And that's with Wharton out.

I was saying 'Pears you're too close to your near post' there and sure enough, the ball came back in the middle and left him stranded. Tbf he's not the only keeper over-prone to sticking at their near post when the ball is wide in the box. Think they feel too much shame when beaten at their near post so they over compensate.

Cue Dolan being subbed off.

Dembele and Bacuna are game changing subs. We can't make those.

Yeh we could really do with a £22 million midfielder to open things up... I wouldn't laud that point yet, we look more likely to leave with 0 at the moment. I'd have taken a point before the game.

Selling up your best assets doesn't make you appealing to buyers, so I disagree.

I don't consider it any kind of bonus at all, I really don't care about it whatsoever. I find it very weird that some fans fixate on it, personally. Almost as weird as the ones who thought Adam Wharton shouldn't sign for Palace because they had the temerity to beat us in the playoffs well before he was even born.

If he were a striker you might be right.

For those super optimistic betters, the best odds are actually at SpreadEx (300 to 1) followed by Paddy Power and Betfair (both 150 to 1). For the pessimistic betters, the best odds on relegation are 20 to 1 (SkyBet, Paddy Power and Betfair). There are also signup offers if you're new to any of those...with the SpreadEx one looks like you could bet £10 on something else, then when it settles, pop another two free £10s on finishing top 6, and end up with £6,000 if it somehow came off. Which it won't, of course.

Doesn't say whether they were cramming their box when defending set pieces, but interesting nonetheless. I guess it's easy to have some of the best stats for defending them if everyone is in the box if that's what they were doing, but it doesn't tell the full story that there will be less counter attacks as a result. Also, given our team of oompa loompas, it might not be as effective a tactic here!

Might be some bad news for you there. Someone posted an article that talked about Eustace's time at Kidderminster, where Gardiner was Head of Coaching (but not Head Coach 😛 ) and they used to put their entire team in the box to defend corners. Maybe he's changed his approach since then...

Well I believe he's the Assistant Head Coach, so that's not his whole job. He just clearly has some aptitude with it. Tbh if someone could improve our set pieces I'd be happy for it to be their job anyway, it's been a real weak point.

You don't ask much of our players do you, if they don't score at least 10 league goals in a season in a max of 36 games (if he plays the rest, and he's only managed 70+ minutes on 9 occasions so far), then they have to leave the club apparently.

I momentarily misread this thread title as 'rogue coke fix'. I thought an explanation had emerged for fucking up on deadline day.

I think it's somewhat harsh to call a new poster a dickhead and a dingle simply because he gave his opinion on some stats that he didn't know the full context of. We can do better, people.

He took over a mess of a Birmingham side and achieved their highest points tally since 2016, so the context is important. When they sacked him, he had them in 6th place after 11 games. They replaced him with Rooney and finished the season in 20th. That said, I'm not particularly enthused by his record either. He's still something of an unknown entity in truth. All that matters though is what he does going forward at Rovers.

He wasn't actually free. Sounded like it was a nominal fee though (I assume something like 50-100k). Wages, agent fees etc probably aren't a big deal with this one though, he's probably on in the region of 2k a week, so when you add everything up I suspect anything above 300k in the summer would be a profit. He'll need to notch some goals by then to fetch that though, he doesn't have a prior record as good as Ennis.

Dunno about that, they were still following his tactics to a tee. People wouldn't be commenting on the difference today otherwise. They looked low on confidence though, as you do with 1 win in 11.

You're right tbf, his heart wasn't in it anymore. And I can't say I blame him at all. He's only human. I'd hate working for these owners with my hands tied behind my back.

I certainly don't care for making so many in such a short space when things have gone well, and the way they kept making a new set every couple of minutes was odd. I guess Eustace just wants to see what more players have got to offer since we're on top, which makes sense. Feels a bit scatter gun though.

Can't lie, I find that a bit comical ..'oh now we're thrashing them, I'll take it from here lads' 🤣 Still, the sooner he takes the reins the better.

I do think there's an irony that he has gone just before we play the most out of form side that isn't us, and loads of players JDT needed are coming back to fitness. New boss will get credit for good results now though (not saying he shouldn't if results go well), probably even this one he isn't managing.

Hope that's a joke 🤣

No (though there were times he should have gone more pragmatic), we finished 7th with it. We very nearly conceded a second goal in less than 50 mins at home against a Stoke side who have done bugger all. There is still a lot of work to be done. We do look better today, but Stoke's form is as horrendous as ours and a new manager has brought us new enthusiasm as it does 90% of the time. The off field chaos has been the problem. People are naively thinking a change signals a new dawn. It won't.

Well done Pears!!!