Tombwfc

At the start of February we were two points behind Derby with three games in hand. Since then we've played 10 games, only two against teams in the top seven (Barnsley, twice). We've dropped points against Wigan, Blackpool, Northampton, Exeter and Charlton. We're now one point behind Derby, but play five of our last nine against top seven teams. We only beat two of those five teams first time around. It's not hopeless, it's definitely not impossible. But looking across Evatt's reign our best chance at promotion is beating the lesser teams. We've fucked that and now this group is going to have to do something we haven't seen them do before.

Neither performances or results have been there for quite a while now. Obviously if we turn it on now we'll be reet, but there's little evidence that it's about to happen. And increasing evidence that we're just not that good.

Think we missed four sitters and a penalty. If he's still got a head when he's fit he's in.

Dion?

I don't know why we don't do that or if it's been considered. But it's definitely nothing to do with defending counter attacks.

I'm not a massive fan of it, but it depends how you use it and how much you expect it to tell you. It's certainly a better guide to quality of chances created than who had the most fucking corners. You don't actually need xG numbers to tell you us and Wigan created a similar number of good chances last night.

Far worse gets shouted/gestured back to them from the away end. We're all big enough to stand the sight of a third tier footballer cupping his ears.

To some extent, maybe. But a lot of the flaws I mentioned have nothing to do with inconsistent players. It's not just poor execution, it's also poor ideas (throwing on every forward and still playing it around at the back). I'm a fan, but Evatt has been very bullish about his qualities and where he sees himself as a manager. He's had more than enough resources to get us promoted. If he doesn't, he can't continue to hide behind this notion that he's on some crusade of trying to do it 'the right way'.

Last night was a greatest hits of bad performances under Evatt - lots of aimless possession, passing it around the back in stoppage time while losing, no ideas beyond giving it to the wing back, throwing strikers on for midfielders and hoping for the best (has this ever worked?). Worrying that those same flaws still exist and we haven't played well in a while now. But, we're still in a good position and he'll be judged on where we are at the end of the season.

Jesus... what a tedious argument. You know exactly what people mean. Rico Santos having a shot blocked 30 yards from goal counts on your stats but is absolutely not creating something.

You've got to be on a wind up with that, surely?

You said it was simply wrong to say we created nothing, then provided some stats. I assumed those were connected. FWIW our XG was 1.88 to their 1.71. It was hardly the Gary Speed Man City game when it comes to robberies. We are a team with good players, expensive for this level and who had huge amounts of possession. To only have set piece chances and Eoin Toal miracle efforts is a huge failure in terms of the quality of chances we created.

The goal, the Coleman save just afterwards and then a shot they put wide from a decent position. We had two headers from Toal he could've done better with and a one in a million long range effort from the same player. Where were all of these other chances?

None of those stats say we created anything of note. Wigan had equal if not better chances than us.

Cheering a player getting stretchered off is a bit of a cunts move Celebrating at the end, all the fun of a rivalry really. Got to be able to take it as well as give it. Thought it was more pathetic for our lot to pile in having embarrassed themselves again against this opposition. If you don't like them celebrating, don't lose 5-0 over two games against them.

On the replay a couple of pages back, it looks like Santos catches him first with his left leg, which is why the Blackpool player is already on his way down by the time he also cleans him out with his right leg. Reckon it's 50/50 whether it gets overturned. If the refs view was/is that it was a cynical foul where he's dived in with no chance of getting the ball, I'm not sure if that can really be disproven. It's not clear evidence like mistaken identity or when that replay showed the ball hit the Derby keeper in the chest.

Not sure how Evatt can say twice that that isn't a penalty. Might be one of the most nailed on penalties you'll ever see. And I wouldn't be surprised if the red doesn't get overturned, even though I think it shouldn't have been one.

Quite enjoyed the idea of it as a one-off tactic while losing. Totally confused the fuck out of everyone. Probably the only remotely memorable thing about the game really.

If you think the goal is purely to kill as many Palestinians as possible, then that's already genocide isn't it? I think it's a bit more complicated than that. Over 100x more civilians have died in the various US wars on terror than were killed in 9/11. Whatever you think of those, surely nobody believes the US were right to go in but should've stopped when the number of people killed (innocent or otherwise) covered their own losses.

What kind of specific evidence would you like to see in this situation?

Would love to hear a take on this situation where Hamas aren't the baddies...

It's hard to ever have a 1:1 comparison, but for example 'All Lives Matter' isn't in and of itself a racist statement. But it is a loaded phrase that has been co-opted by people with far more extreme beliefs. Whether the tube driver is or isn't hostile to Jews, or cheers on the brutal murder of them by terrorists, who knows. But it's abundantly clear that plenty of people on that march sadly do. The videos of people defacing missing persons pictures and the social media activity of some of the people being used by Sky/ITV as reporters/commentators are shocking. And again, I would consider myself to be broadly on their side.

I'm not that bothered about Fox, and I'm fairly certain my politics are closer to those of the tube driver than him. It's just an example of the kind of thing where if a driver was leading chants on a right-wing march, the same people saying this is no big deal would be up in arms. And vice-versa. It's tedious.

Laurence Fox is deranged, but surely nobody wants/needs their train drivers offering political opinions over the tannoy?

I think it'd be more than questioned. Finishing 7th or lower in this league, with our resources, would make this among the poorest seasons we've had in recent memory. But we're miles away from that. I thought today was going to be the referendum on whether we've had a good or bad start to the season. And it probably has summed it up in that the answer is clearly 'both'.