Did anybody hear why Wahlstedt wasn't on the bench yesterday..

Pickering didn't cover himself in glory for his sending off yesterday but he had to come across from left back position to cover for the nomadic Carter and Hyam. Delap was the player they should have been picking up but, as they did too often yesterday they got caught badly out of position. Hopefully Damien Johnson drags them into the video suite tomorrow and shows them where they should have been.

I always refer to an FA Cup quarter final replay against Millwall a few years ago. The game was awful, one of the worst in living memory and we were one down. Although we were playing pitifully bad there was always a chance we could have nicked an equaliser and force extra time. I was staggered to see so many people leaving from the 85th minute onwards. I really think many do it out of habit.

Several of us actually questioned whether Hyam was injured today such was his lack of mobility. It was basic, elementary centre half duties he was failing in.

I think it's a situation to me when a footballing brain should kick in. If a striker drops deep his marker shouldn't automatically go with him rather than that he should understand that it could well be a ploy to move him out of position. Once is excusable but today it happened several times and really left us exposed.

Pears was out of his penalty area clearing balls covering for Hyam and Carter several times. Far too often they didn't deal with the simple ball over the top. I thought it was a deliberate tactic by Rosenoir to draw our centre halves high up the pitch and knock it over them. There is plenty of work for Tomasson and his staff to do with them two this week. Both were extremely naive.

For the second game running Hyam has been poor in my view. He was out muscled by Hugill last week and Delap today. He was 'rolled' by Delap several times today and was drawn out of position a too often leaving Hull to exploit the gaps. Carter too hasn't been at his best which has left us looking vulnerable down the middle.

All things considered I thought we were unfortunate to lose particularly after playing for so long with ten men. I really don't think the effort and attitude can be questioned today and the eight shots on target we recorded was the highest for some time I reckon. The sending off and second goals came when our centre halves went awol and we were done by two bread and butter straight long balls. Hyam in particular and Carter have to be better with what I consider to be elementary defending. Gallagher and Ennis were really good when they can on and created quite a bit between them but Gallagher made a great defensive contribution too. It's still disappointing to lose but I think Hull could well be the surprise team of this season and get on the fringes of the playoffs. And undoubtedly our redoubtable chief exec will celebrate our loss which will assist his ambition of treading water 😝😝

Yep - a sceptic might say they were cheating 😉😉

I would go with the team that finished at Rotherham but Adam Wharton for Tronstad. Keep the same shape with Hedges and Szmodics as wide players and JRC in midfield.

Out of the games I have watched so far it has been noticeable that fewer players are having treatment on the pitch and not having to go off and return for 30 seconds.

It was incompetence. I guess from the tone of your post that you think otherwise but in the 25 years I refereed, around 15 of them in professional football I never, ever suspected that any referee had deliberately cheated. Mistakes are made (I know because I made many) but cheating? Never.

Hull have shifted about 1000 tickets so far and their supporters can pay on the day. https://www.wearehullcity.co.uk/news/2023/august/16/pay-on-the-day-at-blackburn/

I'm as sure as sure can be it's just incompetence.

I have always said that you don't need to be an active or recently retired referee to be a VAR. The laws of the game can be learned in a few days which obviously is a prerequisite and then knowledge of the game and you have the credentials. Sadly I don't think it will ever happen but for me it's a way forward.

Tell me one that is worse.

From its inception I always said that VAR was too much of a comfort blanket for some officials in this country. In tournaments and most other countries there isn't the level of error we see over here. As I said that is solely down to the operators. A fortune been spent on VAR but the most basic element of it is sorely lacking. https://www.premierleague.com/video/single/3625210#!

The decision has certainly added fuel to that particular fire but I honestly believe it was incompetence rather than any subconscious bias. It happens too often and at most grounds for it to be anything else in my view.

I think the non award of a penalty to Wolves last night was the worst VAR decision since it's inception and there is a lot to go at. Firstly it should be seen in real time but the officials safety net of VAR should absolutely see it. I'm told that Salisbury (the VAR on the night who has lots of previous in this regard) was it as normal contact and not a 'clear and obvious error' by the on field referee. The fact it was the Rags at home and in the last minute just adds to the conspiracy theories but I don't think for one minute it is done with malice. It's simply incompetence. It once again highlights the real weakness in VAR which isn't the system itself but the match officials who use it. Gary O'Neil has already had an apology from Jon Moss who told him it should have been a penalty. Will the yellow card he received for complaining be rescinded now? There was also an identical incident to the one at Rotherham on Saturday when the lad got the first of his two yellow cards. Varane stood a couple of yards away from the fans whilst celebrating and his teammates pushed him towards the crowd. He wasn't cautioned. Personally I think the caution on Saturday was harsh but I have seen some comments from Rotherham fans asking for consistency. It will be interesting when Howard Webb goes to watch Rotherham the next time and he is challenged about it.

Due to a delayed start and eleven minutes of stoppage time the second half of Brentford v Spurs kicked off at 3.18. Now if their is a similar amount of added time in the second half the game won't finish until around 4.15. With the Chelsea v Liverpool game due to start at 4.30 Sky will be panicking. They have highly paid pundits sat around twiddling their thumbs and have to get their adverts in. They might have to reschedule kick off times soon and inconvenience supporters even more 😉😉.

That's why I simply don't but the notion of some posters that we took a short corner in the dying seconds to hold out for a draw. It was absolutely clear we were hell bent on winning that game when, even at 2-2 players were bombing forward.

They have. https://www.wolves.co.uk/news/mens-first-team/20230809-gary-o-neil-appointed-new-head-coach/

That's exactly why I said mix it up. The issue for me, is that two corners aside at Fleetwood every corner we have taken has been short.

We only had one yellow card today and it wasn't Adam Wharton. Szmodics was booked for an arm offence in the first half.