hollydog

Dismal defending - what was Flint doing.

Spot on. Burnley had only one once in seven before today (v Charlton) and yet they rolled us over with barely a whimper. All vey well Cotts dying how good their squad is but their form was as poor as ours. asSamo says - we're going backwards rather than making progress.

This team is beaten before kick off. SC has effectively undermined any residue of self confidence by saying in the press that he can't ask any more of his players. So they were as good as they could be and couldn't beat bottom of the table Charlton - how could they win today? He sent out similar message before the Derby game through his team selection and - in particular - dropping Kodja. He had effectively signalled before kick off that we weren't even going to try and win. Ditto when we went down to ten men v Blackburn. The reshuffle effectively signalled to Blackburn that we didn't think we could win the game. Ditto the lack of subs until it is too late - the message is that the potential replacements are no better than the first ii which he's admitted aren't good enough. I've been prepared to back SC until now but I honestly think that squad morale has been mortally wounded and it is difficult to see how that can be reversed without a change of manager.

Probably not a hot bed of City Support here in southern Galicia but pretty sure the roar that greeted aidan's equaliser by my son Alex and myself was heard across the Minho in Portugal . My friends will testify I 've a loud voice but that's the first international communication thus far !

March 22nd.

Anybody know what time the final kicks off? I know I'm getting ahead of myself but I'm thinking about bagging the train tickets while they're still cheap (or at least reasonable).