Worcester Owl

I know the referees have questionable ability at this level but I think sending a Fleetwood player off might be a bit harsh.

I think that’s the silver lining to take from tonight. Mellon is no fool and will have heard about the weaknesses in the squad, but there’s no substitution for seeing with your own eyes how bad we can be. To those questioning team selection/tactics, this is Mellon’s second game. He is bound to have said on arrival that every player started with a clean slate. He will very quickly learn who he can and can’t rely on.

That’s one of the most outrageous decisions for a second yellow I’ve ever seen.

And there you have it. Total refusal to recognise personal accountability.

I think you're the one who needs to have a think. Maybe you should write to GMP and suggest that as their future strategy for dealing with crowd trouble. Good luck.

Nobody is saying that. Was it the police who went to the game and planned to cause trouble, or was it cretinous Oldham and Rochdale "fans" ?

OK, I've got it now - if the troublemakers hadn't been there, maybe you and O.A.F.C. think they would have charged through an innocent crowd anyway. Fired up, according to the pair of you, and relishing the chance to trample on a few people. What a ridiculous scenario. Or maybe you think the police should have stood to one side and said excuse me chaps would you yobs causing trouble mind awfully popping across to us so we can arrest you and eject you from the ground? That would have worked I'm sure. This is typical blame anyone but the actual culprits thinking. "How dare the police and clubs not expect violence at the game", "you can't blame the yobs, what do you expect" etc. The police are damned if they don't forestall trouble, damned if they act to restore order. They can't win. It's pathetic.

Ha ha no and it certainly wasn't my passing skills!

This, 100%. I've lost count of the number of times I've gone to our away games and stood/sat with home fans as the only way to see the game*. It's never fun, having to bite your tongue and keep your hands in your pockets if/when we score. But it's called self-preservation. Sadly too many idiots these days have no sense of self-control or discipline or personal accountability. * The worst time was Upton Park, League Cup Semi-Final 2nd leg, just after we went 3-0 down. A rather large West Ham fan turned to me and said how many minutes played. I was about to tell him, kept my mouth shut and showed him my watch instead. Fortunately he was ok with that!!

As an illustration of how Charlton was famous throughout the world: I was in Bukhara in about 1987 or 1988, then part of the USSR and now Uzbekistan I think. I was wandering down a street sightseeing with my wife and a little kid about 9 or 10 years old kicked a ball towards us. This was of course pre-internet, pre-mobile phones, in a part of the world culturally very different to Moscow or Leningrad, never mind western Europe. So I kicked it back to him and he must have heard me speaking English or guessed we were, because he just grinned and started shouting "Bobby Charlton, Bobby Charlton!". I remember saying to my wife that it just showed how famous he was, about 15 years after he'd retired from playing.

Did they pile in? Presumably.

Yes of course, it was Ian Thomas-Moore who scored, how could I forget his dad was managing Tranmere and as you say he loved trying to wind us up. Bolton were certainly massive rivals when I was growing up, and I hated Blackburn too, especially when Shearer was playing for them. I remember one game at Boundary Park where he tried to referee the entire game, and was winding up the crowd, totally obnoxious he was.

I remember us playing Tranmere at home a few years back - Jason McAteer was playing for them and I think their manager's son scored (a penalty?) for them. Great atmosphere that day, decent attendance and it was all a bit hostile. Every time McAteer got the ball, our fans launched into a collective Harry Enfield scouser impersonation, it was so funny. To be fair, McAteer himself was laughing long before the end of the match!

Well, it's not that often I find myself agreeing with @deyres42 lol, but he's hit the back of the net this time. Boundary Park is a 20 minute drive/6 miles from Spotland. It's a derby. Yes, of course some derbies are more passionate/frenetic/hostile than others, but Rochdale v Oldham is a derby. At the moment, they are big rivals, yes. They are 10th in the table, 2 points off the play-offs, which is where we want to be.

Please God, no.

As long as any winger selected doesn't put over crosses 8 Mile high like Stobbs was prone to doing!

Given your track record on forecasting results, God help us in that game then.

So what? You expect him to hang around for a few more days and oversee the 4th qualifying round of the FA Cup? Seriously? And when he doesn't does that justify him being called a wanker? I don't see a difference sorry. We don't even know whether his old role was still open to him. Exactly. And when a club fires a manager he has to walk straight away, why should Thompson be condemned for doing exactly that?

We have a new contender for Ridiculous Post of the Year and I'm not sure I can see either of the above being beaten. In what other walk of life would a stand-in manager on learning he hadn't got the job he'd applied for be condemned for leaving and seeking a role elsewhere? If you want loyalty, get a dog.

2.30pm tomorrow on ITV. It literally appeared on screen as I read your text

Do we know why JDavidson is/was crap? What's he done to deserve that?!

As I always say, you just can't beat a healthy burst of optimism at the start of a new manager's reign.

I’d never say that. I would say that Pele regarded Best as one of the greatest players of all time, and that’s good enough for me. I’d also point out that, unlike Burgess, who is a decent player, Best played at the highest level for his club and won League titles, a European Cup and if I remember rightly was European Footballer of the Year.

Well good to see you again BP, but with all due respect to you, Burgess and Australia, playing for Australia is hardly going “to the top”.

I hereby nominate this for Ridiculous Post of the Year Award. Do I have a seconder?