week of January and isn't televised in the UK, no one is going to show any interest. VAR. No words needed for this one. Although how can VAR be used in some third/fourth/fitfth round matches and not others, no integrity in the standards of officiating in the competition ? and now Replays binned. As mentioned a stupid and hypocritical decision no doubt instigated by the PL clubs due to fixture congestion and travel. Yet they swan off to the Middle-East, East Asia or the USA every pre-season and jetset everywhere.

Look at me now. I could have been in prison 😉

Well worth a few minutes viewing for us old lads.

Bloomin’ ‘eck, if you’d only turned to drink at the start of the season, we’d be in the automatic promotion spots now!

Still better than one of Essex's threads, anyway.

The signing of JUBWICKS75 on a season-long loan has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster. Despised by his new team-mates from the outset, owing to not committing fully to the team, he has been an unsettling influence in the dressing-room, often involved in unseemly scuffles. It is not surprising that he was asked to cut short the loan, last month, and return to his parent club. Bizarrely, he still turns up on matchdays, begging to be allowed back into the squad.

The tldr of it is No new injuries Wants Rowe to get more minutes

Looks like this has already initiated a family rowe

The names Rowe, Jonny Rowe, Licensed to thrill.

And 5 years ago today Super Mario scored against Sheffield Wednesday 😊

The River End has always been the River End as far as I am concerned, except when it became "The Reeves Stand", Riverside is a different thing altogether..........

If this has to happen a simple rule that the lower-division team gets 100% of the gate receipts, regardless of where the tie is played, would be a great gesture that would cost the bigger clubs very little and make a big difference to the minnows. Chance of that happening: 0%, obviously. But it would be an easy win for a football regulator...

Another scandalous decision that benefits the Big PL clubs, at the expense of those in the lower divisions who will lose revenue as a result of this decision. Very sad indeed.

Indeed...contribute b ugger all to the premier league season in,season out ,lingering like a stench High time a relegation caught up with them

They went up to the 1st division the season man Utd went down, which means that man Utd are the only league team that Carlisle have never played a league match against.

He’s still working out how this is Zoe Webber’s fault. Once he has his angle, I’m sure he’ll oblige..

"Religion seems harmless in comparison" That's absolutely laughable. Religion has historically been the root cause of millions of deaths. At the moment the Jews and the Muslims are killing each other in huge numbers in the Holy Land. Perhaps it will be renamed the Hatred Land. Add to that the life changing sexual abuse in the Catholic Church which has affected an enormous number of people and the continued ill treatment of women of Muslim faith. All this over what? A totally unnecessary imaginery friend in the sky.

Left Leicester at 07.45 stopping halfway at the Coronation Cafe (Guyhirn) for toast and a nice cup of tea. Father parked up the car and me and my brothers made a mad rush for opening hour at the Bell before moving on to the Murderer’s. Marched up Timber Hill, took a right for pool play and more beers at the Surrey Tavern. Vomited in the toilets but was able to continue for two more beers in the Ferryboat before entering the stadium at the U14 entrance on the Barclay terrace. I’ll have to check the archives but I believe Mark Barham scored a screamer v Man Utd in a drawn match. Back home for 20.00hrs for a well deserved fish supper.

I was dead set against the ESL, but with the decisions being made to cater for the 'big boys' i'm now almost of this opinion too. What concerns me is that it becomes an irreversible change, billionaires get their wishes, the sport just becomes a global franchise, and ultimately places like Saudi become the host venue for many of our top domestic teams. Clubs outside of the ESL get dropped by their owners who had plans for the 'big time', that would include us. I think it would cause so much ruin, as the whole idea of the sport is that you push up the pyramid to play the best. I'd prefer for authorities to grow some balls and push back on owners/clubs demands. And the government to declare that clubs must remain in domestic leagues, so if there was any clubs walking away they'd have to do it under a new franchise ('Red Devils', 'Gunners' etc), new stadium, the lot. That way they can **** off and we'd be left with the same structure that was built domestically within a less corrupt environment... Almost like a snake shedding it's skin. Winds me up, really it does.

I'm going to wear this next time we play Ipswich, and I'll still bag a hatrick!

Bunch of do gooder lefty lawyers hiding behind the ECHR.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/02/22/efl-introduce-new-rules-stop-teams-playing-weakened-sides/ We simply need to include 10 outfield players in the 18 who played the game before. So 6 on the bench along with starting the back 4 is OK. I'm sure Josh will be rested but I'd also definitely not play Sainz. He is fouled constantly and is also a red card risk.

It will be interesting to see whether you get more than the 233 views (at the time of writing), that the same thread title gained for LYB?

Of course, it might also benefit the potential giant killers chance of a victory first time out - lower league sides invariably lose the replays - so they get a nice lucrative match in the next round.

I just thought I'd lay out why pursuing this would be a difficult thing to do. There is a risk in that unless Brum are also "safe" from relegation at that point. If there is a possibility they could get relegated and we put out a "weakened" team and thus give Brum a potential "advantage" over other teams facing relegation, we could land up with a financial penalty or even risk a points deduction (although I think I am right in saying that this would be in a future season not this one because of the subjectivity over what is a "weakened" team). We have 22 players you could deem as "experienced" in our squad (at some point having started a game this season). Gibbs and Dimi are unlikely to be fit until next season, and Onel, Hanley and Lungi have not made a squad in a month. If those latter three are fit, then sure, you could rest six of last week's starting line up without being deemed to start with a "weakened" team. However if any of them 3 do not make it back then the number of players you can rest reduces further to avoid such an accusation. This is where I think Wagner may have scored an own goal in not bringing players like Aboh and Welch on more often in recent weeks to prove they are truly part of our squad. With wholesale changes there would also be a change to the tactical set up as well which could undermine continuity. Finally there would also be a more than two week break between Swansea and the first leg of a play-off, after a long season a player could go stale in that time. The balance between keeping players sharp and fit and avoiding injuries is a difficult one to tread, so is avoiding the wrath of other clubs and the EFL.

This is yet just another of many reasons why the "big 6" should f**k off and join their European Super League. All of these shocking decisions made just to benefit the chosen few.

Liverpool hit top spot for me, horrible entitled fans.

After much deliberation this is what I have come up with: £1 Norwich 2-0 £1 McLean Anytime £1 Norwich 3-1 £1 HT/FT Norwich/Norwich £1 BTTS £1 2-1 £1 Sainz Anytime £1 Nunez Anytime £2 Norwich win, Sara anytime, over 3.5 goals With the tenner I sent last night: £2 SVH last scorer £2 Sargeant anytime, BTTS, Norwich win £2 Sara outside box, Norwich win, over 2.5 goals, less than 5 yellow cards £4 Norwich 4-2 Everything crossed for a return with some of these 💚💛

WWIAFTM - this match is next Saturday.

💛⚽️💚

Liverpool. One title in 30+ years is a shocking return for a club of their stature. Newcastle. Won farke all since football was on Pathe News.

Something else not happening either ...by the looks of it. Some border checks set to be delayed for the nth time.

Really been impressed by McCallum since Christmas, he's definitely made a step forward when I and a lot of others had pretty much written him off. I very much hope he gets a new deal as I think if he stays injury-free and gets game time he could make the step up and end up being a really good player for us.

Similar for the whole of the EU, that. Remarkable is that devoutly Catholic Poland and Italy have two of the lowest rates (although the Faroes have the highest, which isn't that surprising - it's pretty religious by Scandi standards). Even in largely Muslim Albania their rate is at the bottom end of the table too. Total fertility rate Europe by country 2023 | Statista Difficult to look past increased retirement ages and learning how to manage economies with decreasing populations. The likes of Iran show that even when you have a theocratic ****hole, women are still thankfully loathe to give their reproductive freedom up. Have heard unfortunately that in Iran (and also in Hungary and italy) governments are pushing hard to get women into having kids again, so let's hope those who don't want them stick to their guns. Back to Africa and the Third World though, as this chart shows, they are slowly getting there. Total Fertility Rate of Africa 1950-2024 & Future Projections (database.earth)

Now that's just virtue signalling.

So essentially, it has been 'railroaded in' by the FA and PL only, with limited to no consultation with anyone else. That is astounding.

What am I ignoring? I want to know, come on, tell me. Just tell me. JUST TELL ME ALRIGHT!! WHAT.... AM.... I.... IGNORING!!!???? and can I record it?

The guy is clearly not a football fan. He does a good job of editing & presenting but - IMO - is taking the **** with his liberal use of the George Plunkett library (gives Norolk Records Office an on-screen credit but not Plunkett) and his research is not all it could be. Plus, looking at the comments, he LOVES praise but doesn't respond well to criticism!

Politics is divisive. Should that be banned? Kids are being brainwashed to entertain left wing ideology that their birth sex might be 'wrong'. Religion seems harmless in comparison.

These days once every 6 months or when I happen to come across it. It largely seems to be shouting match of entrenched views and a repeat of government policy. No actual thought. Scrap it. Else - Much as Ian Dale and others - use 'retired' politicians (and no comedians or partisan columnists) -i.e. Heseltine, Stewart, Balls, Blair even who can give more thoughtful and less partisan responses and actually answer the question !

Using human rights laws. 👍

Can't see how anyone associated with our club can look pass Liverpool. Qualifying for Europe isn't a simple task and we have only achieved this 4 times in our history. But denied taking part 3 of the times due to the Heysel ban. I'm not sure why FIFA ban all the English clubs and not just Liverpool ? I'm not sure why all the banned clubs didn't collectively sue Liverpool ! These people are the true scum of the earth !

Only the first 3.

Just to square the circle in the equality field it also costs £45 for someone who doesn’t identify as either.

Got a job offer today! No more redundancy stress! Just see out the last couple of weeks, have a bit of a break then start the training for new one middle of May!

You've got to feel for Vaulks, Hackney, and Rathbone in the bottom right of the graph. It's like having a grade card with A for effort and E for achievement.