Paullow

Toon legend!

Starts at 5pm UK, so probably 5.55pm Edit, presumably will start at 5pm with 15 mins build up. I'm off next week so was hoping for as much build up as possible, and I'd watch every second

Does Bruno Guimaraes DISMISS new signing Lewis Hall!

They were on just over 143,000 followers pre tweet today but have since fallen into the 137,000s, so have lost well over 5,000 followers today thus far.

Lovely goal. Don't really want to play Rangers for geographical reasons, but at the same time, if prefer not to play PSV either given we have played them 4 times in the PL era, albeit nearly 20 years since the last time. Rakow thought they'd equalised vs Copenhagen, but was disallowed. I've got my heart set on the Danes from Pot 3

Antwerp 1 up at home to AEK. Copenhagen lead 1-0 against Rakow. Rangers still 0-0. Didn't realise that since 1997 only one Polish team had featured in the CL group stages, Legia in 2016/17. That's quite surprising.

Playoff matches involving Antwerp, Copenhagen and Rangers tonight (all 8pm and all on TNT Sports), and the other 3 tomorrow night at 8pm. Hope Copenhagen come through as it would be a potential great trip as they would definitely be in Pot 3 and it would also help keep some stronger looking sides, like Sociedad, in Pot 4.

Perhaps, but I think most people assume Luton will be out of their depth this season and are around 2/7 to go down. Sheff Utd not much better and have already lost to two sides likely to be in and around the bottom 6 and are 4/11 to drop, after that most trams are north of 2/1, so if the two more fancied teams drop then itll basically be as you were with the bulk of those mentioned still around in the bottom half in 24/25.

But in all likelihood it will probably be Luton and Sheff Utd plus one other and on paper those two are far weaker than Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton coming down, so I was confused, as it will probably easier to go up next season.

I've read this a few times but I'm still not sure of the general point you're trying to make, given the teams listed? Clubs will obviously want to get promoted if they have a genuine chance but not sure what those clubs, and they are a mixed bag, have to do with it?

I was originally hoping we'd get 2 of Real Madrid / PSG / Bayern etc. some memorable matches that could be talked about for years, and a chance to test ourselves against the very best, and a probable run at the Europa if we do fall a bit short, but now I'm kind of hoping we get Feyenoord, Leipzig and a Red Star / Copenhagen / Young Boys type from Pot 3. Everyone talks about the wins over Barca and Juve far more than those over Kyiv and Leverkusen, but if we had Leipzig H, Feyenord A, and the double header against the Pot 3 side then there'd be half a chance that we'd have already qualified with 2 games to play, or at least within touching distance and that would be great financially to come through the group, but also help with the fixture congestion at the back end of the year.

Greenwood for me, marra!

I originally had a bit more compassion because, reading some of the online comments to the saga the other day, I naturally assumed all 11 fixtures involving the 22 non professional sides in the 3rd tier would have been postponed so players could watch their match in peace, but seeing how every other match went ahead and some involved even longer journeys, then they should defo push for what they want. The only thing is, after seeing Nottm Forest win 7-0 today, and the aforementioned Billericay win 6-0 in the Southern league, without knowing how good Halifax are, and seeing how the league was decided on GD last year, a routine 3-0 win might not be as good as playing the match out, but Halifax should be punished in some other form, maybe a points deduction as well as a 3-0 forfeit (if Newcastle are happy with that). It's looking more like most of the comments were because it was Newcastle and the big, bad Saudi's throwing their new found wealth and weight around.

Just saw in the 'Southern Premier Division' which is the 3rd tier regional equivalent of the league Newcastle and Halifax are in, all 6 matches were played today, including Plymouth vs Billericay at 2.45pm (more than a 4 hour drive to Newton Abbott, Devon), Cardiff vs Ipswich (well over 4 hours), and Rugby vs London Bees (2 hours). I originally naturally thought all matches were off at that level and it was just Newcastle pushing it because they are the only full time side in the 3rd tier, but since the other 11 fixtures could go ahead as planned, then this looks even worse on Halifax. The other 5 fixtures in Newcastle's league were reasonably close geographically.

AEK Athens beat Zagreb 4-3 on aggregate last night and now face Antwerp in the final qualifying round, so one of those will definitely be in Pot 4. Shaping up a little more now that a high co-efficient side are out. Maccabi Haifa 13.000 vs Young Boys 34.500 Antwerp 17.000 vs AEK Rakow 5.000 vs Copenhagen 40.500 Molde 24.000 vs Galatasaray 31.500 Rangers 54.000 vs PSV 43.000 Braga 44.000 vs Panathinaikos 5.045 Rangers 54.000 - POT 3 Braga 44.000 - POT 3 PSV 43.000 - POT 3 Copenhagen 40.500 - POT 3 Young Boys 34.500 - POT 3 or 4 Real Sociedad 33.000 POT 3 or 4 (no playoff match) Galatasaray 31.500 - POT 3 or 4 Celtic 30.000 - POT 3 or 4 (no playoff match) There's 3 spaces left in Pot 3, one of those will definitely be either Rangers or PSV, and If Braga and Copenhagen come through Panathinaikos and Rakow respectively that will be Pot 3 all sorted. Braga are 2/5 to come through (vs 7/4), but Copenhagen are only 7/10 (vs 21/20), so a very close tie at the bookies, and if the lower ranked sides come through then they will definitely join us in Pot 4, and Young Boys and Real Sociedad could then be Pot 3. Young Boys just need one of Braga or Copenhagen to fail to make Pot 3. Sociedad need 2 of Braga, Copenhagen and Young Boys to lose. Galatasaray would need all 3 of those to lose, whereas Celtic would require all 3 AND Galatasaray to all lose, so it's very likely they will join us in Pot 4. I'd like to see Copenhagen and / or Young Boys come through because you'd generally prefer to potentially play them than Real Sociedad, or have a long and not very pleasant trip to Istanbul, and both would be capital city trips for our fans and I don't think we have played either of them in the Premier League era (or possibly at all).

Feel a bit sorry for Pickford. He's been at Everton for over 6 years now, joining at a time when they were throwing money around and looking to push on, but he's now surrounded by bang average plodders and he'll know that he's going to finish in the bottom 6 again and narrowly escape relegation at best. Won't help seeing similar profile clubs like Newcastle and Villa look a million miles away from them just a couple of years after they themselves both came into a bit of money. Villa have been good, but it's a pretty pointless match for the neutral.

We played better after going a goal down last year, so hopefully we can grow into it a bit more, but obviously significant levels at the moment.

Na, the Forest match wasn't televised over here and was just moved from Saturday 3pm due to a clash with some cricket today. Good for those overseas though.

Plymouth vs Southampton looks interesting at 12.30pm on Sky. If I was a neutral armchair fan then I'd prefer the option to watch a Championship match at 12.30 and then 2 PL matches back to back on Saturday evening rather than a clash in the early afternoon one.

WBA a goal up on Leeds, controversially.

Aye, that probably sounds about right.

Cracking city.

Darlow on the bench again. I guess he would have been at least 3rd choice here but seems a bit strange dropping a division, but still not playing, unless they sell that young lad later in the window.