tim2

Harry Brook's antics just get worse as his team starts doing better. I'm struggling to see how he can avoid getting sacked as captain for lying to the team management.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce3z390d5klt Catherine O'Hara - (Home Alone, Schitts Creek and Beetlejuice) - aged 71

Correct. If anyone thinks a club can be run as a semi-pro rugby league outfit using solely their matchday and sponsorship income streams they are massively deluded. That's the model of an amateur club. Even teams with their own ground have to pay to maintain that ground. Featherstone have gone (*), and our opponents yesterday, Whitehaven, have clung on by their fingertips. Back to Sheffield - a lot of fans who backed Mark Aston and believe the club didn't back him up are staying away. They seem to think this will help but the actual outcome might be that the plug is pulled forever. (*) Edit: for now - I think that they'll be back

I was at the game. Haven were well organized and bombed a couple of chances. Sheffield still look like they need more games to gel properly. Lilley and Farrell were the best Eagles players today. I hate the ground - it was never meant to stay like this but here we are. The Coach and Horses ground isn't great and the proposed new stadium looks less and less likely as each week passes. It's been a nightmare since Don Valley was demolished, which is a long time ago now. Mind you, I never really liked watching there either. To answer another point in a different post - Sheffield have always had better teams than their crowds would suggest they should. It's simple - their other revenue streams are the real income.

I'm going to Eagles - Whitehaven. Might not be a great crowd as it's online, but the prices are £15 adult, £10 concession and £1 for kids so my son and grandsons are going too.

It is. Hunslet are hardly flushed with cash.

Lincoln is fabulous. That, with York and Durham, are favourites of mine. They told us at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, which will probably be seen in the future the greatest religious building ever built, isn't a cathedral. "It's just a church!" Barcelona Cathedral is small and dull.

Nice to see God tuning in to the football when he could be smiting certain World Leaders.

Horrible option.

As a Sheffield fan I'll take that. Always a tough place to play in today's conditions. It's hard to tell how good the two sides are until they play someone else. Which won't be next week, because they're playing again, this time in the Cup at Sheffield. I predict the ground will be less muddy.

The modern corner (which Arsenal have perfected) involves about 12 players doing an impression of WWE and blocking the keeper while the taker swings the ball in at high speed. 99 times out of 100 when I was growing up a foul would have been given. Gradually it's been allowed back in. It's an absolute mess. Arguably the in-swinging corner is a skill but the rest of it is dark arts and luck.

I would back the use of an automated (or even manual) VAR countdown clock to take the decision from the ref. I still go back to a game at Chesterfield in the National League. Eastleigh were 2-0 up early on and they milked time off everything. I started timing the keeper. He was regularly taking 20+ seconds after he picked the ball up. His best was 28 seconds. I reckon he took 4 minutes off the clock. And I didn't include goal kicks or throw-ins. Sadly for him Chesterfield scored 3 times in the last 10 minutes (plus stoppage time) but it didn't negate the behaviour, which I've seen my team do too. I know the law has changed but has analysis been done to check its effect. Refs have enough to do without dealing with cheats.

I hate timewasting more than VAR

The issue on Tuesday wasn't just the marginal toenail offside line, it was that the VAR, then the actual ref, had to decide whether Haaland had interfered or not. This necessitated the ref going to the screen after the VAR had had a good go at it. I can't see how that would ever be able to be handled by AI. Unless you think AI could completely ref the game from video. More of a bugbear for me than VAR is the timewasting by the goalie and at throw ins. I'd love to automate that as the refs seem to largely ignore it, even the new rules.

VAR isn't killing football, but it's made it 100% more difficult to enjoy. The Man City disallowed goal v Newcastle may have been technically correct by a toenail, but waiting 5 minutes was ridiculous. Nobody at the ground or watching at home thought it was anything but a goal. The FA Cup 3rd round was fantastic, not only because teams simply went for it and scored loads of goals (and the Macc-Palace shock) but also because there was no VAR. Goal went in, goal celebrated, move on. Despite my team having been the victim of the worst injustice in FA Cup history, I blame the ref for that decision and would still not have VAR except for goal line tech.