CUJimmy

The last manager we had with strong Forest connections was not greeted enthusiastically by the fans - favourites for relegation but got a team playing with some fight. Didn’t turn out too badly if I remember correctly.

We spent part of our honeymoon camping at the foot of Mont Blanc but that was a long time ago. If you get chance take a trip up the cable car to the Aguille de Midi, ideally early morning. The view from the top across the Alps is breathtaking - literally because you are at about 11000 feet.

It depends on how many days you are going for or if it is just the final day but our general strategy is as follows: Pick up a relatively unknown group at the first. Less crowds will give you more chance to see the course. On about the 6th, get into a grandstand (or a good viewing spot around the green) stay there for an hour or so, hopefully some of the big names will come through in that time. Now pick up another group and follow them until about the 12th. Again, a less well known name will let you see more. Repeat the process, sit around the green for an hour or so. Finally follow a group round to 18 and get the best spot you can to watch the finale. You can, of course, just go straight into the underserved section of the grandstand and be sure of a good view of the winning putt but you miss out on seeing the rest of the course. If you are only going for one day personally I would go with my plan.

Much has already been said: No VAR ✅ Likeable players and manager ✅ Actually winning games ✅ Some banging new songs ✅ I would add actually being allowed to tackle meaning less play-acting and waving of imaginary cards.

5 wins out of 6 is enough, we have a game in hand remember.

It’s obviously very tight but we are always asking for the benefit of the doubt to go to the attacker. VAR might have disallowed it but it would have been one of those ‘offside by a toenail’ decisions so unless we want to go down that route we either need to charge the way we defend our accept the occasional mistake. We lost yesterday because they came with a very limited game plan and executed it well, we seem to have lost (almost) all our confidence in the final third with nobody except Fatawu willing to take responsibility.

Same here except mine disappeared completely so I had to go round to the ticket office to have it added back on.

Almost every team plays out from the back now. The main difference is that some teams press hard whereas others sit back so assuming we get promoted it will be interesting to see which way we go on this. A high press is exciting for the fans but the top defences capitalise on the smallest mistake and can take two players out of the game in an instant. I guess the key is to have options and we can usually tell from which striker Enzo picks what he is planning. Daka/Vards means high press, Nacho means sitting a bit deeper. Not sure what Cannon’s strengths are yet apart from looking like a natural goal scorer and clean striker of the ball.

No need for me to rehearse all the strange decisions last night, others have done that. I don’t remember seeing this guy before though so we don’t know if he is really crap or just had a bad day at the office. Keith Stroud on the other hand is absolute shíte every time.

I like McAteer but just don’t see him as a winger. He looks much more dangerous (and comfortable) in a more central attacking role. As others have said the first 30 mins were outstanding and it looked like another 5-0 was on the cards but conserving energy, avoiding injuries and maybe trying out a few things in the second half was the right call.

It’s an over-used phrase but it ever there is a Rolls Royce of a player in this league it is Ricky P. He can play in any position and makes it all look totally effortless. According to one of his neighbours who works with my daughter he is also one of the nicest, most humble people you could wish to meet.

If you think Mollie is a bit dim try the Australian version - all episodes are available on the iPlayer now. No spoilers but there is one guy makes Harry look like a Saint and the rest make Mollie look like a genius.

I suspect you will get horror stories from any breakdown company so it’s always going to be the luck of the draw. What I would say is treat the renewal price as an opening bid and go from there. You should be able to negotiate a decent discount or at the very least 15 months for the price of 12.

No replays from now on in so a home draw is an even bigger advantage. Someone struggling in the prem is always a good bet because they will have other priorities. Luton at home for me.

This is becoming a fairly stable looking starting team with Fatawu back for McAteer next weekend. The main uncertainty is the Ndidi slot and I saw enough of Yunus yesterday to think he is worth a run of games there. You have to feel a bit sorry for Daka. He was establishing himself has the first choice #9 but Cannon is looking the real deal there so I can’t see Daka forcing his way back in any time soon. We can’t justify 3 strikers on the bench and I would still have Vardy if only for nuisance value. We could really do with cashing in Patsun or Nacho before the window closes.

It was obviously a plan for Cover only to play 45 and the right thing to do to bring him off before he got physically and mentally tired. He will have finished the half full of confidence and desperate to get involved again. Hamza looked as though he didn’t know where the ball was half the time and where his teammates were for the rest of it. It’s almost as though he had something else on his mind. Even at his best he is not technically good enough to play the #6 role especially when he is put under pressure as he was today. Ricky P is simply a class above any other player in this league. He brings an element of calm control that nobody else does with the possible exception of Winks. I don’t understand why we had bids for Castagne in the summer rather than him.

100% this. We have defenders playing in a system where the strength is in preventing opportunities from open play which are minimal. Do we want to sacrifice training in this area for more set-piece work? I would argue that as long as we have the tightest defence in the league then keep going as we are.

That would make sense and your daughter might well be right.

That was a surprise to me. I thought they would either recruit Diane or murder her but they seem to believe she doesn’t have an audience so isn’t a threat. We didn’t see a great deal of Aubrey so I guess it’s all in the edit as far as we are concerned. The round table was interesting, they seemed more easily led in one direction than they were last year or is that just my memory playing tricks on me? Word seems to be that tonight is a cracker so I am looking forward to that along with the “You’re murdered/banished” show afterwards. One thing crossed my mind last night - has there ever been a tied vote? I don’t remember one in series 1 or the US or Aussie versions. As a mathematician I find this really surprising if true to the point of making me slightly sceptical.

It’s not just a question of standing it’s about safe standing. Technically every one of us in the singing section is breaking the rules so could be ejected if we persist. The club has obviously decided to turn a blind eye to this though so I don’t see that happening unless there is an accident in which case there is a risk of the whole section being closed at least temporarily. What I would personally like to see is safe standing rails installed in front of every seat in designated areas (starting where people already stand) which would be much safer than the current situation. A good starting point would be a survey of all STHs in the singing section to see if they would support safe standing. This would not affect anyone else so no need to consult any more widely than that. I suspect the result would be overwhelming in favour but if I am wrong then we would just have to accept that we are in a minority.

The Cardiff system looked like it was retrofitted so in the grand scheme of things it would cost very little although there is no financial return on investment. The only problem I could see is that there seemed to be slightly more legroom there than we have and the rake was shallower so it might be technically more difficult. I’m not an expert though. I suspect it’s more an abundance of caution over safety than anything else that is driving the club on this one. If I’m right then we might have to wait a while to see other clubs’ experience. Having said that it has to be safer than turning a blind eye to standing in SK1 which happens at the moment.

Can I just add that my wife and I are both 60 this year and chose our season ticket seats in the full knowledge of it being a ‘standing tolerated’ area. We can sit before the game and at half-time if we want to as do plenty of people around us. I know that at some point in the future we will have to move to a seated area but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. The key for me is to give people the choice, there was a survey about the singing section so why not one about safe standing?

Cardiff was my first experience of it and I have to say it seemed to work OK. It was pretty much the same as standing in the singing section but with a bar in front of you for safety so difficult to see how anybody could object.

A few years back a mate and I went for a wine tasting road trip in the Loire Valley. We had stayed in a nice hotel in Sancerre and were on our way to Nantes when my wife phoned to say that she had had a call from a French lady to say (cue best ‘Allo ‘Allo accent) - ”Your husband has left ‘is passport in my bedroom”. What really pìssed me off is that at no time did she think I had been up to no good.

During my daughter’s first year at Uni one of her flatmates mistook a plastic chopping board for a baking tray. It didn’t end well 🤣