StarkMallard

I'll follow @Chris and @Dripsey3 and go for a score draw, based on vibes and the feeling that we won't be easy to beat. Leicester will need some time to acclimatise and are in some disarray behind the scenes, so maybe that could be in favour. Would happily accept a draw, but a win would be fantastic. Your first win after promotion is such an important moment and the earlier it comes the better. I don't expect the team to be too different to last week, but I can imagine the loanee from Chelsea starting.

Norwich City 2-1 West Bromwich Albion Portsmouth 2-0 QPR Bradford City 1-2 Peterborough United Leyton Orient 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday Gillingham 2-0 Walsall York City 0-2 Bristol Rovers (joker) Solihull Moors 1-1 Boston United Southend United 2-1 Scunthorpe United

Nobody has voted for relegation yet. The people have spoken, there's nothing to worry about.

I've had a couple of these in Germany (on the rare occasions that they work), they frighten me half to death! But then the whole point is for people to pay attention and hide under the nearest table.

We've still got a major piece of the puzzle to fall in place, but I'll go for a place near the top end of the bottom half, occasionally looking over our shoulder at the relegation scrap but never quite slipping into it. We need more goals from midfield and I think we'll manage that, and in MP we have a manager who knows how to lift a team after a poor result.

!! HYDRATION BREAK !! Right, carry on.

The season is upon us and the squad is more or less complete. How confident are you all feeling? Are we going to take League One by storm or are we in for a grim struggle?

Ooh arr! I started my drinking career with cider but I really struggle with it now. Shame, as Frankfurt is a cider hotspot.

Welcome back! The proper football is finally back, and with it the prediction league. You are all welcome to take part, newbies and seasoned campaigners alike! This is how it works: At least two days before every matchday I will post a thread with eight matches to predict from the Championship, League One, League Two and the Conference. You then reply with your predicted scores. The cut-off time for posting is kick-off (in this case 3pm). At the end of it all I'll then post a table with the current standings. Scoring system: 3 points for a correct score and 1 for a correct result. So if you predict Swindon to beat Walsall 2-1 and they do, you get 3 points; if Swindon win 1-0, you get 1 point. Each round you can also choose one match as your joker - any points you win for that match are then doubled. As ever, my decision is final and no, you can't get a politician of your choice to ring me and change my mind 😉 Good luck! Norwich City v West Bromwich Albion Portsmouth v QPR Bradford City v Peterborough United Leyton Orient v Sheffield Wednesday Gillingham v Walsall York City v Bristol Rovers Solihull Moors v Boston United Southend United v Scunthorpe United

This one sounds promising, and it looks like he'll get plenty of minutes too due to the unexplained disappearance of Jones. Let's be patient with him and hope he's another loanee in the Iorpenda mould.

I'd been expecting another attacking midfielder as it looks like we'll be relying on them for our goal threat this season. Hope he does well! To be honest, I've looked at his record and it does raise a few questions. He's just cut short a loan at Wigan to join us, which is understandable as we're the greatest club in the world. OK. At the beginning of last season he joined Nuremberg II on loan in the fourth-level Regionalliga Bayern. German B teams are for players aged under 23, so are set up specifically to bring young players like him through, and the league they play in is a very poor one (National League level if that). Mustapha played just 100 minutes in half a season before his loan was cut short and he went back. He then joined West Brom where he also played very little. None of this indicates that he's a bad player - he's a 20-year-old taking his first steps in men's football. But he does need to settle down somewhere. Let's hope he can do that with us!

This thread is a right rollercoaster 😁 He seems a very highly regarded young player - an England youth international who Chelsea paid 4 million to get. It looks like his loan to Strasbourg never happened, he went to Swansea instead and made six appearances according to Wikipedia. Sounds like a talented prospect, but he'll be raw and will make mistakes. That's part of the deal with young loanees.

@theAnticlough My actual eyesight hadn't changed, I was just finding it harder and harder to focus on nearby things, like when I'm reading. I ended up just taking my glasses off constantly. So in theory, varifocals are great - they correct my short-sightedness while also allowing me to read things without taking them off all the time. In practice they're hard work, but it's early days. For the reading area, the part where everything looks sharp is much smaller than I expected, so I have to move my head constantly. Watching England in Argentina sounds... interesting! Did you identify yourself or stay incognito?

Hi @Fan of Big Tone, please don't ditch it! I didn't see it at all last week (probably due to me using the All Activity function and checking in later in the week). I'm going to be a bit more active from now on. I'm worried about the water situation too. We've had very little rain since March and it seems to be happening every year now. I've mown the lawn twice this year. It's now completely dead and I'll have to reseed it again in the autumn. But we do our bit by never washing the car - the "dusty" look is in this year 😁 I also picked up my first pair of varifocals this weekend and I'm still struggling with them. I can read things without taking them off, but it's just exhausting. Does it get better?

JJ has a big head compared to his frame, but that's ridiculous. And Grant appears to want a fight.

I feel much better after that! Very impressive to hold a team full of quality and with Premier League ambitions to a draw after 90 minutes. Also great to see Cal Roberts getting off the mark early, hopefully that'll give him the confidence to make the step up. It's a shame we went out with the PL teams joining in the next round, but before the game I'd have settled for avoiding a spanking. Now we have something to build on ahead of Leicester.

If he's a left wing-back it would make sense (whether Jones stays or not), but I read elsewhere that he plays in Bedeau's position. Let's wait and see what happens. I'm expecting the remaining loanees to be attacking midfielders or maybe a striker, depending on whether we fill the vacant number 9 shirt.

Oh no @PON_News, League Two again? And there I was thinking we'd escaped it 😞 Joking aside, I'm very curious to see what side we put out and how the new signings look in serious competitive games. It's a bit weird to start with our League Cup run, but at least it gives us competitive match practice before the season proper begins. We might even win! Not expecting us to progress, but I hope to see a good, competitive performance, a narrow scoreline and a goal for us.

I suppose you could argue that promotion came too soon for us - ideally you should already have a squad capable of being competitive in the division above and be able to add extra quality and depth on top of that. This time, only seven members of our promotion-winning team are still with us, a couple of those are injured or possibly on the way out, and we don't have a proven goalscorer, so it feels like MP has a job on to make us competitive. I felt more confident in our ability to compete after our last two promotions into L1 than I am now. However, squad fluctuation is generally greater now so maybe this is just the way of things. I like the sound of most of our signings individually, but we'll just have to wait and see whether they can cope with what is for most of them a step up. I think the owners and RM are largely sticking with their guns this summer. They've been proven successful so far, but I have the feeling that they're plugging gaps rather than complementing what we've already got.

Sounds like a good signing. Many of his Championship appearances were from the bench, so he'll be hoping for more minutes with us. Is this someone who can play in the number 10 position?

Now this is a thread. Thanks for posting this @Alex, despite your slander of German beer! I'm very partial to an English real ale from a local brewery like Magpie, and they generally don't travel. You never quite know what you're going to get, and that's part of the fun. I'm lucky enough to live near a beer supermarket so I can stay stocked up with Sam Smith's Nut Brown Ale and oatmeal stout, and I'm partial to an Old Speckled Hen or nearly anything from St Peter's too. German beer is excellent (but I'd love to know where you're finding this cheap beer! Although it might appear cheap if you went to France and the Netherlands first...). It's generally less full-bodied than English beer so is easier to drink despite being a bit stronger. A Pils or helles is nice in the summer, but if you find that a bit meh you can try a cloudy beer (turn the bottle before pouring), a Landbier, a Bock or a Märzen. Special mention for Schlenkerla smoky Märzen, which you can sometimes find in the UK. If you were in Cologne you probably had Kölsch. That's something for the lager drinkers but is nice enough when fresh and served in small glasses. Kölsch in a pint glass is nope. In my limited experience, beer in France comes in small glasses and is crazy expensive. It's cheaper to drink wine. And the Netherlands is dominated by Belgian beer to the extent that it's difficult to find one of their own. I experienced Hungarian beer this year and much of it was vile. There's a reason they sell Czech beer everywhere.

Off the top of my head, we started last season with four season-long loans. Aljofree and Iorpenda were there pretty much for all pre-season, with Hall and Luker arriving later on. I definitely expect something to happen in the next week or two, maybe an attacking midfielder and a quick centre forward among them. O'Reilly seems to fit in well there. Having four long-term injuries before a ball is kicked is less than ideal. And I hope there's nothing in the Palmer talk above, he's one of our players with L1 experience (he was a regular in a side that won promotion from this level). Him, Jones and Jatta were part of the core of our promotion-winning team, and replacing them all while they're under contract is an unnecessary risk.

You might be right there @Graham, Jones' absence is odd and it's starting to feel like another Jatta situation. We're rumoured to be in for Harry Boyes, who plays in his position. Is he intended to be competition or a replacement? He's blown hot and cold over the last couple of seasons, but we know he can unlock a defence for us. He deserves a stab at League One and I'm in no doubt that he's good enough for it.

They may be in the third division, but Hansa make a fantastic atmosphere even by German standards and this was their big day out. They'd never been to England before, and London is pretty simple to get to - next season, their closest away trip will be over 200 miles away! A few years back they brought 3000 to Mannheim, a 1000-mile, 24-hour round trip. Of course there are some idiots among them, but they're far from being the worst offenders. The t shirts look a bit familiar too!

I kind of realised this was coming when I read Smythe's profile - he sounded like a Jatta replacement rather than someone who would complement him. And so it's turned out. AJ may be a bit raw, he isn't good in the air and his first touch can be a bit suspect. Some of the reported sums clubs were ready to pay for him overvalued him IMO. However, he consistently scored for us, every second game during his time with us. If he can replicate that in Portugal's top flight, he'll really be in the shop window and some very big clubs will notice him. It's a short career, so I hope he does well. The biggest unknown for us now is where the goals will come from. Smythe sounds promising but is unproven, and Ndlovu and Aquaman don't have great scoring records so far. It'll be interesting to see what permanent and loan signings are still in store.