forameus

I wholeheartedly don't endorse them, as ours would undoubtedly be shite.

I remember turning to my pal (in the Welsh end, he was living in Cardiff at the time) and saying "they're celebrating this like they've w..." but not getting to finish the sentence as Bale punted in the winner. Cue some of the missing link looking c***s that were sitting in front of us leaping from their seats to physically attack the one Scottish fan who had tried to give them a square go at our opener. Fucking brilliant weekend after the game though.

Much as I'd love to put Wales out, that tie gives me the fear. I still remember that miserable pair of games last time we had them in qualifying. There's no-one in that list I'd be otherwise really worried about. All have the potential to take the piss out of us, but we can beat all of them too. So, so important to get that seeded spot.

They might be if BBC showed English games. They don't. ITV do.

I felt a tiny bit sorry for Black that night. Levein was in full-on f**k you mode, and it seemed like he was being tossed out to inevitable boos just so Levein could prove how little he cared what people thought. Now that can be a good thing if we're talking about a risky pick that comes good, but Black was never going to get that.

As loathe as I am to agree with them, it's more the "scudding" part that isn't necessary. Ultimately it probably won't matter whether we win 1-0 against Moldova or 10-0, as the goal difference won't count towards the 2nd placed table. We obviously need the points, but not the big win. It's the Faroes we really need to rack up goals against, as they will almost certainly finish 5th barring a big turnaround. EDIT: Although to be honest, it would be nice to set the team out to give Moldova that scudding, even if it isn't strictly necessary. Adams/Nisbet getting a few, Dykes too, could do wonders for confidence going into the games that really matter. And who knows, maybe Nisbet gets a hat-trick against Moldova, and then that confidence leads to him pulling out something crazy against Denmark, and that leads to us getting a seeded spot.

Just seems like trying to point-score. Can only speak for where I was, but didn't see any kind of covid checks. Problem was likely the same as it was in the Moldova game. People arriving pished up and not being able to work their own QR codes. The way they're presented in the mails could be a million times better, but it was pretty smooth when I get in (think we were about 30 minutes before kick off, expecting issues)

Aye, but I think he then went into the press conference and talked about it, saying that people probably thought he was too thick to work something out so clever. Think he was then promptly banned.

Very true. We can secure second place completely disregarding the Denmark game, but it could end up coming down to that one to determine seeding. And we really want to be seeded. That would obviously mean an easier semi-final, but also playing at Hampden. At the moment (and obviously a caveat on that, because it can wildly change, including us not being there) a seeded spot would be a one-off at Hampden against Austria, Wales, North Macedonia, Norway, Ukraine or the Czech Republic. Unseeded would be away to Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland or Albania. A point in that final match could make all the difference, but it could end up coming down to just avoiding a heavy defeat. We're sitting on +4 at the moment, noticeably better than the lower sides, but 2 or 3-0 could change things.

So expecting us to win against a side pretty much around our level is a horrific crime, but not expecting a team like Denmark - who took the piss out of us the last time we played them, and are clearly better - to beat us is...fine?

If we do beat Israel on Saturday, this needs to be targeted as the one to not just win, but win handsomely. Moldova are going to finish bottom, so all results against them are going to get stricken from the record for the playoff seedings. A 1-0 against them would do, but improving our goal difference against the Faroes is incredibly important, especially given that Denmark could give us an absolute hiding in the final game.

The checks at the stadium are giving me the fear too, but more because my spare ticket has now gone to a pal who plans to drive over to Hampden (with me) as he needs to get away sharp. So I suspect we'll be later than I wanted to be getting to the stadium, right around the time that all the people who really struggle with this kind of stuff will also arrive. After all, the QR code stuff itself wasn't the problem for the Moldova game, it was the people who had no fucking idea what they were doing whilst standing in front of the turnstiles that was. Most won't have an issue and will breeze through easy, but only takes a few to completely gum up the works. On that note, if someone's aiming to arrive around the Hampden area around 4pm on Saturday, where should I tell him to aim for to park? suspect it'll need to be a fair distance given it's just an hour before but having never done the drive over, no idea myself.

They repeatedly got it wrong. It was always a 5pm kick off, but I think when it was announced they got it wrong in all their communications, and then you're absolutely correct that they got it wrong after the Moldova game. Don't think it was ever a 7:45, just SFA SFA-ing.

If I'm going to have to travel to one of them, I'd probably rather it was the Principality. I've done gigs and games at Wembley and it's all very impressive inside, great stadium, but f**k me is it a horrorshow to get to and particularly get out of. Also an absolute shitehole around it. Cardiff on the other hand is absolutely lovely, stadium right in the centre, pubs all around, and is just as good a stadium if not better than Wembley. No brainer really, particularly with the roof. Now watch them announce it taking place in the Durex Vibemaster Arena in fucking Delaware or something.

I think that show serves as the prime example of several things that are wrong with WWE. Generally it was a solid show, a standard B-show PPV where they put on a series of solid-to-good matches to move things along. But it's rarely more than that these days, and genuinely feels like although the wrestlers are often giving it their all, the writers and producers and people telling the wrestlers what to do just can't be arsed. Nonsensical bookings, weird segments, things just left hanging there. It's poor stuff. No better example than that main event. Finally you get to an Extreme Rules match (and it's fucking ludicrous that they continue to use these stipulation-based PPVs, and only have one match of that type) and it's a pretty decent one, and then...whatever the f**k that ending was. From Balor gyrating on the floor like a dying fish, to soundtracking a beatdown, to him standing there clearly waiting for the rope to get cut. And...why? In the olden days you'd probably say they'd explain it tonight on RAW, but will they f**k (although if they cut to Brock with Beefcake's shears and he cuts an "it was me, Finn' promo, all's forgiven). EDIT: Oh, and in that hilarity I almost forgot one of the other more tone-deaf moments with Reigns (the undisputed heel) being such an asshole that he put on a mask to go into the crowd. I mean, can you imagine. What a c**t.

Weird about the haptics. Maybe I'm just expecting more, but I'll take a look into the settings and see if anything's gone wrong. The controller needs an update too which I usually just ignore, so maybe that'll help. I did Hard on the PS4 and it was weirdly balanced. Fairly easy in parts, but certain parts were an absolute nightmare. Main difference seems to be wear on materials and stamina. I've just done the trip to the Wind Farm and couldn't do the trip back as he was completely wiped out. Sense I'm going to have a bad time later on. I always intended the unconnected part. I know what they're trying to do with it, it's a nice idea, but I always found that once you connected a region you got structures placed in perfect locations and you never really needed to do anything yourself. Really useful at times if you're stuck out there and some kind soul has built something, but you often don't really need to think about routes, just use that 8million like bridge someone built.

It's just fucking beautiful isn't it? It wasn't exactly bad looking on PS4 but the framerate upgrade really helps. Not sold on the haptic stuff though...are you finding it not really noticeable outside of a wee bit of stuff with whatever surface you're on? Bit disappointing if that's it the way it was talked up. Outside of that though, it's still an absolute masterpiece. I'd encourage anyone with a PS5 to give it a go. They've definitely made some steps to cut down a bit of the grind with the extra kit they've added (which I'll try and avoid). Currently about 8 hours into a completely fresh run on the new Very hard setting, with the PS5 completely disconnected from the network. No other people's structures, no help, just my own stuff to build. It's brilliant.

I've got them set up in the house, as f**k knows how the guy who built the house did it. Weird dead spots, certain walls fine for signal passing through, others struggling. I set up the ORBI one that gives you ethernet ports on it, one through the wall in the big living room (inches away from the router, but through the mystery wall), one upstairs then one where the desktop's set up so we don't need to rely on the wifi. Gets a decent signal wherever you are, decently portable so you can set it up where you need it, and lets you hardwire it if you need to.

A draw isn't a brilliant result for either team, but it's a significantly better one for Israel than it is for us.

I wouldn't go that far. Wave enough money under FIFA noses and I don't think it'd matter if they had lined up Infantino and co and executed them. If we were talking about a sane process, then you'd be right though. In any non-mental, non-bribey world, those scenes should have blocked them from ever hosting anything again.

Just your standard Extreme Rules PPV on Sunday. THEONENIGHTWHEREWWEGOESEXTREME!!!!! currently has...one match announced with any kind of stipulation, and even that is just going by wiki and I haven't seen it actually announced anywhere. I mean, when they really took the piss with TLC and had individual matches (and staaaaairs!) it was shite, but it's like they're not even trying now.

It's not even so much money at this point, but also the time. With the repeatable SBCs they've got out in 21 now, there's people saying they've done them hundreds of times. And no exaggeration, there's ways to check exactly, and there's people happily admitting they did the same SBC over 300 times in order to get a card for a game that's obsolete in a couple of weeks. It's just...sad. It's like looking into the bookies and seeing the same jakie sadly putting another coin into the puggie.

You've reminded me of a particularly spiteful snow section in Death Stranding. Won't go into the details (it would be baffling and sound fucking stupid) but you're without your main tool for sensing the game's enemies, and heading to a shack on a mountain to retrieve it. A storm is rolling in that just keeps getting worse as you climb higher. Towards the end of the section there is literally zero visibility as you're trying to pick your way through. Effective, but utterly miserable.

It's not just you. The focus of the game has definitely changed, and it's geared towards making sure it takes as much of your time as possible with busy work, while taking away or lessening the bits that were actually enjoyable. I know I'll probably cave at some point and buy it, but absolutely no plans to get it on release.

Just reading the recaps, it's very much a different show. Here's some guys that can't go just yet, they have an awkward match, we'll work on them. Guess in that case it makes sense to put the belt on someone like Ciampa who can use his experience to ultimately put someone over, but he'll go from having classics with Gargano and Adam Cole to...whatever the f**k Von Wagner is. Wargames is usually next up for NXT, be interesting to see if they still go ahead with that or sack it off.