The Lower League Thread

Town v Leeds moved AGAIN. So that's five times the time or date has changed. From Saturday to Sunday to Monday back to Sunday and now slightly earlier on Sunday. Bugger off, Football League and bugger off, Sky.

Tricky one - 3 forced subs through more injuries, including Gayle after he got goal 20, and Anita after he was already been subbed on following an injury to Hayden, then Gouffran limping to the end, and against a team that like pressing and sounded like they played very well. But given this recent slump, that could be a very important result in the long run.

Yeah it does seem slightly mental how much authority they get to fuck around the lower league schedule. This weekend was bad enough - Reading v QPR on the Thursday, Leeds v Derby last night, and would've had our game on Monday had we not required a replay in the FA Cup, which duly lead to a re-rescheduling only a week ago after a lot of people had already booked travel and hotels.

It does feel as though they have more of a fixture-wrecking authority than normal this season. And they sounded bad enough before.

Wonder if people will praise Rafa for his tactics today after the injuries seen as he's been receiving an absolute hammering from people that apparently know a lot more?

Bristol City away on a Friday night, too. Which is a charmer of an away day. On one hand, they provide a crucial revenue stream. On the other, it's not fair on the fans and the clubs the way they dick around with fixtures. We play on Sky twice in a week soon - Brighton on a Thursday night then Leeds on the Sunday. Two fewer recovery days than Leeds, who play on the Tuesday. You can't tell me that doesn't hand an on-pitch advantage to one of our play-off rivals.

Certainly, there's a huge onus on it at this level, and for a lot of clubs that don't have PL-era revenue streams or big brand identities from the past (Leeds, Forest, maybe Wolves), its a necessary evil. But I thought it was bad enough in the Premier League with their over-the-top fixture meddling - it feels like up there clubs have to put up with less bollocks like the 10 in 10 thing that now features before Christmas or re-arranging things at seemingly a moment's notice.

The slightly scary thing is that it makes you sympathetic to a point of view by Cellino at Leeds. That big protestation before a match last season when Sky were locked out until the final 3 hours before kick-off did touch on this point and may well have struck a chord with a lot of people on this issue.

I'm very rarely sympathetic to anything he does. On this occasion, though, I agreed with him. Not normally an issue for us when we're pootling around lower mid-table, but we're going to have at least 7 on telly this season. Norwich away on a Friday night and Bristol City away on a Friday night take the mick for fans - I'm not saying we'd have taken huge numbers to either (1,000 to Norwich, perhaps, and maybe slightly more to Bristol), but it does hit numbers. I doubt we'll manage to get 700 down to Bristol now. At least Brighton's game up here was a Tuesday in the first place so people from there would have struggled due to the fixture list anyway, for what little it's worth. Always worse for the 'glamour' clubs, too. You coming here on a Saturday evening isn't so bad, but I'm sure you'll be able to think of half-a-dozen examples of inconvenienced fans this season.

Until just now, the big inconvenience for NUFC fans looked like the Brentford away farce when it got pissed around with under one week's notice. But the EFL & Sky have a bigger joker. I could accept the fact the team's Brighton away trip was going to be on a Tuesday due to the original game being scheduled for FA Cup 4th Round weekend, but seemingly at Sky's insistence, its been put on the day that FA Cup 5th Round replays would be held, which would mean another rescheduling with 10 days notice if either team required a 5th Round replay. On top of that, if it stays on that day, its then followed up by trips to Huddersfield and Reading, which means way over 1,000 miles of travelling for someone going to all 3. I can see why the club wanted a different date, which makes it annoying both Brighton and the EFL said no.

We're probably not even the worst example in the last few years either. Monday night games really always come across as a pain in the arse.

Routine-ish by the sounds of things, even if Darlow nearly made things more eventful by setting up his own wondersave, and then getting taken out by his own team-mate.

Although Reading losing and Leeds (currently) losing helps make it a rosy day.

Excellent way of skating over the fact he should have been off for a blatant professional foul in the same incident

It'd have only got rescinded as we're the Biggest Team in the Championship™ so it'd be silly to send him off.

I really wish we'd buy Knockaert as well as Townsend and McCarthy - purely for the meltdown on Twitter about parachute payments that nobody understands and how its unfair that we're allowed to spend money that we make fairly.

Knockaert would be a quality signing for Newcastle.

"So it shouldn't have been a red card?"

"Nope."

"So the ban's overturned?"

"Nope."

"But you just said that he shouldn't have been sent off?"

"Yeah, well. Fuck you."

Wolves keeper ban cut and not overturned - despite the fact it shouldn't have been a red card.

Feel like in the summer Villa will sign Chris Martin for £8m, Rhodes to Derby for £9m and McCormack to Forrest for £6m. None of the clubs will be improved any.

Huddersfield, Brighton and Leeds the three outstanding Championship teams seem to have avoided this trap.


Looks increasingly like Townsend is coming back. Which is good.

Bristol City signing Bristol Rovers best player