Who would have thought that at the start of the season? 6 points out of 3 games?

I’ll tell you who, NOBODY apart from maybe the bloke who won that £122 million on the Euromilions the other week.

When the fixtures came out, we got dealt Livarpool away as our opening fixture in another continuation of the summer’s Universe of Alternate Roald Dahl, typified by “Tales of the Completely Expected aka Stories of The Blatantly Obvious”.  It was hardly surprising at all that we would find ourselves at the end of 90 minutes plus the necessary injury time required to achieve the “correct” result, 12 inches or at least a misplaced foot (or arm), away from a deserved draw from that game. Enough has been said already about those penalty decisions. In reality, it doesn’t matter what we think, once that final whistle is blown, that’s it, game over …….. unless of course you are Scum, it’s the 100th minute of the game and you were promised 3 points. Harsh? Never.

Our next game against the might of that dedicated follower of fashion, Scott Parker (and his jardigan) and the Capital’s second favourite club, Fulham was another 7 goal thriller in the end. But them, T’Blades and Livarpool for our first 3 games, for me spelled potentially the worse start to the season we could have. It could only have been made even worse if we had got Everton away as well. Our top flight bogey team. Some wise person will dig out the stats but it’s something daft like 11 wins in 52 visits to Goodison in the last century. It’s never been a good hunting ground for us. We last won in 1990, I think.

Why Worry? And I don’t mean the opening track of the Dire Straits album Brothers In Arms. Why? Because barring injuries, Fulham and T’Blades had that lethal combination of players who always score against us. Mitrovic, that McBurnie bloke and Billy ‘Blades 4eva’ Sharp. Whilst Bielsa knows his craft, this isn’t something that Marcelo could beat with just good football. This is jinx, bad hoodoo, bad vibes, witchy craft stuff. You may laugh at my superstition, but how many of you had a panic when you saw Wilder bring on McBurnie and Sharp? Admit it, ALL of you. I saw that subs board go up, saw them lining up on the touchline, and it was squeaky bum time. As for the Fulham game, admittedly we scored some damn fine goals against Livarpool the week before, but when Koch took the hit for another dodgy penalty, the only thing going through my mind was Groundhog Day.

But it’s all behind us now. 6 points out of 3 games. Brilliant. An average of two points per game will see us in Europe. Dare to dream? Yeah, we dare. It’s like standing up and flicking the V’s at the Premier League. Something you see in the movies, triumph over adversity, but we have to be careful. Bielsa needs to tread carefully.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the old cliche (as opposed to Klich), EVERY game will be a Cup Final in this league. Especially this season, the first season back in 16 years. There’s the usual “Dirty Leeds” nods to battles of old at ER and the odd away (Stamford Bridge – Ken, and I don’t mean the one near York in 1066), but this season there is the Bielsa factor. Since we got promoted, every pundit has said that Bielsa is THE coach of all coaches. The “One”. Mourhino was the “Special” One, Guardiola the “Focused” One, Klopp the “Chosen” One who finally got Liverpool the title after 30 years, Frank the “Fat Cry Baby” One and finally Ole, the 100th minute winner One. For you older readers, I know that at Newcastle at some point, Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish and Alan Shearer were called The One or at least The Messiah, but I can’t seriously think about Steve Bruce without seeing Robin Williams as Mrs Doubtfire, so I’m not going to digress further.

As I said, every pundit has talked up Bielsa as the man that everyone has learnt from. But frankly, up until he joined us in 2018BB (Before Bielsa), I can’t remember them ever saying anything of the like. Can you? When they were talking about Guardiola, they just went on about how well he did at Barca. Pochettino, rarely was he ever mentioned in dispatches saying that Marcelo had taught him everything he knew. I know I am a sceptic and I always see the worse in people, they don’t call me The Anti Altruist for nothing.

SkyTVisf**kings**t / BT / BBC pundits are deliberately placing Bielsa on a massive pedestal, in the hope that if he falls, the crash will be calamitous. They are setting him up to the scale of Christ The Redeemer proportions, desperate for a Pompeii like catastrophe. They want a Leaning Tower of Pisa style toppling, but given that the Leaning Tower has been leaning for the last 840 years and has STILL not fallen over, Lineker is in for a long long wait. I would say that his hair will turn white, but it has already.

The rest of it?

Well, the transfer window is still open as I type. I said after the Liverpool game that Koch just needs time to bed in. There was never any way that he could do a Ben White and just slot straight into the team. Ben White was the Player Of The Season for me last year. Absolutely outstanding. We need to get him back when Brighton give into us after Christmas, and just hope to God that he hasn’t lost any of his fitness in between times. The fact that the season ended and then there was such a short period in between to get everyone training together after all that booze eventually got out of their systems after we got promoted, doesn’t help. They haven’t played properly as a team sufficiently. Then again, 6 points out of 3.

Goals? Patrick is on fire. 3 in 3 games. I can’t help thinking that the good start to this season and pretty good end to last, has been helped by the lack of whingeing from the stands. Like Chris Wood proved in his last full season with us, he can score goals. He just needed the crowd to get off his back. I’ll repeat what I said in a previous blog. If he was tattoed within an inch of his skin, had a ponytail and was knocking off Scarlett Johansen, Margot Robbie and that one off Game Of Thrones all at the same time, you still wouldn’t like him, because he’s a bit posh. Numpties.

thanks to below for the picture of what I will be eating tomorrow before the Citeh game

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Jeff Radcliffe sadly passed away in the early hours of the morning before Leeds United were due to play Liverpool their first game in the Premier League for 16 years. As Jeff would say “bugger it”.

I have thought long and hard about how Jeff would have liked me to write his story. There are many, many tales of his exploits, most of which we would have been reminiscing over at his wake, but we can’t, because we’re not allowed to. So, thanks to John Farrell, Taff, Crawford and The Secretary, I have put this together, and I hope Jeff would have approved.

After waiting all this time to see us play in the PL, we finally got promoted (even though we never got to see the last few games) and on the morning of our first game back in Division One, where we belong of the game, Jeff ‘s time honoured tradition of “let’s just have one more here” was thwarted by the Grim Reaper . Let’s just be clear about this, Jeff was not seen off by the bat flu. For a start, bat flu would not have got within ten foot of Jeff’s carefully controlled constitution. Thanks in part to a dedicated lifetime of  smoking and drinking, bat flu would have stopped in it’s tracks and run off in the opposite direction, shrieking in terror at what was in Jeff’s blood stream. Jeff didn’t mess about with white and red blood cells, Jeff’s defences were provided by alcohol and nicotine.

As part of his rigid health regime, keeping his body and soul in tip top form, Jeff’s pre match haunt these last few years was near the butter section of the Queens Arms Carvery on Harrogate Road . He would occasionally enhance his butter based brekkie with a bit of bacon and sausage, but as we all know, everything tastes so much better with butter. His Saturday morning trips to ER would begin with the 36 to the Toby Carvery at Chapel Allerton for his rendezvous with those little gold wrapped blocks of delight, followed by the bus into town to The Templar. Because neither Taff, Crawford, Dave Poole nor Ellie were any good at directions, more Sherpless than Sherpas, Jeff eventually decided that forking out for a taxi was the best option to save his legs, and the only sure way he could actually find his way to the Golden Lion for a decent (cheap) pint of sovereign. He would sit and marvel at the lunches produced by John at the pub, especially the chicken dinners, even though he had munched his way through his daily calorie intake just a few hours earlier. He always liked the Golden Lion ….. and it’s prices when it was his round. After the game, they would head off into town to the Three Legs where Jeff would often be found chatting up the fairer sex, before a return back to HQ on the 36.

Jeff always had a way with the ladies. There are many photos of him in their company boogieing the night away. In Torquay at a pre-season friendly, John remembers looking all over for him in some bar at 3am , only to find that he was having a whale of a time on the stage, dancing with some nice young ladies. Jeff was really enjoying himself, only to find out later that the “young ladies” were in fact a group of transvestites on a night out. On another long away, they had gone into Leeds to meet up with Steve Rankine before joining the Bradford Whites bus and Jeff got talking to 2 lasses. Jeff took them aside and cheekily said ” come with me, I’ll give you the ride of your lives ….. I’m off on a coach to Yeovil”.

From what I can gather, bearing in mind that this was a long time ago and John Farrell’s memory of it may not be as clear as what it could be (not due to tobacco either as he doesn’t smoke!), Jeff started watching Leeds United in the promotion season of ’64. Jeff was at the Cup Final against Liverpool in ’65.

Like most in the early days, Jeff just paid on the gate, but when we were forced to get season tickets, Jeff watched Leeds United from all over the ground from his seat, initially in The Captain’s Corner,  then the Kop and later on in the North East Corner. He also loved travelling to pre-season friendlies to Ireland and Scotland, and got to as many as possible. In the year we first qualified for the Champions League, Jeff went to every single game, mostly in the company of Messrs John and Jim Farrell, Harrogate’s own Three Musketeers.

On his 60th birthday, Jeff, John, Jim and Chrissie’s (Jeff’s sister) husband, Tony all went off to Limerick to watch Leeds play in the pre-season friendlies. The four of them and Chrissie were found in the Waggon and Horses most matchdays, or rather outside having a smoke. Jeff had always wanted to watch Leeds United play at the Bernabeu. This pinnacle was reached when Leeds played Real Madrid in March 2001 in the Champions League 2nd group stage, he stayed in Madrid for four days and loved every minute of it.

In one of his infamous pre-season irish tours, John recollects that they had stopped in some digs in a small town on the train line to Dublin. They left the hotel at 9.30am to catch the train. On the way to the station, Jeff spotted a friendly publican having a quiet fag outside his pub. He stopped and asked him what time the pub was open. The man said 12.30 but you can come in and have a quick one whilst you wait for the train. 6 hours later they eventually emerged to go catch the train – in Jeff’s immortal words  “we’ll, just have one more in here”.

Jeff’s unerring sixth sense of finding decent pubs came to a fore at the play off final against Donnie in 2008. They had hired a minibus and Jeff was in the front seat. Those of you who can remember that day and haven’t erased it from your memory, will recollect the huge queues on the M25 because of the roadworks. They decided to get off the motorway and head to Rickmansworth and get the train in from there, despite the fact that none of them had ever been there before. As they came off the slip road, Jeff said “go left down there, it’s the Golden Lion”. They all looked at each other and decided not to argue with him and turned duly left. And there was a pub! It was called the Golden Lion! They had one in there and got back on the minibus and miraculously Jeff did the same again and again, leading them to 5 pubs in total, en route to Rickmansworth to catch the train. They were all amazed at Jeff’s unbelievable insight into the pubs of Greater London, until he fessed up and produced a Wetherspoons map! Jeff also introduced the branch to Beckenham WMC at the Crystal Palace game when we got back into the Championship. It was adjacent to Selhurst Park, and was favoured by ourselves and a number of other branches due to the friendly welcome by the locals, cheap beer and good company, with the odd barbecue thrown in for good measure. All thanks to Jeff ,who was duly rewarded by free drink all day by the grateful committee.

The Secretary was occasionally joined by Jeff in the home end at away games, especially if tickets were in short supply. This had mixed results as you can imagine. Away at Exeter City in Division 3, all was well until Jeff needed to visit the facilities, as you do. The next sighting of Jeff was as he was being led down the side of the pitch towards the visitors terrace by a helpful steward, having asked for directions to said facilities in a broad Yorkshire accent, thus blowing his cover and failing to convince said steward that he was actually a cider swilling local yokel from Devon. Whilst The Secretary stayed warm and dry, 8 inches of rain fell during the game on the uncovered visitors end and by the time he got back on the coach, Jeff resembled a drowned water vole. However, he cheerily said it had not stopped him having a fag at half time.

On another equally wet occasion at Bradford City in the home end, splattered by incessant driving rain, the miserable stewards refused to hand out those free plastic ponchos. As the stand was roofless and The Secretary and Jeff were visually incapacitated, because they did not have windscreen wipers installed on their specs, they headed to the nearest ticket office to demand a refund. Needless to say, this request was refused and there was no option but to demand that the beleaguered ticket office staff ordered them a taxi to the nearest warm, dry pub. The ticket office were happy to oblige in order to get rid of the unwelcome noisy visitors and the rest of the game was spent in a nice, warm, dry pub. Once again, there was no stopping Jeff having a fag at half time.

The one thing that anyone who remembers Jeff will think of is his love of dominoes and cards. Sadly, dominoes and cards did not appreciate his love and devotion, and his fondness for those classic pub games was a love unrequited. In fact, in John’s opinion, Jeff was THE worst dominoes and cards player in the whole world. John recollects the day they travelled to Arsenal on the train. Jeff had bought a brand new set of dominoes and a set of cards for the way down. 17 games of dominoes and numerous card games later, he had lost every single game and in a fit of pique, chucked the whole lot, dominoes, cards, pens and paper, out of the train window at Crimple Viaduct, claiming that they were all “robbing bastards”.

On a personal note, The Secretary will miss his usual Christmas Day pint with Jeff.

Thanks for the memories mate. God Bless. Rest In Peace.

The last Chairman Charley was way back at the Hull game in March. It seems like it was a century ago now. Back when we were able to enjoy an away day like normal civilised human beings, March 2020 BBF (before bat flu). So, this new season’s Chairman Charley comes from his seat at the Harrogate Arms, rather than Row 2 of the coach.  The musings last Saturday? Scott Parkers’ (lack of ) sartorial elegance and an update on the vesta dinners. It was hasta la vesta to both Scott’s rather disastrous choice of open, deep collar sweater and The Chairman’s supply of his favourite convenience food.

Fine Dining

Q: Guess what I did after the Liverpool game?

A: Had a load of cider, went to the chinese, got a special fried rice and beef chow mein, tripped up and threw it all over your car like you did last time.

Q: No, guess what I had instead?

A: What guess what else you threw all over your car instead of special fried rice?

Q: No, guess which Vesta delight I treated myself to?

A: I give up, just tell me

The Chairman: I had the beef curry. It was really nice. They are gaining popularity now you know, thanks to me. Can get them at Asda and Poundstretcher. Perfect post match food. The chow mein is very good and it cooks so easily, hardly any cooking involved.

A: Plus there’s the bonus that you won’t have the chance of throwing it all over your car on the way home.

Appropriate Pitchside Attire

Q: What the hell is Scott Parker wearing?

A: Eh?

Q: He looks like he’s just stepped out of a 50s clothing catalogue with that cardigan on

A: Eh?

Q: That thing he’s wearing on top. Look at the lapels on that! What’s the point of that?

A: Keeping him warm but allowing him freedom of movement?

Q: It’s pointless. That’s not doing anything. Better off just wearing a jumper. What’s the point of all those buttons?

A: To be honest, I’ve not really noticed

Q: It’s like what people used to wear in the 50s. Yes it was all the rage then, like smoking jackets and slacks

A: He’d look better if he turned up wearing a smoking jacket in the second half

Q: I bet he thinks he’s really stylish, but he just looks really stupid. You don’t wear that sort of stuff at football

A: Maybe he just wants to look smart for the cameras

Q: What looking clever in a cardigan?

A: Fashion forward 50’s football casual

Sunday morning 5 a side football

Q: These VAR decisions are about as much use as asking the bloke that was on the sidelines at 5 a side on Sunday mornings, who was too hung over to play because he’d been out all night, if it was a goal or not.

A: Eh?

Q: Remember? When we were at 5 a side and there was always one who couldn’t play and was just stood about? You used to ask him if it was a goal or not?

A: Really

Q: Yes! When you didn’t know if it was a goal, the one who was smoking always got asked it it had crossed the line?

A: Was there actually any point asking him, seeing as he was probably still pissed from the night before?

The Chairman: yeah, well. It would still be miles better than VAR now.

True True.

Well, short of us getting the point we deserved on Saturday, that was a pretty good start to September 2020. Had we actually been able to go a see us play that game, that would have been a completely different kettle of fish. We would have been the 12th man that would have made the difference and maybe Rodders wouldn’t have panicked so much in the final throws of that game and given them that pen.

I say we, but you know what I mean, the crowd. Admittedly, we probably would have only got 3,000 tickets. The AST holders would have been ecstatic and had Leeds United stuck with the loyalty tracker, there would have been no end of people whingeing on social media that they are sick of the fact that there will be no way to get an away ticket now we are in the PL until one of the saddos, who trudged to every game when we were in Division 3, pegs it. If it hadn’t of gone on the loyalty tracker and just gone for the free for all, there would have been a meltdown in the ticket office, the whole of T’internet would have gone down, despite Leeds getting another 1,000 servers on the ticketing page, no Leeds fan would have got a ticket but there would be 2,000 tickets up for sale for the bargain price of upwards of a grand each on ticketmaster. It would be funny, if only it wasn’t true……

Monthly Branch Meeting – Technically the AGM

Woo hoo! A socially distanced AGM was held at the Londesborough Club on Sunday 6th September. Thanks to all who attended including Calvin from the Stray Ferret and Craig from the Harrogate Arms.

Given there was no LUSC AGM and there have been no exec meetings since the havoc unleashed by Bat Flu, this was probably one of the shorter AGMs in recent times.

Chairman Charley:The Chairman did his usual read through of the minutes from the last AGM and these were agreed as a true record of events, proposed by Taff and seconded by Dave Poole.

Memberships:The Membership Secretary was MIA as usual but there have been sitings. Numbers were up last season to approx 179, however there are plenty of juniors and 65+ concessions to affect the accounts figures, despite increased memberships.

Secretary: The Secretary thanked everyone for attending the branch meetings in the last season and all the attendees at the LUSC exec, when we were allowed. At least we managed to use the Hospitality tickets that are part of the sponsorship package for the Reading game, and a jolly good time was had by Mally and Smuff in the free beverage area. The invite to the Legends event was attended by Phil “You Are My Sunshine” Reeves and Ruairi Stirling, who enjoyed a good do rubbing shoulders with the Great and the Good of Leeds United.

MPO: The MPO reported that the Centenary merchandise had sold well to start with, but we still have stuff to sell. Hopefully once we get back to normality, we can push these items to raise more funds. The SAB meetings throughout the season at ER have continued via Zoom because of the bat flu. The website is continuing to be useful at attracting us more new members and continues to be read. No Googleanalytics figures available, but despite the costs at £11.99 per month and then the annual fees, it remains a worthwhile investment at present. Ryan Edmondson has been sponsored again for the coming season on the same Standard Silver Sponsorship. Sponsorship package includes 4 hospitality tickets, a VIP Legends event, 2 tickets to Player of Season Awards at ER, a signed shirt and certificate of sponsorship for £1920. Form has been processed and BACS will be made as soon as invoice is raised. Raffles will be held through the season for these events and any other stuff that we can acquire to raffle off. The email list is being updated to ensure that every branch member has a chance to go for these.

Treasurer: The Treasurers report was set at 14 months as opposed to the usual 12 due to the extended Bat flu season. Overall we were in deficit, but cash in the bank has helped. We avoided accruing the usual large losses at Brentford and QPR away, by not running buses, because of the low allocation (Brentford) and the fact we got no tickets for QPR. £108 was raised from the raffle for hospitality and there has been additional fundraising to the tune of £700 by Andy during the lockdown to help out. The Cardiff bus bill will be paid now that the cheque has been signed and there were sundry items such as the bank charges and the tip to the bar staff before the Hull game. The extra ticket costs incurred by Leeds only refunding for the ticket price and not the transaction charge, will be attempted to be recovered by selling the unused tickets for £1 each to the people who had booked on. The accounts were proposed by Ray and seconded by Chrissie.

Travel: Away travel was overall fine apart from the fact we lost 4 good planned trips at the end of the season to some of the best pub stops of the season. Bloody bat flu. No other issues. See minutes for precis of away trips.

Officers: Re-election of officers, all willing to stand, proposed by Chrissie and seconded by Dave, show of hands agreed. The election of Andy Yates as the Social and Fundraising Secretary was proposed by Ricky Greenwood and seconded by Dave Poole. A vote was taken and Andy was duly elected by a majority show of hands.

A.O.B: The resolution that Ripon branch were permitted to participate in all events on par with Harrogate branch members was passed by a show of hands. Craig from the Harrogate Arms has offered to reserve seating for branch members for the televised games. We will provide Craig with a list of names in good time before each game. Andy is also coordinating with the Empress on matchdays for a branch members. Leeds are now doing home programmes, so if any branch members have anything for the LUSC programme page, please get in touch with the MPO.

A.O.B

Makaela stated that she felt it was unfair to all those Gold members who may not get to a game this season and forked out £50. This will be taken to the next exec meeting and raised at SAB. There is now a ticket exchange system at ER, which makes sense once we are allowed back to the grounds. Dave said that refunds have still not been received – this will be raised at next exec and SAB. Middy asked if there was an option, once we are allowed to travel again, if the branch would consider going by train and booking group seats. The Secretary said people had been going by train anyway when we were short of tickets previous seasons, we will see if it comes to that.

AGM closed at 9pm.

Last season the phrase was “hold your nerve”, as the new season is about to begin, my new buzz line is keep the faith. Unlike the Bon Jovi album from 1992 – yeah nearly 30 years ago – that I can still happily sit and read the sleeve notes from, the situation we find ourselves in is far from youth angst, relationships and rebellion against authority. It’s edge of your seat apprehension about what could be, and what might be. It’s steadfast clinging onto the belief that Bielsa has got this. It’s standing on the precipice looking straight ahead at what is coming at you not staring down the gap worrying about the fall.  It’s nervous trepidation, excitement and anticipation, not worry, anxiety and fear (for a change). 

I said WGUAFC at the start of last season…. and we did. The nails were in tatters after that Cardiff game and I openly confess that PPG was looking a good option for reducing the chance of any impending cardiac problems. But we held our nerve, and in the final run up, West Brom and Brentford didn’t. We finished on a flourish of 8 unbeaten games and the highest point tally for ages with clean sheets galore, despite the EFL’s best attempts to scupper this by holding poor Kiko hostage for 8 games because someone thought he heard something that no other f**ker heard. Leko got his just desserts as did his loan club Charlton Athletic. A grudge is for life, not just Christmas.

Within hours of sealing our promotion, the rumour mill was well and truly grinding at full pelt. No quarter was given, Cooper and Klich had barely woken from their drunken stupors, before the whole “Bielsa for Barca” thing started. Picture Klich waking up the next day on the settee, reeking from cigar stubs in that mega mix donner kebab, that seemed like such a fabulous idea at 2am from Mill Hill kebabs, knocking over Stella empties, reaching for his glasses, and peering at his phone to the news that Messi was demanding that they get Bielsa.

In fact, there’s hardly been time to draw a breath since we a) sealed promotion, b) got promoted as Champions (like I said we would) and then c) the “pi-ess de resistance” or piss take that was the guard of honour from  Derby. We got promoted without kicking a ball, and all of a sudden, we needed to invest and buy more, indeed, some “fans” used the word “proper” players. Christ, we’d just got promoted against the likes of Brentford and West Brom. Brentford had hardly lost a game in 10, they’d gone on a massive winning run and had the best defence in the league. West Brom, well with Bilic in control, a man who had proven managerial calibre in the English game (unlike Bielsa who had proven that he couldn’t hack the pressure last season), promotion was inevitable. Wasn’t it?

You’d think everyone would be ecstatic, but even before the stench of the blue and yellow smoke bombs had time to disperse outside ER, the old critics were sharpening up the pencils, and the millenials were charging up their phones to complain that we now needed a proper team.

The fact that we’d deservedly got promoted as Champions meant nothing. From what was posted on noseybook alone ( I don’t do Twitter or have anything to do with these noticeboard fan sites) you’d have thought we’d only just scraped through by the skin of our teeth. Admittedly, despite Bielsa’s high intensity training regime, we were lucky with injuries last year. It might be a bit different in the PL. Having said that, after putting myself through the pedestrian strolling of some of the PL games on Sky last season, it may not be as much of an issue as we might think.

Having been through the Ridsdale era of spend, spend, spend beyond our means and the consequences of said frivolous squandering, I am weary of splashing out on new players. Yes, the likelihood of getting Ben White has waned away, so we need someone to bolster the back, but the thought of frittering away every last penny of promotion cash that has found it’s way to the coffers, is the thing that is worrying me the most. I think one Seth Johnson, is one Seth Johnson too many. Bad enough when we got Thomas Brolin. We need to learn from our mistakes. We have got promoted playing some of the most exciting football since, well, last season. Our players play as a unit, a well rehearsed unit, I am really uneasy with the thought of a repeat of the “we need to buy more players in the transfer window” Augustin episode. It was bad enough when we got Izzy Brown because ” we desperately need more investment”. There’s no point buying more players for the sake of it. The wage bill will keep going up, at a time when matchday revenue is the princely sum of £0. Yes, there will be SkyTVisf**kings**t money and money coming in from the advertising etc. but if the players are on £60,000 a week, that’s £3 million already gone in just one player a year. Don’t even get me started on FFP and all that.

We need to consolidate, not speculate to accumulate. It would be great to see us get the magical 50 points by Christmas needed to stay up. That’s all I want for Christmas, cheers Mariah. Don’t get me wrong, it’ll be fantastic to get Top 10 and even better-er to get to Top 6 with maybe a decent cup run. PLEASE let us have a decent cup run. I’m fed up of this pretending to join in rubbish that we have been subject to in the last decade. Field a decent team, PLEASE or just don’t bother filling in the application form in the 1st place. I really do not want to join in with the Burnleys and West Hams who just go through the motions because they are focusing on staying up. We are better than that. Surely?

The main thing, keep the faith