Lineker's Lugs

Anyone else just laughing at that?

Apologies if already mentioned (I've not read back), but I just started a new Football Manager save in the Belgian lower leagues and I noticed OH Leuven U23s in one of the third tier leagues. I checked the real life league table and they are second bottom in a division where three teams get relegated. The KP success story goes on.

I really didn't expect a win based on the two teamsheets but it was a very dogged performance by England to restrict Spain. Pleased for Hannah Hampton to make a great save near the end to keep the clean sheet. She needed that after being a bit shaky early on and after having a bit of a dodgy spell for Chelsea recently.

For those of you despairing about the lack of numbers protesting against the owners, I think you need to bear in mind that it’s not just the KPFC brigade that aren’t getting involved. There are also a lot of people who would say they support Leicester but simply no longer care enough. They might be disillusioned with football in general (like me) or Leicester in particular but in either case they’ve drifted away. Even if they think the departure of KP would be a good thing, they’re not going to travel in to protest on the day of a game they have no interest in watching. Having largely disconnected from the club they have found they simply don’t miss it in the way they might have expected to when their support was at its most avid. The club has dropped down their list of priorities. They don’t actively want the club to fail but ultimately every defeat, every point deducted, even every relegation is now just water of a duck’s back. They’ll just shrug and move on. I just shrug and move on. It simply doesn't really matter to me anymore.

It looks like the playoff is at 12.30pm on Saturday 23rd May, and will be shown on BBC2 and Sky.

Who's going to start the 'Rick Passmoor - Only 27 Months Left' thread?

They really need to accept they are in the playoff and start preparing accordingly. Work out how they want to play that game (regardless of who the opposition turns out to be), what the right personnel is and how they manage the intervening matches to give the best chance that the players they want/need are fit and available. How do they want to use Williams? How do they make sure Mouchon is ready? How do they produce a performance that isn't limply passive? Can they find a loophole in the contract with Spurs and cancel Neville's transfer? So many things to resolve. They seem no nearer to a recognisable system of play or a first choice line-up than on day one of the season. Even with the limited quality, that basic stuff should have been sorted out months ago.

Unless that notebook of Rick's has some voodoo spells in it I don't think it's going to help much.

It's like watching a different sport compared to the Manchester and North London derbies yesterday or Chelsea-Villa earlier today.

Aren't there planning restrictions concerning Belvoir Drive? Perhaps I'm mis-remembering. Loughborough Uni Stadium would be perfect for me. I've spent many happy hours watching Loughborough Foxes there before the Loughborough Lightning takeover ruined that. It has a limited capacity though and very little of it seated. Hinckley would be great too but it was pretty run down last time I went and that was ten years ago. If it was at all feasible from a cost/ownership perspective it would be the best option - close enough to still be considered Leicester, small enough to get an atmosphere. I'd probably even start attending myself which ain't going to happen at the KP. I've just remembered a detail of my last experience of visiting the Hinckley stadium. I went into the turnstyle and the person in there told me I'd have to go to the next one. I went to the next one and he moved to it as well and let me through. Absolute WUM!

Leicester have the weakest squad in the division with only West Ham anywhere near as bad. You’d be hard pushed to find a more experienced manager than Passmoor - I used to watch teams he coached in the women’s top flight 20 years ago. If anything the argument would be that he’s too experienced and some fresh thinking was required. I agree the tactics are wrong but I’m not sure what the answer is. The defence isn’t good enough to shut up shop and Leitzig looks like she has PTSD from playing behind them for so long. But if they try and attack the defence is left more exposed and that won’t end well either. It’s lose-lose, much like their results.

Mouchon has certainly been missed but I don’t think she would make that much difference. And even if she would, the fact that the absence of one (or two with Rantala) players would completely derail a season suggests the problems run deeper. I always look at the two starting line ups and think who I would pick in a combined XI. Usually there would be no Leicester players, occasionally one or two at most. The first half today suggested they could win the play-off, the second half suggested they will struggle. If they do go down I don’t expect them to return until there is a major change of approach towards the team but if the men get relegated as well the women will become even more of an afterthought.

She's been putting on coaching masterclasses for kids. Presumably demonstrating what not to do.

On a side note, BBC coverage is far better when Alex Scott, Fara Williams and Rachel Brown-Finnis are nowhere near it.

I'm not a fan of Lehmann but fair play to her - the other forward players would have found a way to miss that chance, simple as it was.

Nice goal after a tedious game finally came to life.

Meanwhile Nelly Las is making the first league start of her career on loan at Ipswich who are away to Forest. Live on YouTube for anyone interested.

Thanks, that's pretty much what I expected but useful to have it confirmed. I think the train might be the way I go. The life membership cost £650 at the time I got it, then a few months later there was a new commercial director (or whichever role was responsible for the pricing) and it became £1,950 instead. A rare example of good timing on my part!

I bought a life membership many years ago just before the club realised it was too cheap and tripled the price. I haven't been down for a while and consequently fell off the club's radar - and database it seems - but got that sorted just before the end of last season. I'm planning on attending a few times this season (championship only) as I've packed in work. What's the car parking situation these days? I couldn't find anything on the LCCC website. Train or park and ride look like other options but neither looks ideal as far as I can tell.

It used to be that the one thing you couldn’t fault was the effort but even that seems to be fading now. It must be disheartening playing for such a mess of a club.

With our masterful defence this game is as good as over.

Fair play - this new executive management structure is paying dividends.

It should be two legs or a neutral venue. I can't help thinking that Leicester being relegated would be good for the league though. Better to have teams that will take it seriously.

And even if it wasn't quite doing that it wouldn't be the reason for conceding from a corner. Such a weird thing to be bothered about.

Can't fault your optimism for clinging to some hope, but it might be time for acceptance!