Mutley

John Deehan attended a fete in our village in the 80s and participated, well he won very easily, a men's sprint race.

Yes, I was there aged nine standing at the front of the South Stand. The memory is a bit vague of that particular game but Kenny Foggo was my hero then and his song resonated the stands for many years to come and well after he stopped playing. Not sure if the connecting turnstiles were still in place from the River end then to move over if it started to rain? And John Ryan was a superb player for us - he could certainly could hit a ball very hard.

Can’t see it on the BBC website but I think the two top leagues are split into two and the bottom blue one four, so eight teams in each. Not sure where I just read this. I could be wrong? Such a model would be workable with clubs being able to cope with that and still stay in their current league.

Personally I would like Sara to be able to play beside a proper CDM who will win the ball and protect the back four at all times freeing him even more to roam forward. Sadly, I cannot remember Sara having a shot on goal for a number of games and since he has been played in that pivot role with Nunez. Yes, he’s certainly created chances and had assists but he is an excellent striker of the ball from the edge of the box that we are missing out on in our current set up.

It sounds like Delia had a lot to say, but what did Mr Attanasio say?

Thanks as always Ricardo for your report. I felt Kenny was MOM today. Whoever felt Stacey was must be blind. Kenny was calm in possession and made some incisive passes. I’m not normally his biggest fan but credit where it’s due.

Two major positives for me from the presser - Barnes in and around the team again and Rowe’s injury being not too serious and even a possibility for tomorrow’s game.

I suppose demolition is a cheaper and simpler route to replace/extend a stand. Perhaps builders on here can tell us if that is so? Maybe they should demolish the lot and put a multi storey car park over it. Reading the article again it sounds like the new stand will increase their capacity from around 29k to 36k so that would be a large stand. Similar to our purchase of Carrow Road, Portman Road has been partly pedestrianised to allow the stand to be built over it. Listening to their fans at the moment you would think that they are Champions League participants, it’s sickening but also just like 2000 when they fleetingly made the PL ahead of borrowing £50m and their impending administration when they couldn’t make the repayments. Aviva hang your heads in shame for writing off most of the debt. You can see it coming all over again.

Yes, you’re correct. To begin with there was terracing at the front with steps about two inches high. I was in the terracing for the first leg of the Texaco final as a boy and could hardly see a thing. Sadly we look like Bournemouth on the TV with our existing stand and that gives a false impression of the size of our ground.

I agree. The positivity in the article makes you feel sick. However, as I said to a binner the other day ‘will history repeat itself’ with their massive ego leading them once again to build beyond their means and lead them into administration. When they built the Pioneer stand in the 80s it led to them losing their best players, then in the early 00s the building of two extra tiers at both ends led them into administration. What will it do this time? From our perspective it will be very interesting to discover what their expansion will cost as it looks like another 6k seats which is approximately what has been mentioned for us. Once upon a time we did build the ‘Reeves stand’ with his transfer fee, but I’m not sure we have a player to sell that will finance the building of a top tier on the miniature stand.

This is pure fantasy league football! I’m not sure my nerves would cope with a play off final against Ipswich but we’d probably have a better chance in a one-off game than over two. So it’s Farke chasing down the binners successfully and demoralising them in a third place finish with us finishing fourth or fifth - easy. Works well for me. Amazing how much more optimism there is when we’re not playing.

I predict a scrappy 2-1 win.

I am really hoping that the binners implode. They now have a tough run of games with several on Sky and their record on the box is appalling. Here's hoping...

It is predicting that we only have have a 1.3% chance of being relegated. Thankfully that should bring some reassurance to those that are worried about that. I’m still not ruling us out on the play offs as six points is catchable but with a few caveats: Gunn, Hanley, Barnes and Sargent all return from injury and fully firing by the beginning of January, some will hopefully be back sooner, and Rowe does not have an injury that will keep him out at all. We do not lose Rowe, Gunn or Sara in the January window. Our new SD creates a positive atmosphere and somehow is able to bring in a quality CDM in January. I’m not asking for too much am I? 😊😊😊

Predicted 17th place finish on Opta Analyst: https://theanalyst.com/2023/11/championship-predictions-2023-24-november/

Are you saying that Brandon has been arrested or someone closely involved with him?

Looking back, the appointment of a SD was a brave decision that should have given the club a stability in its set up with a distinctive style of play from the youth teams right through to the first team. I will always be thankful that SW brought in Farke and the next coach should surely have been lined up to continue that style. We were given the impression that when Farke left us there was a list of candidates that would fit the style and direction of the club with the SD continuing to enforce this moving forward. The Smith appointment threw that out of the window for all sorts of reasons - he was in post when Farke was sacked so could not have been on the list - and he did not fit the previous style, set up and feel of the club. The reasoning for the appointment was that he was a coach who had secured another PL season (fair enough) with Villa but that completely abandoned the philosophy of the club and the point of a SD. Wagner's appointment was closer to Farke but the damage had already been done. It would be so interesting to know who was on SW's list to replace Wagner. As others have said the recruitment ahead of the last PL season was abysmal with a number of unproven and 'potentially good' players signed. And most notably we never made any serious attempt to replace Skipp with a quality CDM. In fact the greatest bug bear for me is that SW appeared to not grasp the nettle in replacing Tettey full stop and this continues to be a gaping hole that needs to be filled. Overall his time with us brought some incredible moments - promotion really against the odds in 18/19 and the sublime class of the 20/21 promotion. And the delivery of a world class training centre will be invaluable moving forward but I'm not sure if SW can take all of the praise for this with the supporters yet again digging deep to help fund it. Everyone makes mistakes and at least his goodbye statement did not contain digs at the fans.

I had completely forgotten that we have Sam. Is he injured/loaned out?

After trawling the annual report earlier, I think they contributed towards the revamped bar in the Barclay Stand. Sorry, I cannot now find what page that I saw the information.

These are the times when we need to be supporting the club and the lows help you appreciate the highs when they do come along. I’m as frustrated as the next person at the results this season but I haven’t quite got to the point of the disillusionment I felt under Roeder or Smith yet. I’m convinced that it would all be so much brighter if only Sarge and Barnes were fully fit and firing but football is always ifs and buts and we’ve just got to get on with it. Sadly, I can’t make it tonight as I’m still recovering from spinal surgery but I’m hoping to be able to return for the QPR game in November. OTBC!

That is certainly what I’m hoping for. A record breaking capitulation from the binners would be fabulous! They did start their first two League One seasons if not the first three v well and then fell away as others have said. They didn’t even make the play offs on those occasions either. How nice would it be with Sargent and Barnes returning we scrape a sixth place at their expense, or am I deluded or at best clutching at straws? BB did make some interesting points re the league in general on his YT channel.

As a season ticket holder? Are you in south stand or main (mini) stand? I sit in Block L in the south stand and I’m on the edge of the centre circle and know that I will need to move from my seat to receive a concession when I reach eligibility.

That’s how I saw the game Ricardo. Thanks once more for an excellent report. I’d add that Duffy was outstanding and I loved his little cameo going forward in the first half that resulted in him setting up Idah in open play. I was also wondering what on earth he was doing leaving his defensive duties behind.

Thank you for clarifying.