Tonight's football thread

[Llani Boy]

Make the most of your few days of elation PeteS.

Open bus top tours, promises of OBE's, appearances on chat shows, all hyped up by a woke BBC who for some reason keep mentioning 1966 as a comparison.

I have no gripe with women's football and good luck to them but it is a different game. The BBC cite sold out venues for the Women's Euros, but what they don't tell you is that kids got in free and tickets were as little as £10. Do you think they would be sold out at the same prices as men's games?

Lets see what the attendances are like when the WSL starts later in the year and how much the tickets cost.

Oh, and I'd like to add, that last night I was at the Coventry Arena watching the Rugby Sevens and the most entertaining and open games were those involving the women's teams. But again, its a different game and all I ask is that the broadcasters, especially the BBC, acknowledge that and stop pretending that they are comparable.

[PeteS]

Well thanks for that reality check but I don't think anyone has ever said the games are comparable. Like a women's team would compete with an equivalent men's team? I am well aware it is a different game (and I've seen a hell of a lot of both men's and women's games) and why wouldn't it be? Anyway, what is comparable is how a team competes against other nations on a European or World stage and the funding it gets compared to the men's game and we are still a long way off parity there.
Let's celebrate a fantastic win and hope we can go one better and deliver a world cup in the not too distant future.
On the ticketing side, I think the final sold out a long time ago (April?) and other than benevolent tickets, I'm not sure many got in free. We got our tickets in March, paid full price which was significantly more than £10.

[Witton Park]

Well thanks for that reality check but I don't think anyone has ever said the games are comparable..

An ex Captain of England from 10-15 years ago was a guest on the radio towards the end of last week. The host asserted that surely now these women could give a men's team from the Premier League or EFL a game.

The lady didn't seem to know what to say. Saying that was rubbish might not have gone down so well, so instead she suggested if on a smaller pitch where it would be more about technique and less about pace and power, that might be the case.

But there it is, yes there are folk out there trying to put the women's game on a level footing with the mens.
Surely you've heard comments about remuneration?

It's a sport course, but sports people are paid for entertainment and when the semi at Sheffield was only £15 per ticket, the demand for women's football isn't there yet.
How many would have attended if £100?

I'm similar to Llani Boy. Good luck to them and well done on Sunday. I watched the final and they worked hard, but they don't just lack pace and power, they also lack technique and that probably partly comes back to the principles set out in the Matthew Syed book, Bounce.

I think the male footballers currently out there age for age, have had more time with a football than the girls have.

Then you also should consider depth. Our England Ladies recently had a 20-0 win over Latvia, which followed a 10-0 win.
They won another 4 qualifiers by an aggregate 33-0.

Even in the finals, an 8-0, 5-0 and 4-0.

I think it's 8 winners of the last 10 Mens Euro Champs, and 3 winners of the last 10 Ladies so the depth just isn't there yet.

Maybe, 30 years on, things will change due to an increasing profile and wider uptake.

A word of caution though.

The dominance of football has been affecting other sports for 30 years and it's getting worse. It's perhaps the only sport where a man can earn over average UK earnings and not be in the top 1000 in the country at the particular sport.

[PeteS]

Come on you Baggies!

[Travs]

West Brom really seem to have turned a corner this past couple of months.

As we did, although with our best midfielder now out injured, we have ran out of steam and will likely have to settle for mid table again.

Taking my nephew to see us vs Norwich tomorrow, his 2nd ever game. Hopefully he gets to see a win.

[PeteS]

West Brom really seem to have turned a corner this past couple of months.

As we did, although with our best midfielder now out injured, we have ran out of steam and will likely have to settle for mid table again.

Taking my nephew to see us vs Norwich tomorrow, his 2nd ever game. Hopefully he gets to see a win.

Apart from, ahem, the Coventry game, Carlos has worked wonders. I've been to 3 games in the last few weeks and although the squad is pretty much unchanged since the start of the season it has been like watching a completely different team. Still a way to go before we are ready to take on the premiership and with a load of 5h1t going on off the pitch it is interesting times but at least we are up at the right end of the table now.
I think we have Coventry at home coming up in the next couple of weeks.

[PeteS]

Oh well, nevermind...

[Travs]

Burnley did similar to us last weekend.

Never looked massively threatening for long spells.

But constant domination of possession and inevitably they took the lead towards the end.

[Witton Park]

A fair assessment from the Baggies side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tg5ytjlhLY

Pleased for Twine. Been a tough season. First 10-15 minutes I thought this might be the game where we get done, but as usual we work things out, gradually gain control to the point we dominate and pin the opposition back.

We've had both Middlesbrough and West Brom come to Turf now in recent weeks in top form, climbing the table, and done them both a shade cosily.

[Travs]

Well that was an interesting day.

Nephew couldn't keep still all morning. Took him up early with the intention of going in the club shop and getting him something... but he just wanted to get in the stadium.

18mins in, 3-0 down and we had proper, sobbing tears. Fortunately, as we were deciding whether it was necessary to take the poor guy home, we then scored twice in 6mins which got him back into it.

Unfortunately the 2nd half was absolutely dire and we didn't even put up a fight.

Although i don't think too much damage was done as he asked if we can go again next week! (sadly not, as i'm back to racing next weekend)