Paullow

Seems I'm not the only one.

Is anyone else's Discovery Plus app not working for the West Ham match? Was fine up until half time, but now just goes back to the start all the time. Weird, never had issues before. Hopefully not complacency with this HBO Max move.

I know it's not new, but the draw before the final game is shit. Had West Ham have had Man City away, they could have just thought fuck it we'll go easy, get knocked out tonight and concentrate on survival, whereas now they know they are 2 home matches against non top, top sides away from Wembley. Should always be after the final match IMO, even if that went to pens.

Get in

I, myself, am not long back from Prudhoe, who after not winning in the league at all since October 4th, have now won twice in 4 days, admittedly against the bottom and 2nd bottom sides, but still. A fighting chance for them to stay up. 195 there as well which was one of the better crowds today in the Northern League, including the division above. They've got 4 more home matches so will look to go at least once more before the end of the season.

Very good collective set of results in the NPL East. 5 wins and 2 draws out of the 9 matches. HUGE win for Bishop Auckland against Emley who are comfortably in the playoffs. The 2 defeats were for Blyth T and Newton Aycliffe who both look knackered having both lost 5 matches in a row, but the local sides above them are showing fight.

It's for the best boys.

Off to Essity Park tomorrow for a big 6 pointer. Prudhoe YC Snrs got their first win for about 84 years on Wednesday and are back out of the relegation zone and play Tow Low who are just about behind them. Looks a nice day for it.

Gerrin

Yeah, prior to Everton, my main hope was to finish 7th, the top 5 get CL, 6 would be Europa and then one of those top 6 winning the FA Cup to ensure 7th gets Europa as well. That Everton defeat and Brentford sneaking past Burnley's disallowed goals kind of knocked the stuffing out of that, as I can't see us finishing 7th, but while it's not nice wanting an English side to win a European competition, if Liverpool, Chelsea or Villa won their respective European comp and finished 6th, not impossible, then 8th could still potentially get into the Europa, but it's still quite hard to see us stringing enough points and wins together to benefit, as you were kind of hinting.

Firstly, while optimism will be a bit higher following Wednesday, it's still probably 40/60 at best that we'll go through tomorrow. I'm looking at it assuming we're out until hopefully proven otherwise. Whereas Sunderland are playing a 13/2 likely soon to be 4th tier side. I appreciate it's a more negative / defeatist attitude, but if we go out and they go through, which statistically is the most likely outcome, I'd prefer their potential route to be as tough as possible. It would be awful us ending our trophy drought last year and them ending theirs a single year later with a bigger trophy and potentially putting us out of Europe in the process. If we're out then I'd feel better them being against a Liverpool in the quarter final than at home to a Wolves. Then, while I'm not as fussed about league position now following recent results, I'd still prefer to be in Europe next year than not and if we don't win the FA Cup, a Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City winning it would at least move it down a further place in the league. Had we have already beaten Man City and they were playing Wolves on Monday then it might have been different, but as it is, I'd far rather Liverpool went through tonight.

I'd prefer Liverpool to win to be honest, for a number of reasons.

Conor Gallagher looks like he should have been in BBMak 25 years ago.

Paully

Certainly interesting from a general perspective. West Ham and Forest almost averaging a point per game.

How longs he playing for? It was like 48 mins when Gordon went over. Should have been HT the moment the ball went in the net.

Would you rather it was 0-0 at half time with 11 men, or 1-0 with 10 men?

Massive win for Ashington as well, against Consett. Looking much better for them now too. I'd be OK with how the bottom 4 are now to be honest. I was hoping for a net gain of teams in that league again next season, but that's looked extremely unlikely for a while. It would be good if Bishops could catch either Ossett or Grimsby (who have lost 6 in a row, or 1 point from 7 in 2026), but 3 down is better than it was once looking and I would like to see Spartans stay up as it would be crazy going from 6th tier to 9th tier in 3 years.

Christ, worth every penny.

If that was the only change in the entire group stage we would have finished 5th in the table, but still in the current Barca/Chelsea 5th/6th position along with Barcelona. It would have been Inter/PSG vs either Monaco/Qarabag with us and Barcelona playing the winners of those respective ties in a 50/50 draw.

Hell of a finish. Assumed it was a header at first before the replay

Offside, hopefully, but they are looking the most likely at the moment are Sunderland.

Big miss by Ballard. Should have scored.

Hoping for a draw in the Bournemouth vs Sunderland match?