GrahamC

13 minutes ago, Numero Uno said:

I would imagine Lewis Thomas wants to play a few games. You can’t go seasons without playing even as a Nr 3 keeper…….albeit he was on their bench yesterday.

Has been for the last 3?

1 minute ago, Back of the Dolman said:

I know we haven’t seen him play much but Mebude isn’t a goalkeeper and that’s who we were talking about 

Apologies, I assumed it was Bajic.

15 minutes ago, Back of the Dolman said:

Then why put him on the bench at all ?????

As opposed to who?

We’ve loaned Lewis Thomas to Bromley (not exactly sure what’s going on there) & the rest of our keepers are kids.

Be amazed if we don’t sign a far more experienced back up keeper this summer.

2 minutes ago, Davefevs said:

OP - firstly we need to qualify academy players, I’m guessing you’re referring to the young ones, and discounting Vyner, Conway, Bell,Pring and O’Leary.  That is fine btw.  Personally I think we are probably gonna have a more fallow period.  Not because of LM per se, but a combo of the next batch not being ready (JKL to one to buck that) and the raised expectations of playing in the first team.

100%.

It will be very instructive when the full released list is published.

There seems an acceptance that the 21s group includes very few who will make it at Championship level.

Knight-Lebel, Palmer-Houlden & possibly Tommy Backwell are highly likely to be the only ones from that group even given a chance to do so.
 

10 minutes ago, Silvio Dante said:

Just another quick thing to add into the mix - the accepted wisdom appears to be that Burnley will want to retain him if they go down. I’d suggest that performance this season in particular would mean that isn’t a sure thing - if we’re doubting if he’s good enough for us as a middling table team, then he certainly won’t be good enough for a top six side.

I think likelihood is that he’s available come what may in the summer. And that makes it all the more important, from evidence to date, that we don’t jump into a deal.

Agree.

Think the argument they’ll be looking to keep him appears to be based on the first half of the season at Hull where he did pretty well.

As an aside I don’t think Hull particularly wanted him to go in January but the injection of funds then that enabled them to sign Carvalho, Zaroury & Giles meant he wasn’t going to be a regular.

The reason I don’t get Kasey Palmer vibes if he signs is because basically as I expect our business to be on a small scale, a 10, a striker, a reserve keeper & then only further deals if the likes of Conway or Cornick move on.

This means he (or the 10 we sign if he doesn’t join) wouldn’t be in a Szmodics, Paterson log jam for a place, we’d be effectively betting the farm on them.

My view is if Manning wants him (my hunch is he does) we make an offer & if Burnley want anything like what’s been quoted, we move on & look elsewhere.

3 minutes ago, glynriley said:

I really respect your opinion mate, you’ve been going to Ashton Gate and posting on here longer than most. But , for me, this is crisis time. Giving Manning a summer window with Tinnion calling the shots spells disaster. 
 

Without wanting to rake over old ground, we’ve got 3 or 4 blokes running the club, with no experience, or any kind of track record that says we’re going to improve on what we’re seeing now.

I said in the week, we always put in a 5 star performance when the season is over and done, today, up against a team fighting for their future, we came up short again. 
 

I look at the players we brought in in January and square that against the players likely to leave, and I only see a struggle next season. 

Fair enough, respect your opinion too.

This is going to sound like I’m sitting on the fence but personally I’m not sure of that (bar the Tinnion bit).

At present, Weimann aside, we don’t know who’s leaving this summer & won’t know who is arriving for some while.

January was odd, Bird looks like a decent signing on paper, Mebude however is totally baffling & Twine certainly has the pedigree but has been 6/10 so far, no guarantee that he’ll be here by then, of course.

Murphy is still only 19 so even if he was fit (which he’s clearly not) I doubt he’d be much more than a sub, Stokes is very similar.

If James does leave I’ll be disappointed, though would accept that if that’s his decision then it’s a slightly different story.

Clearly there will be a “transfer fee” Burnley paid £4m for him, they aren’t giving him away.

I think he’s done ok but certainly wouldn’t pay anything like the amount that’s being quoted.

Let’s see how the summer unfolds, my guess is he’ll start next season as our player, time will tell.

44 minutes ago, George Rs said:

I would’ve liked JKL to get more game time this season as well don’t get me wrong.

But there’s an obvious difference between the cardiff game in october and today. One we lost 2-0 and the other we drew 1-1. 

Obviously there are various other factors, on paper Cardiff probably have a better team, Huddersfield have a lot more to play for etc. But to call it the wrong decision in comparison to a game where we lost doesn’t make any sense to me? 

I’ll also add that today’s game was massive for them.

Reckon if we’d faced already relegated Rotherham today Knight-Lebel would have started.

Bit odd really.

Firstly we had Wells & Mehmeti stripped off to come on at the same time but then decided at the last minute only to bring on Nakhi, meaning we used 2 of our 3 sub opportunities when Anis came on a few minutes later.

Next Bajic spent virtually the whole of the second half in the tunnel area stripped off & warming up.

It was weird that as time ticked away we didn’t make that 3rd change.

Worked out ok in the end but was baffling.

5 minutes ago, Back of the Dolman said:

The ref agreed with you and that’s good enough for me.

And let’s be honest if Huddersfield hadn’t spent so much time feigning injury and trying to break up the play then the game would have already finished.

For that reason I have no sympathy for them 

Spot on.

They also thought it was smart to make a time wasting sub in injury time after that bloke spent about 90 seconds down “injured”.

Only seen it once & looked a handball but as you say, we wouldn’t have been playing then if they hadn’t wasted time repeatedly.

37 minutes ago, redkev said:

The so called best fans in the world left on mass when Atalanta scored there 3rd Thursday night 

were no different 

To be fair loads of them had to get back to the Home Counties.

1 hour ago, Davefevs said:

@GrahamC

Burgzorg

Mixed bag, pathetic dive to try & win a penalty but it stuck to him, he certainly looked to pass to a team mate if they were in a better position (TC didn’t) & whilst he wasn’t a massive goal threat, as I said to you this morning, he’s the type we need.

Like Koroma too, who often scores against us.

These are low budget options & unlike say a punt on a lad from Ligue 2 or Belgium, at least they have experience of the league.

31 minutes ago, Dolman Exile said:

Before Christmas, Leicester beat teams on reputation.

Then everyone realised they weren't that good.

Funny how their manager hasn't been shortlisted for Championship Manager of the Season - a Sunday League manager would have been expected to get this squad promoted. The bloke's a fraud! 

Certainly no Liam Rosenior..

5 minutes ago, phantom said:

Is this the first game we've had officiated by a female referee?

Yes.

Forest Green’s spending is ridiculous.

8 hours ago, TDarwall said:

1). Rob Dickie

2). Dick Robbie

3). Bob Dickie

4). Richard Robbie

5). The centre half we signed from QPR.

Can't see past the big man. However, I wonder if this time next year my top 2 will be Hayden Roberts & Robert Haydon's - think he's really going to shine in 24/25.

Certainly been impressive in the last few games & I keep forgetting that he’s still only 21, so as you say he’s certainly got a bright future.

Beyond Dickie it is actually harder to pick 5 than it should be.

Max’s form & his 100% availability (at a time when we have no senior cover) puts him in it, Knight has also played in every game & has Weimann like fitness levels, Tanner, Vyner, Pring & James all have made decent contributions & Sykes too has done ok (though arguably not quite as well as his first season), Williams has greatly improved his availability & had decent spells.

It is striking how bar Sykes all of these players are either defenders or more defensively minded midfielders & clearly shows where we all know we’re badly lacking as a squad.

Not at his best night, but for a squad that basically relies on the same 17 players to play in all the games, he’s been a decent contributor this season.

Certainly should have scored from Twine’s sublime pass, but if he was going to pick a game to miss a sitter then one we win 5-0 is a decent choice.

8 hours ago, Northern Red said:

"Slapped someone up"

 

Struggled to pick that up, seeing as he has such a strong Scottish accent..

3 minutes ago, BigRobsBiggestFan said:

Don’t take it as gospel but I think he was caught on video taking the mick out of disabled people? Pretty sure his brother is a prem ref as well

Think that’s right.

8 hours ago, Fpcity said:

I worked with him about 20 years ago, knew he wasn't all there! 

So he’s of an age where he’s been working for over 20 years & he’s on his own…

Can’t possibly think why.

I assumed it was a teenager’s bedroom.

7 hours ago, AppyDAZE said:

Did he play tonight?

I never noticed him.

One calm interception to a ball over Vyner & certainly stopped their giant number 9 from scoring from a wicked cross.

We would certainly have noticed if he hadn’t played..

42 minutes ago, Super said:

He took an age to give the first pen! He was excellent.

Which was excellent.

He thought about it & made the right decision, loads jump in & give it straight away & are wrong (Ipswich away).

6 hours ago, Olé said:

Absolutely nothing to do with the penalties, one of the best refs I've seen in a long time - was so consistent in how he judged things and always tried to let play go and only bring it back if the advantage wasn't there. Was never too fussy, cards were a last resort, and didn't want to be centre of attention. Looked like a normal bloke too rather than a failed footballer with an ego. More refs with this approach please.

Spot on.

Didn’t he leave the game & come back down the leagues after some disciplinary issue?

Clearly a class above & is an actual Prem ref, not like some who are.

1 hour ago, Northern Red said:

I assume there must be some financial penalty if we don't name him in the matchday squad, because there's more chance of Bajic coming on as an outfield player than him kicking another ball for us.

Based on the QPR game I’d prefer it if he did..

Let’s face it, if you don’t come on when we’re 4 up with 5 minutes to play, you’re not coming on at all.

Completely off topic but delighted Knight-Lebel got those minutes instead & convinced that might have been done to give Andy King a last few minutes at the Gate too.