1:50 in. There's absolutely no way that crossed the line. Funny enough there's a couple of other 'did the ball cross the line' moments on those highlights.

I'd say that's pretty stupid of him if so. For the first time in his career, he has been able to stay injury-free and playing consistently, but moreover, consistently well. Things have finally come together for him- here, now. A new club, the upheaval of moving to a new home, new manager, new coaching staff and training regime puts all of that at risk and could destroy his career as soon as it has got going. I'd understand him wanting more money (not an outlandish amount though, he should accept his previous injury record and quality have been poor), although other clubs probably aren't about to give him the big bucks as they'll know his great form is a new thing and they'll know his poor injury record. I'd also understand him taking a fairly short deal, in the hopes he keeps playing well and injury-free and attracts bigger fish. But if he's actively thinking already that he wants to leave the club ASAP, I think that's a huge mistake on his part.

If you look at our last 6 games going into those 6 games though, we are 18th in the form table and our last three games read L, L, D. It quite possibly is a time to experiment, as what we've been doing lately hasn't worked.

How would being a dirty bastard help him avoid another injury? Surely it just winds up opponents into having a pop at them?

His match fitness won't have been helped by being out of the first team for so long, plus an injury not all that long ago. I don't think we should read too much into his cardio until he has had a proper run in the first team.

I remember hearing that in the summer of 95...didn't work out so great. In fairness though, it can sometimes be the right approach. It's all situational though, you can't use that as some cast-iron rule. If you don't maintain something it will eventually become broken.

The problem with continuing to play JRC at RB but let him roam is that it's a relatively recent approach, at least in terms of how pronounced it has become. Soon enough, teams who do their research will know it creates huge gaps down our right and will exploit it. For that reason, I'd be in favour of giving him a shot in the middle, but in a similarly free-roaming capacity. It will still leave gaps at times, but where those gaps will be is less predictable as the midfield is a more dynamic area of the pitch. Not to mention if we are using 3 in there it's more easily covered. Seems better than having Carter cover the right and leaving the centre of defence stretched.

Swearing is an absolute irrelevance, and if a player has to snatch the ball from the ball boy, then again he isn't doing his job. Ball boys give the ball to players so the game can continue. They're hardly ever needed, it's a simple job, and that's the only reason they're there. If they fuck around with that I have no sympathy.

And you'd have also raised a shit of a kid. Balls to the kid, balls to his parents. Tried being a smart arse and interfering with a professional game, going against the only thing he is even there (and paid) to do, and got what he deserved.

That you felt we needed 4 wins before the game and that we still need 4 wins. We didn't win, so, seems kinda obvious. Especially with nobody else having played yet to see if things go well for us.

Well we haven't won, so that's not entirely surprising...

Yeh I know when it's not our day, and it's not.

Their time wasting has been a bit next level at points.

Leonard offers more than Vale.

We have already seen long before this game that JDT is wrong on the Morton issue.

Sometimes, you have to wonder why we bother being football fans.

Almost every post under the lineup on FB is asking or complaining about Morton starting. It's not just this board that is sick of it. At least Wharton is starting. Be interesting to see if he suits playing in a three though.

Makes his exclusion all the more confusing. I've no doubt some will tell us it's because JDT kept him out and has put desire in him, and to ignore the evidence of our eyes or not to trust our memories (even though we've been asking where he is pretty much since the moment he was left out). But I don't give a shit as long as he starts playing him instead of Morton from now on so we actually have a shot at promotion.

Ambition and money.

Good thing I didn't talk about it whatsoever then.

Do you want promotion? Logic suggests the player who has been better on the pitch when we play him is more likely to help us win promotion than the bloke who routinely costs us games and is generally ineffective when not costing us games. I don't give a hairy fuck about the principles of training such and such a way if it costs us points at this critical stage, which I believe it is. It sounds like Morton is better in training, and Wharton is better in matches. The choice seems obvious to me, so no, I don't think it's this 'side' that is missing something. If he plays and doesn't do better than Morton, there'd be a discussion to be had.

Or ya know, people have seen Wharton and Morton play and Wharton has been far better on average. But no, let's chalk it off to some psychological phenomenon you think you've seen. I'm not saying this with retrospect and I doubt many are - plenty of us couldn't understand it at the time. Maybe try just accepting that some people rate Wharton a lot higher than you seem to.

What I've seen is Wharton being a consistently better player than Morton.

How can it be a stretch when I've already seen it?

So if you're not picking Morton, backing JDT so presumably not playing Wharton, and Buckley is injured...who would you pick?