bluebruce

Nice goal, but it caught my eye how paggered he looked after it in the celebrations. Absolutely huffing and puffing. Makes me question what all these piddly cameos and never having a starting run (at least not for a long time or ever in his real position) has done to his match fitness. Been saying for a while he looks like a player very short on confidence. Hopefully this gets him going, if he is given the chance to capitalise on it properly in the first team. That said, I'd still be concerned to see him starting... Should have gone on loan.

Manager is very different to scout though.

Wow, was I naive in thinking we wouldn't have to go back to Jones and Henley for the answer? Really odd that we were doing it in the Prem, at a higher level.

Truthfully that last part may even play into our favour. It seems like the utter dross in this league give us a harder game than the good sides. I firmly believe that ties into the stats I've researched and posted previously about us getting better points hauls from the games where we have less possession. You'd expect the better teams to keep the ball better against us and hem us in a bit, and we have shown we are more effective at counter-attacking, as well as being vulnerable to counter attacks in the games where we control possession. I'd have to run the stats again to see if this is still true, I think I did them in about November. But a quick look at the last few games shows it is still more or less holding up. Sheff W is a bit different as they were awful, we were absolutely electric, and they had ten men. But for instance we slaughtered Forest for possession (67%) but lost, shipping three goals. QPR had more possession than us (58%). It's not a cast iron rule or anything, but it does seem to be a general trend.

It does, however, matter what they say. If they present the club, manager or players positively, they're 100% correct. If they cast them in a bad light at all, they are ignored at best, instantly wrong at worst.

6 points behind, not been in the top 6 all season (closest has been 8th I think?) midfield decimated with injuries and the only club to fail to recruit anybody in January. I think you know why it's very unlikely now, but your relentless positivity won't let you see/admit it.

With no Dack injury and some defensive reinforcements in January, I think we would have had a really good chance. Sadly I now think it is an extremely small chance. If Holtby is out for a fair spell, I'd give us no chance at all.

This has made me wonder, when was the last time someone 18 or younger got a league debut for us? Or a start?

U-18s lost to Manure, 0-1.

I don't know that he's a must, but I don't know his game. Wiki describes him as a deep lying creative central midfielder. It isn't the deep lying role we need filling, for me. I'd still like to take a proper look at Davenport, and he couldn't even make the bench today. If injuries happened in CM, we even have Smallwood who is no great shakes and doesn't fulfil the creative part at all, but can fill in as a spoiler in a pinch. It's the attacking roles we need sorting in midfield. LAM, CAM and RAM as FM would call it. A versatile, quality player who can fill those spots would be ideal. Mind, transfermarkt shows him as playing LM and RM roles so maybe he could be wedged in there. Anybody seen much of him?

That was dire. I think it's really telling how supportive his team mates were after it though.

"We have been trying to sign some free agents now the transfer window is closed. But the wages that unemployed footballers are on these days are astronomical..."

That's all of the core skills on the application form ticked then.

Thought Johnson was ineffective again when he came on and would rather have seen Davenport coming on. Looking like it's gonna take a lot for him to get a real chance.

I wouldn't care if he wore a full on ski mask on the hottest day of summer if he did the business. Sadly it's probably true that he no longer would, with enough frequency, to be worth the hefty wages. I'm just glad he didn't seal our fate today, would have been that much harder to take.

In general he doesn't seem to have gone on to better things like we all expected and has probably regressed. You're right about the wages too. But he did look good today and it had me wondering the same as Darwen Rover whether he'd do a decent job here. With Graham on the wane we have nobody anywhere near his league for heading ability. He nearly did us twice in about a minute.

Buckley doesn't even make the bench at the moment so I can't see him starting the next game. TM seems to have realised he isn't ready. Tosin and Nyambe had unusually poor games today. Lenihan and Bell (!) played well. I haven't looked back to see who the two that abandoned the men for the rebound goal were though. Walton mixed. I feel he should have done better with the goal, but it's one of those that just happens sometimes. The defence were more culpable. Fabulous save later on from Rudy. Best I've seen him make. JRC didn't scintillate, but did enough to show he fits into senior football already, unlike Buckley. I look forward to seeing him develop. Worked hard and looked to make things happen. Hard to say what impact the head injury may have had on his mental side of his game today, if any.

Because we did the exact same dumb shit with Cunningham and that worked out swimmingly too.... Physios or whoever makes a call like that need to give their heads a wobble.

Don't like the way Lenihan was hobbling there.

I thought he handled it a bit poorly. But yes it was absolutely on the defence to mark those two at the back post.

That guy on the pitch gives me kittens. Uh looks another odd sub (Graham for JRC)...Arma going wide?

Weren't we 4 points off top 6 before today? Could do with other teams dropping points. Then again you never know which teams will end up there at the end. We may be 3 points ahead of whoever finishes 6th at the mo. Why am I letting myself dream again?

I think you've maybe forgotten how bad Brereton is? I think this is a case of absence makes the heart grow fonder. At least Gallagher has a little pace, a strong work ethic, a modicum of skill now and again, and is better in the air than Brereton. Absolutely shouldn't be playing on the wing either, but definitely better than BB.

Huh, I'm listening to Rovers commentary.

Someone said he was on 60k a week before his release. So probably well out of our league.