Crystal Palace make it look Eze as the FA Cup semi-finals are set – Football Weekly

This is The Guardian.

When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game.

Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents so you can transform tomorrow.

Workday, moving business forever forward.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the Remarkable Paper Pro.

We already know that Remarkable's the leader in the paper tablet category, digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting.

The remarkable paper pro move.

Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all your notes, to-dos, and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin, so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office.

Like maybe a football journalist, Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beep or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The Remarkable Paper Pro Move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from 0 to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try Remarkable Paper Pro Move for 100 days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

Hello, and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

FA Cup quarterfinal weekend in Crystal Palace stun Fulham.

Eberic Chieza scores a wonderful opener and sets up a second.

Adam Wharton could have been sent off early, but was great afterwards.

And so they're one game away from their first ever major trophy.

They'll play Villa in the semifinal, who saw off Preston with the minimum of fuss.

A great day for Marcus Rashford, who scored his first goals under Unai Emery.

Bournemouth almost almost made it the neutrals semi-final lineup after going one up against Man City before Nico O'Reilly changed the game for Pep.

Kepa saved an Erling Harland penalty, but let Marmouches win a squeeze under him.

They'll be Nottingham Forest, who are penalty shootouting their way through their third successive one this time at Brighton.

What a lovely moment for Ryan Yates to put his side through.

There's a bit of EFL as lead stutter at the top of the championship.

All that plus aggressive Scottish accents, sheep shearing, your questions.

And that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Lars Sivetson, welcome.

Hello, Max.

Hello, Sandy Rudravadula.

Hello.

And welcome, Seb Hutchinson.

Hello.

Let's begin at Craven Cottage, then.

Fulham 0, Crystal Palace 3.

Crystal Palace's form is amazing.

Fifth win in a row in all competitions.

They've lost just two in their last 15.

They've lost only once away in all competitions since last October.

Haven't conceded away from home since a 3-1 win over Brighton in December.

I mean, you were there at Craven Cottage 7 and Fulham started quite well, but like with that kind of momentum, you know, they could win the FA Cup.

It sounds obvious now, doesn't it?

Before the game, we were saying this was a tough one to call.

This is the way football works, isn't it?

Afterwards, you say, well, obviously, Palace, we're going to win the game.

When you watch a game and it's not your team playing, you have a clearer...

perspective on how the game has unfolded.

And that's how I was watching the game on Saturday.

I think Crystal Palace fans would have watched it with thinking, oh, you know, we still need that second, you still need that third.

But watch, they seem very comfortable to me, even from after the first 10, 20 minutes when Fulham had a few chances.

But after that, defensively, excellent.

The midfield grew into the game and showed what they could do.

And I think Jefferson Lerma goes under the radar in this.

Considering he'd just come back from international duty, him and Munoz, for example, the travelling they have to do, the energy that he put into that game was extraordinary.

And I know Wharton picked up a lot of headlines for his pirouette and things like that, but he was defensively suspect early on in the game and fortunate maybe to stay on the pitch.

But overall, I had a buzz before, you know, sat next to Ali before the game.

We felt so good about this one beforehand.

It's an amazing position at Fulham.

Sat in that new stand.

You can see over London.

The sun is shining.

Fulham supporters are...

It was one of the first games I've been to recently with Fulham where it felt like it was a Champions League semifinal or even them being at the FA Cup final itself.

They were up for it.

They were really looking forward to to the game.

Your way end was packed.

They were up for it.

Everything about it felt great.

And the game started, and I thought, this is a tough one to call.

But as the game wore on, I just think, Palace,

we're always going to win that game.

That's the way my hindsight works.

They were exceptional.

I mean, you say there was a buzz and you were sitting next to Ali McCoy.

If you were in a morgue next to Ali McCoy, you'd still have a buzz about it.

You know, he'd be like, he'd bring that to life, wouldn't he?

He'd bring that.

He'd be, you know, what a guy.

What a guy.

You're a a lucky man.

I don't think there's anybody with the emotional intelligence as strong as Ali McCoyst.

He's a wonder.

He's a genius at that aspect of it.

He just makes people feel better about themselves, whatever the subject matter, however they're feeling.

And to add to that, he even had a pair of broken glasses next to him.

And even looking at it,

it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter.

And that energy and love for football comes through.

And I was thinking any broadcasting, if you can get across how great what you're doing is, I think that's the most important thing.

Are you having a great time, Lars?

Just to check if you can just get that across for this, that would be a.

I mean, since you asked, I've got the sniffles, Max, and I've had them for so long now.

I'm increasingly wondering if this is just who I am now.

It's like it's just the sniffles that never end.

But I've worn a very brightly colored shirt today to try to liven things up.

Back on track.

Yes, please.

It was an interesting game because

Oliver Glasner is kind of known before he came to Palace as like a kind of like a almost like a Red Bull guy.

Like it's a high press, let's go at them.

But of course, this was a very different game, and they can play in different ways, Palace.

And here, as Marco Silva slightly sniffly observed after the game, they were kind of sat at the edge of their own box and they defended very compactly.

But they kind of let Fulham have the ball a lot of the time, but they were so much more dangerous when they attacked.

And

we've done this a lot of times on the pub, but we have to have like a Bereza appreciation corner here now.

Of course.

Because he is really just one of my favorite players to watch in the world.

Just because of the way he carries himself, the balance, the way he treats the ball.

We can, I mean, obviously, they're having a great cup run now, but I think for a club like Palace, you risk, you know, they're not getting relegated, they're not winning the league anytime soon.

So, for fans, you can get into this sort of funk of like, what are we dreaming about?

You know, if I was a Palace fan, I'd be dreaming about the fact that I get to watch a Bereza every weekend.

Like,

what an attraction he is.

And that goal was so good.

Yeah, and actually, that's an interesting point, Sanny, that of the teams left in, crystal palace are the team that that can put all their eggs into this basket whether that makes a difference or not hard to tell but like not only can they dream about it they don't have to dream about anything else that is true especially when you look at the midweek fixtures and see notting and forest of it well they all have difficult tasks really and it feels almost harsh especially on forest who've gone through all those penalty shootouts yeah i mean what 12 every season winning and drawing and losing as many as ever the as they always do um and yeah and that means they really can do uh and eze he's such a he's such a wonderful talent isn't he and there's the worry will he be like michael alise and go at the end of the season but it seems that

success in the cup could keep him a little bit longer because he's he's 26 so he's

it's it's a weird time for him because he he could you know kick on and move on and have a great career elsewhere or do a season or two more and really elevate his stock but yeah i mean for palace they can put the the eggs all in the basket and that'd be great because um i don't know whether uh uh oliver garsner has the same dance moves moves as alan pargy but i'd love to see what would happen if eze uh gave palace the lead and they think

yeah i mean the way he sort of the way he fist pumped after eze's goal would suggest to me that he doesn't dance often no

but you know like

whatever works for you

i don't know what he sort of what it was

pumped his arm forward repeatedly like chrisakabusi yeah it looked like someone who'd never celebrated a goal before that's what i was like this person's just been parachuted or someone was like like sam beckett was just just into Oliver Glasner's body at that time in a weird episode of Quantum Bleep, where he arrives as Palace take a 1-0 lead at Craven Cottage.

So you mentioned Adam Wharton, and

I think you're right.

I don't think anyone thinks he should have stayed on the pitch.

It's a weird quirk of VAR, isn't it?

That, like, I understand we don't want to be involved in everything, but when there's something so obvious, if you're a Fulham fan listening to this, you are probably yelling.

Everyone's just talking about Eze and Wharton and how wonderful he is, but he shouldn't be on the pitch.

And like 20 minutes in or whatever, that changes this whole game.

I think there needs to be a clarity about the sort of acts that he did in the game.

When you think about it, he didn't really make any connection with the player he was aiming for with a little kick, and it's very petulant and very light and not really going to cause anybody damage on the surface.

But we have seen players sent off for that.

We've seen players given straight red cards for things like that that aren't that aggressive.

Think back to one of the most famous examples, the David Beckham kick.

I mean, did that really injure Simeone?

I mean, we know the answer to that.

But at the same time, you're watching and thinking, well, if a referee sees it, they're going to send a player off.

And maybe, maybe some more clarity around that sort of situation.

Maybe the referee just didn't see it at the time.

VAR can't intervene for second yellows, but some people might think it's a red just for the petulance.

I'm in the camp.

I don't like red cards.

If you can avoid red cards, that would be great.

Yeah.

That's how I sit.

Maybe even a word with a player or just sort of, I don't know what the punishment would be.

I'm saying this, a yellow card is an example, but a second yellow sending somebody off for that is frustrating.

But on the flip side, if you're a Fulham supporter, a supporter of the opposition, a posing player, you feel like it should be a yellow.

Marco Silver said that after the game.

I don't really like to criticise Adam Wharton because he is the great England hope for passing the ball forward progressively.

This is all we have.

This is what

we're looking for in football.

But

I think this is all we have

is maybe doing him a bit of a disservice because I think he's so good at it.

Like, he is so good at it.

So, Max, not all he has, all we have as a nation

of creating football.

That's like saying, you know, like.

Yeah, exactly.

So, we need to hold on to him.

I don't want to criticize him.

I don't want to knock him.

Yeah, is what I'm saying.

I guess, I mean, the problem is he's still quite a young guy, right?

And we're basically telling him, young Adam Morton, you have a bit less than a year and a half to fix England's midfield, which has been broken for as long as anyone can remember.

Good luck with that.

Like, that's kind of like that's a little harsh.

But on this anyway, I guess for it to be a straight red, it needs to be serious foul play, which is endangering an opponent, which is clearly doesn't, or it could be violent conduct, which is kind of defined as: should we do this?

Should we have Lars reads the rules live on the pod, or should we just not do that?

Go ahead.

It's basically no, do it, do it.

Violent conduct is when a player uses or attempts to use excessive force or brutality against an opponent when not challenging for the ball, or against the teammate, team official, match official spectator, or any other person, which is fair enough, regardless of whether contact is made.

And then, in addition, a player who, when not challenging for the ball, deliberately strikes an opponent or any other person in the head or face with the hand or arm is guilty of violent conduct unless the force used was negligible.

I feel like that kind of little petulant kick isn't covered by that, really.

I don't think there is scope in that to for VAR to flip out the direct red card,

really.

I agree with you, but I but I wonder, it just seems weird that VAR can't just go, that's a yellow card, do it straight away.

I mean, I know it can't.

The one thing about that law that I thought was interesting was you said, you know,

opposition player, teammate, official, spectator, anyone else.

Who else?

What, just somebody walking by?

Like, who is that?

Animal?

Animals?

If you randomly attack a guy walking his dog next to the touchline, that is a straight red card.

Or the dog.

I think it's fine.

Especially the dog.

Come on.

Yeah, absolutely.

From a funnel point of view, Sanny,

like, this could still be a brilliant season.

I think the reason why a defeat in one of these quarterfinals for them or for Brighton or for Bournemouth is like this FA Cup is so winnable.

It's not like you're going into a semi-final and it's three of the top four.

Maybe it is with Forrest and I can't remember.

But do you know what I mean?

Like,

you sit there going, we could win this FA Cup.

Palace fans are sitting there.

Fulham fans are thinking it, Brighton fans, they all are.

And so to go out of this is a real blow, especially so meekly in the end.

But they are three points off fifth.

Like it could, it has been a brilliant season.

It could be a brilliant season for them.

It has.

And

because these things don't come round all the time, it's going to

haunt Fulham fans, haunt Hugh Grant, maybe more than anyone.

There was a great shot of him towards the side.

Very sad.

Looking so ghostly.

Yeah, that first period where they were so good, it did look like it was going completely their way.

To then, yeah, Meekly's a good description of it, really.

I mean, having seen them do so well in the last round against Manchester United and the season they're having is great, but it's about trophies, isn't it?

You know, as much as it's about Champions League qualification, European qualification, we had the, what, reports of 350,000 at Newcastle all celebrating an actual trophy win.

I mean, it's so rare to have, and for Fulham, it might never come again.

So yeah, it's really, it's really disappointing for them.

Wilson wrote something similar for Bournemouth, I think it was.

You know, there's the concept of

these things don't come around often at all and it could never come around again.

So yeah, to surrender it so horribly in the end was really disappointing and I hope they can just put that past them because it has been a great season and Marco Silva has got a brilliant core of players.

Every week they seem to be able to get it together at the right moments and now they've got a chance to do that in the Premier League because, yeah, that challenger class are doing a great job this season.

It's also about the occasion of getting to go to Wembley even for the semi-finals, right?

Because for the fans, it's about having those experiences, about getting to take your kids to Wembley, all this sort of stuff.

I mean, we heard that now very blase will on win not be too bothered by cities,

whether they go to Wembley or not, because of course City fans have been there so many times, but this isn't the case if you're a Fulham fan or a Palace fan or a Brighton fan or most of the teams are left in the competition.

And the fact that some of these teams have put together brilliant league seasons, yeah, you'll remember the wins and the fun you had along the way, but like in five, ten years, are you going to really remember?

Yeah, this was the year we finished eighth, eighth, you know, and what a big deal that was instead of instead of finishing 12th or 13th.

Like, it is an extremely difficult thing to do, but it's not.

So, I just having that trip to Wembley at the end of it just puts a button on it and kind of solidifies it as a year you'll remember as a fan, I think.

So, yeah, that would it would have been nice.

It's a really important point.

Like, I think Cambridge have been to Wembley playoff finals, FA Trophies, etc., I don't know, four or five times, and there is nothing like seeing your colours on Wembley Way.

There is just nothing like it.

You're like, shit, this this is us.

Like, we're there.

Like, that is ridiculous.

You mentioned Bournemouth.

They lost two ones in Manchester City, who are into

their seventh consecutive FA Cup semi-final.

You did wonder, Seb, didn't you?

After Harlem missed that penalty and put that one over, and then Bournemouth went ahead, you were like, oh, hello, this is interesting.

And I'd only have felt that way this season.

If you'd given me the previous five, six seasons, even if Bournemouth had been 3-0 up at halftime, I would have said, yeah, but when?

When is City going to turn this?

When is City going to turn this?

When you're watching games like that and I was particularly the closing stages from the moment that City took the lead it took me back to that feeling of sometimes in football I the way games play out like that it's my the worst feeling one of the worst feelings I have watching football is the feeling of a side is behind and they're not touching the ball they've had no momentum they're they're rushing passes they look like they're going to give the ball away all the time almost the way that we've seen Bournemouth play was almost working against them in that scenario because the moment city got the ball back they were just back into their mode of just controlling the game.

They were wasting time in the most classiest of ways that City do sometimes.

We've got De Bruyne

carrying the ball towards the corner, but he looks good doing it.

You know, it's not a rush to the corner.

Oh, I'm not a panic.

It's like, I'm in control of all this.

Even Grealish waiting for somebody to foul him, going down,

it really killed the rest of the game for me after that.

Before that, though, it felt like something was happening.

Even City trying to fight their way back into the game.

You never knew what was going to happen.

And I felt a real

you know Sally touched on it and when he well he more than touched on it that I felt real disappointment for Bournemouth as a club as the supporters for the manager and a few of the a lot of the players as well they were missing key players for that game and this was their cup final you know they unfortunate they might think the the path has opened up but not really for us we've got Manchester City still despite their bad season this is still a tough opponent and I actually think of all the teams left Bar Preston Bournemouth after that are the ones that would have loved a Wembley trip or more, would have felt that feeling of we're not here very often at all, more than all the other sides.

But taken away from them by clinical city and maybe an error from Kepa.

Yeah, there's so much to pick up from that.

I agree with you.

The fact they're missing Kirkess and Heisen last is massive for Bournemouth, isn't it?

Because they have been two of their absolute standout players.

Yeah, no, it absolutely is.

But having said that, am I allowed to say that I'm actually a little bit disappointed in Bournemouth in the second half?

And I say that because

I've been so impressed by them so many times this season.

I actually think I'm surprised they're as far down in the league as 10th, actually.

That's kind of crept up on me a bit that they've dropped down there because I think they've been better really than some of the other sort of mid-ranking teams who have done well.

They're on a bad run.

Their last six has been bad.

Yeah, but several of those games I saw, and they should have won.

Like they were like the draw against Spurs, for instance, was ridiculous.

Like there's been a number of games.

So there, of all these teams we've been talking about, so the rise of the clever mid-ranking teams in the Premier League and Bournemouth really have been one of the most have been most consistently impressive whenever I've seen them.

And even if they were missing a couple of guys,

they were just really not offering anything in the second half here.

Granted, that was some of the best football we've seen from City in a while.

The two are not entirely unrelated, I suppose.

And maybe because they've had a lot of injuries, the guys who are playing just kind of ran out of steam.

That's entirely possible.

But it was a bit of a shame that there wasn't more coming from them, I thought, in the second 45 here.

Yeah, I mean, well, you have to credit Pep and Nico O'Reilly, Sanny, who, and I wouldn't expect you or anyone to have great insight on this guy because he's only started two Premier League games with City.

He's 20, which feels sort of weirdly old for an Academy product.

But I thought he

showed real maturity and how unselfish he was when he got into those positions for both the goals.

Yeah, he's very, very big as well.

We'd seen him do really well in the FA Cup for City, albeit that's against Plymouth, Argyll and Salford City.

And of course, he's a central midfielder rather than a fullback.

And

for Bournemouth, it was a here's what you could have won, because he did the sort of thing we would have seen Milos Kirkz do down that left-hand flank instead.

He came on at half-time and no one really kind of paid too much attention.

And before you know it, he's flying down the left flank and setting up Haaland for a tap in.

So he was fantastic.

And it feeds into the Pep Guardiola as a genius sort of thing.

And I guess he is, right?

Well, he is.

Okay, fine.

But I mean, yes, he's a pacey, left-footed, young player who's not been ground down by the positional coaching of

Pep, which means he can do that with abandon without wanting to turn back inside and play it back inside and slow it all down again.

And yeah, it was great.

So I guess the thing is,

as we've just had the international break and he's an English lad, isn't he?

We can put him down in pencil.

I don't know if he's going to make

Tuchel's list of 50, but maybe he's 75.

Can we just mention him now and see how he does this season?

I think Pep

joked that he might start him in the next FA Cup semi-final.

So there's an opportunity for O'Reilly to fill some sort of void for City and maybe even for England one day.

Who knows?

I mean, Ireland fans will be devastated that Nico O'Reilly isn't even Irish at all.

Like as many O's as you possibly can.

It's like Peter O'Hanrahanrahan, isn't it?

Nico O'Reilly.

There is something fascinating there about how he is actually 20 and he's made just like two Premier League appearances for a total of 21 minutes for the first team at City.

Now,

it's a funny one when some of these biggest clubs in the world also end up having the best academies in the world.

You have an issue there because

you can attract the most talented kids and you can put the most money into facilities and coaching, but at the end of the day, those are also the teams that are going to be the hardest to get into.

So you end up with a lot of kids there who massively want to make it for City and probably have the talent to make it for city but just getting into that 11 is almost impossible so i i do wonder what if we're going to see in the future

it must be difficult for them to to figure out when they get to 18 19 20 and they're not starting yet do they stick at it and wait for a chance or do they do what cole palmer for instance did which is kind of force the issue a little bit and make sure you go somewhere where you're going to play because you look at i mean i know it's just one half football but you look at nico riley and you think this is a guy who should be playing more often at a higher level than he currently is.

And I think this is why players like Ezair and Watkins are players to value and should be used as role models for young players at academies across the country.

Because even if O'Reilly decides, if he gets an offer...

going forward in the summer from somebody maybe even in the championship and he has a big decision to make and he has to decide do I believe I can get into city side this is assuming the city are still in the Premier League of course but if they are should I stick should I twist and I think for a lot of players,

I imagine young players getting themselves in a position where if I don't make it with this big club, it's over for me.

And I think we need to make more of these players.

Let's just say, and Jamie Vardy, of course, famous example.

And Ian Wright was back in the day.

If you,

even if you drop down, you can drop down and pump forward again and push forward again and still play for England and still play in major tournaments and still make an impact at the top level.

And if we can

keep that going, that would be very helpful for players across academies everywhere.

Just one very quick point to mention.

O'Reilly's actually come through to City Academy from, I think, seven or eight.

So he's not one of the ones because Cities Academy is vaunted and it is great and the facilities are great.

And the catchment areas, you know, it's Manchester.

So you're going to hoover up talent.

But they do take a lot of talented players from other clubs who then end up in the system.

And before you know it, oh, it's Morgan Rogers.

Well, actually, you know, the career before he went to City.

O'Reilly is actually one of Cities from the very beginning.

So that's a testament to at least that the system does work and they do develop players that end up being pretty good.

All right.

Well, Pep said he'll play in the semifinal, so we'll see him then if we don't see him before.

That'll do for part one.

Part two, we'll begin with Nottingham Forest's penalty shootout victory at Brighton.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the Remarkable Paper Pro.

We already know that Remarkable is the leader in the paper tablet category, digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting.

The Remarkable Paper Pro move.

Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all your notes, to-dos, and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin, so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office, like maybe a football journalist, Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beat or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The Remarkable Paper Pro move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try Remarkable Paper Pro Move for 100 days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game.

Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage manage your people, money, and agents so you can transform tomorrow.

Workday, moving business forever forward.

Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly.

So Forrest and Brighton drew nil-nil at the Amex was not a classic, but Forrest won their third penalty shootout in a row.

And I mentioned it at the top last.

It's such a great moment for Ryan Yates.

We talk about, we were just talking about O'Reilly, and players that have been at a club for so long to just have that moment.

And you could see the release when he, and it wasn't the best penalty of a Brigham almost got it, but just when he scored that penalty, he ran like Jono Aloisi when Australia qualified for the World Cup.

It was one of those, just how far can I run?

Yeah, and also, I mean, I'm sure there was a fair bit of relief involved for him as well because

not an obvious penalty taker, maybe Ryan Yates.

I suspect he hasn't taken that many

in his career.

And I mean,

Forrest,

they're just a great story

at this point because I've got to hold my hands up.

I thought they were going to fall off.

I thought they were going to drop off because their numbers looked a little bit funky because basically they don't produce a ton in attack.

And I didn't think they'd be able to sustain the form and the run they've been on.

But it just keeps going.

And they're so solid defensively.

And if you don't concede, you always have a chance.

And it also helps that Matt Matt Sells is having a really good seasoning goal, which he wasn't last season.

He's, he's, he, he's, wasn't amazing at all last season, but he's really found something.

And it's just, yeah, it's super, super impressive.

It's not, you say it wasn't a classic, it wasn't.

In the first half, they were like four or five shots in its entirety.

But also, Forrest had the ball quite a lot more than they usually.

I mean, the game just went in a different direction than I was expecting because Brighton are kind of possession happy and pressing.

And knocking Forrest usually sit back and just kind of let the opponent come onto them.

And that's not really what happened here.

Forrest passed the ball around much more than I'm used to seeing them.

So there's a bit of sort of tactical flexibility and nuance from Nuno there, just doing slightly different things.

And maybe the point was that he wasn't going to hand Brighton the kind of game that they wanted and the game that they were expecting.

And it just kind of made it a little bit more difficult for them.

Yeah, and actually, I wonder if that

Nuno intentionally picked that starting 11 because he was going to play like that, Seb.

So he wasn't going to just, you know, he a languor and hunter and dora on the bench.

And you're, you first look at that and think, well, hang on, Chris Wood's injured.

What are you doing?

Like, that's your entire front three.

Are you mad?

Like, this is the quarterfinal of the FA Cup.

But actually, I wonder, was he saying the league is more important?

Or was he saying, we're just going to be really tight for 60, 70 minutes, and then we'll stretch it?

I don't think he was thinking the league is more important.

I think this game was a victim of the previous two meetings between these two sides.

You think the earlier in the season, we had the 2-2.

There was a red card.

There was more than one red card in that game.

I think the manager's involved as well and then the 7-0 last time out and this obviously managers work on this basis they're looking at the previous meetings with clubs the way they play how can we counter that by showing our strengths and i think this is part of it he would expect it i'm sure hertzer would have expected forest to have their pace and their runners in attack and to sit off brighton a little bit soak them up break And maybe Nuda thought, right, well now I'm going to play this a bit differently.

And this is what we get.

When two managers are on it, maybe in their structure these are the sort of these are the games we get i'm going to touch back on the ryan yates celebration because my son is only four years of age as soon as yates put it scored and started running my son just went where's he going

and i couldn't i couldn't answer i couldn't answer that he's going to kill me in the future when he hears that's the impression i've done of his voice he doesn't sound anything like that but that's and it's so true i said he's going to the forest fans because that buzz of winning in a penalty shootout, even though we all say if you're a supporter watching a penalty shootout, you think this is the worst feeling in the world.

But getting through a penalty shootout is one of the best feelings.

I mean, there are not many beat it.

You think of in major tournaments, I think back to the Euros, and England put all those penalties away.

And it was one of the most satisfying penalty shootouts England have ever been in.

Forest have had three of those this season in this tournament.

Plus the League Cup, they had the flip side where they lost to Newcastle in the League Cup.

And they've been pretty good.

This was the first penalty shootout where it rocked them a bit because their first few penalty takers in the previous two rounds weren't able to take penalties because Gibbs White was taken off and, of course, Wood was unavailable.

So it knocked that a bit.

But Nuno, no doubt about it.

If I think...

deep within him, obviously the club Champions League is great, but if he could pick up a trophy with this side, you'd see celebrations, you'd see reactions from him you never believed were possible.

The dying Jedi comes back to life.

You're so right.

The thing about our penalty issues, and we all know it, is, and even when it's a neutral, I sort of get this absolute feeling of sickness through the whole thing.

But when it's your team, it's just totally unbearable.

I mean, England, Columbia really hits with me.

Like, because I think we hadn't, I don't know when we last won a World Cup, or maybe we've Spain, wasn't it?

Spain, you're in 96.

Eric, yeah, Eric Dyers wanding up, and you're like, oh, oh, that was some, you know, and and obviously I was sitting next to Barry, so like, that was a good one.

You've really traumatised me here.

So I'm wearing my Berry FC track suit today.

We have 100 points top of the Northwest County.

Congratulations.

We're still three points ahead of Lower Breck on 97 who can overtake us.

We're in the ninth division.

Well, there's Ramsbomb United as well.

They're a 90-odd points too.

So

we are...

Four games from promotion, but it's been a difficult old season or a run

so far since our 125 years in the EFL.

Last season, we got to the playoff final against Wivenshaw Town to get promoted.

But because Wivenshaw Town's ground could only hold like a thousand or so, we ended up with about 3,000 of us at Giga Lane with a big screen on the pitch and watched it there.

And we got like a satellite receiver so we could get the, you know, the signal really quickly on the 5G.

We forgot to have a satellite broadcasting signal at the other end so we could receive pictures quickly, but the pictures weren't being sent very quickly.

So what happened in the end?

It went to a penalty shootout and we're all there watching it, but

it started buffering.

Oh, no.

And it got to the final decisive penalty.

And we had to score.

And he runs up to the...

The Wheel of Doom.

Do you get the Wheel of Doom?

We got the Wheel of Doom.

And then it comes back, and the ball's just like on the floor at the side.

And he's just got his head in his hand walking back.

And that was how we found out we'd been knocked out.

We'd lost our promotion chance.

It's the worst worst feeling reminds me ah reminds me of i was um i was in uh belize when england played the usa in world cup very relatable anecdote yes again wow wow 2010

i want to know more about belize that's fantastic yeah yeah so no but i'm sitting in i'm sitting in this bar uh with like quite a lot of

americans and

Who's shot?

Clint Dempsey shot, and there's an electrical storm.

So that P-roller to Rob Green, Green we see Clint Dempsey shooting the ball rolling along the ground then there's a power cut and then about 30 seconds later the TV comes on and it says one one and everyone's like well that that shot has not gone in like like we didn't see what happened but there is no way that shot went in until we see a replay like five minutes later couldn't believe it anyway um i don't know if there's anything else to add to this from from from this game i thought the matt sell save from the one that went straight at him was brilliant because he's not only able to stay still but like you have wrists of steel to stop that it was like a dean saunders sort of julian dix penalty it was um i thought that was a brilliant save sanny you uh you had a thought just uh our colleagues at bbc sports and you might have seen this on the coverage did a little investigation on we'd probably google maps on how far players have travelled and it i think you know the fa's new broadcast deal meant this game was you know no premier league games it was all lauded and you know what we have got though is is the premier league just knocked on and it's come straight off the back of the international break and that game so i actually wasn't at the game or even saw it live.

I was actually at

Warsaw at three o'clock kickoff.

And I was able to drive home from Warsaw back to Manchester, hear all the commentary, hear Michael Brown get increasingly frustrated as co-commentator on 5 Live and then get back and still get back in time for extra time and penalties where a bunch of exhausted players were still battling it out.

I mean some of the numbers here, if you hadn't seen, is Pervis Estupin, 15,000 miles travelled.

Chris Wood, who got injured in the second game for New Zealand, 23,234 miles travelled.

I mean, Willie Bolly travelled 6,630 miles to play for the Ivory Coast and didn't play at all.

I mean, there's a whole host of players here.

Absolutely exhausted.

I know Gary Lineker in the comments, in the analysis, was like, something's got to be done.

I don't know what exactly you can do.

I mean, if you're going to sign towns.

Teleport.

Yes, exactly.

Play all the games in Saudi Arabia.

I don't know.

Stop it.

Don't give them ideas, for God's sake.

I mean, I suppose you're there is an idea to try and like condense an international break, you know, play more games in like a sort of three-week period or something.

So if you are flying to New Caledonia and Fiji, you don't have to go back and forth and back and forth.

But yeah, I mean, yeah, there's a lot.

You're right.

There is a lot of travel for a lot of these players.

Let's do Villa's win at Preston.

JR says, do you think Man United should go after that Rashford lad at Villa?

He looks bright and hungry.

Look, he got his first goals for Villa.

That's four months he hadn't scored, 14 games for Man United Villa in England.

It's a great moment for him, Lars.

What is the big takeaway?

Is it that sometimes people just need a change?

Or that Man United is a toxic place?

Or Emory is a brilliant man manager?

Or all of the above?

I think all of those things are true, or can be true, certainly.

I'm kind of holding off a little bit on the whole Marcus Rashford is fine now thing because I feel like we're not quite there yet.

But he is looking happier and he's running more, which is good because I've seen several Man United games, some ringside, where he just was spending most of his time standing around and not making runs.

And that's why I always wondered.

I still think

there has been something going on with him that we don't know, whether there's a physical problem or something, because he looks like so.

But he's looking better now.

He's moving more and looking hungrier and looking more like he's in a good place.

Could be a mental thing, absolutely.

And it's obviously his decision whether he wants to tell everyone everything that's going on with him or not.

But certainly he looks better, and that's good.

Still, the challenge for him is still kind of the fact that he's on this massive contract that makes him one of the best players and the best paid players in the Premier League.

And I still, he's not at the level where you look at him and think, well, yeah, that's a contract I want on my books.

And that's going to be a challenge in the summer when we're trying to figure out where he goes and what he does.

But in the short term,

he's looking in a much better place, which is great news.

And yeah.

Yay for him.

Yeah, I mean, I suppose, Seb, it's, if you're a Villa fan, it is like, let's worry about the summer when the summer comes.

They're right in the heart of this unbelievable season, right?

Where, you know, they're now in the semi-final of the FA Cup.

They've got these two really tricky games in the Premier League.

Then they've got PSG.

And so if Rashford can do a job for them, wherever he goes in the summer, whether he stays or not, is kind of irrelevant.

100%.

And Villa made a couple of moves in January, which I didn't love at the time, which were because they were quite short term, bringing in Asencio, bringing in Rashford on loans without options to buy, as far as I'm aware.

But they have had the reaction from those moves that they were hoping for.

It has

injected something into their season, and it has given them just a little bit extra in really important games.

And here they are.

They're in the Cup semifinal.

They're still in the Champions League.

And if you look at the table, they're not many points off a Champions League spot.

So sometimes these sort of very short-term January moves work out.

And, you know, credit to Villa for taking those risks.

Lovely moment, said, for Jacob Ramsey.

He's a Villa fan.

I think he's been twice to Wembley to watch them as a fan and now gets to go as a a player, which is a beautiful story.

And I'm pleased for him because he was actually name-checked by Thomas Tuchel as well, wasn't he?

Because he's when you look at the star and the way he plays, he doesn't mess about...

I love the phrase mess about it, whatever that means.

But what I'm trying to say is he's a play who goes for the juggler straight away if he can.

He looks to hurt the opposition with his runs, his driving play.

He's a goal scorer from midfield, and it's just a career that's been hampered by injury.

But when he plays for Villa, considering the options they now have in their squad, in the area that he plays, he's been a favourite of Emery's since Emery was able to coach him.

And I Villa have had up and down moments in the league season and it's incredible to think the criticism they've had in certain games, they've conceded a fair number of goals, but they're in a place now, as has been mentioned, whereby if you just dropped them into this season and said to their supporters, we're fighting for the Champions League, we're in the semi-final of the FA Cup in a fixture that we think we can win, and we're facing PSG in the Champions League, they would look at that and think, where are we?

This is amazing.

And I think only maybe Forrest supporters, because Forest aren't in Europe this season, and Liverpool, obviously, because they're going to win the league, would feel happier about their season overall.

And Villa, it's great going to that ground.

I love it.

It's one of my favourite places to go.

And everything about it, unless you're a Birmingham City fan, everything about it feels right for so many supporters across the country that Villa are back.

and fighting for the big titles.

Ramsey is also such a perfect player for Unai Emery, isn't he?

Like a midfielder midfielder who has a great engine, you know, hardworking, seems like a down-to-earth kind of guy, gets forward.

Like a lot of the checklist of what Una Emery likes to see in his players.

Like he seems to have all of it.

So that's such a great match.

On Preston, Sonny, I mean, you enjoyed Johnny Lou's piece,

which, I mean,

I don't think it was, I don't know if you thought it was sort of rude about Preston, because it was like, I think a Preston fan group said, said, we are the most boring football team, you know, in the AFL.

And that is with all due respect to Redding and Gillingham who normally take the mantle and I guess Preston have so much history that that they can always fall back on that you know that that is that is that is the thing that gets them out of the fact that recently they have done absolutely nothing but but I um but it was a really interesting piece Johnny's writing is so good that uh it it stirs something in me to want to react to it before I've even finished reading.

So he starts off talking about his attempts to get a butter pie.

And I shared the article on our WhatsApp group only only after I'd read the first two parts because I had to get it out of my sister that

he can't be slagging off the north like this.

I mean, it is a terrible pie.

It doesn't taste of anything.

But yeah,

if you do seek that out, it's a brilliant read if you haven't seen it already.

And it does kind of sum up perfectly where Preston are at.

Yeah, middling, doing nothing, going back to past glories.

You know, when you go to Deep Dale, the photos are all on the wall.

You know, the recent ones are

League One promotion because he had a little dip into the third tier before coming back and being in the middle of the road in the championship um but you know fair play to preston fans they made a massive occasion of it i've never seen so many balloons on a pitch ever like there's a torrent of balloons it is like constantly just players popping balloons i was listening to this watching this with my little headphones in so i was really like getting the feeling of all these balloons popping and fair play as well to uh a colleague sarah mulkerins who was doing the bbc halftime uh interviews and also having to dodge getting pelted by bits of paper.

He's screwed up paper, just getting thrown at her constantly from the Alan Kelly stand, which was originally like giant PNE they'd put up in big letters.

But as with Wembley with the paper planes, the Preston kids just screw himself chucking them at her.

And Freddie Woodman for what seemed like half a game.

And if you look at the goals, you've just got this pile of screwed up paper behind one of the goals, which is great.

A lovely occasion.

And yet he didn't get back to doing nothing in the championship now.

Yeah, I mean, Johnny wrote at the end of the piece, right?

It is possible to see Preston as a kind of bell-wether club, a study in existence and endurance as its own reward, in a sport more turbulently unequal than ever.

Preston will not provide an American hedge fund with an inflation-busting return on investment.

They will not generate Hollywood content or Wembley show pieces.

They are neither good nor bad, but they provide thousands of people with a ritual and a routine.

It's cheap, it's hearty, it's local, and it's real.

Will the market allow something this radical to survive?

And I suppose, actually, Lars, for most of us, most of the time, we neither win nor lose.

We don't go up, we don't go down.

Like most teams just are.

And actually,

there is a beauty in that,

strangely.

Yeah, no, and I would argue that it's kind of what a football club should be.

Like, it should be

a thing that serves this local community.

It should be a place where, if you grow up in a town, this is where you take your kids to watch football.

This is where you go with your mates.

That is what a football club should be.

And it's because of the way the modern game game has gone.

It's not what most top football clubs are.

They're kind of this strange industrial entertainment complex and investment vehicle and PR vehicles in some cases for greater forces.

And I'm glad you brought that up, Max, because I kind of wanted to jump in and read that exact paragraph because I think that is the heart of the piece Johnny Liu wrote.

And I think a lot of people who are offended by

the first couple of paragraphs won't get that far.

But the whole point is that maybe

Preston is what all football clubs should be as bizarre as that sounds the only thing I'll throw in is that it's really difficult to be that in the championship these days like almost every championship club and I'm sure Preston is one of them is just financially unsound and loses a ton of money every year I heard someone who owns, who has had ownership interest in English football, describe owning a championship club as like having a really expensive lottery ticket.

Because the thing you're hoping for is to spike your promotion season and then it all pays off.

But that lottery ticket costs you millions every year.

So, a championship club is something that you hold for as long as you can afford to hold it before you just have to bail out and realize I've just lost a ton of money on this.

Because that's the sort of perversity of the modern English football pyramid: you've got loads of owners who are prepared to just lose a ton of money in the off chance they might get to the Premier League.

And it makes it hard for just a normal community club to exist at that tier, which I think is a much better perspective on a club like Preston, who are not exciting or interesting for foreign types types such as myself or maybe a lot of people listening to this podcast, but they are what a football club should be.

It's season second sales season, isn't it?

Every commercial department is putting out the letters and the tweets and everything.

Question to us all.

Does Johnny's piece help the Preston commercial team, do we think?

Could you give them those two pars and say, come along for a bit of stability?

Absolutely.

Of course.

No such thing as bad publicity, is there?

Unless you're accused of a crime.

Well, there is that.

Yeah, no, I think so.

I think that was the essence that I got from it totally.

And, you know, I'd see that as, you know, as a team that are about to get relegated, I'd quite like to do some mid-table

mediocrity.

But, I mean, the point that Lars makes is the unsustainability of the championship, which is another conversation, right?

Which is about the regulator and about money coming down, about parachute payments, about all these things.

But we don't have time for that.

But we will do some EFL in just a second.

Look, Palace play Villa.

Palace have never won a major trophy.

Villa last won the FA Cup in 1957.

Palace have a good recent record against Villa.

They beat them 4-1 at Southurst Park in February.

They won 5-0 the season before.

I think it was 2-2 at Villa Park earlier in the season.

Forrest last won the FA Cup in 1959 against Mad City, who've won it twice in the last six years.

And they've both beaten each other at home this season.

So,

yeah, fingers crossed for some good semi-finals.

That'll do for part two.

Part three, we'll do some EFL.

HiPod fans of America, Max here.

Barry's here, too.

Hello.

Football Weekly is supported by the Remarkable Paper Pro.

Now, if you're a regular listener to this show, you'll have heard us talk before about the Remarkable Paper Pro.

We already know that Remarkable's the leader in the paper tablet category, digital notebooks that give you everything you love about paper, but with the power of modern technology.

But there's something new and exciting.

The remarkable paper pro move.

Remarkable, a brand name and an adjective, man.

Yeah, it's their most portable paper tablet yet.

It holds all your notes, to-dos, and documents, but it's smaller than a paperback and an incredible 0.26 inches thin, so it slips easily into a bag or jacket pocket.

Perfect for working professionals whose jobs take them out of the office, like maybe a football journalist, Barry.

Although not like you.

A proper football journalist, man.

Exactly.

Too much technology draws us in and shuts the world out.

This paper tablet doesn't.

It'll never beep or buzz to try and grab your attention, so you can devote your focus to what or who is in front of you.

It has a display that looks, feels, and even sounds like paper.

Think and work like a writer, not a texter.

And And the battery performance is amazing.

No worries about running out of power before the end of extra time.

The remarkable paper pro move can keep going for up to two weeks.

And if you do need to recharge, you can go from naught to 90% in less than 45 minutes, Barry.

Fantastic.

Why not give it a go for nothing?

You can try Remarkable Paper Pro Move for a hundred days for free.

If it's not what you're looking for, get your money back.

Visit remarkable.com to learn more and get your paper tablet today.

When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game.

Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money, and agents so you can transform tomorrow.

Workday, moving business forever forward.

Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.

Our top of the championship looks like this, then.

Sheffield United top, 83 points from 39.

Leeds, 81 from 39.

Burnley, 81 from 39.

Sheffield United were brilliant on Friday night against Coventry, weren't they?

Seb, you were there for this one.

Did they look like champions-elect?

Seems a bit too early to say, given how tight it is up there.

Too early to say because of the other sides involved, but they did look like a side who were a step above, a side who'd been one of the most informed teams in the league.

I don't think Coventry played that badly.

I just think at the crucial moments, Sheffield United had the quality.

And when you

I think the best example was the fact that two of Coventry's better players in recent years are now at Sheffield United.

It's the ecosystem of football.

Shefford United have the ability to take these players away from clubs who, you know, Coventry just missed out on promotion themselves against Luton.

Their story is obviously gone the complete other way.

We're looking at a situation where there were three teams to go up.

We have a clear three teams to go up, but there aren't three teams to go up.

Well, there are three teams to to go up but not in not automatically my takeaway from this this game though was Rian Brewster and the life of a footballer and fandom and what I'm trying to say is that Rian Brewster's had this interesting journey in football you know he's the top scorer at the under-17 World Cup part of that generation of English players who people have been keeping a track on and have gone this way and that way Foden Sancho and Hudson Adoy etc

Then he was at Liverpool, had a bit of time with Liverpool in first team football before being sold for a record sale to Sheffield United.

I mean a record purchase for Sheffield United and then having a mixture of injury and bad form and struggling to score goals.

It was pretty much nearly 30 matches at Bramwell Lane.

He hadn't found the net.

And he is.

But then football gives you that moment to bounce back from that situation just so quickly.

I don't think there's anywhere else sport is the way that you can do this from being a zero to a hero.

And after the game, there were children in the crowd calling for his name.

He was with, I was doing the game for ITV, and we brought him into the pitch side position afterwards.

And he was chatting with the guys for so long after the game.

He was just happy to be there, happy to talk about the game.

He felt good about himself.

There were young children saying, Rianne, Rian, Rian, we want to speak to you, we want to speak to you.

And all of a sudden, having scored in the Sheffield Derby and then ended the run, I mean, what a few weeks to have.

And what a feeling it must be.

And that's the buzz that football can give you when you, before that, must have felt so low.

You mentioned mentioned players they've got from Coventry and Gus Harmon's one of them.

And his free kick was absolutely brilliant, wasn't it?

Ted says, do any of you fancy going in goal for Leeds United?

And Meslier's a funny keeper, Lars, isn't he?

I'm a bit like Kepa, saved a penalty, was then at fault, actually, for both the goals against Swansea.

And you just, if you're going for promotion, you can't...

draw at home to Swansea.

Especially they thought they'd won it.

Nonso coming on, scoring the first touch, I think, and then conceding an injury time.

I mean, he is a funny goalkeeper because he can have moments in games when he looks absolutely top class and i know a couple of years ago he was a goalkeeper who some of the like very top clubs in europe were keeping an eye on because he's young and obviously in terms of his reflexes and stuff there's there's a lot there but he isn't

you're just kind of waiting for him to grow up in inverted commas you're waiting for him to get that to that level of consistency that you expect from a goalkeeper of that talent and it's maybe maybe not quite happening yet yeah especially given the quality of we mentioned it before the players are in goal for Sheffield United and Burnley, right, who are like delivering.

And Burnley get another clean sheet, they beat Bristol City 1-0.

The Burnley thing is just unhinged, isn't it?

I mean, it's been touched on before in the league, but I've just, because we've got two people on the panel who watch a lot more EFL than I do.

He's just 11 goals conceded in 39 games in the championship as well, which is a notoriously chaotic league.

How is this possible?

Like,

how do you do this?

Have we been wrong

all this time

about about Scott Parker?

Is he actually a genius?

Well, say yes, go then.

He's had to do a lot this season.

We've touched on it before how he came in and the squad was absolutely huge and he's had to turn over a lot of those plays.

He got to remember there's a lot of quality in there.

I mean, Maxime Estev has been a key reason for them doing so well in defense.

And they do like to keep hold of the ball, and it's the classic keep hold of the ball.

You can't score, can you?

I mean, James Trafford, I put it to him a couple of, when he's, when he said two penalties against Sunderland, and I was like, you know, you had a difficult season last year because

in the Premier League season, he was dropped

for Murich, who, you know, as we've seen this season, I don't know why that happened, but

that kind of gave you an idea of how badly things were going for Trafford.

And he was like, oh, no, it wasn't that bad.

Like, he's got such a...

such a mentality that he couldn't really even acknowledge that things had gone badly for him.

He's had an incredible campaign.

They limit the amount of shots that they allow opposition to have, but then he saves having 80% of anything thrown at him.

So those two alone are a key reason for that.

And when you see Leeds again stumbling, all of a sudden, when we were thinking, can you bore your way to promotion?

All of a sudden, it seems that you can, because Melier, to go back to the original question,

I think he's costing leads really dearly now.

He's a lovely guy, but being a nice guy and having talent isn't enough.

And he's had enough errors in the past.

And I actually think Daniel Farker is on a bit of a tightrope here, and Melier could be the sort of reason why he might not be there next season at this rate.

So it's very worrying for leads to be coming apart when they've got such talent because Burnley are one of a few who are ready to jump in there and get ahead of them.

At the bottom, Plymouth have 34 from 39, Luton 38 from 39, Derby 38 from 38, Cardiff 40 from 39.

They've all played 39, Hull, 41, Oxford 42, Stoke 42.

Absolutely enormous win for Luton over Hull, Seb.

And the goal is just what I want to see, frankly.

People are laughing at Alfie Jones, right?

What can he do about that?

That is absolutely nothing he can do.

It's not a gaffe.

It's not an error from him, but it's embarrassing.

It's embarrassing.

You can't put that any clearer.

From a Luton point of view, I mean, boy, did they need that win.

I thought, you know, last season watching them in the Premier League, I did think that they were a football club who were were obviously just keeping their head above water and the fact they were there was amazing but I did not think the drop-off would be this what we're seeing now I don't think anybody saw this coming I don't think anybody thought they would bounce back necessarily because of how hard they had to work to even get to the Premier League and the players they were losing but this is so key and it's part their recent run they've picked up important points.

I think they've got three wins in the last five or something like that.

And at this point of the season, that is clear.

So maybe they have got the momentum to get themselves out of trouble.

Um, I look at the table every time I check back on the table and think Oxford United are still in with a shout of staying up, more than a shout of staying up.

Portsmouth, and and that's a good side of the championship if the League One clubs can stay in the division and keep themselves up there.

Um, that's another side of it, and probably more becoming more and more possible as we get more of the bigger gap being between the sides that come down and everybody else.

So that's clear to see.

I'm pleased for Lutheran staying up because I've said this before, they have the best commentary position

I've experienced in English football in recent times.

Interesting.

I mean, if you haven't seen it,

I think there's a Luton player sort of in the vicinity, but it's one Hull City player hammering the ball against another Hull City player and it just bouncing off him.

And there's nothing the keeper can do.

And it's just tremendous fun.

Birmingham are top of league one now by what, nine points.

And they've got two games in hand over Wrexham in second.

So they are waltzing away with it.

Pretty tight between Wrexham and Wickham.

Wrexham 77 points.

Wickham three points behind with a game in hand.

Then it looks like Charlton and Stockport will get in the playoffs and AN Other

Amazingly Reading in that position given what's happening off the pitch.

For them, a creditable one-all draw at home to Northampton, if that's creditable for Cambridge United.

Now just 11 points from safety with seven games to go.

Safety is assured, I'm sure.

When Wrexham beat Exeter, Wrexham beat Exeter, sorry, and their manager was Gary Caldwell Exeter's, who was sent off last week, and he blamed his Scottish accent.

He said, there's no way to communicate with the fourth official unless you leave your technical area.

I didn't run.

He said I was aggressive.

People who know me, I've got a Scottish accent.

Jen, that's his wife, complains all the time about how aggressive I am to her, the kids, the dog.

I think it's the accent.

It comes across as very aggressive.

But I didn't swear.

I didn't run.

In my opinion, I wasn't aggressive.

My accent and my Scottishness are aggressive.

But yeah, I got sent off for that.

Yes, Seb.

I think the fact that Ali McCoyst exists disproves that.

That's all I'm saying.

I think you might.

And Super Grand.

There's no aggression.

Super grand, wasn't it?

Absolutely.

It wasn't very aggressive.

Super grand, wasn't there?

Satan, you spent the week becoming the world's leading ball saw expert.

How are they getting on?

Two wins in 14 and now winless in seven.

We saw a similar stumbling to the title with Forrest Green for in 2021.

So what's that, four years ago?

This has been bad.

We've mentioned it before.

nathan low was the is still their top scorer and he left back for stoke in uh january on loan and since then it's just been

just not good enough that's the thing so they were playing third place uh wimbledon on saturday and it's amazing so matt sadler's side they have scored more well the second most number of set pieces in the entire four divisions that they're a set piece team They don't need possession.

It's a bit old school, really.

But they had a guy who could put the ball in the net.

And now they don't.

And instead, the previous game, they started two 37-year-olds in Jamil Matt and Albert Adoma, which is a great old school lineup.

And yeah, just not they've not got the fluidity.

Wimbledon came and really pushed them,

pressed them, but Omar Bougil with the goal there.

And then it looked the thing is this game, it's one of those games when is that Omar Bogle, but said differently, or is that a different game?

No, there's a no, there is a Bogle and a Bougil.

There was a game once when he got a game.

He's got really posh posh.

It's an incredibly posh way to say Omar Bogle.

Omar Bougier.

There are two of them.

Okay, fine.

You know those games?

I've had it as a Berry fan where there's so much riding on it, so the club go all out and you get loads of fans in.

So this is one of those 10,000 at the Poundland Bescott Stadium with 2,000 school kids and their parents.

And I saw them all.

You know, you see like kids who were there at the first game.

And it wasn't a great match.

And at halftime, some of them were on like Nintendo Switch and just messing around and walking about.

And thankfully for them and for Walsall, they got an equalizer, a brilliant free kick three minutes from time.

And that's kept them in touch.

But the weird thing about League Two is nobody wants to win.

Every team keeps falling down.

Bradford could have taken, gone ahead and

top of the league.

And they drew 0-0 in their early kickoff at Accrington Stanley.

And every team is on this weird kind of run.

We've talked about before how the disparity isn't really there in League Two.

So this happens.

Uh, so yeah, it's all kind of happening there.

So, if you've got the time to keep an eye on League Two, I'd recommend it because

it could be any one of about six teams who win the title at this rate.

Adam says, shout out, please, for the FA Var Semi's second leg games on April the 6th.

Very excited at Whitstable Town FC.

What a place for a mini break, eh?

Absolutely glorious.

Could be going to Wembley after today's 2-0 first-leg home win.

Come on, you oysterman.

Let's finish with sheep.

In the WhatsApp group, Seb, you said

it's sheep shearing time for your.

how many sheep do you have?

Four, but they're beasts.

Yeah, yeah, but they're big.

Four, big sheep.

Yeah, big, big, big bum sheep.

Yeah, they, so we, it's our first time with this shearer.

Her name is Danny, and we're excited.

She's an artist as well, so giving her a shout-out.

But we'll see how the shearing goes first, of course.

Is that a normal artist stroke sheep shearer?

Is that like, you know, was Constable?

No, no, not at all.

Did Casso do that?

Botticelli?

Let's see how April the 1st goes.

What a day to do it as well.

well.

Let's see how that goes.

And then she might be getting some shout-outs on this podcast.

But ultimately, it's quite...

It's a sad day as well because they are the fluffiest they're ever going to be.

They are the cutest they're ever going to be.

And then when they get their hair cut, they're going to look like goats.

Nothing against goats.

Sorry to offend any goats out there,

messy and all of that.

But I wouldn't.

They're just at their peak cuteness.

And it's that point when you have children, when they lose that chubbiness around their cheeks, and they start to look older and the cuteness factor just starts to dissipate that's how you feel when you shear your sheep and um you you asked me originally would i be doing the shearing and i thought i contemplated well i contemplated lying and then i just thought it will catch up with me eventually and people will ask me to demonstrate it on tv and i'll be there pretending and i'll just wait for the point i'll have the clip of it do you watch or do you just do you watch or you just can't face it you just

i will i will watch i might need to i might need to i might need to help.

We'll see, because they are units

and I might need to hold them down.

Producer Joel says, are you making the ultimate commentator's coat?

That's super coat.

You might have given an idea because they have got an amazing fleece.

It's black and white as well.

So let's see.

Yeah, you've given me an idea now.

There's somebody out there if they want to.

It's my own sheep, don't you know?

I will donate the fleeces to somebody if they can make it into a commentator's coat.

And then I'm saying that

if there's any coat makers out there, what do you call a coat maker?

Well, I'll go with that.

Yeah, coat maker.

Designer.

You'll go with

those two English words put together that make sense.

Coat maker.

Let's do it.

If you're a coat maker, I mean, I think you're right.

There's something

clothes design, isn't it?

But if you are just a coat maker, a bobbler or something.

Especially a woollen one, then, yeah, if you're a woollen coat maker, football weekly at theguardian.com.

We will be inundated almost certainly.

And that really feels like that'll do for today.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, Sanny.

Thank you.

Yeah, pleasure.

Thanks, Lars.

Thank you, Max.

Cheers, Seb.

Man.

Football Weekly is produced by Joel Grove.

Our executive producer is Danielle Stevens.

Premier League returns.

We'll be back on Wednesday.

This is The Guardian.