The Mist

 "Whats going on?"

"Don't know, I can't see anything..."

THE END

September Football 2023

 Its the return of my football ratings of the month, I watch a lot of football for pleasure and trading. Here are the matches I watched this month rated from worst to best;

Roma 1-2 AC Milan, Serie A. An awful match where Roma offered nothing except trolling until the final few minutes despite being a man up from the 60 minute point.

Newcastle Utd 1-0 Brentford, English Premier League. Neither team got started, it felt like watching a 90 minute warm up.

Everton 0-1 Arsenal, English Premier League. Everton were rubbish and the dragged Arsenal down to their level, a heavy favourite won 1-0...

Luton Town 1-2 West Ham Utd, English Premier League. Lutons first home game in the EPL saw counter attacking West Ham with most of the play until they scored. Neither team are used to having possession and it showed, plenty of off target shots and corners little on action or decent play.

Inter Milan 5-1 AC Milan, Serie A, I missed the start of Strictly to watch Milan get thumped.

Olympique Lyon 0-0 Le Havre, Ligue 1. A battling display from the away team earnt a point against an unconfident Lyon. Plenty of blocked shots and Le Havre worked a minor miracle to keep a clean sheet. 

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Burnley, English premier League. A game about misses, Forest would miss a ton of dead certs which gave Burnley the confidence to go ahead late in the first half. Forest equalised with a brilliant goal in a game that both will feel that they could have won.   

West Ham Utd 1-3 Manchester City, English Premier League. West Ham with more of their on the break routine went ahead in the second half City came back with the inevitability of heat death.

Millwall 0-3 Leeds, Championship. Fun attacking game with both sides going for it.

Sunderland 5-0 Southampton, Championship. A very good performance from Sunderland who played on the break for most of the game. A fun attacking game with Southampton unable to penetrate despite having most of the play.

Southampton 1-4 Leicester City, Championship. Jamie Vardy started a party after 20 seconds and Southampton cried because they wanted too.

Latvia 0-2 Wales, European Championship Qualifiers. A young Welsh side dominated a niggly Latvia, Wales should have scored more. 

Crystal Palace 3-2 Wolverhampton Wanderers, English Premier League. Enjoyable end to end match, fun trading which got better when the goals started flying in during the second half.   

Borussia Monchengladbach 1-2 Bayern Munich, Budesliga. A dominating display from Bayern in a game enlivened by the hosts going ahead midway through the second half. Wave after wave of Bayern attacks saw them equalise and then grab a winner in the final few minutes. A good trading game created by the hosts going ahead. 

Burnley 2-5 Tottenham Hotspur, English Premier League. A dominant away display by Spurs who bossed Burnley. A good display of a new manager asserting his personality on the team as well as a satisfying hattrick from Son proving there is more to him than his partnership with Kane. 

FC Twente 3-1 Ajax, Eredivisie. A dominant display from Twente in a game of many chances, even by Eredivisie standards. Twente keep up their 100% league record and Ajax are already 7 points behind the leaders.

Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Newcastle Utd, English Premier League. A dominant display from Brighton who kept Newcastle in their pockets for most of the game. Very impressive as I'd expected this game to be a lot closer. 

Sheffield Utd 2-2 Everton, English Premier League. A fun, attacking game with both teams going for it feeling that this was a game both could win. A 12:30 kick off and one of the most enjoyable EPL games that have been in this time slot. 

Genoa 2-2 Napoli, Serie A. An out of sorts Napoli with an eye on Europe went to Genoa and found themselves two goals down. An aging Kevin Strootman for most of the game kept Napoli at bay but when he ran out of gas things looked grim. After hooking him off around the mid 70 minute mark Napoli would score an equaliser and an away banker turned into a score draw.

Bayern Munich 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen, Bundesliga. Kane put Bayern ahead within ten minutes and it looked like game over, Leverkusen ripped up the script, did some adlibbing and equalised. Bayern went ahead again late but a penalty earned a point for the away side in what was an unexpectedly an even game.

Paris Saint-Germain 2-3 Nice, Ligue 1. There's nothing like a good pantomime villain (OH NO THEY DON'T) and in recent years that is what PSG have become just that. Nice went ahead early and despite being pegged back before half time mounted a counter attacking second half that saw them go 3-1 up. PSG would pull another goal back but thankfully Nice held on and a Merry Festivus was had by all.

Fiorentina 3-2 Atalanta, Serie A. I felt this was going to be a good game and it didn't disappoint. Both teams would go ahead and take turns dominating what was a good above mid table league game. Possibly the best flowing game I've seen this month and I look forward to a good season from both teams.   

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-3 Liverpool, English Premier League. Liverpool don't do midday first half's, Wolves do and they had a cracker going 1-0 up and could have got a few more. Liverpool made a change at half time then another two ten minutes later, in a unique move for a subbed player Gakpo left via the penalty box and scored an equaliser. From that point Liverpool were rarely in trouble going ahead via Robertson with a counter attacking run from a cleared corner and Harvey Elliot making three although it would be credited as an own goal. 

Arsenal 3-1 Manchester Utd, English Premier League. A fantastic guns blazing game from two sides who were going out to win. Plenty of cards, corners, chances and talking points, a far cry from the damp squib that I feared. A lot closer than the score line suggests with the two late goals creating chaos on the correct score market. 

Napoli 1-2 Lazio, Serie A. The top two clubs in Serie A last season went to battle early in the month at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and produced a belter. After a few waves of attack from Napoli they fell behind to a deft Lazio flick only to equalise minutes later. Napoli would spend the rest of the match on attack with Lazio playing on the break. Lazio had two goals ruled off for offside however their game plan was well executed. 

Borussia Dortmund 2-2 FC Heidenheim, Bundesliga. What started as a standard game with Dortmund taking a two goal lead turned into something special as Heidenheim mounted a comeback complete with VAR and disallowed goals that earned them their first ever point in the Bundesliga.

Caveat, I fell ill and was in hospital most of the second half of the month.

Liverpool FC Player by Player Review 2022/23

 A quick player by player season review of the season;

Alisson - not the most consistent of seasons with some very good performances peppered with some WTF moments 5/10.

Joe Gomez - terrible season where at times he looked like he was sinking, after last season where he was injured this looked like a season to reap some hay but he went backwards 2/10.

Virgil van Dijk - a bad season where he morphed into Eric Saward. There would be countless mistakes from him but always resulted in him shouting at and blaming other players. He would improve the further the season went on and salvage a 5/10.

Ibrahima Konate - some very good impressive play and kept his head in defence while others lost theirs. He has become the first name on the team sheet as the season ends 8/10.

Kostas Tsimikas - got a lot of game time this season and during the first half of the season was out most consistent full back 6/10.

Andrew Robertson - eight assists and no goals, disappointing season but we have high expectations of him and for a lot of fullbacks its a decent return. Deducting a point for giving Bajctic a crap nickname which better not stick 4/10.

Joel Matip - he was alright, bit injured, bit in and out, had good games and bad games 5/10.

Trent Alexander-Arnold - a season of two halves which got better as the season went on and he upped his game during the run up to 5th position 6/10.

Fabinho - very poor season where he lost his touch and timing, hopefully the rest of close season will do him good 3/10.

Thiago - the most consistent of our traditional middle three yet in and out through injury 5/10.

James Milner - legs have gone and I wish he'd make the move to coaching 2/10.

Naby Keita - I just don't care about him enough to give him a rating.

Jordan Henderson - not a good season, was knackered from last season. Very likely wont be a started next season and its time to take the captaincy away from him 3/10.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain - a player who seriously needs to move to a lower quality league which his body can handle or get a job 3/10.

Curtis Jones - a return to the form that saw him initially break into the team and an improvement towards the tail end of the season 8/10.

Harvey Elliott - some good performances mostly early in the season when all around him were sinking but seemed to hit a wall the more the season went on 5/10.

Arthur Melo - spent the season bound, gagged and locked in my shed. 10/10 for signing a waiver that clears me from criminal prosecution.

Fabio Carvalho - was in the side early season, got some goals and an assist then disappeared 4/10.

Bajman - a good breakthrough season which proved to much for his body at this young age but he'll grow into himself and we'll see more from him in the coming seasons 6/10.

Roberto Firmino - at one point he looked poised to have his best season as he managed to hold down a starting place but injury and incoming players sadly put a stop to it 6/10.

Momhamed Salah - a season which on paper was pretty standard but one in which he really had to grind things out as his natural form and flair wasn't there 7/10.

Cody Gakpo - hit the ground running and proved to be a spark for our front three in the second half of the season. Some really good positional play at times 7/10. 

Diogo Jota - in and out of the team for various reasons yet consistent when called upon 6/10.

Luis Diaz - it doesn't feel like the league suits him, he has his moments but feels too soft to be a starter 4/10.

Darwin Nunez - a season of trying to and imo struggling to get used to the league. At times he's really tried on my nerves, he's getting a 4/10 with the caveat that some players take a season to get used to the league.

Everyone else hasn't played enough to warrant a rating.

The Big Finish Catch-Up January 2023

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues; 

Army of Death, the finale of the 8th Doctor and Mary Shelley trilogy. A good fun played for laughs pulp story that is bags of fun 8.5/10. 

Deadline from the unbound range this week. Utterly harrowing and an all time classic 10/10.

Also Neverwhen from the War Doctor range. Bleak time war action and a good finale to the box set 7.5/10.

Avatar The Way of the Water - Review

By no means what I expected, both in terms of film and character. The level of everything between this and the first film is immense, like comparing Pac Man with Tomb Raider. The effects are amazing and the choice of moving things to a water based environment was a good one as visually it strikes gold. James Cameron also makes the brave choice of leaving the two lead characters from the first film in the background for large portions of the film. The younger generation introduced become the heart an soul of the film (something that the first film never had) to the extent that when the final act rolls around they are why we care about the outcome.

Director wise there's a lot going on, James Camerons choice of shot is spot on throughout the movie. By the time we get to the final act he's in his traditional element after excelling outside of his preconceived box for most of the film. We get a few jumps and shocks throughout the film and despite the wide openness of the film we get scenes of claustrophobia. There's a few nods to Camerons previous films - most notably a few shots that bring back memories of Titanic, the exo-skeletons that first appeared in Aliens are ever present as is the traditional industrial use of yellow around the human parts of the film.

Actor wise I really enjoyed the younger characters plus I think Sigourney Weaver should be in contention for Best Supporting Actress awards.

9.5/10 from me, only niggles are a few plot points that could have been tidied up. The big problem I had from the first film is that it should have been a video game and left no imprint on pop culture. This feels like a film yet the thing I think will make an imprint on pop culture was also something that was in the first "I see you."

The Big Finish Catch-Up November - December 2022

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues; 

The Devils Armada, an effortless recreation of the Hinchcliffe era from the first "Philip Hinchcliffe Presents" box set. Everyone involved is on top form and bar from a few moments where it forgot it was an audio I was fully absorbed and transported back to watching Tom Baker VHS's 9/10.

Cold Fusion, an adaption of one of my favourite "Past Doctor Adventure" books and the final entry of the Novel adaption range. We end this range as we started with a case study of how the 7th Doctor evolved in the "Virgin New Adventures" range. When I heard this was being adapted I squeed as it was one of my favourite books and I'm so pleased they made this an old money six part story as I didn't want to lose anything via an edit from the story. The premise of this story is the strongest thing about it, the season 19 TARDIS crew featuring a freshly regenerated 5th Doctor land and stumble right into the middle of a 7th Doctor VNA and chaos ensues. Virtually everything (apart from the prologue) is seen through the eyes of the 5th Doctors crew and its a bit of an eye opener seeing the VNA 7th Doctor from this point of view. The 7th Doctor is mostly in the background for this story and its a really good move as despite knowing more about this Doctor due to the sheer number of books we are left with more questions about him as the story proceeds. One of the strongest parts of the story is the various companions interacting as is the 7th Doctor getting to meet Adric. We began this range with the 7th Doctor putting his companion through the ringer and we leave it with the 7th Doctor putting his younger self through the ringer. A fitting end to this range even though I want more 10/10.

The Hidden Realm, the second and final story from Volume Two of "The Third Doctor Adventures." A rather nice little story and as an Earth set story a good combination with the space set story in this volume. Now that I've heard a full box set (as well as his appearance in Light at the End and Legacy of Time) I feel its my time to give an opinion on Tim Treloar's performance as The Third Doctor. Its a thumbs up from me, he has a very good go at the voice but the real strength is in the mannerisms. I'll look forward to coming back to this range again in the future. As for the story its quite nice, a traditional ruralish setting bringing back memories of the era its set. It has an intriguing setup and a good idea, however it feels a bit tightly plotted and lacking in flavour. In all honesty I wouldn't have minded the other story in this volume being six parts and this one being two. There is a good bit of fun to be had with this story but it is bite sized 6/10. 

The Big Finish Catch-Up March - October 2022

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues; 

However as I've fallen behind its time for some snap reviews of the last years of my Big Finish listening, these contain first time listens and relistens to old favourites:

The Transcendence of Ethos - A good first impression for the 3rd Doctor range, 8/10.

The Ghosts of Gralstead - A fantastic first story from the Philip Hinchcliffe presents range 10/10.

A Thing of Guile - good second part of the second War Doctor box set 7/10.

He Jests at Scars - weird yet good entry for the Unbound range starring the Valeyard 7/10.

Lies on Ruins - Good moody start to the Legacy of Time box set 8/10.

The Split Infinitive - Fun bouncy second part of Legacy of Time box set 8/10.

The Sacrifice of Jo Grant - Charming emotional third part of the Legacy of Time 9/10.

Relative Time - Really fun bursting at the seems entry to the Legacy of Time 8/10.

Damaged Goods - A perfect adaption of the NA adventure for the Novelisation range 10/10.

The Avenues of Time - Decent yet feels unspecial entry into the Legacy of Time 5/10.

Collision Course - Finale of the Legacy of Time, good moody story with a fun climax for the box set 8/10.