fensaddler

Honestly would prefer right now to see some of the younger players. We need energy, pace and enthusiasm. We can't do any worse right now.

Indeed, difficult to separate the bullshit from the truth at the moment. I do sense a concerted desire from somewhere to destabilise the club. But that could be anything from someone inside the club to a salty oppo fan with crafty social media skills. So the who and why is difficult to work out.

And regardless of what you think of Malik he won't be playing next week, so someone else, probably Kilkenny, will be taking that role.

When you've not only laughed when your team has conceded but also when they've scored. When the best chant of the night has been 'We're shit, and we know we are' and everybody joined in. Even the players. When your best football story, which actually got you published, is about barking at police dogs. When you've been away to York in sub zero temperatures and watched your team lose 3-0. When you've lost to Accrington, away, in the pissing rain. Then and only then, have you truly become a football supporter.

Bort. Sheer unrelenting, die in ditch effort. Futile, but somehow noble.

Return of the Rat.

He was on the other team.

It could be far, far worse. You could have been born an Aston Villa supporter. That's the spirit.

Quite right Jeff. They haven't suffered anything like enough yet. These kids who think football is about winning. Wrong, it's a lesson in perpetual, stoic suffering, and learning to laugh about it. Invented by the British see, so it reflects the British sense of humour... Dark, manic and just ever so slightly unhinged...

This is nothing. I grew up watching Walsall. You think this is tough? This is my team, win or lose. Always next week.

I have some sympathy with much of that.

But no VAR for us. The ref should lose his job over this. TV commentary team can't believe what's going on.

Liking that. Firm slap down. And if he gets game time he needs to deliver. No use throwing your toys out of the pram with Warren as gaffer. He's sorted out big egos at United.

Rate Wazza every time I hear him.

Ange wants a break and Wazza's doing a decent job.

Thanks Embee. Yes it's a stretch, but putting a number of things together I'm hoping somebody can at least reach out to him.

Tin foil. At Woollies. At least twice apparently.

And I am so looking forward to seeing the little ferret back on the wing. He's worth the ticket price on his own for entertainment value...

I think they just sooked about the whole thing TBH. Distance, they'd get s bigger crowd, they were the bigger club etc. At the time City were getting all the media attention, and the former media darlings were feeling a bit put out, I think...

He clearly has a problem with timekeeping, or organisation, or something. I keep coming back to something fundamental, like is the guy suffering from depression (and anybody who has met the black dog knows I'm not putting that out there lightly). He's fundamentally a talented footballer who is clearly struggling, and my sense is that it's in his head. And let's not forget that whilst he butchered several chances last week, he was at least in the right place to butcher them, and he cracked in a seriously high pressure penalty. I'm far from writing him off yet, and at least he isn't sooking on prime time media about how he isn't the centre of the freaking football universe... Seriously? Have you ever struggled at anything? When you do, it might be instructive to meet someone with the attitudes you've expressed and see how much it helps you.

But anything this side of the new year might be a bonus. Sounds like he's not there yet.

Indeed they were. Hence my surprise at the turnout...

Re the discussion with Matt Windley about City attendances, did anyone clock the attendance last night for the Cup Final? Thirteen and a half thousand, yet we got nearly nineteen last year. Clearly Sydney fans not all that bothered...

Quite. He'd hardly be training and too injured to play again.

I hope the lad does well. I sense he has a monkey on his back, if not several.