Ted Maul

Thought we were much the better side first half, with a collective brain fart giving them a chance which was taken well. Not sure what was worse, 3 players getting drawn out of position for the flick on or Faes deciding he fancied a nap. Second half was poor, but we found a way. It's not a bad point at all- it would feel like that were more the case if we'd beaten Oxford or Coventry. Beat Wrexham and you'd say it's a solid start. Nobody is going to run away with it this year, just got to keen grinding out points when you're up against it and we'll be up there. Living in hope that things start to click in the final third over the next few games.

He'll be decent at this level once he's settled in- need someone up top to make a nuisance of themselves. What does worry me is that having an actual striker on the pitch didn't make us look any more balanced.

Whoever that **** was, send him back to the lower leagues.

I take it all back.

I'll take BDCR at this point as long as Ayew comes off.

Had enough of Ayew now. Horrible player to watch.

An indication of how much time there is left! Just avoiding giving them any sort of way back into it. Forecast looks fine for tomorrow afternoon now. You'd imagine we will just go on the attack for 15 overs or so and declare after lunch.

Plenty of time left, particularly at the rate we score at. Teams following on always seem to offer a lot more resistance in the second innings as the attack begins to tire.

Luckily, it's not an important game.

Less than a minute after posting...

Patel looking a lot more like his usual self of late. Bodes well for next season.

Sounds like a fair few have missed flights out of stansted this morning due to a fire.

Can see this being the most open Championship promotion race for a long time.

Thought we were the better side- similar to the Birmingham game, kept them at arms length well and carved out a couple of decent opportunities. Just less clinical today. We're a work in progress, but there is progress. We'll get better now we're playing something close to our best XI... whether we go up or not probably depends on whether Carranza can hit the ground running, because Ayew ain't a lone striker.

Not far off an average wage then. Far from outrageous, as this thread would have had you believe.

Most sources online suggest £15k a week. No idea what the average Championship wage is, but we're not an average Championship club and it's a long way below our average wage.

Based on?

Side point here but I think we've lost something as a fanbase in terms of wanting local lads to come through and do well. Some of them seem to get disproportionate stick, never mind a bit of slack.

Don't mind that. He's going to be on low wages, if he ends up being a backup in the long term then fine. This isn't like giving out a 4-year deal to thirty-something deadwood, if it comes to it I don't think we'd have a problem selling him on.

Any danger of there being some play?

Still looks like there's a few hundred tickets left for this, which surprised me- might be a good thing for the atmosphere if there's less demand from day trippers.

I've seen a fair bit of it towards Middlesbrough too, but it's definitely odd.

Been away so didn't get to see much of the Gloucs match, but what a season this has been. Hopefully get the title sewn up this week too. If you'd have said at the start of the summer in 2023 that we'd have won the one day cup, walked CC div 2, had 2 players play test cricket for England & signed the likes of Maharaj, we wouldn't have believed it. Huge credit to the coaching and recruitment staff for even getting us relatively competitive again, never mind that sort of success.

It's Cov at home, not Liverpool away. People were wetting the bed about Birmingham too and they didn't have a sniff. They're a decent side but nothing to be feared, especially at home- we haven't got out of second gear or played anything close to our best starting XI yet and we're still above them in the table.

We'll certainly go for it. Might end up shutting up shop if we lose a few quick wickets. Get it done in style lads.