you literally could, that was the point I made in the opening post.

Ok. So next season. Come November, we are 4th from bottom in a relegation scrap. We have a load of injuries. We draw Harrogate at home in the 1st round, who are 15th in league2. Going nowhere, as things stand. Not many injuries.

Harrogate want a replay if needed, we don't. So of course, we end up having to have the risk of having a reply.

I 'get' what you are saying but it wouldn't work mate! It would be a logistical nightmare...

[Make an FA Cup run a game changer like it was 30/40 years ago.]

The thing is, you cant have it both ways...

When we played Barrow, whilst I wanted us to win Id have taken the defeat over a bloody replay. The last thing we needed at the time was another midweek game. I didn't bother going to that game.

I would be more inclined to go to an FA Cup match if I knew there was definitely going to be a 'result'. I am sure there will be many more like me...

If I had it my way, Id scrap the league cup and the silly pizza cup. Then *perhaps* the FA Cup would regain its old magic. There's too many games. Even 'little clubs' like us don't take any of these games seriously...

The 'reward' to progress in the FA Cup needs to be 5 times what it is as well. Shift the £ over from another pot to pay for it. Its most certainly there. Certainly from Round3 onwards. Then the bigger clubs might regain an interest as well, because after all its all about £. If the chance of earning big big money (without just getting a lucky draw at Old Trafford) is there for league1/2/Non league teams to progress to round3 then they will field their strongest teams, attendances would be much bigger etc.

Make an FA Cup run a game changer like it was 30/40 years ago.

100% with you on this one - it's this we have an entitlement to a share of the spoils - we don't and never did have. Yes of course all fans would love all the profits (and more) to be directed to the football club but it's not an entitlement its for DB/KT to decide how they want to distribute such monies.

However I think we all agree that now we all agree KT/DB cannot back of their initial pledge.

The fact the East Stand is and will be moderate at best is down to DC and co and not them.

To be fair...and lets face it. Did the steel work put up actually ever get paid for? Bear in mind Buckingham's went bust as well.

So the 'extra' cost would involve just dismantling it. Im no construction expert, even less so than Beds (I certainly cant plaster!) - but this whole argument doesn't wash with me.

Yes they've inherited a partially built stand BUT they didn't pay for it. Like they wouldn't have paid for it if the East Stand hadn't been touched and it was like it was from 1994 - whenever it was.

The choice to do it 'on the cheap' if that happens (which I assume it will), will be purely down to the current owners. I aint gonna criticise them for that because if it was me, Id do the same. There simply isn't an ROI in it for them. However, what that stand ends up like will be on their watch. They've been our custodians now for 8-9 years.

Blaming DC for a sh1t stand 9 years after he's bolted is like the Tory's blaming the Labour party for fcuking up the NHS to its current extent.

As far as I know, KT/DB haven't had to spend anything on that stand and the fact that Buckinghams went t1ts up must have helped them somehow....surely?!

Pay £20 for Virgin m250 broadband, £29 for sky with multi room.

Diarise contract end dates and go on super haggling brinkmanship.

Do it for all bills and the way I see it the effort vs reward is well worth it.
Move bank accounts repeatedly as well for switch bonuses.

I once thought of a business that would be worth setting up.

Basically; you charge an annual fee of say £180 (paid monthly via standing order - so £15 per month) - and for that you would call all of the utility companies, TV, car insurance etc etc and renegotiate their deals on your clients behalf. Obviously you would have to have certain passwords/personal details etc.

I reckon you'd get 1000's of clients. Easy to market as well.

The only reason I didn't bother was because one of my biggest bugbears in life is calling these arseholes once a year to 'renegotiate' the rates so to do it for a living would finish me off! 

I could have employed people to do it but there's obvious a few complexities involved and Im too busy. But I reckon its a great idea - Id definitely pay someone 15-20quid a month to do mine for me!!!

https://www.blglobal.co.uk/Features.aspx?id=the-interview-nigel-le-quesne

Im surprised no ones posted this link. Interesting stuff....

An 'interesting' development for sure...

By the end of May we will know if its going to make any noticeable difference to our playing budget, which to be brutally honest is all I am bothered about (that and the bills being paid)! 

The intro on the website is all a lot of 'waffle' but then again, I don't expect them to hype it up for many reasons. Time will tell eh!

You do spout some top class bollocks. We beat Derby. We better than them are we? We beat Blackpool. We better than them? We beat Peterborough. We better than them? We beat Lincoln. We better than them? We lost to Fleetwood. They better than us?

When we finished fourth, are you saying Bristol Rovers were better than us because they finished with a better goal difference?

I stand by what I said, we are no better or worse than the majority of this division but on the whole things have gone our way this season. I'd say a fair reflection would have been about 18th but we know football isn't fair. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose when you don't deserve to. I can think of plenty of times this season when we've won and didn't deserve to. I cant think of a single game when the same can be said when we lost.

Wycombe (0-1), Wigan (1-2), Stevenage (0-1), Reading (0-1) off the top of head. Definitely didn't deserve to lose those games.

Mitigated of course by a lot of VERY late goals/winners.

In terms of things going our way, I cant think of a season in our history when we have suffered with so many injuries. Key players as well. We've also not had a single bit of a return from our most expensive player either. 3 different goalkeepers.

Its only been in the last few weeks where we have been able to field a settled and strong side, complimented with a good selection/choice of subs.

The one season I always recall when we were really really lucky was when Atkins took us to the play off final. The footballing Gods though well and truly evened that out the following season which to date, was the unluckiest season I can recall.

A first defeat in 17 which leaves them five points behind Oxford, each with three games to play. Tuesday night....Oxford v Lincoln! 

Oxford have themselves  "done a Lincoln" in winning their last three scoring 4, 4, and 5 in the process, conceding none.

Classic case of 'getting there' with the chase, and then fcuking it up as soon as they arrive!

Donny in league2 - 8 wins on the trot. Now that is an incredible run. They are now one win away from the play offs having been about 19th/20th a few weeks ago. Football eh!

Watched todays sh1t show on the i-player (which was equally as bad as the Cobblers in the 2nd half) - but there really isn't an edge these days is there? Win, lose or draw...

I think we've done alright since we effectively secured safety. Chesterfield have lost 6 of their last 12/13 games since they effectively secured promotion. Look at Leicester. When its done its done. Or in Leicesters case, it hasn't!

Today was dreadful. Typical team with something to play for versus mid table team. Next week should be different - we play another mid table team. Followed by a Barnsley team who probably wont have much to play for themselves.

Ref next season. We've got the nucleus of the squad already in place. No reason to believe that history will be repeated. Its been a pretty decent season overall and compared with other seasons at this level, one of the very best. Only Carr, Atkins and Gray seasons can arguably eclipse it.

That's in the last 50 plus years. FIFTY.

Lets beat Exeter and finish top half. That has to be our challenge now.

Well it looks like Lincoln should have kept their money in their pockets for the summer! 

Watched on the i-player - they were all crap!!

Balding

Agreed. The £ will of course just increase wages etc. However it should help us more so than many of our league1 rivals...

500,000 or whatever it is will make a much bigger difference to us than for many of the 'bigger' clubs that we are up against.

As for the kick off times, yeah case of wait and see. It might also help the non league game, given that on a fair few Saturdays EFL fans will be looking for something to do.

Absolutely....

Koiki for this 2nd half cameo capped with the best goal we've scored this season.

Before that, I thought up until he was subbed Fox had been our best overall best player and if it hadn't of been for Koiki's sensational goal Id have gone with Fox.

All I know is he he wasn't on any betting lists for the Charlton job. Not even 33/1 - 50/1 range. So on that basis Id say it was VERY unlikely! 

Pretty sure that they are/were aiming at completion around December this year...that was certainly the case a few weeks back.

So I suspect that if the diggers arrive in numbers very soon after the home season finishes (20th April our last home game) then there wouldn't be any need for reduced capacity next season..

Whatever our owners 'end game is' they wont want to delay anything now. Why the hell would they! I'm more interested in what they are going to do with the land 'designated for warehouses' and how that financially benefits the football club than the East Stand refit itself, which I think will be quite underwhelming.

We have finally reached the point now where KT's and DB's intentions will fully come out and we will know if Derek and his fellow Trust directors are wrong or will be proven right with their 'concerns'. And we can put an end to all the bullsh1t, once and for all. Just a few short weeks now to go thank Gord! 

The moon landings were 100% faked, totally impossible in 1969, the only people to release footage were NASA, yes the astronauts blasted into lower earth orbit the rest was faked, this lie will soon be exposed when privately owned satellites orbit the moon and take unedited pictures.

https://www.iflscience.com/52-percent-of-the-british-public-think-the-moon-landings-were-faked-claims-survey-36995

Next you will be trying to claim that 75% of Super Sam's goals were actually scored by a ringer. I ain't having any of it.

Its really hard to compare different era's as back in the 60's/70's/80's...even the 90's...it was much easier to come up with innovative tactics than it is these days. Everything now is so sterile and 'in line with budget' pretty much. You used to get many clubs going through the divisions or at least playing higher than their 'natural level', whatever that was at the time.

I took a random year - 1975 division1 table (I had no idea it was that year when Derby were champions so I wasn't trying to make us look good ha ha) - http://stats.football.co.uk/league_tables/1974_1975/first_division/index.shtml

Then compare that with the current top flight. Apart from Luton Town, every club is up there because they are either massive/pretty big or because they have been very well funded.

Sky and the 'premier league' changed everything. The gap financially now is so wide, and coupled with parachute payments it makes it almost impossible for a small club to really compete. IF Luton hadn't of gone up last season, they *might* have struggled financially big time given they were losing over 10 million a year without transfer fees being brought into the equation. They got lucky, winning on penalties. Fair play to them mind.

A glance across the 4 divisions shows that only Luton (prem) and Rotherham (championship) are 'at our kind of level' outside the bottom 2 divisions and its fair to say I amm basing that on support more than anything else. But (certainly in Lutons case) they are both bigger than us, but not by a margin that couldn't be closed if we were as successful as them. 

Across all 4 divisions I doubt theres any other club above us with a budget that is lower than ours. We are over achieving at the minute. Not by a massive amount, but we are certainly over achieving.

Only Carr and Atkins (in my time) could claim something similar. So Brady is without a doubt up there with them. When it comes to injuries, Atkins perhaps had the worst misfortune than any other one of our managers has had (even Brady!) the season we got relegated. Something like 13/14 ops if I recall? Which was really really unusual back in those times.

Atkins could also boast a signing almost as bad as Danny and financially on a par (certainly for the season he was here) - Paul Wilkinson! But given Danny has been here 2 years and hasn't scored a single goal...not even in pre-season when he even missed a couple of penalties...that takes some doing. It really couldn't of gone any worse. The sooner he fcuks orf the better. I wouldn't mind so much if he wasn't commentating for another team and celebrating a goal at the very point when we were losing 2-0 at Wycombe. Which in mind at least, shows he really doesn't give a sh1t!

Fox. Made my mind up ref a contract offer....he's injury prone but so classy. Worth the risk, 100%.

Most of those players, you'd expect to be roughly on what it says they are...but a couple of exceptions...

Ali Kioki - cant see us paying £2400 a week to him, we signed him as a trialist after he'd been released by Bristol Rovers.

The other one that stood out was Lee Burge. He's played for some big clubs, I reckon he'd be on more than £2000 a week and one of our to 3 or 4 earners...

Id also be very surprised if McWilliams isn't on a big more than what it says there!

Overall though, probably within 20% of what it is. Minus the loans/contributions etc that has already been highlighted.

What stood out was when I clicked on a few of the other teams, it always seemed to be the top 10 earners who were paid a big chunk more than ours; you get down the list and the lesser known players are all on similar wages at most of the clubs.

That does make sense. Obviously because they are the players that are in demand and you end up competeting with other clubs for. Very obvious I know, but it does highlight the difficulties a manager has at a club with a low end budget compared to other teams in the same division.