Andrew3000

That's......not the coughing emoji surely??
 

Probably not for a very long time. Was reading this morning that the NZ PM is going to keep the borders shut until next year, so the entire population can be vaccinated. Going to be in for a nasty shock when she discovers the vaccinated can still catch, spread and die from Covid.
Zero Covid is a myth.

He's not wrong. We should have played him in the final from the start and the team selection was mental

That picture sure is something

I think the nightmare start was because one team had clearly played together while the other one had not. Simples.    Ish! It left some with the mindset that we are awful and will really struggle this season. Well we will struggle, no doubt about that. But apart from the two mistakes we didn't perform badly. YEs Salford might have scored one or two more, but then we could have done the same! 
THE LADS DONE GOOD!
There seems to be two groups of people forming right now - those who have got it in for Joswiack, and those who are starting to have it in for Sibley. Joswiack got a load of flack on Saturday becaue his gaff in front of goal was what he was guilty of last season, so people are rightly annoyed that he doesn't appear to be learning from his mistakes, or to be developing. Last night his strengths of his defensive work and his play in midfield were there again, but last night he was looking to lay the ball off better on several occasions, so that is definite progress. Keep it up Kamil!
And Sibley - apart from his red mist tendency, many say that he is weak defensively. Yet for the first 20 minutes he was the one putting the challenges in. And later on, after our formation tweaks he found loads of pockets of space, and laid some terrific through balls on, parrticularly short ones through the defence. He was in line for man of the match until Ebosele's boots lit up.
There was another difference last night, especially for the opening stages. When Salford got the ball in defence they immediately shouted "Forwards", and off they went, transitioning through the phases really well. When we got the ball, we went all Chuckle Brothers, embarking on a series of about 20 passes sideways. "It's Cocu ball, Jim, but not as we know it" is apt, because it was just as turgid in terms of progress, but at least it was quicker than Cocu's offering. A second problem, which was highlighted earlier, was that while we were struggling to find a forward pass, Ebosele wa standing out on the wing totally unmarked, and with acres of space in front of him. Our response to this gift of an out ball was to turn and pass sideways to someone who was already marked, and it happened time and time and time and time again.
It wasn't helped by Louie Watson - he of the massive accolades. It seems he had been told how DMs play. Because of his desire for the forwards pass we all expected a George Thorne, but what we got was another Max Bird, maybe hinting that Max has been told to play like he does as well. The poor kids.
When Ravel Morrison went deeper it seemed to free our lad up, and suddenly the real Louie Watson started to play. Hence the accolades. And he never shirked or hid from the ball, instead standing with his arms aout wide saying "Pas it to me". Good lad!
The kids did really well - Hutchinson looks a potential star, Stretton looks like he knows what a striker should do, and if he had been given the ball in the right places, he almost certainly would have done well. As it happens he nearly scored from the only through ball he got to run on to. Well done, Mr Stretton! Williams looked good, and never gave up, despite Salford's seedier side being on display. How the defender wasn't booked I have no idea, apart from him not being a Derby player. Compare this with Ebosele's booking. Good grief. Sky described the foul on Williams as "It wasn't obstruction, it was the player simply getting in the way a bit". They forgot to mention that it was deliberate, with the intention of stopping Williams getting on the ball. Ie obstruction! The Sky pundits were at it again, blathering on about our penalty not being one, with the topic occupying them right up until Salford's non-penalty. They tried to show that there was no contact on Ebosele. The truth is that Ebosele's leg was moved by the contact, but the original camera view, from behind, shows the defender flicking his leg in between Ebosele's legs. It was deliberate, aimed at either putting him off balance, or even tripping him without it looking like a trip. Maybe if Salford concentrated on the football instead of the dark arts, maybe they wouldn't still be in League Two. 
What last night tells us is that although we might struggle his season, simply because of lack of squad depth, there is a terrific togetherness and never say die attitude amongst the players, and there are plenty of good signs for the future.
So, raise your glasses, everybody. Here's to a great future!

..........if you don't like it, you can get on your bike with the Salford Lads!
 

Yeah it’s only the league cup, yeah they’re only a league 2 side, yeah it was penalties....
but we really needed that.

Undefeated all season ?

Can we just go straight to penis every match? ?

Chuffed with that. A great experience for the young lads.

Well done you Lambs!! ? 

Well played lads. Real character. 

Lois Watson to win it. He does. Woohoo 

True, you can’t Polish a Teale.

Just as long as we don’t field a team of matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs.
We could be in for a reet cloggin’!

Morrison, Sibley, Lawrence, Jozwiak are all neat, tidy 'clever' players who flit around the periphery of the penalty area in an 'after you Claude' kind of fashion. 
Can we not, for once, have a player who is good at tearing into the box with the sole intention of smashing the ball into the flippin net? 
That's the kind of forward I want to see in the team, even if he misses a few. 

You lot are something else. ??
Appreciate all the messages, especially the one that said I’m young. Whilst I hear all the you have nothing to apologise for messages, I feel I did and couldn’t just swan back in here like nothing had happened.
Now I have addressed it and the football is back, hopefully we can all draw a line under this episode and move on.
This is a time when we all need to be together right now.

Without the X Factor sob story, it has been difficult and an ongoing situation which I will update.
(For those reading, this isn’t about me but a family member that I’m finding it difficult getting the support they need)
Not everybody is open about what they are dealing away from the computer screen which is why people should think about how they talk to people, not just me, online.

I just want to apologise for the delay, my absence, my handling of the situation and try to explain what has happened.
The meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to end at 8.45pm, my last train home was 9.33pm, I slipped out just after 9pm as I didn’t have clothes, medication, toiletries with me as I wasn’t planning on staying overnight.
When the meeting had finished, an agreement was made where one statement would be written and signed off by all groups, this is the first time anything like this had been agreed, I was under the impression we would be allowed to report back as normal.
Being completely unaware of this, whilst waiting for my train I saw a conversation take place on my Twitter timeline discussing the meeting minutes, when would they be out.
I replied, that the meeting minutes were not taken and we would be sharing the information ourselves, which as I say I was under the impression would be allowed, why else attend? I thought I was being helpful.
Now I can see on reflection I was clearly naive in not appreciating the number of fans waiting online for what was said at the meeting, would see the tweet whilst was part of a conversation, which was also public and could be seen and shared by others. The tweet blew up online having been retweeted, I’m not exaggerating when I say maybe hundred or more replies, some abusive to the point where I had to turn notifications off as my phone was freezing with as I came back into an area with phone signal.
On the forum I did pre warn members not to expect anything Wednesday evening, the minutes can sometimes take a few days to a couple of weeks before being released. I was going with the intention of asking the club if the minutes could be released within 24 hours or that we could release the information immediately. Obviously once we was told the minutes would not be taken all that went out the window and believed we was free to report back immediately, and that was the plan.
Again, I was clearly naive to the fact fans on Twitter would not be aware of this, so when I wasn’t replying to all the tweets with thumbs up or down if it’s good news, or are we going to have a club next week the levels of abuse increased, despite my plea for being understanding I wasn’t in the position to do so.
With my write up, I had no intention of adding any personal opinion, it would be just what was said and allow you all to read and take it as you will.
As you will be well aware, all fans see things differently and I didn’t want to raise any expectations or disappoint fans, then receive more abuse as it wasn’t what they were expecting.
I put myself in this situation through naivety, but I don’t accept that the abuse was warranted at all, I have removed the twitter account from my devices and will no longer be active on that account, opting now for a private account as I have no interest in twitter fame.
I would seriously urge anyone that did send me abusive tweets to have a think how they talk to people online and their demands, if this is this what celebrities have to deal with on a daily basis, I’m glad I’m just a nobody!
Punjabi Rams, who I honestly can’t thank enough stepped in and put some tweets out from their account to give some information in my defence. You guys are awesome, didn’t need to do that but again, I honestly can’t thank you enough. Quick plug www.punjabirams.co.uk, @PunjabiRams on Twitter, go give them a follow if you are on there.
On the train home I started to do the write up on my notes app, realising I need to get this out asap, first thing to defuse the situation I felt I had created.
Thursday morning, as I was consulting my notes and finishing off the write up, there was a few things I wanted to fact check with the club were totally accurate, there has been times where things have been misheard in the past (Boycie ahem) and needed correcting, I didn’t want this to happen. We’re human, mistakes can happen, I believed I had time to ensure there were none.
I decided, and this was not requested by the club but to send my write up to them, asking if they could read it over and everything I had written was totally accurate, leaving ??? <—— fact checks where I was a little cautious over.
They agreed and I again naively yet again assumed that this would be back with me in a few hours……despite the previous night listening to just how busy they have been.
Now whilst I understand and totally agree that this meeting is important, the club staff are as I’m sure you can imagine really busy, now I need to really stress here that this is in no way the fault of the club, this is on me 100%.
No tweet, no forum post, none of this situation exists.
Meanwhile The Supporters Charter Group are scratching their heads as to why I’ve gone it alone, I can only apologise to them also, as I say I was under the impression that we would all be reporting back ourselves which I have explained privately with them.
A single statement isn’t something I would have been personally happy with but that is what was agreed in my absence.
I haven’t felt comfortable coming back on the forum if I'm honest, ignoring the fact I insinuated what was said at the meeting would be out Thursday on the forum, I feel like I have let you all down and for that I’m sorry.
Just to add, this apology wasn’t asked for, it's something I feel is owed to you all.
Should someone have gone that could have stayed all evening? Ideally yes, although Paul (Boycie) was unavailable to attend. Since the formation of 2017 it has only been either myself or Paul that has attended, I didn’t feel it would be right to send someone new which in hindsight was the correct call, they may have also not been able to attend until the end of what I’m led to believe turned out to be almost a 4 hour long meeting, putting themselves unwittingly into a similar situation I have.
I know you are all frustrated, the accusations of attention seeking, sitting on information, teasing, trying to get more views, followers etc. and even censorship on the forum are simply not true, they come from people that do not know me or how the forum is run at all, which is disappointing hearing it said by members that have been on the forum for a number of years now.
Finally, I do want to say thank you to those who have sent supportive texts, PM’s, DM’s, tweets you name it over the last few days, despite asking to be given time, it’s you who I put the hours in for, I will learn from this and work on handling things better in the future.
I would also like to thank the moderators who have been trying their best to keep on top of the situation, without them this forum would have crashed and burned over the last few days so please be respectful to them, even if at times you do not agree with decisions they have made. 
David
 

But it's reactive not pro-active. In the final analysis, WR has said he wants the players to be more courageous, so he has to demonstrate faith in their capacity to be brave by modelling brave decisions himself. OK, for game one given the frantic and frenetic build up just to get a squad together but I want to see courageous management going forward. Talk the talk and walk the walk. Football is 90% confidence, but to be confident sometimes means finding confidence from the courage of your convictions not waiting for things to go your way. 

I'm generalising massively here, but there hasn't really been a lockdown for many people. There's been middle class people hiding in their houses whilst the working class deliver stuff to them.

https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/health/causes-death/provisional-mortality-statistics/latest-release
Meanwhile, much maligned Sweden has seen just 1.5% excess deaths, virtually 0 covid deaths recently and unlike Australia's impending recessions will see their economy grow this year.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-economy-growth-covid-pandemic-b1892860.html
 

So Mel wants an academy team and Wayne wants Dad's Army. 
Like a mixed boys and dads team. 

Another polish guy that was at the euros would help kamil massively,  im sure people are forgetting we don't have any other wingers on the bench , ebosele can play there but it's not his position and he's still learning , and other than sibley we basically have no one , would be good to have both definitely if possible