Paullow

Ah finished 10th ye kna.

It's set up nicely for the neutral, but advantage Sunderland now. Sheff Wed 11/10 to win at Hillsborough, so presumably Sunderland will be something like 4/6 (and definitely odds on) not to lose, and even if Sheff Wed were to win in 90 minutes, they are still not certain of progressing, whereas Sunderland, with their lengthy unbeaten run, know a draw will definitely be enough. Sunderland have come into 13/8 to be promoted, pretty much joint with Wycombe. Sheff Wed out to 10/3 at places.

Fortunate goal, but they should be further ahead. Wednesday need to change things up and keep it as tight as they can.

Yeah, my mindset has changed a fair bit these past 7 months. I'd often definitely want them to lose in the playoffs and stay down there for a while, whilst we were scrapping for 17th and stinking the league out, but while I do still want Sheff Wed to go up, as I like the club and must have seem them at least 6 times live (best mate is a fan), I'm not overly fussed if Sunderland were to go up. I don't miss the derby at all though.

I did find it quite funny earlier today. I was listening to Radio 1 around 1.30pm and they were wrapping up the sport, main headlines being Arsenal's managers signing a new contract, and ended it with, 'no Premier League matches tonight, but Partick take on Inverness in the Scottish playoffs.'

It would be awful if he did end up there. Aside from the 'tactics', fitness, and general regression, since the end of Jan / start of Feb, there will have been a lot of Newcastle fans looking out for Bristol Rovers and WBAs results, positively and negatively respectively, whereas a week prior neither club would have been on radars, so if he did go there it would be that weird feeling of wanting him to do well, but not too well, haha. Hopefully it doesn't happen, and there are a lot of legit sound alternatives. I'd possibly even prefer he ended up at Sunderland.

They've drifted out to 10/3 at PP and Betfair for some reason. Thought it might have come in with Wycombe now looking the likely opponents should they get past Sheff Wed.

So then, I wonder if Declan Rice likes bridges?

Bad couple of nights for the Premier League with 3 clubs exiting in the semi finals. You'd probably have hedged your bets at 2 of them going through, especially Man City.

In the Rangers match? What have you been eating

Get in Rangers!

Still the 2nd leg to go, but looking like Wycombe in the final for Sunderland / Sheff Wed. MK Down to 10 men so they will be hoping to leave with 'only' a 2-0 defeat.

Who says blokes can't multi task!

Long way to go yet, especially in the Rangers match (more metaphorically), but it's shaping up to be the EL final I was hoping for.

I think MK Dons would be the harder final for them because they are the better side. Wycombe could perhaps shithouse their way through Wembley, but odds wise, Sunderland would be shorter if they were to play Wycombe than they would vs MK.

Yeah, it's grim. I've opted for the playoff match, but I could easily watch any one of four. It's a shame that neither the Frankfurt nor the Roma match were at 6pm, which they often are when German or Italian teams are at home in Europe.

Nowt against West Ham, but I wouldn't want another team outside of the obvious few to get Champions League football whilst we're potentially closing the gap on those type of teams in terms of status and league finishes, so I'd rather they went out. We could also be going for similar type of players in the Summer, and if they can offer London and CL football then it would be a no brainer at this stage. I'd like to see a Rangers vs Frankfurt final, but suspect it will be the opposite (despite W Ham trailing).

They've never played a minute together thus far have they? I think Trippier came off vs Everton just before Bruno came on, possibly for each other, and then Trippier obviously injured just after half time vs Villa with Bruno still on the bench.

Aye, but apart from that one. I'll blame the awful 11vs11 site . We did actually get a fair few draws down there pre takeover, but it's always been a tough place for us, and I remember Goater banging a few in. A little bit like the Dell.

Hate this fixture. Out last results against them (away) in the league: 3-1 4-0 4-0 5-0 6-1 3-1 2-1 5-0 2-0 Horrendous, and pretty pointless. Mind, it's not just since they came into money, because we've not won there in the league since 1984, 20 matches ago I think. We're 20/1 at Bet365 if anyone fancies a punt, if they think tonight may affect it slightly in our favour.

#Backlash

They've sold 40,000 tickets so far, so looking like a sell out. You'd kind of expect them to sell out a one off (huge) game seeing as they have had those kind of attendances at some point in the past, but obviously a lot more than the 26k who turned up at vs Portsmouth 3 years ago. Not sure what's changed this year, whether the unbeaten run has helped, more confidence under Neil, a bigger name opponent this time (although Portsmouth aren't exactly small), or just perhaps more desperation that they can't have a 5th successive season in the third tier. It does feel a pretty big match, and I'm looking forward to watching both legs (assuming it's not like 4-0 and game over after the 1st leg). Edit - missed all the 40k chat on the previous page

We'll win the Champions League before City

They're on the ropes here.

I guess one of the main reason is that the biggest and most popular events (the slams) have been pretty much joint events for years and years, that it becomes far more normal the more you are exposed to it. If you watch Wimbledon on BBC1 or 2 there will be a near enough equal amount of men's and women's matches featured each day, same with Roland Garros on ITV4. If Annabel Croft or Sam Smith commentates on a men's match, nobody would bat an eye lid, likewise if two blokes were commentating on a women's match, and that normality gives the women the platform to potentially be as big a name as the men's. If you asked general sports fans on the street (who didn't know much about tennis) to name 10 active tennis players then I'd imagine most would probably name 4 women, which is pretty crazy when you think about it, and wouldn't really happen in any other sport. Athletics benefits from the same situation whereby their biggest events like the Olympics and World Championships have all competitors in the same venue, and shared TV coverage, and again, the platform for big names and stars to emerge, e.g. Jessica Ennis arguably being the main attraction at the athletics in 2012. There's probably still a bit of stigma with women's boxing, but that is getting pushed more and more now, and most UK cards these days have a women's fight now, often well up the card, or even headlining, and while some will still complain, the more this is pushed and featured, the more normal that will become and be more widely accepted, a bit like the UFC who have also had big name stars over the years.