Is this a good Championship?

Yes its was painful VC10. We were playing better than they were. They were a man down. And we were running into extra time. 1st Jake let him get his cross in. Then Keogh mis-controlled. Then Zamora killed us off. We went from virtual triumph to defeat inside 10 seconds.

But I think this year we will do it - as second place.

If Clough had stayed we would have had no stars on our shirts. Clough had far too much class for such a stunt, especially for a knockout competition. He knew that the League was the thing. Clough had long left Forest when they put their silly stars on their shirts.

VC 10 as for West Brom, I was pleased to beat them but I carried a sneaky feeling for a long time that they were a better side than we were.

It was interesting when Pep was bemoaning Rafa for not trying to play football against his mega team. I wondered if Rafa had had 4 or 5 players from Pep's bench or squad if things would have been different? We might have seen more football.

The clubs that aren't owned by elite syndicates, are stuck paying over the odds for scraps. The key to staying up seems to be shrewd in the scraps you pay for, get a few mega clubs to buy one or two of your younger stars and be slightly better organised at being average than your competitors

If you divvied up all the talent the mega clubs have hoarded, you might have a proper league and the Championship might become a bit less reliant on the huff and puff strategy which is arguably the best way to get promoted when you don't have access to the creative football playing market that other teams do.

An academy could in theory trump this but at the moment it might get you a promotion before the mega clubs come in and say thank you 'farm team', we'll take it from here.

Spotting the diamonds in the rough and innovation might be the only weapons left for us semi rich teams.

Written in the spirt of counting one's chickens, inherent in 2W's post. This is what I think.

At this juncture of what we do in case of promotion, this is where team spirit, that precious commodity that disappears like mist in a force 10, faces its biggest threat :-

We need to keep the core of the team that earns the promotion. Carson and Mitchell. No problem there. Chris Baird? The main problem is his age. But his experience, defending and passing skills could be very useful. Keogh he stands. Curtis Davis still good. Alex Pearce also.

But I think we need a left back. Olsson is a bit light weight. We need someone bigger and quicker. Fossie is just a bit short of PL class. Huddlestone, Ledley Johnson, Tom Lawrence, Johnny Russell, Weimann, Bryson? and Thorne -- All OK.

Up front - Nugent, Vydra and another two strikers of real ability.

Then, with team spirit and promotion bounce still intact - we get enough points to survive whilst we continue to build the team for the next season.

Commercial hatcheries have hatch rates of around 90%. All this scaremongering about the awful dangers of counting chickens before they hatch is tremendously exaggerated. People should count away to their heart's content if they want to, unless they've got snakes under their coop or an infestation of racoons. If you've got 'em fertilised properly (by a rooster, don't try it yourself) then you'll get yourself chicks before too long, as sure as eggs is eggs. Relax and quit your worrying.

What is the percentage hatch rate for domestic birds? I am quite sure that commercial eggs are counted by computer.

Varies, Iwas. All depends on the conditions the chickens are kept in, the health of the chickens etc. Impossible to generalise. Ridiculous question really.

If you are planning to rear Tibetan chickens at high altitude, though, here is a useful publication you might find helpful:

academic.oup.com/japr/article/21/2/287/852185

Holy fook

I think its more the case that the quality of the PL has declined closing the gap with the EFL.