GP with Stewart Lee, and a superb Sly Dunbar tribute for the final 30
“If everyone just sits around having meetings all the time you end up like Jeremy Corbyn and Zara Sultana in Your Party having a series of endless meetings with very little forward motion.”
An album that excites and infuriates. The shorter, tighter pure soul songs such as Everyday People are perfection. And then the refreshments kick in with some of the over-stretched funk work outs. It still sounds like nothing else around at the time. Many have tried to follow in the same path, but failed to achieve what makes Stand! so brilliant but bonkers.
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I’ve struggled to get excited about the supposed rivalry between Forest and Palace. You can’t manufacture these mutual hatreds, just because you’ve got a crap Chairman who doesn’t understand how to open up his emails.
I think the rivalry said more about the provincial ambitions of Palace, than it does about where Forest plan to be in the next three to five years.
Having said that, I did find myself singing along to the Marinakis chants shortly after KO. I don’t think that the Big Fat Greek was actually in the ground. But that’s not the point.
It was a lively start from both teams. Brennan was a worry for the first ten minutes or so. He then seemed to sack off the rest of the match and looked an imposter to the player who sold on to Spurs for £50M. I’d rather have Ryan Yates, any day.
It was nice to see Hendo again, this time in goal for Palace. He served Forest under very testing circumstances. Making the ‘keeper your Captain tells you all you need to know about the situation Place currently find themselves in.
Elsewhere on the pitch, and Hughes was living up to his Pantomime villain persona. To be fair to the D***y reject, he’s done rather well for himself managing to earn a Premier League wedge on very limited talent.
Standing out for Forest in the first half was MGW. He saw his chance in the box and took it. We need more goals from midfield. Harry Hodge made a career out of this. With all the current Forest talk currently fixated on forwards, we tend to forget the value of a box to box goalscorer.
It was at this point that I started to obsessively refresh the BBC live PL table. Blimey - that looks a lot better. We’ll be in touching distance of Europe soon.
Oh hang on - Neco was in touching distance of the ball whilst defending the goal line. WHAT A SAVE! To be fair, it’s the one mistake that he has made wearing the Garibaldi Red. Backs against the wall time, fellas. The second half is going to be a HORRID watch.
Morato Time came about 45 minutes too early for my liking. I was also surprised with the appearance of Ndyoe, instead of, y’know, the two recognised strikers that we have on the bench. It makes me think that Lucca isn’t match fit, and poor old Taiwo can’t be exposed to any injury ahead of a possible shipping out in the morning.
And so what looked like a cruising to three home points after the first five minutes, then became a well-deserved point. It makes the Chelsea win over West Ham all the more important.
Never a dull day down at the World Famous.
This was the first home court match for the men this year. A big home crowd had gathered at the Essex Sports Arena for what was also a very poignant occasion for the Rebels.
One year ago today, the club came close to falling apart. Everyone within the organisation has done some amazing work to recover well after we lost young talents, all deeply part of the Rebs family.
We can never forget what we lost. There was a lovely tribute to the four young souls that were tragically taken a year ago today. The Rebs handled the whole situation with tremendous dignity and respect.
Right. Time for a basketball game; time to honour those missing with a positive team performance out on the court.
The men didn’t disappoint. Right from the opening tip off, Rebels shutdown Bristol at every opportunity. They seized the ball with regular turnovers, not even allowing the Flyers to put their shots up.
It was great to see the returning Ben Winters out on court after a winter sabbatical. He has a calm presence, as well as understanding the club inside out. Rebs led 29-11 at the first quarter.
It wasn’t only the commanding performance from the home team that was frustrating the Flyers. Decisions from the officials weren’t going their way. We’ll take those, thank you very much. Rebs had an impressive 56-25 lead at the buzzer.
The break also had more tributes, keeping the uplifting, positive feels. The Essex Blades dance team put on an impressive performance in memory of Eva, who is also missed. The dance was one that had been choreographed by the former dancer. The Blades were visibly emotional with the response they received.
Back on the court and the Rebels wanted more. There’s no coming back for any team when you trail 81-32 going into the final quarter.
A final scoreboard of 115-43 in favour of the Rebs shows the determination in this team to honour their friends.
JOB DONE.
Once a Rebel, always a Rebel.
To Broad Lane! …on Saturday afternoon. It’s been a while. Wivenhoe Town were at home to Long Melford. Nope, me neither.
What was more certain was me missing KO. You don’t say. A work shift finishing at 3pm meant that I wasn’t at the ground until 3:15pm. The Dragons were already one up. Blimey.
I had barely fiddled around with my camera lens before a second was added. Blink and you’ll miss it, etc. I certainly did. These goals are rare. Make the most of them whilst you can.
My usual photowalk around the ground followed. I was delayed further with some very friendly conversations. Non-league football is not about ruining your entire weekend; I’ll leave that to Forest. Friendships are more important here.
I reached the home dug out. Gosh - there’s Mo, the club all-rounder, coaching. I must have missed that announcement. It was good to see him back on the sideline. At 2-0 up, he was clearly doing a half decent job.
HT came. I caught up with R:
“Did you catch the two pens on camera?”
…he asked.
Hang on pens? TWO pens? I was late for the first goal. The second goal wasn’t a penalty was it? Oh. Crap Match Report ahoy!
Wivenhoe added a third goal soon after the break. It was a great team effort on the breakaway, with some calm finishing around the ‘keeper. 3-0, game done. It’s a long way back to Long Melford. I think.
Long Melford pulled back a consolation. I’ll let them have that. The young team had battled well, in what was starting to become something of a dirty game for both teams.
Wivenhoe looked like they could hang on, but an absolute worldie from down the wing led to a final nervy ten minutes. The equaliser came late, late in the game.
And so 3-0 up, to 3-3 at FT.
Non-league football remains bloody brilliant.
" I am determined and I am dogged. I don’t think my ability has got me as far as it should have. That’s my belief. I know my stuff is different. I know it’s not for everyone. But I would rather be different but I accept that being different in anything means a more circuitous route."
Wise words, via the Coffee Ponce of SW8.
Ha, bloody ha, etc.
Feb 4 is the midpoint of winter. Almost half-way home"
via Dave Winer
The Europa suits were on show again on Thursday evening at the World Famous. ‘cos that worked out well in Braga last time round… We’re not talking Liverpool Spice Boys. It was more Man at C&A. This felt like a Paul Smith wasted opportunity. But hey! This isn’t a fashion show. It’s Forest back on the European stage.
BBC radio Nottingham has the usual excellent pre-match build up. SHOUT OUT to our Man in Kazakhstan, who was interviewed ahead of KO having made the epic journey. I felt a bit of a fraud, sitting back home in Weird Wiv, waiting for Fletch on TNT. I was free all day to travel, and match day tickets were still available.
The team news landed. TWO Academy players starting, wearing the two stars on the badge. I like that. We should make more use of Zac Abbott. Finding somewhere for him to slot into a PL team is tricky.
Sir Colin of West Bridgford explained rather helpfully the odds of Forest progressing to the next round, and avoiding a play-off: 117,000-1. I Believe in Miracles, etc.
The game kicked off. Oh - we appear to be 1-0 up. It was a reverse Yates OG for the poor fella from Ferencvaros. I felt for him.
Another JESUS moment soon followed. At £16M he’s proving to be quite a steal. It would be SUCH a Forest thing to do if we sell him in the window before Monday evening.
With Fletch mooted, Sir Colin mentioned that by scoring a second goal, Forest had slipped from 10th in the League down to 12th. This was an evening for refreshing the BBC live table.
2-0 up and cruising. The main aim now was to try and rehabilitate McaTee into this team. Good luck…
Meanwhile, Ryan Yates was having the game of his life. Only a fool would write him off.
A second goal followed for Jesus. It was a shame he couldn’t hang around to complete a probable hat trick against what was a very poor Ferencvaros.
I had a bit of an OH SHIT moment when the penalty was awarded and MGW looked interested. Thankfully McaTee stepped up and completed the next stage of his rehab.
And so a play off place awaits. You’d be a very brave person to make a possible away trip to Panathinaikos. Betcha the Big Fat Greek won’t be holding back.
A wet Table of Dreams greeted us as we rocked up on Thursday lunchtime. I don’t think it was overnight rain, but dew instead. Once again we were playing under Tupperware style skies. When it’s grim here, it can be bloody grim.
This all meant for a very slippery table. The non-wind ball had little bounce and skidded whilst keeping low. If this was cricket then my delivery would be unplayable. But it wasn’t cricket. I was wiff waff. I lost 4-1.
An assault on your senses from start to finish. The beats are so fresh; the delivery matches the dictation of the drums. The first four tracks are perhaps the best opening four tracks on any album. No shit. Like all great artists, Run D.M.C managed to develop cartoon characters of themselves, whilst still sounding relevant. A nod and a wink, but all the while knowing that they have the balls to back it up. Outstanding.
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“Will they have a ceremony for the last domain to be turned off, kind of like the last Blockbuster was. Does anyone remember Blockbuster?”
via @davewiner
“We were joined by colleagues from government: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary Steve Reed, Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds, and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney.”
