cary hill

Tonight was the first time I've missed VAR in the Championship this season. It's always a pity when the on pitch officials don't know the laws of the game - they disallowed Leicester's second "goal" for offside completely in error. Still Leicester should have been comfortably ahead, but missed at least two sitters as well, before the Leeds "deflection" revival kicked in. At least it makes the Championship title race more interesting, since as a Leicester City fan I know they are well capable of cocking things up and have plenty of recent form in this respect.

Accurascale Manor Class 7812 Erlestoke Manor races along the coast to join ANTB's mini BR(WR) Summer Festival and passes Bachmann Manor 7816 Frilsham Manor, which may well be on it's way to Cashmores aka eBay. My other half says my longship is going to sink, due to the weight of my personal possessions already onboard, before she can set fire to it and I'll never get to Valhalla unless I lighten the load.

Well that's that then, the Leicester City "Fairy Tale" comes to a grim ending as some fairy tales do. I'm not surprised as we were almost inevitably "Brendoomed" from around February last year, when Rodgers first started mouthing off about needing 5 or 6 new players and dissing about a third of first team squad, without bothering to check if there was sufficient funding available to change things that drastically. Rodger's sulkiness resulted in the total demotivation the squad pre-season and resulted a truly dismal start to the season. The club never really recovered from that, apart from a mini-run of good results pre-World Cup, which with hindsight were against teams which were in an even worse state than us at the particular stage of the season - West Ham, Everton, Wolves and Nottm. Forest - they all got better as the season progressed, whereas Leicester flatlined and couldn't keep a clean sheet and deserved to be relegated. I'd have still bitten your hand off in advance, if I'd been told you are only getting nine seasons in the top flight, but you will win the Premiership, the F.A. Cup, the Charity Shield, get to the last eight of the Champions League, have two successive 5th place finishes missing out on Champions League on the last day of season both times, play in the other two European competitions and reach a semi-final in one of them and perform a great escape in our first season back in top flight. On the down side I think we are only side in the Premier League era to be immediately relegated after five successive top half finishes. We have also managed to draw level with Birmingham City as the only sides to have been relegated 12 times from the top flight. Leicester have always been "yo-yo" team after all. Bring on Rotherham, Huddersfield and Millwall - I've no idea what's going to happen or what the team will look like after it's been decimated in the summer.

6-3 probably refers to Hungary 6 England 3 played at Wembley in 1953 - I think England's first home defeat to a "foreign" visiting side - swiftly followed up in the "return" fixture in Hungary in 1954 by an even worse 7-1 thrashing. I think the Hungarians were playing the first version of 4-2-4, whilst England were still playing an old stiff inflexible WM formation which was well out of date by then. It still sounds familiar today - England behind the times tactically speaking.

Promotion is more important than a Pizza Trophy

"You have sat stayed too long for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God go." Brendan Rogers departs Leicester City at last - good memories for the first two and half years - first ever F.A. Cup win and 5th place Premiership finishes - but he's like a loaf that's gone stale - he's not getting any better with the passing of time. Probably still heading for the Championship though, as the owners should have sacked him after the first seven games of the season. Rodgers had thrown in the towel before the season had even kicked off with his constant whingeing about lack of transfer funds in the close season. Actually looking forward to Tuesday night's game, as it will the first game without Rodger's tactically stale Plan A and no Plan B for a very long time. Could still be a complete disaster but you have got to try something different.

Don't knock it - those Bradford Exchange people are very prescient, as their almost identical 80th anniversary FS masterpiece also featured a TT-120 moving FS on the lower deck, 20 years before Simon Kohler reimagined it. Well it's a slow day here........

Great to see Villa's serial timewasting 'keeper Martinez get his comeuppance at last, as Arsenal score twice in added time including a Martinez "own goal".

It looks like it's not only Conte that's had emergency surgery recently, Spurs also seem to have their backbone removed in last few days judging from their spineless performance at the King Power this afternoon. How can a team which beat Manchester City fairly comfortably a few days ago play so feebly in their next game? Easily Leicester's most complete performance this season and they probably should have won by more than 4-1. It was a pleasant change to see Kane and Son rendered ineffective for once when playing against Leicester.

Michael McIntyre's Christmas Wheel.......unless he's being tied to it and vigorously flogged.

Some of those French penalty takers are obviously graduates of the English School of Penalty Taking.

Mbappe just chucked that script in the bin.......for now....

A little "research" reveals that between 1966 and 2016 England managed to win a grand total of 6 Knock-out Round matches at major tournaments. Southgate has managed to equal that in the last 4 years with 6 wins at three major tournaments, so it may well be a case of better the devil you know.

You were still watching a different game,,,,,,,,

You obviously didn't see the game, as you stated above in the thread you don't "follow" football, stick with the egg chasers.

England managed to keep up their tradition of going out at the World Cup Quarter Stage but at least they went down playing positively this time, which makes a change from the usual clinging on in quiet desperation style of play. I wonder if the Kane penalty was the worst of his entire career, still never mind, on a parochial level we'll still be able to sing "He's won more than you, Jamie Vardy he's more than you etc." when Harry next visits the KingPower and probably scores two or three goals

Delighted to see "Cannibal" Suarez and his fellow Uruguayan bandits have exited this World Cup early. One less bad smell at the tournament.

It says all you need to know when Slabhead Maguire is England's Man of the Match despite not being able to get club game time. Jack Grealish achieved more in a twenty-minute cameo than "What is the point of Mount", Saka and Sterling combined. Usual England display when facing a fitter team with a sound game plan - outclassed in all areas of the pitch and clueless.

It seems I shall have to eat my words after all - Southgate actually selects a player in form.

Things are beginning to look a bit better for Leicester City now that Achilles has stopped sulking and moaning in his tent and started to manage the team again. The arrival of the new defensive and set piece coach and signing of Wout Faes seem to have made a huge difference defensively - 22 goals conceded in the first 7 games of the season and now only 3 goals conceded in the last 7 games. Scoring goals doesn't seem to be a problem as we have scored more away goals than any other Premier League team to date including a couple of absolute stunners from Tielemans. James Maddison is continuing to play brilliantly and remains the leading English midfielder in terms and goals and assists since the start of the 2021/22 season, but I don't suppose that will cut any ice with the risk averse conservative and system obsessed dummy that manages England.

Taxi for Mr Rodgers........another truly abysmal display by Leicester City. You know you are in big trouble when you concede five goals playing against Brighton, who are not exactly renowned for free scoring in the Premier League, although to be fair they do seem to be continuing on an upward trajectory, despite losing two of their best players, unlike Leicester who seem to be crashing and burning having flown too close to the sun in recent seasons.

Very easy to explain: 1. KingPower's main business and the owning family's wealth is largely based on airport duty free sales outlets. This has taken an absolute battering due to Covid's effect on tourism. Both the family's wealth and sales turnover are down to approximately a third of pre-Covid levels. 2. Massively bloated wage bill £192 million (86.63% of turnover). This is the highest wages to turnover %age in the Premier League and this has been the case for the past four seasons. 3. Leicester have far too many "squad" players on over generous wages and long contracts who contribute little or nothing on match days. They can't be moved on because these wage levels can't be matched by other interested clubs even if a fee could be agreed. 4. Rodgers has bloated the squad with a fair few dud signings who can't command or even compete for a regular starting spot - some examples below: Ayoze Perez £30m. Patson Daka £29m. Dennis Praet £19m. Bouba Soumare £20m. Jannik Vestergaard £18m. 5. Communication must be dire in the club at the moment as Rodgers was droning on about signing five or six players in the transfer window but nobody upstairs seems to have told him the piggy bank is empty and I suppose he must have told several players that they were surplus to requirements - not good for squad morale. 6. It seems very odd to be recruiting without a Head of Recruitment - although thankfully there's nothing to for them to do at the moment. 7. It's almost criminal that Leicester haven't appointed a defensive set piece coach given that Rodgers has no clue in this area (remember Liverpool). There's loads more but that's more than enough for now. Oh for the days when you could win the Premier League with a squad costing barely £25m. and paid relative peanuts. Was that only six years ago....seems a like a lifetime already.

That's only going to happen if Mr Negativity Southgate goes on a "How to make positive game changing substitutions" course.

Porthcurno Beach viewed from the Minack Theatre direction ?

Presumably the old coach is this one - text from the Cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk website: B&WR GWR Victorian Bogie Saloon Coach Chris Bellett Hi Keith, Some news from the B&WR for you: "The South Devon Railway and Bodmin and Wenford Railway are pleased to announce that GWR First Class Saloon 9044 has arrived at Buckfastleigh for recommissioning work and use on the railway during the summer. The carriage was built in 1881 and is believed to be the oldest surviving GWR bogie coach in existence. Originally used as a family saloon for the high society, it has supposedly seen passengers such as King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, and opera singer Madame Patti. In 1936 it was converted to a Civil Engineers Saloon and was travelled in by officers of the Great Western Railway and then British Railways until it was withdrawn in the 1960s. The carriage was restored to use in 2013 and has since operated on special days from it’s home at Bodmin station, Cornwall. Whilst at the South Devon Railway, recommissioning work and maintenance will be carried out on 9044 before it is used for a period during the summer season. It’s debut on the SDR is expected to be during the lines 150th Anniversary event between the 30th April and 2nd May, where passengers will be able to experience what travel was like over 140 years ago. David Nelson-Brown, Chairman of the Bodmin and Wenford Railway PLC said “ We are delighted to be able to enter into this partnership with our friends at the South Devon Railway. Covid created backlogs in our workshop has side-lined this historic vehicle for too long and this loan to South Devon will see the carriage back in traffic much quicker than at home. We are looking forward to seeing it in action this summer across the River Tamar and are already making plans for its use in Cornwall next year. Kind Regards, Chris Bellett. Retired S&T Engineer, CRS Member