What a huge opportunity tonight is, on paper we have the easiest match of all our rivals but the attitude of the players & fans needs to be bob on, as do JDT's tactics. If we do the basics right & play to our strengths we should be fine. I suspect Reading will seek to frustrate, but we need to fire at them right out of the blocks so their gameplan goes out the window very quickly. Despite Buckley being injured, there are decent options as direct replacements (Morton, A Wharton, Garrett or even JRC) or indirectly through formation tweaks. I I'm not gonna lie, I'm v nervous, but what a great thing that is to feel!! COYB!!!!

You're married to her AND her inbred family?! Won't that make your offspring, err, inbred too??

I'll take a flask!

I have sent my next email to SW: "Dear Mr Waggott, You may recall that I emailed you on 2nd February to express my disappointment and concern at the problems regarding the failure to sign Lewis O'Brien and Ethan Brierley; Christine kindly acknowledged my email and said she had passed on my comments. Following the announcement this evening that the appeal to independent arbitration has failed, and the club has announced the reluctant acceptance of this decision, it is imperative for the fanbase that a thorough, speedy and transparent investigation of what happened, who and how, takes place. Given where the club now finds itself, both in terms of league position and cup qualification, following the playing staff's sterling efforts of late especially, the signing of O'Brien in particular would've been of tremendous value to the club's short & long term aspirations on both fronts, but due to what appear to be significant errors on the club's part can no longer be called upon. As stated previously I am a long time season ticket holder who takes a rational view of the fates of the club, good and bad. I am not normally moved to express my thoughts in this fashion, but am so disappointed at what's happened I feel I must. The club just cannot be making such significant administrative misjudgments as this if expects to be taken seriously by current & prospective players, staff and, of course, fans. There must be some tangible accountability for what has happened, as the club's fans deserve a full and Frank explanation and apology. I look forward to hearing from you directly as soon as possible." For what it's worth.. .

Proud. Just proud.

Cracking win that, really is. 3 wins in a week, top stuff! Delighted for Sam Goallagher! I must admit, as one of his staunchest defenders these last couple of years I was starting to lose patience with him ever becoming a goal threat, but hopefully these 2 goals see him grow in confidence, and what a time for that to happen! COYB!!

It's like keepers get the credit for clean sheets, and rightly so in many cases. But in some cases (like Tuesday) a keeper has no shot on target to save. On other times a keeper might have a storming game but concede 2 or 3 goals. Stats can be manipulated massively, so the goals scored / assists created stat is also easily misleading. I totally agree with your last para too, Morton was much better pre WC than after, fortunately Travis & Buckley seem to be stepping up a bit. And as for notion that the club should abandon the appeal, that's nonsense. Whilst I agree there's less benefit we are likely to get if successful purely by reference to the number of games passed since deadline day, we absolutely have to go full pelt to get him in. If we'd slid down to 8 points off the playoffs then I might feel differently, but being in 4th place it's a total no brainer, regardless of whether it's us, the EFL or both who've cocked up.

As the creator of this thread and therefore its primary stakeholder, does that entitle me to shut it down?

Yeah, but isn't it being reported that the internal errors re were more to do with the Brierley transfer than O'Brien's? It sounds like (speculatively) we have been less incompetent with O'Brien than with Brierley. Time will tell I guess, hopefully.

If only you'd waited another 20 minutes.... Like I said above, patience is sometimes needed over the course of a match, let alone a month & a season. Plenty of time for almost any outcome to come from this season, besides perhaps top 2 and almost certainly bottom 3. Let's not forget, although we're not scoring many we're conceding even less currently, even without our 1st choice back 4 & keeper. "Build from the back" was a mantra often quoted last season as the basis for a strong team where we consistently failed (as did Sunderland yesterday), yet JDT seems to be getting little credit for progress in that dept.

And yet we did on both occasions, to win 6 points and take 10 from a possible 12 against both play off rivals this season, after taking 4 points off Watford. All whilst without the reliable striker that he wanted out of 2 transfer windows, and the top quality midfielder we're wrangling with the EFL about. We're in 7th, level on points with 5th and a point off 4th, with a league cup run to the last 16 and a FA Cup run to the 5th round so far. Did I enjoy the 1st 45 mins yesterday? No, but a match is 90+ mins long so overall I'm happy. TBF JDT warned us to be patient pre match. It was the same way we played at Swansea, but we were on fire up front then. BBD is off form Gallagher is struggling to impact games & Dack is knackered / now injured, hopefully not seriously. I do wonder what more folk expect JDT to do atm when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Edit: all said above by others in between times, but happy I'm not alone in my musings!

Sorry, should be shoot on sight...!

Not surprised with the lineup, we showed on Saturday it's a team capable of causing difficulties & digging in. Their keeper is making his league debut I think, hopefully there's a shoot on site policy in place to give him some jitters.

I only saw a quick joke from the 2 hours / 3 hours thing, and have clarified my post above. As I say, fair play for making the journey. I do regret not being able to make away games.

Exaggerating again jim?! Edit: at the time of posting, the post I quoted said it was 2 hours ago, honest! Back me up on this gav! Also, no offence intended jim, hats off to making the journey 👍

To be fair Hyam would've played if not injured and so too would Brittain. And O'Brien too if, well, y'know.

Now one down at home to Sunderland. Surely the Mowbray death spiral ought to be kicking in about now? No sign of it yet though.

Well someone has for sure, but we're all speculating as to who and how. It seems we were 7 seconds late with Brierley, and a form was not properly completed regarding his ethnicity. They appear to be internal errors which should have been avoided, and if they are internal errors then the EFL would arguably be in their rights to reject the transfer (esp if late), however harsh that seems. The only word going round re O'Brien is regarding what happens if we get relegated not having been made clear. I've no idea if we should have done or not, what the rules say about that or if it's standard practice to do so whether required or not. But don't the rules allow a deal sheet to be submitted by 11pm with more detail permitted before 1am? Did we miss that as well? All seems v harsh if true, and perhaps why it is taking so long. I think it doubtful that GB is personally at fault for the failures, but takes that responsibility publicly as the figurehead of the transfer side of operations. He has a right to expect the club will employ competent admin staff and legal advisors. If we don't, that's more on SW than GB imo. But all speculative at this stage, which is just adding to the dissatisfaction of all concerned.

This delay is certainly not what any of us expected and does nothing but make a mockery of the whole process. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since the events concerned, I struggle to see the point of an appeals process that takes this long in this context, it just leaves all involved in limbo and leads to more ill-conceived speculation and fosters more distrust. FWIW, the club had to appeal if they thought they had a strong case imo, regardless of any prior precedent. I'm guessing this is an isolated case based on a particularly unique set of facts not adjudicated on before, so precedents don't apply. However this ends up, transparency has to be key to any subsequent investigation carried out by the club, and the EFL.

HT v Chelsea, 1-1, another one in the onion bag for Leonard.

It has to be a close run thing for it to be taking so long, there can be no other explanation. Like others I'm more confident than I was about appeal prospects. Whatever the outcome though, it's unfair that it has run into a 2nd game week, that can't be right.

TK is clearly injured, there's no conspiracy theories and JDT is NOT like K**n. I wish folk would let go of the past and not tar the current management team (in this context I mean GB and JDT) with the brush of old. Yes we still have Venkys whose ownership model makes no sense, and there are still some kentaro / SEM staff in place, but I genuinely believe GB and JDT are in it for the right reasons. Whether or not they are sufficiently competent,time will tell. As for today, I am less nervous about Pears than previously. I guess it's Carter & Wharton again, with JRC & Pickering, which is probably as weak as we have. I guess Morton will start alongside Buckley, ,though I'd prefer Garrett & Buckley for the former's extra steel. Up front I'd go Thomas right, BBD left, with Gallagher up front & Dack behind.

Today will either be a tonking or a masterclass snatch n grab. First goal crucial, if we get it we can defend quite well & use the counter to good effect, esp as I think Watford are quite powder puff like us if they go behind. If they get it however... 🙈 I've got a sneaky feeling we can do this, 0-1. Here's hoping...

It's gone half past 10!! I take it you don't have young kids... 😅

I guess this subject deserves its own thread now, can't see it has one. Lancs live reporting that the deadline to submit papers for the appeal is 4pm, with a decision hoped this week for the players' sake. Apparently the appeal will be considered by the EFL board, comprised of different people from those who were involved last week. Fingers, toes & everything else crossed that we get this over the line...