Golden Fox

Can't deny I lost a bit of control with the strip sack at the game's climax!

Where has the CFL been all my life??? What a game tonight again!!! After the incredible 1 second win in the Labor Day Classic which I didn't think could be topped, the Argos came out laying a turd - 14-0 down and playing awfully, and in trying far too hard to get back into it, they had a 6-1 turnover margin against, the Elks scoring 27 points off those turnovers, Fajardo 1 short of the CFL record of 23 consecutive completions - and the Argos starting QB (who himself was the backup) limping off and they overcome all that to somehow pull off a walk-off field goal and only go and win it. There was Herslow trying another highlight reel hurdle - only to get smashed with a helmet to helmet stop in mid-air instead, and plenty of needle, with virtually a mass brawl at the end. And what a playoff race... nobody is out of it with 6 games to go and 6 teams sat between 4-9 and 6-7 fighting for 3 playoff spots. 3 wins in a row now for the Argos... we might not be catching Hamilton in the regular season, but I'm starting to salivate at an Eastern Final match-up.... Remember folks, in the UK, this is all free to watch on https://www.cfl.ca/plus/ - I feel sorry for anyone drawn in by DAZN and choosing to watching the kiddies play college football instead...

They said on commentary at the start that the ref had booked a ridiculous amount of players in his previous game. Hw then gave Soumare a really harsh yellow within 5 mins. So he's card happy and it was a harsh red, but the players should know this and shouldn't go in for rash challenges and give him an excuse.

I thought the Seahawks D looked good. Restricting the Niners to 1 TD and a 2nd jump ball in the End Zone is not to be sniffed at. There was a stat at some point about the amount Purdy was pressured on his dropbacks being the highest % of his career. Darnold impressed in his year as a Niner and killed us last year as a Viking, and Kupp gives me nightmares, so I wouldn't write them off. But the Seahawks offensive game plan just didn't seem right. They set out their stall to run and had some early success, but I think the Niners adapted to go all out to stop the run, and the Seahawks just kept trying it rather than looking to exploit the holes in the secondary. When they had to pass at the end of each half, Darnold was able to find those throws easily enough. And I wouldn't blame him for that fumble at the end: he was already starting his passing movement, and knew Bosa wasn't getting around his man... But its early days - you can get a lot of odd results in week 1, and I don't know whether both defeces are very good or both offences are pretty average until they've had a few more matchups. (the SF offensive line might just be cr*p!)

Massive win for the Niners at Seattle. Just an absolute battle with 2 strong defences, and teams that don't like each other in a raucous atmosphere. The Niners had so many flashbacks to last year with injuries and losing close games so would have had plenty of excuses to feel OK after a tight loss, so to pull through this feels huge for the team's mentality. (its weird to make a big deal out of week 1, but little to separate the 4 teams in the NFC West, so winning division games on the road will be a big factor come the end of the year).

Maybe they started the season with the wrong quaterback! Whisper it quietly, but after their 2-8 start, the Argos are hosting these Elks next weekend, and if they win, will actually be in a Playoff spot...

Its always feast of famine with the 49ers.... over the last 14 years, its 7 years missing the Playoffs, and 7 years making at least the NFC Championship game (no need to mention the 8 seasons before that...) Last year, despite a couple of early silly losses, we were still 5-4 - then after another avoidable loss to the Seahawks, and more injuries, the team just gave up and ended up 6-11. And on top of that, we have lost some key pieces (Deebo Samuel to Washington) - with the defence completely raided in free agency (Greenlaw to Broncos, Javon Hargrave to the Vikings, with Charvarius Ward and Leonard Floyd also leaving). However, the core is still there - Purdy, Kittle, McCaffry, Bosa, WIlliams, so the big "if" is whether they can all stay healthy. Robert Saleh somehow decided his best career choice was to come back as Defensive Coordinator, when he really could have had a HC job if he wanted. There is a promising crop of rookies, and Shanahan has finally understood the need to completely reset Special Teams, which has really hurt the past few years, so new coach, snapper, punter etc, so there are actually a lot of positives. My gut feeling was that after making the Superbowl 2 years ago (which we should have won), the players were knackered physically and emotionally, and also thought they just needed to turn up to make the playoffs, so weren't ready to fight in the big moments. This year is the polar opposite. The players are refreshed and have a chip on their shoulder and a point to prove. So I reckon its back to NFC Championship game at least! But big thing for me this year is that during the awful end to last year, when the team couldn't be bothered, the 49ers' games lost their shine. And having now discovered the CFL, my summer sporting ritual has been Argos podcasts and the Argos game being the big event. Being honest about it, I've found the CFL games better, the culture more down to earth and enjoyable, and keeping up with the 2-3 other games a week very simple, so I've no anticipation or excitement at all for this NFL season. I'm sure that will change with the first RedZone of the season, and the first Niners game and I'll get into it, but it all just feels a bit like being caught in the NFL machine, with the same old OTT posturing and everything being money driven and it all feels a bit lacking at the moment.

Absolutely mental month for the Giants. On August 9th, they were struggling to stay in the post season race, with a recent 6 game losing streak knocking confidence and contributing to knocking them back from a good start to the season to a 59-57 record. Then they had a 7 game losing streak, including an 0-8 and and 1-11 as the wheels came off. They did then win 2 games, but immediately went on another 4 game losing streak culminating in a 9th inning meltdown against the Brewers to drop 7 games under .500 as the season flamed out in spectacular style. And since then, they have won 10 out of 11 games, smashing the ball all over the place, breaking records for consecutive games with homers, and have pulled to within 4 games of a wild card. So they are 12-12 from the last 24 games - back to where they started at 2 games over .500 and I'm not sure whether to start get genuinely excited or to expect a 22 game losing streak between now and the end of the season!

My mistake, I meant to write 2003, not 2023! Just imagine the commentary on a 5 year old Harvey Barnes scoring an equaliser in Yorkshire.

Roberto Mancini?

Very underrated. Think of where the club was before he became No 1 - hadn't been in the too flight for years, but he was one of the missing pieces of the puzzle for that '93-'94 campaign when we finally reached the promised land. Hard done by to only get 6 appearances in our first ever Premier League season, but glad someone else recognises his talent. And a great chant... Gavin Ward, My Lord...

Tuesday 4th March, 2003. I'd been playing 5 a side in London, and looked at my phone, and saw it was Bradford 0, Leicester 0. I tended to look at upcoming games at home and around London (when you could actually get tickets for games) so this passed me by completely, and I had no idea they had played. 0-0 was obviously the only result it could have been. I'm still ashamed about it over 20 years later.

I watched a few games like this the first year, but you really miss out on the drama building at key moments. The big one for me was the 2019 playoffs between the Rams and Saints whicy came down to an awful non-call on a pass interference in the last 2 mins. I was thinking "what just happened?" as the game in 40 sped on. Needed to then load up the full game to appreciate the big moment of the game. So it sounds good in theory, but I pretty much gave up on it after that!

Agreed - always hated that logo, but seeing as everything retro is now cool, and if teams are putting retro club badges on shirts, then surely we can do the same with the sponsor... We had the whole range at one point or another.... (And having been to the States in '96 & '97 and seen this on their bags of their tasteless idea of what a crisp was, that last logo was never a proper Leicester logo, but a c**p American logo Pepsico used to homogenize the brand)

Got a couple of mins through that, but couldn't help but notice the commentary on some of those: "that's the monkey off his back" "no mistake that time"

1 second! Wow! What a finish, and the silence coming from the little kittens is deafening!!!

We could do with the K-Bet journalists on this one, but from what I can see, there is a Hilde Faes on Facebook with 185 friends and a very similar profile pic... And the account on here has been posting a consistent message about Wout for 3 years, so hasn't just been created. So I'm more inclined than not to think its genuine. But honestly, if she has spent any time reading this forum, has such a low opinion of football fans, and is intelligent, then I'm not sure the point in getting so riled and so many posts... She has defended Wout, had a pop at Leicester fans and football fans in general, and bragged about how her and that Faes' lives in general are superior to ours, so job done. And having had a handful of sensible responses acknowledging treatment of Wout, its mainly just people on the wind up and having a pop back - which is exactly what you would expect in this place, so rather than continue to argue with the whole word, I think she's probably come to the right conclusion to step away for a bit...

I did see a Banana Slug before I'd even heard about them. Thought I'd found a new species! My college experience did entail bit of that - as well as more worthy pursuits such as playing a bit of basketball for the University 2nd team and captaining the University 2nd chess team in the local leagues. The league went with A and B teams, so some of the teams we played against registered as the 'Aces' and the 'Bullets' or for Durham City it was 'Abbots', 'Bishops' and 'Canons'. So you can guess where this is headed...

Actually, that was the local University to me, and I do own a Bananaslugs T-shirt! The classic one as modelled by John Travolta in Pulp Fiction... (It's where Quentin Tarantino studied, but I doubt DAZN will be headlining them for any games this year...)

Don't know much about the Gamecocks, bur was watching "Receiver" , when Deebo Samuel went back there for a visit. The whole setup just looked phenomenal, amd I reckon its just a patch on some of the other programs.

Its one of those things that is reasonable to start with, then goes up every year. I had a good think about renewing this year, but without making a firm decision either way, it then went through automatically. It is a very good product, as you get Redzone, every game live (bar Sky games), and can then watch highlights or full game replays of every game. (or game in 40 which is just the action). As the Niners rarely play in the early window, I'll usually watch early window Redzone and the Niners games in a week, and then if there's a big Thursday, Sunday or Monday games, I may dip into those. Then its great having all playoff games on tap. So that is a lot of football. I did have a few years of watching on dodgy streams, and that was so hit and miss and painful, I don't want to go back to that, so its a bit of a case of you get what you pay for.

Have followed it on and off for a few years - knowing who's top of the rankings and then what's happening in the CFB, but not invested much time in actually watching games. Only seen a couple, but don't have a team to root for (I guess maybe Stanford closest to where I've spent most my time in the states) but the level of play does feel what you'd expect from college kids (with a handful of NFL talent on each roster) and it feels a bit uncomfortable seeing the level of expectation placed on these guys. The landscape of teams is so vast as well, you only ever see a little snapshot of what is going on. It really feels to me as an experience you have to be there for, and definitely on the bucket list to get to a game. Having just discovered the CFL, I've been enjoying that so much, I'm going to have enough trouble juggling watching the NFL and the Argos, without fitting any college football in as well!

Watching on tv, you could see he landed with his full weight on his shoulder from what probably should have been a foul on the edge of the area. Couldn't really move it properly or run at full speed, and needed it looking at, but he gritted his teeth and carried on. Got some treatment at half time (+ painkillers?) and looked OK in 2nd half. I'm not a big Demarai fan, but he had a frustrating career with us, put it all on the line last night played through injury and created possibly their best chance just after half time - showing a lot of heart that we have been missing recently. But main point is that he really wasn't play-acting with those injuries.

It has not always been this way. Yes, players have always gone to bigger clubs, and, yes it was frustrating to see money talking. But you could get a club with an influx of cash upset the statua quo. You could get Leicester breaking the British transfer record (for Allan Clarke) - for £150k! or Blackburn winning the league for something like £22m! Or clubs like Chelsea or Man City being bought and going from Everton/Villa size to global clubs. But those avenues have stopped altogether. Even being rich isn't enough. You would need to consistently get into the Champions League year after year - and we've seen how difficult it is to build a squad big enough to compete in both Europe and Premier League. Our story felt new, but seeing both Newcastle and Villa defying the odds to qualify, and find a glass ceiling and being asset stripped, and seeing whats happened to Palace is all depressing. I'm not sure if I would get hooked on football or Leicester City if I was growing up today. But like it or not, its a huge part of my life, and its difficult to turn the tap off even with all the evidence that this is not the game I fell in love with.