Rage Online

If you have spare tesco clubcard points around, you can use these for NowTV too.

I’ve used this to get my free pass- thanks Ty!

I've signed up for the NowTV £25 two month offer, and taken the boost for the HD picture (£3 a month).
I figured that there will be enough football coming up to merit it. Might need to get a LazyBoy recliner to watch all of this though.
I only signed up during the Northampton Cheltenham game, it took a couple of attempts and restarts to register and get the app working on the tv. It did feel a bit strange watching it without any crowd. At one point they had a cardboard cut out close up and pointed out Shaquille O'Neal, with Kelvin Thomas "sat" next to him. At the final whistle the picture went a bit blotchy and pixellated, but otherwise was OK.
Anyway, looks like Cheltenham will be through as they won the away leg 2-0.

In a remarkably serendipitous move, the Welsh Government have indicated they’ll be relaxing travel restrictions on Monday 6 July, meaning I can travel more than five miles from my house on the day of our second playoff leg. So I can drive to Oxford, visit family and listen to proceedings on Radio Oxford! I can only assume Mark Drakeford is a secret Yellow.

Hear me chat about Oxford in the Ringing The Blues WWFC podcast, 50 mins in, here:

https://anchor.fm/phil-catchpole/episod ... /a-a2hnu3i

Do we have the all-clear for the Pompy game yet?

I'm nervous....

If anyone needs it, you can hear the game on TalkSport2.

Stuck at work. Is anywhere showing highlights?

Well I wasn’t at the game yesterday, Jerome, because of bloody social distancing measures, but I listened to your commentary and I thought it was a flippin’ good result...

Very happy with that. Both sides looked rusty, but us particularly in the first 20 minutes, and I thought Portsmouth had a greater physical presence. But to come back to our place with the scores level sets things up nicely. I believe I’m right in saying that Portsmouth have never won an away tie in the playoffs, and whilst you can overstate historic data, that will surely play on their minds a bit.

All being well, lockdown rules in Wales will be relaxed on Monday and I’ll be able to drive to Oxfordshire to listen to the game properly rather than down a ‘phone line!

Kairdiff Exile wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 8:17 am Well I wasn’t at the game yesterday, Jerome, because of bloody social distancing measures, but I listened to your commentary and I thought it was a flippin’ good result...

Very happy with that. Both sides looked rusty, but us particularly in the first 20 minutes, and I thought Portsmouth had a greater physical presence. But to come back to our place with the scores level sets things up nicely. I believe I’m right in saying that Portsmouth have never won an away tie in the playoffs, and whilst you can overstate historic data, that will surely play on their minds a bit.

All being well, lockdown rules in Wales will be relaxed on Monday and I’ll be able to drive to Oxfordshire to listen to the game properly rather than down a ‘phone line!

Or simply tune into Talksport 2.

Dr Bob wrote: ↑Sat Jul 04, 2020 10:12 am Or simply tune into Talksport 2.

Pfft, away with you and this talk of commercial radio! I’m combining the trip with a long-awaited, socially-distanced family visit, I should probably clarify!

I’ve now had some time to digest what I saw yesterday.

I still can’t get over how poor we were in the first 35 minutes. My initial issue was with how bad Long was, they targeted him out right that’s where they got they got their goal from.

However, in retrospect my anger is absolutely at the feet of Ben Woodburn. Our system means that the fullback go forward and need cover, and Woodburn provided no cover at all for Long, wandering about in the no mans land between the strikers and midfield.

Playing with Woodburn was like playing with a man down. Sykes made a huge difference when he came on.

Spot on about Woodburn. I couldn't believe he was in the starting line-up, and he might as well not have been. Sykes did more with his first touch than Woodburn had done in 55 minutes. I was surprised he wasn't subbed before half time. It reminded me of his performances earlier in the season, with a bit of extra lack of fitness thrown in. The blame should rest with Robbo for selecting him though rather than the lad himself.

I think you're a bit harsh with the rest of it though. We were second best for the first 15-20 minutes (certainly not 35 - we were well on top by then), but it was the first game of competitive football either side had played for months. In the circumstances I thought the intensity and fitness was pretty good. Long had a bit of a torrid time at the start, but he was up against far and away Pompey's most dangerous player and had no protection at all. I thought he grew into the game really well and made some really important headed clearances later on.

Pompey thought they should have had three penalties - I think the handball was the only clear cut one. And the last shout when Curtis went down at the end was an embarrassing dive. He should have been booked for that and for gobbing off about it too, like Madden was for Fleetwood.

We were the better footballing side for decent periods, but we created precious few clear-cut chances. Browne won't score from that far out regularly (though he played really well). It was a shame we never got the ball to Agyei after he came on, and that Mackie came on before him. We settled for the draw early. I hope we're practising penalties. And that CamBran is fit - the midfield melted away a bit without him. I don't mind Forde in a kind of James Henry role, but he doesn't strike me as a central midfielder for a dogfight.

Fair points KY.

I thought the CB pairing were both excellent and I’d have chosen Moore over Dickie for MoM.

I hope we come out the blocks a little keener on Monday. And then hopefully Mosh and Mackie can renew their on pitch ‘relationship’ with the Beast, on the biggest of stages...