Paullow

Not sure whether it would be more appropriate in the NUFC Women thread, or here, obviously not directly NUFC related, but may affect them next year, and is women's football, but Sunderland still 0-0 with Durham in their match after 30 mins. Charlton, Palace, and now Birmingham are all winning, Sputhampton losing though. Crazy table 'as it stands' Edit - Sunderland have just taken the lead as I was posting, so they lead 1-0, and would go back to top of the league. Possibly against the run of play, although I haven't fully been watching it.

Yep, I think this might be the worst Sunday of TV football that I've ever seen, like ever. In most International breaks there would be some matches on Sunday, and Viaplay Xtra would have had a game or two, but that free channel has been scrapped with them soon to exit the UK market. I'm actually going to watch Sunderland vs Durham in the women's 2nd tier.

Sunderland vs Durham is on The FA Player tomorrow at 2pm. I might actually watch it. Sunderland top of the 2nd tier, but it's extremely close, and Durham are starting to look over their shoulder at the other end after no win since Dec 17th. Obviously a local derby, and a massive lack of other live matches tomorrow.

Gordon barely had a kick for the first 20 mins, but has done really well the past 10 mins.

Not great at the other end though. Rushall beat Darlington 3-2, so they are right back in a dogfight, whereas they could have gone 8 points clear. Doesn't help Blyth much either, who let in a 90+9 equaliser down at Peterbrough, who had 10 men at the time. Blyth probably just need 2 or 3 more points to be fair, as the bottom 3 look down, and I can't see all of Farsley, Rushall, and Darlington all getting past 52/53 points, but still a kick in the teeth for them.

Huge match between them and Spennymoor on Friday, at Shields. If it was at Spenny, I would have gone. Spennymoor won their 6th match in a row and have completely turned their season around and also have a chance for the playoffs. Looking like 7 teams going for the last 3 spots.

Cup tied I'd imagine. She wasn't in the squad vs Portsmouth either.

Yeah, interesting call with Bridget and Paige. PBG started off her NUFC career really well, but hasn't been amazing these past few games, and has lost her place a couple of times now. Her first touch never seems the best. I'd imagine she would have been brought in with an eye on next season, but they may now not think she's the answer. Still early days though, she's only been here like 6 or 7 matches. Cataldo, who also came from Palace, has looked really good though IMO, and I'm sure she will be fine to start next season.

Kind of, but it's obviously just a 22 game league season, rather than 46 + potentially 3 more, and no actual EFL Cup equivalent as well, so it will generally be deemed more important to the average team, plus no development sides either (I don't think).

It will be an interesting summer for sure, and I do expect a fair few changes. I can see 4-6 coming in, most of who would be expected to start. Some of the starters now will likely become squad players, and the current squad players, especially those at a certain age, will likely move on. The standard will clearly be a lot higher next year and they will certainly at least want to comfortably stay in it, and they will have the resources to give it as good a go as they can, so would be shocked if there wasn't at least 4 quality additions who are deemed above average at Championship level.

Yes, it's on iPlayer and BBC website, just me being greedy

Just realised the match is tomorrow and NOT Sunday. I hope all of the 3000 or so going down realise that too . Just assumed it would be the same day as the main day for the league, including previous rounds of this cup. First World problems, but the match isn't on the BBC red button which is a bit of a shame. iPlayer obviously isn't fully live, plus a bit of a faff on loading apps if you were wanting to skim other channels, whereas you could easily stick it on 409 on Sky Sports News every now and then to check scores if it was on an actual channel, but that's just me being picky, ha.

That Bernie seems a character, and she's pretty much at every match. Didn't realise it was Charlotte Pott's mother.

Must be class watching this Wales vs Finland as a Leeds fan. Wales have 4 of their players in their XI and there's another playing for Finland.

It's the lack of MNF, and midweek Championship and European games that is most annoying, plus pretty much all the intl matches being on an extremely niche channel which very few have (legal) access to.

Perfect - went on a Darlington forum and under the thread 'we've come a long way', spotted this: So since then, Spennymoor are now on 58 points from 38 matches, so an incredible 22 points from 8 games, and Darlington are now on 46 points from 40 games, so they have got 21 points and 7 wins from their last 9, incredible turnaround from both. Darlington were 9 points behind Rushall less than 5 weeks ago, but they are now 5 clear of them, so a 14 point gain. Looking at both tables, King's Lynn have got 14 points from the 6 games since (4W 2D) so they are also in good form, but poor Banbury were on 37 points after 30 games, and looking OK, but 7 games later they are still on 37 points. Incredible that they were above Spennymoor on Feb 13th, but on March 16th they were 21 points behind them. Crazy! Scarborough, Farsley, and Blyth have had very poor spells, but the latter got a huge win the other day. https://www.darlofc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=52334&start=60 Quite interesting that thread of Darlington's recent defeat to Spennymoor and that some fans think of them as irrelevant, and that it will always be Hartlepool, but some fans think of them as rivals. They haven't played Hartlepool since 2007, but have been in the NLN north with Spenny for the past 7 years, and then were battling with them in the Northern League (from 2012) and the NPL prior to that, so will have played them most seasons for the past 12 years. I'd often wondered what might happen if Middlesbrough and Sunderland were both in the Championship for the next 10 years or so, never playing us, and if that rivalry might become a lot fiercer than it is now.

Hartlepool, South Shields, Spennymoor, Darlington, and Blyth all appointed new managers in and around the new year, mixed fortunes, but Spenny and Darlo have really benefited from their respective appointments. Took a bit of time for Graham Lee at Spenny. They had only taken 1 point from 6 games before he arrived, and Lee only gained 2 points from his first 5 games, so as a club they had 3 points, and no wins, from 11 game, but since then they have won 8 and drawn 1 from their last 10 games, or 5 wins in a row, or 22 points from 24, whichever sounds better, and have gone from looking like getting sucked into a dog fight to just 4 points off the playoffs, with 1 or 2 games in hand on most. They have 5 of their last 8 games at home including matches vs 19th, 22nd, and 23rd, so hopefully they can sneak in. I'll try and get to one of their final home matches before the end of the season. Darlington looked absolutely doomed under Gowling, but they have now won 6 of their last 7 matches (only defeat coming to fellow in form Spennymoor) and are 5 points clear of the drop. I can't find any sites that will show a table from earlier in the season, but a crazy turnaround under Steve Watson. Massive match for them on Saturday away at Rushall, the team directly below them in the league (and in the final relegation spot) - win and they will go 8 clear and that should be them safe, but within just 2 points if they were to lose.

International break Basically no (men's) TV match of any note until Thursday, and then the bulk of matches are on the niche paywall Viacom. Wales vs Finland is on S4C on Thursday, but it's slim pickings. I thought there would at least be a League 1 or 2 match on, but seemingly not.

I forgot Pearson covered the women as well - has he been as active with the women this season? I usually stick to NFTV vlogs which usually air around 11pm on Sunday. I'll give APs a watch now.

Not sure if it was advertised during the Man Utd vs Liverpool match, probably was, but Atletico Madrid vs Barcelona is on ITV4 at 8pm. Not quite as interesting as in other years as neither are anyway near the title, and Barcelona's league campaign is realistically done as in they're not going to finish any lower than 4th, and they won't win the league. Not sure where Spain rank in the race for the 5th CL spot, but if unlikely to get it, then big match for Atleti as they are currently in 5th (and 9 clear of 6th), but could be worth a watch anyway.

Probably a repeat of last years final, although a couple of unexpected results this round.

What would be your preference?

Because it will likely make for a big intriguing, 50/50 semi final in Man Utd vs Chelsea, probably better than having two 75/25 matches IMO, plus I don't mind Man City. and would prefer them to have an 'easier' match than the other two.