Well here we go. The excitement builds for our first game. Can we build on 2 years of progress in this division and a good pre-season to state our claim for promotion.

First decision for Evatt will be whether to go with a number 10 behind 2 forwards - if he does CMG is the man.

But I think he’ll grow into the first 11 - he can make a difference next week coming from the bench. 

Just 3 positions up for grabs then for me. I think Morley will pip Thomason, Adebeyejo will go up top with Charles and Iredale wil go LCB (if fit, if not Forrester did very well today.

                      Baxter

       Jones.     Santos.   Iredale 

Dac.Cog.   Sheehan Morley.  Williams

                      Dempsey

            Charles.     Adebeyejo 

30 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Santos in the top 2 all day long (in my opinion). 

youve def got a blindspot re Trafford

santos top 3 though

we actually coped without santos, we wouldnt have coped without trafford

Coped well without santos on a few occasions tbf

trafford kept us in many games 

GT wont be starting now.

30 minutes ago, Casino said:

youve def got a blindspot re Trafford

santos top 3 though

we actually coped without santos, we wouldnt have coped without trafford

That's because we had no back up for Traff; Santos had capable stand in's.  We are a decent team, losing one defender for a month isn't going to throw us off the rails, but of course if its Dixon rather than Traff for a long spell we'd have struggled.

In some games I saw Trafford was hardly involved, no fault of his, neither was the opposition keeper sometimes.  If we've got 75% possession and Santos/Johnstone etc aren't allowing the opposition many chances, I'm struggling with anyone saying the keeper is MOM or even in the top 5 or 6. 

Santos was our MOM in many many games, and in plenty others it was Bradley (Dempsey up there too but not if whole season taken into account).  I respect all opinions but I don't even think its close that Bradley and Santos were the 2 players that had most influence on last season, they were/are genuine game changers.  Trafford had some good games and he's a good keeper, Charles is a good striker but not for me as influential overall as Santos and Bradley, its not a criticism its just recognising what those two contributed.

49 minutes ago, radcliffe white said:

Coped well without santos on a few occasions tbf

trafford kept us in many games 

Difficult to compare because we didn't have to cope without Trafford until now!  Obviously we can all make that judgement in a couple of months. 

That spell when Santos missed 9 league games in Dec/Jan, we had mixed results - 4 draws, 2 defeats and only 3 wins.  When he returned we won 5 on the trot (probably a coincidence, but hard to say we didn't miss him).

8 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

Difficult to compare because we didn't have to cope without Trafford until now!  Obviously we can all make that judgement in a couple of months. 

That spell when Santos missed 9 league games in Dec/Jan, we had mixed results - 4 draws, 2 defeats and only 3 wins.  When he returned we won 5 on the trot (probably a coincidence, but hard to say we didn't miss him).

didn’t say we didn’t miss him just that we coped ok and we kept some clean sheets 
 

And the back end of last season we did good when he was out 

When Santos was injured we didn't have to bring in a flid to replace him.

6 hours ago, gonzo said:

Yeah but hes crap compared to Trafford

got beat from the half way line the other day

so he's now a £19M flop

7 hours ago, desperado said:

@Whitesince63 I’m currently scouring the net for bwfc and goalkeeper “Hendersons” 

is it:

Charlie Henderson (only Henderson BWFC player I can see from 1894) 

United’s Dean Henderson

Jordan Henderson 

Ha,ha, a Freudian slip and of course I meant Hutchinson. Apologies.

Burnley mate reckons Trafford will be second keeper there for now.

1 hour ago, Alf Hartigan said:

Burnley mate reckons Trafford will be second keeper there for now.

Imagine, our alf knowing vic kompany.

 

3 minutes ago, Casino said:

Imagine, our alf knowing vic kompany.

 

Mates a season ticket holder tbf. Can't remember the name of the keeper who he thinks will be first choice, can't be arsed googling.

4 hours ago, Whitesince63 said:

Ha,ha, a Freudian slip and of course I meant Hutchinson. Apologies.

Stand your ground man. If you identify him as Henderson, then Henderson it is.

are trains running this weekend?

there's strikes on, looks like transpennine is affected

not sure who runs from manc to horwich though

11 hours ago, Dr. Feelgood said:

Stand your ground man. If you identify him as Henderson, then Henderson it is.

I think it’s old age Dr so I have to own up!! 😉

55 minutes ago, Zico said:

are trains running this weekend?

there's strikes on, looks like transpennine is affected

not sure who runs from manc to horwich though

Yeah looks like they are 

 

Wonder if the Lincoln lot get giddy with it being first game of the season and a game at their “new” rivals 🤣

4 minutes ago, Horwich said:

Wonder if the Lincoln lot get giddy with it being first game of the season and a game at their “new” rivals 🤣

they give plod the runaround that tuesday night

Step foot near Nam Ploy and there could be fatalities.

Anyone seen bus timetables for weekend anywhere yet?

25 minutes ago, Horwich said:

Wonder if the Lincoln lot get giddy with it being first game of the season and a game at their “new” rivals 🤣

I would expect em to.   Didnt they go in the Griffin last season after getting off the train. 

I bet a couple of em came out with bags of steaks and a couple with big jars of nescafe. 

57 minutes ago, BeeversLeftPeg said:

Anyone seen bus timetables for weekend anywhere yet?

I don't think they've announced the times/routes yet.

No rush

 

28 minutes ago, Traf said:

I don't think they've announced the times/routes yet.

No surprise there then.