ponsaelius

Yeah that's irked me. I've been going to the evening games from work and have enough time to get back to the office and pick my bag up before the last train on Tyne valley line. That additional 15 mins is cutting it fine.

Workington only have three more games over the winter at their Borough Park ground before it is demolished (they're ground sharing with the rugby team while it's redeveloped, then they'll both move in). Highly recommend a visit before it goes - a proper relic of a non league ground.

Statistically we are now about 99.9% likely to make the play-offs, with a small outside chance of making top 8 if we can nail some away games. Given the difference between 9th and 24th will be nothing more than about 3 points, there's little real benefit to exactly where you finish in that bracket given the relatively random nature of the finishing position of teams and who you might end up facing quality wise. Obviously there is still still something to play for, but nothing really tangible and we basically can't get knocked out. It's all a bit drab and inconsequential to me.

Yes that was right. There is a draw, but you've only got one of two possible teams you could play. IE if you finish 9th you could only possibly play 23rd/24th placed finishers.

Don't think it's anything to do with countries. It's just 9th-16th drawn randomly against 17th-24th. As pointed out Brest played PSG? Unless that has changed this season.

Isak set our entire press and scared teams both coming short and going wide/over the top. Even when he was playing shit and he was isolated the type of player he was helped us as a team get up the pitch or damage the opposition on the break. You also always also fancied him to score a half chance to break a game To me we seem generally much deeper as a team and a bit less dynamic, even if in isolation he has done OK. I've also yet to see him show the pure shooting/finishing prowess that Isak showed twice in 45 mins on his debut. That's not to slander him because so far he's done well, and clearly has a lot to his game, but I too am not 100% convinced yet.

Well yeah because we'd be 4/6 games rather than 4/8. We're half way through a bloated calendar and it's almost guaranteed that the outcome will simply be a play-off to get to last 16, another additional round of games that didn't exist previously, and what was our heavily odds-on outcome before things even started. It's a whole load of extra games for very little consequence. I've personally found the last few games pretty dull despite the supposed prestige and watching us win. Bradford at home had more jeopardy than these fixtures.

We now have nothing to play for except the outside chance of finishing top 8, and earning the reward of dodging two games to save those precious legs for the league and our fans some money. Dreadful format.

Woltemade is a silky customer but definitely feel like we've lost a lot as a team in the ability to press from the front and genuinely scare teams. Needs to be involved more to compensate for that if we are going to improve. Or we need Wissa back to play with him.

I absolutely hate when we move away from 4-3-3 90% of the time. I'd rather we just stuck with it all of the time and rotated players.

How frustrating is this season

£12 million in 2016 is basically the equivalent of £25 million now. It was a pretty extravagant purchase for a newly relegated PL club. And Matt Ritchie was only ever an OK PL player. A winger who scored 8 PL goals in 145 PL appearances. Good signing for what we needed, but not a bargain IMO.

Looking a canny way ahead to boxing day, if anybody fancies a groundhop this would be decent: 11:00 - Marske Vs Boro Rangers (NL1) 3:00 - Redcar Athletic Vs Dunston (NPL1) 7:30 - Redcar Town Vs Grangetown (NL2) I've been to the first two so probably wont. TBF it looks like there will be a good mix of 11, 3 and late kick offs if anybody is so inclined.

I'm your biggest fan gets pretty regular outings

Hard to square just about poor we are in the league this season. More than just adapting to a new striker.

Ritchie was quite expensive relative to the time and the fact we were in the Championship tbh. A good signing for what we needed and ended up being a great character to have around, but not what I'd describe as a value signing personally.

Yeah I always presumed he'd had the 1 year extension. This is good news that we got the extra year - but also does show a high level of faith in him given the circumstances.

Indeed. They have no value despite the size of the clubs. There is less weight on them than a normal league game for these clubs, where every point actually matters. I don't think I've ever seen teams resting players for the CL before this format came in. It's an extremely similar feeling to watching a regular season NBA game to me. Which I don't think I've ever felt watching football before. You can now finish the equivalent of 3rd in a group format (17th-24th) and rather than get dumped into the EL you get a play off to still get through. And not only that but there is no chance of accidentally getting a tough group of three opponents - because you're given a random and balanced spread of 8 opponents to get the points you ultimately need. To add insult the bloating of the CL has massively weakened the Europa League as the second tier competition.

But that's the thing. City were absolutely horrendous in the CL last season and still got away with it and got through. Because finishing in the top 24 of 32 teams is remarkably easy for anybody decent in this format. You can basically cruise to it. The format is a massive overly bloated safety net where you have to play a load of extra games just to still end up in the last 16. So many of the games and have exhibition feeling to me. I don't even get remotely nervous watching them as a fan, and find the neutral ones a waste of time as a viewer.

The format is great for giving fans some new trips but is so bad in almost every way. I enjoyed the game tonight but the whole thing just feels entirely free of any jeopardy. It would take something statistically disastrous for us to not get play-offs from here.

I love all the County Durham pit village grounds. Crook, Shildon, Willington, Tow Law. Loads of character.

I did Darlo Town this summer purely as it landed well with a 12 o'clock kick off at Earl's Orchard in Richmond which was more of a bucket list ground. Rubbish place to visit - as Wullie says cut from same crop as Ford Quary and Boro Rangers' ground. Funnily enough Whitley ended up drawing them in the Vase not long after which would have been a better reason but hey ho! I completed NL1 on Saturday with a visit to Easington Colliery. Great backdrop views of the coastline and a 4-0 win for Easington. One of those that for whatever reason had never been able to get to with Whitley, so thought I'd just get it out of the way. Four NL2 grounds left for me to complete the current line up: Park View AFC FC Hartlepool Redcar Town Grangetown Boys Club Hard to motivate myself to get down to Teeside but should do the first two soon.

We've been so poor going forward this season like. Probably worst spell in all of Eddie's reign.

Because we had Hall and Tino to play there. We loaned out Targett who is shit. Even if Targett was still here Burn would be playing ahead of him.

Our other two left backs are injured