I understand your problem, no time would suit everyone. I would rather start early so I am home in good time for a family dinner and relaxing evening. Let's hope for a good game and a win so we can all enjoy the day.
Not so great if you live in the centre of Milton Keynes, assuming there's anywhere to live there - I would expect it to be more than five minutes from the countryside even by motorbike. High Wycombe has come up in my estimation recently but after walking through the posher areas like Marlow and Bourne End I was a bit shocked to come across a couple of blokes on a bus going through there who I presumed were Wycombe Wanderers supporters but sounded like West Ham or Tottenham fans. But yes, Buckhamshire does seem to be the most consistently attractive of the home counties - Surrey is comparable but it has some meh towns like Ashford (Middx) and Woking. The "garden of England" is marred by some weeds (much of the Medway area and the Isle of Sheppey, Sittingbourne) and in Berkshire the Downs and Thames Valley are great, some of Maidenhead, Reading south of the Thames (so most of it) and especially Slough less so. Hertfordshire and Essex are underrated but I don't think many would consider them a favourite.
Good point, I had forgotten about MK! I find with Hertfordshire you don't get the sprawling greenery that you do in Bucks and is far more urbanized which is a shame.
That being said, Aylesbury currently has no running water and Thames Water haven't a Scooby when it's coming back. Wunderbar.
TBF to MK, whilst it is a soulless place, it's not a bad place to live for relatively inexpensive housing, green residential areas, excellent transport and road network. Not my cup of tea, but having offices there, I see staff who love the convenience, lower house cost, and a very quick route to work (none of the snarl ups you get in and out of watford for example). Given the excellent roads, you can certainly get out into the countryside in 5 mins, maybe 10.
Looking back on the Millwall game, although it was an abject capitulation, there were some pretty extenuating circumstances. Bilic had to pick his 6th choice centre back who'd never started a game at this level before and had a brain fart after 8 minutes with quite possibly the most stupid header you could ever wish to make. Then our big hope to turn the season around suffered a nightmare injury before the second went in. Will be another aerial bombardment from them but hopefully this time we'll be better set up to deal with it. Am worried about their big players drifting wide onto Kamara though, few teams this season have used that to good effect, Blackpool in particular. Remember Jokanovic preparing for a long ball team (Rotherham maybe?) by playing a back four of all centre backs but I doubt we'll be doing that this time.
Lived in Bucks for 30 years, Chesham Bois and now in Berkshire between Maidenhead and Bracknell. There are parts of Wycombe which are dreadful and the same can be said for Slough and Reading but all three have improved greatly over the years. Not sure I would include Maidenhead though as that appears to very affluent. I would find it very difficult to pick a favourite from Bucks or Berks
I'll be at my sister in laws, so this gives me the perfect excuse to hide away and avoid interacting with anyone.
Maybe Cathcart at RB? He's never let us down there, and it's not as if our other RB options are outstanding
There was a tennis player named Julie Moys, around the same time as Sham 69 sang 'Hersham Boys'. We used to sing ' Julie Moys, Julie Moys lace up boots and corduroys'. Never was anyone less likely to wear DMs than JM but it made me happy!
I guess as a new town, it’s Bucks by postcode but not by nature. Most places immediately west of Gerrards Cross and Slough are lovely, irrespective of county. Marlow, Seer Green, Bourne End, Beaconsfield, Chorleywood (and Chenies), lots of the Chalfonts, Amersham and anywhere in Berkshire down the Thames: Taplow, Cookham, Ascot, Windsor, Henley etc. I prefer Bucks as generally it’s greener than Herts and less pretentious and more convenient than Berks.
I think at theirs they saw how poor we were and just went for it, chucking big lads forward and putting 10 consecutive long balls onto their heads.... It worked. Can't see it being convincing this time but we'd better be quick (er than usual) in the first 15 mins to keep them thinking. We won't lose but can't call it until I see a) our team sheet, b) the first 20 mins, C) weather forecast (as our lot don't like it cold and wet). Very rainy and quite cold = we lose....
We didn't stand a chance in the away match with Pollock having to play. This game should be a different story, but with Bilic saying there's been a bug going round the squad this week I'm bracing myself for another defeat, because teams basically always seem to lose the upcoming game whenever managers say that.
One (and probably the only) good thing about this seemingly endless series of train strikes are the alternative routes via public transport you're forced to take which improve your geography of this country significantly. On the way home from Marlow I had to take a bus to High Wycombe and another one to Amersham. Lovely scenic bus ride in the Buckinghamshire countryside. I prefer Chesham to Amersham though I haven't been to the former for a long time - I visited both late last century on a very long bike ride and I admit being disappointed by the latter, but I appreciated it quite a bit more when I went back there a couple of months ago. Very nice place to commute from (if probably expensive) and looking at the station and its location and surroundings it's hard to believe it's a Tube station (although I think it's not quite as far out as Ongar was). One shouldn't overlook much of Hertfordshire though - the Colne Valley including the section from the outskirts of Watford and Bushey down to Merchant Taylors' and west to Rickmansworth, Brookmans Park, the area in and west of the Lea Valley (Broxbourne, Hoddesdon), (old) Welwyn, historic towns like Hertford and St Albans, and of course the north part in the Chilterns (Tring) although I'm not as familiar with that as I should be.
Got to admit I was raging with Pollock giving away that goal. Does nobody have a quiet word with young players before a game these days.? “look lad this is going to be tough old game here.... Give it 100pct, just concentrate on keeping alert and doing the right things, if you've got time you can play a bit but if in doubt hoof it up the wing. " And one of his first actions was that silly flicked side header..... I don't understand what he was thinking..... (He wouldn't have done that alongside say Steve Terry / Glen Roeder way back.!)
Yes he was at fault and generally had a poor game, but to be fair to him, he had zero support from any of his fellow defenders. When somebody is raw and the like, surely it's an idea to help out when they need it? I am not talking about babysitting them the whole game, but a general pat on the back if they do something well. I do not think we will see him start again, unless we have an even worse defensive crisis. Grimsby -> Watford is quite a step up in challenge, and he was thrown headfirst into a tough game - when he should be third choice at best, if we had decent depth in this area.
Just another one of our defenders prone to an error like the rest. Fortunately not had many in recent games or got away with any mistakes due to poor finishing or good defending to counter the mistakes. I mean on Saturday our first goal actually came after they’d given the ball back to us having first got it via a Kabasele loose pass! Great run by TDB and finish by Pedro but originally both teams had been wasteful with the ball .
Somewhat biased but Berkhamsted is extremely nice, with a weird amount of great cafes and restaurants to boot. It is literally about a mile from the Bucks border, though, in fairness.
Yes. Always a risk our back 5 will be bullied again, and hearing that there has been a bug makes that more likely with players feeling a bit under the weather.
In the away match neither Cathcart, Kabasele or Sierralta was available. All of those players have their deficiencies, but that's a lot of height and experience that should be in the squad on Monday.
Maybe his lack of experience didn’t help and making an early error wasn’t ideal for his confidence obviously but we have seen mistakes from others too although obviously not costly ones recently. After the Blackpool game there were people wishing Kabasele would never play for us again - now helped keep 4 clean sheets in a row or 4 out of 5. And WTE/Cathcart any time they make an error ..
Nope, Pollock is simply crap - as I pointed out even prior to the Millwall game kicking off his severe lack of pace alone makes him a liability. He could still become an alright Championship CB one day, but won't be good enough for us unless we turn in to a bottom-half Champ club again.
