Herman Hessian

using merchant ships - read what i wrote - plymouth and portsmouth have a more widely known maritime history for the layman due to being significant british naval bases - francis drake, the armada, the mary rose, the departure of the task force to the falklands etc etc are far more 'newsworthy' than a huge volume of merchant marine traffic

hah - was just going to say that's a Schmeichel orignal ! love the signal flag touch, too - but I wdnt say that Bristol was particularly known for its maritime history - not as much as Porstmouth or Plymouth for instance, probably because of their royal navy provenance as opposed to Bristol's almost entirely mercantile approach

genoa away

quite correct, and spot on, though they quite often go with the alternating red sleeve/blue half and red half/blue sleeve which has a similar effect; overall it looks a bit too busy for my liking, could almost be French from that respect Verona's is just - meh - blue and yellow, nothing to see here... ETA last time they had white sleeves was in 1985/86

Cagliari and Hellas Verona - pretty dull, the pair of 'em and if Wycombe deserve any credit, it's for their alternate goalkeeper's shirt:

'adults' who refer to comics for 'adults' as 'graphic novels' in attempt to give the impression that they are somehow not just comics for 'adults' there is no real shame in reading (looking at ?) comics for 'adults' but at least have the common decency to call them what they are !

Alfredo Aglietti who guided Hellas Verona to Serie A via the playoffs in 2019 (having taken charge for the final two league games of the season) has just steered Chievo past their first hurdle in this years play-off campaign, going through after a 1-1 draw against Empoli by virtue of being the higher placed team in the regular season; would be great if he can manufacture another promotion (been in charge for a whole twelve games this time round...)

off their tits on stout and sanatogen right enough - scary stuff

disappointing second goal - will take the spotlight off David Raya's well deserved place in the horrendous footballing f**k-ups hall of fame ETA - rightly restored to humiliating prominence by the injury time consolation

greenie for the pedantry - good work - although Wakefield might have something to say about it....

hah - bloody hell - didn't even look at the points totals for the two teams above Frosinone ! deciding positions only on cumulative points, two-team head to head and then goal difference would have been so un-Italian though - should have realised there was more to it than that - Pisa need to push for 'degree of inclination of host city's most significant landmark' as a primary deciding factor and then hope they never have to use that to resolve a tie against Bologna or Venezia

Serie B's last round of matches: Cosenza completed their 'great escape' from relegation last night, winning the showdown with Juve Stabia for a fifth successive win, and relegating their visitors in the process Trapani beat promoted Crotone, but results elsewhere (notably Cosenza as above) saw them relegated automatically Followers of Italian football may remember brighter times for both Pescara and Perugia in Serie A (with the latter playing in europe, and having both Muammar Gadaffi's son and Jay Boothroyd playing for them !); they now face each other in the play-off for the last relegation place Pisa and Frosinone were essentially playing each other for the last promotion play off place and drew 1-1 - the second draw between the teams this season; Pisa therefore missed out by having a goal difference which was one worse off than their opponents; Empoli, Chievo and Cittadella nicked the other play off spots, joining Spezia and Pordenone who had already secured their places to go up, Chievo face Empoli and Cittadella play Frosinone in one-off matches, the winners of those will then play Spezia and Pordenone over two legs with the winners then having another home and away matchup to decide the final place in Serie A - the season will end on 20th August !

...and an appalling 0-5 capitulation by Genoa at Sassuolo - alongside Lecce's 2-1 win at Udine - means that the last Serie A relegation place will not be decided until the final day; Lecce have to beat Parma at home and hope that I Griffoni do no better than draw against Hellas Verona at home; if the teams finish level on points (Lecce draw and Genoa lose), Genoa will stay up on the season's head-to-head record; both games kick off at 19:45 on Sunday evening...

https://calcioengland.com/2020/03/14/meet-the-calcio-loving-italian-punks-inspired-by-the-west-of-scotland/

@Silverton End just found this site which has the 2019/20 Messina home and away shirts for sale at half price - also @DutchBorderer there's an awful lot of other obscure stuff on there from right across Europe

A S Roma (away)

Deportivo La Coruña

couple more issues resolved after last night's round of matches in Serie B: second automatic promotion spot secured by Crotone, who go up with Benevento; they were relegated together at the end of 2017/18 Spezia are guaranteed a play off place, and there are five further spots to allocate from twelve teams still in the race to join them Cittadella - who won their first three games after lockdown to grab an automatic promotion spot - have since lost five straight and are barely hanging on to a play-off berth Trapani either go down automatically, or - at best - have to endure the relegation play off where they could face one of eight different teams

believe they will be using the Sabres facilities (video suites, medical/training etc) at Harbor Centre and the KBC, just a block or two from the ball park; a shame it'll all be behind closed doors as the reception from the natives would be interesting given the Maple Leafs rivalry...

always good to beat the Braves Yoenis goes yard after two years out, and Edwin Dias in 2018 Seattle mode - good start !

Luton should always retain the vertical stripes, and keep as an iconic part of their kit - clubs underestimate the value of a recognisable brand IMO - why I'm always fearful of Rovers ditching their hoops..

Villa sometimes sing "he's one of our own" about Keinan Davis, who we got from someone like Biggleswade Town and isn't a Brummie. Baffles me. cf Spurs and Harry Kane - born in Waltham Forest, not Haringey (Borough) and on the books at both Arsenal and Watford before joining Tottenham...

A C Monza - Berlusconi's latest plaything...

I was thinking about (not particularly realistic) options in case Juric jumped ship; Marcelino has not worked since being inexplicably dumped by Valencia at the arse-end of last year, and the magnificent Luciano Spalletti is still available after getting sacked by Inter - either of them would be a decent option - but I love the idea of Commisso/Spalletti double act - that'd be box office and a half !