Exiled in Toronto Mk2

Me too Tony re Frey - couldn’t believe it. It was planned though, Beck picked him up again on a corner two minutes later. Didn’t help of course that, for the second time in a week, Pears vacated the spot where an easily save-able ball crossed the line. And for the second time in a couple of weeks he got a full hand on a fairly central shot and it still went in. I’m convinced our only chance is for Eustace to make big calls: Cantwell, Pears, Hedges, ACD will only keep letting us down. My big worry last season was he didn’t make any big personnel or formation calls; maybe he’s too big into the togetherness thing to be able to do it.

Everything a local derby should be imo. That last ten minutes was as tense as Boxing Day 77. Gueye had a better game than I ever saw Gallagher have, who also wouldn’t have scored that goal in a month of Sundays. Hilarious that Riis got disallowed the goal-bound header. But, if we are going to contend, I think Eustace needs to make some big calls, starting with Pears. Toth got pelters, including from Eustace, for the one he let in but PNE’s tonight was 10x worse goalkeeping. Added to that ludicrous free-kick last week I think Pears’ nerve/confidence will be as shot as it was after the Wigan cup tie - he’s going to throw a lot more in if he stays in the team. Secondly I think he should throw in the towel on Cantwell - the guy doesn’t win games and is a wet lettuce. Third, bet on the new guy over Dolan - two great assists in the last week but he must’ve given the ball away 40 times across the two games. I’ve never known a player make so many ludicrous decisions in possession.

I bet every single one of us watching thought Pears was too near the far post for the free kick. All it took was an accurate dink and even then he hesitated and, even then, got a full hand on the ball - pathetic. As to the others, I thought Sanderson was a liability, failing to track diagonal runs into the middle more than once. The forgettable midfielder, whose name I forget, put in a completely forgettable show. On the plus side, I thought that was Gueye’s best game yet: Can’t recall him losing the ball; two crosses to his head all game - one hit the post and was put away, the other was goal-bound till JRC blundered into the scene.

Three big deflections in the last few mins all going against us.

First decent cross in and Mak gets another assist

Immediately followed up by a suicide ball out to a heavily-marked Bucko

Well, Pears is definitely back - left 7/8ths of the goal open and slow to move

Deflected off the back of Beck’s head because he turned away cowering from it.

Got away with that, not offside and a shit save by Pears

No way on Earth Gally would’ve scored that.

Bad day for Eustace I thought. The Cantwell and C-D gambles both failed and left us very lightweight and lacking overall endeavour. Taking off the 6’5” guy then pumping high balls was ridiculous. Agree with most of the player observations. The whole back 4 let us down for their goal: Brittain should’ve called for it and just cushioned it back to Pears, the Hyam header was weak (why are his headers at our corners always so badly directed?); Brittain slow to get out wide; Batt’h should’ve blocked the scorers run and Beck just ball-watched.

Fucking get Cantwell and OCD off, we are playing with 9

Idly wondering when Burnley last had a home gate of 26-27,000….back in their 1970s glory days, when a big club came?

I’d start off with the same line up as we did Leeds but with Maktar up front - they’ll be wary of him given the way he set up our goal at t’Turd. I’d rather keep things tight rather than be too adventurous in the first hour. Cozier-Duberry I thought was useless at Leeds, he doesn’t have any of Whartons awareness so gets caught out trying to take possession when really he should first time it. Could be a useful sub if we need to turn up the gas tho.

In addition to the points not mentioned, I liked the yellows taken by Baker and Batt’h as they were both “fuck around and see what happens” fouls, I’d like another couple on Saturday. The days of us being bullied have been put to bed by Eustace. Batt’h is easily the player of the season for me, not just for his performances but because he has improved everyone around him.

Sounds like Bayes has got a hangover. Scrappy game but we’ve had one off the line and Papa’s goal bound flick a la Sunderland’s second blocked by a defender with better nous than Hyam had

I thought it was Bucko’s forward passing that changed the dynamic late on.

Wow, first ever meeting was the FA Cup final, I wonder if that is a unique occurrence?

Oooft - great move!

Dolan’s first possession awful - stinker of a game now guaranteed

He got there just after the celebration finished.

Nearest thing to Kendallball I can recall us playing - top notch all round. My Dolan theory still holding good: you can tell what kind of game he will have from his first touch.

From inside the centre circle wasn’t it? Although it gets a few yards further back each time we talk about it 😂 If anyone deserves a minute’s applause it’s him, we were headed into the 4th division before he came. I remember him once dropping a centre forward in the centre circle when we had the ball in their box, then stamping on his hand for good measure.

This guy is so conservative in his team selections. The chances of Hedges and Dolan both playing well in the same game are zero.

It’s not as though our first 37 passes were a cunning plan to bamboozle opponents, they were a symptom of our lack of ability to play it out from the back, rooted in Pears’ chronic indecision plus both centre backs always needing two touches IMO. Interesting that Hyam played right side, he was definitely less crap than usual.