Eagle85

Think you might have been next to me, was in the very seat behind the drummer. Having to constantly look to the left meant it was all going straight in the same ear. Fair play to the lad some stamina doing that for 2 and a half hours

On what planet did the new gaffa think that changing us to a 2 man midfield (one of which being a tired Sheehan) would work. Whilst we didn’t look too much like scoring we were controlling the game and it gifted them the space to get their first proper attack in. I’m delighted we got him in and probs shouldn’t have a go so early in his tenure but those changes were a massive concern.

Still buzzing from yesterday. Absolute disbelief at what I saw, especially after that first half. Nowt better than doing that to such a team of shithouses. Lots of positives despite the shaky defence, Murphy looked good, thought DC was great and being a hard working full back will make best use of his engine with late overlapping runs behind a wide man, rather than being a WB. Sheehan and Tutu were unreal. Best of all was scoring 4 without having a goal scorer on the pitch . Mcatee and Randall a bit of worry, time for em to improve though, concerned how Mcatee seems to have constant disagreements with players about runs and passes during the game, the fact that this seems to happen with multiple other players tells me it’s a him problem. Old fella in west stand near me shouting “come on Osei” every time he picked up the ball 2nd half, then injury time Matete gets it in same position. I’m thinking don’t say it, dont say it….he said it 😂

Yeah that’s true. I get a bit stuck on thinking about the likes of Blackburn and Preston who have done a lot right over the last few years but it still always feels way out of reach for them.

Think this is down to cheap season tickets, feel good factor of the resurgence over the last few years, the fact that in league 1 we are the favourites most games so have most of the play as well as the style of football under Evatt (apart from this season). Seen a lot say that attendances will increase if/when we get to the championship. Dont agree with that. Maybe the first year or two but once we’re settled in mid table with no much to play for it will become a bit stale. Becoming nigh on impossible to get promoted from the champ now competing against the relegated prem sides who not only have by far the best players but also the parachute payments over 3 years.

Made up with that. Feels like a good appointment.

Aye, really busted a gut to support the third goal and took enough of the defenders attention to make it easier to cut inside and get the strike away* seems more of a conventional fullback than a wingback type *Lusty beat me to that hadn’t finished reading the thread

Great win that after the adrenaline fuelled chaos of Saturday. Not the best watch but was never likely to be. Felt really similar to last years game against these with us being 2-1 up and conceding loads of possession defending the same end 2nd half. Lovely third goal this time though. Lots of people sat near me constantly having a moan at Collins work rate is doing my head in a bit. As a calm, entertaining player and regular scorer of great goals, I don't want or expect him to have to knacker himself out defensively and take away any of that impact. It's that laid back attitude that means he's ice cold in the box, like last Saturday. Not watched it back yet but their goal was something else, they seemed to keep the ball really well in a tight space for ages, with a cracking finish at the end. Fair play.

What a day, was wedged right in the middle of 2'000 wonderful whites. Incredible atmosphere. Fans and players alike all fired up as one. Never thought the players stopped playing for IE judged on their reactions after goals/wins/defeats. What I think on the back of today was that a lot of them were shot on confidence being asked to do too much. Was great to see so many players back to basics and get that fire back (particularly Johnston, Forrester and Vic).

If you look at most successful teams they usually just have one player that lacks athletic ability and/or work rate to make room for their skill or technical abilities (maybe two if favourites at home. We now have Jones / Johnstone / Williams / Morley / Thomason / Sheehan / Collins / Victor / Randall. our two there should be Sheehan and Collins. Maybe Randall if one of them is missing. We sometimes play up to 6 of the above listed players in one side, its no wonder we’re getting steamrolled against any side that’s remotely up for it.

Dion is a frustrating watch for the most part. Easily muscled out, rolls around on the deck constantly and not as fast as you would think. But he is a hard working goal scorer that we are crazy to get rid of, especially considering how awful Vic is and with Mcatee showing no signs of getting to the required standard. Randall is the kind of player suited to an already defensively solid team desperately needing to create more. Not the right fit for us where we’re at currently. A bad window so far to add to the disappointing summer recruits. Feel we’re going backwards at an alarming rate.

Definitely not as much this season compared to last, but for the most part I would say so. Agree with most that we often could cross or shoot earlier, but like watching us have the ball for most of the game, trying to break teams down. A couple of mates are Huddersfield fans, and whilst they're getting closer to perfecting the art of low scoring wins that usually end in promotion, they says it's a real grind to watch and don't look forward to games. Also remember how miserable Derby fans were last season playing pretty much the opposite to us despite them ending up with success. Don't get me wrong, the position we're in the table currently is not acceptable regardless of the style of play.

Thought the performance was ok today, controlled the game well just didn't happen in their box, Mansfield defended well to be fair, we constantly probed and they all stayed switched on at all times. The defending is a constant concern though, 3 clean sheets in our last 13 (one against 10 men for a half) won't get you promoted. I'm a big fan of Rico but sometimes wonder if it might be better to have someone more basic there and get them defending more as a unit, like we saw at Wycombe. That would mean giving up some of the control we have in most games so the overall product wouldn't be as good to watch. It's a fine balancing act. Main point for me though is that we are now lower in the table than that Mansfield team we've just watched after 22 games. That's not right whatever way you look at it. I'm not quite ready to give up on Evatt just yet but dread the thought of him having more to spend in Jan.

Long time lurker here. IMO over the last couple of years we have been a joy to watch, and even the pain of missing out on promotion and not having the steel for some of the bigger games wasn't as hard to take as it usually would have been on balance with some of the performances we have seen. However this season the struggles in those tough/derby games have continued, possibly worsened, and now we are not even good to watch. I was excited at the start of this season, and could possibly see Evatts thinking in having the technique of Collins and Mcatee in a front three either side as there were a lot of times we had teams camped in their own box last season but didn't have anyone with the quality to hit decent long range efforts. I think the loss of Maghoma cannot be overstated, it was his quality on the ball that mostly had teams having to retreat and giving us that chance to dictate things. Without him and taking into account the massive absence of Dempsey, our midfield is much weaker, and I cannot for the life of me understand what people see in the clunky, ponderous GT. Whatever the reasons for the ongoing poor performances, the most obvious and important issue is that we have gone backwards this season despite full backing for Ian and his recruitment team. I really do feel that a team will automatically display the emotional qualities of the manager especially if they have been in charge for a long time. Whilst I love the way that Ian has tried to to get us to play on the pitch, the players seem to be matching his fragile state that has led to strange excuses, irrelevant counter points and passive-aggressive comments towards fans. The drop off which seemed to start around the time of the Barnsley away 'I'll think about my future' being a catalyst which has only got worse. You'll do well to have found anyone more pro-Evatt than me over the last couple of seasons but even I'm struggling. I think it would take someone very mentally tough and inspirational to turn things around from here and I don't think that Evatt has the capacity for it, no matter how good his ideas on the pitch moving forward might be.