Dr Balls

I just wonder if this move is not really going to work out for him. As Ian Wright noted last night, he’s not yet played a minute for them, and at the rate they are going, along with Sheff Utd, they could be a long way from safety and heading back to the Championship. If he’s lucky someone else in the Premier League takes him on at the end of the season if they are relegated, but that depends on how much he actually plays. I appreciate that their coach has had success in Spain with I fancied clubs, but the Premier League is probably consistently tougher than La Liga, and the new owners clearly will not want relegation as that messes with all of their wider financial plans.

Ouch!!! The only plus point would be that bony injuries usually heal quicker than ligament injuries, especially as Basham’s injury is likely to need extensive metal work to fix. However given how bad that looks, it wouldn’t surprise me if he also has extensive ankle ligament damage, which would likely mean at least 6 months on the sidelines if not longer. On that basis, that’s probably the end of his season right now. Tough on Sheff Utd too as he is probably their most experienced defender, and you have to say their prospects look pretty bleak for Premier League survival. But then again, I don’t think that they were that good last season despite getting promoted, had quite a few lucky results (think about both their games against us) plus they were reliant on either loanees who have since left or Billy Sharp for most of their goals.

I don’t disagree that regularly facing better opposition can improve players, plus there are those who may have been found a bit wanting at Premier League level but who are more than adequate at Championship level. I think the latter applies more to Leeds than Leicester. Which as stated means, even before the parachute payments, these clubs should have a significant advantage over the rest of the Championship teams.

Leicester missed Vardy’s goals last season, Maddison was injured for a large part of the season, plus the loss of Kasper Schmeicel and some central defence woes really did for them. As for holding onto their best players over the summer, I would suggest that Leicester lost 3 of their best players from midfield in terms of Maddison, Tielemans and Barnes over the summer. Now that trio would really destroy teams in the Championship!

Yep. Giving the opposition a penalty as one of their players theatrically dives after no obvious contact…

A fair few teams in that table back in the Championship for this season. But the club that has fallen furthest since then must be Scunthorpe. 11th in the Championship to 4th in National League North, living it up with the likes of Chorley and Spennymoor Town. Puts our “problems” into perspective!

And while they are at it, the Begovic sending off at Leeds tonight needs to be rescinded. No evidence he ever touched Bamford, who instead should be banned for simulation. But you know it won’t happen…

Will be interested to see how they explain the rugby tackle in the penalty area on Sam Bell tonight or if Nige is sent yet another apology for the lack of a penalty being awarded. The EFL highlights showed at least 3 different angles and clearly the defender just pulls him down while Sam is trying to get to the ball to shoot at goal. But the referee and assistant referee apparently saw nothing wrong with that. Amazing!

Only needs to drown out the sound of genteel munching of prawn sandwiches…

Heard Joe Royle interviewed on Radio 4 this morning, when he mentioned about playing for us with Norman Hunter and how Norman described that incident with Frannie Lee, particularly as he had played with both of them. Apparently after they went off the pitch, Frannie was banging on the Leeds changing room door for Norman to come out and for them to finish it off properly!

Really hope that last paragraph doesjt turn out to be correct. He came, he spent an absolute fortune, and other than a run to a League Cup semi-final achieved nothing else, despite being backed more than any previous or subsequent manager.

Unlike the fans, I don’t think SL really wants promotion any more. Or certainly not at the cost that it’s likely to involve. Let’s be honest, football’s not really his game and he’s not that worried about achieving success as long as he’s not having to shell out enormous amounts. He’s got the ground and will soon have the rest of the “Sports Quarter”, which will be his legacy. I believe that the bricks, mortar and money still interest him more than football, especially since FFP and parachute payments really skewed promotion towards those who had been relegated from the Premier League. So I expect us to keep selling our best players and getting no closer to promotion for the foreseeable future, unless a new owner comes in.

Still better than Nakhi’s in the first half that nearly cleared the Atyeo. There were people around me shouting “don’t shoot” the next he got the ball after that “effort”!

Liverpool VAR: “Gis’ a job. I could do dat!”

It looked a penalty at the time from the other end of the Lansdown, on the basis that the Stoke player was nowhere near the ball and flattened Sykes inside the penalty area. The ref was directly behind Sykes so should have seen it and as for the person dressed as an “assistant referee” in front of the Dolman, he was useless pretty much the whole game, so no chance he was going to flag for it. It would be interesting to see how the penalty count changed with VAR in the Premier League, because at this level, the decisions are often baffling and don’t seem to stand up to even the briefest analysis.

Agree that Cornick is far better through the middle. Not sure that he still carries a huge goal threat but he certainly creates chances. And as gangly and awkward as he appears most of the time, the ball so often seems to stick to him. He must be a bit of a nightmare to defend against. Whether he could play in a pair with Conway is something to consider for the rest of the season.

The common thread of all 3 goals yesterday is that they came down their right side and our left. Does that suggest we have an issue there? Yes because Pring was often left isolated against Leris, who was probably Stoke’s best player on the day, either by Bell not tracking back or not getting support from Naismith. I don’t think Naismith is completely hopeless defensively but he is caught out too often in a centre back pairing and is more suited to being one of a trio of central defenders or better still playing as a sweeper just in front of a pair of proper centre backs. Whether Naismith could play that role with James as a defensive midfield pairing, leaving Knight as the forward running midfielder, is something to consider. What we would lose is the hustling of Williams but it might be worth a try.

And no wonder Jason Knight just walked straight down the tunnel. My MOTM, he was absolutely everywhere, and looked to be fuming at the final whistle.

I hate Alex Neil. And he has flipping hex over us whoever he is managing! Plus his sides are always the same muscular sh!thousery…

In terms of “what ifs” for certain players thought likely to have a huge future, this story always comes to mind to show how cruel fate can be at times. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2011/jul/20/im-not-really-here-paul-lake-review

Tbh I would rather see Bobby Reid up against Adam Webster…

Just need to be careful as it starts on the Cumberland system. You are ok if you go straight underneath from Clanage Road (A369) underneath to Winterstoke Road (A3029). https://www.bristol.gov.uk/residents/streets-travel/bristols-caz/view-a-map

Even just announced on Points West!

We are clearly short of goals without Conway and to a lesser extent Weimann. To lose one would be unfortunate but to have both out injured was always going to make it difficult for us to score many goals. We also have a midfield that doesn’t score many (and didn’t either when Scott was here) so that means we are really struggling. Where we have generally improved appears to be defensively both at the back and in midfield. Despite our low scoring rate we haven’t conceded many either and yesterday was at least a clean sheet. If you don’t let the opposition score you are at least guaranteed a point. Of course, that thought of an improved defence is going to be put to the test at Leicester next weekend…

That season in League 1 under SO’D there was only one thing that kept me coming back each home game and that was JET. Worth the ticket price alone, and so many games before Christmas 2013 where he saved us with a goal out of nothing. Yes he could seem “lazy” at times but he was carrying that team until Cotterill arrived. And then Baldock suddenly found his scoring touch after Christmas and got 20 goals in the rest of the season. Met JET. at work when he did a Christmas visit to the hospital in 2013, along with some of the youngsters including Bobby Reid. Really nice guy, and really not built like a footballer, but more a back row rugby player, whereas on the pitch he had the footwork of a professional dancer. What’s amazing is that JET didn’t really make it a higher level because he had so much talent, and back in 2013 I don’t think anyone would have guessed that of all those there that day that Bobby was the one who would become a Premier League regular.