Bethnal

Well, that lineup gives me half an idea what to expect. Players have to be much more competent on the ball, today. The same lack of forward ambition as at Cardiff won’t be acceptable.

Was trying to snag a ticket to Palace to watch Adam Wharton put a display on against your lot. Will have an eye on it, it’d be a good time for him to get his first Premier League goal!

The King’s Arms 1st XI, instead of The Dog & Duck’s 3rd team.

From memory (and I’m not a stenographer) you were of the opinion that the manager would take us nowhere but down, in essence and the frequency increased with each game at the end. Again, that is only my memory of it, in a general sense. I would definitely agree that you weren’t a fan and add that you made that clear, strongly and often. I could almost understand your logic on Eustace, it’s just that we currently look like we don’t really know what we’re doing at all, as though none of them can really play football, basically. We’ve somehow come out second half looking even worse than the first. Eustace surely had some influence at half time, unless we’ve got a trove of JDTs half time team talks that were showing the players on a big screen? We look like shit and we’ve looked like that basically the entire time of the last three matches, save for 30 mins against Preston.

BigBar, you and I generally see things about football similarly, but you can’t be blaming a manager you were slating to high heaven while he was here, when he’s been sacked. When does it stop being his fault?

Players look like dogs chasing a car that finally catch up with it. Now they’ve got their way, they’ve no idea what to actually do. Embarrassing. Genuinely embarrassing. Imagine pitching up however-many-miles to Cardiff on a Tuesday night and the people you turn up to support - with them having whinged about boos a couple of weeks ago - serve up that.

Record levels of goal kicks en route, if so.

My gut says that we’re trying to play a conservative version of what we did under JDT, but it’s not being coached as well as that and the players just don’t fancy it at all. I’ve seen worse halves from us, but I haven’t seen many and none that I remember where the absolute basics of football were this bad.

Okay. We look like a fucking pub team here. This is really bad.

Wanted to be clear that the criticism is of the players, as I’m confident Eustace won’t be looking for what they’re currently serving up. I just don’t understand how the players’ technical abilities are this bad, across the board, in this game. Gonna reserve criticism of Ayari. He’s positive in his play, which a lot of players currently aren’t.

Well, this is a difficult watch. No fluency from either side. All the energy/atmosphere of a pre-season friendly. Players are so far off it. Awful distribution and retention of the ball. Away on a cold Tuesday night in Cardiff, maybe a point is fine, maybe we’re set up to test our resolve to earn a point. A few players look like they don’t fancy it (again). Very little forward ambition, save from the usual suspects trying to drag us forward. I don’t really know what I’m watching, I don’t understand what the players are trying to achieve.

Interesting approach from Carabao: make an advert so bad that people are encouraged to pour your product into their eyes and ears so as not to hear or see it. Certainly not drinking the stuff, anyway.

Have been high in my praise of Sigurdsson, having been at QPR away to witness that performance, but he’s offered basically nothing today. This squad probably needs £10m throwing at it, at least, if we’re to make any progress at all.

Only bit of shape at the minute is the back three, everyone else is getting pulled out of position.

I’ve been a bit rash in my criticism (he’s got an assist today), just a complaint that dead balls aren’t amounting to anything and the balls in are poor.

Preston looking the more comfortable, currently. We look a stretched squad. More subs at this stage would be a big risk, so the 11 currently on the pitch have to make something happen.

Kinell, Brittain is a real head-scratcher… such a strange footballer that he can go from two assists in the Stoke game to absolutely dogshit supply in the two following games. How do players - who train with footballs for hours each day - not master the ability to kick a ball?

Chrisene against Millar is a car crash waiting to happen.

Fans have been fantastic so far, but the players need to give them something to roar about. Second half is giving me flashbacks to Tuesday, we look like we’re clinging on and we shouldn’t have to be.

Dolan should have his number up on the board, but there’s just nobody on the bench that you’d rather have on in his place. A draw looking attractive now.

Warren Lucy has said it right: “avoidable.” Definitely masters of our own fate here, which I hope is highlighted at half time. A great start stymied by a loss of composure/lack of concentration at set pieces. Some kind of mentality issue there, we just fall apart. A real shame considering the defending had been stout in open play. Every chance that we can come back out and hurt them early again, but we need the composure to be there. Generally good performances, although more attacking players have been the weak point in defensive situations. Garrett looking slightly peripheral, but not unreasonable being subbed on that early. Difficult to be fully in the mindset for this kind of game. Better than Tuesday, but more needed.

Set pieces still a weak point, clearly. Hedges blocking Pears is just careless. Looking disorganised at corners, which we can’t afford

Could’ve cleared the lines better, but not much anyone can do about the finish. They needed something like that to break for them, they weren’t getting back into it otherwise. Can’t invite them on here, got to make them think twice about the high line.

Extremely pragmatic approach and the opposition haven’t figured out what to do about it. A tactical victory (so far) for Eustace. There’s another goal in this half for us, if we want it. We won’t have it all our own way after the break, so that next one will be massive, whichever way it goes. Impressed by our work so far, more of it , please.

Those of us who find ourselves in the countries listed here are able to watch… https://www.rovers.co.uk/news/2024/february/16/watch-our-lancashire-derby-live-on-roverstv-/