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A selection mistake said with the benefit of hindsight for that one specific game which had no bearing on our season. Bell had played over an hour at RWB in the home win over Boro and did OK, so I could understand his selection for Birmingham. He hasn’t been selected in that position since. Given the injuries and small squad we have, having players who can play more than one position is very useful.

And Scholes was better than both of them IMO.

As and when NP does leave, ask yourself what structure will be left behind? SL has done nothing to appoint sporting director, the recruitment team has stood still, and we’ll need a whole new medical and coaching team once again. We’ll be in a better place on the pitch, but I bet managers wouldn’t be queueing up to join the Mary Celeste. At the very least, SL’s had a golden opportunity to tap into NP’s experience and structure the football club from the ground up. Instead, he uses him like a firefighter. Not much will change on the pitch while the Lansdowns are involved IMO. As ever, I’m content with this season as it’s been bang on with my lowly expectations given the constraints. It’s not been perfect but it not been the disaster many doom merchants make it out to be either.

On what I’ve seen so far, Cundy’s worth a new two-year deal with the option of a third. He’s got the attributes, desire and crucially the right attitude to succeed at this level, and should develop further with more experience.

AFCB annoy me. Historically, a yo-yo club between L1 and L2 in much the same way as the likes of Crewe, Stockport or Port Vale. A small club that punches well above their weight due to foreign money. I’m not expecting anything out of today, but it also wouldn’t surprise me at all if this is one of the games we turn up in. COYR.

World rankings are a load of guff. France are probably the pick, but England have as good a chance as anybody. I hope the Ukraine qualify for our group. Not for political reasons, but to avoid being dragged into a dour game against the Scots or the Welsh. As ever in recent times, Southgate will probably prove to be our undoing.

I don’t know anything about our women’s team. Anyone know who their POTY is?

Long live The 100! Makes my piss boil.

I don’t feel sorry for him at all, he’s a shit captain. How many times can he come out and say “we’ll learn from this … it’s a new era for England cricket… blah blah blah”. This is the worst England side in my time. Root’s a great batsman playing in an abysmal era of Test cricket. He wouldn’t have got the runs he got against the attacks of Australia, the Windies or SA in the 80s or 90s, and I wonder how the likes of Atherton, Ramprakash or Bell would’ve fared if they were in their primes today. They’d have hung around for longer at the very least.

Just when you think things can’t get any worse with this Test team of ours… abject

Overton’s bowled like a drain, too. Not anywhere near good enough for Tests.

Good to see a pitch offering something for the bowlers, although a shame to see our batsmen showing the familiar poor shot selection or lack of technique. And there goes Stokes, short ball again.

I don’t know why you think he’s underperforming, but that boils down to your own expectations for this season. For me, anything above the bottom three would be a good season because I understand the imbalance of the squad, it’s inexperience, the shoestring budget he’s working with, plus the fact he’s tasked with overseeing the club’s entire football operation because SL won’t appoint any form of sporting director/director of football or head scout to help him shoulder this load. For those reasons, I think he’s exceeding my expectations and he deserves time to try and stop the rot IMO. In times of adversity like these, the club needs our support and patience more than ever. We’ve seen similar rebuilds take place in L1, it’s a pleasant change to see us doing that now in the league above.

Get rid. COD’s one the players we can actually release without having to pay them off. Best for all parties if he goes.

Good post. This is also the elephant in the room for me, too. It’s not like a transfer window is stopping SL from hiring a sporting director, head of recruitment etc. That appointment could’ve been made at any time and should’ve been done last summer, but still nothing. A reoccurring theme with SL, which is also a major blind spot, is that he tends to put all his eggs in one basket as he did it with Ashton. I struggle to recall a manager having to carry the weight Pearson has on his shoulders. We have no structure off the pitch and with finances as tight as they are, we need to get every signing right this summer and ideally in as early as possible.

That’s a different argument to the lack of experience/quality on the bench, though. I actually agree with your point, but maybe he thought bringing one of those lads on was too much of a risk? Who knows. It’s gone, it’s a good point. One swallow doesn’t make a summer for me. If the players can’t motivate themselves to play against of the league’s big boys then they won’t be here much longer. They did today; the challenge is to do it consistently and cut out the errors.

You’re usually a pretty reasonable poster, but you’re spouting shit here. What alternatives to Owers, Conway or Bell were there today? None. If you think today was shit, you don’t have a clue.

What absolute shit. Look at our bench today. People slagged of O’Leary, Vyner is shit and will be gone in the summer, Bell got hanged the last time he played, Conway hasn’t played all season, Benarous maybe if played wide, and Owers would’ve been a debutant. Wells — the only experienced played we had on the bench by the way — made an impact. It wouldn’t be much of gamble, we’d have been slaughtered in all probability in which case NP would still get hammered. We got a good point today, which as disappointing as the late goal was, was probably a fair reflection against a side with a bigger budget and genuine promotion aspirations.

SL has to back him in the summer IMO or we will be in real trouble next year. The current squad has some experience, plenty learning their trade and some who simply aren’t up to it. The most important signing we could make is a sporting director or head of recruitment, otherwise I don’t think it matters who’s in charge. The same issues will preside. If he’s backed, he gets until the November IMO to show some real progress. If he’s not backed, I think he might walk and I wouldn’t blame him. The Lansdowns should go with him. EDIT: And I think it’s a bizarre question to ask after a good performance today.

Good performance on the whole today and we got more from the game than I thought we would. Weimann’s finish was class and worthy of winning any game. Gutted by the last-minute goal, but at least it wasn’t predictable.

I’m not optimistic today, although the way this season’s gone I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we got a positive result. At least the XI makes sense with the players we have available.

If you get there before 1.30, there’s usually free parking on the grass verge off the slip road toward the LA P&R. Limited spaces, mind. It is mental that the P&R isn’t used on matchdays. I won’t pay £10 a game to park anywhere out of principle.

The Pied Piper is my NAP of the day. He was the most impressive winner I saw on Trials Day at the end of January. SkyBet are doing money back if it comes in the top five, so it’s a free bet to nothing IMO.

I loved watching us in Galle in 2018, I even bumped into your brother in a bar in Unawatuna! But I agree with you that Mumbai was probably better because it wasn’t a ‘tourist trap’ like Barbados, Melbourne, Cape Town or Galle. Good to enjoy a few beers with you out in Mumbai back then, too!

I was out in Barbados in 2009 and they said there were 15k of us, which was mad. Great place to watch cricket, but the pitches are graveyards for bowlers. That game ended in a draw, much like I expect this one to. Still, it’s a great chance for us to get at least 500 on the board for the first time in what feels like years.