DCFC1388

Plenty to pick through about that performance, but I'm really enjoying the us against them mentality that's being born out of adversity. I think Rooney has used it to his advantage. 
The performance was no classic, but the young players seemed to develop an entire year within 90 minutes. Watson, in particular, started with a few miss passes but then was pulling the strings towards the end of the game. Ebosele is far from a polished footballer, but my word - he has a go. All I see is the Michail Antonio that was at Reading all those years ago. If he can follow a similar trajectory that would be great. 
Hutchinson has a lot of technical ability. Similar to Bird in a lot of ways. I thought Brown showed a bit of promise, although I'd like to see him with Davies rather than Forsyth. Sibley is just unbelievably talented, but I wish we got him on the ball a bit more. The ability as soon as he touches the ball just jumps off the screen. The first touch, the way he quickly changes the direction of the ball. We need to develop him because he's got a special talent in a role that we need a special talent. 
Ravel showing a lot of maturity and that's probably down to the team mentality. He has a real chance here and what a start. It's the best possible start for him and he will no doubt start again on Saturday. 
The first 30 minutes were a rough watch, but after that we blossomed and a lot of the younger players deserve a lot of credit. It was on their shoulders and they showed a lot tonight. I'm really looking forward to Saturday now - I want to see what we can do this season! 

Rooney spot on after the game when he said he saw u23s players turn into mens footballers during the game.
Poor first 20-30mins, got beat in the air which was always going to happen with that line up.
Watson grew into the game, Sibley found lovely pockets of space and Stretton upfront making runs off the shoulders of defenders shows what we have been missing. Jozwiak showed glimpses at times, some decent first touches in tight areas, Williams at left back played really well, Ebosele a constant threat & Hutchinson had a decent game.
Last season the team would have crumbled at 2-0, and then again after a woeful penalty decision, but these young lads showed a huge amount of bottle & character, tonight will set them up well for this upcoming season.
And lastly, what a goal by Morrison! ?
All in all, excellent night for our young lads.

Rooney spot on after the game when he said he saw u23s players turn into mens footballers during the game.
Poor first 20-30mins, got beat in the air which was always going to happen with that line up.
Watson grew into the game, Sibley found lovely pockets of space and Stretton upfront making runs off the shoulders of defenders shows what we have been missing. Jozwiak showed glimpses at times, some decent first touches in tight areas, Williams at left back played really well, Ebosele a constant threat & Hutchinson had a decent game.
Last season the team would have crumbled at 2-0, and then again after a woeful penalty decision, but these young lads showed a huge amount of bottle & character, tonight will set them up well for this upcoming season.
And lastly, what a goal by Morrison! ?
All in all, excellent night for our young lads.

Rooney spot on after the game when he said he saw u23s players turn into mens footballers during the game.
Poor first 20-30mins, got beat in the air which was always going to happen with that line up.
Watson grew into the game, Sibley found lovely pockets of space and Stretton upfront making runs off the shoulders of defenders shows what we have been missing. Jozwiak showed glimpses at times, some decent first touches in tight areas, Williams at left back played really well, Ebosele a constant threat & Hutchinson had a decent game.
Last season the team would have crumbled at 2-0, and then again after a woeful penalty decision, but these young lads showed a huge amount of bottle & character, tonight will set them up well for this upcoming season.
And lastly, what a goal by Morrison! ?
All in all, excellent night for our young lads.

Rooney spot on after the game when he said he saw u23s players turn into mens footballers during the game.
Poor first 20-30mins, got beat in the air which was always going to happen with that line up.
Watson grew into the game, Sibley found lovely pockets of space and Stretton upfront making runs off the shoulders of defenders shows what we have been missing. Jozwiak showed glimpses at times, some decent first touches in tight areas, Williams at left back played really well, Ebosele a constant threat & Hutchinson had a decent game.
Last season the team would have crumbled at 2-0, and then again after a woeful penalty decision, but these young lads showed a huge amount of bottle & character, tonight will set them up well for this upcoming season.
And lastly, what a goal by Morrison! ?
All in all, excellent night for our young lads.

Rooney spot on after the game when he said he saw u23s players turn into mens footballers during the game.
Poor first 20-30mins, got beat in the air which was always going to happen with that line up.
Watson grew into the game, Sibley found lovely pockets of space and Stretton upfront making runs off the shoulders of defenders shows what we have been missing. Jozwiak showed glimpses at times, some decent first touches in tight areas, Williams at left back played really well, Ebosele a constant threat & Hutchinson had a decent game.
Last season the team would have crumbled at 2-0, and then again after a woeful penalty decision, but these young lads showed a huge amount of bottle & character, tonight will set them up well for this upcoming season.
And lastly, what a goal by Morrison! ?
All in all, excellent night for our young lads.

Why does everyone hate him ? thought he was class tonight. Made some lovely passes and nice dribbles in tight areas. He created the space for our first goal aswell. Give the lad some slack 

Agree about Ebosele but you're wrong about Jozwiak. He stepped up, was everywhere and linked defence with attack really well.

Rooney spot on after the game when he said he saw u23s players turn into mens footballers during the game.
Poor first 20-30mins, got beat in the air which was always going to happen with that line up.
Watson grew into the game, Sibley found lovely pockets of space and Stretton upfront making runs off the shoulders of defenders shows what we have been missing. Jozwiak showed glimpses at times, some decent first touches in tight areas, Williams at left back played really well, Ebosele a constant threat & Hutchinson had a decent game.
Last season the team would have crumbled at 2-0, and then again after a woeful penalty decision, but these young lads showed a huge amount of bottle & character, tonight will set them up well for this upcoming season.
And lastly, what a goal by Morrison! ?
All in all, excellent night for our young lads.

That shot of the young lads celebrating with the crowd at the end was ducking brilliant.

It's his first game April 2nd...
The runs he's made are very encouraging 

Get the ball down, play forward passes & make positive runs we have shown what we can do, we have cut through them with ease at times. 
They only dominate us in the air, so stop the silly freekicks & soft corners. Looking at that 11 we are tiny so was always going to struggle with set pieces.

Get the ball down, play forward passes & make positive runs we have shown what we can do, we have cut through them with ease at times. 
They only dominate us in the air, so stop the silly freekicks & soft corners. Looking at that 11 we are tiny so was always going to struggle with set pieces.

First 30 minutes were poor. Even by our incredibly low standards, players like Watson, Stretton and Hutch were sloppy on the ball while Sibley and Joz struggled to get into the game. 
Last 15 minutes it was better.
 

Like that..working with what he has at the end of the day..Let's see what Sibbo and Morrison can do..Joz obviously another step in improving fitness..

For those who've not seen the lineup in full:
 

Allsop - McDonald Stearman Forsyth Williams - Hutchinson Bird - Sibley Morrison Ebosele - Lawrence
Roos, Byrne, Davies, Shinnie, Jozwiak, Watson, Stretton
So, Williams is a scholar so wont count to the 23 so likely to start with Buchanan potentially back for the weekend. Rooney already confirmed Allsop & Morrison will start and after his comments after the game it would make no sense for him then to play Ebosele at RB. Davies probably wont be risked & I cant see Lawrence not playing with him being captain so maybe play as a 'false 9' to preserve CKR for Saturday knowing Stretton can come off the bench at some point tonight.

Allsop - McDonald Stearman Forsyth Williams - Hutchinson Bird - Sibley Morrison Ebosele - Lawrence
Roos, Byrne, Davies, Shinnie, Jozwiak, Watson, Stretton
So, Williams is a scholar so wont count to the 23 so likely to start with Buchanan potentially back for the weekend. Rooney already confirmed Allsop & Morrison will start and after his comments after the game it would make no sense for him then to play Ebosele at RB. Davies probably wont be risked & I cant see Lawrence not playing with him being captain so maybe play as a 'false 9' to preserve CKR for Saturday knowing Stretton can come off the bench at some point tonight.

Allsop - McDonald Stearman Forsyth Williams - Hutchinson Bird - Sibley Morrison Ebosele - Lawrence
Roos, Byrne, Davies, Shinnie, Jozwiak, Watson, Stretton
So, Williams is a scholar so wont count to the 23 so likely to start with Buchanan potentially back for the weekend. Rooney already confirmed Allsop & Morrison will start and after his comments after the game it would make no sense for him then to play Ebosele at RB. Davies probably wont be risked & I cant see Lawrence not playing with him being captain so maybe play as a 'false 9' to preserve CKR for Saturday knowing Stretton can come off the bench at some point tonight.

I think we're 3 signings away from where we want to be, as shown below:

CB, CF and a winger missing
Jagielka obviously fills the CB slot
Aluko would have been the winger, but as he's gone/going to Ipswich we'll be looking elsewhere (Grosicki?).
We were obviously after Baldock for the CF spot, but I hope we can get someone better in on loan - someone who is easily a starter, rather than competition for Kazim and Stretton. We can only dream of that player being Delap.
With Knight out for 2.5 months and Bielik until Christmas, short term cover (Carroll/Garner) would be ideal but not essential.
Those signings would leave Cashin as the only unproven 2nd choice player (but 4th choice CB)... I'd be more than happy with that.
That squad looks pretty decent to me - certainly midtable.
To put another perspective on things, we were potentially 6 players away from our 'first 11' vs Huddersfield.

In this instance, if what Nixon states is true, then we cant really blame the EFL for not letting us sign anymore if Morris refuses to show his commitment to pay these additional players if we dont get a new owner. 

In this instance, if what Nixon states is true, then we cant really blame the EFL for not letting us sign anymore if Morris refuses to show his commitment to pay these additional players if we dont get a new owner. 

Yeah I saw it last night on Twitter but wasn't sure if it had been Photoshopped.

I really want him to do well if he stays but if we can make a profit on him then its a no brainer. Hopefully we have a replacement lined up if we do sell, id love us to bring Elanga in on loan, but it shouldnt be too difficult to replace Jozwiak's 1 goal & 3 assists from last season

Sort of agree but if it could be towards elements that are keeping us in the quicksand, the tax bill for example and help set us free it might be worth it….