TheRock

The antics that the "Big Six" showed during the Coronavirus season, and subsequently trying to enact the Super League exodus must not be forgotten. Not to mention the way that all of these clubs hypocritically accuse each other of "Buying Success", but yet they are all complicit in throwing around money as much as one another. Liverpool should be universally detested by all english clubs, more so the clubs that lost out as a result of the Heysel Ban. Their fans booing the national anthem every time they play at Wembley is also very crass, likewise with regularly not observing pre-match minute silences. Celtic are also constantly guilty of this. Although he is now on the way out, personally I find Klopp often lacks professionalism and can come across as a sore loser, much like Ferguson often was at Man United. When Ipswich had the likes of Sheepshank and later Marcus Evans at the helm, they were a despisable club, their incompetence epitomised by the fact of entering administration upon PL relegation. Fortunately for Town, they have gotten their act together a bit recently with new ownership that actually seem interested in the team, and a manager that plays decent attacking football. Apart from that, there have been several clubs with several unfavourable spells which have not won the plaudits with me, but nothing that has made me permenantly detest other teams.

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

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.

Do you ever watch it? I watched it probably for only the second time in many years since David Dimbleby stopped chairing it. All I can say is that it wasn't a very civil debate, at times more like a shouting match that you'd expect to see in a school or university classroom, goaded on by Fiona Bruce constantly screeching over the panelists. Members in the audience chatting as much unrelated rubbish, whilst the panelists skirt around the actual questions and inevitably descend into ad-hominem attacks on one another. On the rare occasion nowadays that I have free time in an evening to watch any political show, I find Iain Dale's evening show on LBC a lot more entertaining, civil and non-partisan.

Could the Iran/Israel escalation in the Middle East be a major catalyst in deciding the US election?

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.

If we better Hull's result this weekend, we are probably there. Currently 6pts clear, another 0.1 of a point for us on Goal Difference and another 0.1 of a point for Goals Scored. Bonus for us if Leicester turn up against West Brom on Saturday. A match in-hand is Hull v Coventry next Wednesday, we probably lean towards a result for Coventry, more so if Hull win this weekend. Draw would be beneficial. All Wagner needs to get them to do is focus on winning these two home games, the rest is noise. Don't rest until we are mathematically clear.

Also - not a goal but Grant Holt's return to Carrow Road with Huddersfield was quite bizarre, i think we beat them 5 or 6 nil. Every one of touches or interaction got a massive cheer and applause, with a tongue-in-cheek chant or two of "you fat b*****d", "blue and white s**te" etc. The second half of that game for like a makeshift testimonial for him. 😂

A few spring to mind. Peter Crouch getting a very good reception on returning to Carrow Road after a thirteern year hiatus, when he scored and Stoke beat us 0-1 in 2018/19, The other is Hooper's volley away at Rotherham the season that we won the play-offs. The Rotherham fans were buoyant in the pub before the match that day anyway, as they smugly believed that they were going to avoid relegation, which was reinforced when they bagged a late equaliser against us, and Millwall let in a late goal meaning Rotherham had control of their own fate. Then of course, there's Suarez's goal where he megged our CB (Eliot Ward?) and lobbed Ruddy from nearly 50 yards for his hat-trick, probably one of the best goals at Carrow Road in recent years.

Is he related to Nick Griffin? Or Peter Griffin?

In terms of a prediction it's a high-stakes game for both teams. If Town lose that's a massive torpedo to their hopes of a top-two finish. If we lose we risk finishing outside of the Play-Offs which will mean Wagner's position becoming untenable and inevitably selling players in the summer. A draw would not be as detrimental to us as it would be for them, espeically if Leeds and/or Leicester notch another win tomorrow. I think if its 0-0 or 1-1 at ~75 minutes, the nasty "shut-up shop", "anti-football", "DEFCON-1", "ball-in-the-sky" tactics may be deployed.

An interesting stat that the Pink Un pounced on today: Sargent is looking to bag for the 10th home game on the bounce. For those of you who like a bet you can get odds of just under 2/1.

The below has some quite interesting data in. It suggests South Norfolk will be held by Tories. https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/49061-yougov-mrp-labour-now-projected-to-win-over-400-seats Some interesting analysis regarding Reform in there too. It looks like no possible sweatheart deals will help the Tories this time. The Tory/Reform vote is split, but even if thier vote share becomes "unsplit" like in 2019, neither party can get within toucing distance of the Labour polling numbers in nearly any seats, even Ashfield where Anderson's seat is would be a coin flip.

Headlines this morning, Sunak says UK will leave the ECHR if Rwanda flights are legally blocked, and Tories win at the GE. Leaving the ECHR is one of Reform Party's main policies. Talk about desperate.

True, albeit Farage did get very close when he stood in Thanet, a few polls had gave him the seat prior to the vote as no one expected Tories to clear up as well as they did in 2015. That was nine years ago and he has a much bigger following since then, nevertheless the only realistic way for him to win a seat if he stood on a Tory ticket and Reform stood aside for him, otherwise he will always lose to a split vote. Agree regarding Johnson not wanting to be in opposition, plus he is supposedly coining it in heavier than ever now he isn't an MP.