Eddie

Thank fuck for that! Look at the state of the bench as well We’re winning this

Fuck That’s a huge blow. That back 4 looks so much weaker without him in it. Very surprised Tutu is fit seeing as it looked like a knee injury - good news though, I’d assumed he’d be out for the foreseeable.

Fair enough, I was just looking at recent form - they’ve lost as many as they’ve won in their last 8. I think they won a few just after he started, hence the way it’s been presented in that post. Suppose what I’m saying is they’ll need an upturn in more recent form. Win one lose one won’t see them catch the play off spots

This is exactly why I still think we’ve got a good chance. Just based on relative difficulty of the next 8 games - we should win the majority of ours, whereas they clearly have more that would not expected to be a win. I think we go into our tough last 6 run in level with them at least. We then have to go and have some massive performances in tough games whilst they have some ‘easier’ games - but as we’ve said before, when you get into those last few games what classes as a tough game can vary massively (ie better team but on the beach vs shitter team but scrapping for survival). A draw or better on Saturday and I think we close that gap by April.

I don’t think they’ll close the gap. On their day they’re a very good side, but they’ve no consistency that you’d need to claw back to the play offs, they win as many as they lose - even if they hold on today, it’s 4 wins and 4 losses in 8. If they did manage to get there then I wouldn’t fancy them in the play offs, purely for that reason that on their day they can take teams to pieces.

Belting

With about 4k in the ground (max) based off what you can see on tv

By my reckoning they’ll now have 3 weeks to the end of the season with just 1 game - every other one is 2 games a week 🥴

Stevenage v Barnsley postponed tonight - I wouldn’t want to be scheduling Barnsley fixtures at the moment, can’t imagine there are many spare dates considering they’re already 3 games behind most of the league (4 behind us)!

No doubt there’s some luck in it. No matter how well you look after yourself, it doesn’t stop you from being on the end of a bad tackle that puts you out for a year (and then becomes a recurring weakness). I do remember reading an interview with him when he was about 33 (and so already being asked about longevity) and he said that every decision he makes in his life is to give himself the best chance of extending his football career, and that he’d start to lighten up a bit once he’s stopped playing - pretty sure it’s where the whole “boringjamesmilner” stuff on social media came from.

I have no idea about any of these, and you’re bang on that their form suggests it won’t happen, but if I’m clutching at straws… squad depth? lack of experience of being in this position when it gets to crunch time? general length of this run of form if they were to sustain it to the end of the season. They keep ticking off games that I see as a tough game (I.e. yesterday - very impressive), so I’m getting less and less confident but I’m still clinging onto the fact that it’s so rare that 2 teams have gone and not to be caught at the half way point in a season. Final bit of optimism - look at Coventry, everyone thought they were promoted, their lead was so big that even a dip in form wouldn’t have done too much damage. They’re about to be caught and will end up in the play offs. For this optimism to remain though, we have to at least draw next Saturday (would leave the slightest glimmer) a preferably win (autos will be absolutely on). Lose and it’s game over.

Dempsey’s great, until he’s not. First half is Dempsey at his best, box to box, combative, energy, front foot etc etc.. Second half though, when we came under pressure we looked wide open in the middle of the pitch. A combination of him still naturally wanting to get forward and support the forwards, and his legs going a bit meant that EE was basically left as a 1 man midfield when Barnsley now had 3 in there. It’s not Dempsey’s fault, he’s naturally an ‘8’ rather than a ‘6’, so sitting back and making it hard for teams to get through isn’t his game. I’m a big fan of Dempsey and think he’s got loads to offer - personally I don’t think he takes the midfield role next to EE (who absolutely has solidified his starting place) off a fully fit Sheehan.

Appreciate it’s all hypothetical, and frankly we won so we don’t need to pick holes in things, but I do agree. We were our own worst enemy at times - it all got a bit frantic and rather than slowing it down and taking the sting out of it, we kept going with quick free kicks, Bonham catching it when he could had chested and waited for the striker etc. and just generally turning the ball over really quickly. Sheehan would have got hold of it, done 19 pirouettes and just took the sting out. Never mind, he can do it with fresh legs when we’re 2-0 up next Saturday.

First half was as good as it gets. It should have been 6. Front foot, looked like we’d score every time we went forward, a centre forward bullying their defence, multiple players causing problems and finally looking like a proper threat from set pieces! Funny that 3-0 never feels properly like it’s done - if the keeper doesn’t pull off a worldy in the 4th minute of injury time to deny Blackett-Taylor then it’s 4-0 and absolutely game over. 4-0 feels so much different to 3-0. Second half they came out a different team but I thought we’d killed it off when we got through the first 5-10 mins unscathed. The deflected goal just can’t be helped (noticed Connell put his hands up as if to apologise to the home fans and just walked back to the half way line) but clearly it then gave them the boost they needed. The second was naive from us - Forino took a knock in a challenge and never recovered which meant GJ was pulled into centre back as the ball came over and it left the man over. We should have found a way to stop play, either with dark arts or legitimately. We did really well to stabilise and looked more likely to make it 4-2 than they did equalise. Still annoyingly nerve wrecking though, especially with the ref giving them drop balls on the edge of the area in the 94th minute, the twat. Dalby immense. Forino, Bonham, McAtee and Erhahon all worth a mention. Dempsey really good first half but I think he loses his legs quickly in the second which leaves us really open when he’s one of the two in midfield. Both wingers really strong first half but not great second. Tutu looking solid - real shame about his injury. Not sure if Gale has spat his dummy out after the 43rd minute sub and then having Blackett Taylor come straight in ahead of him, but he was fucking useless when he came on. Couldn’t have looked less arsed when we needed all hands on deck - I noticed McAtee giving him a right bollocking at one point. Big 3 points. In the expected category but very much a ‘good win’. Let’s see what we can do next week - anything is possible with Super Sam Dalby in this form.

Fucking Rotherham. I thought they had a decent chance of a draw playing against 11 men. They played against 10 men for 70 minutes and still managed to lose 3-0! That’s embarrassing

Agree on this, he’s solid enough and can actually put a cross in too from deep. Talking of full backs, it looked like Tutu’s injury was his knee - if so, we’re down to one right back for the foreseeable. Shame because he was really starting to settle into the role and actually looking more solid defensively.

Anyone spot their no.5. come over to the coach in the dugout whilst they were waiting for us to come back out for the second half? The coach was trying to teach him how to defend against Dalby - I could almost lip read him say as he came over that he doesn’t know how to deal with him. First time I’ve seen someone literally get coached how to defend mid game - says a lot about Dalby though, he absolutely destroyed that lad. I was very surprised to see him come out for the second half.

Bradford look garbage. I reckon at best, they cling onto a play off spot - there’s no way they’re good enough to go and chase down 2nd. This would be their 4th loss in 5 games

Yeah I saw that. Not ideal but I was just going off our experience - whenever we get told teams have an injury crisis they end up playing like you’d never have known. To be honest, they all might just end up winning like the last few weeks - it just looked like it could be one of those where a win actually gains ground rather than keeps up. Fingers crossed we do our bit and one or two do actually slip up!

Potential for a bit of movement at the top end of the league today. You’d expect us, Huddersfield and Stockport to all win our home games (Stockport possibly with the hardest vs Orient). Luton v Bradford - ideally a draw so that the gap to 7th widens and Bradford continue to drop away. If there’s going to be a win then I’d expect Luton (which isn’t the worst thing as I can’t see us being in danger of dropping out of the play offs). Cardiff and Lincoln have tricky away games. Rotherham are in a bit of form with 2 wins and a draw in their last 3 and although Plymouth lost last time out at Stockport, they’d only lost 1 of their previous 10. I think there’s a good chance of at least one of them drawing, possibly even a loss. Prediction is that come this evening the gap to the top 2 has closed a bit (and Bradford continue to slide). Caveat - I’m shit at betting

This doesn’t surprise me to be fair. After a few years of being up there, they’re going backwards, in the middle of a rut in the season, just sold their best player, not won in 6 aways and heading to a place they’ve visited a lot in recent years. Proper recipe for apathy

Leicester docked 6 points. We could be a league above them next season! We won’t be, they’ll stay up, but it is mad how quickly football changes

I can’t see him starting Christie, the pace issue alone means Tutu is more suited. Based on my scouting mission last night, I don’t think McGoldrick plays, I think they’ll sit deep and try and use Cleary and Banks on the wings to break. Cleary didn’t have a great game but you can see why he has the highest number of assists in the league - stop him (match him up with pace) and they really don’t have much else. It’ll be interesting to see if Connell is back off the naughty step. Last night couldn’t really have gone much better for us. Morale got hit with a late equaliser to a team they’d expect to beat, crowd on their back, weather was terrible, pitch looked heavy and likely took it out of their legs and their 38 year old striker in form played his second 90 mins in 4 days which for me makes him highly unlikely to play against us. 4-0 Bolton! Dalby, Apter x2, Kenny

Big Sam Dalby will be licking his lips at this defending!

They still look shaky at the back though. Thing I’m most interested in is how long McGoldrick plays - he played 90 on Saturday and I can’t see that he’s got 3 games in a week in him. Really wouldn’t surprise me to see him start on the bench on Saturday (he didn’t play at all away at Cardiff) edit: (you know you’re fully invested back in a season when you’re watching Barnsley v Northampton on a Tuesday night like you’re bloody scouting them 🤦🏻‍♂️)