Johnnyrotten

Fair enough, I honestly can't remember where he lined up. I just recall seeing him bearing down on defences down the middle, similar to the clips of him playing for Vale, and the goals I recall him scoring for us v Tranmere, Coventry and Bradford where he always seemed to be around the 'D' or the penalty spot. He may have been told to play on the wing but I can't remember him doing a lot of "wing" play. I could be wrong, its just my take on what made an impression on me 2 seasons ago.

Pompey have won one in 10, Cowley's not the most popular. Not unlike when we went there under Hill two years ago and the home fans were very restless against Kenny Jackett. They were poor but we let them get away with a 1-0 win (sounds familiar). Our support was great that day too, 824 went and we were on -9 points, 18 from safety! 15 points behind Sol Campbell's Southend, 27 points behind Bristol Rovers. How times have changed.

Good point, how could I forget our fans celebrating that one behind the goal! That corner was decent to be fair, whipped in by Isgrove, we won the first header without threatening the goal and Delaney knocked it in. Very similar move to the MJW miss yesterday.

He was lacking fitness yes, but not injured as such, as he had made appearances in pre-season games. Kachunga was also short of fitness, as we kept being reminded when he didn't seem to be upto speed. Its not a criticism that we signed him, I'm talking with the benefit of hindsight, I think we all saw the sense of signing ex Huddersfield promotion winning player Kachunga, he's just not lived up to what we expected yet.

Great to see those snippets of Politic, plays the game in that fearless, confident way that's similar in a way to a young Rooney, as if he's playing against his mates in the street. And noticeable he's playing down the middle, not half wasted out wide as he was under Hill. In hindsight its incredible that we signed Kachunga to effectively replace him.

Agree totally. I think, whilst digesting another defeat before we scored, I was taking comfort in the fact that it was the first game in ages when we looked like we might score. But our achilles heal remains our lack of scorers, and obviously losing Sarcevic makes us even lighter, and the fact that if Dapo doesn't fire in a 20 yarder we don't score. I was a bit more encouraged in the last half hour yesterday, but still a long way to go. And great to see Lee now looking like he could potentially be the 10 goal a season midfielder we hoped he was.

Agreed, great to watch when he plays like that. Those years of the mainstays of the midfield being Pratley, Spearing, Lowe etc, when long accurate passes weren't an option. Having Williams and Santos routinely showing that ability makes the games better to watch irrespective of results.

I wonder if those low corners are deliberate based on our complete inability to win a header. I can think of 3 corners we've scored from under IE - Harrogate away (Crawford near post to Doyle, volleyed in), pre-season v Blackburn (similar from memory, steered in by Johnstone) and the Doyle header v Oxford, not exactly a low kick but certainly not one guaranteed to beat the first man. The higher corners that we would all prefer to see, have proved to be a waste of time so far.

Stats aren't always a true reflection, shots that are just wide or just over (Dapo near the end) or harder to miss (Williams at 0-2) aren't counted as shots on target but to anyone watching are clearly huge threats to the opposition goal that reflect which team is dominating at the time. I was resigned to defeat around 80 minutes but remember saying we fully deserved to score at least one. And a draw was about right in the end, 3 goals wouldn't have flattered us but they could say the same.

You're right he was awful (although the throw in can happen to anyone, the wet ball slipped out of his hand, also when he fell over he slipped on the sodden turf). But he had 2 efforts on target, that's better than normal (for any player, not just him). Happy to be corrected if I've forgotten any games he was better in when he started.

The 6-3 defeat was obviously a low point, but if we'd won that day we would have been 7th (we'd just won 4 on the trot). We didn't realise at the time it was going to get a lot worse before it started to get better. Its a long season and there will be loads more twists and turns, good and bad. I'll take the position we are in any day of the week.

I don't think your Fonz's biggest fan, I'd be surprised if you want him to start next week or any week! I agree Dapo is better utilised as a No 10, on the wing he rarely puts a cross in anyway, its not his game. Kachunga is poor but today was one of his better games, had a header on target (our 2nd of the season?) and a decent effort from 20 yards, which I've never seen from him before.

Yes that was very frustrating. IE is obsessed with wingers playing on the wrong side, even when Fonz came on he played on the left. I thought Bakayoko did OK, no more and no less, but he's a fish out of water on the right wing, he's a centre forward but if he has to play out wide at least let him use his left foot because his right is for standing on.

Agreed, that's the best I've seen him play, great positive attitude, pivotal in nearly every attack. Great to watch when he plays like that, and Isgrove was superb too, accepting his final balls were hit and miss.

Correct. Yes we could have conceded 4 in the first 50 odd minutes, but we deserved to score well before the 80th minute and its the first game I can remember since the Cheltenham game in January when it felt like the opposition keeper had made saves and effected the result.

Yeah, first time I've seen him, I was surprised he looked so assured, dominant and excellent in possession. Definitely a real option, not just an occasional stand in on that showing.

A month ago we were waiting for Bakayoko to be fit because Doyle on his own wasn't working. I don't get the impression IE thinks he improves our team, if he can't get in ahead of Kachunga or Doyle currently. Striker/scorer wise, we're really down to the bare bones. January can't come quick enough in that respect.

I think the likes of Forest Green, Salford, Harrogate, Sutton, Crawley, Stevenage would love to have as many fans as Bury. As a football fan I'd rather have traditional, proper football clubs with a half decent number of fans in the EFL than the new breed of no marks/no fans with their 5k capacity lego grounds.

Nothing against Sheehan and he's scored 3 good goals. But Sarcevic has a better career goals record, and looks like he wants to score, as others have said in a Nolan type of role. Sheehan is more of a creator, no problem with that, different players.

Fair enough but its just 'fortunate' that getting rid is an option in league 1. Any higher, and it would take some justifying to get rid of a valuable asset on a free. If De Bruyne or Grealish punch Pep this weekend, they won't be sacked, and on a lesser scale if the fall out had been with Santos or Dapo, the club would be right to say we wait till January and get a good fee for them.

Spot on. I don't think anyone has a problem with him being replaced in the medium term, if we want to improve. But he's been an automatic pick when fit from day one till last Tuesday. Captain and leader on and off the pitch. And gone just like that. If IE was managing in the championship he couldn't get rid of a player before January, firstly they wouldn't be dropping to non league and secondly you would want a fee for your goalscoring captain still under contract. Managers at that level don't have the option to get rid, rightly or wrongly they have to manage it internally and get on with it. A strange and fairly unique situation that doesn't reflect well on either party.

We've had a few players in last 12 months that are league 2 "at best", Tutte isn't one of them. There aren't many league 2 midfields that he wouldn't get into in my opinion and I'd have no problem if he was a stand in for us (when fit).

If you could just get up the same stats for every current first team squad player please Cheese! Then we know who to get shut of sharpish. BTW isn't it wierd how these win % stats ignore draws, as if draws aren't worth anything. His injury time equalisers at Barrow and v Mansfield possibly got us promoted but count for nothing in the stats.

Santos and MJ have played a similar number of EFL games, in leagues 1 and 2, over 100. Plus Santos 80+ for Barnet, and he's a year older. Aside from that, its about personality on and off the pitch, Lee seems a quiet sort and obviously not an automatic pick. Probably one reason Doyle has been overlooked.

I do agree he's average overall, but from a goalscoring point of view those 3 don't replace Sarcevic (add Thomason to that, who may get more chances now). As bad as we played last 2 games Sarcevic came closest to scoring in both, even just coming on as sub, the others don't have the same scoring potential. It brings our lack of goalscorers into sharper focus.