Northern Red

Little bit surprised that Saville isn't in the squad. Though with Wilbs back on the bench someone needed to make way.

Fielding, Little, Bryan, Ayling, Flint, Williams, K.Smith, Pack, Freeman, M.Smith, Agard. subs: Richards, Cunningham, Tavernier, Elliott, Wagstaff, Emmanuel-Thomas, Wilbraham.

Man up you bunch of girls. Same position as we were in 2 hours ago, 1 less game to go.

Get In!

I thought Cotts called it pretty spot on, we weren't particularly good tonight and perhaps Sunday took more out of them than people might think. Had Gillingham scored a 2nd when they were on top from 30-60 mins then it could have got very nervy, as our intensity and rhythm had totally gone at that point. The Smith injury stoppage was actually a blessing in disguise, as it gave us a few minutes to regroup and we looked a lot more comfortable after that and saw the game out with few alarms, if anything looking the far more likely side to score.

That's exactly it, and it's why people get so frustrated when he looks like he can't be arsed.

I might have missed it, but when did Reid come back? I thought his loan had been extended.

Agreed, and me and the rest of our group said as much during the game. The ref was inept, but we didn't deal with it very well. Far too much time spent arguing with him when it was obvious to everyone that he wasn't going to give us anything. We're going to get refs like that occasionally, as every team does, and we've got to cope better with it.

Come on son, I know it's the weekend so you get to stay up late and all, but you really should be in bed by now. P.S. Try not to shag your sister this time.

Can't agree sorry, Rich has been on here for 10 years if not longer, and has always come across as very fair, honest and non-confrontational. He has to, as he's married to a City fan

Some on here need to give their heads a serious wobble.

Given the shambolic way this club is run from the top downwards, it really wouldn't surprise me at all if they'd only just twigged a couple of days ago that everyone else was playing on the Friday except us.

Actually wouldn't surprise me.

Isn't it amazing how the club continually manage to shoot themselves in the foot? Having last week received much praise from fans for what appears to be a well-thought out, effective plan for organising ST renewals whilst the AG redevelopment is going on, they then revert to type with this. I'd like to say I'm surprised but I'm really not. I was planning to be there on the Saturday as I'm down visiting family for the weekend, can't go now as I can't get down on Friday. Luckily I haven't bought a ticket yet. I particularly feel sorry for the Notts County fans, though I suspect they're just as angry at their own club.

Obviously going for a repeat of the "if the fans can't work out the formation then hopefully the opposition won't either" approach. To be fair it worked against Orient.

More than it reasonably should do. 3 and a half year contract FFS. Didn't want him appointed, and he's done almost nothing since to convince me that he knows what he's doing.

Maybe that's what he's going for, a cunning plan to confuse the opposition....

He was okay, but no better than that. Some nice passes but gave the ball away cheaply on a few occasions too. Marv was having a very good game until he had to go off.

Just back home now. A well-earned point in horrible conditions. Oldham might feel hard done by if we'd nicked all 3, but we slightly edged it in terms of chances and never really looked like losing the game either. The defence looked a lot more solid in a flat 4. Flint in particular was excellent, and El Abd had a good game too. I hadn't seen him in the flesh before today but the comments from those who had were that it was his best game for us by some distance. Williams looked a bit out of place at left back, he defended well enough but certainly didn't provide as much threat going forward as Cunningham does. I'd have to see the goal we conceded again, but from my angle I thought Moore could have got nearer to it. Other than that he looked very solid, didn't have too many saves to make but much more commanding of his area than Parish. That said, the goal could have been prevented if we'd attempted to close their player down. Going forward we created a few chances but nothing really clear cut, and I can't recall their keeper making a save of note. Barnett holds it up well, but seemed a bit lazy when we didn't have the ball. Burns was very lively but we didn't get the ball to him enough, especially in the 2nd half. The midfield were a mixed bag, some nice passing and battling tackles, but also a hell of a lot of squandered possesion. In isolation, that's a decent result. Unfortunately we really need to start winning these types of games and bar the odd moment, we didn't look that likely to do so today. If he sticks with 4 at the back, then I'd be confident we can pick up enough points at home to be alright. It was 4-3-3 today and it looked solid for the most part, the problem is how you get JET into that formation. He came on for Burns on the right of the front 3 but didn't look entirely comfortable there.

Balls

Reid shoots over from 6 yards after a City counter attack

Are there any Watford fans there?

City fans sound in fine voice

Let's not be too harsh. It's the first post I've ever seen from him that's even remotely positive, despite the SO'D dig.