arbitro

Why? He owes us nothing. If he leaves it will be with my complete understanding as to why.

If Eustace stays he has to see through this imposter and keep him on the bench.

At times the difference in quality was stark but it was to be expected given the value of the Wolves team against ours. I was quite impressed by the three debutants of whom Dennis and Kargbo have us something completely different with their movement and pace. Incidentally the leaving of players up from an opponents corner is something I've been crying out for and today if Kargbo had been on the ball instead of Cozier-Duberry he would have been in on goal. There were some good performances particularly defensively with Hyam and Batth. The midfield two were okay and more often than not looked to get us on the front foot when possible. Once again Cantwell was a huge disappointment. His languid style gives the impression of not giving a toss and at times he is so weak and almost feeble. My biggest frustration with him is how often he loses the ball or gives it away. If I was playing in the same team his attitude would annoy the life out of me. The bigger picture however is trying to keep our manager.

Derby will have out the feelers out days ago and I'll be surprised if they haven't spoken to Eustace's representatives in the interim. It appears a done deal to me.

Waggott, Gestede and the other bloke will be typing up the NDA as we speak. The club is a shambles.

At the Q&A with Eustace in October he told us he had never met or had even spoken to the owners (I'm sure Tomasson said similar). The conduit is Pasha (or whatever his name is) and everything goes through him. There is clearly a disconnect between the various parties and I think Gestede is feathering his own nest by siding with Pasha. It's only my view but Gestede seems to be poisonous and his objective is to become Chief Exec by hook or by crook. That is evidenced by the way he left as a player by effectively downing tools. The club is a mess, that is indisputable.

Twelve months on and the reality is that history could well repeat itself. Poor form, an uninspiring window and clear disenchantment from the manager. I don't know if Eustace will be interested in the Derby job but what is apparent from his recent interviews is that he feels let down. He has had players foisted upon him and while his stock is still high he has to make the most of it. If he goes the vast majority will know why and fully understated his rationale.

The under 21 team was well beaten by Man City today. City moved the ball around really well whilst we were often ponderous in possession which inevitably led to lots of turnovers in play. That said we were only one down for a long period and did have a couple of chances to equalise. Two quick City goals later in the game out paid to any hopes of getting something from the game although we did pull a goal back with a smart finish from Bell. I didn't think there was any outstanding performers in the day but, as you would expect City had lots quality all over the pitch. Nobody can have any complaints about the score today as City were superior pretty much all over the pitch. Rovers under 16's were playing on an adjacent pitch against Villa in what I was told was a cup quarter final. The final score was 3-2 to us I think (trying to watch two games at once is difficult) but the Rovers celebrations at the end confirmed the win.

I lost count of the number of times they went down and squealed holding various parts of their anatomy. Despite this their physio only came on once to treat a player who was genuinely hurt. There was a comical moment in the second half when one of their strikers went down like he had stepped on a land mine. Matty Litherland was clearly annoyed at his antics and as he lay on the ground Litherland stood over him and had a go at him. Whatever Litherland said of did worked because the Spaniard miraculously jumped up and ran after Litherland in a Lazarus like act. Frankly it was embarrassing

Travis did take control but I maintain that the penalty taker should be known before the game starts and the manager is the man to do it. Seeing players publicly squabbling isn't a good look

With the managers policy on penalty takers (let them sort it out amongst themselves or similar) we hopefully have some tranquility when deciding the order should this game go to penalties.

Another enjoyable watch once again as both teams knew they had to win and went for it. We had an awful start conceding in the first minute but we kept at it and equalised with an excellent goal. At that stage I felt we had enough to win but credit to Bilbao as they got the winner in stoppage time. I thought Aodhan Doherty was very good on the night and Matty Litherland out in his usual no nonsense defensive display but, unusually for a modern day centre half he is prepared to carry the ball forward and look for a killer pass. Ribeiro was the best of the three new signings for me with Dennis looking at times that he needed a ball of his own to play with. I was surprised to see Woodrow dropping so deep at times but mostly he was tidy in possession. The real disappointment on the night for me was the play acting of the Spaniards. The squealing and rolling about after most challenges was grating and this was exacerbated by a weak referee who fell for it.

I thought that too but I have been told they are only playing for the first half tonight. It doesn't make much sense to me that we may be making an unenforced triple change at half time in a game where, if we win we can progress in the competition. We don't want a situation where a couple of injuries in the second half might scupper our chances.

Dennis, Woodrow and Ribeiro all starting for the under 21's tonight.

They, like us had two big centre halves and a big centre forward who were clearly going to be targets for crosses. Gueye is the spare man for us on defensive free kicks presumably for him to attack the ball. When Frey saw he was being marked by Beck he must have thought it was his birthday. They could have scored from every set piece they had in the first half and for me a lot of that was down to how we set up to defend them.

The penalty spat looked absolutely ridiculous and almost childish but for me it's on Eustace. There should be a designated penalty taker and it has to be the managers choice. Given the pettiness around the incident I felt certain that Dolan would miss, there was an added pressure he didn't need due to ludicrous situation that developed.

Just on train home now and the disappointment is palpable. It's really frustrating that we got ourselves back into the game, looked like we were capable of going on to win it only to throw it away. Like Friday against Nobbers I thought our first two changes actually weakened us particularly Cantwell who contributed nothing. I fail to see anything he offers to us. Throwing points away will certainly come back to haunt us. I was amazed to see Beck picking up Frey on set pieces. He is so powerful in the air and the first goal would have been avoided had one of the centre halves or Gueye had picked him up. His free header in the six yard box was an awful goal to concede. That nonsense must be on our set piece coach. Here's a tip for him - let our big lads pick their big lads up. Hopefully the new signings can hit the ground running otherwise our season will just fizzle out.

It looks like we are going into this game with only one recognised striker in the squad if Kargbo isn't up to speed. That could really impede us tonight in what should really be a winnable game. Hopefully we carry on the momentum from Friday but to do so I think Travis needs to start. we looked a different team whilst he was on the pitch and almost capitulated when he went off. Defensively we are looking good so I expect very few goals. A clean sheet for us will do for starters.

Asking if a corner routine is 'woke'! This bloke needs to have a word with himself. I like to see some variation on our set plays.

It doesn't have to be deliberate. The word 'intent' was taken out of the laws several years ago. It's a clear penalty as was theirs. Edit: The Nobbers manager described it as a clash of heads. It was anything but that it was so late.

It is a penalty in law. It was very similar to the one Brighton got against Arsenal recently which was a careless challenge too. Anywhere else in the pitch it's a free kick and to give the referee some credit it's a good spot.

Delighted to beat that lot with their tinpot support particularly in the manner we did. We more than matched them for shithousery and that was an important factor in the win. We scrapped and fought for everything and the number of times they went crying to the referee delighted me. They are going to moan about the penalty they should have had but so what - in many respects that makes the win even sweeter for me. In a match where there were many good performances I felt that Callum Brittain was once again the stand out player. His form recently has been exceptional. Makhtar Gueye was really good tonight too and I for one am prepared to eat a large slice of humble pie if he continues in this vein. Defensively we were generally solid apart from the latter end of the match when we sat a little too deep for my liking and invited them on. The downside on the night was the substitutions both teams made. Ours actually weakened us and theirs made the stronger. The goal we conceded was sloppy as Beck should have done better and certainly Pears should have too. The final whistle was a huge relief to us all and in the big picture only one thing matters and that was getting the win. It's only three points but somehow it feels like a lot more right now.

Tonight's under 21 match against QPR at Leyland is off due to a 'waterlogged pitch'. I thought we had seen quite a lot of dry weather this week, certainly not enough for a postponement. Or could it be off because the first team are also playing tonight and it's all hands to the pump. #sceptical https://twitter.com/academy_brfc/status/1885260108348670279?s=19

In recent weeks we have played quite well (apart from Oxford when we were poor) and in some of the defeats actually played better than in some of the games when we won six on the spin. Nobbers will undoubtedly try it on both physically and mentally but we simply have to match that including the dirty tricks. The game needs a strong referee unlike the one we had against Burnley recently. I was told that a few days after the Burnley game Eustace took all the first team squad into the video analysis room at Brockhall and made them watch the Dingles taking the piss out of our club with their ridiculous celebrations particularly with the corner flag stunt. The gist of his message was this doesn't happen again on our home ground. Hopefully the players heeded this.

As Tuesday was the claim your own seat deadline I ordered ours and was was surprised to see an option of 'add to your season card' which I took. I couldn't remember seeing this option on the first ticketing information the club put out but it is an option for any season ticket holder to use.