Paullow

I wasn't sure if Longstaff would be fit, so I was thinking maybe Ritchie coming in at CM if he wasn't. Howe also mentioned Manquillo was an injury doubt in his post Chelsea press conference, so maybe Ritchie will fill in there, or Ashby getting a start despite featuring the other night, or some other young'un that I'm not aware of, but could be a long night with that defence Longstaff hasn't been training with them so doubt he will start, Manquillo not training with the team 'at the moment'.

Crazy to think that only 18 months ago in January 2022 that late Pedro equaliser at SJP kept us 2 points behind Watford in the relegation zone, having played a game more and a much inferior goal difference. The clubs currently feel a millions miles apart.

Yeah, I would have just posted the same above wiki link. 6 places available, 4 via Champions route and 2 via League route. 2 teams get byes to the Champions route Play Off round, a one tie shoot out to get through, and will be joined by 6 other teams (still TBD, and still a while off), whereby the 4 winners will advance to the group stage proper. No teams have Playoff round byes in the League route, but eventually 4 teams will make it to that round, possibly Rangers, and those 4 will compete for the 2 final spots.

Seems strange. 24 in a few months and still being loaned out to the third tier.

This Rakow vs Qarabag match on TNT Sports has been class, genuinely , 3-2 to the hosts in injury time, but so many twists and turns, and finely poised heading into the return leg, especially with no away goals rule now.

Tonight's fixtures (2nd qualifying round): 5pm - HJK vs Molde (currently 1-0) 5pm - Zalgiris vs Galatasaray (currently 0-0) 7pm - Dinamo Zagreb vs Astana - Live on TNT Sports 3 7pm - Dnipro-1 vs Panathinaikos - Live on TNT Sports 1 7.30pm - Servette vs KRC Genk (winner faces Rangers) 8pm - Zrinski Mostar vs Slovan Bratislava - Live on TNT Sports 2 8.15pm - Breidablik vs FC Copenhagen

Must admit I do watch most of the YT content creators stuff. Just easy to stick on in an evening and kill 30 or mins. I'm enjoying the USA videos and does make me wish I went out there.

The club passed 2m followers on Instagram today. Still nowhere near where it should be relative to many bottom half clubs, but it was 712,000 in October 2021 prior to the takeover, so decent growth since then.

There perhaps hasn't been the dominant score lines some were expecting / fearing, 5-0 Japan just before the biggest so far, but in 4 of the last 5 matches: Philippines - 26% possession, 3 shots, 0 on target, 0 corners, lost 0-2 Costa Rica - 20% possession, 1 shot, 0 on target, 1 corner, lost 0-3 Vietnam - 34% possession, 0 shots, 0 on target, 0 corners, lost 0-3 Zambia - 40% possession, 0 shots, 0 on target, 1 corner, lost 0-5 Haiti are 200/1 at Coral so I was expecting similar here, but just switched it on and they had a corner after 60 seconds , so already half of those 4 combined.

NZ were around 8/1, so Norway circa 1/3. Puts the co-hosts in a great position to qualify as Philippines (also in the group) are one of the least favourites in the outright market, so a great chance for them, unless they, Norway and Switzerland all end up on 6 points.

Wow. Blast from the past Ferencvaros 0 KI Klaksvik 3, the Faroes side were like 14/1 to win pre match so God knows what happened there. The Hungarians obviously won their league last year and got to the Europa League L16 as well.

Doesn't look like that Soccerone YouTube channel are showing matches this week. It's good that TNT Sports are showing a couple of games for those wanting to watch, and I guess Maccabi Haifa are the biggest team in this round so may get a few more viewers than most, but not ideal having a match where one team is 4 up from the away leg, especially when there's two finely poised ties on at the same time.

Yep 8 matches tonight and 7 tomorrow. 2 matches on the newly branded TNS Sports (ex BT Sport) 4pm - Struga vs Zalgiris (0-0) - Live on TNT Sports 2 6pm - Flora vs Rakow (0-1) 6pm - M Haifa vs Hamrun Spartans (4-0) - Live on TNT Sports 1 6pm - Sheriff Tiraspol vs Farul Constanta (0-1) 7pm - BATE Borisov vs Partizani Tirana (1-1) 7pm - TNS vs Hacken (1-3) - Live on S4C 7pm - Zrinjski vs Urartu (1-0) 8.15pm - Breidablik vs Shamrock Rovers (1-0) - Live somewhere in ROI

https://www.oddschecker.com/football/womens-international/womens-world-cup Just having a look at some of the individual match odds, and seems hardly worth watching until the knock out stages - Costa Rica 150/1 at Sky Bet to beat Spain, who also have Vietnam at 200/1 to beat USA, Haiti 100/1 to beat England etc. If you get the B side around 13/2 then that looks pretty competitive, relatively. 32 teams clearly works better for tournaments, 2 going through, 2 going out and none of this best third place, and I guess having these less fancied teams might help the sport grow in that particular country, but it seems like they have expanded it well before it's time, and probably get a few pointless 9-0+ type wins in the opening days, and then no doubt more discussions about goal sizes and what not.

If you type 'Newcastle Gateshead' into YouTube the first result is highlights lasting 8 mins 20

Seemingly another decent cameo today and nice assist for the winner. Do you think he gets loaned out at all this season, possibly in January, or just mainly train with the first time and possibly get the odd 10 mins here and there if we are a couple of goals up late on?

28 players seems quite a big squad for only 22 or so league games, some players will surely get next to no playing time all season. Unless a few more of the originals get moved on in the coming weeks. You'd think with limited midweek games they could get by with around 20.

Can see this putting Kvaratskhelia right off if he's stumped up his tenner for National League TV.

Think Dubs was on intl duty with Slovakia so would fit into the other category as well, but aye, surprised Lascelles wasn't involved. Him in for Savage, Miley in for either Lewis or Manquillo and Murphy in for the other and it would have looked a lot more respectable.

Crazy line up, had to Google who Savage was. 4 full backs, 5 if you include Burn, Ritchie not too far off one as well. Christ knows how they will line up. ------------------------Darlow--------------------------- Trippier-----Savage--------Burn--------Targett---Manquillo Ritchie-----------Longstaff------Anderson---------Lewis --------------------------ASM----------------------------

They'll probably start charging £3.99 or something to watch a standard new signing video soon

Wouldn't be a fan of that. Would prefer to avoid Rangers and get proper overseas trips, and then Bayern and Atletico, while great trips, would obviously make it hard to get out of the group. Not sure if Rangers will even get there to be honest, I don't think they will be among the favourites to come through the 'league route', despite their superior co-efficient to many.

Tonight's big results: Astana 1 Dinamo Tbilisi 1 HJK 1 Larne 0 Hacken 3 TNS 1 Farul Constanta 1 Sheriff Tiraspol 0 Slovan Bratislava 1 Swift Hesperange 1

£10 for a friendly against non league opposition is mad like. I'd still be complaining at £3 but they'd surely make a lot more profit charging that amount and far more purchases than they would the tenner.

Northern Ireland champs Larne concede a penalty after 55 seconds against HJK Helsinki and are subsequently a goal down. Stream on that Soccerone YT channel.