Altamullan

Just had a peek, don’t fancy them to beat anyone at the moment. Sorely tempted by Fulham away on 28th April. I wouldn’t mind watching Mitro play for them (if he’s starting) and that seems the ideal game.

sounds right up our street.

Don’t know much about tier three footy, never having ventured there before, but Wigan and Rochdale look decent. Both are probably reasonable comparisons for a club/place like Sunderland. Particularly Wigan, recent tier one, demographics similar, perceived to be not a nice place, or at least a bit meh/unfashionable place, to live. Part of Greater Manchester but no sense of connection/shared identity with their regional capital. The population of Sunderland (about 275k) sits between the other two (Wigan 301k, Rochdale 211k). They might fit in well, once they get used to it; resign themselves to their level.

I’m still bewildered at them calling themselves Mackems. What sort of mental gymnastics do you have to go through for a piss take on a dumb-sounding phrase, in a equally dumb-sounding Wearside twang (Mak’ ‘em ‘n’ tak’ ‘em), to become something you identify yourself as?

there’s a chucklesome phrase you don't see everyday

Gameweek 28 Leicester 2-1 Stoke Bournemouth 0-1 Newcastle Brighton 1-1 Swansea Burnley 1-1 Southampton Liverpool 3-1 West Ham West Brom 1-1 Huddersfield Watford 1-1 Everton Man Utd 2-1 Chelsea Crystal Palace 0-2 Spurs Arsenal 1-2 Man City

Spanish cockney, ‘in’ it. Julio Geirdio meets loadsa money.

Is that not his sister, Allanna? Named in honour of the golden child of the family; would make sense of his self-centred entitlement.

I wonder how long they’d need to be in the third tier before kids start supporting their regional capital Premier League side?

I think the home strips always look better when there is proportionately more black (shoulders, collar and cuffs etc. Creates a better visual border). Love the red numbers too.

Might come back married to a nice Italian girl, who will help him realise his potential (talking outside the bedroom here, chaps).

So sad, what a shame, never mind

Southampton look beaten to me. They’ve done well, tbf, to hang in as long as they have.

WBA, Southampton and Stoke or Huddersfield, for me. As others have said though, it is so unusually tight that anything could happen. Decent spell and winning our three most winnable home games and we could be up between 10-12. Without that we could be in the mix and in the mire. I am leaning towards the former though. And on that note, I predict an 11th place finish comfortably above the other promoted sides (chalking that as another NUFC competition win!)

Reckon he is just trying to fit in with the Manc dress code (of old).

Fair enough B&W, that never 'dawned' on me

What a diamond. Man, player, manager. Hope he’s having a great day.

All of our 'storms' tend to be genuine

I somewhat agree with you (see my previous post), but you do seem to be making a mountain out of a molehill Nah, it's just that so many people are quoting my posts and I'm responding back. I don't think there's much over the top. I'm not even that angry. Me neither, as it happens. How should I be are you feeling??

good on him.

Totally agree with you Quakes. Fuck that society lot! Hate those snowflake cunts.

N-O group think...God help us! (...just checked to see if I was using the right term.) Groupthink: "Occurs when a group makes faulty decisions because group pressures lead to [get this!] a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgement... the group ignores alternatives and tend to take irrational actions that dehumanise other groups. A group is especially vulnerable to groupthink when its members are similar in background, support the same team , and are insulated from outside opinions. Can manifest in unusual sporadic use of shared language, like excessive use of the word 'walk' in transfer windows. " [spooky!... I may have employed a little poetic licence for the bits in italics.]

Knowing what we know about Rafa, it’ll depend how he is showing in training.

Three, likely to be, must win games before the end of the season: Southampton, Huddersfield and WBA at home. Anything points wise on top of that is a bonus, though surely two or three draws or another win on top of that is within our grasp.

I’m thinking West Brom and Dourhampton (typo, but I’ll leave it!) to go down. Plus, hopefully Huddersfield.