pook

Said he would not have, mate. Fair play to that in my book.

Couldn't agree more with this. I've been saying this about VAR from day one, as we've seen it over here before. If Walkley wants to bang on about the contemptuous "Americanisation' of footy/footy culture/whatever, here's the hill on which to plant your flag. It may frequently annoy, but here the damage is real. The game had (as it ever will) bad calls, but the game wasn't broke. It is now. VAR doesn't need modification or better execution. It needs dropped. It has not made - and will not make - football better. What's effing infuriating is that people act as though it's an utter impossibility. 'The technology is here and not going away. It must be used, we just have to use it better'. Eff that. The solution is so simple, yet it feels like trying to hold back the tide with a kitchen sponge. Just drop it. "Old Man Screams at Cloud"

"The South Stand at Portsmouth's Fratton Park is rapidly approaching its 100th birthday. One of only 3 Leitch stands retaining his signature lattice balcony wall, it will be the only one left in England when Goodison Park is demolished." In England, yes, but almost surely the best example remains - the South Stand at Ibrox.

I went to Fratton Park (sat opposite the [Leitch] South Stand) for the first time when I was over last month, and I was actually talking to my mate about those balcony trusses which we could see from where we were sat. He was polite enough to feign interest. Engineering Archie, the book by Simon Inglis that's referenced in one of those linked articles, is absolutely brilliant, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest in British footy grounds/architecture. It has chapters on most of the forty-some grounds/stands that Leitch designed, including Hillsborough's South Stand - with loads of illustrations, as you'd expect. It's excellent.

Fair enough. Not seen it (nor the British version, of which I'm assuming there's one), but I have no problem believing it's shite. But I'll betcha if you showed it to Micah Richards, and put a television camera on him, he'd laugh his facking arse off at at least 85 dB.

At first it's a bit annoying at how much funnier he thinks he is than he actually is. But then after a time you realize he thinks everything is much funnier than it actually is. ... which is really annoying.

Same, cheers. Shame Hollie wasn't there. Give her best next you see her, if you will.

'This video is not available in your location'. I'm on Langsett Road, ffs.

Thanks. I can rest easy now.

Those are very cool, so no criticism in this at all, but presumably the badge is left off the shirts for copyright reasons, no? But if such is the case, wouldn't the same concerns apply to the sponsors? Again, not a complaint, just a curiosity.

Get in!

Interesting. Mockba is (Cyrillic) Russian for Moscow, and they've put a lot of effort into coming up with a fairly tortured acronym for it. Not that there's any significance in that for Wednesday, of course, but it seems a little odd.

I said 'fairly'. Oh, and do one.

No League titles, true ... but seven domestic cups, a European trophy, and a few Charity Shields in that stretch. I fairly loathe them, but if I'm honest, I'd probably take being that kind of shite.

If referees were bent, they'd be effing daft to work against the same club over and over again.