Rival Son

The rules don’t help. After it happened, I said to my mate that, in Rugby League, both players would have left the pitch for a Head Impact Assessment, with substitutes allowed. If the player(s) passed the HIA, they could return to the match and the substitutes withdrawn. This flexible use of substitutes should be introduced for head injuries in football. It’s much safer for the players.

Not weird at all. Lancashire FA covers the traditional county of Lancashire. https://www.lancashirefa.com/about/history And Bolton has been at the heart of it, from the very beginning.

I’m not saying anyone is. Just pointing out that I’d rather Gale always gets the nod, unless there’s a clear case for Cissoko. Right now, there’s very little case.

Gale is also our player, whereas Cissoko is a loan player. Naturally, if Cissoko was levels above, he plays but otherwise I’d like Gale to grow in the team.

I agree with your defence of Warren and the points you highlighted. The one area I disagree with, is his forward play. I felt he was regularly isolated in a way that ACD isn’t. While I mostly agree with certain assessments that Christie’s work at right back was superior to Cogley, the area where he definitely wasn’t superior, was in support of Warren. Warren naturally cuts inside, like ACD, because he’s a left-footed inverted winger. When ACD does this, he usually has Cogley moving outside him, which pulls one of the defenders away from him. Christie never supported Warren in this way. There were a number of occasions last night, where Warren created a great position, but found himself crowded out by 2 or 3 players covering both the inside and outside options. Christie wasn’t outside and McAtee didn’t show for him on the inside. Overall, I was more impressed with Warren than Cissoko and, if the latter doesn’t improve quickly, I’d be inclined to use Warren as the substitute winger. He can always replace Gale as an orthodox left winger.

I’m hoping people get off George Johnston’s back, now. Not for the first time, he was our best centre back last night, and is by far our best option at left centre back. I really like Inwood as a backup but think he’s injured. Nothing can change before January, so get behind him.

When I donated, it automatically ticked the “anonymous” option in the PayPal app; I would have needed to actively revealed my name. It does reveal your name to the receiver who, I’m sure, will respect your privacy.

As a relatively new (18 months) member, happy to make my first donation. Keep up the good work.

Notwithstanding the obvious point that you can fit many more standing people than seated people in the same space, I think they funded the redevelopment of the stadium by selling off a fair bit of land for property development. I’m fairly sure the modern football stadium has a smaller footprint than the old Stamford Bridge.

We’ve got the most balanced squad I can remember for a long time, with a decent and fit understudy in every position. The problem is that most of these are not currently getting match minutes. Eventually, some of these will be needed, due to injury, illness or suspension. Tuesday offers such an opportunity. In my opinion, this team - none of whom started today - would be competitive in League One. Miller Christie-Toal-Inwood-Taylor Warren-Morley-Sheehan-Cissoko Randall Dalby PS: McAtee is still only on the bench!

Assuming over 50 years includes 1973, you’ve seen us promoted 8 times; 3 times as champions. Not a bad return. There are fans of other teams who’d love that record of success.

I’ll give you TV money but I thought that external revenue was off the table, as per the parachute payment. No idea how much their sponsorship money is worth but our deals (especially Toughsheet) have been lauded.

How? They average a few thousand more than us (for now!) but have nothing like the commercial setup (hotel and hospitality) that we have.

Morley over Erhahon, for me.

2022/23 39/46 appearances * 2023/24 41/46 2024/25 8/46 *Court case issues. A knee injury for one season! Next thing you’ll be joining the pile on of George Johnston, for leading the meanest defence in the league: just 13 attempts on target conceded in 8 games, while excusing the only keeper in the league to save less than 50% of such attempts.

I’m not sure Liverpool were much better than us. I recall that McManaman had one of the best games of his career but, aside from that, we matched them in most areas and Alan Thompson was head and shoulders above the rest of both midfields. The reason Middlesbrough is remembered is we just didn’t turn up. I’m pretty sure we were favourites for that game, but we just couldn’t get going, for some reason. We weren’t helped by the double-kick penalty (which VAR would have disallowed, by the way) but that game was a real missed opportunity of our own making.

By levelling up the teams. Rewarding the highest finishing team with home advantage in a one-legged tie, rightly confers an advantage. I’d have thought that was obvious.

And highest finisher has home advantage. No two-legged affairs, which help the lower finishing sides.

Absolutely; it resolves the problem of teams a long way back going up. I’d also do it the other way around. Any team within, say, 5 points of the highest placed team in the play offs qualifies. Play off numbers could be anything between 1 and 6 or more.

As reported by the target of Evatt’s willy waving!

Unless we look on track for promotion, and a decent offer comes in for one of the four who are out of contract. This money could then be put towards a Championship level defender who would both help us over the line, and be the start of recruitment for the Championship.

I appreciate that. It wasn’t a dig at you but, definitely, a dig at Nixon!

Alan Nixon throws so many darts, the odd one will stick. Generally, as reliable as a chocolate teapot, though. As @gonzo reminds you, the transfer window is now closed until next year. Anything can change between now and then and speculation is, like Nixon’s posts, pointless.

Bitter should not be chilled, like red wine. Chilling is for lager or white wine: ladies drinks!

If you watched the video posted by @desperado, you’ll know that he’s back in full-contact training this week, and possibly in contention for the matchday squad by the end of the month. He sounded confident that he’s now fit.