Interesting team line up today. Stronger team than I anticipated, so hopefully, and as it seems, PL is going for the win. Although find it odd that Norwood isn't starting, seeing as hes banned for next week. I'm going for a 1-2 victory, Keane n Wolfy with the goals
Promising 1st half, fresh mid-field play, going forward. Maybe bring Norwood on for last 20, bag a win. COYBs
Goal!! 1st shot, and we score. Now lets hold on, and take this thru. Big morale booster before Xmas period if we do take this.
I feel we have a new young captain, young Downes, driving them on from the middle. Time for a change, maybe, and let Chambo play bit parts. Thoughts anyone?
Downes seems to be thriving on the responsibility,would love to think we could hold onto him in the mid to long term.
Oh well, better than losing. And at least we take them back to ours, and a chance on Saturday to seek some kind of revenge
We now have 4 matches in 11 days, gonna be stretched, a real danger of all our wheels coming off. Crunch L1 games, extra Cup match - how often do you get to play same opposition 3 times in a week?!
It’s worrying that the management didn’t foresee this when they jumped at cancelling games during International week,lots of us on here were concerned about a possible backlog of games
As Big Al has alluded to, a few of us were questioning the wisdom of continuously postponing games over the international break, particularly when we were on a run of good form. We seem to have stumbled through recent weeks, not looking particularly fluid or dangerous despite, presumably, more minutes on the training ground. People at the club surely recognised that the festive period is naturally a busy time in football, and that progression through the cup rounds were inevitably going to lead the more fixtures. One win in the last six games, spread over three odd weeks, has resulted in a rather strange feeling around the club. We're scraping through games and lacking attacking initiative. We've been taking leads in games recently and look unable to push on to get the crucial second (see the Blackpool and Coventry games). Norwood appears to have gone off the boil and is demonstrably struggling. Jackson is full of hard running, but little end product - just like his wretched Championship form. We struggle to create much during games, surely not helped by our persistence in starting the likes of Chambers, Wilson, and Skuse at the spine of our squad - who are slow, safety-first players. Injuries have once again rocked the squad, which should surely lead to some introspection within the club at how we handle fitness and what the causes are of this frequent 'misfortune' with injuries. We're second in the table and we have only lost four times in 25 games, in all competitions. So why am I looking at the upcoming fixtures and thinking we're in for a bit of a rough time? It feels like we need to invest in the squad this January and get a bit of firepower and proven quality through the doors, but I've got no trust in Evans opening his wallet for new signings.
Good summary my friends. As I say, I am anxious about all wheels coming off next 2 weeks. It has been a strange period indeed,flatlining, eeking out our thin resources. Hand in pocket time Evans! Fresh blood and real attacking power to enable us to,well, power on to promotion.
One thing I hadn’t really thought about was the TV and gate money. We would certainly be millions better off as a club had we taken the FA Cup more seriously. We have a draw that hands us a fourth round tie if we play to our ability and we need to catch up at the top of the league because psychologically it makes a huge difference. Let’s have a great December and then it’s over to Evans to back Lambert with a marquee signing in the window.
To be honest gaffer, if he couldn't,t put his hand in his pocket last Jan to avoid the inevitable, I hardly think he will do it this time
There is absolutely no chance of getting players in...unless we get further long term injuries, or we sell/return loanees. With Keane getting fitter, and Sears due back soon, he'll believe they will be good enough to get us the goals. The only position, may be RB, if KVY will be out for longer than anticipated.