firstdivision

‘An awful performance against a poor side.’ Spot on. Some of our supporters are kidding themselves a bit at the supposed scale of the NP revival. We’ve been very lucky in recent weeks. And boring as hell to watch. The last 20 minutes were truly embarrassing; the first 70 an exercise in tedium. And good use of the word ‘lumber’.

An utterly tedious game, Dave, settled by two mistakes in one passage of play. I was so bored watching us - same as Luton. At least with the likes of Semenyo and Massengo on the field, you feel something out of the ordinary might happen. Otherwise it’s just banging away and playing the percentages - the odd passage of neat play but largely harmless in the final third.

I live in London so was back by 1030 but I feel so sorry for all the fans who travelled to watch that tonight. Utterly tedious. Our football after the goal was dire. We looked patternless and punchless. But I’ve been saying it for weeks - we are so dull to watch.

Ah, i missed that. I thought my hunch was right about him being injured on Saturday.

And where’s Semenyo?

a) I’m not saying we should reappoint LJ - obvs. I’m saying there should be a bit more respect for him from some of our supporters. Life is not binary - one thing/person is not all bad or all good. There were plenty of swallows under LJ. b) LJ’s record is better than Russell’s.

I’d love to see the science behind the theory that luck tend to equal itself out over a season. Blackpool scoring in the last minute of stoppage time wasn’t luck - it was a skilfully constructed goal. And Bentley’s mistake wasn’t luck - it was an error induced by apprehension and pressure.

Interesting choice of example. Do you mean the LJ who presided over a home win against Manchester United? As opposed to a manager who’s presided over no home wins in his time at the club. Just saying like…?

That's my hunch as well. He definitely gets in our 18 if he's fit.

Yes. We’ve discussed the clunkiness of Xg before on here. Possession stats are the same as the ‘weather was fine’ or ‘it was raining’. Just facts - don’t tell you too much.

Has anyone heard why he wasn’t on the bench yesterday? No comment anywhere but, for me, his absence was puzzling - unless he’s injured. (Good cameo at QPR, created winner at Cardiff. Only forward with pace.) Also think NP likes him

Baker’s header was just about the miss of the match for me. Perfect height. Back across goal and the keeper has no chance. I feel the XG of City 2.59 Fulham 2.27 is extremely clunky and not very helpful/accurate - as discussed before. Does the 2.59 include our goal, which was clearly offside? I feel we should have lost our last three games in some sort of equitable football world (which largely doesn’t exist, I know) but somehow we’ve managed five points.

Way offside. Terrible decision to allow it. Would be pretty unhappy if that had happened at the other end. Great finish but should not have counted.

A point was a great result. They sliced us open so often in the second half. Thank god they couldn’t finish. I’d love us to play football like that but I think it’ll be the percentages for quite a while yet. Should have had no points from the last three games really but somehow we’ve got five. Teams love rattling the frame of our goal.

Wow - not quite sure how we survived that. Fulham seem to create more chances in the second half than we’ve created at home all season. Also, was Kasey offside for the equaliser? No home win but an excellent result.

I can only imagine that he’s signed a contract that stipulates his testicles (or some such) will be sliced off if Ipswich don’t get promotion. That would cause a man to act like that.

We couldn’t complain if we’d lost that match 3 or 4-1 (well, we would have complained but for a different reason). But it was just one of those games. We created three chances (Atkinson’s header was the other) and we were outplayed in parts by a tidy side. But winning when you shouldn’t is a massive bonus and lifts the gloom surrounding last Wednesday. We are quite dull to watch but there have been a few joyous moments this season to keep up the spirits…and few more joyous than the few seconds after Wells arrowed that chance into the corner of the net today.

I was sitting there tonight in the Dolman, looking on, looking around, and one thought kept on going through my mind: we are so boring - is this what the winter looks like…

My impression is that most Championship refs want an easy life. They take the easy option. Player falls over - free kick. And they're hopeless at cutting out time wasting and players kicking the ball away, delaying etc. It's a blight. I think they're trying to get away from easy free kicks/pens this in the PL this season. I noticed Kevin Friend played on a lot more in the pre-season friendly, albeit his performance was far from perfect.

I agree. The evidence against him is beginning to grow after two wins since February. Perhaps he’ll start to turn it around today with a victory at Boro…

Blackpool looked a very ordinary side. Teams with pace and a little more quality will beat them comfortably. We looked solid enough to win but, of course, not creative or composed enough to finish the job. Tough season ahead. Let’s hope there are three more limited teams than us.

I’m inclined to agree with those who say he’ll be worth a lot more in a year. He’s one of the few players I actually look forward to watching. He’s developed a lot this season. Good youngsters can make leaps forward. Also, if we’re just going to use the money to bring in players like Angela or Danny Simpson, then definitely keep him. There needs to be a clear plan of bringing in strong, athletic, fit players around the age of 23-26. The transfer money would have to be used judiciously.

Amazing what a season can do to a team. The starting eleven today: four who weren’t in the first-team squad at the start of the season. Two who’ve missed nearly the whole season. One who was out on loan in the first part of the season. One who hardly played in the first part of the season. Three regulars (Bentley, Bakinson, Wells). And only three players who started the first match, start the final match (Bentley, Massengo and Wells).

Yes, it’s amazing how people forget. Also, Lee Johnson helped us to some reasonable finishing positions in the Championship. It’s amazing how people forget that. But I suppose he didn’t win the Champions League so best to rubbish him as much as possible.