dje_wba

So this is the last weekend where all, or almost all, of the matches will be televised then? Presumably the reason they're no longer be able to do that is because after the international break, the Champions League and the Europa League start, which would make scheduling all of the fixtures for TV impossible or nearly impossible. And I suppose I should be wanting Fulham to beat Wolves, although already this season Fulham have let us down once, against Villa. I don't want Fulham picking up too many points anyway, considering they're more likely than Wolves to be relegation rivals for Albion.

Living in Cardiff, they're aren't any non-league teams around here for me to follow - not ones in the English pyramid at least! I do follow Nuneaton Borough though, who are my hometown club. They were in the Conference/National League as recently as 2015, but are now two division below it, following a couple of relegations. When I was still living at home with my parents, I would sometimes go and watch them play, if Albion didn't have a game that day, but it has been a while now -the last time I saw them play was an away match at Newport in August 2012, which of course isn't very far from me here in Cardiff; they lost 4-0. The last time I went to a home match was in October 2005, a 0-0 draw with Tiverton Town in one of the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup - coincidentally, the following day I then saw Albion lose 2-0 at Bolton. Anway, Nuneaton went onto reach the 3rd round that season, where they were drawn against Middlesbrough, losing 5-2 at the Riverside in a replay, after the first match finished 1-1; Nuneaton's goal in the first match was an injury time penalty, which came from a handball by the current England manager. On the subject of Premier League matches on TV, from when is that going to effect?

Damn, that could've been Albion through to the quarterfinals of the League Cup [for the first time in a decade].

I had the misfortune to start watching Albion during the worst decade in their history, the 90s being the only decade in which they haven't spent at least one season in the top flight, and the only season in which they've played in what's now League One. I remember my first two visits to Craven Cottage, in the 99/00 and 00/01 seasons (a 1-0 loss and a 0-0 draw respectively), following Fulham having won promotion from the Second Division, and before they then got promoted to the Premier League; the next season, 01/02, was when Albion finally won promotion to the Premier League, returning to the top flight after 16 years outside it.

I completely forgot Fulham had four seasons outside the Premier League. I mean, I remember them beating Villa in the playoffs in 2018, to return to the Premier League, but I had forgotten that they had been in the Championship for four years at the time, and I certainly didn't remember them finishing as low as 20th.

When did Fulham finish 20th in the Championship?

Brentford vs. Sheffield Wednesday in round four it is then.

Fulham and Albion, apparently. The back end of last season, it was a combination of iFollow and Sky, while so far this season all of Albion's matches have also been on Sky, including the League Cup match last Wednesday, although the tie with Brentford isn't televised, so will be watching that one on t'internet. Albion also provide a commentary only service on the club website, which like you said, will be an option for any games that aren't televised.

Tonight I've been having pizza and a couple of cans of this:

Yeah, all of a sudden, Albion and Brentford are trying to out-bottle one another.

Come on you Baggies!

Only for Bolton.

I think I preferred it when there was no football being played...

Some positive news for you, finally, after a couple of difficult years?

Gayle was on loan last season, and the club tried to sign him back in August - a deal was agreed with Newcastle for another season-long loan, which would be made permanent upon promotion, but Gayle turned it down, not because he didn't wanted to come back to The Hawthorns, but because he didn't want to go out on loan again, he just wanted a straight permanent move. There was a rumour last week that they might try to sign him again this summer, but I don't know whether there's any truth in that - we'll see, I guess. That match you referred to was Alan Irvine's third match during his six months as Albion Head Coach. It actually finished 1-1 [after extra time], with Albion winning 7-6 on penalties.

I would like to visit the Kassam at some point, having not been there yet - I did go to the Manor Ground a few times - but if Albion were to play Oxford nest season, I hope that it will only be in the cup, not in the league-- after going top 11 games into the season, and not having been out of the top two since, it would be a big disappointment to let this slip now.

I don't suppose Luton care about Wycombe either, as their main rivalry is with Watford.

I watched most of the Oxford/Pompey match, as well as the first half of Wycombe/Fleetwood. I'm pleased it's an Oxford v Wycombe final, as I would rather see one of those two clubs in the Championship next season than either Portsmouth or Fleetwood. After watching the two second legs last night, I actually wanted to ask you, is there any rivalry between Oxford and Wycombe? I know Oxford's main rivals are Reading and Swindon, but as Wycombe is only about 20 miles away from Oxford, is there any rivalry at all there?

I guess they'll wait to get the League One playoffs out of the way first, seeing as Portsmouth are in both those and the final of the Football League Trophy, with the playoffs obviously being more important.

Is that how long you've got to wait for the League One playoffs?

This appears to go at least part of the way to explaining why she made her account(s) private:

Bolton and Southend were both destined to go down. If you want to feel sorry for anyone, it should be Tranmere.

I think you'll find that your man was being sarcastic.

You are right that normally the rules would require the season to be finished by the 1st June. However, these are, of course, not normal times, and so that date has been pushed back indefinitely. The season might not resume by the 1st June, never mind finish by then.