LondonBristolian

@MarcusXhas covered this above but the false claim that the girl was found to be lying is exactly why women who have been raped are frightened to go to the police. Here's a useful article covering the facts of the case. https://thesecretbarrister.com/2016/10/14/10-myths-busted-about-the-ched-evans-case/ The crucial thing - as pointed out in point number 2 - is that in this case, it is very hard to claim the girl lied as she at no point claimed to have been raped but that she had no memory of what had happened.

The reality is though it wasn't a case of him being "ready". Holden had a number of years experience as an Assistant Manager. Some people succeed as managers with less backroom experience. The real question was whether Holden was suited to being a manager or not. It turns out he wasn't but I honestly don't think another five years of assistant managers' experience would have changed that. He seems well regarded as an assistant/coach and that's probably where his skillset lies.

I've frequently been one of the ones saying his performance drops off after too many games in a short space of time but I think that has changed since the change in formation. I think a lot of the issue earlier in the season was that he was pretty much having to do all the work up-front single-handedly and - however fit he is - that's a big ask game-in and game-out. I think the change of formation has really suited him. I'd be pleased if he got another year.

I think one has to be realistic that more women will be frightened to approach the police after that story (and other stories involving the Met Police in particular). That's not fair on the overwhelming majority of police officers but it'd be naive to pretend it hasn't affected public confidence - especially amongst women. But, even before that case, the truth is a lot of women who experience rape and/or domestic abuse are frightened to go to the police and frightened that, if they do, they will be interrogated, not believed and - if they are accusing someone wealthy enough to afford a strong lawyer - concerned they will be made out to be lying and even face criminal proceedings as a result. The reality is it's not about what any of us would warn anyone or advise. The fact is that a lot of women don't feel safe reporting rape or sexual abuse and I think it sadly unsurprising Harriet Robson has decided to put the evidence out there in public rather than risk the legal system and I think it shows work needs to be done to make women feel safer in reporting these sorts of crimes in the belief that the legal system will protect them.

You've kind of proved yourself wrong in your own post. We're paying Danny Simpson because he's who we could afford. I'm not claiming Vyner is brilliant but - if there were free agents or low cost options better than our players - we'd be getting them in. In the summer we released Baker, assessed the free agents that were out there, and decided renegotiating with Baker was a better option than any of the free signings we could make. Vyner is not going to be on a huge salary and I'd suggest the out of contract cheaper replacements don't actually exist...

I seriously recommend reading Jonathan Wilson's superb book the Outsider: A History of the Goalkeeper. It's a really interesting book but it talks about how the goalkeeper role has evolved in recent seasons to be come an eleventh outfield player in some respects. For example, Guardiola's tactics are utterly dependent on a goalkeeper who can play with his feet. Barcelona's Tika Taka system, or Man CIty's system now would not function with just a shotstopper. Similarly we've seen in recent weeks that Pearson has made a change because Bristol City could not play - or ironically attack - the way Pearson wants us to with Bentley in goal. Ultimately what a goalkeeper is doing with his feet and how he does it has a massive impact on how the defence position themselves, how deep the defensive line needs to be and the entire shape of the team. Thirty or forty years ago most would have agreed that a goalkeeper's job was to keep the ball out and nothing more but it's just not true of the game today.

Not great tonight but, for a supposedly poor side, Luton seem to get results. In a strange way, I'm quite pleased by how pissed off our team looked at the final whistle. A few months ago I think they'd have accepted the result whereas the body language tonight was anger and disbelief.

I don't know a lot about the new owners and their level of resources but I can't see that Hull are anywhere other than where you'd roughly expect them to be with the players they have.

It is basically Family Fortunes in reverse. Before the show 100 people are given 100 seconds to answer a question (e.g name as many countries in Africa as you can) and contestants on the show have to try and give an answer none of the 100 people came up with…

I got lucky! I got to the final and the question was Footballers of the Year since 1970 (this was ten years ago when there was only one question in the final rather than the three you get now). My then-flatmate and I won the jackpot with Gordon Strachan…

To be honest my main attachment to Comoros is that, when I was a contestant on Pointless a few years back, Comoros and the Marshall Islands were the go-to answers I’d learned for any obscure geography question.* *Geography did not come up.

If Comoros win, it would surely have to count as the greatest upset in any international competition. Ranked 82 places lower with no recognised goalkeeper and several players missing. Surely an impossible task?

We might then keep a clean sheet!

I think it is a two way thing though. Wollacott has blossomed because he left. Had he stayed, I’m not sure he would or should have dislodged Bentley or O’Leary and arguably we’d have been holding him back. Ditto I gather Nurse is doing well in League One but that could be seen as an argument that we have done the right thing in letting a player who was not at Championship level build a career elsewhere rather than stagnate at a key time. Likewise with Britton. He’s behind Semenyo, Janneh, Conway and Bell and it may be there are other younger prospects that the coaches think are only a couple of years away too. I’d be sad to see Britton go but the fact Derry City are after him rather than a Championship or League One club suggests he has some work to do before he gets to Championship level, if indeed he ever does so. I think we hoarded players a bit in the past and I think Morrell is an example of someone we held onto without playing him to a point where it was detrimental to his career. James Morton seems to have stagnated too. Not every player will make it here. If Britton, Wollacott or Nurse get moved on, get a chance they would not have got here, take that chance and build out a career in the game, I don’t see that as a failure of our youth policy but more an example of what an ethical youth policy should look like.

Speak for yourself! I'm pretty certain I'd not score against Brentford however long I was given to do it!

For me, it sort of balances out. Bentley makes that I don't think O'Leary would make but I also think he makes unforced errors that Max has not (yet) made and, as others have noted, we play better football with Max in the team. I also think there may be a wider issue with Bentley. This might be completely unfair but Bentley reminds me of Shay Given in the sense that he is a really great shotstopper but seems to constantly find himself in defensively frail teams to a point where you have to wonder if he communicates and marshals the defence as well as some other goalkeepers do. I might be completely wrong on that, of course, but I wonder if our defence lacks on-pitch guidance at times and you do need your keeper to be doing that especially as our most experienced central defender doesn't seem to be the most vocal of players.

Pearson did. Which probably counts for more.

To be fair, we came back from the 2020 pandemic expecting a promotion push and then went into freefall last season. I think the reality is it doesn't take that much for what previously looked like a good team to suddenly fall apart. They've not made much in the major player sales in the last two years so I think it simply comes down to too many players simultaneously moving past their peak...

I have to agree with that. I don't like it but I've lost count of the number of times I've got frustrated with teams like Preston under Alex Neill or Cardiff under Warnock where they'd suck momentum out of our attacks for 90 minutes and then nick a goal. I loved the free flowing fluid football we played to get us up under Cotts but the real you can only overwhelm your opposition with fluidity and technique if your players are way better than the opposition (and even then, as we saw last week, teams like Fulham add a lot of aggression into the mix too). We simply don't have enough of an edge on any opponent in this division to win without being a bit streetwise and we're really starting to develop that.

I'm not so sure on that. I think there are times where we still miss a midfielder who'll sit deep and hold a position. Williams and James both "can" do it but I'm not sure it's how their best utilised and I think there are times where Massengo really benefits from someone who'll sit so he can focus on getting around the pitch. If we had a choice between renewing King or signing Pack, I think I'd go for the latter.

Wow! My grandparents used to live at the top of Sunnyside Lane backing into the playing field. There was always football going on a Saturday but I had no idea until now that Yate Town used to play there!

I wonder how we rank for time spent in possession of the ball in the opponents’ box during that time. My suspicion is we are rarely putting ourselves in positions where penalties can be awarded…

Can’t help wondering how this is affecting our other defenders. It is easy to criticise our defence for being out-fought and out-challenged on Saturday but I wonder how easy it is to throw yourself into challenges when you have a teammate (and very possibly friend) coming to terms with the effect that throwing himself wholeheartedly into challenges has had on his body…

I think Vyner has been made a bit of a scapegoat for wider failings within the team. He was poor at the weekend but not the only defender who made mistakes. It is a worry that he has the lapses in concentration that he does and, at the age of 24, he ideally should have nailed down a best starting position but I also think - prior to Saturday - he's looked better in recent weeks than he has all season and I honestly think some of the criticism of his performance has been more to do with previous performances than Saturday alone. For example, Kalas was an ineffective against Mitrovic for the second as Vyner was the first and - whilst Vyner's attempt to get the second ball for that second goal wasn't great - the reality is the striker was always the favourite to get it the second Mitrovic bested Kalas in the air. I'm not exonerating Vyner - I don't trust him in a back two , I don't know what his best position is and he has too many lapses - but it does feel he is being singled out as the scapegoat of choice in an appalling all-round defensive performance from the team.

I think we have to factor in the fact he has been injured for a few months at a crucial point in his development. By all accounts, he did well at Gillingham in League One last season but, given that he must be a little bit ring rusty at the moment, I'd not be shocked if he got loaned out over the next two weeks with a view to him coming back in pre-season and showing the coaching staff where he is.