GuyIncognito

17 hours ago, Adam said:

The standard of refereeing in the lower leagues is indeed appalling. I'd say on average I see about 2 good refereeing performances per season.

The name Trevor Kettle is somehow still striking fear into the hearts of lower league football fans

On 13/12/2021 at 13:59, King Ellis said:

@Lineklaus

When did this become a thing? I don't recall the beeb hyping up matches as first time events before like they're the WWE. Leicester Vs Randers! Never before, never again!

UEFA should have just gone with the triple threat main event rather than ousting Spurs from the competition entirely. Bad booking IMO.

The more challenges that the MCU takes on and nails, the more bizarre it gets how Disney completely dropped the ball with the latest Star Wars trilogy in terms of planning, execution etc.

NWH:

49 minutes ago, The Kraig said:

Honestly? My cinema showing was 11pm and the adult audience was packed and the reactions were appropriate and added to my experience. I recommend a late screening, it was very joyful but casual.

 

It'll be okay, there's definitely more than one thing that can be deemed a spoiler, so you've probably just heard a little bit of the plot.  

 

P.S. The trailer for Morbius looks top notch, it looks like a role perfect for Jared Leto. Very excited for it, which is odd, since I know virtually nothing about Morbius. We're getting into Marvel territory I never saw in the cartoons, comics or games.

P.P.S. Spider-Man was the last ever VHS tape I had. My mum reminded me of this fact today.

All my knowledge about Morbius is from the 90s cartoon, where he had the most ridiculous accent and had a lust for plaaaaasma that he somehow took from people using his hands. Always found it really odd when he featured in episodes.

As for No Way Home, for those who have seen it and not wishing to spoil the film for myself, I haven't seen the Raimi trilogy or the Amazing Spiderman films in an absolute age. Obviously I realise there's some crossover with the multiverse stuff, is it worth rewatching them first before No Way Home? Do they delve much into the content of those films beyond the characters themselves?

7 minutes ago, Colly said:

I'm planning to watch Shang Chi this weekend, but I'm still catching up with Falcon and Winter Soldier and Loki, should I finish those first at risk of having missed something? I suspect not, but the after credit scene of Black Widow with JLD threw me slightly.

Yup as far as I recall Shang Chi is pretty much standalone from the rest of the MCU for the most part, certainly no Loki or Falcon/Winter Soldier tie ins. 

10 hours ago, Chris2K said:

And India are out, which is hilarious given that the "coincidence" that that IPL was moved to the same grounds that the World Cup was due to be held at just one month before the tournament.

The swing from me absolutely loving the ramshackle, patched up makeshift India team that I stayed up to watch beat the Aussies in their own back to going back to despising the 'normal' India team is a huge one.

England v New Zealand in a 2019 repeat for the semi will be awesome. Still have a feeling Pakistan will beat us in the final. 

2 hours ago, Lineker said:

AFC Sudbury v Colchester is on BBC Two tonight.

We're gonna lose, lump money on Sudbury. I'm sticking £25 on em.

37 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

What's the Newcastle equivalent of give it Giggsy till end of season

Get Keegan back for another go. 

India hopefully out of the tournament after their mauling by New Zealand today. A NZ v England final would be the ideal outcome after the 2019 WC final, plenty of unfinished business there. Does seem like games are being won on the toss of a coin for the most part, bowling first seems like such a huge advantage, not ideal cricketing conditions granted. 

Not gonna touch the De Kock saga with a barge pole, it wouldn't be a proper Worpd Cup without a South African implosion at some stage. Still beggars belief they're there and Faf Du Plessis isn't 

Really fun episode that. Feel like the contestants are gelling really well and it's a good mix of folks. 

16 hours ago, Chris2K said:

Really happy New Zealand won the WTC, just a really well-balanced and constantly under-rated team who finally have a trophy to their name. 

Now if the ICC could just sort out the WTC scoring system to not make it quite so obvious they want a certain Asian country beginning with "I" to get to the final, that would be great.

 

@MadJackdammit, I specified Asian to take Ireland out of the equation!

Almost as stoked for NZ winning it as I would be for England. Have met/played with a few of the guys and they're just all round good blokes. Tom Blundell was our overseas for the 2012 and 2013 seasons so bloody marvellous to see how he's come on, and he was out there replacing Watling when he dislocated his finger so got a good piece of the action despite not making the final cut. First year he was over here we bowled plenty of overs of spin in tandem, now with Watling's retirement he's NZ's first choice keeper, amazing turnaround. 

Agreed the system needs tinkering, also feel like there needs to be a concerted effort to make sure the final venue is as neutral as possible. NZ always had the advantage with the final in England, though the only two venues I could imagine would have been neutral ground for the teams would have been the Windies and Australia. Any subcontinent or any of the other SENA countries apart from Oz was going to be one sided. 

32 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

Devon Conway played against the team I scored for over a decade ago. One of our players made 293, he made 8, but only one of them has a test century on debut. Jack Leach was also in the opposition, took 0-78, and got reverse-swept for 6 four times in a row.

https://corsham.play-cricket.com/website/results/1305373

He's usurped one of our old overseas at the top of the order, but Blunders will no doubt take Watling's place after the final. Is there anyone more underrated than Watling over the last generation of test match cricketers? Has been a class act for NZ for so long. Can't think of many who have averaged as much as he has both batting and keeping in the top 6 in recent years, perhaps Sangakkara back in the 00s when he kept though seems De Kock is finally moving up the order.

One of Conway's old clubs collapsed pre-Covid in 2019, Vauxhall Mallards who were in the EAPL and were pretty much always in the top tier. Ridiculous to think what should be an amateur cricket club can spend themselves into oblivion but I suppose that's unfortunately the way the game is going.

I'm all for recasting the X-Men, bar Deadpool, and using new characters. We've seen enough films with the younger and older casts from the Fox films.

How they introduce them though will be interesting. Do we get mutants suddenly appearing? Or having kept themselves hidden for so long, or a combination of both, akin to Inhumans in Agents of Shield? With seemingly so much being introduced via the multiverse, Sony Spiderman characters etc, using that to introduce everything at once might well be a stretch.

I like the idea that mutants/mutation could be a ripple caused by Thanos' snap. That some of those brought back from being blipped had this underlying gene triggered by the Soul Stone, and you see the ramifications slowly play out over Earth.

He managed to put himself in a no-lose petition. He'd have had a massive amount of people proclaiming it to be great irrespective of whether it was objectively any good. And it's not like he has much to improve on, is it? The original Justice League film was a bastardised mess and led to ridicule. Quite easy to make a better film when you have millions of dollars and double the running time to tell a story that was cut to shreds. Obviously with this re-shoot/remake he was able to see what did and didn't work and pander/fan service to the audience.

Whilst I don't doubt Whedon's version was different from Snyder's original vision, I highly doubt this film will completely represent that vision either as no doubt it has altered in the time passed. Must be nice to almost test drive a film/concept and then get the chance at a do-over. No way did Warner Bros greenlight a 4 hour film to start with.

It seems to have gotten an OK-ish critical response from what I've seen, so I'm somewhat intrigued and might watch it.

No doubt I'll instantly regret it.

1 hour ago, Roger Sterling said:

I think it hit me just because I found Wanda's pain relatable. Difficult childhood and then lost her brother the only family she had...then she finds something miraculous in her relationship with Vision only for it to be ripped from her in the blink of an eye...it made me think about how some of the amazing things in my life have been painfully fleeting and there's just no going back to recapture it sometimes.

The only moment recaptured was Thanos reanimating Vision then killing him again. But yeah they built on that previous grief really well and that 'what is grief if not love persevering' line was an absolute killer. 

1 hour ago, Jasonmufc said:

But they could've given him a little bit more reason than the inane "My planet got decimated due to overpopulation, so I need to decimate every other planet in the galaxy to prevent them from being decimated." reason they went with in the end.

Not sure what other alternatives there could have been though, other than the whole courting Death angle and that would have been far too bonkers for the MCU, at the time anyway. 

Feels like the final episode should be full feature film length to wrap everything up.

Theory after watching Episode 2 

On 23/11/2020 at 15:25, Lineker said:

Up to 4,000 fans will be allowed at outdoor sporting events in lowest-risk areas when lockdown in England ends on December 2nd.

The fact we won't get 2,000 at Col U, let alone 4,000 will be the only solace if we get put in Tier 2. Will be so embarrassing when we're the only league club in the country allowed 4,000 fans and barely get a 3rd of that.

I've ugly cried at the finale enough times that I don't feel the need to repeat the experience.

Rewatched it from start to finish during lockdown and it was just so good, again. 

13 hours ago, Gazz said:

It's going to be wild when Akinfenwa scores a last minute winner in the 2021 Champions League final for Liverpool.

I've often pondered what would happen if a Prem team picked up Akinfenwa as a chaotic impact substitute. Reckon he'd do a job just from the sheer puzzlement on the faces of a lot of the mediocre Spanish/French etc centre backs wondering how he is a professional footballer. Bit like when Stuart Pearce had a mental breakdown and, I'm assuming, got sectioned for putting David James up front in the last game of the season. 

On the same line of thinking, I'd love to see a La Liga side take a punt on Tony Pulis or Allardyce. Just play big bastard long balls up to Ashley Barnes or someone, they'd have no clue what to do. Surprised Big Sam hasn't already had Ivan Campo and Fernando Hierro put in a good word for him at Real.

At least it'd be a funny shitshow to watch, like when Souness signed Brian Deane, Steve Harkness, Gary Charles, Scott Minto etc for Benfica in 1999.