Mark Albrighton

Yeah true, I only saw that afterwards. Ok revised message - Best of luck Derby supporters, law of averages and all that...

Just a quick note to acknowledge Richard O’Kelly’s involvement in the campaign. Understandably Dean Smith and John Terry will receive more attention, during both the good times and the bad. But he’s clearly someone whose opinion is highly regarded by Smith and it appears he’s quietly gone about his job getting us to where we are today.

In fairness, having looked there are a number of Bournemouth supporters who don’t seem to mind. If it was one of our players wearing his loan club shirt around Birmingham....well I don’t think it would bother me, but I’m not surprised some don’t like it. Weren’t Southampton fans annoyed with Van Dijk for modelling a Liverpool shirt at Christmas before he signed? Similar sort of thing. Tyrone appears pretty savvy so he would know it might wind up a few people. Having said that, it wouldn’t surprise me if this was a bet he made with one of the players or something like that. Anyway it’s not an issue, so Gary Gardner if you want wear your small heath shirt in your spare time, it won’t bother me.

@Vive_La_Villa installed as 5/4 current favourite to start next season’s relegation thread

To think this was how we started life in the championship.

Just a note to wish any Derby supporters reading this all the best for next season. Us losing last season’s final was a blessing in disguise, every chance you could be there again.

Crazy when you consider how bleak things looked less than a year ago, the club staring into the abyss. Billionaire owners who, along with a clued up CEO, appear to know what they’re doing. A winning run that surpassed anything that’s gone before; some stunning out of the blue wins; some frankly bizarre games (the home games against Forest, Sheff Utd) two derby day wins, both of which will be remembered for years to come; multiple contenders for goal of the season - all culminating in a determined win at Wembley having dispatched the Baggies along the way for good measure. And this taking place under the management of a Villa supporter and the side being captained by a Villa supporter. That in itself is pretty notable. There’s probably a load of things I’ve not included there (The Cabbage for one), but taking it all into account, since supporting them from the early 90’s, for me there aren’t too many seasons that can really compete with this one.

Ha no not to a great extent, only if there is a game that I’m interested in that’s not our own. I watch our highlights that the club put out, much better than MOTD or quest.

Oh...Match of the Day. I knew there would be a downside.

Yep, I didn’t think we could surpass N’Zogbia but on balance I’d say we managed it here.

Watched it at the clifden, plenty of drink consumed. As for after the game, my memory is a bit sketchy.

About 1:35 in to give it the full context -

Tyrone, just.....just take me in your arms and hold me.

Season over.

Already over double the amount of pages in this pre match thread than there was for last year’s final. The nervous anticipation is much stronger this year, perhaps.

I think it does, but I’m wondering (in my layman way) whether there were a high proportion of would be brexiters who didn’t vote because “we shouldn't even be involved in these elections” or some similar view.

A quick summing up of the ins and outs of it. If this is correct (and having quickly looked around, initially it seems to be), the person who should have felt most hard done by is David Whitaker.

Everyone to carry a copy of Paul McGrath’s autobiography with a single rose inside, like Meg Ryan patiently waiting for her blind date in “You’ve got mail”. You should take the opportunity to meet up if you can chaps, it would be the cherry on top of what will (hopefully) be a great day*. I would love to myself, but frankly me making the game was never an option. Have a good one fellas.** * **** me, I really hope it is a great day. ** **** me, I really hope you have a good one.

Nope, no chance. I think I could name and maybe hum about six or seven songs from the entire history of Eurovision. Off the top of my head - Waterloo, Puppet on a string, Boom bang a bang, Save your kisses for me, Making your mind up, Congratulations and Gina G’s Ooh Aah....just a little bit. Maybe there’s one or two more that I know but don’t realise, but that’s about it. And I’m not sure I know much of the tune for either puppet on a string or boom bang a bang.

Although my knowledge of this show is very much based on this thread, my mates WhatsApp chat about the show and just general cultural osmosis, this seemingly 100% genuine pitch meeting appears to cover and answer a lot of the criticisms of the past six episodes.