Deanu

Geth is a big miss for the versatility & organization he provides but he also seems to turn up in the big games but thank fuck Toal came back in time. That lad Andersen for them who's a doubt, he's the one who got the early red & gave the pen away because Dion just kept spinning in behind him so I'd assume Dion would relish coming up against him again if he is deemed fit enough.

Would have taken Stockton the start of this season coming off his 20 odd goals when he was flying but this season doesn't reflect well on him even if he did get double figures he only turned up the last month or so. Alfie May would cause carnage with Dion as a front two but he'll probs be this seasons version of Mullin who cashes in for a Wrexham move or if he wants to play at championship level then could see him going Argyle. Bolton splashing 500K on Victor makes me believe that all our eggs are on him to deliver the goods in terms of forming a proper partnership with Dion especially if we remain in L1 next season just can't see us bringing in another marquee striker if that's the case.

Tough watch but grinding out back to back wins at this stage is fantastic especially away. In terms of the match I thought we'd blitz them when we got the first early on as Oxford looked awful but we just kind of stopped playing from half an hour into the game & gave them a lot of confidence to come at us... luckily they couldn't finish their dinner. IMO our midfield three today were miles off it as soon as Oxford bypassed our front two's press they always had around 40 yards of open space to drive at our back 5 which had no protection. I know they're 20th but they did beat us 3-1 at our ground in the reverse fixture where we are usually formidable so it was always going to be a very tricky match realistically.

That's why I put a draw in-play at 13-1, Johnston carried the defence all game & we were fucking wank in possession. Bloody stupid foul inviting pressure

75% possession, one shot jheeze!

Cameron Jerome to roll back the years today with a hatty.

Personally I'd keep Bod if we're league 1 still, yeah he has his injury problems but so does Nlundulu if we're planning on him sign permanently next season. We have Dion-Vic who we've invested in to get us the goals at this level so I'd rather have an experienced international ST like JDB who has a great relationship with the fans/club to play backup/rotater at this level.

Gritty away win, well done lads. They targeted our left side second half clearly, Randell/Mbete not played much so we did look lost out there second half but stood up to them. Johnston played like he'd not even been out which was very impressive considering his usual partners weren't next to him, very good return to the team when we needed him. Bradley, as brilliant as he's been this season... he's been clean through on goal one on one with the keeper a good few times due to his runs in behind in some very big matches too (Sheff Weds home) comes to mind & he's wasted most of them purely down to him being a right back not used to them scenarios but the composure in the finish yesterday was absolutely ice cold. Shame about Rico especially after Toal news, hopefully isn't out for as long as feared as he's deffo grown into the leader of this group which we'll need to rely on when it gets to the real high stakes.

No doubt it's going to be a difficult game... take away the fact that you're going from playing at the best stadium in the country to back to the norm of some tricky little narrow away ground within a few days but Exeter clearly are a decent side at home. One of them games where a 1-0 scrappy winner in a drab games will do, it's all about racking them points up now wether it's in an impressive manner or not. We need all our squad to really step up when called upon & make some serious impacts off of the bench in the upcoming month. Dion/Kacha/Demps looked electric which is great for us but also Vic scoring against Sheff Wed away should have done him the world of good in terms of confidence & should be raring to go if gets the nod to start.

Perfect day, perfect performance & a proper statement win at the home of football. Massive praise to everybody involved in bringing us back to life after all the shit we've had to endure the last decade or so. All the XI obviously playing their part but Demps midfield display is one of the best I've seen in ages it was like he was playing in fast forward mode along with Dion who showed a proper display of how to lead a line. Kacha looked very classy, fantastic link up play & a very nice finish with great composure shown. Enjoy it everyone

Miles better on the ball, superb composure & passing in possession although we only managed to muster up one shot on target. Sheff Wed's looked there for the taking, a bit like when we got that 1-1 draw at the DW last season when the top of the table seems to be starting to feel the pressure a little bit. Honestly speaking we've been wank since Vale at home, even beating them 2-1 we looked badly off the pace & since then we've gotten even worse so to say we wouldn't be chuffed with the draw is bollocks so it's a good performance at the end of the day. Santos MOTM by a mile, good to see Vic score too who's had a lot of shit for his performances but put a cross in the box finally instead of overcomplicating everything & shock! a striker scores

Weds are this seasons Rotherham, they let you play but are well organized with intent to put crosses in at every opportunity which seems the most effective style at L1 level

Win the pizza final, finish 6th & it'd still be a progressive season even though we'd be somewhat disappointed due to expectations. This season we've been horrible in terms of picking up a big result against teams around the top I think it's only Barnsley away we've picked up the win where they were down to 10 men for 70 min, we picked up a very impressive win at P'Boro but they've also been shocking against the top 6 also so you can't say we deserve to be in the mix of auto's. In games like yesterday we can't be throwing in Shola in behind the front two It's absolutely suicide playing him as the attacking mid in a three man midfield because he's basically a luxury player you can't afford in the big games makes Demps/Morley have to go through much more work. I have some sympathy for Victor though, he's never been prolific, never really been a striker until this season & he played an entirely different variation of football at Burton with less pressing more goal hanging... seemed a bit of a panic buy due to Dapo/JDB/Baka all gone or injured. We're missing JDB massively he was a perfect partner for Dion, although with Victor hopefully he can do a Dempsey & show his real form properly from the start next season.

At 1-1 you just knew that would happen. The ref being a busy little prick giving them 620 free kicks to keep the balls coming into our box we was never going to withstand it then we crumbled like Burton last season from horrific marking. Correct XI but we were out on our feet an hour in & just waited for the inevitable to happen... Lee for example stayed on way too long. We know Dion needs a rest but taking him off killed any chance of anything, he's the first line of defence the other strikers just can't or wont defend from the front like him. Not mad at the defeat so to say, it's been a heavy schedule but the manner of the defeat in crumbling in such a short period was more like the first half of last season us. Now we have Morecambe away which is going to be a dogged ugly fight where if we're not up for it they'll drown us on a shit pitch, then massive games vs Ipswich/Wednesday. No chance of top two but not worried about falling out of top 6 as Wycombe losing Ainsworth is brilliant for us and those around us.

They're press is relatively risk free as we basically started with two yellows meaning one mistake on the ball from a bit of pressure could result in a red, Trafford's kicking like he's intoxicated & everybody's slipping on their arse due to how slippy the pitch is it's not a surface to play through the press. The positive is we held out 0-0 HT to regroup unlike we did at Wycombe and potentially change it up

Nobody can moan at that XI. Dion-Shola work well as a front two away from home with their clever movement, our three best midfielders all on the pitch & our strongest back 5 minus Johnston. Lots of options on the bench, in-fact our strongest for ages. Down to if we can match their energy, I'll go 1-2 Dion & Lee

I get it they're paying us well but jheeze I honestly though it was a piss take when first seen the name

Didn't mind Gethin for Declan the only surprise to me was Shola starting in midfield behind the front two as opposed to being alongside Dion up top which has worked very well away from home but could see the logic of Victor adding some physicality up top. Bottom line is too many players just didn't perform, Traff & Toal the best of the bunch probably. We played right into their hands in which they over-powed us in nearly every 50/50 & aerial battle due to our passing being miles off for our standards whether it being bravery in possession or execution. Even simple short underhit/overhit passes forced Bradley into getting snapped 20 seconds into the start of the game & Dempsey to chase a hopeless ball to initiate an injury. Bad result mainly because of results around us but fuck it & move on quickly

Victor deffo suits our high press, works his bollocks off which is expected for an Evatt signing. Where people criticise Dion in terms of him taking too many touches to release the ball whether it's getting a shot off or playing somebody in I think the same can be thrown at Vic in what we've seen of him. He doesn't seem balanced & set when it's time to do something so then takes too long on the ball which makes him have to battle the defenders who are able to get back in. He would have scored a bullet header if it weren't for a wonder save & also positioned him well in the six yard box for one or two pull backs but unfortunately couldn't get onto them although one went through to Geth which lead to the third goal anyway. Like any striker at a new club getting off the mark will deffo be playing on his mind which probably leads to trying too hard & overthinking how it's going to come about add to him being our most expensive signing in 9 years!

We probably scored the same amount of set piece goals in this one match than we have in the entire 2 & half seasons Evatt's been here. DJ's whipped in some incredible balls on the night & our back three look big/powerful/dominant/intimidating you name it. Victor so unlucky to not get a headed goal too but for an incredible save to be fair to their keeper! MOTM is probably the hardest of the season but I'd say Dempsey personally he's a little jack in the box of a midfielder to watch the amount of times he's gone past players tonight just by simply letting the ball run across his body to open the space to drive into. Shola is just simply a step ahead on the pitch, he knows what he wants to do ages before hand whilst actually having the ability to pull off the stuff he wants to do. Mbete couldn't have made a better impression starts in back to back 5-0's with a goal & two clean sheets? On the eye too the lad can play & is a proper defender too he looks like he loves throwing himself into a block. Jack Tucker chose MK for us mainly due to location but thank fuck for that! Eoin Toal is x5 the player whilst being cheaper!

Fucking class that, tbf we did the same to Charlton the other week who got off lucky but today we had that cutting edge to really punish the opp. Over the moon for Santos, Dion-Shola partnership is very effective away from home they cause carnage, thought Geth had a stormer today he owned that right hand side.

Cheltenham/Burton/Morecambe doesn't matter if we're in form, playing well we just struggle against shithouse teams, we never seem to score early against them to draw them out... add to that them only really engaging in side-line football in attempt to win throw ins & corners to cause panic to us along with disrupting us. Too many players just weren't on it today, the team as a whole had an off day but three points is all that matters so we move onto the next. Fantastic goal from Dempsey, shame Bradley will miss a tough match Sat.

Toal is good on the left but I really hope we we just let him play his right sided wide centre back role as he offers so much on his natural side. When he steps into the midfield to link up with Morley/Bradley they're all massive threats, he's absolutely fantastic in that role.

The only iffy thing is offloading Dapo but we got a decent fee & reinvested it in a striker who's already scored the same amount half way through this season than Dapo did last season so if he ends up suiting the team more then it's a good swap. Jerome is a proven goalscorer, wealth of experience & will do a job when called upon providing a focal point. Randell has not set any trees on fire but there's a good player in there which is our player on a permanent but maybe a case of staying patient with him like how we're seeing with Demps when he signed this time last year came unfit where it took him time to get into stride but now we're seeing what a valuable asset he is to the team. The rest of them being loans but what great loans to bring into the club for this season, x1 Liverpool/x2 City/x1 Utd/1xSaints... compare that to our L2 season when we were loaning Crellin & Elbouzedi from Fleetwood/Lincoln. I'm sure our x5 loans next season will be just as good too no matter what div we're in because we're an attractive proposition for players to come & play aswell as building good relationships with the clubs around us as it's beneficial for all parties.

Alfie May joining the L2 Gillingham galactico revolution apparently edit: well that was shot down very fast by Cheltenham's reporter, would have been asking to be relegated if that was true