Chris

ITV plans to remain a network of channels and continue offering free-to-air services for the next five years. They view this as essential for their ongoing operations, and if that is indeed true, it is important for them to ensure their continued existence. It's a shame that Sky has got hold of it, as I don't trust them to remain free to air beyond the agreement. Supposedly, after the first 5 years it will be renewed and should see it last until 2035. Channel 4 might merge with the BBC, which would be a nightmare. It's ironic that Channel 5 seems okay, a lot of these networks already work with each other on different channels where they merge programmes. Variety and indiependance is just as important as saving the channels we have. I would rather give Channel 4 the BBC Licensing money, if we had the choice not to watch their channels (BBC). I can live without Eastenders, not much else interets me.

This is where having a tall son comes into play: I can just get him to handle Super and I can just laugh. A while ago, he came to Meadow Lane wearing his Derby shirt but this time I am going to try to get him to borrow one of my old Notts shirts. Not so that he doesn't stand out, I don't mind him wearing a rams shirt but I would like to capture proof he's secretly a Notts fan first and foremost. 😉

England has dealt with many moments which perhaps we all shared feelings about being robbed, but I don't think Norway were. Had it swung in their favour I would have said the same thing. All the attention is on Erling Haaland, who I felt played very poorly. The argument about service is valid, I have had this from my son but he didn't do anything to really involve himself. They (Norway) played better without him involved, and that says a lot. There was that chance Haaland screamed for the ball, and yet the Norwigen attacker went for his own glory, I felt like it was due to him feeling overlooked and wanting the headlines. It was the wrong decision, he should have passed the ball and I do think Haaland would have converted the chance. I didn't get the feeling they were playing as a team, they seemed to be more orientated towards that with set pieces. With certain players, such as their right back, thinking they were a star and able to impact the game more than they could have done. England were fortunate enough to turn the game around, and I do think the better team won. I can say they were unlucky, but those banging on about them being robbed both nations have an argument about decisions being made. Norway going 1-0 up, they didn't work for a second and they sort of allowed England to step up their own game. I said to Jake, that 15 minutes in that they didn't look 100% in terms of fitness and it showed as the game progressed. It's fortunate that the penalty appeal went against England, but at the same time the wire incident and the disallowed Norwigen goal are talking points. Yet, Harry Kane did seem to have been fouled leading up to that, modern players go down like they have been shot and this works against decisions but claiming there was no contact before the ball was touch is as comical as saying the goalkick didn't hit the wire. The wire incident only showed after the game, there were no clips showing it during the match and I had no idea until after. I watched their game against France, and I think the Harry Kane disallowed penalty in the previous game was a certain penalty. Djed Spence's penalty seemed all the more obvious to me, he was protecting the ball. The arguments about the re-taken corner kick are funny, even from England fans trying to ragebait comments because it was a foul. Yet all this means nothing, England progresses and Norway are out. If we wanted to take every moment and debate if the right outcome happened, then we would have to watch how Norway had two players on Jordan Pickford for every corner. To the point where Pickford kept pushing them away from obstructing him, their right back was lucky to have gone off as a sub. I am cutting off here, because I want to acknowledge Norway have their own calls but those were largely mentioned before such as the wire incident. It changes nothing, defensively both teams had spells where it wasn't good enough.

I don't watch much live TV, the quality is declining in my opinion and I hate all these things like Made in Chelsea, Love Island etc. It's just mindless television aimed at an audience that will just absorb what is put in front of them. However, the recent talk of ITV/Sky merging, and the belief that UK TV must consolidate and become one entity to take on the streaming networks isn't a bad idea but I think at the end of the day it comes down to traditional quality. There might be people who love the shows in my earlier reference, but I do think they are very low in quality. Good TV gets you talking; it makes you want to watch. I grew up watching all the soaps, and now I can only stand Eastenders. Even on YouTube, people are concerned about how our mainstream media wants to have priority in the YouTube feeds and this is like force feeding people. I watch YouTube more than live TV because I connect with the channels I watch; I feel they entertain me and offer something that I don't get from live tv. I used to watch Sir Patrick Moore with admiration for the way he showcased a show that truly meant something to him, and in turn 'The Sky at Night' always felt like something of quality. Do you watch much TV at all? Do you think that merging channels would save mainstream entertainment?

I felt a little surprised and dubious of his existing stats, but I reminded myself that we have taken players who haven't had a strong previous goalscoring record but have managed to score. Some players don't have the strength in depth from team mates in terms of quality, and the style we play does make it a lot easier for a striker just to finish chances. Sometimes it's unfair to pass judgement before allowing a player to settle, and I am more inclined to trust the recritment because we have done far better with finding strikers under the Reedtz era. Personally, I can't write him off and I won't. I am nervous that if he doesn't settle or do well, that we might end up struggling in this area rather than adding to the problem. I will only try to encourage him, and give my fullest support in the hope that he does prove to be a great signing. Some players thrive in the right environment, and I would hope that we can help with making him feel at home, instead of feeling like he needs to win us over. If he works hard, puts the effort in and contributes towards keeping us in League One or pushing forward that is all I can ask.

There's no way on earth Salford should be spending as much money as they have been, compared to other clubs their spenditure is a lot more alarming. Whilst I don't like seeing how much the likes of MK Don's spend, they have a bigger fan base and better infrastructure overall. Fleetwood's figure has my jaw on the floor, no wonder they have been getting a lot of scrutiny.

Time to pull my finger out, and switch to a higher priority, I believe. I have most tings in a good position, but we desperately need to switch back to content. My plan now is to focus on the site's content, and code in the evening/night when there's not much else happening. Potentially I can get some inbetween, but I want to get the content down. The history app is making good progress, but I have to wait for changes as I am improving the match topic. All the things I have done recently relate to coding; I am looking forward to catching up with both Mark's and Katrina. Plus, seeing Super Ram with us at the Forest was friendly. Jake's told me to have him on his best behaviour, since Super in the past has made comments about Forest to their fans. 😂 Just banter, but Jake doesn't like it and gets nervous. I am sure my dad will be focused on seeing his first team, and the only true County team playing them. 🤪👏🏻

I obviously don't know how competitive Viborg played, as I didn't watch the stream but I think the final score doesn't leave any concerns. It's a run around, and the players are still getting their fitness levels back. To be honest, I thought they might score more as we tend to see how we do out of possession and I can imagine they do have a fair bit of quality in their team. From the comments I have seen from those who managed to go over, Notts gave a decent account of themselves.

It will be interesting to see what lineup we go for, as to who makes which XI the starting or finishing. I hope we get to see a bit more of Ryley Reynolds, as it's good to see the prospects from our academy being given a shot to impress, especially at the stage we are building a squad. Hopefully it will be a good run out, and we'll be competitive instead of focusing solely on defending or being out of posession.

This is something I would love to go visit in person, and have a look around. See how things have changed; even going on a steam train is a wish of mine. Though, I wouldn't want to see the old 90s green buses because I have nightmares about how horrible and uncomfortable they were. I used to hate that the one line nearest my parents would always have the older buses, even when the other lines had new shinny ones. The older ones, in the right setting, would be brilliant to see in person.

It's getting everywhere, and I don't mean snakes! The detection is most likely a good thing, even if it is wrong. At least snakes haven't found their way onto platforms and started jumping on to take a day trip or whatever. Though, I did read recently that mice and rats are repeatedly in higher volumes on planes which I would have thought airlines would have regular checks for. Snakes rushing across the lines doesn't really compare, but best to keep the wild life save.

I am not sure what I make of this; I hope for Rotherham United's sake they get the player he can be. I think we helped Aaron Nemane find a more consistent performance, which he never seemed to replicate at MK Dons. It's strange that he wasn't able to make a bigger impact, but I hope he does well for Rotherham. He reminds me a lot of Saka, inconsistent but with spells of brillience. The performance he gave against Chesterfield in the National League Playoff Final is the type of performance he should set himself more often, he was class that day and played a big part in tiring them out which led to us getting more into the game. Good luck, Nemane.

Thanks, Super still isn't feeling great but is resting. I will let him know about the messages, though he may sign on to read the site before he notices what I have said. 👍🏻

Good luck to Tom Weal, I hope he gets the move because he's a good coach and I think we were rash to let him go. He seemed a very friendly person, who had the respect of the players and his contributions to our promotion by giving help on where to dive and the penalty training was a masterstroke in terms of success in bringing us back. Everyone played their role, including Tom.

Unfortunately, plans didn't work out to get to Alfreton. Even worse, Super didn't feel well, so it might have been a blessing. I hope to go over to see him later today, but he should be well stocked with DnB because he already had two the last time I went over and I took another two with me. 😄 I've done a round of bug fixing and optimisation improvements. I didn't realise that the migration had some impact on areas but I have fixed them. I am going through each one by one, whilst unlocking new features. Eventually, there won't be anything to add. One of the people who has purchased apps of mine, he audited the dev site and told me PON is huge. 🤪 I asked, as I hoped to get feedback on the menu but I have been fighting with code to make it work. It's finally fixed, with everything behaving as intended. Fingers crossed it is. I watched Mexico vs England the other night, I hadn't realised until going down for the K.O that the time had been put back. Once the game was underway, I really enjoyed it, and I think nutural fans will have been impressed by both teams. World Cup fever has me inspired to re-write a game like Championship Manaer 1997-98, I have grown tired of Football Manager but I must admit the latest version kept calling me due to it's World Cup mode and the football fever the tournement creates. Some might recall I mentioned when I was back in school, I tried to write a Wrestling Sim and was learning Visual Basic after successfully writing a very basic version in QBasic (which was dos based). Well, I have even revived that idea. Not that I want to be in competition for Promotion Wars or The Wrestling Sim, but because it's been a life goal of mine. Since I am coding so much for PON/others, it's revived my interest in it. I might share updates, if anyone is interested I expect them to be a slow burner because my priority is this site.