Pembers

Went to get tested today here in New Zealand. Me and partner have been symptom free since we got here but picked up a mate today and he had a cough so thought we'd all get checked out. 3 hour queue for the drive through but we overheard a worker say there was no queue for the walk in so we ditched the car and were seen to in 20 minutes. Filled out a form and had a chat with the nurses and they said we weren't going to get the test because supplies and time are low and they're reserving it for the people who are showing multiple symptoms which is fair enough, they assured us that we were all most likely fine. Some people were getting pretty irate at queuing for 3 hours to not get tested. The nurse in charge mentioned that we should come back next week if we developed symptoms but added that would only be if the testing station was actually still there next week as the virus could be spread all over by then and they'd have closed it down. There's only around 60 confirmed cases over here but I saw at least 100 people at this one testing station the 20 mins I was there so I'd imagine the actual number is much, much higher than 60.

I know how you feel, I've flown out to New Zealand for a mates wedding. My week here so far has consisted of sitting in a room self isolating and i've had to cut the whole trip short to fly back home the day after the wedding out of fear of getting stuck out here. I'm really not keen on spending a day in a room with a load of strangers who could be infected but obviously don't want to let my mate down and leave. Plus i've spent so much money on this thing now with cancelled and re-booked flights, hotel etc I feel like I have to stay for the wedding to try and make the whole thing at least somewhat worthwhile.

I'm flying to New Zealand and back in March with China Southern which includes a short layover in Guangzhou each way, i'm guessing I should start thinking about getting those flights cancelled and booking new ones

The beta for this is out now if you pre-order!

Enda Stevens assisted Callum Robinson today for Sheff Utd against Chelsea, Robinson got an assist too

New Zealand now has an official Lions Club https://www.avfc.co.uk/the-pride/Lions-Club/Clubs/New-Zealand-villa The Facebook group Aston Villa New Zealand is also quite active and is where the official Lions Club has come from so it's worth joining if you're a villa fan on this side of the world

He has, his son was on the bench for Crewe last night.

Not sure but i'd agree with Monsieur H and say he'd be 18/19. I play for Te Aroha COBRAS in Waikato division 1. A few tiers below the Melville first team but they have a side in our division that's normally quite strong in comparison to the rest of the teams, so judging by Searle's age and ability I'd say it's likely he's played in that team and I've come up against him sometime in the last few years. I've never scored against Melville so if I have faced him he's done a decent job

He's signed from semi pro club Melville United just down the road from me here in NZ, he was on trial at villa for a couple of weeks and apparently impressed. The club say they forego any development fee for him to help him get the contract. I don't know much about him but he was their reserve team keeper and first team backup, I assume he wasn't first team keeper due to age rather than ability. I play in the same league as one of their reserve sides so may even have come up against him at some point!

Apparently sky bet have us down as favourites to sign Ulloa according to Bham Mail. Odds are 5/1 though so probably nothing in it really.

Does he play upfront?

No, he said he took the photo purely because the guy looked like he might be a footballer and wasn't sat near anyone!

Guessing the full back is De Laet? If he really does mean 'world class' striker then i'd imagine it wouldn't be someone we're linked to like Bamford or Wells.

Before my time so never saw him play but have always known the name and understood what a great player he was for the club in the past, and of course i've always known him for that goal. RIP.

Oops! I'll be more than happy if he keeps this up and makes me eat my words!

Chester is available to play tomorrow according to Wyness on Twitter.

Thought he did ok in the first half then fell apart in the second along with the rest of the team. I think we should be playing with three in the middle, we've seen tonight and against Wednesday that we don't have two midfielders who are good enough to boss the midfield between the two of them.

Hutton confirming tonight the need for a new RB. He's so bad i'd actually prefer Richards to play RB over him

Did he really score 20 goals in the Championship for Blackburn? Are we sure they didn't just make that up?

Substitutions ruined the match, they didn't need to be made. Gestede is useless, Hutton is terrible and moving Richards to CB was not a good idea, at least at RB theres less chance of him making an error that leads to a goal. Can't for the life of me figure out why he would make those changes.