Sir Steve Howard

On 20/11/2025 at 21:55, FLAN said:

Don’t suppose anywhere in Dublin will show our game this weekend?

No early prem game so quite possibly

49 minutes ago, RonnieTodger said:

Curacao being in a World Cup is crazy. 

Not really an achievement on the scale people are making it out to be.

Aside from Chong, every single one of their players is Dutch who qualifies via ancestry.

Qualifying standard for CONCACAF is the pits.

Shame as it has drawn comparisons to Iceland qualifying, which was a genuine sporting achievement bordering on a miracle.

10 hours ago, StanSP said:

Don't get how this is good for PL, at least not for the fans? 

 

Sources have suggested the deal could be seen as good news for the Premier League given it adds another big broadcasting name to the football rights market and should not lead to an overall reduction in the TV pot. 

Oh it's definitely not good for the fans, although some of the PSR bootlickers might see it that way

25 minutes ago, Scotch said:

Talk again about Harvey Barnes switching to Scotland and I'm not sure how I feel about it. 

 

We've approached him a few times and he has knocked us back. You dont want players who aren't committed waltzing in and taking the place over lads who have done the graft to get us there but at the same time....

He's a cracking player in a position we are light in. Having him, McTominay and Gannon-Doak behind the striker with Ferguson and McGinn behind them would realistically be one of the better midfields at the world cup. 

He is English at the end of the day and before the injury he got for us in 2021 he was tearing it up and deserving of place in England squad.

Now though nowhere near England squad so would work well for all parties if he went for Scot

4 hours ago, EastAnglianFox said:

That MC guy that interviews them is fvcking horrendous, he doesn’t read the room or listen to the players answers at all

 

Telling Judd that he must have taken confidence from the week (even though himself has said he’d played awfully) 

 

Then proceeded to get very hands on with Selby like he was his best mate or something, proper cringe guy 

If you're talking about Rob Walker, couldn't agree more. Bloke needs a one way ticket to outer space

On 09/11/2025 at 09:01, MS0204 said:

Few more home games and maybe it’ll take off.. 

Jordan James dancing queen version is up there with our best ever chants, goes without saying that a danny ward alternative could prove more popular with our fans

On 04/09/2025 at 22:51, Izzy said:

I've been following the Raiders since 1983

 

So like most years, absolutely shite.

Hello darkness, my old friend

People love to complain about overly complex lyrics within some chants. No excuses for the Ben Nelson chant not to take off.
1) It's a banger
2) the only words are his name

5 hours ago, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

 

Quito lost 4-0 in Brazil so its Palmeiras v Flamengo ffs

LDU's ground is high altitude so a bit of the Bolivian national team about it.

Still absolutely shambolic they couldn't see out a 3 goal head start ffs.

Flamengo down to 10 early doors but had no issues shutting up shop at Racing.

The final will probably be more entertaining with these two in there but Brazil-Brazil again is getting tedious

33 minutes ago, jayfox26 said:

We can't be. We have so many saleable assets in our squad, we could easily build a new ground if we sold Vestergaard, Faes, Soumare, Skipp, Ayew, BDCR and Daka. 

Combined value of £5

53 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

"The Israelis" are not here. That's what we're discussing.

The game is going ahead. They're in the competition and playing home games in neutral territory. It's a farce.

Let's not open a can of worms but these fvckers should be nowhere near UEFA comps anyway. Look at the map.

7 minutes ago, AKCJ said:

The Tel Aviv CEO said that he expected around 1,000 tickets.

 

You're not wrong when you say that there will be a significant portion of their away following that wants to cause trouble and there will be a significant number of pro-Palestinians who will want to attack them. There are simple measures the Police can take to drastically reduce the chance of ticket holders causing or being a victim of violence.

 

This blanket ban is just blatant antisemitism. Jewish football fans are being treated unfairly because of their religion. 

Russians were banned before you could blink yet the Israelis are still here, would argue that is the opposite of antisemitism

Shouldn't be in the competition at all ffs

Grandad Bowl didn't disappoint 

5 minutes ago, Detroit Blues said:

I'm going to caveat with - the expansion of the tournament is dumb, and the original selection of 32 teams was perfect.... BUT... CONCACAF's teams going to the inter-confederation tournament are likely to be pretty solid. Curacao is by far the lowest ELO ranked team (95), but they could easily displace Jamaica (75) for the top spot in their group. Costa Rica is (52) and Panama is (36). 

 

That compares well with:

 

Nigeria (62)

Cameroon (68)

Gabon (84)

DR Congo (65)

Bolivia (47)

New Caledonia (140)

UAE (73)

Iraq (68)

 

Are these teams better than the teams that will likely miss out in UEFA? Of course not. But that's not really the point of the World Cup. 

 

Nothing good has ever come out of CONCACAF I'm afraid, considering that outside of USA/Canada it's football mad.

Mexico perennial chokers.

USA's best player is at Cov ffs.

1 hour ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

So, both Nigeria and Cameroon sneak into the African play-offs....but only 1, at most, will make it out alive...

Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon and DR Congo, 1 to qualify for the inter-continental play-offs.

 

Inter-continental play-offs (2 to qualify for WC finals):

- Bolivia

- New Caledonia

- UAE or Iraq

- 1 of the 4 African nations above

- 2 x second-placed CONCACAF teams (perhaps Curaçao & Costa Rica, but groups are tight)

Shambolic UEFA don't get a representative in the playoffs (because whoever it was would obviously walk it). CONCACAF getting 6 spots and 2 in the playoffs is taking the piss.

Last time UEFA had an intercontinental spot was 2002, playoff was Ireland v Iran w/ home and away legs, incredible tie.

1 hour ago, leicsmac said:

Could be a good finish in the Pak-Saffer Test, SA coming back into it and have a target of 277 to chase down. Make that about even money IMO.

Surely PAK clear favs defending that, 2 down already

Quite a long-winded backstory but could be in San Marino's interest to throw a qualifier if November.

They play Romania, who are above them in nations league qualifier order and currently third in WC group.

If Romania finish second, San Marino would then be on the cards to make the playoffs despite finishing bottom of group, as Romania would have made playoffs in own right rather than NL standing.

Romania need to overhaul GD to reach Bosnia though so we could be left with the farcical situation of San Marino needing to lose by a certain number of goals to progress.

Would very much bring the game into disrepute. Obviously would be great to see it happen

1 hour ago, Alf Bentley said:

 

So, we could still easily end up with Cameroon v Nigeria in the African play-offs. Only 1 African nation progresses to the global play-offs, as I recall.

 

Mind you, looking at the table, SA might not find it easy to score 2 v. Rwanda. Despite only standing 4th, Rwanda have only conceded 6 goals in 9 qualifiers (and only scored 5).

I presume Rwanda favour the 11-0-0 tactical formation...

Yeah Rwanda no pushovers, beat SA 2-0 in reverse fixture

37 minutes ago, shen said:

Second place in that group is effectively knocked out, no? There's no chance they will be among the four best placed runnerups.

Benin draw is enough unless SA romp Rwanda.

Nigeria can make it due to Eritrea chopping out another group. All results against bottom place are discounted to level playing field.

In most groups the runner up will have beaten bottom team home and away but in group C Zimbabwe are bottom and have drawn with Nigeria, Benin and SA at home.

Nigeria couldn't even beat them at home either so in the runner up standings they only have two points knocked off. They'll finish on 15 and will have better GD than Niger.

Also romp is a funny way of saying SA only need to win by 2+ if Benin draw.

On 11/10/2025 at 13:12, Alf Bentley said:

 

Tense finale in this group, after South Africa failed to beat Zimbabwe. Realistically, all 3 teams now need to win their final fixture to qualify - the second-placed team probably won't qualify for the play-offs (though the decision to ignore matches v. 6th-placed team complicates matters and potentially helps Nigeria). South Africa probably still favourites, but it's on a knife-edge for all 3. If Nigeria and S. Africa both win, Nigeria could still go out, which is a shameful performance...

 

This group is mad. SA should be home and dry by now but beat Lesotho at home then got awarded 0-3 loss for fielding ineligible player.

If Nigeria beat Benin 2-1 they'll be inseparable and it will go down to 8th tiebreaker of booking points.

1 hour ago, MC Prussian said:

Nobody talking about the ticket prices and the ticket draw system?

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cdjzknpxlv2o

 

Anyone going must be absolutely loaded/devoid of any sense

On 28/09/2025 at 19:05, Gamble92 said:

Bit off the topic of West Brom but when anyone talks about unsafe I always think back to that Peterborough away game around 2011 when we lost 2-1. No exaggeration to say we could have had people die that day. No idea how more wasn't made of that. 

My favourite ever domestic away, incredible end despite the result. How football should be.

19 hours ago, Sunbury Fox said:

What a sh1tshow today. If we do limp to promotion, next season could be like City's 2024/25 PL season, judging by recent performances. 

wild take, T20 and One day performances don't correlate to our sparkling county champ form