Tamworthram

Only partly to blame now then? That's more like it.

Here we go again. PW obviously told them to play poorly in the second half then?

Apart from scoring do you mean? Awful second half though.

18 games is a bit different to throwing a newbie into the first team but, as I said, I'm not sure he's that "afraid".

Perhaps @Ghost of Clough should have said “proven” youngsters. Bird and Cashin were so established in the first team when PW arrived that it doesn’t quite feel right to describe them as “youngsters” even though they technically are. Having said that, I’m not entirely convinced PW is afraid to play unproven youngsters. It could just be that he doesn’t see them good enough (at the moment) to make that breakthrough. It’s always a risk playing unproven youngsters in the first team and it’s perhaps a risk PW should have taken earlier in the season but now we’re at the sharp end of the season, maybe it’s more important to stick with experience.

That’s pretty much how I see it panning out. We do need to contain them in the first half.

It’s a reasonable concern for some but, don’t forget, if we do get promoted we certainly won’t be a big fish in a small pond anymore.

I’ll be in cosmopolitan Higham in the morning before the game visiting relatives. That’s enough excitement for me. 😅

Trump accepts Bitcoin? Just the sort of endorsement you need. 😅

Simply no longer part of the ST deal and haven’t been for a long time.

I seem to have stumbled across a band from Japan called Love bites. The latest YouTube clip I’ve seen is a live recording of “Lost in the garden”. Amazing musicians.

Just make sure you have a good moan if there are any first day gremlins. 😀

I remember years ago, loads of us piling into the back of a transit van and travelling all over the place. No seat belts or anything. You couldn't (shouldn't) do that now. Health and Safety gone mad. 😀

I'll be renewing but there's no hurry (just don't spend the money on something else in the meantime 😀). Before you know it, some people will be moaning: 1) I haven't had my personalised letter/email yet 2) renewals aren't working properly on the website.

Early days still but there aint a lot of "bitching" on this site. If you look at places like X then you should expect it.

Absolutely. The increase will of course be painful for some (as all price increases are) but we have to be realistic in our expectations.

If I remember correctly, they were on top for the first 15 - 20 at PP but once we’d weathered the early storm we took over. I wonder if it will be similar pattern tomorrow? Early Barnsley pressure but we hold firm (no goals conceded and not a plethora of yellow cards) and then begin to assert ourselves (hopefully). COYR.

Of course it’s a shame they have gone up (about £60 for me) but I don’t feel like moaning about it. I think it was inevitable given they haven’t risen for so long. The cost of living has gone up for everyone and, sadly, DCFC are not immune from increased costs. How palatable the increase is is, of course, influenced by what league we’ll be playing in next season but I don’t think it was feasible to wait until that has been determined. No brainer for me, I’ll renew without hesitation. Some consolation for me 1) it’s less than I’ve budgeted for and 2) I’ll be in the seniors bracket the season after next.

You probably should have removed the Bristol Rovers badge to make the joke work. 😅

Possible but very unlikely I would have thought. I can’t imagine Mel being bothered enough to put any such condition in the contract and risk it not going through.

Damn it. Another barrier to me buying a Tesla. 😀

I'm not sure you could describe the chants as "official"😀 I'm not entirely comfortable with his appointment for this game but I don't think there are any real grounds to suspect he is biased especially if, as you have, you separate out the Barnsley apprentice factor. The EFL don't appoint referees per se. Do we know it's actually them that select the referees for specific games? I'm not convinced they do but happy to be proved wrong. Whoever did select him though has made a bold decision that should perhaps, by applying a bit of common sense, have been avoided.

Agreed. I would fully support the return of the railways to public ownership (assuming it was managed effectively of course) but, as you allude to, a massive investment in the infrastructure would be required in order to deliver the service, at a reasonable cost, that most of us crave.

I agree with you in principle but I suspect many countries have a good and affordable public transport system to get people to work during the core hours to the cities but do they run such a service to the smaller towns like Uttoxeter and Tamworth at the hours that would suit shift workers? Maybe they do, I don’t know. Also, I don’t know where you work but, unless you work in the town centre, such a service would also need to serve the surrounding area.

Well of course it is a rich country but in terms of size (geographic, population, public transport network) you can’t really compare it to a country like Luxembourg as you most probably know. The problem is that whilst the GDP for the UK is very high (top 6 in the world I think) so is the cost of running the country hence the high national debt (104% of GDP v 27% for Luxembourg). Maybe the UK could afford it. Has it been costed? Assuming it wouldn’t be cheap (as I say, if you’re going to offer free or cheap train tickets it isn’t as simple as lowering the prices. As we’ve discussed on this thread already, the infrastructure couldn’t (including the number of trains. I believe most, if not all, commuter trains are already full to overcrowded for example. How are you going to reduce congestion on the roads if the busy trains can’t take any more passengers) couldn’t cope. how would it be paid for? The simple answer might be to increase taxes but such a project would be competing with the other very worthy causes. So, unless you have the answers, let’s not pretend it’s an easy thing to deliver and fund. Maybe the price of off peak train tickets could be significantly reduced (that’s probably where the current capacity is) but it wouldn’t help reduce commuter traffic. I would fully support a free or low cost public transport system but I think it would be a little naive to think it’s an easy fix.