Ohh Tommy Johnson

Bad start, but got there in the end... Wordle 956 5/6* ???? ???????????????? ????????????????????

You've missed the goalkeeper.

He would have been close for m too. The trouble with the MoM award is it tends to go to the one that catches the eye. It is undeniable that this was Jones, but without Baldwin there would have been at least one more goal against. A header cleared a shot in the first half. We were directly behind the shot and no way was Stone getting to it. He made several other telling blocks and tackles. On the other hand Jones seemed to open them up at will, and was our main creative outlet, so I can see why he was given it. Despite the criticism I thought Robertson ad Bostock also tightened up the defence after Maynard made that teak at half time. They weren't perfect, but it was good to see the change working. I was fully expecting a drop off after the break which has happened a lot in the past few months, but this time we had a positive response. From that point of view I would say Maynard had a good first game and had a positive influence. I suspect in previous weeks we would have lost that. There has also been a lot said about showboating and trying to be too clever (not so much here). I didn't see it that way. There may have been an element of trying to show the new head coach what they could do, but I got the feeling that these flicks etc were for players that weren't where they expected them to be. Maybe this is due to a change in the system which hasn't bedded in yet. There were a couple where I could see what Didzy (in particular) was trying to do, and if they had come off would have put Jones, Macca or Crowley through - they were just a second behind, ahead or going a different direction. The same to Bostock, he seemed to slow things down a lot, but it seemed to me that his first intention wasn't on, so he took another touch and played it safe. I don't go to enough games to know how we 'normally' play, but I felt we did OK and should feel pretty positive about the future under Maynard.

That's fair, but I would also say, they don't score that in the second half. We were noticeably tighter in the second half.

We were right behind the goal. There were a couple of deflections (I thought) and they fell nicely for Barrow, but had there not been those deflections I don't think they would have scored. We didn't transition quickly enough, though, once Bostock had lost the ball which made things difficult. I thought Stone had a good game.

I do think our defence is unfairly targeted by our fans though. I thought their goal took a couple of deflections which fell very nicely for them, on another day it would have fallen for us and the threat would have gone. I thought we looked a lot tighter in defence, especially in the second half. A bit more pace at the back would help, and I think we will see Warner at Mansfield.

I thought at the time it was red, my friend from the US (whose wife actually refs to a high standard over there) couldn't believe the Yellow (and thought the Assistant refs were there for little more than decoration. Mind you I also thought Bozzy gave them a penalty first half with a shove in the back, so maybe the ref was just poor.

There's very little parking there apparently, but local people rent their drives and front gardens. One of his friends makes about $500 a game. The whole neighbourhood snarls up so they have tailgate parties out clears. We had a great time.

Where do Nottingham play these days? I saw them at Ireland Ave (Rob Andrew was playing for Nottingham in those days) and Meadow Lane, but I don't know what happened then as I moved away and ended up traipsing over to Wycombe and the Coventry to watch Wasps. We used to have epic weekends in those days - Notts on Saturday afternoon, Panthers Saturday evening and then Wasps on the way home on Sunday!

@Chris He is coming over from a place called Kalamazoo (a fantastic name if you ask me) to a meeting in Ireland and the flight stops over in Heathrow. He was going to watch a Wrexham game, as I say, but I said he would be better off watching us, so he rearranged the meeting to come over this weekend. We are going to be in the Kop so he can get the full atmosphere. It's a shame Barrow will only bring a taxi load, but it should still be fun!

Maybe - he was thinking of heading to the Wrexham game but I put a stop to that! He's been watching 'Welcome to Wrexham' so we aren't a completely unknown entity. He is really excited, so I hope the match lives up to it! His team the 'Wolverines' play in College Football (American) and sell out their 110 000 stadium every game. I have told him that the Notts experience should be almost identical!!

I'm picking up a colleague from Heathrow who's flying in from Michigan tomorrow at 9am... then it's up the M25 / M1 to the San Sirrel for the his first experience of a 'proper' English football match. Then it's back to Thanet via Heathrow . Sunday is simply a long run and then spending some time with the girls. Simple. but tiring weekend.

It seems to me that there has been no attempt to learn from the experience of other sports. Cricket and Rugby have used similar systems for years. Cricket has strict protocols that the 3rd umpire goes through, rugby is more dynamic and shows how it could be used in a fast moving sport. Both show how it could be communicated better. The frustrating thing is that there seems to be no attempt to address these. Just letting people know what is going on and the thinking behind decisions would be a big step forward and being clear what they are looking at. Rugby used to go ages back in play to review a try (particularly if you were playing Saracens), they need to make sure that they only review stuff immediately before a goal, and then incidents of foul play the ref may miss. Just doing that will make a big difference. The long and short is that VAR is here to stay, but it needs improving.

Not posted on Wordle for a while. I have been doing it, just not got round to posting. It has mainly been 3's and 4's with one miss in amongst all that too. Wordle 951 4/6* ???? ???? ???????????? ????????????????????

These points I agree with.

I think you will find the majority of the country are now against Brexit...but we will never know. All we know is that 8 years ago the country backed Brexit. The truth is we don't know what the current feeling is, other than looking at polls. No politician in their right mind would revisit another referendum, so it will remain a moot point. On the councils - Birmingham has a Tory mayor, and there are many bankrupt Tory councils too. My council, Kent is Tory run and we have been told that without additional government funding they will default this year. It's a funding issue not a political one. I think the government acknowledged that yesterday when they released £600m more to councils. Personally, I just want competence from my government and we haven't had that for a long while.

@Robbie I had missed that you were an HGV driver (you did mention it a few times, to be fair). That is quite interesting as it gives a different perspective I think. I know here in the South East we have seen a vast reduction of foreign lorries using the port of Dover... but that may just be confirmation bias on my part. I think on the whole Brexit has been good for your industry, so I can understand where you are coming from. And as with all things, and unlike our beloved Notts, all things are not black and white and whilst there are winners, there are also big losers - agriculture and fishing are probably the big ones. The trouble with free trade agreements is that they come with strings attached - for example, India are demanding free movement of people and increased (unfettered) access to our software industry as part of a free trade deal. There is always a trade off. Our traditional position of leading in International (and European legislation) and compliance with those laws gained us a reputation for being a good partner to trade with. We shaped European Law and the EU (remember the Single Market was Thatcher's brainchild). We could have held on to a lot of that with a sensible approach to Brexit, but Johnson trashed it all, and the lack talent in the current government (and Labour are untested) means we are where we are. I suspect in time we will move closer to the EU through necessity (particularly if Trump gets in again), I hope our government (whoever that is) can do so on favourable terms.

I suspect, at the end of the day we agree on a lot more than it appears. We want the best for the country, we just have different ideas about the approach we should take. I bet if we were in a pub discussing this, we would find common ground. As I say, I am enjoying the debate, and pleased that we can disagree agreeably (or from my side at least). To be fair, this has been largely respectful and I think @Robbie has presented his arguments well. I hope he feels the same.

Africa does present great opportunities for trade and investment.

I've never even thought about the flag. I like the UK flag, and I'm ambivalent about the EU flag. I like seeing the Union flag flying, it makes me proud to be British... but I never thought the EU flag was anything denoting more than membership of a club, so seeing it missing is rather irrelevant to me - in fact I hadn't noticed!! I hope we don't get to the stage the US are with flags though, that is toxic. I think we were heading there under Johnson's government where every minister was stood in front of increasingly large flags. It seemed childish to me. The flying or otherwise of flags is really not that important to me.... it's a flag.

I've done the 'independent bit already, so won't do that again. The EU was dominated by the UK and Germany with France powerful too. We were one of the most influential countries, hence we had a rebate nobody else had, we didn't join the Euro etc. It isn't a shrinking economy either, just not growing as fast as others... but 1% growth in a £500billion market is more than a 10% increase in a £5billion market. @Piethagoram and I are not working in tandem - I have no idea who they are. I suspect it more reflects the current position of the country - the is a lot of Bregret out there. Ask the farmers and farmers to start with.

They don't (speaking for myself). We live in a global, interconnected world and cannot operate in isolation. We need to co-operate and look for win-win solutions. As part of the EU that was much easier as we had influence in the world. We were one of the big 3 (probably the big 2) players in the EU, and as such were a voice within the EU for countries like the US and the English speaking Asia Pacific. Leaving the EU we lost that, which was not good for our country. As an influential part of a big body we were also able to protect our businesses more effectively, whilst giving them access to a local and open market. We have lost that, and as the trade deal with Australia shows, in a poor negotiating position to protect our own interests. In fact, it could be argued that Brexit has actually resulted in the interests of other countries being promoted above our own. I fully back the UK, but we need to work with, not against, other countries. I don't know enough about the politics in Poland at the moment, but my understanding is that Tusk is trying to role back the anti democratic changes his right wing predecessor brought in. I will try to educate myself on that point though. The EU isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination - you have Orban in Hungary holding the rest of the block to ransom at the moment (something we could, but chose not to do), you have the AfD on the rise in Germany and Meloni in Italy. The latter is, of course leading Mussolini's party and should be a concern for everyone. The EU needs reform, but that is nothing to do with us now. Brexit is a populist movement. The trouble with populism is that everything is boiled down to simple vacuous slogans - 'Make America Great Again', 'Take back control', 'Independent Sovereign Country'. What do the actually mean? Populism creates in groups and out groups and treats everything in simple binary terms. This has been the case ever since Girolamo Savonarola in 15th century Florence. It always eventually fails because it doesn't deal with the nuance. Brexit is hugely nuanced and complex and can't be dealt with in simple terms. Until Brexiteers realise that we can't move forwards. As always @Robbie I appreciate your thought provoking and measured arguments. It challenges my thinking, and that is a good thing. I hope our points do likewise for you, and whilst we don't agree, it is the way to reach a common understanding of our respective positions.

It doesn't work like that. We will require the EU companies to meet our standards, they will expect us to meet their standards. We have set the standard in food by lowering the requirements on, for example, hormones in beef which means we will get cheap, but lower quality beef from Australia. The EU do not want that in their food chain, so they will need to impose additional checks on our farmers to ensure the beef doesn't pass through our farmers and into the EU. Our farmers will need to meet EU standards to sell there. There is nothing to stop them exporting to Australia or the US, except they can't be competitive there due to the nature of their farms and the lower standards they have imposed on them. So the EU won't be imposing their standards on us, but will require us to meet them in order to sell there. That is separate to a Free Trade Agreement...that is where they can insist that in order to avoid tariffs etc we would need to agree to, for example, the free movement of people. There is our problem. Our economy is so small compared to the EU we will have great difficulty in avoiding such measures. That would be the same whoever we are trying to make an agreement with. The agreement with India allows free movement from India to the UK, the one with the US requires us to take goods that would adversely impact our industires - chlorinated chicken for example. I feel the Brexiteers have moved on because they don't want to deal with the mess - a bit like driving away from a car crash. The Remainers are still at the scene trying to work out how to clear the mess up. If politics were just a binary decision made at one point in time never to be revisited, then we would have stopped having elections in the 1830s once the decision had been made. We should always be looking back at past decisions, working out what could be done better and how we improve things. As I said, we aren't rejoining any time soon, but just putting fingers in our ears, yelling 'Soverignty, independence' isn't going to help. We need to be practical and make this work. Until we actually discuss the true impact of Brexit we will never move forwards.

There is, and they out their spin on it too. The trick is to look beyond the spin and determine what the probable issue is. With this one, my view is that someone in the EU said 'Hey Richy, We are panning a summit, it would be great to cover immigration. Any ideas when you are planning the election?', They know they can't influence when it should be, but I can imagine there are authorities around the world wanting to know what's happening so they can make their plans. A storm in a tea cup.

I don't - I get mine delivered so the only walking I do is to the front door. It does save me a packet though!