If they had any sense he would be.

That thought went through my mind. He’s too easily out muscled for me, Dolan not so much so, he’s older and a bit stronger. I’ve never liked wingers playing on their wrong wing. It really handicaps them in my opinion. The full back already knows what they’re trying to do.

It’s a chicken choker free zone.

Yeah great, until they come in for Eustace.

The Lovin’ Spoonful - Jug Band Music

It’s as though they don’t want people to attend.

Alan Wright was another but there were international class players. Most of these wing backs we see today at our level aren’t brilliant at defending or attacking. Some are decent attacking players but can’t defend to save their lives.

They only bought Grealish to stop another club from signing him.

And they’re neither good enough as a full back or a winger.

Until we put that right we’re going nowhere. Look at how many late goals Ipswich scored last season.

I’d rather have Baker instead of Buckley or maybe even JRC.

I don’t think they cover the yards that Travis does, they aren’t involved as much as he is in the needling of opponents. That always comes with a price tag.

We’re certainly going to need some signings now for sure. We’ve been asking too much of Travis this season.

It had to be bad for him to go off and stop off. What a bad game that was yesterday.

They had ACD weighed up from the start. Get tight on him and don’t let him turn with the ball. It’s not rocket science. It’s what full backs were doing 60 years ago.

Fleetwood Mac - Man Of The World

Could be his agent flying a kite.

That was my impression watching the game on TV. We took a knife to a gun fight.

There was an article in my paper saying the same a couple of weeks ago. He’s out there with Scott McKenna.

I’d be amazed if it does but maybe Santa will smile on us.

It’s up front where the problems are. ACD will be a very lucky boy to get a start. He was poor yesterday and any Sunderland scout watching our game yesterday will have seen just how to deal with him. Luckily for him Dolan was worse when he came on. I’ve made my views clear about Hedges previously but what alternatives are there with Beck needed at full back. Gueye ? I can’t remember another Rovers player like him. How many touches did he have in our opponents penalty area yesterday ? We make so few chances that we need a clinical finisher up front. That’s exactly what he isn’t.

He did the square root of nothing playing there yesterday. His lack of pace is surprising for a pro player. He’s slow off the mark and he’s slow over a distance. It’s central midfield or nowhere for me. I’d have subbed him off at half time and brought Baker on in his place.

I like Eustace but he got that team selection badly wrong. I’m not saying that with the benefit of hindsight, I thought that at 3-00 pm. He could have changed it at half time but he didn’t. We needed more bodies in central midfield where we were getting over run. We should have started with either of Gueye or Ohashi up front with Cantwell behind the striker. Cantwell will never be a wide player as long as he lives, he must be the slowest player in the squad. As you say if Beck isn’t capable of 90 minutes Hedges was the obvious replacement.

I said to my son before the kick off I wouldn’t have started with that team. Ohashi and Gueye up front together meant the midfield would have their hands full. We started off poorly and let them build confidence. The first half was as bad a half as I can remember. We were second to too many balls and we were getting out muscled all over the pitch. We got sucked into an ale house football battle. Travis getting booked early on didn’t help in that respect. Second half wasn’t much better but at least we created two guilt edged chances. I thought we’d just about done enough to get a point but the subs let us down, Dolan in particular. Bottom line - We were outenthused again today. Scores- Pears 7 - Made some good saves but I need to see the goal back, I’m never happy with conceding headed goals from in and around the 6 yard box. JRC 6 - I thought he got better as the game went on but didn’t get forward enough. Hyam 7 - Defended stoutly under a ton of pressure. Batth 8* - A colossus under tremendous pressure hardly put a foot wrong Pickering 6- See JRC, could be missing for a while now. ACD 5 - From hero to zero. Missed a really guilt edged chance, no awareness of what was going on around him. Consistently out muscled today. A boy playing against men. Travis 7 - Did his best until his injury. The early booking handicapped him, his injury must be bad for him not to attempt to continue. Tronstad 6- His usual tidy self but never got over the half way line. Cantwell 5- Really poor today, he obviously didn’t fancy it. I’d have subbed him off at half time. Gueye 5- Nobody knows what he’s going to do next, possibly because he doesn’t. Ohashi 6 - Never stopped running as usual. I thought he was a bit unlucky with the bounce for the chance he had. Subs Dolan 5- Really poor effort. Caused us more trouble than he did Millwall. Beck 7 - The usual all out effort from the lad. Weimann 5 - Ineffectual. Hedges 5 - Ineffectual, should have taken the shot instead of passing to Weimann.

JDT had the benefit of the best midfield player in the league. Our form fell off a cliff once he was sold. He also managed to off load the midfield player who has been our best player this season for no apparent reason. Having Travis and Wharton running the midfield would have been a massive improvement on what Eustace had to work with.