Basingstoke Fox

An all timer for me. My first proper Leicester match and as a local at the time.

25,342

I'm on the brink of doing this myself. The majority of my work is remote and I can easily make it to any UK / mainland Europe engagement when needed. My employer is mostly supportive, just need to work through the finer details with our HR department. Which I'm sure we'll overcome soon as there are a few different ways around it. Moving to Latvia with my OH (where she's from) for a couple of years initially and will see which options appeal afterwards.

This league is gash. We look right at home here. Edit: Still pleased to see the youth getting more minutes in any case.

It honestly feels like they've been saving their wildest and loosest swings for when Starc is bowling. It's nonsensical.

HAMPSTEAD HEATH

Thanks for being thoroughly useless and preventing this, LCFC.

I called the ticket office earlier to snag a last minute ticket as I'm now working down south and it turns out I could make it. But was told I can't buy one "because it's the day of the game". Honestly cba to fight it at this stage, they're not worth the effort.

On the BSLB pod, we had a guest who: Rightfully called out the Glazer/Woodward rip off chant as wrong. Immediately identified multiple layers to the full situation and the risk of conflating these. Provided his opinion while articulating the relevant nuance and context further, without making sweeping statements about other groups of people. On the WYS pod, we had a guest who: Rightfully called out the Glazer/Woodward rip off chant as wrong. Inexplicably claimed the anti KP chant "sell the club and **** off home" has "racist undertones". Provided his perspective while tarring everyone chanting the latter in the stands with the same brush as a minority chanting the former in the concourse. Implied that a significant portion of the LCFC away fanbase are guilty hate crimes(!) requiring police involvement as a result. All of that on a podcast from the national broadcaster. No doubt anybody listening to this at best highly misinformed and at worst disingenuous perspective at face value without having been at Carrow Road would've been as shocked to hear this as Piper was. Graeme and others may not like the anti KP chant, but mouthing off like this about on the national broadcaster with those implications is almost defamatory to those in the ground chanting it and is bang out of order.

Ease of access is another key factor for me. Stopping at Chester Services would add another 5-10 mins to the journey during heavy traffic after negotiating roundabouts, etc. to get on & off the M56, compared to somewhere like Warwick services which is straight in and out on the motorway slip roads. If I do have the time, I'd prefer to stop at a decent pub/restaurant/cafe for a bite to eat a few mins from the motorway which breaks up a journey nicely.

Colín Murray’s Great Football Song Book on BBC radio featured this a few months ago which was a cracking listen. Struggling to find a working link atm, but will keep trying.

Had a supermarket job during my younger years which was for the most part great fun with mates I still have now. But I was absolutely fuming to finish one evening & see that a colleague went through with his threat to spray silly string all over my beloved first car. Handily I was in the perfect place to buy a few ingredients during lunch break the following day. So I went straight to his newly purchased, chavved up Beamer & baked a cake on it. Firstly with a few eggs, then milk all over (perfect for a boiling hot day) and flour to stick to the milk. Finally bananas up the twin exhaust. The lad was raging & started chasing after my car with a tyre iron before I got away & hid it nearby. When I returned, I saw him speeding away across the car park in a rage. He probably thought he looked cool with the loud exhaust (debatable ofc), but the noise was actually choking & spluttering because it was stuffed full of banana (which still makes me laugh now). Although I'd covered up my uniform someone recognised me & grassed me into customer services. Was sent straight to the managers office when returning from the lunch break & suspended with pay. Part of me thought that was a result, but it was all sorted within a few hours anyway. We made up & had to clean up the car park floor that same afternoon. I can't imagine how ridiculous it looked. This was out of character for me even back then, but I bloody loved that Fiesta & had to put it right.

Most of the classics have already been mentioned, so some favourite goals / performances from the early years:

Only just read through this thread having completely switched off from the forum and frankly LCFC for a few weeks until going last night. This post at the end absolutely killed me.

But how could this be possible? They're in such capable hands.

Prime Lloyd Dyer starts for us now easily.

Completely agree. Especially considering the uproar by sections of the fanbase when they were both included in that opening day first 11. It set the perfect tone for one of our best ever seasons when I was concerned our fortunes would go the other way. Allardyce's glowing praise around how we were comfortably the best team he'd faced that season always sticks in the mind when thinking of how we'd regularly shoot ourselves in the foot after this.

It'd only be utterly wasted when any other selection would be made by the f***wits upstairs at this club. How long until we have to pay the next ill fitting manager for the club? We cannot keep hemorrhaging money in this way. Just endure the rest of the painful season and then we must reset, properly. Players, coaching, recruitment, even the academy level. Nobody should feel safe at this stage. Appoint a competent DoF with an clear idea on this as a minimum. Only then can we think about any further managerial changes having any positive impact on the medium/long term future of the club and signing players to be a part of that. I honestly don't care much about the next 6-18 months. Build the foundations to prepare us for success beyond that, just as we did in the not so distant past.

Manchester. Which is better than when I was heading up from Basingstoke. Wish the train was a more efficient & affordable option for matches.

As someone who attends matches, I couldn't agree more with everything in the article. Clearly everything impacting the "on the field" issues will be what most focus on. Though I still have a perhaps idealistic view that a "club" should be a representation of and with a connection to the local area and community. If done well then this can still be a source of joy and pride even when results on the pitch aren't going your way. Pricing out large sections of the fanbase for tickets and charging kids to meet players during school holidays or obscene fees to be a mascot hardly encourages this. Not to mention the mundane experience of attending matches. Everything about the pre-match routine for example (minus the PHG) is painfully generic & bland.

Was noticeably easier getting out of the city last night compared to recent matches.

How would a generic boo at the end of a performance like that (which would likely be drowned out by some terrible song selection) successfully get this specific message across about the clubs persistence with Danny Ward?

If anything, he got off far too lightly with the crowd today. Yes the defence and team ahead of him were extremely poor. Yes we all knew this season would be a slog and there will be disappointing afternoons. Yes we’ve been very fortunate in past matches to concede as few goals as we have thanks to the great work of Mads. But we’ve all seen this before. He’s arguably single handedly cost us relegation 2 seasons ago. He’s a handicap for this club. He’s been a handicap for his country. Yet he remains at the club and getting picked and there can’t be any tolerance for what we’ve witnessed again today, especially in the context of everything else. We cannot afford to let this clown have another minute. If this reaction has any chance whatsoever of ensuring that can be the case, then it’s our duty as fans to make our feelings clear.

His name lends itself perfectly to this. But haven’t been able to think of a decent closing line for it.

Surely West Brom away must be a key shout for 3-2.