STEVIE B

Been saying it for weeks. I can't see anything other than Saints, Ipswich & us being relegated. We & the other 2 are so poor defensively & don't create enough. The gap between the teams promoted & those in The Prem is huge. Still.

I think having a future plan definitely helps. A night with friends, a trip to the cinema, a weekend away etc. I love planning for a holiday. I recently had a trip to Italy, it took months of planning - trains, accommodation etc. Totally took my mind away from life's travails.

Some interesting responses to tonight's line up. Personally, it doesn't matter who plays, this is a free hit, so it really matters not who is selected. Don't let it ruin your Boxing Day folks.

.......Which probably applies to any back 4 picked tonight. We are defensively abysmal.

Stan Boardman probably !

He's just a puppet. It's his promotional team orchestrating it. He is caught in the headlights of anything to do with this side of boxing.

Tigers at home, on tv ?

Won 3-2. Much needed. Alvechurch is another big game on Saturday too.

The wickets are similar in NZ to ours, a bit greener & not fast. Woakes does well over here. England will take a pure pace attack to Australia.....Wood, Archer (if fit), Stone, Carse, Atkinson, Potts, etc.

Woakes won't go to Australia.

I guess it's because England play the same way, whatever the conditions & whoever they play. It's a bit like Russian Roulette. Often it works, sometimes it doesn't. I do think England will need to be a bit more pragmatic at times against sides such as India & Australia though.

The further he's away from our defence the better.

Potts replaces Woakes for the final Test in NZ. England's only change.

A fully motivated Fury should beat anyone currently. Unfortunately for him this drifts from fight to fight. Usyk is so good though, always motivated, has the will of a war torn country behind his every move & word. I take Usyk again. I think !

Maybe just have a drink at the weekend. If it's something that you enjoy why stop completely ? Obviously it's personal choice, but I've only done dry January once, but didn't enjoy it one bit. I rarely drink during the working week, which is 'winning the week', l guess.

I've been given a Brewdog advent calendar. Some of their stuff is 6.8 - 8% ! I'm on Dec 16th already, a few days ahead......... the month is flying by !

Recently watched Will & Harper, which is excellent, followed by Leave The World Behind. It's probably 20 mins too long, but definitely worth a watch. It makes you think ‘could this actually happen ?’ Both on Netflix, would recommend both.

What happened to the voting system for World Cup's ? I'm sure it was probably corrupt, but it's just handed to host nations now.

....The amount of driver's that somehow manage to drive around in the evening without lights on. How is it even possible ?

There was a Dutch football expert talking about RVN on TalkSport recently. He said he is very mindful of having an organised, solid defence. We will see !

To a degree. Unfortunately we rarely win Test match series away in India, Australia or West Indies & just lost in Pakistan.. England need to start doing a bit better abroad, hopefully winning this series in NZ kickstarts something. For me, we have a bit of an obsession with The Ashes, especially away from home, where we generally get humiliated. We should go all out to beat other sides too.

Morrissey ?

England's arrogant approach will generally go 2 ways. All out for 160 on a green top, as this will probably end up, or 500+ on a flat track. Surely 'bazball' can be tweaked or tempered to the type of wicket or state of the game. Yes, it’s generally exciting, but becoming too predictable.

As long as Belgium keep picking him he'll always have a swagger, be arrogant & believe he's better than he is. Surely they will drop him pretty soon based on his performances for us.

He would destroy it now !