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Town down at Birmingham - It's a Brum ting.
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Birmingham City v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Friday August 5th - 15:00 ko
at St Andrew's


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Huddersfield Town travel to Birmingham to St Andrew's on Friday night for a game brought forward because of the Commonwealth Games. Apparently they can't get enough stewards for a Saturday afternoon game. Doh



Town got off to a bad start on Friday night at home to Burnley. I don't want to dwell on that, but I expect Danny Schofield to make some changes. One change has already been made and that's the new assistant coach just arrived. Paul Harsley joining from, of all places, Birmingham City.

Birmingham started off with a goal less draw away at Luton on Saturday. They also had a new manager in charge, with John Eustace taking over from yond prick Bowyer in the summer.

With the game being changed to a Friday night at very short notice, Birmingham have done the decent thing and offered tickets at a reasonable price. Have a look at these........



Tickets:

Adult - £15
Senior (65+) - £10
19-24 - £10
13-18 – £5
Under 13s - £1

A brief history of Birmingham City formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they dropped the Alliance in 1888 and became Birmingham in 1905 when they moved into St Andrews. They didn't become known as Birmingham City until 1943. As Small Heath they were founder members of the new Football League Division Two in 1892, winning it as champions. However, they failed to gain promotion to the first division. In those days the teams at the top and bottom had to play a Test Match to decide promotion or relegation, similar to today's Play Offs, but not quite the same. Anyway, they lost on aggregate to Newton Heath, who of course went on to be known as Manchester United. They did win promotion though in the next season, after finishing second, they beat Darwen in the test match 3-1 at Stoke's Victoria Ground. They stayed up until 1908, but then stayed in the 2nd division until after the war when they won the title again in 1920/21.

During this period, two players set out long standing records for the club. Frank Womack racked up their record number of appearances, turning out 515 times between 1908 and 1928. And Joe Bradford became the club's all time leading goalscorer, scoring 267 goals in 445 games, being top scorer each season between 1921 and 1933. They made it to their first FA Cup Final in 1931 when the team, skippered by ex Town full back Ned Barkas, lost 1-2 to West Bromwich Albion, who were a 2nd division team then, at Wembley. They stayed in the first division right up until 1939 when they got relegated just before the next war kicked off.

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During the war they finally became known as Birmingham City and then won the 2nd division title for a third time in 1947/48. That didn't last though and they were back down again in 1950, only for them to go on and take their 4th and to date final 2nd division champions title. So back in the first division, they achieved their highest ever league finish in the 1955/56 season when they came 6th, thus qualifying them for a place in Europe in the first ever Inter Cities Fairs Cup (which has now morphed into the Europa League). They also made it to the FA Cup Final again in this season, their second and to date final one. They still haven't won it, losing again. This time it was Manchester City who won it 3-1, with Welsh international Noel Kinsey equalising Man City's early opener. The match is remembered though for City's keeper Bert Trautmann playing on for the last 17 minutes with a broken neck.

So the next season, Birmingham City became one of the first English clubs to play in the European tournaments. And they did alright! It was a long strung out affair, lasting over three seasons. They were drawn into a group with Inter Milan and Zagreb, which they topped by staying unbeaten. They beat Zagreb twice and drew in Milan. The decider of the group came down to the final match of the group at St Andrews against Inter. Two goals from Alex Govan their Scottish outside left gave them a 2-1 win. He was asked in an interview about his favourite song, which he replied was Keep Right On To The End Of The Road, which has since become the fans' anthem. That win meant that they went through to the semi finals, which they drew 4-4 on aggregate with Barcelona. However, they lost the replay and the European dream was over.

Only over temporarily though, as they qualified for the next competition to be played between 1958 and 1960. They went one better this time. After disposing of Cologne, Zagreb and then Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium in the semis, they faced up to Barcelona in the Final over two legs, thus becoming the first English club to reach a European Final. After a goalless first leg in Birmingham, they got pumped 4-1 with Harry Hooper scoring a late consolation. Ex Town player Pat Beasley was manager of Birmingham at the time of the final. He had been joint manager with Arthur Turner, who had been in charge of these recent triumphs, but resigned following a disagreement with the board. Beasley himself resigned after the Final.

Gil Merrick had played in goal for the Bluenoses since 1939 and now moved into the manager's hot seat when Beasley resigned. He had played 485 league games and now was to lead them in the next competition of 1960/61. They made it all the way to the Final again, beating Hungary's Újpesti Dósza, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub of Denmark and then beating Inter Milan again in the semis. It would be Roma in the Final this time and it went by in a similar fashion to the previous one. They drew at St Andrews, this time 2-2 with goals coming from Mike Hellawell, who would later play for Town, and Bryan Orritt, coming back from being 0-2 down to force the draw. No good though as they lost the 2nd leg 2-0 after Brian Farmer put through his own net and then Paolo Pestrin tying up the tie in the last minute.

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Gil Merrick


The Fairs Cup was growing and England had more teams in in the next one, with Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday joining them in the 1961/62 competition. It wasn't to be. Birmingham got knocked out early doors by Espanyol. But they were on a roll and in 1963 they won their first major trophy when they lifted the League Cup by beating local rivals Aston Villa. The Finals were still played over two legs and it was the Blues who won it in the first leg, winning 3-1 with goals from Ken Leek (2) and Jimmy Bloomfield. The 2nd leg finished 0-0 and Birmingham City had it's first major trophy. But this successful period came to an abrupt end in 1965 when they got relegated again.

They came back up again in 1972, replacing us in the first division, as runners up to Norwich. Back down again in 1979 and straight back up again in the following season, finishing 3rd and beating Chelsea on goal difference for that final automatic spot. Another yoyo in the mid 80s, winning promotion back up on the day that Leeds fans rioted at St Andrews, causing the death of a young boy when a wall collapsed on him. Dirty Leeds scum! Anyway, this being on the same day as the Bradford fire tragedy, formed part of the inquiry into the safety at sports grounds. The boy's death under a crumbling wall was something of a symbol of Birmingham's fortunes off the pitch, despite their promotion. They came straight back down and almost went down to the 3rd division.

After a couple of close misses, they did go down to the 3rd for the first time in their history in 1989. But down there, they won another trophy. It was the Leyland DAF Cup (FL Trophy) and they beat Tranmere Rovers 3-2 at Wembley in 1991. They went back up in 1992, only to come back down again in 1994. They did go straight back up as Third Division champions, with Barry Fry as manager, clinching the title at the McAlpine Stadium on the last day of the season. They did the double that season, winning the Trophy again, now being called the Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy. They beat Carlisle Utd in the Final 1-0 in extra time. Paul Tait scored the winner on the Golden Goal rule, meaning that that was their last kick in this competition as they haven't since been back down in the third tier.

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Trevor Francis had been sold to Nottingham Forest in 1979 to become the first million pound transfer in English football and he returned to Birmingham to manage the Bluenoses in 1996. He brought in some experienced players, including Steve Bruce from Manchester Utd and almost made the Play Offs. Francis led the team to the Millennium Stadium in the 2001 League Cup Final. Bruce had moved on to other things! They lost though on penalties to Liverpool after Darren Purse had equalised in the last minute of normal time from the spot.

Francis left early in the next season to be replaced by Bruce who had left his job at Huddersfield Town the previous year and managed Wigan and Crystal Palace for short stints. He managed to do for them what he couldn't for us, get them into the Play Offs and win a place in the Premier League. They did it by beating Norwich City on penalties. It was played in Cardiff and was 0-0 at full time. Iwan Roberts put the Canaries ahead in extra time, but Geoff Horsfield equalised to take it to pens. And it was ex Town keeper Nico Vaesen who was the hero, saving two of the Norwich penalties.

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They had a top half finish in the Premier League, but were relegated in the next season. Only to bounce straight back up again, finishing as runners up to Sunderland. Bruce left early in the next season, to be replaced by Alex McLeish, who got them relegated...….only to bounce back up again (we're getting a pattern here!), this time as runners up to Wolves. They managed to stay up, finishing in 9th, their highest finish for over 50 years.

But the pattern continued and they went down again in 2010/11. However, they did mange to win the League Cup, their second major trophy triumph. They beat Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley with goals from Nikola Žigić and Obafemi Martins. This earned them a place in Europe for the first time since 1961. They didn't get past the group stage though, finishing behind Club Brugge and S.C. Braga. Chris Hughton was by now in charge and when he left, his job went to ex Town manager Lee Clark.

He had them down in the relegation area and in his first season they only just survived on the last day of the season when in injury time a Paul Caddis header earned them a draw at Bolton, sending the fans wild and Clark running down the touchline in an uncontrollable show of relief. And so not much has happened since, apart from living from one crisis to the next, like having nine points deducted in 2018, new owners Trillion Trophy Asia sacking Gary Rowett in favour of Gianfranco Zola and last season having Leeds thug Lee Bowyer as manager.


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Head to Head

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Town lead the head to head with 43 wins to City's 39, with 35 draws.

That's 117 matches between the two clubs, which I think makes them our most played opponent. Sadly, not many memorable games in there. Rolleyes

Last season, we beat them 2-0 at their place. It was the one where they changed their name to Small Heath Alliance for some reason to do with the television programme, Peaky Blinders. A bit strange seeing as they dropped that name in 1888 and the first series of the tv programme was set in 1919.  Huh

Anyway, Levi Colwill scored from a corner and then Lewis O'Brien added the second just before half time. The home game was goal less, adding to the number of games without a home win against them. The last six home games have been drawn and it's now 13 home league games without a win.

I say league games, because we did have a famous win at the McAlpharm against them in 2008 in the FA Cup. They were a Premier League team then and we were in League One, but goals from Luke Beckett and Chris Brandon gave us a 2-1 win. That was the last FA Cup win against a top flight side until last season when we beat Burnley.

Going back to the start of our Football League life, we broke our club scoring record twice against Birmingham. The first season, 1910/11, we set the record with a 7-1 win. James Macauley got a hat trick in that one.

Then three seasons later, we went and beat that by winning 7-0 at Leeds Road. This time Thomas Elliott scored a hat trick. He's on the front row, second from the left on this old photo of the 13/14 squad.

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Probably the biggest game we had against them was in 1972. It was the last time we made it to the FA Cup quarter finals and 52,500 turned up at St Andrews to watch it. Unfortunately we lost 3-1 with Trevor Cherry getting our goal.

We did beat them in the 2018 FA Cup though, again at their place. After a 1-1 draw at ours, we were level at 1-1 after 90 minutes of the replay, but then Steve Mounie, Rajiv van La Parra and Tom Ince scored in extra time to give us a 4-1 win.

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So what's going on down in Bordesley? Managed nowadays by John Eustace, the former Kidderminster Harriers boss.

He's 42 years old, started his career in the Premier League with Coventry City, but spent the majority of his playing career in the Championship with Stoke, Watford and Derby.

After he hung up his boots, he had a couple of seasons managing Kidderminster, getting them to the Play Offs twice, but then left to be assistant to Steve McClaren at QPR. He left in the summer when Mark Warburton packed in, but wasn't out of work for lang as he got the Brummie job when that disgusting Leeds scumbag Lee Bowyer was given the heave-ho.

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Last week's line up at Luton:

21 John Ruddy - a one cap England keeper, signed from Wolves recently.
28 Dion Sanderson - defender on loan from Wolves.
4 Marc Roberts - Ex Barnsley and Halifax defender.
5 Auston Trusty - Defender from USA, signed for Arsenal, got sent on loan.
2 Maxime Colin - French full back, signed from Brentford in 2017.
6 Ryan Woods - Ex Brentford midfielder, signed from Stoke last year.
19 Jordan James - 18 year old midfielder.
17 Przemysław Płacheta - Polish winger, on loan from Norwich.
7 Juninho Bacuna - Brilliant or garbage, depending on what mood he's in.
9 Scott Hogan - Ireland international striker, ex Halifax and Rochdale.
8 Troy Deeney - Likes a goal against us.

Subs:
1 Neil Etheridge - London born keeper, captain of Philippines national team.
3 George Friend - Ex Boro full back.
10 Lukas Jutkiewicz - Likes a goal against us.
11 Jordan Graham - winger, signed from Gillingham last year.
14 Jonathan Leko - winger, signed from the Baggies last year.
27 Jobe Bellingham - 16 year old younger brother of Jude.
42 Alfie Chang - 19 year old midfielder.



Club connections:

Goalkeepers Neil Freeman, Nico Vaesen and Ian Bennett. Barry Horne. Paul Barnes. Pat Beasley. Mike Hellewell. Ned Barkas. Dave Mangnall. Ernie Islip. Lukas Jutkiewicz. Lee Clark. Lee Novak. Adam Clayton. Steve Bruce. Alex Bruce. Simon Charlton. Dennis Clarke. David Edgar. Chris Holland. Emyr Huws. Steve Jenkins. Dennis Jennings. Damien Johnson. Chris Marsden. Seymour Morris. Paul Moulden. Peter Ndlovu. Phil Robinson. Phil Summerill. James Vaughan. Peter Withe.

Any more. Probably. Hey, don't forget this bloke......

Frank Worthington is a legend at both clubs. He was one of a kind. Well one of a few of his kind actually. There were some right flamboyant players around in the 70s. George Best, Stan Bowles, Tony Currie, Rodney Marsh, our Elvis impersonating Frank was one amongst them.

He scored the only goal of the first match I ever went to. I was hooked. I used to sulk when he wasn't playing and as a consequence, I couldn't stand Paul Aimson or Brian Greenhalgh. A bit harsh probably, but I'd gone to watch Frank. Blush

Anyway, his goals fired us to the Second Division title and probably the best performance of his Town career came in the FA Cup 5th round win over West Ham, which led us to that match against Birmingham in 1972.

He scored 48 goals for us, placing him now in 26= spot in our all time goalscorers chart. After us, he went to Leicester, Bolton, Philadelphia Fury and then Birmingham City in Division Two. He won promotion with them and so played another couple of seasons at the top level. He scored 29 goals for the Blues.

Frank is the only man to have scored goals in 21 successive Football League seasons. Sadly, he was another footballing victim of Alzheimers and died last year. Have a read of his obituary in the Guardian.....

https://www.theguardian.com/football/202...es-aged-72

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Birmingham in popular culture:

There's loads of bands from Birmingham. Black Sabbath, Duran Duran, Moody Blues, ELO, UB40, Joan Armatrading always get mentioned. Here's a selection of those that don't.......









'ow to get theere an' wheere to sup: There is no parking at St Andrews, just street parking and local car parks. Try looking here if you need somewhere. https://en.parkopedia.co.uk/parking/near...2207282200

If going by train, the nearest station is Bordesley, which is about a ten minute walk away from the ground. For evening matches after the game has ended they run back from Bordesley to Moor Street at 21:51, 22:16, 22:22, 22:43 and 22:54. How you get back to Huddersfield at that time of night, I dunno.

However, our Middle England correspondent, theo_luddite, gave us this bit of information on the Not The Town O'Clock News thread recently.........

Quote:Note that for the Brum game return train tickets from Snow Hill and Moor Street to Bordesley are now available for a few quid that will save you at least half of your shoe leather and a bit of sweat for getting back to somewhere close to New Street after the game. Whether or not you can get a train home from there is another matter.

You could cozy up to the "Floozy in the Jacuzzi" in Brum for the night, the waterfall and fountain has been resurrected for the C G's for about £5m quid, plus the damage when someone added a few drops of mild green fairy lipsqid that got her all in a right lather, but it might be a tad damp and she's been known to give the (stone) cold shoulder to those that try to give her a hug-an'kiss for the night.

Thanks to the C G's, hotel accommodation will likely be at a premium for miles around. You might be able to pitch a tent on the halfway-line at St. Andrews and they probably wouldn't notice, might be best to leave it until after the game though. Then again .....  Whistle

Best bet then looks like the official coaches, priced at £19 per person, with coaches departing the Gasworks Street car park at 3.30pm.



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Snooty's wild guess at the line up:

Nicholls

Lees Boyle Nakayama

Turton  Hogg Ruffels

Thomas Anjorin Rudoni

Ward




August the 5th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date?

2006: Gillingham (a) League One, lost 1-2 (Gary Taylor-Fletcher)
2019: Derby County (h) Championship, lost 1-2 (Karlan Grant pen)

Played two, lost two. Time we changed that then.


Birmingham Anagrams: some football related, some not.

  1. Dooley Bums
  2. Cathouse Jen
  3. North Knowing Fart
  4. Ask Brenda
  5. Ale Clerk
  6. Darts News
  7. Shown Gemma Camelot
  8. Ace Venison
  9. Eeyore LBW
  10. Jam Trading Aaron



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Devongone, talkSAFT, jjamez And 2 others like this post
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#2
Thumb up Snoots.

A few wild guesses at the antigrams - Whistle

3. I'll never look at Big Frank in the same light again after that anagram
5. Leek Lark
8. Is one of our favourite keepers, Nico.
Lord Snooty likes this post
A guide to cask ale.

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Multi-tasking. I can listen, ignore and forget all at the same time.
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#3
Danny Grant scored again for the B team today. Surely he's worth a place on the first team bench.
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#4
I love these wonderful posts you create each week for games. How do you upload pictures onto this site for a start?

I hope the game is better than I imagine. Birmingham seemed to suck all the life out of Luton last week. Some fans deposited small parcels containing their own soul at the gates. A commentator lost the power of speech. A streaker was so overwhelmed by the prospect of going on the pitch he turned and ran all the way home completely naked and has begged to be allowed to pay to have the ground exorcised.
Lord Snooty and theo_luddite like this post
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#5
A Guardian article that draws it's content from "Birmingham: It’s Not Shit by Jon Bounds, Jon Hickman and Danny Smith"

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...alth-games

The only bit I may take issue with is claiming Slade as being from Brum, when they are all from up the road in Wolvo and Wass'll.

A few Nights in White Satin are definitely not recommended attire for a trip to The Balti Triangle if you have to ask the Question. In Your Wildest Dreams on a Tuesday Afternoon (or even Friday evening) you have to Ride Your Seesaw rather than sit on the fence to see The Other Side of Life in Brum. Whilst I'd like to say I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band, I really don't have The Voice for it. Like two members of the band, I do have a Blue Guitar, but I'm nowhere near good enough to play it in anything but a fully sound insulated room. You could say a bit of a Legend of a Mind (In Search of the Lost Chord) to borrow the album title. I can tell by now that The Story In Your Eyes is saying I'd better Go Now.

If that's not enough clues for Antigram 1, I don't know what is  Laugh  Laugh  Laugh


(02-08-2022, 16:56)Devongone Wrote: I love these wonderful posts you create each week for games. How do you upload pictures onto this site for a start?

AmChaff used to have some destructions for that, but I think they got lost in the big move. I think most on here have the hang of it so I'll PM them to you Devon. It's buried somewhere in the help stuff but also not easy to find.
A guide to cask ale.

[Image: aO7W3pZ.png]

Multi-tasking. I can listen, ignore and forget all at the same time.
Reply
#6
(02-08-2022, 16:56)Devongone Wrote: I love these wonderful posts you create each week for games. How do you upload pictures onto this site for a start?

What I do is find a picture on Google images. Save it to images. Then go to Imgur https://imgur.com/a/ChhZ654 and select New Post. Then Choose image, which brings up your saved photos. Double click the one you're selecting. Then when the three dots come up, click on that and then Share options. Next, select BB Code (forums), click Copy link. Then go to Sportsbabble page and Paste

Should get summat like this

[img] https://i.imgur.com/Io0shLo.png [/img]

Click Preview post and see if it's there. If it is, click Post reply. And your image should be there like this.......


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Oh and thanks for the positive feedback. Smile

Was just wondering where all that Moody Blues meandering was going, theo. Laugh
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#7
That's a bit quicker than my explanation would have been, but it works so I won't knock it.

So why can't they get First Aiders and Security on Saturday?

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Hmmmm, what on earth could be distracting them all? Whistle

Meanwhile on Friday amongst a lot of other things

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Hmmmm Undecided

22 Events scheduled for Friday, 16 in Brum

26 Events scheduled for Saturday, 21 in Brum

some are multiple events for the same sport on the same day, Friday and Saturday.
A guide to cask ale.

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Multi-tasking. I can listen, ignore and forget all at the same time.
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#8
Pearson is out for a few months.

Kasumu is out for a few weeks

Everyone else available.
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#9


Quote:Danny Schofield said that the players have “adapted really well” through pre-season and at the start of this season when he spoke to the press on Thursday morning.

Speaking to the media in his regular press conference, Danny shared his thoughts on the appointment of Paul Harsley as First Team Assistant Coach.

“Paul is someone I’ve known for a number of years, we first crossed paths in youth football.

“He brings something different to myself and Narcís, so we’re glad to have him on board.”

Danny then went on to discuss the fitness of his squad after the Burnley game last week.

“David Kasumu won’t be available tomorrow - it was a slight injury low down in his hamstring. He’ll miss a few weeks, but it’s not as bad as we first feared.

“He made an impact when he came on, it’ll be a miss over the next few weeks, but we will support him fully in his recovery.

“Everybody else is fit and ready to go, we are just missing David and Matty Pearson now.”

Our Head Coach then went on to talk about Town’s new signings as well as up-and-coming players.

“Yuta has adapted quite well - it is hard to play Japanese football and then play in Holland and then come to the Championship, but he has adapted really well and is a versatile player.

“Jack Rudoni is the same, he has settled into the side and is another versatile player who can fill different positions, which is exactly what we need.

“Tino has a lot of self-belief, he has that attacking quality that if he gets the ball up front then he can produce something with it.

“It’s a chance for Rarmani to establish himself with Matty Pearson out, he looks more confident since coming back from loan at Rotherham, and he has the belief he can play in the Championship.”

Danny then looked forward to tomorrow evening’s game against Birmingham City after reflecting on the loss to Burnley.

“After reviewing the Burnley game, it was evident that there was plenty to improve on in the first half, which we changed tactically at half-time.

“Potentially we will see more of the new faces on Friday, but we have assessed Birmingham and will pick the best team to face them.

“It won’t be easy, we saw how hard they were to beat against Luton, but we’ll be prepared and ready for the challenge.”
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#10
1 moody blues

2 john eustace

4 ned barkas

10 joan armatrading...might get mentioned a lot, still got no idea
Lord Snooty likes this post
Another day, another door, another high, another low
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