Stevowanderer

Morley has unbelievable technique for this level

Iles saying Jerome has a back injury so Kachunga and Charles are the only available strikers. Redemption night for Kachunga tonight I reckon. A winner to get us to Wembley.

Surprised about John but can also see why he’s done it. He’s trying to compete physically with Wycombe so neither Williams or John really help with that. Iredale would probably have started a game like this if he’d been fit. Also think that’s why Adeboyejo starts.

Wish we could play Plymouth again in the league… without their best player who’s injured for the season and the form we are now in I think we’d smash them. They’re definitely our best bet for fading away but expecting Ipswich to hit some form again before the end of the season - they’ve got a great squad. Wednesday have the league sewn up I reckon.

Best player in the team. Think he’ll have a better career than Bradley personally. He’ll play at the highest level.

I was actually thinking the same thing when I was looking at the fixtures earlier. Think it’s our best chance of a rival dropping points tonight

Santos again hahahah

Awful footballer mate … just awful.. think Dion must have read this

Yeah definitely not the best at holding the ball up but he’s a pretty good dribbler, agile and quick… plus he works his bollocks off week in week out. I think you must forget what a fucking awful footballer looks like playing for Bolton… Nathan delfouneso, Reiss Greenidge, comley, Dixon, Crellin etc etc… the list goes on.

We’ve been under the cosh since we scored so can’t quite believe we are 2 up. Declan John massively improved on his Cheltenham performance so far. Santos vs JCH has been a good watch so far too

I’m delighted it wasn’t a header!

I was there at Old Trafford for the 2001 and 2002 wins. That Nolan volley in 2001… it was like slow motion. His goal in 2002 was good too. Which year was it Jussi made that double save from Scholes then Andy Cole? Think it was 2002… That was outrageous live. Amazing times but unfortunately I was in the United corporate bit so couldn’t celebrate. I was also there for Cristiano Ronaldo’s debut in 2003 where he tore us to shreds.

We’ve got 8 first teamers missing… I’d probably take a point now. If we can take all 3 we could well be on the way for a late surge 3 seasons in a row…

Exactly

Yeah the pitch isn’t helping but it looked a bit better than it did a few weeks ago. Hopefully it can keep improving for the run in as we get some better weather. I think we are evolving though… we had Dapo and Charles up front for a while … both quite small. When Bod was fit for a few games we went a little more direct and I think we have recruited Adeboyejo and Jerome for exactly that. We haven’t seen enough from them yet as they’ve only just signed but I think we will see that evolution going forward. Evatt is constantly striving for those marginal gains and I think he’s gone from being a football purist to someone who is more adaptable as he evolves as a manager. We still have an identity but we are definitely better defensively this season, we are looking a bit more dangerous on set pieces and we even used a long throw (he said in interviews how much he hated long throws in league 2).

Too negative?! We had 24 shots away at Charlton last week in the same shape. Plymouth scored 4 and Derby scored 3 playing 3/5 at the back. Every team in the top 6 plays 3/5 at the back so that isn’t an argument. Didn’t all 3 teams promoted last season play 3/5 at the back?… Sunderland didn’t before they sacked Johnson but did when Neill came in … they switched. We have the 3rd best defence in the league and the 5th/6th best in the EFL. Goals win games … defences win promotions. Cheltenham’s tactics are exactly what knocked us off our game and why we struggle against those types of teams. The low block and disrupting our momentum at every opportunity. It is very difficult to play at any tempo when they take a minute for every goal kick, throw in etc then sit with 10 behind the ball. It is one our biggest weaknesses and we usually don’t score early enough to draw those types of teams out. That being said whilst we weren’t at our best yesterday we still had chances with the ball across the box 2/3 times, Dion had a few… we just need to take those chances. We also kept our 8th clean sheet in a row at home….

Bradley suspended now though for 2 games isn’t he? For that ridiculous yellow for ‘time wasting’ after all Cheltenham’s antics!

Get the fuck in! Not really deserved it but great strike

Yeah he had more time than that. We’ve created enough half chances… balls across the box. They only look dangerous on set pieces. Need a goal early second half then we can kick on as they are working really hard and will tire.

You can see why Evatt doesn’t fully trust Dec John. Great on the ball but positioning is all over the place, pulls out of tackles and doesn’t always sprint back. Was fantastic against Charlton but way off it here. Cant believe only 3 mins added on…. I’d be surprised if the ball has been in play for half that half. Their time wasting has been horrendous

I don’t know enough about the incident (and definitely isn’t my area of expertise) to fully understand what could and couldn’t happen so I’d have to take your word for it.

Hopefully for us….

Yeah I’m looking forward to Thomason being fit again. He’s improved so much in the last couple of years. I’m not as worried about losing Dempsey on a transfer yet … I’m more worried we lose him next week after this court case for ABH. He could go down couldnt he? He’s been brilliant recently

I think it's been a great window - we've only really lost 1 big hitter in Dapo (and he didn't quite fit what we needed) but kept the rest - Bradley wasn't recalled, Johnston, Santos, Morley etc all still here. I'm not sure we'll ever be able to top that league 2 Jan window though... that was the turning point for the whole club. I still pinch myself that we were around 20th/21st at the end of Jan...nearly everyone wanted rid of Evatt and somehow we got promoted. If Charles hits 20+ this season we may struggle to keep hold of him if we don't go up. And I'm sure there will be big interest in Morley, Johnston anyway. We finally have some very saleable assets.