TomYam

Hereford were elected to the 4th division at the end of the season (having finished 2nd in the 5th tier Southerm League), replacing an unfortunate Barrow who had finished several points ahead of Crewe and Stockport. There had been about 3 postponements leading up to the game at Hereford. It had been a one-sided game on a hideously muddy pitch until Radford equalised a couple of minutes from the end of the game. They scored a second in extra time.

It is....and yet for at least 30 years I've believed the only real cup upsets are when a lower league club beat one of the 'Sky 5/6". Imo Ipswich (22nd) winning away at Liverpool would be a bigger shock than Ipswich losing at home to Maidstone.

Come on Town!

If done correctly and openly on that Castle Leazes plot AND with an extended park very few would object. Most who objected in the '90s were set against the plan to retain St James's (possibly in reduced form) AND build a new stadium on Castle Leazes. Offering an extended and enhanced Leazes Park, while building a new state-of-the-art stadium, would override the objections of all but a handful of hardcore idealist environmentalists.

Ok, but if just a bit of it then it sounds like your talking about the strongly mooted Castle Leazes (ie. town moor) proposal - broadly similar to Hall's plan from the mid '90s. That plan could see an enlarged Leazes Park IF St.James's Park were demolished (unlike Hall's).

Huddersfield, Hull, Rotherham, Reading.

Not sure if you're on a wind-up but - as has been stated numerous times before - digging up Leazes Park (Newcastle's only city centre park, the oldest park citywide and Grade II listed) could never happen. So, on that basis, you don't want a stadium move.

I'm hearing that Nemo is signing up as our official fish sponsor.

True. Until two seasons ago they had spent as much time in the 4th tier as the first. Over the course of their history, their average position has been about 4th in the 3rd tier. On a par with Barnsley certainly, or possibly Grimsby, Plymouth, Hull, Bradford and Rotherham. Unlike those other towns, however, Brighton has long had a booming population and economy.

With more than 30,000 members of the Saudi royal family, including 4,000 princes, I expect most institutions and large companies in SA are owned by them. Needless to say, Middle Eastern countries like SA, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Qatar don't have a whole lot in common with Western Europe.

Yes, but the 64,000 dollar (and potential stadium capacity) question is 'would the majority of our fans be prepared to move into a new stadium elsewhere in the city centre?'

? I think they mean they're now considering setting their sights higher than a 10,000 expansion of Villa Park.

Kevin Scott? Would have been a decent free signing although his value would surely be closer to that than £850,000 - as I'm sure Leffe would agree.

Some are (naughty things). Some aren't (thickies).

Portsmouth v Southampton is worthy of mention.

Not as much luck as in season 1980-81 when I believe 8 players were able to play every game that season. The remaining 3 first team players missed only a handful of games each. Knocked out in tue 3rd round of both cups, they avoided injuries and played far fewer games than their nearest rival, Ipswich. Ipswich beat Aston Villa home and away and also in the FA Cup. They had a 4-pronged pursuit of trophies but ultimately, due to an unforgiving fixture schedule (66 games) and a crippling injury list, they won only the UEFA Cup. At seasons end, they were given the award of 'European Team of the Year' for their brilliant football and yet, ultimately, they finished behind a far inferior Villa.

There's a lot of empty land, as well as vacant or tertiary commercial/light industrial units adjacent to or in the vicinity of the Arena. If the desire was there to purchase pretty much every parcel of land all the way to Newcastle Business Park, it would get done.

Zero, and rightly so (unless only a tiny incursion). The western section of Castle Leazes would be fully consented by all parties - so long as the northern half of the footprint of St.James's Park is given over to an extended Leazes Park (to mitigate the liss of green space at Castle Leazes).

Nice graphic, but why not just move the stadium 100 metres north north west? Castles Leazes is flat grassland and the new build would barely encroach onto Leazes Park. That way you can preserve (and enhance, once the old stadium site is cleared) Leazes Park and build on an unloved and vacant (save for a few cows) corner of land.

I'd expect Everton to get about 45 points come season end (35 with points deducted), but it's highly unlikely Luton, SheffU or Burnley will accumulate more than 30.

We've had a few recently. I guess that's evidence that we're in the process of making into the 'elite' group of clubs; that's why, of course, Arsenal are so insanely furious - they've expected the majority of decisions to go their way against the likes of us since David Attenborough was a bairn.

True. Didn't look like an elbow, mind. More like the forearm underside. Violently antagonistic, but not meant to hurt.

One advantage of a temporary move to Edinburgh would be developing our supporter base there. In theory we should be the best supported club in the Edinburgh area due to geography and history, although I imagine we're way behind the usual 3/4 clubs.

ManU, Liverpool, Arsenal These 3 clubs have dominated all aspects of the game in this country for 40 years, a symbiotic relationship. Their 'direction' was intended to nullify genuine competition from other ('lesser') clubs. These clubs have extensive reach in the media and beyond. They are 'glamorous', 'legacy', 'huge', 'fabled', 'cultured'. ManCity fans have long claimed these red tops will do all they can to discredit them and put them back in the box, but it's proving difficult as City have been to canny, too brilliant, too rich, too damned strong. Hopefully we (and other clubs) can emulate ManCity but, in the meantime, we can expect ongoing resistance and overarching scrutiny.