Johnnyrotten

I get the impression we'll be avoiding any extra games in January if there's a danger of Jones, CMG and Iredale being away on international duty. I'm expecting February to be busy and we already have 7 league games between 2nd March and 1st April.

The Prem is full of "last match" contenders now with Burnley, Sheff U, Bournemouth, Fulham, Brighton, Brentford, Forest, Palace....who cares how they do when they play each other?

With the odd exception any of the ties could be last on MOTD when everyone's fallen asleep, the interest is when your own team is playing then it needs to be a 4-3 game or a major giant killing to get a neutral to pay any attention. Hull-Birmingham, Swansea-Morecambe, Fulham-Rotherham zzzzz.....

Yes 8 games on Sunday last year and only 2 on live TV, plus one red button, some very dull ties amongst them. One game was Villa losing at home to Stevenage, their stock has improved a bit since then!

Looks OK to me, but I'd be lieing if I said I'd seen enough of him against decent opposition to form a proper opinion. Great free kick to win the league cup tie v Barrow, a skill we aren't blessed with. Williams can have good days occasionally and is capable of scoring when he's in the mood, but if we had a play off final tomorrow, or a game at Pompey, I'd be picking Iredale. I'd be more sure of what he's going to contribute offensively, defensively, aerially and even verbally/organisationally. Virtually.

That's a strange one. They haven't named the player, maybe he only came on for last few minutes of a 5-2 win and they took into account that he didn't effect the result? Maybe a crowd of 1,500, gate receipts of £15k? FGR get about £6k for their trouble which probably won't even cover their travel/hotel etc costs.

They should be shit hot at passing it 12 yards sideways, Keith Andrews is part of Wilder's coaching team.

Watching FA Cup highlights, Maidstone's win v Barrow, I thought the No 4 joining in celebrations of the winning goal had a familiar frame. Reiss Greenidge, only came on as sub but must have been one of the better days of his career, first time Maidstone have reached 3rd round apparently.

Yes but what are his closing down stats?😀

I agree with all your points, and I'm the same on the North East derby, that will be a tasty one, it will be interesting to see how many tickets they give Geordies, if they are stuck in the gods like for league games it will lose some appeal with the reduced atmosphere.

That's a heck of a shout, try to get some odds on that! For any L1 team to finish above any team with Prem parachute payments would be unbelievable, but then again Ipswich are above Southampton and Leeds currently. Not sure if its ever happened in recent times by end of season.

If we won at Luton it would cause hardly a ripple because Luton are so small. Fulham v Rotherham, Forest v Blackpool could be upsets too and I'd be amazed if they were selected for TV. That's without considering Norwich-Crewe, Southampton-Walsall, WBA-Stockport, Blackburn-Cambridge, Swansea-Morecambe, Coventry-Oxford, Plymouth-Sutton. All potential upsets but only the huge clubs tend to get selected for TV coverage when at home v lower teams.

16 venues of games I think would be more attractive to TV companies, all games involving either a big fanbase, a lower league at home to Prem, or a non league team: Arsenal, Stoke, West Ham, Spurs, Wimbledon or Ramsgate, Peterboro, Watford, Sunderland, Palace, Boro, Wigan, City, Gillingham, Chelsea, QPR, Maidstone.

Genuinely puzzled that anyone thinks this tie could be on TV. Its got nothing going for it that I can see in terms of interest for the neutral. I doubt it will get much of a mention on the highlights never mind being considered for live coverage.

Or just "injured" (last season) 😀. Same as Toal, Ashworth, CMG, Sheehan, Dempsey, Maghoma (even Bradley), all often injured or had long term injuries. I know you're just having a laugh, but only JDB gets the injury prone tag!