Grovesred

yeah i work for network rail and every week they give us a day off just so we have to work the weekend.ha ha .they think their world class more like third world class.

Amen to that.

Only having worked for the same organisation since after privatisation, I don't even get cheap/free rail travel

The job's OK, but not too keen on the employer probably sums it up for me.

If you want to see real greed, I suggest you take a look at the size of the pay packets enjoyed by Royal Mail bosses who are coining it in by the million (literally in some cases) for destroying jobs and undermining services.

This is NOT about post workers being greedy; it’s about them defending their jobs, their pensions, and the service they offer us. If they lose, we all lose.

hmmm...

deducting my two stone of excess weight changed my BMI but not my death date, while changing from "normal" to "optimistic" extended my retirement by 12 years.

So, from tomorrow I'll be upping my intake of beer, and walking around with an idiot grin on my face, so panic will ensue in the Railway Pension Scheme's offices.

i support the striking posties

Me too.

Flippin 'eck GR...just how old are you???????!

Nearly old enough to be a gaffer.

It is thought to be a shortening of the word godfather or grandfather !

I believe you're right, though I'd only heard of it as a shortening of godfather in around the 16th century, when it became a general term for older men.

I don't have an Oxford dictionary at work to check this, but I'd guess the reference to age eventually became a reference to seniority at work, giving rise to its other meaning of boss or foreman. Most early professional footballers will have been factory workers, it's not hard to see how a work term for boss began to be used on the football pitch.

Edit: It could be the other way round though, that the shortened godfather was used as "boss" and only later came to mean "older man"

Grovesred...is that you, stand opposite cameras, 27th row up, 14th seat along from the right????!

Nah, don't think we've got 27 rows but in any case I was standing behind the goal, at the back, conveniently close to the snack bar.

It was certainly a game of two halves, but it also laid a few hoodoos to rest:

1) The first time we've won at home this season

2) The first time that we've come from behind to win this season

3) The first time this season we've won when the opposition has scored

4) The first time we've EVER won a live TV game

Given that we proved deadly from two yards out, I'm surprised Manny didn't weigh in with a goal from his favoured range of one yard. I thought he suffered from being played out of position a bit, which was really a consequence of us being short of eight players through injury and suspension.

Winning live on Satanta was especially pleasing since Paul Parker always backs whatever team we're up against because he can never forgive us for stuffing Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford

Highlight of the evening had to be Billy McEwan's celebrations for each goal replayed on TV in the Social Club after the game. The small crowd also meant the club was fairly quiet, resulting in the steward deciding to sell his excellent York Brewery Terrier bitter for £1 a pint, which in turn led to me being late for work this morning...

Satanta is free with Virgin XL, which is only costing me £10 a month in total on a six-month introductory offer. I wish they'd not bothered with the Conference though - the home club gets a paltry £5000 compensation. I reckon being live on a Thursday knocked 400 or 500 off the gate, so City will almost certainly be worse off.

The feckers also switched our forthcoming match with Torquay from a Saturday to a Tuesday, then again to a Sunday at 7:15 - it must be costing the Torquay fans a fortune in re-booking train or plane tickets.

The real downside of Satanta is that you get Rangers TV, Celtic TV, and Liverpool TV as well and, try as you might, you frequently switch on to them by accident and see something nasty before you hastily switch off.

I quite like Glasgow and Manchester, and even some parts of London and the south east. The people there are pretty much like people everywhere.

What I don't like is people consciously changing their accent in order to sound like they come from those places because they imagine it's cool, or hard, or whatever else it is that floats their boat.

It's all a bit sad if the accent you get off your parents, family, friends and wider community somehow isn't good enough anymore.

It's a rare day that I walk more than 100 yards from my front door without tripping over students trying to sound like they're from Essex, or scallies with fake Manchester accents.

As with the weegie soundalikes: why?

castle

Veering evermore off-topic, I assume the Federation was set up to bring various supporters' groups together to coordinate efforts, avoid duplication, etc?

If so, was it ever effective?

The reason I ask is that the supporters' groups at York come under occasional pressure from the FC to merge into one big group on the grounds that it would be a more effective fund-raiser. We resist because we believe each group serves a very specific function which may or may not include donating wads of cash.

However, I've sometimes thought formalising (via some sort of confederation) the cooperation that already exists might be useful - was this ever the experience at Saints? Or is it just a Supporters Club that doesn't do much? (we've got one of those as well!)

Sorry if I'm opening a can of worms...

Whatever happened to... the milky bar kid?

Saw him just eight days ago at a Nestle charity fun day in York.

OK, it was a mascot version of him (just to irritate Nold) who removed his head in public, much to the chagrin of York City mascot Yorkie the Lion.

Whatever happened to mascots abiding by the Mascot Code

shame I will never go to the original Den though which had one of the best atmospheres in british football.

Visited the original Den once, but got separated from the other City fans on the way, so decided the best tactic was to go in the home end and keep my gob shut.

This worked a treat, until City full back Steve Senior trotted over to take a throw-in, saw me, waved, and said in his broadest Sheffield accent, "alright, then?"

Luckily, it was a fairly busy part of the ground and no one knew for sure who he was looking at when he said it.

Shortly after, I sidled off for a cup of tea, and found somewhere else to stand.

I think it's unlikely that Daniel Yorath was sniffing coke prior to his death at the age of 15.

I'm damned sure the death of David Longhurst at York wasn't caused by drugs either.

Cardiomyopathy is much more common than most of us imagine; indeed it was discussed here last season on the day that Matt Gadsby died at Harrogate.

It kills people of all ages in all walks of life, not just apparently fit young sportsmen. Sportsmen may, I suppose, be more prone as theyre more likely to undertake prolonged periods of physical activity.

I don't know whether there really are more cases now than previously or if we're just hearing about them more.

Either way, I think we should be respecting these people's memories, not jumping to conclusions that they've somehow brought it upon themselves.

picket

droopy

Colin was, very briefly in 1978, a York City player. According to his autbiography after one game (as captain), he was told he had "enemies in the boardroom".

He made three more substitute appearances before he was on his way, having learned a valuable lesson about why football club directors are not the best people to select the team.

Needless to say, City were less than successful under that particular manger....

beer

Someone asked York manager Billy McEwan his opinion of this in the Social Club the other night.

Let's just say he backs Keano on this and treated us to another anecdote about Brian Clough signing him to Brighton:

He told me the pay, which was double what I was on at Blackpool, so I says, "I'll need to talk to my wife," and he says, "What do you want to talk to your f***ing wife for? You're the f***ing breadwinner, you f***ing decide..."

More seriously, he made it plain that his moves as a player were dictated by how highly he rated the manager - Eddie Turnbull at Hibs, Harry Potts at Blackpool, Clough at Brighton, Arthur Cox at Chesterfield, and so on, not by what Mrs M thought of the shopping!

Most sexual abuse of children takes place within the family, ie the perpetrators are very likely to be members of the victim's immediate family. The threat to "our" children often lurks within our own four walls, not on the fringes of the school playground.

That being the case, it's not so surprising that victims end up with a distorted sexuality themselves, and I'm not so sure that life imprisonment, castration, etc, are really very likely to break that vicious spiral of some abuse victims becoming abusers themselves.

By all means punish the abuser, but offer him/her treatment also, and most importantly devote massive resources to helping the victim to overcome the trauma and to avoid becoming an abuser later in life.

Hate's a word that comes easily to football fans' lips, but speaking personally I don't actually hate people because they support the teams I love to hate (Boston might be an exception), or whole towns because they're home to said teams.

Other people may take it more seriously though...

...if they do, they should consider taking a chill pill.

1) Rangers (can't add any reasons to the ones already given)

2) Leeds (they think they're a big club whom everyone in Yorkshire should support)

3) MK Dons (club stealing scum)

4) Liverpool (it really is time they got over themselves)

5) Bury (I'm a York fan, no other reason needed)

6) Airdrie United (ditto MK Dons)

7) Morecambe (Im a one-time Lancaster City fan, plus Morecambe beat York in last season's play-offs)

8) Real Madrid (Francoist, diStefano stealing scum - I hold a grudge a long time)

9) Boston United (fans taunted City fans with tenners when York were in administration; unforgiveable)

10) Gr£tna (mostly that last-minute goal, which broke my heart)

I'm pleased that he's been banned, but am a bit surprised there's no mention of any other punishment, such as a fine, community service, slow roasting over an open fire, etc.

Appropriately enough, "A Fool Such As I" - Elvis.

Just two predictions from me:

Scottish First: St Johnstone

Conference Prem: York City

Obvious, when you think about it.