Craig

If we beat Brighton, he'll simply piss his pants about the Chelsea game. Remember these are our 'biggest games in a long, long time...'

it was more akin to this tbh

Any of you poker players? Pretty much did the equivalent of Leicester winning the Premier League last night. Down to 2 players, blinds of 12K and I had 525 chips left. 7 all-ins later and somehow I ended up winning! The fact I was up against my lad, and it stopped him having a hat-trick of wins might have been an added sweetener!

Better comeback than I was expecting tbf

Give him your login for here, will you? Might improve things.

You’re absolutely right but again, PGMOL will hide behind their view that the on-field ref has to have the final word. Along similar lines was the first season of VAR handled differently? I seem to recall more power was held by those at Stockley Park and left the on-field ref somewhat redundant .. and they changed it to give the ref more control. I can’t remember if that was the case or if I’ve imagined it

Mentally I've got us down for beating Chelsea & Everton, getting a draw at Brighton and Arsenal likely to finally get one over on us this season. So 7 points to come. Did i read over the weekend that someone claimed the next 4 games are the biggest we've had for a long, long time?! 6 weeks after we won our first domestic trophy in 70 years?! Dear me ....

Yeah Goalline Technology is precisely that. Technology. VAR is some arsehole sat in a studio watching the game with multiple different camera angles and making what they consider and informed decision based on it. There's no technology involved aside from having the luxury of a replay button. It's the Zapruder Film of football ... different people will see what they want to see depending on their pre-conceived opinion.

Brighton have gone off the boil IMO. Much prefer to be playing them now than a month or so ago. I think we'll get at least a point here but I reckon we'll sneak it - going for 2-1. Share some sentiments about the importance - any loss at this stage of the season is going feel heightened given there's only a handful of matches left. That said, this isn't the important one - that's the Chelsea match. We win that and we finish top 5 easily. There should be none of this "4 must-win games" panicky bullshit. Hardly surprising from CT mind you.

It's more simple than that for me, it should be invoked at the request of the on field ref ONLY. He should be able to call on it so he can support his own decision making process. And non of this line drawing bollocks either. For decades the typical football fan has been able to use an action replay to determine whether the referee's decision was right or wrong without anyway getting a fucking ruler and highlighter out. They're so obsessed with worrying technology is going to slow down the game so need to control its use that they've ended up doing just that ... and it's bullshit.

That's the crux of it. They've not got the stones to make the calls - and these are well-remunerated professional referees, not like those in the 80s & 90s who had a different professions Mon-Fri and reffed a league match on a Saturday for relative peanuts. Agree with your last sentence as well. One of the biggest issues with VAR's implementation is that bloke in the middle of the field (who PGMOL are at pains to state must always be in control of proceedings) has zero power to invoke VAR. It's fucking unbelievable. Should be like cricket where the umpires can signal they need the 3rd umpire to help them come to the correct decision.

Since the introduction of VAR, on-field refereeing has becoming lazy IMO. Far too many examples where an on-field ref has chosen to not make a difficult call in the security that VAR will dig him out if needed. Evidenced in part by knowing if he's sent to review on a screen, you're practically guaranteed his decision is being overturned. I can only think of one example (Oliver I think) where after reviewing the footage he stuck to his original decision.

The cat clearly knows it's triggering you

You will eat those 'hearty breakfasts'.

I think they'll make efforts to sustain their Premier League status. A repeat of this season will be completely unexpected, but I think they'll follow it up with being top half or thereabouts. Depends what's important to Delap - being at a club which is challenging at the top end but his opportunities are few and far between, or becoming a mainstay figure in an established team and really putting himself on everyone's radar. Forest are within scope for him - and a far better option for him than Spurs or Man Utd.

I wouldn't rule out Forest either. Chris Wood is well into his 30s now and I don't think Awoniyi is all that. Can see them going for another striker.

This, entirely! Not sure he had any input on what his birth name was going to be, but if it provides Wykiki a rare opportunity to call someone a CUNT, let's allow it As for his music. Agree with Alex that it was nothing earth shattering, he saw an opportunity to take it mainstream and exploited it. Along similar lines, I've come across way too many people who think 'The Fat Of The Land' is both the Prodigy's best album, and first album!!

Going by their inability to play the correct competition anthem over their PA system I fully expect all 8,000 seats to be installed facing the car park.

I think it's a wise move. Given you Mam has passed away, the right to exclusion should IMO pass to next of kin - which is you and your brother. Hope they're understanding and consider it.

Let's not forget David Kelly either. The only player wearing a Sunderland shirt I've witnessed being applauded onto the pitch at SJP by the home fans. I'd also forgotten Robbie Elliott went there for a short after his 2nd stint with us.

If Ollie Holt was there, the 2nd question would DEFINITELY be asked.

BTW a couple of points: 1. I can't believe he's due for release. Doesn't seem that long ago he was being locked up. 2. Was the exclusion zone something you applied for or was it automatically designated and if the former, do you feel you weren't adequately advised on the boundary of what the zone could be?

Human rights campaigners will no doubt get behind the idea that the offender's movement was controlled when they were incarcerated and now they've been released, they have the freedom to move with small exception. As you can say, this can get in the bin. The offender made a conscious decision to take a life - for that their future existence should be at a disadvantage to their victims and for that, I support your viewpoint.