I can understand it’s more cost efficient to do this, but I think the intangible benefits of giving local youths a path to glory should mean we should look at having some sort of system in place.
We do. It’s a voluntary network, but it’s supposed to be organised (I say supposed because I can’t confirm this).
Watched the The Big Match Revisted on ITV4 earlier with games from 1975, and a few things stood out. As has been mentioned on this thread before - quagmire pitches, heaving terraces (with lots of scarves being waved), and the blue invalid carriages parked around the edge of the pitch.
But also … quite a sprinkling of players who looked like they were in their 50s (Alan Gilzean, Bobby Charlton, David Loggie). Why don’t we have prematurely old looking players these days?
And there was an advertising hoarding for Brew Ten. I’ve heard of Brew XI but not that. Anyone on here ever try it? And were there another 9 too? Also an ad for Whitbread Trophy Bitter. 
I think that M&B was owned by Bass Charrington (Red Triangle) and Brew XI was the M&B bitter, with Brew X being the equivalent for one of the other smaller brands within the Bass Charrington group. I may be misremembering due to too much Highgate or Banks’s or Marston’s, in the '80’s.
The following was ‘Guardian pick’ of comments about an Adrian Chiles’ piece about fans of less successful teams being more dedicated.
My dad was a Walsall fan for 82 years. The family joke was that he first went when he was 5–they scored a goal, he threw his cap in the air and he kept going back for over 80 years to see if he could find his cap! He died in his sleep at aged 87–he WAS in hospital, I and his grandson went to visit him on Saturday afternoon and he was THRILLED that Walsall had won! His consultant–a bloke I went to school with–joked that it was the shock that killed him–but he died happy with his beloved Saddlers
Lovely story.
Remember my old Dad telling me a tale.
About fifty years ago he went on the coach to watch Saddlers play Notts County. The driver dropped them off and arranged to pick them up " outside Boots "
After the game a group of fans met up outside the big Boots shop but could’nt understand where the rest were. The coach did’nt turn up , so after a long wait somone found a call box and phoned the coach company.
The driver had waited for nearly an hour outside Boots HQ and was now nearly home. They all found a pub and had to wait for the coach to come back.
I think a lot were the worse for ware and gave the driver some stick.
Years ago, I went to an away match at Crewe, a Friday night towards the end of the season, with the supporters club coach with Frank as the driver. We won 1-0 (Ian Paul I think) but when we go back to the coach, all the windows were smashed in. Everyone volunteered to go back in it anyway but only one or two did. The rest of us were parked in the supporters club, which seemed to have more people in it than had been to the match. Some of them were asking the score. Eventually, a new coach came, and I got back to Walsall, where my Dad had been waiting for hours with no news of what was happening. No mobiles in those days. He did not see the funny side. No sense of humour you see.
Lounge prices and bar prices in pubs? When I started drinking back in the 70s I think it was perhaps 26p a pint in the Bar, 28p or 29p in the Lounge. When did it stop being a thing? We were talking at work today and nobody could remember it stopping, or when, or why.
What do you mean by a lounge Jumbo?
I think it’s because pubs are more eating places now, so back in the day you would have to pay more for the plusher surroundings, but now the whole pub is the same all the way through.
If you are being genuine Andy? if not i will take a woooooosh 
But in older pubs they used to have a bar, where you would go for a drink with the lads from work, in work gear and such and not have to worry about oil and dirt stained clothing messing the furnishings up.
In contrast they also had a lounge, where you wouldn’t be allowed to wear work gear, it was a lot plusher and it was somewhere you could take the good lady and not have to worry about getting your clothes spoilt by dirty chairs and subjecting her to the odd “F” word lol, but you had to pay more for the drinks for the privilege 
I will wait for the wooooosh 
No. Thanks Chunk. B4 my time. Interesting bit of history.
Presumably they disappeared as fewer jobs were manual.
There are still a few about, but as jumbo says, they don’t differentiate between the two rooms as much now.
Makes sense, a lot of pubs back in the 80s & 90s were knocked through, so it was all open plan, and a lot are eateries now and don’t really want the locals or regulars in their wellies and overalls with their dogs.
Some pubs would have had several rooms, a lounge, a bar, a snug (Andy, don’t ask 
) a smoke room and of course a little off sales place.
I didn’t think someone would ask that question, but I suppose if you have only been frequenting pubs in recent years it has become less common to have a bar and lounge.
Anyhow, Chunk explained it well, but also the bar would have been where the pool table and dartboard were, and where people would play dominoes, and Jack Russells would be dozing under the seats.
Sounds great. Surely scope for a retro pub experience business somewhere 
Just have to get around the no smoking ban
And charging more than 26p a pint.
I thought that might cause the odd youthful eyebrow to raise. 
I can remember being down in that there London in the early 80s and they were charging a pound a pint. You could have knocked us midlanders down with a feather, horrified we were. 
And it was like dishwater