Exiled in Toronto Mk2

Yes. A header from beyond the penalty spot that lost pace bouncing well in front of the goal. xGOT is correct, it should be virtually impossible to beat a keeper from there.

Even though the goal yesterday was not down to him, I thought he was shit in the moment. It’s going to be either a shot or a ball slipped in to the six yard box. Sanderson did a good job sending him wide making the shot unlikely. Pearsy though didn’t see that, was protecting a shot unlikely to come so made no attempt to cut out the ball. Even worse, he went onto the floor even though he was nowhere near the ball, precluding the albeit slim chance of being hit by the shot had he thrown himself across to the back post. Useless.

And what, 20-25 goals thrown in? Ishmael showing a lack of balls.

Gone to 3-5-2

Rest of Championship keepers -363 mins Pears - 2 mins 27 secs

I have to say I’m liking the cut of his jib so far. Reminds me of Souey coming in: imposing man, somewhat of a mixed record but old enough to have learnt lessons along the way, quarter of the season to see what he’s got. I would also see the contract situation as an opportunity - last thing you want to hear in a new job is you are stuck with all these dollopers for the foreseeable. I predict we won’t see a Eustace/Kidd arms-windmilling performative appearance on the touchline after 60 mins nor will we ever hear “Pearsy and Picks” again.

Wolves WERE a top club while Waggy was there: league cup winner, Uefa cup finalist, top 5 finishes - the surprise is he was turning out for us a few years later.

ANY decent keeper stops the first two. The first goal would defy belief if it wasn’t Pears: a barely still rolling ball straight to his feet and he literally kicks it in. The second one exposed one of his long term flaws: he has no idea where he should be or even is - he didn’t come out early enough or far enough to narrow the angle, but he came out too far to make it a routine dive save. After that 6 minute shitshow it didn’t matter who’d been picked or how they were playing. He should’ve been benched after losing us the Bristol City match and we’ve zero chance of the playoffs if he isn’t benched now.

Nobody has played well but how much of a morale-killer was that first goal, easily one of Pears top-3 howlers, a pea-roller straight at him.

Never ever! Just ask Bob Paisley.

Refreshing to hear the (interim) manager refer to him as “Augustus” and not “Gusto” or “Kargs”.

That kind of spirit lasted ten years at Wimbledon.

Although he’s no Adam Wharton, I think we’ve been missing Bucko’s forward passing.

You’re right, I’d forgotten that everything written on social media is true! When Cantwell is chasing back in the 89th minute to put in a tackle something big has changed with that group of players. I’m not suggesting give him the job, just do a Tony Parkes.

I don’t think anyone is advocating giving David Lowe a 3-year contract, but I can see advantages in not rushing the appointment. The biggest thing we have going for us now is a dressing room united in their anger at the narrative that John Eustace alone got them into the top 6 and John Eustace doesn’t think they can stay there. I think that anger can get us into the playoffs and the best way to puncture that balloon right now is to bring in a different voice saying different things.

I’m still in the camp of deferring the decision till summer. Any new boss would almost certainly want to make his mark, which means changing things. It’s too late in the season to do anything other than tweak slightly, which Lowe et al did last night anyway. Bet the farm on the extraordinary team spirit we saw last night and playing it more to Mak, the two new forwards just behind him and Cantwell warming the bench. Plus, the two possible outcomes of this season demand two very different managers. If we stay down it’s going to be a rebuild on a small budget. If we go up we need a big name spending a big budget. Best to wait and see.

I can’t recall ever seeing such a dominant performance at both ends of the pitch.

Shout out to the set piece coach for the first goal, Dom’s run from front post to the back of the area wasn’t tracked at all and he put a good header back into the mixer.

Why not? A new manager would take a month to even remember everyone’s names. Eustace may well have done us a favour, that was a fully committed performance, even Cantwell put in a shift.

Given the circumstances - solid half. Organised, working hard for each other.

If they’d made it impossible we’d be 24th, not 6th. They certainly made it more difficult. My issue isn’t with him leaving, it’s with him spouting meaningless bollocks for a year.

He didn’t just speak about togetherness, he droned on about it in every single interview for a whole year, it was his mantra. Upping sticks with 15 games to go and surely denting the players’ chances of reaching the Premier League shows he wasn’t in this together with them at all. Togetherness implies self-sacrifice for the good of the group, he’s put his needs ahead of those of the group, irrespective of the many good reasons he had to be pissed off. Good luck to him preaching togetherness to the Derby dressing room.

Just going to show our busted flush agent of a CEO doesn’t know the first thing about organizational alignment. Zero chance any appointment will work out.

One aspect that has slipped under the radar is why, when “the model” (that I think we all pretty much agreed with) necessitated a grow, develop and sell approach, did Waggott go and appoint a manager who prefers signing old lags to the point of resigning when he isn’t allowed to sign all of them? Doomed from the start.

There’s be a queue a mile long of managers who think they can get a club currently in 6th up to the Prem. Personally I’d make Trav player manager for now and challenge him to prove it’s the players and not the manager who have got us there so far. Plus he might well drop Cantwell.