StarkMallard

In Germany, not all matches are on free TV. However, those that aren't get in-depth coverage. Like this analysis of the pitch invaders last night (subtitles at the bottom):

Never in doubt really was it? 😂 We've done what we needed to do, but it's difficult to really impress against opponents that sit deep. Germany have already shown that that can end very differently. We haven't gelled yet and we look nervous at the back. Pickford looks panicked and I'm not sure we'll stand up to sustained pressure. But then again, maybe playing an opponent that doesn't park the bus will suit us. Bastian Schweinsteiger, who a week or two again said that we could field two teams strong enough to win the World Cup from our squad, now thinks that Mexico will beat us. I saw Germany fail against Paraguay earlier this week (I went to bed after the disallowed goal as I was tired and knew what was going to happen). Too many luxury players (and a stubborn coach playing them all at once) and not enough leaders. Kimmich is not a captain. I haven't seen everyone play yet, but France look a class above. But it can ask be over very quickly in tournament football, that's the beauty of it.

According to the Grauniad, former franchise player Jonathan Leko is on trial at Notts, while Aden Flint is also training with us.

It's an early kick-off so if we get at least a point we'll be in an automatic promotion spot! What a fantastic start. It's a big name, plus it's better to play them before they've picked up momentum. But Leicester, Luton and Burnley in a week is a tough start!

You're brave for coming to Germany in this weather @Piethagoram! What a week it's been. We've had over 40 degrees for two days running, and after about a week and a half of 30 to 35 degrees the flat was already heated up. You know when you cross the road behind a diesel bus exhaust and the air is unbearably hot? Well it's like that everywhere, all the time. I've spent it running from one air conditioning unit to the next. I even went to a shopping centre yesterday! Really sad news about the Major Oak @Michael D Pie., I've been there many a time and an still a bit obsessed by it. We've all got memories of that tree. Apparently the plan is to just leave it - it may no longer produce leaves, but it'll still be there longer than any of us.

Sounds like an interesting player to develop but not necessarily one for the first 11 straight away. Let's see how he does and cross our fingers for him. Also, since he's under 21 I think he doesn't count towards the squad limit. I'll call him Daz!

Following the money again. He was always going to follow the money, but it's a bit sad after all the talk of us being his boyhood club and wanting to play for us for free. If he'd just been honest and said football was just a job for him I'd have a lot more respect for him now. It's moot now, but I'd have had mixed feelings about him signing for us again. He's still got it and scored 15 goals in L1 last season. But he was rumoured to be on 7k a week at Barnsley - we need to strengthen in a number of positions and I wouldn't feel comfortable splashing so much cash on one player.

Good post! The growth is even more impressive when you look a bit further back. Attendances in general have boomed since 1990, but this development completely passed us by - in the early 90s we often got crowds of 5000 or 6000 (when those were still normal figures in the Championship). Thirty years later, little had changed for us, despite the rest of football overtaking us. In the Munto season, with nationwide publicity, we averaged a little over 7000. In our promotion season under Sam Allardyce it was about 5500. Even our last season in the top flight and the bounce under Alan Hardy were brief aberrations. We haven't been well supported since Showaddywaddy were cool. So our sustained growth in the last few seasons is hugely impressive. It's down to us playing good, successful football, but the brothers have put everything in place to make that possible and completely changed the culture and vibe of the club. It never fails to baffle me when some fans would prefer to go back to the old ways when we lose a couple of matches. I think that's partly because of the big crowds we've been drawing, but also partly because we've been knocking around L2 and the NL for a decade. Nobody would say that if we were in the Championship. I'd love to see us punch above our weight some time soon!

I sympathise with you @Chris, back pain is awful and often the only thing you can do is lose weight, which is not a quick fix. The thing that helped me most was switching to water. I'd developed a habit of drinking apple juice with sparkling water, thinking it was healthy. I was consuming about 200 calories with each glass. Changing to sparkling water (with a squeeze of lemon when I was feeling wild) made a massive difference. Counting calories really helped me. It made me aware of what I was consuming and how much leeway I had.

Stockport have appointed Jimmy McNulty from Rochdale. Was expecting something different to be honest. I hope the rumours about MP continue to fly, as that means he's doing a good job!

I wouldn't be too concerned about it - they're under contract until the end of June, so from their point of view there's no hurry. If they do intend to sign, the club will probably be aware of this already and will be planning accordingly. I want them both to stay, but neither is irreplaceable.

Who's coming next @piedestrian? 😉

I know this is an old debate, but I had a look at Transfermarkt. I was convinced that Ardley had been wedded to four at the back and that it was Burchnall who switched to three. Wrong! The first game in the 20-21 season where we used wing-backs was a 1-0 win at Wealdstone in March, in the last days of the Ardley era. Miller and Kelly-Evans were our wing-backs that day. But our first game of the current era with wing-backs was the home draw with Stockport at our very first home game in the National League the season before, with Bakayogo and Kelly-Evans taking up the positions. All according to Transfermarkt of course. We'd dabbled in it before then too, but March 2021 was our permanent move to playing wing-backs.

I think he's been mentioned here before? He sounds like a ball-player in the Palmer mould but with a physical side to him too. Not sure he's the tough tackler some are expecting. He's also got plenty of League One experience. Sounds very promising, I'm happy with our transfers so far. Here's a picture of him with his wife.

I tend to read PON on my mobile (Android) and often post that way too, but I prefer to post on my laptop. I'm using the laptop now - it's still pretty new; it's almost doubled in price since I bought it in January, so I'm being very careful with it! I use Windows 11. There's a lot of bloat, but it's user-friendly and does what it's supposed to. I've also switched from Chrome back to Firefox, which makes no discernable difference. I did use Ubuntu (Linux) in the past when my old desktop PC was nearing its end, but I constantly encountered bits and bobs that didn't work quite right, and the solution was generally to go to a Linux forum and write something in the command line that had been suggested there. It can be pretty awkward if you don't have a basic understanding of programming.