#now we have 3 states we see wagstaff in

[arolesbianism]

Ok so. Uh. I am starting to have a sneaking suspicion that my entire assumption behind Wagstaff's age might come with an asterisks

[cauli-flawa]

I just had a weird-ass moment of sorting out the Don’t Starve timeline

So I have decided to organize it to understand it better. 

This devolved into my own head canons so enjoy i guess?? 

I will warn you: This is a VERY long post. And it is NOT CONSISTENT. THIS BECAME A GIANT HEAD CANON POST. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. THIS WENT DOWNHILL QUICKLY.

NOTE: Throughout the entire timeline, I imagine Wagstaff randomly logging in and out of the Constant while Maxwell can’t stop him from doing whatever science fuckery he wants

Anyways.

0. All non-human characters who were never human before (Wormwood, Wortox, Wilbur, Wilba, and Wurt) currently live in the Constant.

1. Maxwell and Charlie arrive first and become the “King” and Night Monster of the Constant. 

1.5. Maxwell sends random people to the Constant. He does this throughout the timeline until his reign ends.

2. A young Wagstaff discovers the Constant by accidentally opening a portal to it, or finding some way to enter it. He does not actually enter the Constant physically, instead he uses a hologram to do research on it. Maxwell sees this guy logging on and off the Constant and ignores him for now.

3. WX 78′s angry breakdown forces Wagstaff to shove them into the Constant. They are the first survivor to physically enter it. 

3.5. Wagstaff continues researching the Constant. Maxwell is beginning to get annoyed with the fact that he cannot control him. This guy is like a fucking insect. 

4. An older Wagstaff delivers a specimen to Webber’s father (the specimen being a spider). Webber becomes, well, Webber, and eventually Maxwell sends him to the Constant. He is the first person to arrive through Maxwell. Currently, he and WX are the only (known) survivors currently alive in the Constant, not including Wagstaff who is zipping around doing whatever the fuck he wants.

5. Webber dies. WX does not meet him before this happens. 

6. Wes arrives in the Constant by accident. He gets caught by Maxwell and imprisoned. 

7. Woodlegs is sent to the Constant. 

8. Wilson is tricked by Maxwell and sent to the Constant. 

9. Wilson does the standard adventuring stuff.

10. The timeline of who arrives in the Constant continues in the order you unlock characters in. This order takes place over a long amount of time. That order being:

- Willow

- Wolfgang

- Wendy

- Wickerbottom

- Woodie

- Wigfrid

None of them ever meet each other until Charlie takes the throne. 

11. Woodlegs gets trapped inside his cage. Maxwell doesn’t state specifically that he did it, but knowing what he’s like, he probably did. I would assume that Woodleg was having too much fun hunting for treasure and having to deal with both him and that goddamn Wagstaff popping in and out of the Constant on a daily basis was too much for him. 

12. The Shipwrecked and Hamlet characters do arrive at the Constant, but the times in which they do are unknown (aka I am too lazy to check how much EXP is required for them).

- Walani

- Warly

- Wheeler

13. Wilson buries Webber’s skull, reviving him.

14. Wes is freed from the invisible damnation box.

15.Wilson finds Maxwell and takes his place on the Nightmare Throne. 

15.5. I am not sure when Shipwrecked and Hamlet take place on the timeline, but they do take place before Together. 

16. Charlie discovers Wilson on the Throne after quite a while (not as long as Maxwell’s reign, thank god). Wilson is freed from it quite forcefully, and Charlie becomes the new queen.

16.5. WAGSTAFF IS YOUR PROBLEM NOW BITCH HAVE FUN TRYING TO CONTROL HIM

17. Wilson meets Maxwell and the two agree to form a truce. 

WARNING: YOU ARE ENTERING SEVERE HEADCANON TERRITORY. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

18. The other characters catch glimpses of each other but never actually meet.

For example:

WX 78 has found everyone at least once but does not care about their well-being so they just let them go off and do whatever. No one has seen them, however. Currently their only goal is to find Wagstaff and beat the shit out of him (good luck with that lol).

Wagstaff has found everyone as well, but unlike WX, Wagstaff is very interested in finding out about the survivors and is trying to uncover everything he can.

Maxwell already knows everyone, but he has not found any of them and does not want to. He is actively trying to run away. 

19. Charlie stops putting people in the Constant. For now. 

20. Charlie gets bored of watching all these random ass people fuck around and wants to see some REAL drama. She decides to put some of the survivors into small groups to see what would happen via teleportation. The results? Well...

Maxwell and Wagstaff

Purely made to spite her ex. Maxwell not only dislikes Wagstaff (which should be pretty obvious) he is also AFRAID of him and what he could do to the Constant. They stay together for about 1 minute before Wagstaff decides to just log off again. From then on Maxwell makes sure to track down Wagstaff’s plans, to hopefully find his motives for all this. 

Wendy, Wolfgang, and Wickerbottom

This trio would have been dissolved VERY quickly if not for Wickerbottom’s quick thinking. Wolfgang is deathly afraid of Wendy and even though Wickerbottom keeps him in the group, he can’t help but shudder when he has to talk to her. This group is surprisingly good at surviving - Wolfgang protects them, Wendy has pretty good survival knowledge, and Wickerbottom keeps the group from acting stupid. 

Wigfrid and Webber

It goes just as well as you would expect it to. Wigfrid moves to kill Webber immediately after seeing him, thinking that he’s some sort of monstrous “beast” that needs to be slain. 

Wes and Woodie

The pair ever. 

21. Maxwell meets Wilson and the two decide to form a truce. They both hate eachother immensely. 

Charlie sees this and decides to bring Wendy, Wolfgang and Wickerbottom over. The more socialization Maxwell has to do with his former pawns the better. Wilson is so grateful to learn that he is not alone after all (Maxwell does not count). 

22. Wortox is corrupted. 

WX 78 is still being a little loner emo bitch.

22.5. I am not sure when Woby arrives in the Constant, but I will say that she is accidentally sent there around this part of the timeline.

23. Willow starts a MASSIVE forest fire, bringing all of the vanilla game characters (besides WX 78 and Wagstaff) to her location. They decide that if they can’t survive together, they’ll die alone, and they all team up to tackle the dangerous world they live in. Meanwhile Maxwell has some explaining to do to the others. 

23.5. Wormwood, Wurt, and Wortox form a little cryptid friend group but that’s unrelated. Yeah, they saw the giant fire. Yeah, Wormwood cried for a solid half hour. No, they didn’t go to check it out.

24. The Cryptids find WX 78 and try to help them, but they aggressively refuse, as a soulless automaton does.

25. WX finds the Survivors and declares themself their “ruler” and everyone else their “minions”. No one takes them seriously in the slightest, but at least they have a new member now.

26. An injured Wigfrid stumbles upon the Survivors group and is treated. She decides to join the group if they help her look for a mysterious “beast” that she has been hunting down. 

27. That “beast” is, you guessed it, Webber. When the Survivors realize that he does not mean any harm, he is welcomed into the group. 

28. Warly is found by the Survivors, who tracked him down because he happened to be cooking nearby. He happily joins the team. 

29. Winona is sent to the Constant after a disastrous accident involving Wagstaff’s portal. 

29.5. This time, Wagstaff is ACTUALLY sent to the Constant. No more running away old man.

29.75. No fucking way 

29. The Cryptids get separated by accident. They follow their separate paths. For now anyways.

Wurt finds her old swamp village and is reunited with her Merm companions.

Wormwood spends his days chilling with his plant friends, but longs to see his other friends again.

Wortox is kind of alone now, but he’s taken an interest to the humans that have found their way into the Constant.

30. Walter gets sent to the Constant and meets Woby. 

31. The Survivors stumble upon Wurt in the swamps, and out of curiosity she follows them back to their camp. She ends up joining the group after they let her stay with them.

32. Wanda’s time travel shenanigans send her to the Constant. 

33. Wormwood’s search for his friends brings him to the Survivors. WX recognizes him and tries to get the others to drive him out, but to no avail. Wurt sees him and welcomes him with open arms. 

34. Winona is found by the Survivors, who traced the noises of her machinery and were very impressed with what they saw. She agrees to team up with them, and they agree to help her find her boss (Wagstaff) and sister (Charlie), who are both trapped in the Constant. 

35. Walter is discovered by the younger members of the Survivors (and this kid is having a great time camping out in eeby deeby). Walter finds the group and decides to join after realizing just how bad everyone is at managing a proper fire. 

36. Wortox finally decides to show himself to the Survivors, reuniting the Cryptids and adding a new member to the team. However, no one fully trusts him. There is quite a lot that he’s hiding. 

37. A usage of the Backtrack Watch accidentally teleports Wanda to the Survivor’s camp. She joins them and uses her knowledge on time travel to help them figure out their next moves. 

38. Wagstaff finds the Lunar Islands and begins sketching out some big plans. Plans involving that sweet sweet moon juice

[kathleenseiber]

What we know about Ivermectin: correlation is not causation

Unlike the huge amount of high-quality data we have gathered on vaccines (5.6 billion doses and counting), the available data on Ivermectin is a dog’s breakfast – despite the fact that millions of people around the world have used it to treat COVID, especially in poor countries.

The hope that Ivermectin could vanquish COVID was seeded from Kylie Wagstaff’s lab at Melbourne’s Monash University. Knowing that the drug had anti-viral effects, they decided to test it against COVID using infected monkey cells growing in a dish. In April 2020 they published a paper describing how, 48 hours after dosing the monkey cells with Ivermectin at a concentration over 10 times that used to treat parasites, virtually no virus was detectable.

Credit: Cosmos Magazine

There was almost nothing around to treat COVID patients in April 2020. Given the horrific rising death toll in South America and India, and that Ivermectin was already widely used as a medication to treat diseases caused by parasitic worms like river blindness or scabies, the WHO kept an open mind, as they did for other cheap off-label drugs like dexamethasone and hydroxychloroquine.

But the WHO made it clear that Ivermectin should only be used in the context of a trial – drugs can make things better or worse. Indeed, thanks to trials, we now know that dexamethasone helps COVID patients; hydroxychloroquine makes them worse.

But in places reeling from the pandemic, particularly across South America, there was a massive uptake in the use of Ivermectin, sometimes officially sanctioned by local or national authorities as in Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, some states of India (Uttar Pradesh), Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

June 2020 alone saw Brazilians purchase 12 million packets of Ivermectin – a year’s worth of the drug in a single month. It didn’t seem to affect the death rate. One Brazilian scientist observed, “the shape of COVID curves did not exhibit any modification when comparing groups of treated and untreated people from the same area”.

On the other hand, Zimbabwean doctor Jackie Stone trumpeted the success of Ivermectin, because after its use was authorised in Zimbabwe on 26 January 2021, death rates fell from 60–70 per day to zero by 2 February 2021.

That sort of correlation is intriguing. But it’s famously fallible – the “correlation is not causation” conundrum. You can show that drownings increase after ice cream consumption but it’s not because a belly full of ice cream cramps your muscles. It’s because both events are more common in summer. Statisticians refer to summer, the sneaky third wheel, as a confounding variable.

You can show that drownings increase after ice cream consumption but it’s not because a belly full of ice cream cramps your muscles. It’s because both events are more common in summer.

The fact is COVID death rates fluctuate and researchers have yet to figure out why.  Zimbabwe was back up to over 100 deaths per day in late July, and then down to 19 per day in September. As Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist from the University of Wollongong, put it: “Merely correlating news reports of Ivermectin use with later declines in mortality as if those two things are realistically connected; it’s not science in any meaningful sense.”

Meyerowitz-Katz’s blog on Ivermectin is a great source of information. So is this August article from Liam Mannix in the Sydney Morning Herald.

With so many people taking Ivermectin in some countries, it became hard to do placebo-controlled clinical trials.

Those that were done were often small – just dozens of people – and “observational”, meaning the doctor prescribed the drug to the patients and watched to see how they fared. If a drug has a large beneficial or adverse effect, observational studies should pick it up. But observational studies do poorly with small effects and can’t accurately measure their size. Without a concurrent matched control group who are not taking the drug, you can’t zero out the turning of that hidden third wheel.

Most of the observational studies aimed to see if Ivermectin could be used to treat patients at home and prevent them from progressing to severe disease. Some showed benefit in terms of lowering viral loads and quicker recovery times. Others did not. One of the few statistically significant placebo-controlled studies from Colombia showed no effect of Ivermectin.

A few of the studies weren’t just compromised by being flawed: they were possibly fraudulent. Taking advantage of the desperation for answers, some researchers sought to make a name for themselves in the dodgy world of online pre-prints. These are papers that have yet to clear the hurdle of peer review and their findings should be treated with caution. In the case of Ivermectin, two pre-prints that showed a significant protective effect of Ivermectin were later retracted; one from the Chicago-based data company Surgisphere and another from researchers at Benha University, in Egypt.

To try to read an overall signal from the many small studies, researchers have collected them in what is known as a ‘meta-analysis’. But it all depends on which studies they picked. Some meta-analyses showed a net positive effect (particularly if they used the retracted Egyptian data). Others found no conclusive effects.

The most reliable of these meta-analyses was a 28 July Cochrane review. This international organisation specialises in adjudicating medical controversies by deploying independent statisticians and medical experts to sift out and analyse credible published studies. Their review concluded: “We are uncertain whether Ivermectin reduces or increases mortality compared to no treatment.”

It’s easy to understand the desperation of people turning to Ivermectin in 2020. In 2021, it’s harder to fathom why people in the US and Australia – who have easy access to vaccines – would opt to bet their health and their life on it. Merck, the company that manufactures Ivermectin, is certainly not pushing its use for COVID.

A recent alert from the US CDC noted a 24-fold increase in Ivermectin prescriptions from pre-pandemic levels, as well as cases of people using veterinary products. It noted: “Overdoses of Ivermectin are linked with low blood pressure, confusion, hallucinations, seizures, coma and even death.”

“Overdoses of Ivermectin are linked with low blood pressure, confusion, hallucinations, seizures, coma and even death.”

The FDA took to Twitter to convey the dangers: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” It warned that “taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm”.  Australia has followed suit, with prescriptions up 3-4 fold leading the TGA to take the extraordinary step of banning its off-label use for fear of depriving people who need to use Ivermectin to treat parasites.

One of my vaccine-hesitant friends who is keen on Ivermectin pointed me to the trials being done by Sydney doctor Thomas Borody. Borody has treated around 25 COVID-positive patients in home quarantine, some as young as 16. He says most recovered without being hospitalised, though one died. Yet we know 90% of people do recover without being hospitalised. These do not strike me as good statistics upon which to be making life-and-death decisions. Nor is Borody claiming that Ivermectin is an alternative to vaccines. It is, he says, “another string to the bow”.

To find out how well that string plays, we’ll need to wait for the results of large placebo-controlled clinical trials currently underway.

These include the Oxford trial known as PRINCIPLE, another at McMaster University in Canada called TOGETHER and one at the US National Institutes of Health known as Activ-6.

These trials focus on repurposed drugs like Ivermectin that are cheap and readily available. A key goal is to find the ones that will stop home-based patients from progressing to severe disease.  

So far there are two: the inhaled steroid budesonide and (surprisingly) the anti-depressant fluvoxamine.

PRINCIPLE has shown budesonide shortens recovery time by three days in some patients. And preliminary results from the TOGETHER trial showed that fluvoxamine was mildly effective, reducing the relative risk of getting worse by 30%. 

In August the TOGETHER trial showed Ivermectin had no statistically significant effect.

The other trials have yet to report – but don’t hold your breath.

“The evidence so far doesn’t point to a large effect, if any at all.  To detect a small effect you need a much larger sample size – hence it will take a long time.”

Oxford is loathe to predict when they will have their results, but after badgering head investigator Christopher Butler, he guessed it might be in the first quarter of next year. The NIH apparently won’t have anything to say till 2023.

That seems absurd, given the epidemic of people taking the drug in the hope it will work.

Carlos Chaccour, an infectious disease specialist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health who works on Ivermectin for malaria control and has tested it in a small trial for COVID, helped clarify the situation for me. “The evidence so far doesn’t point to a large effect, if any at all.  To detect a small effect you need a much larger sample size – hence it will take a long time.”

YOUR COVID TOOLBOX: This article is one of a five-part series where Cosmos editor-at-large Elizabeth Finkel hunts down all the facts and figures you need to understand COVID-19 vaccines.

Elizabeth Finkel: A letter to my vaccine-hesitant friends

Are COVID-19 vaccines experimental?

The rollout: The danger of vaccines vs the danger of COVID

Adverse reactions: Guillain Barre, TTS and the fine mesh net

What we know about Ivermectin: correlation is not causation published first on https://triviaqaweb.weebly.com/

[ifitzpatrick]

The Many Loves of Tina Belcher

Tina Belcher. The woman we all aspire to be. Throughout Bob’s Burgers, Tina has shown that she can be a grown ass woman in a lot of situations, but she’s even more grown when it comes to her love life. She wants what she wants and she doesn’t care how embarrassed she needs to get in order to obtain it. That’s the beauty of Tina Belcher, she’s taking her budding sexuality by the balls and not stopping until she lands herself a keeper.

There have been a couple of boys in Tina’s life since the start of the show, but what about the others? What about the new ones? For Valentine’s Day, I’ve ranked the Top Ten Loves in Tina’s life (so far…). This list goes from super bad to the best of the best. Let’s all hope the Tina finds the true love of her life.

10. Jonas Jonas is… a piece of work. Jonas is a delivery boy and a passing crush of Tina’s in the episode “Uncle Teddy.” (S4E14) In the episode, he basically uses his looks to take advantage of  Tina to gain access to the restaurant for him and his friends. Not cool, Jonas, not cool. Tina’s absolutely hypnotized by Jonas’ good looks instead of seeing him for who he really is. We’ve ALL been there before, for better or for worse, but thankfully, Tina wakes up and Teddy gives him and his moped a great off the cliff treatment to wake HIM up. Also, he plays a melodica, which honestly sounds like the coolest instrument in the world if Jonas wasn’t playing it. It’s wasted on an awful, awful boy! 9. Nathan In “Beefsquatch” (S2E9), Nathan was a massive fan of Get On Up with Chuck and Pam. He went to every taping, but couldn’t get close to Pam, who he had a super duper deep odd weirdo crush on. In an attempt to taste her hair, he starts dating Tina because Bob and Gene had a segment on the show, so she had backstage pass access to his crush. Nathan is another piece of work who basically used Tina for his own personal gain. He’s super terrible. That’s it. He also totally has the signs to be an abusive boyfriend? The way he speaks to Tina telling her “don’t tell me how to love you” and just in general being a terrible human specimen of a boy, really rubs you the wrong way. *blows raspberries at Nathan*

8. Joe Harrison There will be a lot of boys with J names on this list and Joe Harrison is another one that Tina will probably never get. Tina develops a small crush on Joe Harrison when she makes eye contact with him in the episode “Large Brother, Where Fart Thou?” (S7E5) She purposes puts herself in detention after messing with Mr. Frond’s display in order to make more eye contact with him and at the end of the day, he totally looks her way.

I honestly want to know more about Joe Harrison! I want to know what Joe Harrison is about! He looks like a pretty decent kid and the fact that he made eye contact with Tina has got to mean something, right? I say we bring Joe Harrison back, have him fall in love with Tina and give him more screentime! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe!  

7. Tammy Larsen First, don’t look at me like that. Second, give me a chance to explain myself and this choice. Tina has NEVER had a crush on Tammy or vice versa, I acknowledge that, but they have all of the ingredients for the classic trope of enemies to lovers. It would be kinda cool if Bob’s Burgers gave a super twist to Tina’s next love interest, but I acknowledge that it probably won’t happen.

Just think about it for a second. Tina and Tammy are basically rivals but they started out as friends first. Tammy usually says really mean things to Tina, but Tina always comes back just as hard (if she gets a word in edgewise). Tammy is almost always a little jealous of Tina and Tina still thinks that they can be friends, but after all the mean things that Tammy and Tina say to each other, I think they have the potential to look past middle school drama bombs and develop crushes on each other. Listen, I know this is wishful thinking, let me have my dream.

6. Jeff Oh Jeff. The best ghost boyfriend who ever lived, until you know… he wasn’t. “Tina and the Real Ghost” (S5E2) introduced us to Jeff, a ghost who supposedly lived in the basement of the restaurant. After Linda, Gene, Louise and Tina talk to the ghost, they find out that he’s a 13 year old boy. This really makes Tina happy, which we all love to see. They go out on little dates like a butterfly exhibit, but after they become ghost-boyfriend and girlfriend, Jeff “switches” girlfriends and wants to date Tammy instead, breaking it off with Tina via steamed message on the bathroom mirror. Well, spoilers, it turned out that Louise was playing everyone into thinking that Jeff was real, Tammy was playing everyone into thinking Jeff switched girlfriends and Tina, in the end, gets a bit of a last laugh.

Jeff was an interesting boyfriend for Tina. I actually liked them together quite a bit. When Tina took Jeff to the butterfly exhibit, and a butterfly landed on her nose as Jeff was giving her butterfly kisses, I couldn’t help but smile. She needs that kind of attention and love from someone. Even though he wasn’t a physical boy, it was really cute to see Tina in a state of being caring and cute with a boy.

5. Darryl DARRYL. I love Darryl so much. I don’t think he’s right for Tina though, but he does know how to treat a woman after some Hitch-type coaching. In “Can’t Buy Me Math” (S5E11), he and Tina hatch a plan to date each other in order to get their actual crushes, Rose Batista and Jimmy Jr. In order to do this, they would need to win ‘Cupid’s Couple’ at the Valentine’s Day dance. Tina coaches Darryl in the meantime on how to be a boyfriend, which worked… a little too well.

They break up after the dance in front of Jimmy Jr., Rosa, and most of the school. Tina starts to get jealous of Darryl and Rosa, believing that she really does have feelings for Darryl and ends up breaking up Rosa and Darryl for a little while. Thankfully, she fixes their relationship, but Tina is still left alone. Darryl is a really great guy to be in a relationship with though. He’s one of the best guys ever. Have you heard that voice? *melts*

4. Jordan Cagan In the episode “The Land Ship” (S6E2), Tina attempts to spice up her life and hang out with Ghost Boy, who she discovers, is Jordan Cagen, a fellow Wagstaff student, underneath it all. To be all the fair, before they ���did something like kissing”, this was a relationship that Tina could easily blend into and… was actually pretty cool for her. Jordan was a “bad boy” with his graffiti tag, but he introduced a polite kind of bad dude that is actually kinda cool for Tina to be with.

Tina had to make the impossible decision either to help Jordan with his master plan of painting Ghost Boy on the Land Ship OR deciding to cover it up. She decided the latter, putting her relationship with him in a downfall. Even though Jordan was one of the cool choices for Tina, I have to put him at #4 for his kissing skills. He… is a terrible kisser. Tina even said that it was hard for her to breathe when he kissed her, but — to give him some credit — Tina was his first kiss, so one day, he will hopefully learn how to not smother anyone with his mouth.

3. Jimmy Pesto Jr. Jimmy Pesto Jr. is the WORSSSSSTTTTTTTT. Tina has pinned over Jimmy since the beginning, but he hasn’t yet realized how in love with her he really is. There’s just something about Jimmy that she just can’t get over (his butt), but some of us just really wish she would. Tina has “logged over 3000 fantasy hours with him”, but the way he treats her is like she’s an afterthought. Jimmy likes the attention that he gets from Tina even though, most of the time, he seems annoyed by it. That is, until Tina is around another boy, he all of a sudden becomes jealous and needs her to be with him.

Jimmy is the boy you’ve pined over, doesn’t want you, but when you find someone better… you’re the most important girl in his life. Tina deserves better than Jimmy Pesto Jr. and his wishy washy attitude. After “The Land Ship” (S6E2), it seems like they were going on a path that might lead to more. BUT BUT BUT, that doesn’t excuse the fact that, JIMMY IS STILL THE WORSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTT. I only put him as #3 because of Tina’s logged fantasy hours with him and the fact that when he IS good to Tina… he’s actually kinda dope.

2. Zeke Hear me out. I love Tina and Zeke together for a lot of different reasons. Reason #1, his name doesn’t begin with J, so that’s an automatic plus. Reason #2, he pays attention to Tina WAY more than almost anyone else has. I think Tina and Zeke could probably be a potentially cool couple if they both gave each other a chance. A couple of episodes that really helps my theory start with “Broadcast Wagstaff School News.” (S3E12) When Tina was researching who the Mad Pooper was. It was discovered that Zeke was the one who was pooping all over the school, but he was going to stop until he noticed that the story was important to Tina, so he continues. I mean… can you think of a better way to get a girl’s attention?

“Midday Run” (S5E8) is another episode that really catches their cuteness together because they’re basically stuck together for half of the episode. Zeke even says to Tina, ““Damn Tina, now I got a story to tell on our wedding day. You think that’s not gonna happen, but I’ll getcha girl! I’m gonna getcha!” HOW CUTE IS THAT?! I think Zeke would be a perfect match for Tina at the end of the day. He pays WAY more attention to what she wants and he’s actually super sweet underneath it all. Zeke’s a great guy. I will fight someone who doesn’t think so.

1. Josh LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT. TINA COULD HAVE HAD IT ALL WITH JOSH AND SHE BLEW IT.

*takes a deep breath*

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system. Josh could and would have been perfect for Tina if she didn’t let her greed get in the way. Josh first met Tina in a blind date situation in the episode “Lindapendent Woman” (S3E14). It was interesting to watch them get along behind the dairy freezer. It would have been interesting to see this relationship carry on for awhile. Josh seems very sweet towards Tina and super attentive to her needs.

However, in “Two for Tina” (S3E17), Tina has to decide to go to the dance with Josh or Jimmy Jr. Josh treats her so kindly and Jimmy Jr. only wants her because another boy has her. By the time they get to the dance, the boys engage in a dance off for Tina’s attention. Tina does the one thing that will either make or break something. It’s always lovely when a character wants to make polyamory work, however, the boys were not about that type of life and they left her alone. She could have had it all! OR at least Josh! Josh is and always will be the best boy for Tina because of his absolute sweetness and his epic dancing skills. I wish Tina and Josh would work out.

*side eyes to Bob’s Burgers writers*

[reomanet]

'Privilege doesn't protect you': family seeks answers after father's Taser death | US news

‘Privilege doesn’t protect you’: family seeks answers after father’s Taser death | US news

The first news of his death came as a traffic update. El Camino Real, a busy road south of San Francisco , had been closed for hours on 3 October as law enforcement investigated what local news called a “deadly encounter”. A man was dead after being Tasered by sheriff’s deputies. He was described, in the early reports, only as a “36-year-old black man”, who the sheriff’s department said in a statement had been “running in and out of traffic” early that afternoon and had “assaulted” a sheriff’s deputy who approached him. An investigation was taking place. Sign up for the new US morning briefing Amaka Okobi, 72, saw the news and remembered thinking: “Oh God, I feel so bad for his mother.” That evening, Amaka, who lives in Pacifica, south of San Francisco, received a visit from the San Mateo coroner’s office. The man on the news was her son. Chinedu Valentine Okobi was a poet, a devoted father to his 12-year-old daughter, Christina, and a 2003 graduate of Morehouse, the historically black college in Atlanta. His death has caused agony and a quest for answers as to exactly how and why Chinedu died – answers that, they feel, are not being provided by the police. It has also renewed debate over the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement, especially those with mental illness. In 2015, more than one in five cases of Americans killed by the police reportedly involved mental health issues, according to The Counted , the Guardian’s investigation into every police killing in the United States in 2015 and 2016. Black males aged 15-34 were nine times more likely than other Americans to be killed by law enforcement officers in 2016, according to data collected for the project . While the majority of America’s more than 1,000 police killings each year are shootings, dozens of Americans die each year after being tased by the police. In 2015, at least 50 Americans died after being tased by the police, and victims were disproportionately black. Chinedu had grown up in San Francisco as the youngest son of a Nigerian American family. He had spent the last decade managing serious mental illness, and in the past year, his older sister Ebele Okobi said, his family had grown worried as he seemed to grow more unstable, dropping in and out of contact with them. Chinedu had been unarmed during his encounter with San Mateo county sheriff’s deputies, the San Mateo district attorney, Steve Wagstaffe, who was investigating his death, told reporters. The public statement from the sheriff’s department suggested deputies had intervened to protect Chinedu from getting injured by traffic, Ebele said. So why is her brother dead? Ebele, 44, is a Columbia-trained lawyer who currently works as Facebook’s public policy director for Africa. Her role has included accompanying the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg, on African visits, including a meeting with Nigeria’s president. But her high-profile job and elite connections had not given her the power to keep her younger brother safe. “That’s the crazy thing: privilege does not protect you in any way,” she said. “I’ve been struck by the responses from people I know: ‘I don’t believe this happened to you .’” As a black American woman, Ebele said she had lived in fear for years that she would lose someone she loved to police violence. After the birth of her twins, a son and daughter, she had decided to move her family to London. They moved in 2014. “I don’t have the mental or emotional fortitude to raise a son in America,” she said she had decided. “I don’t have it.” Chinedu Okobi at his Morehouse graduation. Photograph: Courtesy Okobi family Wagstaffe, the district attorney investigating the incident, had told reporters that Chinedu was 6ft3in tall, and he weighed 330 pounds. Chinedu had used to joke about his height with his oldest sister, calling her “Little Big Sis”, because she was only 5ft4in. Now, her brother’s height had become a piece of evidence. In an interview on Monday, the day before a Tuesday morning memorial service for Chinedu in San Francisco, Ebele said that she and had her family had tried to piece together information about Chinedu’s last days, hours and minutes. What they had found so far were only fragments, she said, and some of the details were conflicting. “All we know is what we’re piecing together from news reports and from video that people are sending us,” Ebele said. Right now, the family does not even know when and where Chinedu died. San Francisco police targeted only black residents in drug arrests, lawsuit claims Read more Local law enforcement officials have made no attempt to reach out and are not talking to them, Ebele said. The only contact her family has had with any officials is with the coroner’s office, on the day of her brother’s death, she said. “Chasing him down and tasing him – there’s a protocol for dealing with people in crisis, and that’s not it,” Ebele said. Basic facts of Chinedu’s death remain unclear, said John Burris, an Oakland-based civil rights attorney who is representing his family. “The question is: what was he doing that caused the police to confront him in the first place? There’s no evidence that he was committing any type of crime,” said Burris, who has served as an attorney in multiple high-profile police abuse cases. “How many times was he tased? How many officers tased him?” A witness video obtained by the family provides a “partial” documentation of Chinedu’s encounter with the sheriff’s deputies, Burris said. “You can see on it that the officers were beating Chinedu, tasing him. We can see that he’s on the ground … he’s shouting ‘What have I done?’ and he finally breaks loose and he starts to run and they catch him,” he said. But then the video breaks off, Burris said. The video has not yet been released to the public and has not reviewed by the Guardian. Burris said his team was continuing to review the footage and wanted to make sure they understood its full context before releasing it. Burris is calling on officials to release any videos of the incident. While there are several witnesses to what happened, “no one saw beginning to end,” Burris said, and they have not identified any witnesses who saw how Chinedu’s encounter with the police began. The San Mateo county district attorney’s office investigation of Chinedu’s death will take eight to 10 weeks, and “we do not expect to give any information out until that time”, Karen Guidotti, San Mateo county’s chief deputy district attorney, told The Guardian. Guidotti said prosectors would interview the deputies involved, but she could not comment on whether those interviews had taken place. The San Mateo county district attorney’s office has named five deputies involved in the incident, all of whom are reportedly on paid leave during the investigation. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chinedu Okobi with his mother. Photograph: Courtesy Okobi family “Staff members in critical incidents where a death occurs are routinely placed on paid administrative leave, pending investigation,” Detective Rosemary Blankswade, a spokesperson for the office, said in a statement. Once a district attorney’s investigation is complete, she said, the sheriff’s office “will often conduct a separate administrative investigation” looking at “compliance with our policies”. “Additional and updated details surrounding the incident are not available at this time in light of the ongoing investigation,” she wrote. Burris told the Guardian that the lack of information from law enforcement officials was “pretty typical” and that, as always, the lack of basic information about a loved one’s death only added to the family’s pain. Ebele described her younger brother as someone who had been gregarious, personable, kind, and deeply devoted to his young daughter. He had been passionate about music and slam poetry, and was featured in a 2001 documentary about teenage slam poets, Poetic License, she said. How 20 years of stop and search has widened America’s racial divide Read more It was as he was preparing for life after college that Chinedu experienced the onset of serious mental illness, she said. He had been studying for graduate placement exams when he had what Ebele described as a psychotic break. The family brought Chinedu back to California , but struggled to get him a diagnosis and appropriate care. For the past decade, since 2009, he had been on medication and had built himself “a regular life.” He worked a series of jobs, including at Home Depot, “he took care of his daughter, he paid child support, he went to church”. At different times, he had lived at a halfway house, on his own, with his brother, and with a girlfriend. Ebele wrote in a tribute to her brother: “We were so proud of him for creating a good and kind life.” Around December 2017, his family noticed a change in his behavior. Chinedu did not show up to the family’s Christmas, even to see her children visiting from London. “He just wasn’t himself,” she said. He wouldn’t return calls, she said. He would send a text, but then not respond back. Family members thought he had either stopped taking his medication, Ebele said, or that his current medication was no longer working. Even as he struggled, his daughter, who lived in Tennessee, had remained a priority. He went to see her in May, Ebele said. And one of the final things that he did, the last day before he was killed, was to pay child support. Another last fragment: “He texted my mother and said, ‘Hello, sunshine,’” Ebele said. Topics San Francisco US policing California news

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[kacydeneen]

Black Men Kicked Out of Gym Detail 'Humiliating' Encounter Caught in Viral Video

Two black men who say they were racially profiled and ordered to leave an LA Fitness gym in Secaucus, New Jersey, earlier this month say they were humiliated when staff called police on them twice while they were working out. 

Rachid Maiga, 27, and Tshyrad Oates, 25, are breaking their silence about the April 15 confrontation, which went viral on social media, in an exclusive interview with the News 4 New York I-Team.

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Maiga, a semi-pro basketball player, had been a club member for eight years, paying a premium for the Signature location and regularly driving out of his way to go to the gym for its prized basketball court. On that day, he was swiped in with no issues, and he waited for Oates, an account executive, who checked in separately with a four-day guest pass, he said. 

The two said they had been playing basketball for several minutes when the staffer who’d checked in Oates confronted them.

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"She's telling me I'm not a member. She's not asking me. She's telling me I'm not a member," said Maiga, the longtime LA Fitness member. "I’m telling her that I AM a member, and she’s like, 'If you guys don’t get out of here, we’re going to call the police.'"

The friends refused to leave. "We have nothing to hide, we did nothing wrong," thought Maiga. 

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Two Secaucus police officers arrived. Maiga went to his locker to get his membership badge and took it to the front desk to be rescanned. He says he decided to start recording with his cellphone because he knew he would not be given the benefit of the doubt -- that the automatic assumption would be that he was the one who did something wrong.

Oates later posted four videos which went viral on social media, fueled by the uproar over an incident three days before where two black men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. Starbucks later apologized and announced all stores would close for bias training on May 29th.

"That first video is when my friend scanned," said Oates. "There should have been no more videos because we proved that we were members. We said, 'We’re going to go work out now,' and went back to working out. That should have been the end of the situation."

It wasn’t. The friends returned to the basketball court to resume working out. Shortly afterward, a male manager came storming onto the basketball court.

The manager told them, "'You guys need to go. You guys need to go, or else you're out of here in handcuffs,'" according to Maiga. 

"I'm telling him, 'I'm a member here, you can't just kick me out,' and that's when he tells me, 'Your membership is being terminated," said Maiga. 

Again, the men refused to leave. And again, police officers arrive -- this time, there were five of them. 

"They were peaceful with us, kind," Oates said of the officers. The officers told them, according to Oates, "'Listen, guys, I know we're here again talking to you guys, can we just pull you guys to the side?'"

Oates said, "At this point, now we're embarrassed, we're feeling harassed, and it's just getting out of hand. We're like, you know what, let's just all have this conversation with management."

Oates and Maiga said they felt like suspects as cops escorted them to the lobby.

"It was humiliating," said Maiga. "We’re sitting there and everyone in the gym is looking at us like, 'What’s going on?'"

When they all got to the front desk and started speaking with the male manager, the manager saw that he was being recorded and became upset, according to Maiga. 

"He was like, 'You can't record in here,' and he tried to make that the reason why they were terminating me," said Maiga. "Like, 'Now you definitely have to go because you're recording and breaking rules.'" 

"Even police asked him for an explanation, and he had nothing to tell police. None of them, not one of those members had something to tell police," he said.

The two friends left the gym and nursed their shock over the encounter into the next day. Ultimately, Oates decided to post the video.

"I'm not the type of person that likes to put my problems out there," said Maiga. "This has happened to me before, racial profiling. Like, I'm just already ready to bite the bullet. Then my friend put it online and I'm glad he did, because it brought awareness to it."

The video racked up 50,000 views overnight and has seen been since millions of times. The massive response revealed how deeply the encounter resonated with so many people, according to Oates and Maiga. 

Jill Greuling, a spokesperson for Fitness International, the parent company for LA Fitness, issued the following statement to News 4:

"For over 30 years, people of all races have been welcome in our clubs. We do ask for a Membership card or ID to gain entry. The front desk staff employee was confused and thought the member was a guest. He explained that he was a member, had checked in earlier, and did not want to retrieve his membership card a second time. The front desk employee who made the request was not working when this member checked in the first time, so she was unaware.

"Regrettably, from there our staff unnecessarily escalated the situation and called the police rather than work through it. Clearly, this is a long time member, with a current, valid membership. We want to clarify that no membership was cancelled and no one, including the member’s guest, was banned from the club. We have spoken to the member to apologize and assure him that he and his guests are welcome in our clubs at all times. I can confirm that the 3 employees most closely associated with this incident are no longer with the company."

Civil rights attorney William Wagstaff III, who represents the two men, said he doesn't think the apology is sincere.

"It was a hollow apology, a PR stunt. If that video had not gone viral, they wouldn't have apologized," he said.

Maiga said a woman at the corporate office of LA Fitness reached out to him to apologize, informing him that the three employees had been fired and offering three months of free membership. But Maiga said he won't be returning to the club.

"I don't feel welcome, no," he said. 

The I-Team reached one of the managers terminated as the result of the incident by phone. She denied there was any racial profiling and said one of the employees felt threatened by the two men, who refused to leave the basketball court. The manager said she believed the three employees were unfairly terminated.

Maiga and Oates say they hope the conversation sparked by the video, especially around race and entrenched bias, will continue in a meaningful and lasting way. 

"Racism is there, it's every day," said Oates. "And people try to say it's getting worse. The only difference is it's being recorded now." 

"I can't tell you how many times I've had to change my voice or try to act, like, super playful just to throw off the 'threatening' effect," said Maiga. "Black people all over the states, their understanding of the situation is nothing new." 

"I'm just tired of it. It happens all the time," he said. "And it's always brushed off like it's not gonna be such a big deal because not everybody understands it."  

Oates said, "Why does it keep happening? People are just so nervous to speak about race in America... If he didn't have those videos, we wouldn't even be here today, we wouldn't be talking about it. We would be just black people telling our story, complaining, pretty much, is what people see it as. And we're not complaining. We're here to fight for what's right."

"You can't just shut down your stores and try to tell everybody they need to go to a class on how to treat black people," said Maiga, referring to Starbucks' plan for racial bias training in the wake of the arrests of two black men in the Philadelphia store. "That's like going to college for one day and having an exam and thinking you're gonna pass. It's never gonna happen like that. That is not the solution. Do I have the soluton? I personally don't, but something needs to change."

Oates added, "We have to say something, continue to speak up, not be nervous to have this conversation. We want people to talk about it until they realize it’s wrong."

"We're two educated young males in America," he said. "We just happen to be black." 

Photo Credit: News 4 NY Black Men Kicked Out of Gym Detail 'Humiliating' Encounter Caught in Viral Video published first on Miami News

[fan-of-mulligan]

FOM BLOG: GILLINGHAM 0 - 1 BRADFORD CITY

My Thoughts On Gillingham V Bradford City………….

I Left My House at 12.50PM in the afternoon and I made sure I had the following things on me,,,,,,,, (Money, Keys, My Gillingham Season Ticket, My Bradford City Match Ticket, My Samsung Galaxy S2, Spare Battery, My Gillingham Jacket, Spare Lids, My Gillingham Scarf, My Gillingham Bag, Football Programmes, Team-Sheets, A Packet Of Polo’s, Pad and Pens, and a 500ML Bottle Of Coca Cola) - and I made sure I had everything on me before making the fifteen / twenty minute walk from my house to Rainham Train Station, and once I arrived at Rainham Train Station at 13.10PM, I brought My Return Train Ticket To Gillingham for £4, And just before leaving My House, I had posted the following status updates on Facebook And Twitter,,,, On my way to Priestfield Stadium as Gillingham take on Bradford City, hopefully Gills can pick up all three points from our 1st home fixture.

I got on The 13.15PM Train, and checked for any messages on Facebook and Twitter, I got a few likes and feedback from tweets I had sent earlier in the day, and I mentioned to Rocket-Man On Twitter that You always want to start your 1st home game of the season with a win, but it is also very important that Gills do not lose tomorrow as well, and I still had that opinion approaching the game against Bradford City, it would be fantastic to get the win, but if we can keep ourselves unbeaten with another draw, then that wouldn’t be the worst result in the world against a team who will be expected to challenge for automatic promotion this season.

I arrived at Gillingham Train Station at 13.20PM and waited for Stephen by the main entrance before handing him The Team Sheets From The Dartford Game, I managed to print quite a few of those out, there was no Dartford Team Listed so only The Gillingham Players were named at the time, and we made our way from Gillingham Train Station To The Ground, and I gave Stephen My Thoughts On The Reading Game and we knew it was going to be a difficult challenge for Gillingham to progress Into The Second Round Of The League Cup, and there were some encouraging sign’s to take out of that match, and if only that effort from Tom Eaves had gone in then it could have been a different story, but Liam Kelly took both of his goals really well on the night, especially the first goal, as that was a superbly taken goal and no goalkeeper is saving that effort.

Bradford City have had mixed results so far this season, winning 2-1 against Blackpool before losing 3-2 against Doncaster Rovers In The League Cup, Bradford City have scored four goals, but they have also conceded four, and this stat told Me and Stephen that we need to be aware of Bradford City’s attacking options, but we can cause there defence problems because Bradford City look a lot weaker defensively, especially with Romain Vincelot suspended, and Adam Chicksen out through injury - with both Romain Vincelot and Adam Chicksen being Former Gillingham Players.

Both Me and Stephen had this down for A Gillingham Win In NoirCat, and Stephen is hoping to secure his Premier League Status and go on A Cup Run In The NoirCat Cup, I highly doubt that I will be able to match my achievements last season, winning promotion and winning The NoirCat Cup within the same season, And Looking Ahead to our up and coming league fixture, Gillingham do have a strong home record against Bradford City and we are hoping that Gillingham get off to a good start with our first win of the season from our first home game of the season at Priestfield Stadium, someone mentioned on Twitter that Gillingham won 3-1 against Bradford City on the opening day of The 2012 / 2013 Season and Gillingham were promoted as League Two Champions that year, the same result and same outcome this year would do very nicely.

We arrived out-side Priestfield Stadium at 13.30PM and I went inside The Ticket Office to check if Season Tickets Were Available to collect (unfortunately The Season Tickets weren’t available) I already had My MK Dons Ticket so no need to look to buy any tickets for any other up and coming away games, Me and Stephen then went into The Mega-Store to buy One Match Day Programme each for £3 before meeting up with Dan and Diane, and we spoke a bit about our up and coming league game and how we’re not going to see a seven goal thriller, referring to Arsenal’s 4 - 3 win against Leicester City On Friday Night In The Premier League, our first two games have shown that Gillingham are looking to be difficult to beat, very combative and competitive and organised defensively as well.

Me and Stephen headed out-side before waiting for Gary to arrive and we were all looking forward to the first home fixture of the season, for many of our supporters, this will be there first chance to see Gillingham play, and The Gills had to work hard for the point against Doncaster Rovers the previous Saturday, Reading Away was one of those games where we needed Reading to play badly and Gillingham to put in a exceptional performance to reach The Second Round Of The League Cup, and for a long time, the cup upset was on, but once Liam Kelly scored it became increasingly difficult for Gillingham to get themselves back into the match.

Eventually, We Saw Gillingham’s Team News On Twitter, And Gillingham Lined Up As Follows,,,,,,,,, Tomas Holy, Max Ehmer, Gabriel Zakuani, Alex Lacey, Luke O’Neill, Mark Byrne, Josh Wright, Connor Ogilvie, Lee Martin, Josh Parker and Conor Wilkinson SUBS: Tom Hadler (GK), Scott Wagstaff, Jake Hessenthaler, Darren Oldaker, Greg Cundle, Liam Nash and Tom Eaves - I wasn’t expecting Alex Lacey to be thrown straight into The Starting Line Up and Scott Wagstaff named among the substitutes bench was a surprise, Tom Eaves on the bench is a bit of a surprise, but at the same-time, when he was substituted against Reading we did lose our way in attack, hopefully, Tom Eaves and Liam Nash can play the role of impact substitute against Bradford City.

Gary eventually joined up with Me, Diane and Stephen and we spoke about Gillingham’s Line Up against Bradford City, And Scott Wagstaff and Tom Eaves both being named on the bench are surprising decisions as far as Gary is concerned, but it was great to see Alex Lacey back in the side and it really does sound like that Gillingham have got a top draw Centre Back In Alex Lacey and someone who could have been snapped up by a number of League One Clubs, I know Charlton Athletic were mentioned, But Alex Lacey won a host of individual awards at Yeovil Town and he wanted to step up and test himself in League One.

But there were a few things that Gary wanted to question about, the first discussion point was regarding our young players and how Adrian Pennock wants to send them out on loan to play competitive first team football, but at the same-time, our young players were given there chance to play for Gillingham against Reading, Adrian Pennock has previously stated that the likes of Ben Chapman, Noel Mbo, Finn O’Mara need to go out and play competitive first team football, I suppose the injuries to Aaron Morris, Billy Bingham and Bradley Garmston have made it harder for Gillingham to loan some of our younger players out, and we’re also looking to sign two or three more players to strengthen the squad as well, but it is clear that some of our young players need to gain experience playing competitive first team football elsewhere before playing for Gillingham’s First Team.

The Second Talking Point is a much more complicated scenario, and that is Stuart Nelson’s On / Off Move At The Moment, Stephen mentioned that Stuart Nelson wants to stay and his agent hasn’t put his name out there to other football clubs, Diane mentioned that Stuart Nelson’s Mum has said that Stuart Nelson has been training every-day, and Gary added that you would have thought that Forest Green Rovers and Cheltenham Town would have made a move for Stuart Nelson as he lives in The South West, but so far, nothing has happened at this present moment in time.

But this on / off scenario with Stuart Nelson isn’t helping Tom Hadler at all, because Tom Hadler cannot leave the football club if we’re looking to move Stuart Nelson on, but at the same-time, we need Stuart Nelson to move on if Adrian Pennock is looking to sign someone as understudy goalkeeper which will enable us to send Tom Hadler out on loan, and then of course there is the possibility of Stuart Nelson working his way back into The Match-Day Squad, but for now, Tomas Holy has got The Number One Shirt, and you cannot fault him for his performances against Doncaster Rovers or Reading.

From a financial point of view, Stuart Nelson is on the most wages and in that regard, you play him, but we’re either looking to try and find Stuart Nelson A Club For Him To Sign For, Agree A Mutual Termination, or A Loan Deal, and as Gary rightfully pointed out, A Mutual Termination will have to be concluded before the end of The Transfer Window to allow Stuart Nelson to sign for another Football League Club, otherwise you have the same situation where Dean Cox played Non League Football For Six Months before being allowed to play for Crawley Town, I then mentioned The First Question At The Fans Forum where Stuart Nelson needs to be Gillingham’s First Choice Goalkeeper and kept on as Goalkeeper Coach, and Adrian Pennock jokingly mentioned to our current Goalkeeper Coach Glen Johnson that there’s the door, so you then have the situation where Stuart Nelson is on the sidelines, yet, we want him to stay on as Goalkeeper Coach, the entire transfer scenario has been an unusual one to say the least, and the door isn’t closed on Stuart Nelson’s Gillingham Career by any means, but this isn’t helping Tom Hadler to get the loan move that he clearly needs either.

Me, Gary, Diane and Stephen spoke about Josh Wright, who thrived playing much further forward last season and even though Lee Martin will start in The Central Attacking Midfielder Role, we should push Josh Wright further forward, because his goal-scoring record last season was one of the few highlights of The 2016 / 2017 Season, I think Charlton Athletic and Gillingham will come to a deal and it may well be the case of Josh Wright sign’s for Charlton Athletic and Harry Lennon comes the other way and sign’s for Gillingham, Harry Lennon Is Twenty Two, He Is A Young Centre Bsck who enjoyed his time at Gillingham Last Time Round and we’re clearly looking to sign additional defensive additions to the squad.

But as Gary pointed out, we would miss Josh Wright for his experience in The Dressing Room and his experience at Gillingham, as Bradley Dack and Cody McDonald have moved on and with Josh Wright moving on that’s another big name player in The Dressing Room Gone, but if you look at The Stuart Nelson On / Off Saga and Josh Wright / Harry Lennon, I think that The Josh Wright / Harry Lennon swap deal is more likely as both teams might come to a deal to swap players and this is the deal I can see happening within the next week or two.

Gary mentioned that there are no offside stats for League One anymore which is annoying, and I wondered if Gary can use OPTA Stats or BBC Live Text and apparently there is someone who has got all the stats, but there all verbally communicated and you might not remember them all, I mentioned that Josh Parker is likely to be a player who will be offside for Gillingham a lot this season as well.

Gillingham also start this season in unique fashion, as Darren Ferguson (Doncaster Rovers), Jaap Stam (Reading) and Stuart McCall (Bradford City) have all played under Sir Alex Ferguson and that is some stat, Sir Alex Ferguson has been on the training ground at Doncaster Rovers a few times, and it’s always useful to ring your Dad up who has won everything to come along to training, Gary was impressed with that stat.

We also spoke about the sheer number of options Gillingham had for The Central Attacking Midfielder Role Last Season, Billy Knott, Lee Martin, Scott Wagstaff, Bradley Dack, Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, Emmanuel Osadebe and Josh Wright, there are fewer options in this position now, but you could have named A Starting Line Up and Seven Substitutes with the number of midfielders we had in the squad last season, this season, the squad is more balanced and players fit the system we want to play, we’re just short in one or two area’s that need addressing before The Transfer Window Slams Shut - As There Is No Emergency Loan System Anymore.

I think every club in The Football League learned the difficult way last season what The Transfer Market was like with no Emergency Loan System and Gillingham especially found it difficult in the second half of last season, Hopefully, Gillingham can get there business done prior to Transfer Deadline Day, and I really do hope that this time, Gillingham sign loanee’s who are fit and available for selection as soon as possible, because it took time for Baily Cargill, Joe Quigley and Harry Cornick to make there debuts for Gillingham Last Season.

There is even this interview with Harry Redknapp - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40905177 - Where Clubs have to pay loan fee’s and penalty fee’s if a player doesn’t play, and this Nineteen Year Old was on £12,500 a week from an unnamed Premier League Club, but if he doesn’t play then you pay £25,000, now if Birmingham City are struggling to bring players in on loan, then you can be guaranteed that every League One and League Two Club will struggle to bring players in on loan, eventually, you will be getting to the end of The Transfer Window and Young Players are desperate to go out on loan that The Loan Fee’s and Penalty Fee’s will come down, because going out on loan will be beneficial to the player.

I mentioned to Gary that I had No Season Ticket and just A Match Ticket for The Bradford City Game and I could foresee there being some serious queuing problems as supporters try and pick up there tickets for the up and coming match against Bradford City, as for score predictions, I think Gillingham will scrap it 1-0, while Stephen predicted a win on Noir Cat, but Stephen thought there was a good chance that this would be a 1-1 score-line.

Gary headed off to his seat, while Diane headed round to her seat in The Gordon Road Stand, while Me and Stephen had our final thoughts pre-match, Conor Wilkinson getting his first start of the season will be interesting, and it is very encouraging to see Alex Lacey make his full Gillingham Debut, and Mark Byrne and Lee Martin coming back into the side are positives, along with Gabriel Zakuani, who was rested in mid-week, so there were plenty of positives with players returning from injury, and players rested in mid-week or unavailable who come back into the side for The Bradford City Game, hopefully, those players who return back into the side can come back and make the difference for The Gills against A Bradford City Side who should be in the top six at the very least this season.

Stephen headed off to Block C in The Medway Stand, while I headed off to the entrance for The Family Enclosure Stand, I brought one fifty / fifty match day lottery ticket before taking to my seat, and I spoke with Colin about Gillingham’s Performances against Doncaster Rovers and Reading and how Gillingham are opting for a hard to beat and hard to score against approach, and after last season, I think this is precisely what every Gillingham Supporter wanted to see, strengthen the defence and make sure we’re not conceding four or five goals a game.

Colin also gave me his own thoughts and opinions on what is happening in regards to Stuart Nelson, because this is the transfer saga everyone is talking about, Bradley Dack moved to Blackburn Rovers very quickly, Josh Wright still has a on / off move with Charlton Athletic, But our main attention is on Stuart Nelson, and does he stay, or does Stuart Nelson move on ??? I am sure many of you reading this will have your own thoughts and opinions on should Stuart Nelson stay at Gillingham Football Club, or, do you think he will move on before The Transfer Window Closes.

Looking ahead to the game against Bradford City, it is going to be very difficult, Bradford City were one game away from reaching The Championship Last Season, Stuart McCall has added to his squad with the signings of Dominic Poleon and Jake Reeves, Nicky Law, Charlie Wyke, Matthew Kilgallon and Romain Vincelot are good players and it’s going to be a challenge, and although Gillingham lost to Reading in mid-week, we did start the season away from home with a solid 0-0 draw against Doncaster Rovers, and hopefully Gillingham can build on that with a result against Bradford City.

I sent the following two tweets before kick off ONE Good to see Lacey make his full debut for Gillingham, while Eaves, Nash & Cundle provide Gills with useful attacking options from the bench And TWO - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!, Both Teams were out of the tunnel ready for kick off and Bradford City and Gillingham Lined Up In-Front Of The Medway Stand, Thankfully, Referee John Busby didn’t switch ends, meaning that both teams will be kicking towards the ends where there supporters are situated in during The Second Half, as Gillingham will be kicking towards The Rainham End, While Bradford City will be kicking towards The Brian Moore Stand.

You have got to say that Bradford City have got a decent support with them, with the end block in The Gordon Road Stand and the corner of The Gordon Road Stand / Brian Moore Stand filled up nicely, good support from Bradford City and the challenge for Gillingham this afternoon is to make sure that they leave Priestfield Stadium disappointed, hopefully, Gillingham can build on that point we picked up against Doncaster Rovers on the opening day of the season - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FIRST HALF:

Gillingham are looking to make an impact straight from the kick off, as Lee Martin plays the ball back to Mark Byrne, who kicks the ball long down the right side of the pitch towards Conor Wilkinson, who wins the aerial challenge up against Matthew Kilgallon, and the second ball drops to Luke O’Neill, who plays the ball down the line towards Conor Wilkinson, who manages to get to the ball ahead of Nathaniel Knight-Percival, but Nicky Law comes across to the challenge the young striker signed from Bolton Wanderers, and although Nicky Law times his challenge to perfection, the loose ball falls kindly to Lee Martin, And  Lee Martin plays the ball inside centrally to Josh Wright, who see’s his driven effort towards goal blocked, and despite the hand-ball shouts from many Gillingham Supporters, Referee John Busby waves away those handball claims and play continued.

From then onwards, Gillingham are on the back-foot as Gabriel Zakuani tidies up at the back and kicks the ball clear into The Gordon Road Stand, Alex Lacey also did his defensive duties on two separate occasions, initially shielding the ball out of play for a goal-kick, and also kicking the ball against Omari Patrick to earn Gillingham a goal-kick by the byline down the left side of the pitch.

This is a very different Bradford City Side, No James Hanson or Jon Stead leading the like, Omari Patrick and Dominic Poleon have got plenty of pace, skill and trickery and it appears that Stuart McCall is looking to sign younger players on lower wages, then sign Experienced Players on lucrative contracts, and that sounds very familiar because there have been times in the past where Gillingham have signed several experienced players on very good contracts, but as for this season, Adrian Pennock has gone for players keen to test themselves in League One with Alex Lacey, Billy Bingham, Liam Nash and Tom Eaves all stepping up from League Two or lower, and Luke O’Neill, Gabriel Zakuani and Connor Ogilvie all have added a much needed physical presence to a defence who conceded the most goals in League One Last Season.

Five Minutes Into The Match, and Gillingham are looking to put Bradford City under a bit of pressure defensively, Tomas Holy kicks the ball long down-field and Tom Field wins the initial aerial challenge, but Mark Byrne brings the ball down and plays the ball short to Josh Wright, who controls the ball and plays the ball out-wide to Luke O’Neill, and Luke O’Neill takes a touch to control the ball before clipping the ball down the line for Josh Parker to run on to and Matthew Kilgallon is forced to kick the ball into touch at the expense of a throw on, and from the resulting throw on, Gillingham do in-fact create a half decent goal-scoring opportunity, Mark Byrne hurls in an dangerous long throw into the heart of Bradford City’s Penalty Area and Max Ehmer flicks the ball across the face of goal and Anthony McMahon manages to kick the ball high into the air, and that was a very important interception from Anthony McMahon, because Josh Parker was free at the far post.

Still the chance is there for The Gills as Lee Martin brings the ball under his control before passing the ball square to Josh Wright as Jake Reeves was closing Lee Martin down, and Josh Wright plays the ball out-wide to Mark Byrne, who see’s his attempted pass cut out and cleared by Tom Field, Seven Minutes Into The Match and Alex Jones is penalised for his challenge on Lee Martin in Gillingham’s Half Of The Pitch, and Gillingham are continuing to put the pressure on Bradford City’s Defence Down The Right Side Of The Pitch But Bradford City do manage to clear there lines, But The Gills are still on the front-foot , As Gillingham have another throw on and this time, Gillingham Have A Throw On Down The Left Side Of the Pitch and Connor Ogilvie throws the ball short to Josh Wright, who quickly manages to switch play with a cross-field pass from left to right to pick out Conor Wilkinson Down The Right Side Of The Pitch, and Matthew Kilgallon is forced to concede another throw on, but Bradford City’s Number Five does manage to time his challenge to perfection on Conor Wilkinson.

Again, Gillingham Have A Throw On Down The Right Side Of The Pitch and Mark Byrne’s Long Throw Into The Heart Of Bradford City’s Penalty Area is won in the air initially by Nathaniel Knight-Percival and then cleared away from danger by Jake Reeves, and in The Ninth Minute, Luke O’Neill has timed two challenges to perfection on Dominic Poleon, and in The Tenth Minute, Bradford City are awarded A Free Kick as Luke O’Neill is penalised for pulling Tom Field back down on the byline down the right side of the pitch, and Bradford City have been awarded A Free Kick in a very promising position, thankfully, from the resulting free kick, Alex Jones dangerous in-swinging cross was far too close to Tomas Holy, and Tomas Holy was able to gather the ball with ease to relieve the pressure building on to Gillingham’s Goal, A Slow Opening Ten Minutes To The Match with neither Goalkeeper not severely tested at this present moment in time, Long Throws look like there going to be the best way for Gillingham to create goal-scoring opportunities, as Mark Byrne has hurled in a few dangerous long throws into the heart of Bradford City’s Penalty Area.

Twelve Minutes Into The Match, and Gabriel Zakuani takes no chances and kicks the ball into touch into The Gordon Road Stand, and it is from here where Bradford City create the first real goal-scoring opportunity of the match, Anthony McMahon throws the ball short to Timothee Dieng, who plays a one touch layoff out-wide to Anthony McMahon, who takes a touch to control the ball and Anthony McMahon plays the ball back to Timothee Dieng, who brings the ball under his control with his first touch before threading the ball through down the side to Alex Jones, who is challenged by Alex Lacey, and the loose ball falls kindly to Anthony McMahon, who whips in an dangerous low cross first time, and Anthony McMahon’s low cross ricochets off Alex Lacey into Timothee Dieng’s Path and Timothee Dieng cuts inside centrally past Josh Wright and Timothee Dieng’s shot on target deflects off Lee Martin and Tomas Holy makes a very good save, because I am sure that Tomas Holy saw that effort on goal from Timothee Dieng very late as well.

Thirteen Minutes Into The Match, and Matthew Kilgallon is penalised for his challenge on Josh Parker, and Gillingham created a half decent goal-scoring opportunity from The Resulting Free Kick, as Mark Byrne played the ball short to Lee Martin down The Right Side Of The Pitch Down In The Corner By The Medway Stand / Brian Moore Stand, and Lee Martin is twisting and turning and Lee Martin manages to dig out a cross towards the back-stick and Nathaniel Knight-Percival headers the ball clear and away from home goal and Jake Reeves clears the ball further away from Bradford City’s Goal, and that wasn’t a bad opportunity for Gillingham to open the scoring and gives The Gills something to build on.

A Minute Later, and Gillingham create a half chance, and again, Gillingham are looking to get through down the right side of the pitch as Luke O’Neill plays the ball down the line towards Conor Wilkinson, who holds the ball up and lays the ball off to Mark Byrne, and Mark Byrne takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball out-wide to Lee Martin, who manages to get to the byline and fire in a dangerous low cross which takes a double deflection off Two Bradford City Defenders, and fortunately for Bradford City, the ball ricochets into Colin Doyle’s Path.

Fouls By Josh Wright and Max Ehmer on Nicky Law and Dominic Poleon have slow the pace of the match right down, I didn’t think that Josh Wright should have been penalised for his challenge, Bradford City were looking to pile on the pressure from the second free kick given in there favour, and when Nicky Law whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross, Anthony McMahon is penalised for his aerial challenge on Lee Martin, and Gillingham have been awarded a free kick which relieves the pressure building up on to our own goal.

Bradford City continue to pile on the pressure in The Eighteenth Minute, as Nathaniel Knight-Percival has possession of the ball, and Nathaniel Knight-Percival passes the ball towards Anthony McMahon, who takes a touch to control the ball before passing the ball down the line towards Alex Jones, but Alex Lacey slides in to make an important interception, Bradford City are quick with the resulting throw on as Nicky Law throws the ball down the line, and again Alex Lacey times his challenge on Alex Jones to perfection, unfortunately for Gillingham However, Bradford City do in-fact take the lead from the resulting throw on as Anthony McMahon throws the ball short to Nicky Law, who plays the ball out-wide to Anthony McMahon, and Anthony McMahon plays the ball down the line towards Alex Jones, who is being tightly marked by Alex Lacey, and Alex Jones manages to fire in an dangerous low cross across the face of goal and Dominic Poleon’s First Time Finish is low and accurate into the bottom left corner of the net and Bradford City have taken the lead and Gillingham have got plenty of work to do now.

Could Alex Lacey have done more to stop the cross, yes, and should someone have marked Dominic Poleon closely, yes, It wasn’t a great strike from Dominic Poleon, but he has hit the target and Gillingham have been caught out and we have been punished, Gillingham have got a lot of work to do to try and turn this match around, Neither Goalkeeper has been severely tested so far, But Bradford City have been clinical in-front of goal, and Gillingham have got time to turn things around, but The Gills have got to do more in the final third for the result to change.

Gillingham are looking for an instant equaliser, and Mark Byrne was challenged off the ball by Jake Reeves, Gabriel Zakuani again has done his defensive duties at the back and Gabriel Zakuani has possession of the ball before passing the ball square to Alex Lacey, who passes the ball out-wide to Connor Ogilvie, and Connor Ogilvie passes the ball back inside to Alex Lacey, who takes a touch to control the ball before hitting a long ball down-field towards Conor Wilkinson, who does really well to retain possession of the ball despite being held by Tom Field, and Conor Wilkinson runs into an more central position on to the pitch and Conor Wilkinson see’s his driven effort towards goal blocked by Tom Field and Conor Wilkinson still manages to retain possession of the ball, that was until Nathaniel Knight-Percival slid in to time his challenge to perfection, but the loose ball from the challenge falls kindly to Mark Byrne, who takes a touch to control the ball before striking a driven effort over the right side of Colin Doyle’s Crossbar from more then Twenty Five Yards Out, and that was the chance for Mark Byrne to pull Gillingham back on to level terms.

Once the ball was out of play, Jake Reeves was booked for his earlier challenge on Mark Byrne as Referee John Busby allowed play to continue before going back to Jake Reeves to book him for the initial foul, A Minute Later, and Timothee Dieng should also have gone into The Referee’s Notebook for his reckless challenge on Mark Byrne, who really has been on the end of one or two late challenges within the past few minutes, Thankfully, Mark Byrne was OK to continue playing.

Twenty Two Minutes Into The Match, and Gillingham created a really good attacking move which unlocked Bradford City’s Defence, Luke O’Neill played the ball forward to Conor Wilkinson on the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, and Conor Wilkinson passes the ball sideways to Josh Parker who played the ball through to Lee Martin on the over-lap , as Lee Martin makes a very good third man run, and Lee Martin side-steps past the advancing Colin Doyle, But The Bradford City Goalkeeper does enough to prevent Lee Martin from equalising at the expense of A Corner Kick For The Gills, and Gillingham have the chance to get back on to level terms from the resulting corner kick, and from the resulting corner kick, Lee Martin has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the back-stick and Alex Lacey cannot quite manage to direct his header on target, hopefully, this is something that Gillingham can build on and Gillingham can get themselves back on to level terms before the half time interval.

Twenty Four Minutes Into The Match, And Nicky Law is penalised for his challenge on Josh Wright, and Gillingham have the chance to put more pressure on to Bradford City’s Defence, and From The Resulting Free Kick, Luke O’Neill has aimed an dangerous in-swinging cross from the left side of the pitch to the right, and unfortunately, From A Gillingham Point Of View, Luke O’Neill’s Cross Towards The Far Post was over-hit and goes out of play for A Bradford City Goal-Kick.

Twenty Six Minutes Into The Match, and Max Ehmer only just about clears the ball into touch because Dominic Poleon was putting the pressure on to Max Ehmer by closing the space down, and when you look at how Dominic Poleon leads the line for Bradford City, he is precisely what Gillingham are lacking in the final third, someone who is quick, someone who has the pace to get behind opposition defenders and someone who carries a genuine goal threat because they have got that pace, Freddie Ladapo has been linked with a loan move to Gillingham and Loan Signings Usually Happen towards the end of the transfer window, so I do wonder if Adrian Pennock is waiting for Championship Clubs to strengthen there squads before a few of there fringe players become available to sign on loan ???

Twenty Nine Minutes Into The Match, and Omari Patrick is shown A Yellow Card From Referee John Busby for his challenge on Josh Parker, and From The Resulting Free Kick, Lee Martin looks to whip in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the back-stick, and Alex Lacey is penalised for his aerial challenge on Timothee Dieng, and Gillingham then concede two fouls in quick succession, the first challenge see’s Lee Martin penalised for his challenge on Jake Reeves, but It’s The Second Challenge which is more severe, as Alex Lacey brings Alex Jones down to the deck down the left side of the pitch, and it is a late challenge and one that does warrant a yellow card, but also a reminder to us as Gillingham Supporters that Alex Lacey has only played Forty Five Minutes Of First Team Football In Pre-Season and Alex Lacey is behind the rest of his team-mates in-terms of match fitness and match sharpness levels.

And From The Resulting Free Kick, Bradford City do continue to pile on the pressure, Anthony McMahon has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross into the heart of Gillingham’s Penalty Area, and Gabriel Zakuani has managed to header the ball away from goal, and Nathaniel Knight-Percival has kicked the ball against Max Ehmer to win Bradford City A Corner Kick, And Bradford City created a meaningful goal-scoring opportunity from the resulting corner kick as Anthony McMahon manages to pick out Jake Reeves on to the edge of Gillingham’s Penalty Area with a clever short corner kick routine, and Jake Reeves First Time Effort Towards Goal thankfully hits the back of The Rainham End and not the back of the net.

Thirty Four Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham Have A Throw On Down The Right Side Of The Pitch In Bradford City’s Final Third, But Before That Throw Can Be Taken, Nicky Law is down on the deck and require treatment for Bradford City and it takes a minute or two for Nicky Law to get back on to his feat and continue playing, And Once Play Resumes, Gillingham almost equalise from the resulting throw on, as Mark Byrne hurls in an dangerous long throw into the heart of Bradford City’s Penalty Area and Max Ehmer see’s his attempted flick on ricochet off Tom Field, but the loose ball falls kindly to Max Ehmer, who see’s his cross / shot ricochet off Timothee Dieng, and the ball deflects up into the air and Gabriel Zakuani and Alex Lacey both challenge for the same ball and Gabriel Zakuani manages to header the ball towards the left side of Bradford City’s Penalty Area, and from a acute angle, Josh Parker has seen his fiercely struck effort towards goal saved by Colin Doyle and Tom Field then wins the initial aerial challenge, and Gabriel Zakuani headers the ball forward to Conor Wilkinson, which is cut out by Anthony McMahon, and the second ball falls kindly to Mark Byrne, who’s driven effort has hit the back of The Brian Moore Stand, and not the back of the net.

I mentioned that Gillingham created a scrappy effort for our most recent goal-scoring opportunity, and it is going to take one of these efforts for Gillingham to get themselves back on to level terms, I thought Mark Byrne’s driven shot towards goal was going to ricochet off A Bradford City Player and sometimes you need one of those to go in to get yourself up and running for the season.

Gillingham seem to gain some confidence from that goal-scoring opportunity, as Alex Jones is penalised for his challenge on Mark Byrne, and either side of that challenge see’s Lee Martin and Luke O’Neill win throw on’s for The Gills Down The Right Side Of The Pitch, And From The Resulting Throw On, Mark Byrne has hurled in an dangerous long throw into the heart of Bradford City’s Penalty Area and Max Ehmer flicks the ball on which is headed partially clear and away from danger by Nathaniel Knight-Percival and Alex Jones clears the ball further away from goal, and Gabriel Zakunai brings the ball down, before managing to pick out Josh Parker with an fantastic pass down The Right Side Of The Pitch, But The Linesman Down The Medway Stand / Brian Moore Stand Side Of The Pitch had his flag raised for offside.

Conor Wilkinson has also shown a good turn of pace and Conor Wilkinson would have been one on one with Colin Doyle had Tom Field not timed his challenge to perfection, and it appears that Tom Field may well have hurt himself in the process of making that challenge and there is another stoppage in play, Dominic Poleon is also penalised for his challenge on Luke O’Neill which results in Tomas Holy booting the ball long down-field and Nathaniel Knight-Percival winning the initial aerial challenge and Alex Jones kicking the ball long down-field and Gabriel Zakuani tidying up at the back and heading the ball back to Tomas Holy, as the closing stages of The First Half appear to be fading out.

There is also another stoppage in play, I think it is Omari Patrick who is down this time, and it takes some-time before Referee John Busby instructs Bradford City to play the ball back to Tomas Holy, injuries may well have added two additional minutes of stoppage time at the end of The First Half, and there sure has been a lot of fouls and free kicks given in what has been a scrappy match with very little in goal-mouth action.

But while there has been little in-terms of goal-mouth action - and by that, I mean genuine goal-scoring opportunities - Bradford City almost doubled there lead in horrendous circumstances, Anthony McMahon almost picks out Omari Patrick with a long ball over the top, but Tomas Holy is well positioned to gather the ball, and from here, Tomas Holy rolls the ball out to Max Ehmer who takes a touch to control the ball and then another touch, and Max Ehmer takes far to long turns back on himself and is intercepted by Dominic Poleon, who has the pace to get to the loose ball, round Tomas Holy and then roll the ball wide of the bottom right corner of the net with the entire goal empty, and that miss from Dominic Poleon has to go down as miss of the season surely.

What A Let Off For Gillingham and Max Ehmer must be the most relieved player inside Priestfield Stadium, pre-match, I spoke about the possibility of Gillingham signing Harry Lennon and Adrian Pennock is looking to sign another centre back, For Me, Looking at how uncomfortable Max Ehmer is at playing in the wide centre back roles and how Max Ehmer putting in a much more encouraging performance playing as The Central Centre Back against Reading On Tuesday Night, then it is clear for all to see that Gillingham need to sign A Centre Back who can slot in at Right Centre Back.

At 2-0 down, there would be very little chance of Gillingham getting something out of the match, but all the while the score-line remains at 1-0, there is hope that Gillingham can kick on in The Second Half and get back on to level terms, or, even manage to turn this match on it’s head and Gillingham can pick up all three points from a losing position.

And as we approached added time at the end of The First Half, Gillingham had the chance to score an equaliser just before the interval, Gillingham have A Throw On Down The Left Side of The Pitch and Connor Ogilvie plays the ball back to Alex Lacey, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Alex Lacey knocks the ball high towards Conor Wilkinson, who is brought down to the deck by Nathaniel Knight-Percival, and Gillingham have the chance to make Bradford City pay for that miss by getting on the score-sheet from the resulting free kick.

And that is almost precisely what happens, as Lee Martin whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the back-stick, and Alex Lacey headers the ball back across the face of goal and just wide of Colin Doyle’s Right Hand Post, and had Alex Lacey managed to find the target with that header then he would have surely equalised for The Gills, and Alex Lacey’s Header was the final noteworthy moment of The First Half, A First Half which Gillingham go in at the break at 1-0 down, but The Gills should be losing 2-0, there is no doubt about that.

HALF TIME: GILLINGHAM 0 - 1 BRADFORD CITY

And that was the talking point between myself, Colin and David at Half Time, Dominic Poleon should have doubled Bradford City’s Lead and that miss of the season has given us as Gillingham Supporters Hope that Gillingham can still get something out of the match, but that error from Max Ehmer was truly dreadful, and I for one would genuinely hope that Adrian Pennock can get the deal done to sign Harry Lennon, Max Ehmer isn’t conformable playing as A Wide Centre Back, and he is very very lucky that Dominic Poleon hasn’t doubled Bradford City’s Lead.

It has been a very defensive performance from The Gills, as Gillingham are trying to deny space for Bradford City to exploit, but the low cross from Alex Jones needed to be blocked by Alex Lacey or, someone in the centre managed to cut out the supply, Dominic Samuel did what he had to do by hitting the target, but it has given Gillingham a uphill battle for The Second Half.

Attack Wise, Gillingham are essentially relying on long throws from Mark Byrne to find there intended target, Mark Byrne has fired two efforts over the crossbar, Josh Parker has seen his effort on goal saved by Colin Doyle and Lee Martin has forced Colin Doyle to make a save as well, we just need to see a bit more oomph from Gillingham in The Second Half.

Substitution Wise, I did wonder if Alex Lacey would come off as he had already been booked and hasn’t played many games in pre-season, and perhaps Connor Ogilvie will move inside to Left Centre Back, Josh Parker to Left Wing Back and bring on one of Tom Eaves, Greg Cundle or Liam Nash in attack ??? - Substituting A Player at half time who was on a yellow card was something that Martin Allen used to do, Scott Wagstaff, Darren Oldaker and Jake Hessenthaler were our other three out-field substitutions as well, so Gillingham do have options, and Colin added that he would like to see Liam Nash to come on and provide us with something different in attack, Gillingham have got to give Bradford City more to think about defensively.

I then sent the following tweet on Twitter At Half Time,,, Gills Should be 2-0 down, hopefully we can use that to inspire the players to kick on in The Second Half - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!! - And that was what I was hoping for, if Gillingham can get back on to level terms and draw 1-1 and avoid defeat then that would be a respectable result against a team who should be promotion contenders this season, if we can turn this match around and win, then even better, because Bradford City were there for the taking if Gillingham can just give it a little bit more in a attacking sense.

Both teams were out of the tunnel ready for kick off, and neither Adrian Pennock, or Stuart McCall made any substitutions at half time, with both manager’s content with the team’s they named at the start of the match, and those substitutions will be needed later on as players will noticeably start to tire as fatigue starts to kick in, hopefully, Adrian Pennock will have instructed his players to get on the ball, pass the ball around like we did in pre-season and look to create more goal-scoring opportunities in open play, let’s hope that Gillingham can turn this match around in The Second Half - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SECOND HALF:

Both teams were out on to the pitch for The Start Of The Second Half, and It Is Gillingham who are looking to make the breakthrough as Lee Martin whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross from the right side of the pitch and Bradford City Goalkeeper Colin Doyle palms the ball away from goal and out of player for A Gillingham Corner Kick, The Atmosphere Inside Priestfield Stadiun raised in volume and COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!! Was being chanted loudly, as we eagerly anticipated a possible equaliser for The Gills From The Resulting Corner Kick, And that is almost precisely what happens as well, as Lee Martin whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross from the resulting corner kick towards goal, and Lee Martin’s effort towards goal from the corner flag only just about cleared Bradford City’s Crossbar and had that been on target there would have been nothing that Colin Doyle could have done about that, as Gillingham had four players on the goal-line, and Bradford City had five players back in what was a crowded six yard box.

Forty Eight Minutes Into The Match, And Gillingham Have A Throw On Down The Left Side Of The Pitch In Our Own Half, and Connor Ogilvie throws the ball down the line towards Josh Parker, who chests the ball into Conor Wilkinson’s Path, and Conor Wilkinson runs forward in possession of the ball and Conor Wilkinson manages to evade the challenge from Tom Field before continuing his run forward inside Bradford City’s Penalty Area and Conor Wilkinson is brought down to the deck by Anthony McMahon, and Referee John Busby waves away those penalty appeals despite the fact that many Gillingham Supporters thought that Anthony McMahon has clipped Conor Wilkinson.

Decisions / Non Decisions like these only strengthen the cause for Video Technology to be implemented and I think the problem with VAR in The Confederations Cup was how it was used, Referee’s had to use VAR when I think that Manager’s should be the one’s who make the call for VAR Usage, When you look at HawkEye In Tennis, The Third Umpire In Cricket, Rugby Uses Video Technology to determine A Try, And Snooker uses A Monitor For A Foul And A Miss, I would like to see something similar to Tennis Hawkeye’s System In Football, as your allowed Three Challenges A Set, So One Challenge A Half, and Another Challenge which can be used at any-time wouldn’t be a bad idea, I think what ruined VAR was how it was implemented, not the technology itself, but it does need fine tuning, and Video Technology is a debate that is on going on both sides of the argument at this present moment in time.

Forty Nine Minutes Into The Match, and Bradford City are looking to double there advantage as Omari Patrick manages to get through on goal down the left side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Right - and Omari Patrick cuts inside and see’s his driven effort towards goal brilliantly blocked by Gabriel Zakuani and Bradford City have won themselves A Corner Kick in-front of where there supporters are situated, And From The Resulting Corner Kick, Anthony McMahon has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross which Tomas Holy does brilliantly to gather, but with Gillingham having everyone back to defend the corner kick, by the time Tomas Holy kicked the ball long down-field, it was essentially one long kick from one goalkeeper to another.

Fouls and Free Kicks start to break up the pace and tempo of this match, as Omari Patrick is penalised for his challenge on Max Ehmer, But Anthony McMahon should have gone into The Referee’s Notebook for his challenge on Connor Ogilvie, the challenge looked bad at the time and you only have to look at this picture - https://twitter.com/JulianJJHart/status/896491496496668677 - to realise just how bad a challenge it was from Anthony McMahon to realise that Referee John Busby should have shown The Bradford City Defender A Yellow Card.

In The Fifty Third Minute Of The Match, Nathaniel Knight-Percival clears the ball out of play at the expense of A Throw On, But Instead of causing Bradford City Problems Defensively, The Visitor’s were looking to hit Gillingham on the counter attack and Mark Byrne took one for the team by stopping Timothee Dieng from running any further forward, and yes, this was a booking for Mark Byrne, And Bradford City are looking to put Gillingham under more pressure defensively as Nicky Law takes the resulting free kick for Bradford City, clipping a high ball into the heart of Gillingham’s Penalty Area and Gabriel Zakuani takes no chances by heading the ball out of play for A Bradford City Corner Kick, and From The Resulting Corner Kick, Anthony McMahon has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross which is headed clear by Alex Lacey, and Tom Field manages to keep the ball in play before looking to play the ball through to Omari Patrick down the left side of the pitch, but Connor Ogilvie comes across to shield the ball out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick.

Fifty Six Minutes Into The Match, and Luke O’Neill has clipped the ball down the line for Josh Parker to run on to, and Matthew Kilgallon has come across to kick the ball into touch down The Rainham End / Gordon Road Stand Side Of The Pitch, And From The Resulting Throw On, Gillingham created a half chance to try and get themselves back on to level terms, Mark Byrne has hurled in an dangerous long throw into the heart of Bradford City’s Penalty Area and Max Ehmer has flicked the ball across the face of goal, and Anthony McMahon and Colin Doyle can watch the ball go out of play for A Bradford City Goal-Kick - A Half Chance - And Something to build on.

After that half chance from Max Ehmer, It Is Bradford City who are making there first substitution of the match as Alex Gilliead comes on for Alex Jones In the Fifty Eighth Minute, and I am looking across at Gillingham’s Attacking Options On The Bench and Liam Nash, Tom Eaves and Greg Cundle are all options that Adrian Pennock can rely on to try and get Gillingham back on to level terms.

And Gillingham are just gaining a bit of momentum at the moment, as Connor Ogilvie has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross towards the back-stick and Timothee Dieng has no other choice but to header the ball out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, unfortunately for Gillingham, Lee Martin’s in-swinging cross towards the near post is headed clear by Matthew Kilgallon and out of play for A Gillingham Throw, which doesn’t result in a meaningful goal-scoring opportunity for The Gills.

But Gillingham do create a fantastic goal-scoring opportunity on The Hour Mark, as Gillingham turn defence into attack as Connor Ogilvie gets to the ball down the left side of the pitch right by the byline, and Connor Ogilvie boots the ball long down-field and Josh Parker is being pulled all over the place by Nathaniel Knight-Percival and Timothee Dieng is on to the loose ball, and Conor Wilkinson does extremely well to intercept the ball and Conor Wilkinson runs forward in possession of the ball, cuts inside into an more central position, and Conor Wilkinson continue’s his run, squares the ball to Mark Byrne, who plays the ball through to Luke O’Neill on the over-lap down the right side of the pitch, and Luke O’Neill clips in a fantastic cross across the face of goal and Josh Parker’s first time effort goes narrowly wide of Colin Doyle’s Left Hand Post, What A Chance!!!!! That Was The Chance For Gillingham to get back on to level terms, and if only that effort from Josh Parker was on target, and will Gillingham get a better chance then that to get themselves back on to level terms ???

In The Sixty First Minute Of The Match, Anthony McMahon was booked for his challenge on Connor Ogilvie, now this irks me because Anthony McMahon should now been shown his marching orders because that earlier challenge on Connor Ogilvie was defiantly a bookable offence, and Gillingham were awarded a free kick in a promising position on the pitch, and from the resulting free kick, Lee Martin has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Conor Wilkinson and Nicky Law both challenge for the ball in the air, and for some unknown reason this is deemed a foul by Conor Wilkinson, you can hear how frustrated every Gillingham Supporter was getting with the official’s at this present moment in time.

But Gillingham do make there first substitution in The Sixty Third Minute Of The Match as Tom Eaves comes on for Alex Lacey, and our defence basically moved across one so that Josh Parker can slot in at Right Wing Back, although Max Ehmer does move across to play at Left Centre Back, and Tom Eaves contribution was noticeable straight away, as Tomas Holy Kicks The Ball Long Down-Field and Tom Eaves flicks the ball on for Conor Wilkinson to run on to, and Conor Wilkinson is penalised for pushing Matthew Kilgallon to the floor as The Bradford City Defender managed to get himself in-between the ball and Conor Wilkinson to win a free kick for Bradford City.

A Minute Later, And Conor Wilkinson is flagged for offside and Bradford City make there second substitution of the match, as Paul Taylor replaces Omari Patrick, and In The Sixty Eighth Minute, Luke O’Neill plays the ball through to Josh Parker Down The Right Side Of The Pitch, and Josh Parker see’s his dangerous low cross blocked and cleared at the near post by Nicky Law, and there was a moment where Bradford City were looking to turn defence into attack on the counter attack, but Dominic Poleon was flagged for standing in an offside position, although Dominic Poleon was flagged for standing in a offside position, Gabriel Zakuani still managed to come across and do his defensive duties very effectively.

But Josh Parker looks so much more effective for Gillingham at Right Wing Back then he does up-front for Gillingham, surely Adrian Pennock must realise that Josh Parker is better in either Wing Back Role or playing as A Central Attacking Midfielder, and we either do not think that Greg Cundle and Liam Nash are ready from the start, or, we’re looking to sign a pacey striker on loan who can get in and behind opposition defences, Because I do think we’re one striker short and we can do with another striker signing either on loan, or on a permanent deal before The Transfer Window Slams Shut.

Seventy One Minutes Into The Match, and Gillingham are pushing to make the breakthrough as Luke O’Neill clips the ball out-wide to Josh Parker, who takes a touch to control the ball and Josh Parker manages to evade Tom Field’s challenge and run down the right flank before being hurled to the ground by The Bradford City Midfielder and Tom Field is only given a warning from Referee John Busby, But Gillingham do have a free kick in a very promising position on the pitch, and from the resulting free kick, Lee Martin whips in an dangerous low cross into the heart of Bradford City’s Penalty Area and Timothee Dieng just manages to get ahead of Tom Eaves to knock the ball out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick, and Gillingham managed to create a decent goal-scoring opportunity from the resulting corner kick, as Lee Martin whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross and Josh Wright had a free header on goal from six yards out and Josh Wright’s headed effort doesn’t hit the back of the net and instead hits the back of The Rainham End Instead.

However, In The Seventy Fifth Minute, this match completely changes into Bradford City’s Favour as Gillingham go down to ten men, Tomas Holy kicks the ball long down-field and neither Tom Eaves or Tom Field can win the aerial challenge and Conor Wilkinson manages to to cushion his header out-wide to Josh Wright, who runs forward in possession of the ball and Josh Wright manages to get to the byline and Matthew Kilgallon gets across and looks to have cleared the ball out of play for A Gillingham Corner Kick.

But the ball hits the corner flag and stays in play and as Timothee Dieng comes across to clear the ball, Conor Wilkinson goes in to charge down the attempted clearance and Timothee Dieng goes to ground and Bradford City Players along with Goalkeeper Colin Doyle go up to Referee John Busby straight away and “CHEAT, CHEAT, CHEAT” Is the chant aimed towards Timothee Dieng and there is a lengthy stoppage in play as a decision needed to be made, and Referee John Busby has sent Conor Wilkinson off and Gillingham are down to ten men now.

And that’s a real shame, because Gillingham were knocking on the door and The Gills were in the ascendancy and Conor Wilkinson was playing really well at the time, I wrote down shocking decision from The Referee In My Notepad, but I didn’t have the clearest of views in real-time, having seen the incident again, I have to say the decision to send Conor Wilkinson off was the correct decision, regardless if contact is made or not, if you slide in like that then you have to accept the consequences of being dismissed, and The Gills have got fifteen minutes plus stoppage time remaining to try and get something out of this match, and a point would be a very good point if Gillingham can somehow managed to find the equaliser.

Seventy Seven Minutes Into The Match, and Gillingham are awarded another free kick as Timothee Dieng is penalised for his challenge on Lee Martin, and Gillingham have the chance to pile the pressure on to Bradford City’s Goal From The Resulting Free Kick, unfortunately, Lee Martin’s in-swinging cross is over-hit and hits the back of The Rainham End and is a complete waste, that’s the worst free kick Lee Martin has taken all game, and it comes at a time where Gillingham really do need to try and find a equaliser.

Both Teams are flagged for offside in quick succession as Gillingham are looking to try and find the equaliser, while Bradford City are looking to make the three points safe, Tom Eaves has made an impact since he has come on, flicking the ball on towards Lee Martin who was flagged for offside, and down the other end of the pitch, Max Ehmer managed to come across and clear the ball before Dominic Poleon could get there first, and Nicky Law has looked to play the ball through to substitute striker Paul Taylor, who was flagged for offside down The Medway Stand Side Of The Pitch.

Eighty Minutes Into The Match, and Tomas Holy does really well to hang on to Jake Reeves dangerous in-swinging cross before looking to quickly distribute the ball forward to Tom Eaves, who was flagged for standing in a offside position, But In The Eighty First Minute, and Bradford City are looking to secure all three points, as the visitor’s are looking to take advantage of the additional space they have got available as Bradford City have got the numerical advantage, Jake Reeves passes the ball forward to Paul Taylor, who plays the ball down the left side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Right - Towards Dominic Poleon, who is twisting and turning before unleashing a driven effort towards goal which is brilliantly blocked by Gabriel Zakuani and Gillingham have conceded a corner kick.

While Bradford City didn’t create a meaningful goal-scoring opportunity from The Resulting Corner Kick, The Visitor’s were on the front-foot a minute later in The Eighty Third Minute, as Bradford City build there most latest attack very patiently, Gillingham have A Throw On Down The Right Side Of The Pitch In Our Own Final Third, and Luke O’Neill throws the ball down the line and Josh Parker does indeed manage to flick the ball on, but Jake Reeves manages to cut out the attempted flick on to intercept the ball and run in possession of the ball towards the right side of the pitch - Gillingham’s Left - and Jake Reeves looks around and retains possession of the ball for Bradford City before laying the ball off to Anthony McMahon, who takes a touch to control the ball, and McMahon was looking to pass the ball down the line before passing the ball back to Jake Reeves, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Jake Reeves squares the ball to Matthew Kilgallon on the halfway line, and Matthew Kilgallon passes the ball out-wide to Tom Field, who threads the ball through to Timothee Dieng, who is forced wide as he was under pressure from Mark Byrne, but Timothee Dieng lays the ball off to Paul Taylor, who runs into an more central position on the pitch, and Paul Taylor was looking to go for goal himself, but Paul Taylor lays the ball off to Nicky Law, who’s first time strike towards goal from twenty five yards out is saved and gathered at the second attempt by Tomas Holy.

Eighty Four Minutes Into The Match, and Gabriel Zakuani is forced to concede another corner kick, and this time Bradford City opt to go for the short corner kick routine as Anthony McMahon plays the ball short to Jake Reeves, who plays the ball back to Anthony McMahon, and this time, The Bradford City’s Defender’s Cross to the back-stick is over-hit and goes out of play for A Gillingham Goal-Kick.

Eighty Seven Minutes Into The Match, and Adrian Pennock makes a double substitution, bringing on Liam Nash and Scott Wagstaff for Mark Byrne and Josh Parker, But fouls and free kicks appear to slowly break up the pace and tempo of this match as Gabriel Zakuani is penalised for his challenge on Jake Reeves, while Nicky Law is penalised for his challenge on Josh Wright.

But just as we’re about to hit The Ninetieth Minute, Gillingham create a decent goal-scoring opportunity, Connor Ogilvie manages to win the aerial challenge up against Alex Gilliead, and Connor Ogilvie headers the ball forward to Liam Nash, who plays the ball back to Josh Wright, and Josh Wright takes a touch to control the ball, cuts inside into a more central position and Josh Wright kicks the ball long down-field and Tom Eaves wins the aerial challenge to knock the ball down into Lee Martin’s Path, and Lee Martin evades Tom Fields challenge before running into a more central position, and Lee Martin keeps going and from Twenty Yards Out Decides to go for goal, but Lee Martin’s effort towards goal is easy for Colin Doyle to save.

And as we approach stoppage time, Gillingham are looking to find that all important equaliser, Josh Wright and Nicky Law are both battling for the loose ball in Bradford City’s Half Of The Pitch, and Josh Wright headers the ball back to Connor Ogilvie, who kicks the ball high into the sky and Alex Gilliead’s first touch wasn’t great and Scott Wagstaff headers the ball forward towards Liam Nash, who is brought down to the deck by Timothee Dieng and Gillingham have been awarded a free kick, and from the resulting free kick, Gillingham had a great chance to score the equaliser, Lee Martin whips in an dangerous in-swinging cross which is headed partially clear by Alex Gilliead, and Luke O’Neill headers the ball back into Bradford City’s Penalty Area and Max Ehmer flicks the ball on and Timothee Dieng’s block sets the ball up nicely for Liam Nash who’s looping header clears Colin Doyle’s Crossbar - THAT WAS THE CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was the chance for Gillingham to score the equaliser.

The closing stages of The Second Half are end to end, as Bradford City are looking to make all three points safe as Bradford City look to get the ball moving quickly as Colin Doyle passes the ball out to Matthew Kilgallon from the resulting goal-kick, and Matthew Kilgallon passes the ball out-wide to Tom Field, who takes a touch to control the ball, and Tom Field passes the ball forward to Nicky Law, who runs forward in possession of the ball and Nicky Law threads the ball through to Paul Taylor down the left side of the pitch and Paul Taylor continue’s his run into Gillingham’s Penalty Area and Paul Taylor opts to go for goal towards the near post and Tomas Holy gets down low to his right to make the save.

There is still time for Gillingham to find the equaliser, and Tomas Holy throws the ball out-wide to Connor Ogilvie, who takes a touch to control the ball and Connor Ogilvie plays the ball down the line towards Liam Nash, who cuts inside and is taken out by Nathaniel Knight-Percival, who really should have been booked for that challenge, and Gillingham have one last chance to score a valuable equaliser, and I was hoping that Tomas Holy came forward, as it really was now or never for The Gills.

And From The Resulting Free Kick, Lee Martin has whipped in an dangerous in-swinging cross, and Timothee Dieng has partially headed the ball clear and away from danger, but only as far as Scott Wagstaff, who has fired the ball back in low towards the bottom left corner of the net and Tom Eaves has scored from close range and we all thought that Gillingham had equalised there and then, and then Referee John Busby consulted with his Linesman and I was really hoping that the goal was going to be given, but the goal wasn’t given and the Full Time Whistle was blown straight away.

Again, I would liked to have seen the option to take this to A VAR Refereeing Decision, and also, it is a bit typical that whenever there is a contentious decision that has to be awarded at the end of the game, that The Referee blows his whistle for Full Time, but Gillingham, despite there best efforts in The Second Half, were unable to make it two draws in a row in the league, and Bradford City were able to pick up all three points against Gillingham at Priestfield Stadium.

FULL TIME: GILLINGHAM 0 - 1 BRADFORD CITY

So Gillingham start there first home match of the season with a defeat, and the players applauded the supporters, who applauded the players for there efforts and I also applauded the players for the effort they put in, I did hear some in the front row walking by ask his friend “Why Are They Clapping?” and I thought this was something worth taking into consideration, not everyone will clap at full time, some fans will act differently, some will show there frustrations, others will boo and it just comes down to your own individual preferences or how you react in that moment.

Maybe it is just me here - and feel free to completely disagree with me if you don’t think this is correct - But Win, Lose Or Draw, you applaud the players off the pitch and at least show appreciation for the effort the players have put in even if the result hasn’t gone your way, but if the effort hasn’t been put in, then that is where the appreciation towards the players is a little forthcoming, a lack of quality is acceptable, a lack of effort is deemed unacceptable.

I spoke to One Gillingham Supporter who sits in the same row as me, and I mentioned that this was going to be a low scoring season this season, his response back to me was, absolutely, I cannot see where the goals are going to come from this season, I made sure I had everything on me before heading towards the exit, and looking back on the match against Bradford City, there were so many talking points, so many decisions that we needed to go over, I meet up with Stephen first, who made his way towards The Family Enclosure Of The Medway Stand as Stephen was going to go The Factory to get something to drink after the game, Diane and Gary then caught up with the pair of us, and we could start talking about the many controversial talking points that happened throughout the game.

And we will start with the biggest talking point of the entire match, Conor Wilkinson’s Sending Off For His Challenge On Timothee Dieng, and whether the decision to send Conor Wilkinson off was the correct decision ??? - I didn’t have the clearest of views of the incident in real time and I did wrote down shocking decision in my notepad, But Many Gillingham Supporters who do sit in The Rainham End who did have a better view told me that it was a blatant red card, and I have seen the incident since then, and the way Conor Wilkinson lunges in on Timothee Dieng regardless if contact is made or not is a sending off offence, and that’s a real shame, because up until the sending off, Gillingham were in the ascendency and the momentum was with The Gills up until that point.

But what was really annoying was the decision’s not given by Referee John Busby, Conor Wilkinson was clipped inside Bradford City’s Penalty Area and that was A Penalty Kick All Day Long, but if Conor Wilkinson is shown A Red Card then Anthony McMahon should have also had a early bath for Bradford City, because his challenge on Connor Ogilvie should have resulted in The Bradford City Player being shown A Yellow Card, and then when Anthony McMahon was booked later on in The Second Half, that’s when The Bradford City Defender should have been shown his marching orders.

And Gary was making the point that Referee John Busby was booking players for non-bookable offences, and then not booking players for bookable offences, Diane was infuriated with John Busby’s Refereeing Performance, and Diane was going to send A Email Off To The Football League because Diane just wasn’t pleased with John Busby’s Refereeing Performances throughout the entire match, it just made for a very bad afternoon for the official’s and a very frustrating afternoon for Gillingham Supporters, and perhaps one of the most annoying decisions was how The Linesman had his flag raised before Scott Wagstaff hit his low cross / shot either on or off target right at the very end of the match, almost like The Linesman was going to raise his flag for offside regardless.

The Offside Goal was our next talking point because this happened right at the very end of the match, I thought Max Ehmer had scored, Gary thought Josh Wright had scored and Peter Lloyd had mentioned Tom Eaves, but it is just typical that whenever there is a contentious decision that needs to be made right at the very end of the match that The Official’s Blow There Whistle For Full Time, again, Situations like this only further strengthen the case for Video Technology and you can use this technology in real time to make sure you get a decision on various incidents, I think it is important that there is the option to over-rule The Referee to go to A Video Official to make sure that the most accurate decision can be awarded.

The main reason why VAR didn't work In The Confederations Cup, is because Referee’s were the one’s who called for the usage of VAR, for Me, I think it is The Manager’s who need to use VAR and there is a restriction on the number of times they can use VAR, and also a time limit, I mentioned to Gary what happened in The Netherlands Super Cup Final LINK IS HERE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/40843317 - where Vitesse had a penalty appeal turned down, Feyenoord counter and scored and then VAR was used and the goal Feyenoord scored was chalked off and the original penalty was given and Vitesse scored - there is no way a penalty can be awarded like that.

As for the opposition, It is important to acknowledge that Bradford City were one game away from The Championship Last season, and of course, it is important to take that into consideration, But had Gillingham just gave it a little bit more in attack and had more of a attacking presence, then maybe Gillingham could have got something out of the game, but once Conor Wilkinson was sent off, our attacking incentive disappeared, and that was disappointing, because Gillingham were having a sustained spell of pressure on to Bradford City’s Goal prior to Conor Wilkinson being sent off, We do miss A Striker like Cody McDonald who is capable of running in and behind the opposition’s defence and someone who has the pace to take Gillingham further up-field whenever we’re defending from a deep position.

And Me, Diane, Gary and Stephen spoke about the attacking options that Gillingham have got at our disposal and we’re clearly concerned with no goals in three games, The Four Of Us spoke about how it will take time for an entire new strike-force to link up with each other as Liam Nash, Tom Eaves and Conor Wilkinson have all signed for Gillingham during the off season and Josh Parker, Elliott List, Greg Cundle and Noel Mbo have all been given contracts as well, again, the four of us spoke about how Gillingham can do with one more striker who has a bit of pace and Gillingham need to sign a striker who can get in and behind the opposition’s defence and give our opponents something to worry about in there own final third, Liam Nash is clearly getting himself up to speed with League One Football and still acclimatising himself with Full Time Training, and Liam Nash has been given a few minutes here and there, but I do agree with Stephen that it would have been nice to see Liam Nash play for longer.

Me and Stephen had wins for NoirCat, while Gary had two defeats and Gary added that he thinks that Gillingham are already a point better off then he predicted in NoirCat, I have got Thirteen Wins, Eighteen Draws and Fifteen Defeats for our League One Campaign This Season, I think Gillingham will score fewer goals this season, but I also think that Gillingham will concede far fewer goals then the amount we conceded last season as well.

Dominic Poleon has already won The League One Miss Of The Season with his miss just before half time, and that should have been 2-0 and Dominic Poleon was a threat all game, the type of threat that Gillingham were lacking in attack, but when Bradford City are signing Dominic Poleon from AFC Wimbledon for a undisclosed fee, then that is the difference between the two sides in-terms of our finances and resources, but that error from Max Ehmer was terrible and it is looking increasingly likely that Max Ehmer won’t be Gillingham’s Starting Centre Back and he just looks very uncomfortable playing in the out-side centre back roles, If Adrian Pennock is looking for defensive reinforcements, then whoever we’re looking to sign will need to start ahead of Max Ehmer.

And maybe The Josh Wright move to Charlton Athletic with Gillingham Signing Harry Lennon on a permanent deal is a move that will happen before The Summer Transfer Window Slams Shut, Gillingham do need another Centre Back and Charlton Athletic are clearly interested in signing Josh Wright, You do wonder if this deal is going to happen within the next few weeks, another deal that needs resolving is The Stuart Nelson Transfer Saga and we need some clarity on this, not just for Stuart Nelson’s sake, but for Tom Hadler's as well, It is important to note that Tomas Holy put in a solid performance in-between the sticks for Gillingham, there is still more that Tomas Holy needs to work on, but Adrian Pennock has clearly decided to make Tomas Holy his first choice goalkeeper for Gillingham This Season.

The Four of us also spoke at length about The Centre-Plate Court Case and how Gillingham will need to get by for now, and we’re really hoping that Gillingham win that Court Case In November and The Playing Budget will be increased in time for The January Transfer Window, A Very Good Run In The FA Cup will also bring in some much needed revenue, and that’s why I was disappointed with our defeat to Reading in The First Round Of The League Cup, because Gillingham could have done with a decent cup run in The League Cup to bring in some valuable revenue.

Another thing that needs to be talked about is Adrian Pennock speaking about infrastructure changes at Gillingham Football Club and these changes are not going to be short to medium term fixes, these are going to be changes that will need to be addressed over the longer term, for example, all the talk on The Technical Director has gone quiet, and we’re two matches into A Forty Six League Game Season, yes, we do need to be very concerned at this present moment in time, but as Gary rightfully pointed out, Gillingham won three out of three last season and The Gills ended Twentieth In League One, It is important to see where Gillingham are after ten games as that is the benchmark, and hopefully Gillingham have picked up enough points on the board, eight wins in a row from here would be very nice, but after ten games, we will have an idea on who is challenging for what.

We have had plenty of interaction with Adrian Pennock and his coaching staff, as Adrian Pennock turned up at The NoirCat Presentation Evening - No First Team Manager has ever turned up to this event before - The Fans Forum has been really productive, and Gillingham have been getting very good publicity for our pre-season friendlies against Chatham Town, Faversham Town, Dartford and Dover Athletic, It is clear that Adrian Pennock, Steve Lovell and Jamie Day are determined to ensure that Gillingham have a better season then last season, but results on the pitch are of course going to be the deciding factor, regardless of what is happening with The Centre-Plate Court Case or any financial constraints, hopefully, Gillingham can get back on track with a win against MK Dons, and get that first win of the season as quickly as possible.

Gary and Stephen decided to make a move, while Me and Diane headed off in the opposite direction, Me and Diane did speak with Tom Eaves and Scott Wagstaff after the game, and Scott Wagstaff mentioned that the equaliser was perhaps half a yard offside, and Tom Eaves was gutted that his goal did not stand either, We also spoke with Lee Martin, and asked Lee Martin for his thoughts on The Red Card, and Lee Martin added that you just cannot slide in like that these days and it is one of them where you can be sent off, but also, a challenge that might see A Referee only book a player as well.

Me and Diane decided not to stay behind to see the players this time round, as Diane needed to get back home and I thought it would be good to get back as well, We haven’t decided how we would travel to MK Dons On Saturday and that would be something Me and Diane would look to arrange during the week, Liverpool also drew 3-3 away at Watford so Diane wasn’t happy, and with Arsenal winning 4-3 against Leicester City, the goals have been flying into the back of the net in The Premier League so far.

Gillingham have played against Doncaster Rovers, Reading and Bradford City in the first week of the season, three tough matches and with a week off now until MK Dons, perhaps the players can have a bit of a rest before our trip to Stadium MK, I have seen Ian Holloway’s Comments about The First Round Of The League Cup and this fixture should be played On The Tuesday Before The Season Starts, because your playing three matches in eight days - Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday -  when the players haven’t played competitive first team football for months, Ian Holloway pointed out that three games in eight days increases the number of injuries, and it would be better to play this fixture on The Tuesday before the season starts, I saw this comment in The Football League Paper and it made for interesting reading.

But The Gills now have a free week and we can have a break and spend more time preparing for The MK Dons Away Fixture, A Match that Gillingham really need to win to get our season under way, and A Match that Gillingham are more then capable of winning, Conor Wilkinson’s absence - should he be suspended - will be a devastating blow, But Adrian Pennock will either look to sign a new striker in time for that match at Stadium MK, or, maybe it is time to start Liam Nash and see what he can do ???

Diane decided to head off home, and I said C Ya To Diane, as I went into Sainsbury’s to Buy A 500ML Bottle Of Coca Cola for £1.30 before making my way to Gillingham Train Station, and I made it to Gillingham Train Station in time to get on to The 17.59PM Train to Rainham, I got on the train and I rang home to see if Mum and Dad wanted something to eat, and Mum wanted Fish-Cake and Chips, No-one else wanted any food, and once I arrived in Rainham at 18.05PM, I went to George’s Plaice to buy A Small Portion Of Chips and Two Jumbo Plains Sausages, and A Small Portion Of Chips and A Fisk-Cake for £8.50, I then got A Taxi back home to keep the dinner warm, and The Taxi Fare was A Fiver, The Taxi Driver Supported Liverpool and he wasn’t happy with The 3-3 Draw and he wasn’t happy with some of the defending for the goals, I had only heard about the result so I haven’t seen any of the goals.

After paying The Taxi Fare, I was back home, all in all, not the result we wanted and no goals in three games is a concern, But we look forward to MK Dons Away hoping that Gillingham can pick up all three points, A Repeat Of The 2013 / 2014 Season where Gillingham were dominated from start to finish, but Craig Fagon scoring the only goal of the game will do nicely, if Gillingham have to win ugly and win in fortuitous circumstances, then we would gladly take that anyway of the week.

I am sure that Gillingham will be backed by a large traveling support at Stadium MK, and hopefully, Gillingham can get themselves back to winning ways as quickly as possible - COME ON THE GILLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edc-creations-blog]

Interview with Don’t Read Me, Read A Book (DRMRAB)

Qiana Drennen is the founder and president of Don’t Read Me, Read A Book (DRMRAB), the fastest-growing book club in the United States. In a little over 2 years, DRMRAB has expanded from its humble beginnings as a Facebook Group, to chapters in 27 cities nationwide and 1 in the United Kingdom. In that short time, they were awarded the 2016 AAMBC Literary Award for Book Club of the Year, and were also recipients of a 2017 Black Excellence Award. Our members are not only avid readers, but they are also actively involved in their communities. Initiatives have included sending water to residents of Flint, Michigan, and helping underprivileged families with their back-to-school and Christmas needs.

DRMRAB members have earned the nickname, “The Paperback Gang,” due to their high level of participation at the many book festivals held throughout the year, and their voracious appetite for purchasing paperback books. Members are proud of their expansive bookshelves, many of which hold books with personal, handwritten notes and signatures from their favorite authors. Their motto is: “We are not just a book club, we are a movement.”

BPM: Please tell us about your book club, store, or blog! What is the name? Where are you located? QIANA: Don’t Read Me, Read A Book is based out of Columbus, Ohio, with chapters located throughout the United States and on Facebook. DRMRAB started online as a Facebook group in January 2015. I started the book club because I wanted my own group, instead of administering someone else’s. Fast forward to April of the same year, when I became acquainted with a couple of local readers and decided to start an in-person club that would meet once a month here in Columbus. A very good friend of mine, author Fabiola Joseph, suggested that I start offering readers in other cities a chance to organize under the DRMRAB umbrella. So, in February 2016, the first chapters began. Our Facebook membership has grown to over 2,000 members and our chapter members now total over 200 and growing! Our board consists of Vice President Terria Miller, Head Administrator Taheerah Brown, and Director of Charity and Volunteering Monica Redman.

BPM: What is the purpose for your organization? Does the name of the club/blog or store have a special meaning? QIANA: DRMRAB promotes literacy in the African-American community, while supporting authors in a positive, judgement-free environment. We stand out from other groups for a few reasons. First, our members support the authors we read by purchasing thousands of paperback books. With the popularity of eBooks, common thought was that paperbacks were dead until we came along and showed everyone how false that assumption was. Second, we host and participate in face-to-face discussions with authors, and you really don’t see that anymore. The name of our organization has a very special meaning to me. My favorite cousin (who passed away last year) helped me come up with the concept during a battle for my attention, while I was trying to read. That memory is so dear to my heart, that I give out a yearly award in his honor.

BPM: Tell us about your members. What is the demographic of your group? QIANA: Amazing! That’s the best way to describe the ladies and gentlemen of DRMRAB. We are more like a family, helping one another and staying in touch through all of the ups and downs of life. The main reason we’re amazing, is because we are already killing three Afro-American stereotypes.

1) “If you want to hide knowledge from a black person, put it in a book.” We’re a book club. 2) “Men surely don’t read.” We have a male chairman, as well as male chapter members. 3) “You can’t successfully put a large group of black women together in one place, at one time.” We have an all-chapter meetup at least twice each year.

We are open to anyone. DRMRAB has members from their early 20’s to late 70’s, male members, LGBT members, couples, Caucasians, lawyers, nurses, teachers, IT professionals, etc. With DRMRAB, the only demographic that matters is reading. We have a wide range of personalities who all mesh well together. Mostly everyone starts out shy, but quickly become comfortable when they join our DRMRAB family.

BPM: Can you share a few 5-star books that have expanded your horizons? QIANA: Yes, I’d love to. Pricey: Playing in Traffic because it’s really well written and shines line on a subject matter that really isn’t talked about which is human trafficking. Niya: Rainbow Dreams because it’s so much more than just a story about a lesbian rapper. It’s one of the most touching love and coming of a age stories about two young girls coming into their own. Both novels were written by Fabiola Joseph, and are must reads.

BPM: Do you have any words of wisdom for other readers who are in or who might want to start a book club? QIANA: When I decided to do this, I didn’t ask for guidance or advice. I had my own original ideas and didn’t want to water them down with someoneelse’s opinions or judgments. So, just like I would with any other business, I sat down and did my research and put my ideas into action. My advice is to thoroughly research the landscape and don’t just conform to what other clubs are doing. Hold onto your creative and original ideas, and strive to find that special “something” that will set your organization apart from others.

BPM: Do you primarily purchase books online or in a bookstore? Does the price of eBooks play a big part in the purchase? Would you ever stop buying printed books? QIANA: I love my paperbacks. I mean LOVE them. And I’m proud to say that 95% of DRMRAB members feel the same. Hence, our nickname The Paperback Gang. Most of our purchases are made directly from the author. We are also huge supporters of African American owned book stores Like Hood Book Headquarters (2407 E 7 mile, Detroit,Michigan). Michele Moore who is an Essence best selling author owns this store. It’s the hottest store around and they host the best book signing that we have ever attended. You will never see a Hood Book event without a member of DRMRAB in attendance. The price of an eBook doesn’t really matter, because we want that paperback. If the book is only available on eBook, then we don’t care about the price. If we want to read it, we’re going to read it. The day DRMRAB stops buying paperbacks will be the day that the world runs out of paper and ink.

BPM: What has the main focus become over the years? What legacy will your club or blog leave for those watching in the community? QIANA: Our main focus will continue to be shining the spotlight on African American authors. Why is this so important? Because there are so many unheard stories by great writers, and those stories must be heard. Rappers, singers, and actors get celebrated every day and I am adamant that writers must be equally recognized and celebrated. We will also continue to spotlight LGBT authors whenever possible. One of our friends (Richard) was a devoted activist in the LGBT community and we will carry that torch in his memory.

Legacy? DRMRAB will never die! Our living legacy will be the continued success of each author we read and the love of reading we foster with our members and their families.

BPM: When accepting members into the group, what are you looking for in a person? Has it been difficult to get people to join the group or to stay in the group? Do you have an online version of the group? QIANA: We look for avid, dedicated readers. I won’t lie and say that we haven’t lost members, but we certainly have gained more than we’ve lost. And, yes. We have a large online presence, with plenty of involvement from our DRMRAB members and of course our authors.

BPM: Do you host special events during the year or do you work for any charities? Do you get together as a group to socialize outside of your book club meetings? QIANA: Every year, every chapter gathers at Sistahs on Lit Book Festival in Silver Spring, MD. Papaya Wagstaff , who happens to be our DMV chapters chairman is the owner of this great event. S.O.L is amazing because it gives book clubs like DRMRAB a chance to mingle with fellow readers as well as different authors. It’s a weekend long event and i recommend that every book lover attends. Yes we also participate in several charities. When we first heard of the Flint, Michigan, water crisis, we teamed up with Hood Books to send over 8,500 bottles of water to Flint’s residents.

In 2015, we adopted a family for Christmas, and in 2016 we adopted two families. We’ve also donated countless books to children. This year, we will also assist families with back-to-school and Christmas needs, among other initiatives. As far as hosting event every chapter host several authors throughout the year.

BPM: How can we follow you online? Do you have a website or social media pages? Website: http://www.drmrabbookclub.com Twitter: drmrabclub Instagram: drmrab_book_club Facebook: Don’t Read Me, Read A Book (The Reading Room) Snapchat: Drmrab club

    Qiana Drennen -Don’t Read Me, Read A Book (DRMRAB) Interview with Don't Read Me, Read A Book (DRMRAB) Qiana Drennen is the founder and president of Don't Read Me, Read A Book (DRMRAB), the fastest-growing book club in the United States.

[indy5002017-blog]

The Basic Principles Of Indy 500

"Ryan and Townsend appeared actually great up entrance. We considered they'd be the team to conquer," Indy 500 crew operator Michael Andretti claimed. "Regrettably, they had their trouble while in the pit, which I could not consider, and I assumed that could have been our shot at profitable."

The approach play to stay out though the majority of the leaders pitted for gasoline late paid off as Carlos Munoz, the initial driver who pitted for gasoline, finished 2nd, 1 / 4-track driving Rossi.

Continue reading through the most crucial Tale He smiled, including: “Concurrently, it’s very difficult to get doing all of this when 50 % of one's head is on Detroit. You have a task to accomplish, and it is actually to carry the momentum ahead.”

Simon Pagenaud also bought the exact same pit street penalty and his vehicle later experienced maladies. The 3-time winner in 2016 and IndyCar points leader concluded 19th.

Honda would not comment on Chevrolet's kit, but explained that its individual package was Secure. "Our very own knowledge suggests which the Honda aero package is in fact safer with respect to consider off as opposed to DW12 which it changed, and IndyCar required to be content with this advancement before our car was authorized for racing," Steve Eriksen, vice chairman and CEO in the racing arm of yankee Honda, instructed NBC Information in a press release. Uddin hopes that IndyCar would not scratch the kits completely. "I actually like the thought of the aero kits," he told NBC Information. "You don't need to strangle innovation. Having said that, this behavior needs to be studied additional." What occurs now? The two Uddin or Finch stressed that they don't know of course what occurred. IndyCar hasn't attributed the crashes to the new aero kits. "The cause of many of the incidents this thirty day period are actually distinctive," Mike Kitchel, director of communications for IndyCar, explained to NBC Information within an electronic mail. "As Element of our conventional system, IndyCar examines every race incident and analyzes all available data to make enhancements and improvements to our racecars. We have collaborated with our brands to investigate and determine any doable problems." It can be far too near to the Indy five hundred For extra testing. IndyCar stated in a statement that because of the "three different, single-automobile incidents" that the two Chevrolet and Honda teams had to reduce their motor boost levels - which will lessen their major speeds - and race in the exact same autos they accustomed to qualify. indy 500 Uddin want to see IndyCar ban any in the aero kit changes built into the autos driving the rear wheel and matter the new designs to further more tests by an impartial, third party using a wind tunnel or computer simulations. The a few motorists who crashed their automobiles with Chevrolet kits will compete on Sunday. Finch hopes that there will be no extra really serious mishaps and that the tumultuous last few months will lead to some introspection. "You must go in and reevaluate," he stated. "I've been involved with motorists who are actually harm severely and it would not sense very good. As element of this compact Local community, you in no way wish to see that." Keith Wagstaff

No, this escalation of excitement had been expertly ramped up to the previous five years, courting on the centennial function in 2011 (just take Observe: a a hundredth anniversary and also a a hundredth jogging are usually not a similar, specially when a set of Environment Wars interrupt your timeline).

To win this race, everything’s bought to tumble your way, and almost everything’s just acquired to happen that day or else you’re not gonna acquire it. I don’t care who you are. I felt I lost it two or thrice I ought to have gained it, and I won it two or three periods I shouldn’t have. A.J. Foyt celebrating his four Indianapolis 500 victories. Credit history Affiliated Press Every thing’s got to tumble your way. I suppose the highlight arrived in 1977. I turned the initial four-time winner, And that i experienced my own car that we designed, my very own motor, and I drove it. Which was a big accomplishment there.

The race opened up early in the second half when two motorists who were the strongest all over the initially Section of the race took one another out.

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Indycar 13hr This can be An important stage for IndyCar motorists ahead of they take the wheel

The warning flew for the second time on the day on Lap sixty four when Juan Pablo Montoya spun out coming out of Convert 2. Whilst Hinchcliffe gained the following race off of pit street, Ability did not pit underneath the caution and so led the sphere back again to environmentally friendly on Lap 75.

James Hinchcliffe, a Canadian racer, gained the prestigious pole place per week earlier, taking the best posture to the grid. In the meantime, Juan Pablo Montoya gained final year's Indy 500 for the 2nd time in his vocation.

Carry on looking at the primary Tale “I’ve by no means recognized it, but there’s usually been this concern mark among motor athletics fanatics that American motorists usually are not on a similar degree,” Rossi reported.

My earliest memory would in all probability be mid-eighties. It’s likely Danny Sullivan, when he spun and gained it in 1985. I’d say which was my earliest memory. I don't forget very Plainly the battle involving Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr., once they arrived together with just one lap left to go in 1989. I would've been 15, sixteen then. It was the velocity, Completely the velocity. My brother and I experienced a computer match of the race, whenever we had early personal computers, and we would Engage in that game and consider the selection within the sprint. We’d be surprised by it. After we had been seeing the race on TV, they’d say they’re averaging 210 miles for each hour, and I’d Consider, How is that even achievable?

[bookofspellsandspellsandspells]

Daily Prophet Archive

July 31, 1998

MUGGLES NOT AS STUPID AS WE THINK, SAYS MINISTRY REPORT

""A long awaited Ministry for Magic report made public today warns against the danger of underestimating muggles. A study into Muggles suspicions about magic' draws conclusions that may shock the wizarding community. Professor Phoebus Penrose, who headed the committee which drew up the report, says the muggles are more observant than we would like to think."

"The Annual International Wizard Gardening Competition, for example, caused many problems. So called 'crop circles', really entries in the Contorting Cereals class, caused sensation among Muggles worldwide, and the International Confederation Of Wizards should impose an immediate ban on further crop-related until the fuss dies down." "The report states that the muggles have been sighting flying objects for many years unaware that they are...."

"Of all the Magical Creatures living in Britain none have drawn more attention to itself than the Loch Ness Monster. It has been seen by so many muggles the the Ministry for Magic has been unable to perform memory charms on all of them, indeed, muggles have been spotted searching the loch for the monster, and only prompt action by the Invisibility Task-force has so far prevented them finding it."

Report tells that Muggles notice things like “crop circles,” which are really entries in the Annual International Wizard Gardening Competition‘s contorting cereals division, and UFOs, which are really escaped Quaffles. It mentions the fact that Hagrid has offered the Lake at Hogwarts for relocating the Loch Ness Monster.

FAULTY WANDS RECALLED

"Anyone who has purchased a wand from Wagstaff is advised to turn it in immediately, before it explodes." -- an unnamed Ministry of Magic spokesperson from the Department of Magical Equipment Control. A warning from the “Department of Magical Equipment Control” about a shady street peddler in Diagon Alley named “Honest Willy” Wagstaff who is also suspected of selling sub-standard cauldrons to the public. The wizarding community are told that they should only buy wands bearing the Department's stamp, as they are guaranteed to be safe.

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Sport: Quidditch League Table & Match Information

1. Tutshil Tornados 750 2. Montrose Magpies 730 3. Appleby Arrows 660 4. Kenmare Kestrels 620 5. Puddlemere United 610 6. Caerphilly Catapults 590 7. Ballycastle Bats 550 8. Pride of Portree 520 9. Wigtown Wanderers 470 10. Holyhead Harpies 410 11. Falmouth Falcons 340 12. Wimbourne Wasps 290 13. Chudley Cannons 230

Forthcoming Matches

Saturday: Wigtown Wanderers versus Puddlemere United, midnight, Yorkshire Moors, DO NOT CHEER TOO LOUDLY, Muggles came looking for source of news last time. Monday: Falmouth Falcons versus Pride Of Portree, Eleven O'clock, Exmoor. An Invisibility Charm has been put upon new Stadium. Please collect Re-Visibility Spectacles from ticket office or you will not be able to find the pitch.

"We feel it is time for a change of image." -- team manager Philibert Deverill

CANNONS GO DOWN IN A SHOWER OF ARROWS

"....please stop trying to curse Gudgeon. Turning him into a toad will not help his game" "Gudgeon certainly missed some opportunities, I mean, the Snitch bounced off his nose twice." -- Ragmar Dorkins, Chudley Cannons team manager. The struggling Chudley Cannons suffered a heavy loss of 350-0 against the Appleby Arrows. The cause for the Cannons' defeat was attributed to the performance of their seeker, Galvin Gudgeon, who missed several opportunities to catch the snitch during the match. Gudgeon's history of inattention is mentioned and the article concludes with an interview with Ragmar Dorkins, the team manager, who pleads with Cannons fans to be patient during this losing streak.

MAGPIE CHASER “ONLY TRIED FOOTBALL FOR A LAUGH” "The ball doesn't fly or anything. I just wanted to see what it felt like." -- Alasdair Maddock to The Daily Prophet.

The Daily Prophet reported that Alasdair Maddock, chaser for the Montrose Magpies quidditch, had been spotted practising headers with a Muggle football in Dorset. He had previously been suspended from the team for employing techniques from the Muggle game of basketball during a game against the Caerphilly Catapults.

Extra News "We're easily the most exciting team playing currently" "Witches make far better Quidditch players than wizards, everybody knows that." -- interview with Gwenog Jones in the Daily Prophet. A couple of small news bits reveal that Puddlemere United will be changing the colour of their robes to blue and that no one dares disagree with Gwenog Jones, the brilliant but dangerous Captain and Beater of the all-witch Holyhead Harpies as people who do seem to turn into woodlice.

Letters Page:

Star Letter: "As a law-abiding member of the magical community who does not pretend to be a great wit, I have often wondered why my fellow wizards feel the need to perform spells and charms in the name of 'fun'." -- Ethelbald Mordaunt, letter to the Daily Prophet

Wizard whose next door neighbour, Elladora Guffy, was overly fond of practical joke spells. Mr Mordaunt's letter complained about the antics of his neighbour, Elladora Mordaunt, who thinks it fun to torment him by putting "amusing" spells and charms on his furniture and other household items. He has put a copy of a previous Daily Prophet article "Why Dustbins Weren't Meant to Kick" under her doormat as a hint that her behaviour is unacceptable.

Gripe with Gringotts Bank: "As I failed to answer every one of the sphinx’s riddles, I was unable to get past it to my gold." -- letter from Mallory Twiddle.

Mr Twiddle was unable to access his High Security vault because of the difficult riddles asked by the Sphinx guarding it. He would personal prefer the return of dragons or security trolls to the front line at Gringott's Wizarding Bank. Gobstones Tournament Overlooked: "I was most upset to learn that our victory was not deemed worthy of a single line in your paper"

-- Grugwyn Rufford

Mr Rufford, a member of the Welsh National Gobstones Team, was upset about the lack of coverage for their win against Hungary and the game of Gobstones in general. He feels too much coverage is given to Quidditch, including frivilous articles such as the one about Puddlemere United's flying bus. The editor replies that most wizards find Gobstones to be "deeply boring"

A Word in Support of Hags: "Dear Sir, I am sick and tired of reading what horrible creatures hags are, you'd think that from recent articles in the Daily Prophet that we spend all day luring innocent children into our caves and eating them raw. I am a hag and I am hurt at your false and vicious assertion that I am nothing but a flesh eating monster, when I spend most of my day reading poetry, crochet and tending to my shrubbery. If any of your readers need a baby sitter incidentally, I can be reached care of the cave, dead marsh. " -- Annis Black sent in by a Hag who tries to sound homey and cheerful but offers babysitting services. Merlin Remembrance Day Suggestion: "....a day to honour the greatest wizard of this or any age." "I could do with an extra day's holiday around August" -- letter from Harold Skively to the Daily Prophet. Suggesting a new public holiday (DP1). Mr Skively in his letter makes a case for a wizarding public holiday to honour the wizard Merlin, but ruins it by mentioning that what he would really like is a day off that would fall in the summer months. The editor of the Daily Prophet sees through this.