Numero Uno

Only gets a one match ban too, probably one he would have been benched for anyway.

They all look after one another tbh. These Ref's see themselves as a persecuted minority and very rarely go against their own. I can guarantee you that an assessor would have given that clown an 8-9 out of 10 last night.........guaranteed.

Having looked at it again I think you are right.

Adrian Durham Mark II.

We did it superbly well with 10 men because you obviously have to be a bit more selective and it's harder to lay traps. There was no obvious sign in terms of how the game went that we were down to 10 men for so long. We have had far worse spells of possession at home this season with 11 men. My question on last night is was it a one off or a very encouraging sign of things to come? If it's the latter I can see us getting the results we need very soon.

In our position we need players at it every week with the odd bad game thrown in. Longer term dropping of standards won't help us and that is where Bentley currently is imo. This might actually do the lad (and the club) some good in the long run.

That's football and what he has to do. He was performing well overall up to the red and our midfield was functioning which is not something that is often said when talking about us!!

I know two wrongs don't make a right but does Bentley "dominate"? Like you say we need to play the lad and find out.

I would like to see us get a bit more nasty tbh. After last night let the referee make the decisions and bollocks to all this unwritten protocol and giving the ball back. You certainly don't see Liverpool or Man City observing protocols that aren't written in the rules. And if we do put the ball out there needs to be thought about WHERE we kick the bloody thing.

We should but we all know that Nige will get the Mike Jones phone call saying "yeah, looked back at the VT and he was a bit shit to be honest, sorry about that Nige, we'll keep him away from you for a while" and that will be that.

Agreed. Different class of player obviously but imagine Keane and Scholes stood watching some Spurs player giving it the big one in front of the Stretford End for a little bit longer than they should be doing. You would literally be risking getting snapped in half or your nose ending up in a weird position relative to your face. The only problem, in defence of our players, is we had a referee last night who would have loved to brandish that red card if someone had left a bit on Austin.

The thing is he could have said **** all and some smart arse would be accusing him of just being here to pick up a wage and not giving a toss.

It's frustrating that we literally find ways of shooting ourselves in the foot but anyone who has played the game to a decent level will have made the same magnitude of mistake that King made last night and twenty years later still wouldn't be able to explain why they did it. He was a dick who was having a decent game up to that point, he's taken responsibility for it, move on.

Ignoring the fact that the way we set up last night bears no resemblance whatsoever to the way Man City set up with their "False 9" I think you make a wonderful point....................

Whatever the semantics, if Bentley was dropped because he broke rules, failed to observe protocols or whatever it is he didn't do that all the other players were able to do in line with the laid down expectations of the Management then putting him on the bench is the correct thing to do.

Following club rules has to be a given and punishments have to be consistent and what you said they would be otherwise you end up with no rules being followed and having to try and manage 22 bitches scratching each others eyes out. The fact that a very small minority (to be fair) don't understand that favourtism cannot be given and what the outcome will be if you do go down that route of allowing some to break the rules and others not is astonishing.

Apparently Pearson was unaware of any interest in Bentley (could be telling lies) and dropped him for disciplinary reasons which would be a bizarre reason to state if he was dropped due to interest from Premier League clubs. All you would have to say is "he dislocated a finger in training and whilst he's fit enough for the bench we didn't want to take a risk with him starting"......easy. So on that basis I would have to think Pearson was telling the truth.

This is where apportioning blame to single people, which everyone likes to do, is difficult. It always amazed me why we bought BOTH Palmer and Szmodics when we already had Jamie Paterson. These two signings are a perfect example of how the club have wasted tens of millions of pounds by not having a sound procurement strategy and no real playing plan. We know that Swiss was like a kid in a sweet shop and believes that Excel spreadsheets and his mates in the Agent world are the answer to player recruitment but you then have to look at Lee Johnson and can only conclude that he either approved of buying both players which you can only label as either greed or incompetence or he simply didn't have the bollocks to go above Mark Ashton and say "Steve, this **** is buying players I don't even want or need and if it carries on I'm ******* off". We can blame whoever we like but the fact is there is only one Owner over the last twenty years that has allowed his staff to piss his money up against the wall with ridiculous recruitment such as this. Of course we are all grateful for the man putting his hand in his pocket that is undeniable BUT we also know that we now support HIS club and I don't recall any supporter demanding that we sign three expensive players for one (relatively less important in the grand scheme of things) position that was sometimes filled by NONE of them.......... What is my point? Yes, it's Steve's money and he can do what he likes with it but the way he has spent it means that the club as a whole and the supporters who also pay a significant chunk of their income each year, however insignificant in the grand scheme of things, will now suffer for a number of years whilst we come out of this mess. The fan base is the most important part of a football club, everyone else comes and goes, and it is increasingly looking like the Owner may find this out the hard way.

As it should be, but isn't due to lack of squad depth, for EVERY position on the field.

Bentley is a good keeper at Championship level who, in my opinion, is not imposing enough to be a FIRST CHOICE in the league above - he's a great shot stopper who doesn't come for enough crosses and his distribution is significantly behind the levels that most Premiership Managers would expect from their Goalkeeper. It's not slating the guy, it's an honest appraisal of where he currently is. Goalkeeping is not shot stopping, end of, and to hell with everything else. You've got to be able to do everything to a good standard to play regularly for seasons on end in the Premier League. The highlighted bit, this season anyway is a bit exaggerated imo. Looking at our wins this season QPR is the game that stands out as one where Bentley's performance won us the game. There are also games where he has cost us points with late errors such as Luton and Forest. Overall I think Bentley's standards have dropped slightly from last season when there certainly were a lot more games that he single handedly earned us points and I certainly don't see him as a player that is so key to our chances of survival that he can be allowed to break rules other players have to abide by and still keep his place in the side.

Bentley is Captain Calamity on his general form this season tbh. Nothing O’Leary did cost us the points last night but if you want me to give you examples of Bentley costing us points this season there are a few. The club has rules and if only one player can’t or won’t follow them then he can go and **** himself. Entirely right call by Nige who, unlike you as a fan, has to look beyond the end of his nose and Bentley will get his place back when it is right to do so.

Well whatever these rules are if we have twenty odd pro’s following them and one Billy Big Bollocks saying “**** it, I’ll do what I want” then he has to be benched or dropped whoever and whatever he is. I think it’s an opportune time to take the captaincy away from him, a GK should hardly ever be Captain of any side imo.

I can guarantee the majority on here bawling their eyes out tonight are no different than you.

I would say don’t support them then but judging by recent posts you bought a season ticket and never go down and support do you?

Get a grip.