Eddie

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 Now you’ve done it. Don’t be bringing that foreign muck into it

I’m not sure it is management instruction, we go long plenty of times. We were in panic mode, Toal had played the ball back to him when Blackpool had their tails up and were pressing hard. Sheehan offered but was clearly marked but Toal never made the angle out to the right for an easy ball for Bonham - it was really poor from Toal. Bonham went to play it to Sheehan and stopped himself, seeing the danger, but then with no other option and the ball stuck under his feet so he couldn’t easily launch it (although it would have still been his best option) he had a brain fart and chose the Sheehan option. It was an example of us losing our minds when a bit of pressure is applied and was just a continuation of the game from the moment we scored - and our captain was key flapper at this point. Not trying to shift blame from Bonham, he made a bad decision under pressure, but it was indicative of the head loss and lack of composure all over the pitch.

Forget the lads on loan bit, we’d get some more, but the thought of being in this league again this year alone is thoroughly depressing. Pure blind optimism has it in my head that we’ll be in the championship next year - up until a few weeks ago that was backed by still catching autos, now it’s only going to be achieved by winning the play offs and that doesn’t seem anywhere near as likely when you look who we’re going to be in there with.

I’m not making an overall judgement on Apter, there have been too many of those, even this season, where it’s proven daft to come to a conclusion after a few games (Dalby). However, I don’t think Apter has played particularly well so far and I didn’t think he had a great game today. It just doesn’t seem to have ‘clicked’ for him yet - he’s been pretty wasteful. Feels like he just needs to get a goal or something and he’ll show what he can really do, but I’d have had him off earlier today.

We said exactly this. We don’t know how to lead a game - it had been front foot for 65 mins, we score and literally instantaneously we went into our shell. From the kick off, the launched it down our left, we messed about with it and they had a corner - it set the tone and we never recovered. We absolutely shit ourselves with a lead, there is no coincidence that we don’t win by more than 1 goal because as soon as we score we have a whole change in mentality. As much as that is on the players - SS has to take a lot of stick for it too. You can see it right in front of you, don’t be so fucking naive. Slow the game down, make some subs, tell Bonham to go down ‘injured’, reset. Other teams do it, why can’t we? Instead we’ve got Bonham getting hold of it after a frantic bit of play and then firing long balls out as quickly as he can, they go nowhere, we’re out of shape and it’s all hands on deck again. Fucking stupid, naive, lack of leadership headless chickens. There were positives in the game (Burstow scoring again and Gale actually looking like he gives a shit), but it’s all overshadowed by us finding a way to not win a game, again. One thing is does do is firmly put any idea of automatics out of our mind, so we’re not going to go into the play offs disappointed at missing out as it won’t have been a thing in the last 12 games. But it’s just infuriating and like Groundhog Day this season.

Only caught the last 10 minutes of that half. Cardiff score a quality 2nd out of nowhere, then their centre back elbows the Plymouth forward off the ball - ref hasn’t a clue, speaks to his liner who bottles it and they go for a yellow. It’s an obvious red but not only have they got away with it for this game, I think the yellow means he can’t get a retrospective 3 game ban? Madness from the centre back, there was absolutely no need for it.

3-0 Bolton. Evatt overcomplicates it and gifts us at least 1 of the goals. Super Sam Dalby grabs another header. RR gets one. Got a sneaky feeling that Mansfield beat Lincoln today. Nothing to back it up and before all the realists, part time Lincoln fans, come on to tell me it’s a load of rubbish because they’re world class, let me just have some Saturday morning optimism. 5 point gap by the end of the day and a 4 goal swing in goal difference.

Good reason to watch it again!

I’m 40 minutes in and can’t stop smiling. Growing up with this era as my teenage years was fucking amazing

All points valid and I’m not suggesting our away record is great; however, if you’re trying to find a positive, our more recent away form has definitely seen improvement - unbeaten in 5 with 2 wins and 3 draws, against a broad range of difficulty. 1.8ppg - albeit a smaller sample size

It wouldn’t surprise me if we got 19 points in those next 8 games (would be a hell of a run but reasonable when you go game by game). Being realistic, I think Lincoln probably pick up 15 over the same period (including their game in hand). If that were the case then we’re 4 points behind with 5 to go and on paper our 5 are far harder than theirs. It’s play offs for me, but I think we’ve got the chance to at least put pressure on due to how the fixtures fall and then who knows? Worst comes to worst we go into the play offs in decent form.

I reckon Luton take that spot, the other 3 staying as we as is (albeit maybe in a different order).

Blackett Taylor at the back post late in the second half, Apter’s chance which he made for himself, plus our goal.

They sat in a bank of 5 with 3 in front. They went down at any point, took minutes at a time out of the game, took ages over every throw and goal kick - it really wasn’t as easy as just making shed loads of chances. I’m not saying we were perfect but the issue was our delivery from wide when we did work an opening rather than an issue with the ‘10’ (as Gonzo says, we had 2 strikers, not a 10 yesterday). We had enough chances to win 3 games yesterday, as has been the case too often we just didn’t take them.

Defender shouldn’t have thrown himself to the floor to try and win a free kick when Kenny got slightly close to him. I don’t wish anyone ill-harm, especially if it was teeth knocked out, but if he’d have just dealt with it like a defender rather than acting like a South American striker then he wouldn’t have ended up in a mess. From where I was, there was zero malice - you could maybe argue that Kenny shouldn’t have tried to kick the ball but the whistle hadn’t blown and he clearly didn’t think he’d fouled him so was trying to play on.

The way their players were searching the pitch where he was lay, I’d assumed that he’d lost a tooth or two. No idea if he did or not but there were a few of them looking round as though they were looking for something.

The season of ‘if’. If Kenny scores when through one on one (he’d looked a class above with his finishing in the warm up in front of us - I wouldn’t have wanted another player in that position for us). If Apter connects with an easy chance. If Dalby’s header goes the other side of the post. If they don’t score a great goal with their only attack … then we win a game that we dominated away at a team bang in form. But we didn’t, again. It felt like one of those early season away games. Performance was good, we were by far the better team, Reading were using every trick in the book to stop us (there was a good 20-25 min spell from where Marriott tactically went down ‘injured’ because he knew he was going off where there was hardly any football played) and in the end we managed to break through but only to get the point when we deserved all 3 - was it Orient where ACD scored the last minute equaliser, felt like that again. It just feels like luck is against us. We’ve brought in better players, we’ve switched the whole attacking unit and still we have the same problems - even to the point that every bounce of the ball seems to go against us, we’ve only had 1 penalty etc etc.. It’s hard to watch that last night and be critical because “on another day” we win it comfortably. Specific points on the game: - I’m not GJ’s biggest fan but he wasn’t at fault for the goal. Conway was our furthest player forward and the through ball got cut out. From there it was a really good move and there’s no way you could expect GJ to have pulled out to where Marriott was - rock and hard place. If anything, watch Cissoko - he’s strolling back when you can clearly see the danger down that side, he had a decent enough game so I’m not going in on him, but he could have bust a gut to cover Conway. - Conway is bipolar. One minute he’s flying down the wing and beating his man, then he spends the next 5 occasions just turning back and slowing everything down, even when he’s past the winger / full back. - Dalby had another good game - RR looks very very impressive. You can just tell from the way he carries himself that he’s a step up in quality. - Sheehan should never take a corner again - Squad depth is clear. Bringing those subs on is a luxury in this league and I think will prove the difference through the play offs - Savage is twat, just like his dad - If we’d have scored 5 mins earlier then we’d have won it. Reading had nothing and were absolutely clinging on. I think I’ve accepted that it will be the play offs. So be it, we’re on a good run and have a squad that can cope. There’s extra battle in this team and far more quality - with the likes of Kenny, RR and Apter still getting up to speed. No need to be too disappointed - if Lincoln do go on to take 2nd then fair play, it’s a hell of a run.

Any recommendations for parking?

+2 as of half an hour ago. Next instalment of ‘must be mad’ Up the fucking whites

And no second guessing if a goal is going to stand. Just euphoria in that moment, exactly how it should be!

They will have one. They’re 14 unbeaten and have 15 left - they will not go 29 unbeaten. The big questions are how they react to the inevitable loss - ie whether it turns into a proper slump or whether they bounce straight back - and whether we’re in good enough form ourselves to close the gap and increase the pressure when they do. I’m convinced that we go into the last 6 games either level or at most 3 points behind them. We’ve then got to hold our nerve and get some massive results.

Same as many others have said - it’s a very good point in the end. Generally a good point away at a team that hasn’t lost in 13 but also psychologically because they lost it in the last 10 when they should have put us to bed in the first 70 mins or so with the chances they had. Plenty of defending how good a side they were - thought I was on a fucking Lincoln board at one point. I’ll stick by my original comment (but expand slightly) they’re a shit footballing team. As were we under Parky. They don’t need decent centre mids, their initial thought wherever they are on the pitch is to get it forward, in and around the box as soon as they can, the big fuckers up top cause problems and they pick up second balls. Awful to watch but seriously effective. Shit footballing team, great league 1 team. Didn’t feel like the midfield was right in how we set up. Dempsey had to start given we’ve won a few with that midfield two, but Sheehan has to come in now and take that spot alongside EE (who managed his game well post ridiculous yellow card). McAtee did ok but found it hard to link up on a shit tight pitch. I think he’s proving to be better than we all thought, but Kenny showed in that cameo that he’s a step up in quality. Kenny and Dalby up top for the rest of the season will cause all sorts of problems for L1 defences. Blackett Taylor looked like he had the right back every time in that first 20 mins, but then soon faded and isn’t helped by GJ not really being able to support. The right hand side was weak. Tutu had a day of bad decision making and Apter hasn’t got going yet. Nothing that they tried seemed to work and Apter’s snatch at that chance late in the first half summed it up. Forino immense again, especially considering he’s been ill. Bonham very good (I’ll let him off for 1 or 2 flaps and going walkabout considering how much he had to do in the game) - a very decent keeper for this level. Dalby just keeps showing what he can do. Not his best game generally (difficult against that rugby team) but that finish gets better and better every time you see it. Obviously hoping for a big 3 points but I’ll take that 1 all day. We’re still in it and I’m not sure we would have been having lost. Big big game on Tuesday - far from easy but hopefully this ridiculous squad depth will start to show.

To confirm I meant a shit footballing side, as in, they may as well not have centre mids. They’re very effective, no doubt about it, but it’s no coincidence that they’re full of 6ft+ players and their first instinct is to launch it or play for a throw in.

Shitter. Apparently I just mean that they do one thing, recycle into the box at all times - effective though.

They’re shit. They’re a more effective Stevenage. We’re not doing too much wrong or too much right - I’m not sure it’s the right midfield 2 though. Dempsey isn’t a centre mid and they’re targeting EE for a red card. Apter having a beast. He needs to come off