Fuctifano

Won my 2 games across 2 leagues by a combined margin of less than 3 points . No idea how my shitshow of a team is 5-4 in this league .

3rd analyst is Swann not Pietersen, the latter is on Channel 9 at the game, and they are in London so working nightshift. Never really rated Swann on TMS, he thinks he's some sort of hilarious comedian but he isn't really. Vaughan is a bit shock jock as well now though when he's not attention seeking he's good, and although a thought Ponting was a prize p***k as a player he's come across OK any time I've seen him on TV. Looks as if they did some masterclass thing at the interval as well but viewing figures must be in the dozens at that time of night.

just looked, also half 6 and 9pm

Australia vs SA the first Test to be shown live on BT sport, SA were 240/9 a few minutes ago. Watched a bit of it on my phone lying in my bed this morning and it’s got the same thing BT have on the CL games where you can zip straight to 4s, 6s, chances, and wickets which is handy. The pictures are just the usual channel 9 commentary but I believe the analysts in the studio are Ponting, Vaughan, and Pietersen (ego-tastic), I’d guess they’re out in Oz as well rather than making them get up in the middle of the night. If there’s a highlights programme tonight I might give it a watch.

Aye, stuff like that is second nature to me, it's why New York is one of the very few places I've been for 4 or 5 days and thought I didn't have time to do everything I wanted.

We're now booked up for this and I've had a skim through this thread. I've been but 8 years ago and she hasn't been before so I'm happy to do all the obvious tourist attractions, got a fairly rough plan formulated but don't want a military style itinerary. One of the things I didn't do last time was Madison Square Garden- the ice hockey is on when we're there rather than the basketball. I don't mind ice hockey but I'm not sure I like it to the tune of $150+ a ticket (and that's the non stubhub prices). I'm assuming that price won't come down closer to the time even if NY are out of the playoff running as there'll be thousands of other tourists waiting to buy. I'd probably prefer just to do the MSG tour on a non-gameday unless the hockey is amazing? Is the tour any good? Think the only other sporting venues I've toured were La Bombonera and Munich Olympic which were decent.

Gemmill is only picking players for the u21s who were born in 1996 or later to build towards the next qualifying campaign as we're already out of this one, so Lindsay is too old by that benchmark. Also couldn't really care less if our players get u21 caps or even full caps (obviously not Scotland but the likes of Dumbuya when fit), just means more times they're away and getting injured.

Sack the FM researcher imo. #statsrigging

Can you change it so lowest score wins?

Binged the whole of series XI over the weekend, and I was pretty impressed after Back to Earth and X. I think there were just enough nods to previous episodes e.g. polymorphs in the last one, even the prohibition one at the start had a vibe of the JFK one, without rehashing everything. Augurs well for XII given they were filmed at the same time, but it'll have been on the go for 30 years soon so not sure how much more they can wring out of it.

Barton makes a difference with the 3 at the back, we saw what a calamity it was last year at Tannadice with Frans, Seaborne, and Lindsay all of whom can only kick it the way they're facing. Also if Elliott or Booth get injured then I don't fancy it as much with Gordon as one of the wing backs. Wasn't there today but seems as if Saints played into it with 2 up front again, so every time we've played it has been against a front 2, which is ideal for a 3-5-2. I'm guessing Aberdeen will have Rooney up front with McGinn / Maddison / Hayes behind next week which will mean we don't get the extra man in midfield. Maybe better for the match thread but did Erskine / Amoo just go straight swap with Doolan and Azeez or was there a change when they came on?

Last two episodes have been poor after a promising first two. Couple of good lines but not much else. Main plus from tonight was Louise Stewart, don't ever remember her being that tidy in Burnistoun.

Amoo might find himself squeezed out this season if we persist with 3-5-2 as there's no room for out and out wingers, and there's no chance he's good enough defensively to play wing back and I don't think CF suits him either. Same goes for McDaid although it's hard to argue he's shown enough to date -for comparison he's a month younger than Lindsay -to be kept on even in his preferred position. Obviously this can change massively over the course of the season, we might all be crying out for Welsh to stay come April...

Dortmund is ok, folk go on about it like it's the outer hebrides but there's plenty of decent pubs . Düsseldorf does have far more nightlife tho , Dortmund is about 50 minutes on the train from there .

So for next year we've got Cerny Dumbuya Devine Lindsay Booth Osman Barton Azeez Erskine Lawless Doolan Scully, Bannigan,Nisbet. Good team for the championship, that. Only leaves the following at this stage out of contract of the ones over 19. Welsh Amoo Elliott Wilson Edwards McDaid Fraser Gordon Sign Christie up for life and sort the rest out nearer the end of the season.

Forgot he was out of contract as well.

Contract extension to be announced at 11. Lindsay or Elliott would be my guess , tho it could be Welsh . . .

Sun now saying it's confirmed Ansari & Finn in with Broad & Batty out.

It was said before they left England are going for a squad rotation policy over the 7 tests in a short space of time amongst the bowlers. Looks like it could be Ansari, Finn, and Ball, for Ballance, Broad, and Woakes for this one.

BBC'd that for you.

Was away for the Malta vs Scotland game when the draft was on, set my pre-draft rankings and picked "intelligent" rather than "blindly follow" and was auto drafted 4 QBs. 4 QBs. Not 2, not 3, 4. Traded my way out of that shitshow and then half my starters got injured so I basically now have Antonio Brown and a bunch of boom-or-bust guys. I've also got absolute bye week hell coming up in weeks 8 and 9. So no, not impressed.

Thought that was the weakest so far, hopefully the methadone mick character fades out of it after this, was OK for one episode but there's not going to be much else to him.

On googling, I had it in my head Paul Young (who plays Shug) had died but he's still going strong. edit: and in it tonight after not being in the first two!

Not sure Lawless is definitely out but not sure he's in our best team either. If Erskine is fit I'd only make one change- despite being muck we have very little option but to continue with Devine as Barton I think could play as a sweeper in a back 3 but not in a back 4 and Syme doesn't appear to be pushing to step up. Change would be Amoo in for Lawless, the limited times I've seen Amoo this season he's been OK. Could easily argue for Elliott in for Gordon or quite a lot of other changes as well.

Was there not someone else who was a minor but recurring character who died in the gap since the last series as well as Jake D'Arcy?