Numero Uno

I think that was probably meant in a positive manner rather than an ultimatum.

Agreed, unless there is a tactical master stroke that can change this game it’s about keeping this 1-0 and throw a bit of caution to the wind in the last 15.

?

What Nige is doing, hook him.

It did but not enough of one to prevent that being saved imo.

Peterborough a goal down.

We’ll agree to disagree. Looks like Nige got it wrong too then.

Defending, as you know, is about snuffing out the threat that presents itself in front of you, not sticking rigidly to your man, strutting around like a peacock afterwards because you "did your job" and sod the consequences to the team................that's not what I'm saying Sam Bell did btw.

Bell has his man but he has to spot that Benarous has lost his, THE BIGGER THREAT, and thus come off his own man and cover the threat. If Bell's original man then scores that's not his fault. Like I said, it's not a witch hunt against a young kid who did very well bar that one moment. It's just a reflection that he has no experience as a full back and it showed, that's all.

With respect I don't need pictures as I attend the game. The first person I looked at in real time was Bell and funnily enough so did Kalas. Then afterwards you have the Manager taking responsibility for playing a player out of position which led to the goal. Benarous wasn't played out of position last night.

That's all true but at the end of it all once Bell sees the lad moving into that space he has to cover, whether the problem is caused by Benarous or not. You can't stand there and watch the lad drift in to the space and score saying "yeah, but I'm marking my man". That's not a criticism of Sam Bell, just a fact that George Tanner for example would have covered that off regardless of fault.

Exactly. The full back has to sniff danger and if you play a 19 year old Forward at Full Back in his third full game as a pro footballer (for the right reasons, you could see what NP was trying to do) that is the risk you take. It didn't work last night but Sam Bell will be a more rounded player for it. Move on................

I'd go in two footed on a couple of the older ones and then fine the parents £15K for pitch encroachment.................that would sort it out.

What I want to know is why hasn't the Football Ombudsman kicked that charlatan ******* arse out of football by now? Shouldn't be anywhere near the game................and that's not an exaggeration either.

How many Managers in recent times would take responsibility for their first goal? We all know what happened and who should have been covering (if Danny Simpson had been playing he would have been on the cover but that doesn't improve a young player into a Championship footballer moving forwards). I can think of at least one Manager who would have been saying "Sam's got to do better there".

Sort of proves a point. You can't rely on kids per se (i.e. 9 of them in the starting 11) but if you play the right ones you end up with very good players around three years earlier than you otherwise would have. Alex Scott will be a semi-established Championship player come August. This is where I don't understand the tiny minority that label Pearson a dinosaur when we lose (well, it's one ******** in particular) - how many dinosaur managers would give youngsters a game like Pearson does - regardless of what is available to him.

See above!!

That’s the improvement that Nige has made, we have a genuine goal threat in us now. Go back four months and I couldn’t see that coming tbh. The defensive aspect is a longer term and more ingrained issue unfortunately although the signing of Klose is making some inroads into that. You look at their goal, we weren’t disorganised when the corner came in but two players (Kalas in particular and Cundy) might have done a bit more to stop it. I do agree that we have one big win in us.

I read that as sticking up for LJ not banter?

I actually meant Massengo not Semenyo would have topped the running stats yesterday which is why that change was being considered…..

That was meant to say Massengo.

Ideally you want a man on the blocker to do the job of "unblocking" just as the corner is taken although pro refs are probably wise to that and also the defending of corners seems to be so bloody scientific these days that there probably isn't scope to give the goalkeeper an "unblocker" even though it would leave teams in a better goals conceded situation over the course of a season imo..................

Semenyo had to do a lot of chasing around yesterday. I would be willing to bet that his running stats were the highest in the side yesterday by a distance. I would guess that's why Nige was considering the change. It's fair to have a pop at Massengo for that mistake at the end and a couple of our lads did for no other reason than we are brittle (you want them to see the psychologist so know that better than anybody) and he needs to play with that ruthless mentality that helps us see out the game that both increases the confidence and reduces the brittleness. The fact he is now showing everyone what he can do on a regular basis makes it even more frustrating that he should be so daft at the end imo...............I think Klose and Weimann felt similarly!!

You can taste the disappointment............