Bad tackle from Lenihan. I think he did get a small snatch of the ball first but really snapped into the lad's ankle. Be lucky not to be out for a while, and Lenihan is possibly lucky to be on the pitch. Didn't look as bad in the moment though, before seeing the replay, so perhaps the ref wasn't well sighted.

Sorry I don't care what anyone else thinks of Dolan. Half the time he's the only entertainment in all this turgid shite. Love him.

I've definitely seen Butterworth run around like a headless chicken before.

But they can offer him a genuine route straight back into ours.

Every time I see Brennan, I wonder what all the fuss was and why he was supposedly linked to Liverpool two summers back (think I'm remembering that right, may have been another Prem side). I just don't see any attributes that make me think he can make it at our level.

Ahh yeh of course he is banned. I knew Van Hecke was injured when we signed him but remembered it's not meant to be a bad one, and we have had the international break. Tbf to our lads tonight I suspect this Brighton u23 side would give our first team a game the way they're playing at times tonight.

Well taken goal but it flatters us from what I've seen so far (and I haven't even seen any of Brighton's goals). The team they have out tonight is absolutely superior to the one we have out, in all areas and aspects. As I type this, terrible miss of a sitter from them.

In fact, where are the likes of Garrett and Whitehall who presumably won't be in tomorrow's team? Saadi presumably still injured. And what about Phillips? Was he on international duty any longer than Annersley was? I can't see that tomorrow's bench would need Carter, Van Hecke (not sure if he is available again yet though), Magloire and Phillips.

Pretty much last season's u18s then for the most part. Thing is I feel like some of our fringe players for the first team are going to need match minutes at this level or they're not going to be much use when they come on for the first team. I don't buy the notion they can't play at least 60 minutes on Friday then be on the bench for Saturday. Especially if they're a player fairly unlikely to be called on from the bench. Brighton could have had two more near the end of that half.

Anyone got the lineup?

Only just tuned in, jesus, 3 nil down only 32 mins into the game?! Looking like a long season for the u23s. Presumably a weak lineup due to how thin our first team is?

🤣🤣🤣 "Aye well he's barely more than a glint in his daddy's eye right now. We're gonna have to be patient and wait until he at least has a heartbeat, maybe even learnt to walk. Then he'll have to learn how to play right-back from Sam Gallagher. Should be ready for the first team in 2040 when he's 43. Oh aye nay worry, I'll still be the gaffer. Anyway, on another note, Ash Phillips is starting next week."

I find it highly frustrating that TM won't elaborate on why they weren't signed. Don't get me wrong, I understand there could be legitimate reasons not to, beyond self preservation. It might cause some embarrassment to the player or their camp for instance, so it might be deemed unprofessional to spill (although not like the player needs naming). Generally speaking in normal times it can be best to hold back the particulars of why deals don't work. But in the circumstances, with a window in which we sold our best player for a fair bit of money and failed to replace them, in a summer where we performed badly in the market relative to our need, where the fanbase are highly disillusioned, I really think this time we deserved to know exactly why we had who we wanted in the building on deadline day, yet it failed for non-financial reasons. He is suggesting it wasn't right for us, on our end, so why was this reason so important it outweighed our burning need to replace our main man? I think he knows the reason won't hold up to scrutiny. I was half joking about the ripped jeans, but I bet it's something along those lines. He says they sat and talked football for hours and implied all was well at that point, so it's not even his usual character judgement thing.

I struggle to figure out our strategy. At RB we are a bit thin really. Nyambe, plenty good enough but occasional hamstring issues. JRC, highly injury prone and not a natural RB, can do a job but is better further forward. After that it's the kids, the only natural RB amongst them being Pike. Now being loaned out too far down the pyramid to learn much. I don't know if we turned down any interest from higher up during the window, but if we did it's fairly criminal. I can only assume we see Magloire and Carter as the back up options at RB. Elsewhere we hung onto Butterworth, Vale and McBride, despite having more options in that area.

Sounds like somebody showed up in ripped jeans.

Agreed. Nobody benefits from it. We weren't threatened into letting him go, because the punishment for letting him go was still empirically worse than the punishment for keeping him here. Plus we were only following league advice. So it doesn't help Chile, now or in the future, it doesn't help us, and it punishes the player for something entirely out of his control. It's a ridiculous move from them, borne out of pettiness, as it serves no logical purpose for them.

It is odd contrasted with how he usually talks about players 3, 4 years older. "We need to be patient, he's only young, has lots to learn" etc.

I actually feel people are being harsh on Park, so far. He has only just rocked up really (thanks to our usual glacial recruitment) then been given fuck all budget and negotiating the deals has probably been Venus' area again (for some unbefuckingknown reason). I'd imagine he's wondering what he's let himself in for. There is, after all, a reason Stuart Harvey moved down a league to jump ship. I'll give it more time to judge Park.

If TM had been in charge, Wilcox would have been up front most games even if everyone was fit, with the others out wide.

You mean he picked one up tonight?

I'm guessing he will have made his debut by the end of the season. Already travelled with a first team squad. Once Wharton is fit there will be a lot of bodies in the way though. Matter of time before Ayala is injured and Lenihan suspended, but still. You then have the Van Hecke, Carter, Wharton when fit, and potentially Magloire who might be considered to be ahead of him. We do sometimes play three at the back though.

Decent theory, that I've considered too - we offered him the lowest deal we could that would keep us eligible for compensation (same wages but only 1 year). We probably expected him to leave for compo. But nobody matched those wages (as his main pool of interest would be League One) so he ended up deciding to sign our offer. I would think there would be an opportunity at that point for us to withdraw the offer, but I suppose we thought our squad was thin at the time and there was still a chance of him stepping up to this level properly if opportunities opened up over the season. Plus someone might still have tried to pay a bit to land him (unlikely though). Not to mention it looks bad to withdraw the offer, especially for nice guy Tony who always has the players' financial security at heart...

That's not how probability works, but ok.

Bad night for the u23s in the Premier League Cup. Thrashed 4-1 by Notts Forest, who operate in a lower league than us. They did, however, field a very young side, whilst Forest included Lolley in theirs. He gives our first team a torrid time, so unsurprisingly he gave our kids a torrid time too by the sound of it, including scoring 2.

If you say we need to see how it pans out, then you accept the probability is not zero. Seeing how it pans out won't impact my argument - I only said it could happen, not that it will. And so we shouldn't.