OTF

Good defense Manquillo.

We kick off and Matt Ritchie gives away a free kick within 25 seconds

Hahah Longstaff just kicked off as everyone was taking the knee - good start.

Err, right yeah, better scrap the at home part and revise down to 25.

This is going to be terrible, predicting sub 30% possession at home and an absolute wank fest from the commentary about anything Ronaldo does in his "second debut".

Please let it be Jordan Pickford.

Thought your scenario could have been worse, then realised it was Fernandez not Fernandes.

Occasionally a ball will get to him, he'll have a couple of touches then turn it over and then will revert to token closing down runs.

It will be Joe up top.

It could have been worse, you could have watched it live like me...

When we scored the commentary called us Steve Bruce's Newcastle and further implied the goal was tactically credited to him. You're right, it's bizarre.

How he missed the ball there, any sort of touch on it and he would have been ok.

FFS here comes a penalty.

He wasn't.

Niice, almost blew that chance, well done ASM!

Well worked goal that, and classic strikers finish from Wilson.

Amazing that we're not behind with the way the game has gone.

Da da dee da da doo.

"The great thing about football is that somehow, despite a proven record of failure, I have a job." - Stephen Roger Bruce c. 2010

@essembeeofsunderland also, turning your back as someone is shooting is not simply an act of self-preservation it has historically been part of making yourself big with built in plausible deniability - ie. You turn your back so that it is perpendicular to the trajectory of the ball and extend your arms outwards casting the largest possible surface area to block or deflect the ball. If it strikes your arm then it couldn't possibly have been hand to ball as your back was turned. Of course with the introduction of new rules for natural position of hands this is no longer applicable, so it's muscle memory from learned behaviour that causes players to do this. It's really nowhere near as big an issue as you make out and has little to do with cowardice.

We clipped the 1000 cases mark in a single day for the first time ever earlier in the week. The penny has dropped in our most populous states that the future is vaccinations and not covid 0. We're starting to see the recommentations for age to be vaccinated dropping first to 16 and now to 12. I wonder how low it will go. There's still several other states running the covid 0 mantra but at some stage in the near future they'll need to reset that or else risk being cut off from the rest of the world. NSW where the vast majority of cases are have even set some dates for students to start coming back to school (from October) which roughly lines up with their expectation for 70% of the adult population being fully vaccinated. I've finally had my first shot (been booked in for months from as soon as I was eligible), sore arm and a mild headache so far.

The next generation of local supporters aren't going to give a hoot as they'll have been denied any sort of memorable spectacles in their formative years. "Remember that time we lead West Ham at home twice before going behind, that big Brazilian striker came on off the bench to change the match but didn't"

This. If you could catch it and have no immediate or long term effects we sure as fuck wouldn't be 458 pages deep into this discussion.