firstdivision

Can you explain who you thought was there NOT on merit?

I’ve just watched it on screen for the first time. (At the game, my immediate reaction was penalty. If it had happened at the other end, I would have thought ‘oh, s***’. ) On screen with replays…just don’t see how it’s not a foul. Laughable.

I don’t think he was in 20-21. It was last season he struggled. In 20-21, he was playing in a team that had more injuries than the Light Brigade and he held up reasonably well. But it was a huge challenge for everyone. We were playing anyone with two legs in the last part of the season.

I always like 52pts. But I’ve started to relax after yesterday’s results. 13pts clear of relegation. I think we might stay up. ?

Easy to forget he started 38 games in 2020-21 season when he did pretty well in different positions (including midfield). He had a dip last season but fans getting on his back was absurd. Remember the same thing happening to Gerry Gow.

Yes. Superb. Full of energy.

Yes. But, as we’ve seen, it doesn’t mean the ref is going to give them! Liam can’t come out in his Hull press conference and say it wasn’t a penalty.

A bit of penalty karma after what happened up there. I think it was a penalty, but I was surprised to see the ref give it. Not a great game but we looked so determined. Hard to beat.

Play-offs? I can’t believe it’s even a thread. We have an intense schedule coming up with a small squad that is suffering some key injuries. Throw in the likelihood of some key suspensions. I’m just grateful we’ve pulled away from the bottom three.

Well, tried as in they tried to bring in Currie from Wimbledon and O'Brien from Palace. But they failed because they couldn't agree terms with their clubs. My point is that, to me, a midfield player was a priority, so you go after one, like we clearly went after Mehmeti (because he's what we needed). I don't think we needed Cornick and I'm surprised we didn't prioritise a midfield player over him. I thought you might have known that we pushed for someone but you obviously don't.

They tried to sign a midfield player? Do you know that for a fact?

The squad is definitely going to be tested over the next month. I know we tried to sign a centre back in January. But I think we're light in midfield as well, especially with JW and AS one booking away from a ban. Can't see the rationale behind the signing of Harry Cornick in January over a midfield player (with money quite tight). Perhaps we were trying. Anyway, it's left our squad strangely lop-sided. With Mehemti and Cornick cup-tied, the bench is going to be interesting for Man City. (Btw - good old Gavin Ward - always said he was a top referee.)

I didn't. I thought Sykes forced the contact. He goes into their player rather than the other way round. Too many refs get deceived by that sort of thing.

Might as well be. Chances of scoring it probably zilch. Could get David Moyes to hobble on instead.

Anyone think we needed a new midfield player rather than Harry Connick-Jones in January? Our small squad feels very unbalanced. We're a booking/injury away from having to play Andy King in midfield. And two bookings from perhaps having to play Vyner as an emergency defensive midfield player with Kalas at centre back. Seven games in 22 days coming up (from Hull onwards).

How do you know that (the 48-hour assertion)?

Depends which year. If it were the start of 1916, you’d be suffering trench foot and he’d be the miserable so-and-so saying, ‘let’s be realistic, it’ll be another two years before we can turn this round. We might get the Americans in but, realistically, we don’t have any money.’

Yep. Low in softness; high in hardness - softness being a 'quality' we've demonstrated for too long and seemed to have abandoned, the softness we demonstrated when we played prettily at Norwich in September...and lost.

One thing I remember NP saying a while back was he wanted a side the opposition hate playing against. I thought that was us today. We weren’t that constructive going forward but we didn’t give them a moment’s peace. Good to see this trend in recent weeks after being soft for so long. We no longer look like a team waiting to concede soft goals. Admittedly, Max did give Preston a goal last week but we still won the Medieval battle on the rest of the pitch. I’m not a fan of Medieval battles but sometimes you have to fight them.

Just to clarify. Pro players say they need three full days between games to recover sufficiently. Under the previous arrangement, Swansea would have that; we would not. Now we have three full days.

I can understand supporters who’ve made arrangements being fed up with a relatively late change. But it’s actually beneficial to the team. We have Luton away on the preceding Wednesday evening. The change gives us an extra day’s preparation after a tough away match, especially off the back of a busy month. Swansea play on the Tuesday that week as well. They would have had an extra day’s rest plus no travel.

Also, however lame the questions are sometimes, he’s speaking to the fans in general. It’s played out for us to see. It’s his chance to play the ball not the man. You can turn any question you want into saying something worthwhile to get a message across.

Free kick outside the box. Send off the defender.

I didn’t think it was a penalty. It was actually a foul on the Watford defender. Or play on. Long is very clever though. He’s just ahead of the defender and moves deliberately towards him to force contact - the defender collides with him as a result. Ref will think it’s an easy decision to give but I think he hasn’t worked out what happened. As for the Brum penalty at Swansea - total joke. Cardiff’s penalty was clear cut but they missed it - just as we will when we get one. Probably.

Saw a different game to me, Ole. We were rarely in control, let alone 'total control' (We were only two goals up for 16 minutes.) To me, it looked like a game of rugby. Constant long high balls, and a relentless physical battle with one beautiful passage of skill to elevate it from grimness. The match was as enticing as a Victorian factory. I don't see how Max gets a nine when he gave a goal away, although he did make some good saves. Result was everything. Chiselled out of tungsten.