The Most Exiting (sic) League in the World: Div 2, 2019-20

[Sporting]

If it is anything like the East Lancs derby, the police seal off the area around the away fans so that they can't exit. (To be fair, more so that the home fans can't get to them.) At t'Turf, an entire section is blocked off with these to allow the buses in to pick up fans exiting the away section.

What's to stop people getting off the buses once out of sight of the police? Or throwing a sickie to get themselves off?

[Snake Plissken]

What's to stop people getting off the buses once out of sight of the police? Or throwing a sickie to get themselves off?

Because the buses are escorted by police all the way (including lining the route out), then the buses are taken down the motorway. The whole operation is overlooked by helicopters.

[Sporting]

Because the buses are escorted by police all the way (including lining the route out), then the buses are taken down the motorway. The whole operation is overlooked by helicopters.

Bloody hell. No words...

[Ray de Galles]

I sort of get the first journey but if Swansea fans resident in Cardiff chose to go home under their own steam after the match how could they be prevented? Surely civil liberties are in play here.

When I used to do the bubble trips to Swansea we were confined in the fenced off car park behind the away end and walked on to coaches by the police, there would have been no way to wander off undetected. From what I know of the away end at Stade de Farce it will be the same there. I wouldn't be surprised if both stadia were designed like that specifically with the derby games in mind.

[Ray de Galles]

Because the buses are escorted by police all the way (including lining the route out), then the buses are taken down the motorway. The whole operation is overlooked by helicopters.

To be fair, being part of the convoy with all that going on is really cool. I always wanted them to blast 'Ride of the Valkyries' from the bus speakers on a loop for the 45 miles along the M4.

[ursus arctos]

Bloody hell. No words...

This kind of operation is regularly put in place for "big" matches in Italy, too. I think you may be influenced by the relative dearth of organised away support in Spain.

[Sporting]

On the whole true, though Sporting Gijón refused all their allocation for the derby against Oviedo this season due to similar travel restrictions.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, the Asturian derby has long been an outlier in this respect

[pebblethefish]

A friend of mine who's a Portsmouth fan living in Southampton had to get up early to get a train from Southampton to Portsmouth so that he could catch the coach from Portsmouth to Southampton to watch Southampton versus Portsmouth before getting the coach back to Portsmouth before catching the train back from Portsmouth to Southampton. Sadly, when he got to the coach in Portsmouth he was searched, and they found his train ticket from Southampton to Portsmouth, so concluded he must be a Southampton fan, so wouldn't let him go to Southampton. So he went back to Portsmouth train station, where he wasn't allowed on a train to Southampton, because he was wearing a Portsmouth shirt.

[Ray de Galles]

Brilliant, there's a short film in that.

[Sits]

It’s also utterly tragic.

[ad hoc]

If we get out of Leeds with any better than a three goal defeat today I'll be utterly amazed.

[longeared]

Yes Nuhiu, yes boys, makes a change to be scoring late goals rather than conceding them.

Also if Bielsa is supposedly such a wonderful manager, how come he hasn't noticed that Patrick Bamford is fucking rubbish?

[ad hoc]

That was unexpected. Dare to Nuhiu

[Tony C]

Great result for Wednesday. Monk is doing a job there.

[longeared]

Fucking hell, Nuhiu's assist for the opener.

https://twitter.com/Vancouverowls/status/1216038694513078274

[Sits]

That’s lovely.

Relieved with a point for Reading; assumed Forest would end the run.

[Gangster Octopus]

Wayne Rooney's Derby County charged.

[statto99]

Great result for Wednesday. Monk is doing a job there.

It was indeed a very good result. Congratulations to the Owls on here. I suspect it's the 3 or 4 games directly after that will tell you whether or not it's an outlier. Meanwhile, we're halfway through our old, familiar story and just hoping we've finally learned from our mistakes and for once not so we can repeat them exactly.

[statto99]

Yes Nuhiu, yes boys, makes a change to be scoring late goals rather than conceding them.

Also if Bielsa is supposedly such a wonderful manager, how come he hasn't noticed that Patrick Bamford is fucking rubbish?

Bamford... has his uses. There've been dozens of fan articles about what he brings to the team's overall play. If he could actually score goals with any regularity he'd be doing that at Burnley, Bournemouth or Brighton.

One of the things he is pretty good at is bringing the attacking midfielders into it in the final third. Unfortunately, they're also unable to find employment above us because they are every bit as hesitant/wayward in their finishing as Bamford.

Same throughout the team, really. Most of the players are basically good but have one significant and well-known weakness (pace, finishing, concentration...) which is why they're in the second tier. Bielsa's genius is that he has taken that collection of players who weren't going anywhere much with only a handful of mostly low-key additions and turned them into a team that is in the top 3 pretty much the whole time. They have the dedication, style and mental aptitude to learn how to play Arsenal off the park for 45 minutes at their place, but lack the individual quality to put them away.

From what I've seen of West Brom they seem to rely more on individuals with greater experience or individual quality knowing their way round a match and how to maximise their returns even when they're having an off day. With us it's more of a high wire act relying on everyone playing their part which often takes your breath away but is prone to some spectacular mishaps because the individuals are constantly performing very close to their limits.

[ad hoc]

Joy Division bassline starts up

[ad hoc]

Bloody nora

[Arturo]

What the hell is going on at Wednesday today???

[ad hoc]

What the hell is going on at Wednesday today???

Regression to the mean

[Gangster Octopus]

Okay, what's Blackburn's blue away kit all about?