firstdivision

It doesn’t have to be a fearful one. It can be a pragmatic one, too. I think ‘don’t sell’. Anyway, it’s all very well talking about selling the club. We’d need the right buyer. And someone interested to buy.

…except a few years in the 70s.

Well, it was considerably better than we managed for a hundred years.

No, I’m not going to forget the stadium.

Well, we’ve a redeveloped ground and a new training ground and a team that’s been in the Championship for the last seven years. A while back, we got within one match of the PL for the first time since 1976. On average, we’ve done ok compared to our history. My feeling is ‘be careful what you wish for.’ I also can’t help the feeling that there’s someone somewhere who might have done better than 28 defeats in 52 games.

Who are the new buyers?

Of course he does. I’d have taken him off after ten minutes. Although I wouldn’t have played him. It’s not fair on the lad. He’s not ready for the Championship. He’s certainly not ready for right defence or whatever he’s trying to play.

Bell 2? As many as that?

I’d like to see more of him before I make a judgement. He was solid enough yesterday. But the game was effectively over soon after he came on, so the pressure on our defence was very different from, say, defending a 1-0 lead or if the game were level going into a tense last twenty. Forest were in cruise control.

Yes. Definitely. Wasn’t clear at the ground or from the halfway line camera.

It’s weird how Sky’s halfway-line camera gives little indication of a deflection, albeit I was viewing it on my phone on the way back. Even at the ground, albeit from the opposite end, we had no sense of a deflection. Just looked a really weird goal. Bentley’s body reaction doesn’t suggest he was wrong-footed either. But I’m happy to take your word for it. Going to watch in HD on Quest. The bottom line is we were dreadful, though. 2-0 was a very conservative score line. Forest second match of the week (with postponement at Bournemouth); our third. Might have made a difference. We looked leaden.

I think the reason he booked Scott and not Colback (I think it was him) was because he’d already warned Scott once for the same offence and he hadn’t warned Colback. It was actually a consistent piece of refereeing. On another day, Bond’s constant whistle for our minor misdemeanours would have got me going but we were so bad, it was hard to complain about the ref.

I’m not even sure we got into a position to play many final balls - it was that bad, wasn’t it. A complete waste of a day.

Really, Dave. I was at the game and I’ve see it many times back and I can’t see anything obvious. Second one definitely wasn’t.

The Messiah said the first goal was a deflection in his post-match interview. Was it? I’ve watched it back about ten times and I just can’t see one. It looked like a really really poor piece of goalkeeping from DB who otherwise made some excellent saves. It looked the softest goal imaginable, which is very unlike us. That apart, it was a 2-0 thrashing.

Best of the season? Doesn’t say much for our season really. Surely our performance at Preston a few weeks ago was better than tonight. Preston couldn’t have complained if we’d dropped them four or five.

Some people seem easily pleased. I thought it was quite a ordinary game between two tired-looking teams. Our first-half display was pedestrian. We put a lot into Saturday after all. And Coventry, who’ve been playing a lot recently, were quite cautious. Neither Benarous nor Bell are ready yet (not their faults). Bell either misplaced, under hit or mishit just about every attempted creative pass or cross. Scott is much more of a threat further up the pitch, so it was a shame he had to play so deep because of our lack of resources. And we lost - again - a match late on that we shouldn’t have lost. Sick of seeing away fans - any fans - celebrating late winners. Especially galling tonight because I thought Coventry were nothing special. They barely did just enough Cheesed off. Or words to the effect.

It could only have been given by the ref who took charge of Posh v Lincoln at the end of last season, the bloke that reffed our game at Villa a couple of years back, or the bloke that reffed our home match against QPR about three years ago.

That’s because none of them were penalties.

Best away goal feelings Martin Hirst (Eastville) Tom Ritchie (Meadow Lane) Paul Mardon (City Ground) Trevor Morgan (Sealand Road) Lee Tomlin (Craven Cottage)

Tom Ritchie v Notts County. Now, that was such an exciting away day. Great memory. We seemed to have more fans in the away end than they had in the rest of the ground. We were on our way back from the depths.

He was the best young player I’ve seen play for us before Scott. He was a little older when he signed, though, from memory (20/21yo - something like that). I meant teenager really.

In over fifty years of watching this club, he’s the best young player we’ve had by a significant distance.

Did I do that? I don’t think so. Strange reply.

You see what you want to see. That’s fine by me.