GrahamC

He’ll be 32 when next season starts. Be good to have Conway back, although he suffered his own goal drought earlier this season him & Wells are by far our best natural finishers. Unless we move someone on (& Cornick has only just arrived) I can’t see us adding another striker this summer with Conway, Wells, Bell, Cornick & Weimann all under contract for 23/24.

Strange how we see it differently, one poor pass aside I thought he was excellent. Won a lot in the air, always available to receive the ball & so obviously the defensive organiser in a young back line. All about opinions but James was clear MoM for me, 9/10 especially after being trodden on first half & looking to battle through it. Still underrated.

That involves all of the bottom 3 winning 7 of their last 11, or winning 6, drawing 3 & only losing two more games. If you still thinks that he knows even less than I think. Huddersfield’s run in looks brutal, their next 4 are West Brom away, Norwich home, Millwall away, Boro home. Good luck with getting 53 points after that run of games, sadly think Cardiff are going to stay up now.

Good summary. Interesting that Pearson said afterwards he didn’t expect King to last the 90 but “he had to”, which suggests to me he thought this wasn’t the right time & place to bring on Taylor-Clarke for a league debut. Going to have to use him soon, possibly on Saturday.

Reckon Sam Frost still thinks they’ll make it.

No idea. Also think tonight’s point might well be the one that made us mathematically safe when the season ends, can’t see any of the bottom three gaining 14 more points. Most important thing was they didn’t close the gap on us.

Spot on. I thought he did really well but was labouring badly by the end, look at the other subs left, none had ever started a league game for us. Did a useful job tonight when we were very short on numbers. Matty James MoM by a mile for me.

Probably doesn’t help that every time he gets the ball Hogg kicks him. Harsh on Bell, it was great movement & a split second decision.

10 is probably an underestimate. Know what you’re getting with Warnock. The ball is rarely in play, his team commits foul and foul and plays the percentages. Prehistoric shit.

I find them pathetic but their argument would be that it works. They are a pretty small club in truth but have either been in the Prem or in receipt of parachute payments in our division for many years now. Like Reading everything about them screams blandness but along with their highly dubious trading history with Udinese, they couldn’t care less how it looks from the outside.

Don’t know enough about Buse to comment but think the others are nailed on to go & believe that Morton has already effectively left anyway. Idehen is an odd one, Grimsby fans reckon it was the change of manager & their relegation to non league that did for him & he was ok. He then had a couple of sub appearances for us late last season where he let no one down, but whether it was by acting Mr Big Time or not, it’s all gone badly wrong for him since. His loan spell at Carlisle (fresh start, other end of the country) saw him dropped from the bench pretty quickly, which even if you could understand him not getting in a side going really well, is a bad sign. Just can’t see a way back for him if he isn’t involved at a time like this.

Think with a year left on his contract we’ll be having a conversation with him this summer about what he wants to do. With only 1 natural central defender fit, he doesn’t even make the bench tonight. Just like Sam Pearson, his time with us is up.

Leaving aside the media obsessing over Warnock it must be a perplexing season if you’ve a Huddersfield fan. Play off final last year, when they certainly got the rough end of a few penalty shouts, Corberan quits over budget cuts, so appoint his assistant (that sounds familiar), it doesn’t work, sack him early & go back to the route under Wagner of someone coaching in Germany, then sack him too & appoint a bloke who is 74. From the outside a club that looked well run when they got to the Prem on a low budget seems to have completely taken leave of their senses. Whatever happens tonight (& my hunch is an odd goal defeat) they look a mess & so no wonder the atmosphere up there is “strange”.

Every day of the week, mind you would have on Saturday, as well. Expect us to line up; O’Leary Tanner Vyner Pring Dasilva James Scott Weimann Sykes Wells Mehmeti With 2 gaps on the bench I’d expect Wilson & Francois to join Haikin, King, Cornick, Bell & Taylor-Clarke.

Mine as well. I am intrigued by those suddenly saying we should be bringing on King, who is a back up at best these days & probably only on the bench at all because of our injuries & otherwise it would be a lot of kids. Weimann was a more logical choice to me, had it been for the last 15 & we were holding on to a lead or for a point, then King would have been the better option. Said before the game I was surprised Bell started over Wells or Cornick but certainly don’t want to give the impression it was solely down to this but even with limited options tomorrow I hope at least one of those 2 starts.

You didn’t read my post at all, did you? You don’t think we will get at least 6 more points from the 36 that are available? Ok then.

1 start, plus 5 second half sub appearances. Let’s write him off now, shall we?

Nine points? The bottom three have 31, 32, 32 respectively. None of them have won more than 8 games all season out of the 34 or 35 they’ve played, yet you reckon they are all going to suddenly average 2 points a game (which is top two form) from here on in? Blackpool have only won once since October, FFS. We probably don’t even need 6 more points, this stuff is trotted out every year but is completely unrealistic, like the playoffs nonsense spouted last week.

Not sure what message it would send to Wells & Cornick but personally I’d much rather he did so than Bell, who simply doesn’t have the physicality to do the job against the type of defenders Cardiff & Huddersfield have.

Up until yesterday he’d been in all bar one of them in the league, he only wasn’t for Birmingham away, but might have been suspended? Whatever, 33/34 isn’t exactly injury prone, especially when based on his first year with us, is it?

Sure is, which is why I was very deliberate in saying Towler would only have been an option had the injuries all occurred in January (they didn’t) & if we had still failed to get someone in. Still it does remind me why I had put one of these posters on ignore..

Think Conway could be back sooner, Pearson said he was back in training last week & was having to manage his desire to play. Also said Naismith “could” be back before the international break, but definitely after it.

Just to start by stating the blindingly obvious, we are very short there at present & I’m assuming that Kalas’ injury could well be one that makes him unavailable for some while. Thought it is worth putting the situation with some of the possible options we had up until now in context though. Firstly Joe Low (no, he can’t be recalled) but he also isn’t starting in L2 for Walsall, losing his place a couple of games ago & been on the bench of late. Secondly Ryley Towler, I must admit I was surprised that we sold him & he has clearly started well at Pompey. I also think if the Naismith & Kalas injuries had been in January & we hadn’t got someone in we would have recalled him but it didn’t happen like that & he’s gone for good so we have to move on. Duncan Idehen had a terrible loan at Carlisle where he struggled to even make the bench at times, the fact he couldn’t make a 9 man subs bench v Man City suggests he is completely out of favour & if he doesn’t do so this week with so many defenders currently out, I can’t see a way back for him here. Finally the Palace lad O’Brien, currently playing in the Belgian Second division (!) & whose only other first team experience was in L2, if we’d signed him he would obviously be involved at present but that would have been some step up in standard. Pearson said last week that Naismith “could” be back before the international break which suggests Swansea is possible, for me Pring has to do a job there for the next few (Dasilva is also by a mile the best option to come in of those not currently in the side) & we have to try & eke out a few results in the meantime. Won’t happen but worth bearing this in mind when judging those performances.

Yep.

Williams is under contract for next season so we won’t be “getting rid”. Incidentally he’s also featured in 30 of our 34 league games this season, that’s hardly poor. Rennie has incrementally increased his availability in both seasons since joining. Think Kalas is highly unlikely to get another offer after today.