David Kelly

That certainly wasn't something I could have ever expected. Mind you with the standard of refereeing in this league maybe I should have. I think this might galvanise us mind. Fancy us for another long unbeaten run now.

I suspect Chelsea won't be the only club who did something like that. I can't see that there's been any suggestion that we've done it but it wouldn't surprise me if we were one of many. It's a sad indictment of not just the football industry but how our society was in the past. This sort of thing was just covered up because no one wanted to deal with it and most of the victims were too scared to make it public. Football may end up being just one of many places where this sort of thing went on. We're already awash with celebrities and politicians. Hopefully the good that comes out of it is that seeing other victims from the past come out, people who are suffering today can find the strength to do the same. Also (more importantly) we'll see more and more safeguards in place in any organisations which involve children and vunerable adults so it doesn't happen in the first place.

Careful what you say about The Fall, that's where I fell foul of Gemmil. I liked the first two series but I've only watched the first episode of the last one and it was more like an episode of Casualty. I couldn't see where it was going to go that could be interesting after that so it's fallen right down my to watch list.

Aye I think it was toon chat I started on. Dunno how secret the invites were for here. If I got one they must have been pretty much inviting everyone.

Fuck I have been doing this for a long time! Am I right in thinking there was a link to the original forum on .com? Or that just years of drink and drugs fucking me up?

Weren't most of the originals on here from the forum (can't even remember what it was called now) that predated NO? Think I was only early twenties when I started posting. Anyway happy birthday Tom.

It seems that while the headline of that article is about the club, the bigger issue is that Northumbria police didn't do enough. It seems that until today no one had ever claimed that this sick fuck had done anything while he was involved with the club and what he'd been investigated for was at Monty boys club. You would have thought that they would have spoke to the club if he'd been involved with us in the intervening years. Any accusations against the club seem to be being made without any suggestions that they knew he had done anything or any of our youngsters had made complaints against him. They'd just been told by someone that accusations had been made against him. That being said if someone has got rid of him because they had heard he could be a wrong un, you would have liked to have thought they would have passed it on to someone high enough at the club to start an investigation and inform the police. And my first thought when seeing Freddie Fletcher's name mentioned was that it was convenient for Shepherd to say that. I hope they club are now conducting a thorough investigation and if someone (past or present) has covered something up, they get called out for it.

It also sounds that there may have been other people in the club that thought he was a dodgy cunt. I hope they had no idea to what extent and there are safeguards that stop people like that having any opportunities like he had.

It does seem strange how it can happen to someone of that age. You'd think you would fight back but unless it happens to you, you can never know. It sounds like this cunt could spot he was vulnerable and knew how to take advantage of it. Seems like it may be that he gets a thrill from taking advantage of someone and age isn't the driving factor. Maybe that's the same with other paedos.

I've got your email address now so I'll just send spoilers straight there so as not to spoil it for the others.

Jennings got a 100 not out for the Lions today in UAE. Pretty much a run a ball too.

He's said he's retired now hasn't he?

I see the hotline has apparently had a lot more calls already than the Saville one got. This looks like it's could be a major thing that's been happening. I really hope that clubs haven't been covering it up in the past.

Hayden's passing is pretty good but it's nowhere near as cutting as Shelvey's. I think if we had someone else as cover for Shelvey, it might have made a difference in the last couple of games. Shelvey is possibly the best player in this league, but if it's not going for him we could do with another option.

Gouffran hobbled up to the half way line at the end extra time on Tuesday. I was stunned to see him take a penalty. I think we could possibly see Atsu and Yedlin on the flanks tomorrow with Perez in for Diame who also was fucked by the end.

You really think that's a big question? Darlow has been playing every league game and playing well. Sels has only played the last two cup games and handed them the equaliser on Tuesday. It's as obvious as it could possibly be that Darlow will be playing. Krul has just played 3 reserve games for Ajax in the last couple of weeks so it looks like he's pretty much fit but he won't play for us this season. Elliott is apparently nearly fit but I doubt we'll see him in the first team before the new year after such a long time out.

Rotation is inevitable and essential for this one given it's our third game in a week and the last one went all the way to pens. Shelvey and Hayden both looked absolutely fucked on tuesday so I expect at least one of them not to play. That's likely to bring in Tiote I would imagine. Hopefully it will be the Tiote we were seeing towards the end of last season rather then the one who can look very uninterested. Is Colback fit? If Shelvey isn't playing I think we'll see the one big weakness in our squad, ie no cover for him.

Yeah from what I've seen I'd agree.

Obviously you have to have a balance of what's best for Root and what's best for the team. Given the other batsmen we have down the order (Stokes, Bairstow, Ali, Butler), I think five would be too low for him. Yes it might mean that he can score freely but we don't have the quality or experience above him cope. Four would seem to be the ideal position for him as he can score pretty quickly and consistently if he comes in when we're in a decent position or he can hang around and recover our position if we aren't. The problem has been since Strauss's retirement and Trott and then Bell losing their form, he's had to take on a bit too much for the team. If Hameed can continue like he's started, and from what we've seen so far, there doesn't look like any reason why he can't, then that takes away one of the issues above him. Jennings or Duckett could offer a long term answer to the number three issue allowing Root to move back to four. That could be a very well balanced top order (left hand right hand) and really allow the middle order to take the game away from the opposition. Of course until we see Jennings play or Duckett get over his technical issue, it's all hypothetical.

Why thank you.

Aye could be a great chance for him. Bit of a shame that he's another left hander in terms of him opening with Cook but it could work well if he does well and then they can use him at 3. I think Root is fine at 3 but it would be better for everyone if we could work it so he was back at 4. Interesting that they're bringing in Dawson too. I was a bit surprised that they didn't have him in to begin with. He seemed to be the one next in the queue for spinners after Rashid then all of a sudden he was behind Ansari and Batty and possibly Leach. His wicket taking average isn't quite as good as Ansari but his batting average is quite a bit better. Given the amount of balls bowled by Batty and Ansari so far it seems to be more sensible to focus more on someone who can bat than bowl. Actually given that, I'd have been tempted to bring in Billings who at least has a bit of experience on Indian pitches if only in T20's. That would still leave us with five bowlers even if Broad wasn't brought back or Woakes was struggling with his finger. Root could cover the amount of spin bowling Batty and Ansari have done also. And Jennings can bowl as well if you want an over or two to rest the bowlers.

Or my best depending on your point of view!

Well of course there is.

I'm expecting grief from Gemmill for that already so I'll say no more about it.

I'm not sure why we go myself. Actually it's always busy and there's usually a canny atmosphere to be fair. It's without doubt a shithole though.