1 minute ago, chaddyrovers said:

BBD and Phillips on for Dack and Markanday

Morton or Annesley moving into midfield so Phillips can take a CB role?

1 minute ago, joey_big_nose said:

I really didn't expect it. Thought it would be an aerial physical game and we'd lose pretty comfortably. Dack is literally the only established played out there.

Really pleased we are doing so well, though it does seem that weirdly Bradford haven't been bombing it at our makeshift centrebacks.

Defenders can't have a bad game if they're given nothing to do.

1 minute ago, Andy said:

I've only seen the goals, but I'd be interested to know how Morton got on at CB.

Hopefully we kill this one off now, looks as though we've dominated from start to finish - which I expected, with the likes of Dack against League 2 opposition.

Hope someone who was present does player ratings after the game so we know how they all got on.

1 minute ago, J*B said:

Fulham, concentrating on the league. 

TBF looking at tonight's lineup so are Blackburn but the reserves didn't read the script.

Back under way. Let's see if any other fringe players can impress like Dack has.

With how some people here were behaving pre-kick off you'd think this would be the HT score:

2 minutes ago, Oldgregg86 said:

Right so we know we don’t need another striker . Come on annesley lad. 

Real shame he didn't get on the end of the chance early in the game.

19 minutes ago, bazza said:

I bet Annesley is crapping himself. To make a first team debut you need to be partnering Ayala or Wharton or Carter, not someone who is not a centre half. I feel sorry for the lad.

I wonder what Inflikted thinks.

Just want him to have a good game. Last year of his contract, try to impress potential suitors. None of the Bradford lot are as scary as having to keep out Erling Haaland with two geriatrics as your defensive partners.

59 minutes ago, Shirley Crabtree Wrestler said:

Irn Bru and deep fried Mars Bars are bound to pack the pounds on.

It's football - you can tell the 'players' from the also rans from an early stage. If Annesley hasn't got it at this point, a few pounds on his frame in the next year or two is doing nothing other than slowing him down 😉

Mind you, it being football, and our backs being against the wall, I guess we have to go with what we have and hope for the best.

I think perhaps a 'whatever' attitude might be appropriate for tomorrow's game. Sparky will be up for putting one over on his old club, his players will be looking to gain a higher league scalp and it is cup football, so anything might happen. JDT needs a result and a chance for his players to draw breath and regain the composure they were showing at first this season. We know he is a planner and a man-manager, so perhaps he will get a tune out of our newly beleaguered troop - and since football is predominantly a 'confidence game' , maybe we will look back later on and see this as a positive turning point for the season.

Here's hoping!

COYB!!

I mean there are occasional late bloomers (Jamie Vardy anyone? DJ Campbell?) but not for one second suggesting Louie might be one. Scottish leagues might be his best bet for pro football though, lower Premiership/upper Championship level there.

3 hours ago, Rogerb said:

Watched Annesley in the pre season game at Chorley. Looked around his level. He is 22 now and only been on loan with Woking. You have to wonder why he is still here?

Still think he should try his luck in Scotland. Was comfortable against Dundee and going to north of the border would force him to bulk up a bit.

Pears called into action at the death. Reminding everyone he's still there.

Just now, bluebruce said:

I've no idea what that means, sorry.

Ash Phillips bafflingly been given MoM. Barely been tested apparently. Meanwhile we've notched 4. Most of the times I heard his name, it wasn't even his name.

I'm pretty sure the new rules for the 5 substitutions means that you can only make 3 stoppages to make changes. So if you only make one sub at a time, that's all 3 stoppages used up and you can't use the final 2 subs.

1 minute ago, Lucimo said:

Talking of Mowbray, and all the pro Mowbray brigade. Can't see many clubs knocking on his door to employ him. Reminds me of another ex manager of ours who I refuse to name 

Paul Ince

1 minute ago, jny said:

Almost as good as Wolfgang Wolf of Wolfsburg

Or any time Keith FC hire a manager called Keith.

7 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Edun not looking good injury wise. Maybe time for Annersley to come on and Pickering back to LB.

3rd sub made, none made at the same time which means the 3 stoppages are up and the last 2 can't be made, so no debut for Annesley if I remember the rules correctly.

37 minutes ago, rigger said:

Of the subs, only Pickering is a left-back. 

Louie's played there for the U23s on occasion and last summer in a couple of pre-season friendlies for the first team. Wouldn't put him there by choice but he's done it when needed.

9 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

I do wonder if we as fans don't really recognise how good our academy is.  I certainly didn't till I started looking into it.

Premier League 2 (the Premier academy competition in the UK) has two divisions : 

• Division 1 - 14 clubs, 12 of them clubs with senior team in Premier League. Just us (finished 9th above Chelsea and Everton) and Derby (finished dead last and miles off the pace) not in the prem. 
• Division 2 - 14 clubs, 7 prem (including the likes of Villa, Newcastle, Southampton, Wolves) and 7 championship

If you consider we have also aggressively promoted a lot of our youth players to the Senior Squad it's really an impressive achievement. Maybe there is something in considering our academy something really remarkable at the moment? And when we fret about using "kids" it's a different proposition to say promoting kids at Millwall or Bristol City (both of which are not even in PL2 Div 2).

Details here : https://www.premierleague.com/tables?team=U21&co=16&se=438 

To be fair to Derby their U23s were basically their U18s cos half their U23s (and some U18s) were drafted into the first team - and have since been signed by bigger clubs in the Premier League and abroad (Palace, Udinese, Werder Bremen). They have a good youth system but they didn't have any senior players so everyone got bumped up a bit earlier than planned.

Perhaps Annesley's next loan should be to Scotland. Sounds like he was comfortable against Dundee. Could be the place to bulk him out a bit.

Phillips takes a pretty mean knock and is forced off

Did any of the substitutes in the games vs Accrington actually play or were they largely just there in case someone got a knock?

On 31/05/2022 at 12:30, AllRoverAsia said:

Jay Haddow in on the bench for Japan U19s v Algeria today, it's showing as being on BeIN at 1pm UK time

Eligible for England, Scotland, Japan and Hong Kong I believe? If he goes senior for Japan I wonder if he'll do a BB Diaz and change his name to have Maeda on the back instead of Haddow.

12 hours ago, bluebruce said:

I suspect he will be released next summer when his contract expires. Without making an appearance for us.

It's probably a testament to both of those things.

Reckon he'll feature in pre-season to get clubs to take him on loan or even make an offer to buy if possible.

PS that result on Thursday might be mostly down to Bulgarian football being laughably bad now - Gibraltar and Bulgaria played again today in the U21 qualifiers and that finished 1-1 too. Same fashion too. Bulgaria score first slightly against the run of play and then Gibraltar equalised through a penalty and maybe should've won it late on. Only difference being this time a Bulgarian U21 was sent off. It was strangely poetic how similar the two games were.

3 hours ago, bluebruce said:

That should impress his next club.

Suspect he'll get another National League loan next season. Maybe a League Two loan if he's lucky.

Not sure if this is testament to the improvement of Gibraltar as a defensive unit (aided by Dayle Coleing making some top draw saves), or the decline of Bulgarian football since Berbatov and Stilian and Martin Petrov retired.

Annesley played his guts out tonight, playing the full 90 mins as Gibraltar held Bulgaria to a shock 1-1 draw. This is the country that produced Stoichkov, Berbatov and the two Petrovs. Next season's gonna be crucial for him to prove he can play at a good level, Was a regular at Woking until the new manager arrived and decided he didn't want to play the loanees.

BTW Dolan scored for the U20s in a 3-1 win over Germany