ponsaelius

Conceding the goal we did is so frustrating, as they look very open compared to Fulham and Bournemouth

That's an absolutely horrendous goal to concede. Absolutely ridiculous. Against a team that never throws away leads too, you might as well write the game off.

So is it updated directly by club staff? The logistics of it is fascinating to me. The fact it also covers step 6/NL2 is even more impressive.

No idea how it is updated so quickly live given the level of coverage NL1 has. I would perhaps guess it pulls data from the Twitter accounts.

Yeah most of the postponed fixtures have been away ones I think, not unusual to end up with weird fixture lists like this. If you do pop along to a home game give me a shout as I might be around 👍 On a side note I used this website today, which I've used before for attendances, but never realised how good it was for following lower leagues that aren't on the usual score apps. The way it looks is very deceptive - during the game it had the live scores for NL1 and a live league table: https://www.footballwebpages.co.uk/northern-league-division-one

Chelsea losing definitely the best outcome, as they have two total gimmes coming up next. Villa have three away games with CL in and around them.

Long trip to Kendal for me today. Kendal man sent off after 6 mins (should have been a pen as well), took till 78th minute for Whitley to get a winner. Just about keeps some very faint hopes of a play off push alive, but not enough games left and too many of them away in reality.

Yes I would say that would be a pretty reasonable bet.

Worth noting there's also an application in to demolish Percy House (The ugly building with Milligans in it). I'd imagine whatever ultimately replaces it will be expected to include a through route onto the rear lane. You can see how the One Strawberry Lane development was required to surface that and make it more inviting with the expectation that the context would soon change.

Yes, has been for ages since those developments were built out, probably 2008ish? Since the Strawberry block was finished it's all been resurfaced and has the feel of a pedestrianised area anyway, and is already closed off on matchdays. This is a pretty logical step to regularising it and doesn't really seem worth of any news articles.

No that's St Andrews St, so I presume that stays open as is for now, but it effectively becomes a dead end so can't be used as a cut through. The context and feel of that road has changed since the One Strawberry Lane development finished and it was resurfaced - so this is just regularising it really.

Worth making clear that's Strawberry Lane (running north to south past the strawberry) rather than Strawberry Place which is the main road along past the Gallowgate.

Based on my own judgement when visiting and what I have read from their fans West Ham's supporter composition has changed quite a bit since the move. Would say at least half of that 27k jump is made up of tourists and more casual fans. There's also a relatively small, but vocal number, who have stopped going regularly since the move. Quite enjoyed going there as a one off, particularly as it was a nice summer day and I hadn't really explored the surrounding area before, but the thought of going to that ground every week would be soul destroying to me if I'd supported them my whole life.

Never got round to posting these at the time, but last Italy trip was a quick one in September. Flew to Milan Bergamo from NCL on the Friday night and used Milan as a base for three nights, coming back Monday morning to Manchester. Thought I'd do a little write up with pictures. I've limited the pictures to footy related rather than the other sights of the cities etc. Going to Naples next weekend for potentially Napoli - Inter depending on kick off time (and cost through resellers) and some local lower league action in Campania, so will do a run through of that as well if people enjoy these little write ups.

Stinking results for the Italian teams all round. Not even got the excuse of budget difference given they've all gone out to clubs they outspend significantly. Expected Juve to go out given how they've performed but the other two were pretty good in the group stage and in Milan's case pretty much blew getting top 8 in the first place.

All modern stadiums look bland. However to me it looks like a football stadium, with four clearly defined stands, where the focus is entirely on football. Can't say I felt the same about Spurs' stadium.

Not to labour this same point again but in terms of traffic/transport it is the opposite. It is much more of an issue the more peripheral you go from the established city core. Everton's stadium looks good to me but is going to have some issues due to its location. Firstly in terms of access/egress it faces the river/dock on three sides which makes dispersal of crowds hard enough as it is as you only have one side for access. Then this is made more difficult due to the listed wall they've had to retain on the remaining side - with a few accesses punched through. I can see getting 52k in and out a bit of a faff and people needing to get there very early. Transport wise it's a problem because there's only one Merseyrail station, which is past the ground and a bit of a walk in and of itself. At the moment there's not a lot around the ground - so you're going to have the bottleneck issue of people getting from the centre to the ground at the same time. This will obviously relent somewhat over time as that area is inevitably regenerated around the stadium - kind of the point of building it there - and it becomes more of a destination in itself over time.

Would give anything for Cov to do them in the playoffs

Not really. A parking restriction around there was obviously needed if you were going to allow a stadium to be built on that site. There's very limited space on the adjacent campus and residential roads for any on street parking; allowing a free for all would be absolute chaos and make it even worse. Just an awful location for a stadium in general. We don't know how lucky we are having a city centre ground.

Nah it's just a nightmare to get out of Brighton's ground post match so loads always leave early. This is even more the case when it's an evening game.

A 5ft6 left winger? Surely not happening.

Yeah it is definitely the most similar equivalence in terms of English clubs, and Real Madrid in Spain too, but still don't think it's an exact equivalence. Both those clubs still retain a very clear local identity despite their wider support base. Juventus is a particular oddity given that Italian football is otherwise reflective of the country being a patchwork of parochial city states with very tribalistic rivalries. I suppose it probably explains their success to cut through that entirely and embrace a more national identity.

As discussed subsequently Juventus have the biggest fan base in Italy by a fair way - but not locally. If you were to look at the data of most provinces/regions, particularly in the south, they will usually be the second most popular team in every area behind the local club. This adds up to a large cumulative supporter base. A lot of the supporter base in the south in particular came from the large numbers of southern Italians who moved north for work, many specifically working for the Agnelli family at FIAT. During the economic boom Juventus became synonymous with the economic growth in the same way the various other industries/brands did and were seen as an aspirational club to support. The southern diaspora passed on a lot of this support back to families at home and these connections are still there. The club has always also deliberately marketed itself as a club of the country rather than Turin, which makes it easier for any potential gloryhunter to shamelessly latch onto. The fact there is no reference to the city in the name exemplifies this - and the site of the new stadium and training ground complex being both put quite a way out of the city core continues that trend. Of course they were the club that pushed most to leave for the super league too. If anybody wants to understand more the oddity that is Juventus (I'm not sure there is an equivalent in other countries in Europe really) then the book 'Juve!' by Herbie Sykes is a really good read.

Penalty to Brugge there probably one of the most scandalous penalty decisions I've ever seen.