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Just finished this and was a struggle. Unfortunately there's just too much to cover to be able to do any justice to the content. At some points it was almost like 'this fella was born then started a war then got killed. Moving on'. I mean, what? So something different up next, and a book form one of my faves, David Baldacci. It's a bit different from his usual thrillers though. It's called One Summer and not sure if I'm going to enjoy this one. We'll soon see.

It's always sad to see these clubs fold. Would love to know how they got into the situation they did.

I'm hoping we can get a game on this weekend. We haven't been able to play a home game since the beginning of the month. If the rain holds off we should be good, especially with the wind we're getting which helps remove the surface water. It'll be two weeks since a game on Saturday. I'm going stir crazy.

Recently finished with Hitman and got bored quite quickly. It's a bit too slow paced for me. Still have Hitman 2 to play, so have mixed feelings about that now. I'm nearly finished with Spider-Man, which I was a little disappointed with after the hype it got. Looks great though. I never got the fuss about God Of War. For me one of the most overrated games ever.

If you love a mockumentary then you'll love After The Screaming Stops.

Wow. Caballero plays and Chelsea win. I was sure that after comments made in here that should have surely been a 10-0 Spurs win.

The standard is higher, but not higher than we are capable of. The big difference though is consistency and key positions. For instance our wide right player is courted by almost all of top teams in our division, and the next two above. We really struggled in goal though at the start of the season [although I feel we've resolved that now] and we have no goal scorer. There are also issues outside of the club that we are having to deal with at the moment which are having a huge impact on everything. We also have no playing budget, so we were alway going to struggle there.

We'll jusy have to disagree then. They're not pulling up an trees with Kepa playing, so not much is changing as far as Chelsea results go if he is forced to miss a couple of games.

So Newbury Forest got dicked at the weekend. We lost 4-0 to White Ensign. Now there are a couple of things to take into consideration. First is league position. They're challenging for the title and promotion and we're looking to avoid relegation. So this wasn't a game that we likely to get anything out of. Second is the pitch. This is the smallest pitch ever. I'm talking 9 metres short of meeting the required length [don't know the width but that is too narrow as well], and was the bobbliest one we've played to date. If you know the local non-league football in our area then you'll no how bad it must have been when I say that it was worse than The Spotted Dog. Even taking these points into consideration the performance from Forest was poor. From the moment they turned up they was moaning. The pitch is crap, the changing room is crap, the warm up is crap, as soon as there was a miscontrolled pass of a wayward shot it was crap. It was poor. But that's over now, so next up is a massive bottom of the table clash with Fire United on Saturday at the Terence Macmillan Stadium in Plaistow [another atheltics stadium. Wonderful]. Fire are one point above us but have played three more games. So all to play for.

And Sarri just letting the players do what they like, ignore his instructions and decisions, and show complete disrespect for him will save him his job right? On it's own this instrance obviously doesn't address the issue of a team of petulant players, but it should be one of a number of things Sarri is doing to instill discipline and respect from them all. I completely agree with you about how "reacting on emotion and throwing your toys out the pram" is nonsense. This is exactly how Kepa acted. So in this instance specifically Sarri has an opportunity to show all the players that there is a real consequence to them when they show ill discpline and lack of respect. Fining a week's wages to somebody who earns the ridiculous amount of money that Kepa does is a complete nonsense. It's a token action and will have no positive effect whatsoever. What it does do though is exacerbate the ongoing story of Sarri having no real control of his players. It also continues to show the players themselves [the perceived better ones at least] that they can continue to pretty much do what they like.

To suggest that it’s been dealt with is a nonsense. As is the suggestion that it wasn’t that big a deal, because all the player wanted to do was to see out his first ever cup final. All that as been determined for certain is that Kepa is a petulant person with little if not any respect for the authority of his manager. Sarri has shown that he has no backbone and will let you get away with whatever as along as you’re deemed to be one of the squad’s better players. Here was a real opportunity for him to show the whole squad who the boss is, and he bottled it.

Disappointed with that. I was hoping Sarri would show a bit of backbone and also drop him from some games. Not unexpected though.

Was a great but thought provoking read. In between fits of laughter was the realisation/reality of the way health professionals are expected to work in sometimes ridiculous situations, with inadequate resources, and outrageous working hours. The ending. Well I'll just leave you to find out about that.

I think you're math is wrong Rab. As all Mars bars up in your neck of the woods are deep fried your one Mars equates to 7 gazillion calories which will explain your recent good weight loss. For those of us who just straight up eat it out of the wrapper [no batter here thank you very much] the impact is not as large. Your premise is correct though.

I can’t watch Suits without thinking how I’d like to absolutely ruin Sarah Rafferty.

Yeah the result was nice, but with friendly games unless it’s an absolute drubbing the result is a bit insignificant with the changes that both teams will be making. Sawbo stuck their First Team out though so it was a good challenge, and most importantly was our performance which was great. We’ve a big game away to White Ensign next weekend. They’re challenging for the title so won’t be easy. They also play on a ridiculously small pitch [the league had a mare there as it is never big enough].

Newbury Forest had a good day yesterday. We played Sawbridgeworth Town away in a friendly and got a great chance to look at a few new players. As well as a couple of seasoned ‘pros’ who could be great additions to the squad if they can be convinced to stick around, we had two kids from our college programme who were extremely impressive. Another clean sheet is always nice too.

Love Gary Oldman, but even he wasn’t enough to make me enjoy this.

Watched Darkest Hour last night, and gotta say that after all the plaudits it received I was extremely bored with it.

Can the West Ham badge be updated please?

Absolutely. Doing me well in my fantasy team at the minute.

Yeah, it ain’t the George until you get to Division One. Some of the teams start trying to play football then, but all will be quite organised an well drilled. I actualy think for the last few years Division One has been stronger than the Premier Division. We have our reserve team in Division Five, but the players in there are a long way off of being good enough for the First Team.

Well this isn't too clear at the moment. It should be to the division we came from which would be the Essex Olympian Division One, but then from then on it will be into the Essex Olympian Premier Division. It is not clear though whether there will be any relegation this season as there are a few clubs who might not make the ground grading criteria for next season. There are also a couple of teams that are just well out of their depth in the NLS. Poor infrastructure, administration, etc. So it's no guarantee that regardless of where these teams finish they will still be permitted to continue within the league. What is meant to happen at the end of the season is the team that finishes top of each of the 19 Step 6 Leagues will be promoted into their regional Step 5 league and the teams finishing in the bottom two places will be demoted. Additionally, the top 9 second placed teams across all Step 6 Leagues, determined on an average points per game basis, shall also be promoted.