Ghost of Clough

What I expect: Wildsmith Nyambe Nelson Cashin Forsyth Wilson Bird Hourihane Sibley Collins Subs: Vickers, Bradley, Elder, Fornah, Thompson, Barkhuizen, John-Jules

Recruitment has been hit and miss. The main reason for that (in my opinion) was recruiting without any real plan in mind, other than playing 3/5 at the back. At the start of the summer, it looked like we wanted to primarily play 3421, then we missed out on targets and changed to 3412, then later settled on a form of 4231 after the window closed. The most evident point was signing 2 RWBs, then signing a RB in September. We failed to sign a LWB too. We also only signed Waghorn because Forsyth brought him in to training for his testimonial. The good Vickers - good backup and is very good backup if Wildsmith is unavailable at any point Nelson - been an excellent partner to Cashin and they have a good understanding of each others games Nyambe - Starts when fit. Arguably the best defensive RB in the league, although may have to move to RCB when we inevitably change to a back 3/5 Wilson - a great entertainer with his dribbling. We just need to decide where his best position will be The not quite so bad Elder - signed to play the wing back role which he isn't suited to and been injured since we changed to a back 4. Needs time to get back up to speed, but I can see him settling in well at LB and providing good competition with Forsyth. Fornah - I said when he joined that he isn't much of an improvement on Smith. Needs to improve in a lot of areas if he is to play in the #8 role. Waghorn - an excellent start but average since. After 5 goals in his first 4 games (186 mins) he's only scored 1 goal in 12 games. Has now only played 9 minutes in the last 2 months due to injury. The bad Bradley - was signed to marshal our back 3, but has been largely disappointing the majority of the time. Winning only 2 of the 5 games he's started is alarming (Burton and Northampton). Ward - hasn't settled, with his 2 month long injury not helping. Been at fault for 2 of the only 3 goals we've conceded in the last 7 league games. He isn't a RB, so we'll either need to change back to wing backs to accommodate him, or move him to the wing. Embleton - Could have been a very good signing if it wasn't for his injury. The fact is, he was only fit for 1 game before cutting his loan short (but still paying his wages) Washington - Injured through the summer, out for 2 months in the current spell and likely out for a further 3 months. John-Jules - on this list because he's only been able to play 84 minutes in the league so far. Could easily become a good signing if he can avoid injuries and extend his loan.

Almost right, just missing a '0' 😉

At the moment, Peterborough have the 2nd best ppg record, which is equivalent to 90 points over a season - only 5 points better than us so far. That's a very small margin to make up. We also had a very bad start (for a side chasing automatics). Exclude our first 3 games (2 looses), then we have the 2nd best record in the league over the past 17 games, averaging 2 points per game. Results wise, we are close. The good thing is, there's a lot of room for improvement, so we should be capable of exceeding those minimum requirements. That could be a couple of signings to improve our starting 11, add more squad depth, players improving tactically, the manager/coaches improving on their decisions. I look at the other teams around us and see teams already playing at their potential. Oxford have won just 1 game since they hired their new manager. There's little room for Stevenage to improve. I would also include Barnsley and Peterborough along with them. In fact, Portsmouth have been doing so well it's hard for them to improve too. Bolton are the only ones I would worry about because they have depth in their squad and have the financial power to improve it.

I can't see Charlton selling cheaply to a promotion rival, even if he only has 6 months on his contract, and are (currently) 9 points behind us. The majority of our summer signings either lived locally or were originally from the Midlands. Even Elder spent a significant number of years living in Leicester. Blackett-Taylor matches that profile as he's from the Birmingham area. Even if we don't get him, we'll probably be targeting others from the local region.

That's right. They've now won all 11 of their official U18 games. This was the first time they failed to score at least 2 goals (and were very fortunate to get the 1 they did get). Wheeldon is also the last player to score against them, way back on October 7th, having only conceded 6 all season.

55 goal contributions in 3 seasons for Crewe prior to joining Charlton. For whatever reason, it hasn't worked out for him there, but there's still a chance for him to kick-start his career at 25. I can't see him making the step up to the Championship so I doubt we'll be in for him, but equally, I think he'd be a reasonable option on the left wing to keep other players fresh.

Yes, RamsTV

I think it's worth noting only 3 of our players have a better goal contributions per 90 ratio that Sibley's 0.7 this season: Weston (3.6), John-Jules (2.0) and Mendez-Laing (0.8). If I remember correctly, League 1 top scorers May and Rhodes are around 0.83 and 0.97 respectively (for comparison)

Help your wife with as much as you can handle. Don't be afraid to say it's too much for you. Try to settle on a routine which works for you both. Feeding/changing at set times at need makes it a bit easier for you. Maybe your wife will feed the baby during the night on work nights, and you'll do the last feed before you go to sleep and the first feed when you wake up. At the weekend roles are reversed so you both get a chance for some rest. Change the nappy straight after feeding and you'll most likely get away with not having to change the nappy again until the next feed. Sleep whenever a small window to do so crops up. Practice staying calm. It'll be impossible to do all the time, especially after zero hours of sleep in several days and nothing will make her go to sleep. There will be nights when you just can't handle it and you need to spend the night in another room and leave everything to your wife. Your wife will feel the same way at other times too. It helps if you understand how each other is feeling, so make sure you talk to each other. Ignore everything the health visitor (or whatever the title is) tells you. Their opinion will differ to another health visitor, and neither will know your exact situation and what works for you. They work on 'typical' cases, so they make a big fuss over anything they aren't doing that only 50% of other toddlers their age are doing (crawling, walking, speaking, putting penne on a piece of string, etc..). Similarly, don't compare to other babies/toddlers. Don't wish away the time, hoping they walk or start talking soon. At some point, she'll start asking both of you the same question, hoping one of you gives her the answer she wants. Before answering, make sure she hasn't asked your wife first. Spend as much time as possible with her as you can. You'll never get that time back again. Accept that you'll make mistakes.

Less than 180 minutes of football at any level since Jan 2022 may have been a factor. It'll take take for him to catch back up to where he would have been without a series of injuries.

Six 1st year scholars started, with two others coming off the bench. The player who I felt was the best on the pitch was Scanlon (the Man Utd left winger), and he would have been part of that same 1st year scholar group too if not poached from us a couple of years ago.

4 mins announced. Out of play for 165 seconds but nothing extra added on.

Osayande on for Perry in a straight swap at RB. Gough on for Eames, with McAndrew moving to AM

Heartbreak. Thompson does very well to save 1v1, but the ball bounces into the path of another attacker following up

Utd atill struggling to deal with McAndrew, but his end product needs to improve Excellent defending by Gill in a few phases of play

Man Utd midfielder has 2 attempts at pulling back Wheeldon. Yellow card shown. Osong causing trouble down the right now

First time I've heard a Derby youth side described as physical 😅 Wheeldon cuts inside and fires a shot against the crossbar. Keeper dailies on the ball and fires a long ball straight into the pressing Brown. Ball goes wide of the goal

Gill takes one for the team to keep things level. He took a bang to the knee but should continue.

Allen struggled to get involved as much as he'd have liked in the first half and is replaced by Osong - he'll add more pace to the side so we'll hope to stretch play a bit more and get in behind the LB.

Hawkins lucky to not get booked this time, as he pulled his man back as Man Utd broke forward. Utd finding space behind Perry, who perhaps needs to pick up a more defensive position off the ball in the rest of the game. McAndrew worked a bit of space inside the box but his shot is too central to cause any real trouble.

Brilliant save from Thompson to deny a great shot from the muddle of the box Edit: shot was more central than I thought

Harsh yellow for Allen. Both players stretched for the ball with the Utd player come off worse

Brown mistimed his run and would have been 1 on 1 thanks to a lovely ball over the top from Wheeldon McAndrew got down the wing and pulled to the ground by the defender. Should have been a yellow. Allen took the resultant freekick and a bit of ping pong in the box before the keeper clings to Brown close range header.

It's worth noting that Man Utd have won 10 out of 10 games this season, and are 9 points ahead of 2nd place Liverpool, having played 1 game less.