Dan

Just a note for myself, top one is 10/3.

I'm getting bad at these tables. Totally forgot again. I'll do it later if I get a chance.

Notts County's downturn is quite something.

I don't think Porto played badly at all. If anything they probably edged it over 210 minutes. They did a lot better than I thought they would anyway. They limited Arsenal to very little. I didn't perceive that as park the bus and hope for the best. How is Pepe still doing that at his age? I couldn't believe it when they said he was 41. I thought he was about 37.

Putting Mike Dean as a co-commentator for this is absolutely pathetic by the way. It just proves how desperate they are to have the officials create talking points.

I can't take it anymore!!! Even landed a fucking 3/1 that won 1-5!

The only thing I think now going in our favour is that we look absolutely shagged, knackered and we now don't play a league game for three weeks, although this will probably mean that Leeds do end up going top, which is a mental blow. Basically what I mean is I think there's a chance this was our real slump and we may revert to being better again from April, with a bit of rest in the legs and players returning from injury. Was a strange game. It wasn't as bad as some of the others in isolation but I don't really think it's a result we could afford given some of the points we've dropped of late. 4 points in 5 games is a woeful return at any point in a season with this squad. Maresca's inexperience is definitely starting to show. He really doesn't seem to have a lot beyond this one system which is a hybrid of what Man City played last season. He's even reluctant to make subs in games which given our obvious tiredness is a red flag. I think he's thrown too many of his eggs in this one basket. I think I'm currently witnessing the worst run of refereeing I've ever seen. I don't think a single referee in our last five games could possibly score above 3/10. It's genuinely extraordinary.

Yeah that's fine.

We will actually know by the time our game kicks off as Leeds are the Friday night game and Ipswich are the half 12. Hull aren't actually all that great at home. They don't score many or win many there. They're better away. We very rarely draw but this feels probably one of the likelier games to go that way of ours.

I was speaking to a pro gambler about this and he has said if you do singles it is worth looking into things like this, even for things such as -0.5 Asian Handicap (which is literally the same as a win market), the odds are often different. Bet365 is quite good at leading you down the road of accumulators with the way they've given two goal payout and acca boost. SkyBet have taken Accafreeze off me after they've clocked I was gaming it although I don't really see how I broke any rules either. Made £430ish from doing it though. Might have to sign my sister up for another round.

WEEK 31 STATS Winning bets: 1 / 6 Winning selections: 5 / 11 Weekly forum position: -£40.50 (23/31) --- OVERALL STATS Winning bets: 52 / 204 Winning selections: 177 / 386 Total forum position: -£359.64

Longish shot again.

I'm not confident. They're not a bad side but we've looked well off it lately. The last two performances were woeful on the whole (despite winning at Sunderland) and I think Maresca has lost his nerve somewhat particularly with how much he trusts our squad to effectively rotate. We look shattered to me. Sunderland were toothless and didn't make us pay but Hull are a better side, albeit, they don't actually win loads at home. I'll say a rare draw. 1-1.

I think what's so depressing, and I'm sure you can relate to this, is just how much yet another non-football intervention is dominating the game. If it isn't VAR, it's FFP. If it isn't FFP, it's PSR. And so on. This is not to say Everton and Leicester don't deserve some comeuppance for what's been done. I could write a hell of a lot of detail about the things we've gotten wrong in the last 5 years. But how bad a spectacle is football truly becoming now. Goals decided in a studio. Relegation decided in the courtroom. It's absolute joyless rubbish.

Going to give the table an update tomorrow - let it slip a bit, had quite a bit on.

Tell you what though it's some going to do what we've done we've landed the worst of both worlds. Cut back enough to get ourselves relegated but ended up breaking the rules anyway. Not sacking Rodgers months, hell even a year or so beforehand truly one of the most costly decisions a club has made.

This is the crux of it for me. It's just starting to render the whole thing pointless. I think we've been stupid with some of our contracts and whatnot but it's become clear, as much as people have pretended otherwise for years that the rules have been brought in to protect a certain hierarchy within the game. I mean you only have to remember that a few clubs tried to bring down the existing structure and completely got away with it. They're more powerful than the authorities. The negotiations were on the terms of those clubs - not the governing bodies.

I hold both views here that our board / DoF are totally inept and that much was clear last season, but also think that it's abundantly obvious these rules aren't fit for purpose.

I'm increasingly thinking Maresca's quite negative and it's starting to rub off. I don't get how he can watch us absolutely batter them for 15/20 minutes, spurn two hilarious chances, get the lead anyway and think the answer is just to try and eek it out rather than exert our dominance. Keep pressing, get that 2nd and maybe 3rd. Get the likes of Dewsbury-Hall off and rested for a tough one Saturday. His instincts are really starting to concern me a bit. I know we won but I thought that was a really bad managerial display. It was a really bad performance, largely through our own doing, entirely attitude / mentality related. We got away with it in a game against a side as vulnerable as it gets. He's a genuinely good coach but he needs to seriously develop a ruthless streak if he wants to get to the top. I don't think our slump is over by any means. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm happy to take the win to end the bad run and I think we are approaching the territory of the season where just wins by any way necessary are needed, but I can't pretend I'm not concerned by that second half. We were so much better than them in the first half an hour and should've had it won by then, but we seem to either just lose confidence or massively tire, because they were all over us for most of the second half. I really think our lack of rotation, or ability to do it effectively is starting to hurt us. I think Casadei is a bigger loss in this regard than people want to admit.

It feels like a monthly occurrence. Didn't happen this time but it could've. Sheffield United are the biggest waste of space ever in this league.

Just win. I'm getting very scared.

Going to be remarkable seeing what method Southgate invents fudging having this squad at his disposal. Genuinely think England have a fantastic chance.

Luton have all the hallmarks of just falling short. They've given a very good account of themselves but they have that really unfortunate knack of playing well against the good sides but narrowly losing, and then flunking it in the games they're expected to actually do something. I mean they managed the seemingly impossible of losing at home to Burnley & Sheffield United. Everton are just un-relegatable and Forest's luck knows no bounds either. I think even if Forest get docked some points they'll spawn their way out of it again. They're in trouble next year though.