Harry Dowds Green Shirt

Well if someone who was there hadn't been banned they'd be able to post the details for you

Just when you think this thread couldn't get any more ridiculous! If thats a banning there is much worse on this thread that doesn't seem to have been dealt with. After what happened on the sponsored walk the advice for Lee to carry a 1st aid kit at all times seems perfectly apt.

I'm not in the least surprised by this. Despite their football league world record of 28 years unbeaten (they are now unbeaten in 22 hours) I can't recall any moment from our last 6 games against them over the least 3 years where I thought "this is a decent team." In fact it says it all that in Penny's one season of trying to kill off ur club one of our best performances was at the Gayfarm where we really should have taken something from the game. Yes they went 40+ league games unbeaten, but how many of those were draws? I think that LC had a defensive mindset and that's why, whilst going a long time unbeaten, they have failed to go up. In the games we played against them, they showed no flair at all and in last seasons game at BP, I probably saw the most one side 1-0 massacre I can recall in the last 10 years. By half time, they couldn't have complained if we had been 4, 5 or even 6 up. The game at the Gayfarm was a snorefest and they rarely looked like breaking us down. Most of their fans seem happy he has gone and you can't help not being surpised by that if they play consistently like they have against us in the last 3 seasons. If only they had displayed half a sense of adventure and "gone for it" more often, they may have lost a few games and not had their historic run, but they would probably have won a few more games and gained those extra points that would have achieved automatic promotion. Any way at least they can bask in the glory of 43 (or how ever many it was) games unbeaten next season when they return to the "3 sided :censored:hole" that is BP instead of visiting magnificent stadiums such as the Reebok, DW and Molineux.

4153. Lowest home league crowd of the season.

Especially when you see the penalty City won against Liverpool last night.

Main Stand!!!!! Good luck. Went in there for an England match about 4 years ago. Went with 3 mates, when one of us got up, all 4 of us did. It makes our main stand seem palatial

Leeslover

I've seen it all at BP over the last 40 odd years and particularly during the pinch me seasons. Today though has come as something of a shock as I really have thought that the town had lost its appetite for something special. This post isn't a complaint or moan, just a dose of reality. Since relegation in 94, we have been in the play offs with Dowie and Shez and each time the club has been let down by towns public. Both play off home legs against QPR and Blackpool failed to sell out the home sections and the away leg at Bloofield Road managed to get to open sale, despite us having 3,500 season ticket holders at that time. Various other "big" home games have seen disappointing attendances, and even the "big" cup game at Everton under Shez failed to sell 6,000 tickets. So we draw Liverpool away and get a 6,100 ticket allcation when home crowds have dropped to little over 3,500. 1800 season ticket holders can have 2 a piece so that leaves around 2,500 for others. Will we sell out? a question I have asked a number of people since the draw. Most say that anyone who wants one will get one, such is the apathy, whilst a few others think we may "go close." My view was we might get down to the last few tickets in the day or so before the game. When I got to the ground this morning, I was taken aback, but still didn't think we would be selling out today. Fair play to all those who got up and queued in the cold and rain especially during the torrential downpours. To those who say the club should do something different, all I can say is that things will improve when the new stand is built and better facilities are introduced. Everyone knows that there is no money about and anything that is available needs to be spent on essential costs. These cup games only happen every 3 or 4 years (Everton being the last one) and doesn't IMO justify the additional costs for 1 offs. It doesn't work putting the tickets on the turnstiles, it is a logistical nightmare and there are not enough staff with the experience to sell on the turnstiles, where it would have to be cash only. It was done during the pinch me seasons for FA Cup quarter final against Villa and was an absolute nightmare, that IIRC resulted in far more complaints than any other game at the time. Also, which tickets do you put on the turnstiles? There were tickets at £18, £19, £20, £21, £22, £23, £24 and £25 plus the various concessions and disabled tickets giving something like 18 different prices to deal with. Sometimes you can't win, but you put in place what you believe to be the best plan based on the information available to you. If it's not working as you either expected or hoped, then you react and adapt to the circumstances as best as possible. Still you probably wont have to queue for Wembley if we get there, so that will bring a different set of complaints.

Some fine performances on Saturday, but for me Kuqi epitomised what we were about, leading by example as we defended from the front from the 1st minute to the last. Chased every defender down all afternoon as we prevented them having time on the ball. Special mentions also for Taylor who after his enforeced break looks full of energy again, and Parker who because of his pace did not look out of place at full back.

If the Liverpol tickets are £24, as rumoured, thats £20 after Vat, so after allowing for concessions, say 25% of the crowd, you have a net of approx £16 per person as an average. A crowd of 40,000 gives you receipts of around £640K and a crowd of 30,000 gives you £480k. Take away expenses such as stewards, police, floodlighting, transport and meals of the visiting club, ticket printing etc etc etc of say £40K (**) and your net receipts are circa £600K or £440K. On a 42.5% (*) share of the net receipts a 40,000 crowd would give us £255k and a 30,000 crowd produces £187k. So you can see where SC's figure of £180K from the Everton game comes from. The home team keeps all monies from programmes, car parking, hospitality (except for the ticket price) etc, therefore we will not get a share of this. Still a quarter of a million from the Liverpool game would be fantastic, if we can get past Southend tomorrow night. Even better would be Wembley visit with Swindon as the opposition and a near certain 50,000+ crowd, where average ticket prices and therefore receipts will be higher than Anfield and we have a chance of a £400-500K bonus. ** No exact science for this figure as it can easily change from club to club depending on the level of stewarding required under the safety certificate together with other faqctors. * 45% in replays.

10 years ago getting to the ball first meant you had committed a clean tackle. Where and when was the FIFA rule book changed? because I haven't seen it changed in black and white. Basically some poxy person has seen fit to "interpret" the rule book differently and some other dib dobs have followed. Kevin Friend (who I actually think is one of the better refs) included

Was in charge of the New years day 5-0 demolition of Forest when he sent off 2 of theirs and gave us 2 penalties which Lids tucked away. And IIRC was the ref when we won at Millwall with a Lee Hughes treble. Probably been demoted though for the red card at Fulham on Monday night.

Where's Graham Poll when you need him

FA Cup x 2 - Arsenal last season - Swindon this. Therefore our victory at the Gayfarm on the 14th January will be their 1st official defeat (using your 8 game logic)

I despair

That really should get daft question of the day on this board

West Brom were very clever that day. We were playing 4-2-4 under Friz and Andy Lockhead, with Les Chapman + 1 (cant just recall who) in midfield and Len Cantello took out Chappie with a dead leg in the 1st couple of minutes. I remember playing against Cantello some years later on the artificial at BP and chatting with him after the game when he admitted that it was a pre match discussion to take Chapman out with the aim of starving Groves of possession. Dirty Brummie B'stards. The defeat was made easier by the fact that Notlob were denied promotion though. Having said that as a 15 year old I hated any defeat. Still show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser.

IIRC that was the biggest crowd of the season around 22,000 with 15,000 from West Brom. They shut the RRE near to kick off as it was "considered" full (that was in the days before the introduction of crowd control computers) only for the West Brom fans to then start piling into the Chaddy end and march up the side of the pitch to the RRE. It would never happen now. I remember having an "interesting" conversation with a bit of a meat head West Brom fan in the paddock. Notlob were at Charlton that day and there were indeed several of their fans in the Chaddy. Looked tasty at times.

Ok hotel name fair enough, but ayone can get that information. Which players? I know he didn't name them so how do you know if indeed any players were present. Who was with the manager? How many players /staff were "thrown out?" Were they thrown out of the hotel, or asked to leave the bar as it was shutting? When the allegations about Hereford broke, the team were in a hotel 50 miles away from Hereford and Lee Hughes was alleged to be drinking in the bar with the Manager. Turns out that LH had returned to the bar to speak to Shez about his contract and was not drinking. Without any further "facts" it's pure :censored: stirring. Yes a very poor display yesterday, but this is hearsay, nothing more and as much as you are "just passing it on" you have nothing but the word of a punter who you don't know from Adam. You can be sure as hell that if there is any truth on this jackanory story, the national press will be all over it in the next 48 hours with headlines of "FOOTBALL TEAM THROWN OUT OF HOTEL AT 5AM" shocker. Until then, I class it as :censored: stirring.

And so the :censored: stirring starts again. Always after a poor away defeat. Same stories that appeared after the Hereford debacle under Shez that were proven unfounded.

109 & 112 on the centre Isle. 99 next to centre stand - Blue block The right hand side varies row to row reducing as you move up the stand but A row is 126

This Chris Taylor is a RW /LW debate is quite tiresome. As someone who followed his progress with interest as an 11-16 year old when he played for Springhead, I just don't get where people say he started as a right winger. Chris was a cental midfielder. He played against my sons team in that position for 5 years. Simple as that. Chris had a good engine even at that age, was box to box and was stand out, easily gluiding past players (not really a surprise therfore that the professionals saw fit to move him out wide.) When he 1st came to the club, TP and then RM saw fit to use him as winger/wing back and the end result was that he has played left and right wing as well as just behind the front man, together with the odd game at full back. There is nothing in his 1st 6 or 7 years as a player from 11 onwards that suggests he has always been a left or right winger. He is versatile, lively and gets us into positions that others can't. He gets at the opposition and winds them up. Yes he is a grass eater and goes down easily, but there again the Portugese prancing pony, now at Madrid has made a career of doing that. Is he worth £500K, or even £1 million? I don't know. The club will have put a valuation on him, like they would any other player and if that is met then he is offski and that money will be used to pay overheads and/or bring in a replacement. That is the way our club has operated for all but 1 year of the 45 years that I have followed them. In the meantime, I trust that he will give his all in every game. Some will be good, others not so good, but leave the lad alone he is doing his best. Over the last 5 years, people keep telling me that teams have "worked him out." If thats the case, then why is he still constantly double teamed, why is he regularly targeted by the opposition and why was he our top scorer last season from, for the most part, the left wing? The answer is that he has matured and progressed as a person and as a player. In my opinion, he is currently our most valuable asset both on the pitch and from a balance sheet point of view, but there again over the years so were numerous player at the time. Paul Atkinson, John Ryan, Mark Ward, Mick Quinn etc etc etc. The world moves on. If CT goes then so be it. The club comes before and after players, new heroes emerge and from nothing a rennaicance comes. Stability is the single most important factor. The only constant needs to be the manager as it was when JF and then JR were in charge. Give PD the time and with or without CT we will have some success again.