Black Country Wire

Robbie Mulhern certainly looks like he should be in one of Harry Enfield's Scousers sketches.

TBH if you put "losing run" into Google it's a fair bet West Brom will be near the top of the results.

Ireland beating themselves at the moment. Too many penalties conceded and too often coughing up possession. Without these, I think the game would be closer. I also think they got done on that first VR decision though. On the big screen it looked like he'd grounded it.

There were multi-game packages but I think they were only available in the original early bird sales phase. I got all 3 England games for £40 (total not each) as one of these. Fairly sure there was a deal covering both Newcastle games on opening weekend and may have been others.

Really looking forward to this one, especially after the first phase of games. Genuinely too close to call.

Matty Russell was born in Irvine.

Guy who owns it is a ###### of the highest order so won't give him a penny of my money. No, I'm from West Brom stock and started watching Wire in 1991 which is well before the Wolves bit was added.

That it's a Wetherspoons.

Tell me about it. I live just outside Birmingham and didn't get home until nearly midnight!

It is Scotland!

Actually in some parts they were querying the presence of the likes of Latvia in that stage of qualifying and calling for a preliminary round.

And do we know why the refs aren't using yellow cards for sin bins?

The random music is back having been absent from the first half.

Glad I've come on the train.

Wait until the football World Cup starts with 4 games a day!

Glad I brought a woolly hat tonight. Think I'll be getting the gloves out on Friday night!

Do we really need to have a random burst of music on EVERY single break in play? Even if it's a 3 second hand over. Had it at Doncaster as well and is just unnecessary.

Cook Islands anthem sounds like one of the ballads Norway sometimes puts in Eurovision.

4 games in and my first really poor seat of the tournament, back row in the corner so can't even see the screen. Suspect there will be an empty one I'll be able to move to come kick off though!

Doesn't happen at any other World Cups. The recent women's Euros only had a live singer for the Old Trafford opener and the final. I suspect it'll be similar at the men's football World Cup as well. I know the PA system at Doncaster is a bit tinny but that would just be an unnecessary expense.

France v Greece was certainly originally down to be a Monday afternoon game as it would have been half term week but moving the tournament forward a week to avoid overlapping with the football World Cup scuppered that idea.

Doesn't float my boat either but then I'm an RL fan and will go to the games for their own sake. There will be those outside the normal fan base for whom this may have appeal though. Although please god no f**"ing Mexican waves!

Agreed. I've been to several international football tournaments over the years and you generally only get a live singer at the final.