Kernow

That's what I was referring to with the confidence/match ready thing. It's a difficult situation because he hasn't made any glaring errors which makes you think he deserves to be dropped, and he might grow with confidence as the games go on, but I don't have the same confidence in him, he just looks a bit rusty. He's been through a lot, so credit to him for working hard enough to get himself in the team and I hope he does well enough to stay for the rest of the season, I just think that Wildsmith is a better goalkeeper.

I don't think he's done anything particularly wrong, but he doesn't look as confident or as match ready as Wildsmith. I didn't think Wildsmith deserved to be dropped, but I'd happily see him back in as I think he's the better of the two keepers.

Steady on, Boycie! I'm still waiting for my arse to stop twitching from the last one.

Elder worries me. Not purely because of things like the slip tonight, you can say that's maybe a little unlucky. But for ages, he was out of our squad with no seeming injury. You don't sign a player from a Championship side just to have him not even make your squad. It feels like Warne doesn't particularly rate him, I imagine that can impact some players' confidence if they know the manager isn't a fan. Hopefully Forsyth is back sooner rather than later, because right now we don't really have anyone else. I doubt we'll bring in another left back given budget constraints, but at the same time it wouldn't surprise me to see someone in on loan in that area.

There must be a young, combative midfielder playing for a Premier League club who is just itching for 6 months of first team football and a promotion on his CV at the end, mustn't there? Nothing against TJJ, but if we had a midfielder like that in place of him tonight, I think we'd have been a lot more comfortable. This team is ironically crying out for a Jason Knight type player, we just don't have enough energy in the middle right now.

Get in. To be frank, I couldn't actually care less that we didn't win by 2 goals to go into 2nd. There's 20 games left, the only thing separating us and Peterborough are the fact that they've scored 2 goals more than us. Whether we won 3-2 or 4-2, nothing is decided tonight. We haven't ended a matchday in 2nd place since February 2018 under Rowett, and we still ended up finishing 6th that year. The most important thing is that we won, I don't care how. That game had a hell of a lot of "you can just see it going wrong" things on the list, I think @Srg listed a fair few before kick-off. Local game, new manager, ex-players, bringing on a striker making his league debut (and scoring 3 minutes in), contentious referee decisions, or lack of them, coming back to bite us. There was the potential for things to go very wrong. And if you watched on Sky, they did their typical thing of putting up stats that completely jinx the game, such as how few goals Burton have scored. These are the kind of games where we've messed up in the past and it's cost us in the past. From the minute it went to 2-1, we were poor, there's no excuses being made for that, it was a tough watch. But I'd much rather show that we still need a bit of work in January when that work is possible, and still winning at the same time means there's very little damage. Take the points and carry on, we're a point off top with a game in hand, no matter how we performed tonight that's an excellent place to be. Three games in a week coming up, two of which are away and in the away table we are 1st, so there's a lot to be positive about. Hopefully CBT can join the ranks before Lincoln, and maybe one or two more before the end of the window and then we'll be well on our way to getting out of this league. Onwards and upwards, and thank God for Conor Hourihane's left foot.

GET THUNDERBIRD 3 OUT!!!!

We've literally pulled the pin out of the grenade and just dropped it by our feet. Awful control of a game which was pretty much won.

Too deep since conceding and they've had too much of the ball for my liking, it's almost like we're looking to catch them on the break but don't have the energy to get out quick enough. A couple of changes may be needed soon...

Stupidly soft goal to give away, out of nothing too. Got to dig in again now.

Quality from Barkhuizen by the way, backtracking and managed to pick Collins out with a header despite 3 defenders being around him.

It's OK, you can put the James Collins poster up on your wall now

Get Thunderbird 2 out!!

Well-deserved lead. We've done well finding space and there should hopefully be even more now that Burton will have to be a little more expansive, not that they've exactly "parked the bus" so far though. A second before HT would be lovely.

Fozzy in the dugout in conversation with Paul Warne and Richie Barker, future coach in the making?

Happy with the team, stronger than I expected given the reported absentees we had. Wilsonaldinho may have to move slightly further back but I can’t wait to see him tear Burton’s left-flank apart 😍

It’ll look even better with the Brian Clough Trophy in his hands this time next year.

Oh no! What a shame!

Peterborough away, 2023

I think CBT and Michael Smith would be good signings and fill gaps where we're lacking in this team. If we can also add a younger, mobile CM, even if it's someone like Charlie Savage who wouldn't necessarily be a starting player week in, week out, then that should hopefully be enough. Going forward for the rest of the season I'd like to use Korey Smith as a back-up RB, I think he has looked better there than he has in the middle and offers more stability than Ward or Wilson who are more attacking. It would give us the attacking options of NML, CBT, Wilson, Ward, Barkhuizen, Collins, Smith and TJJ. That might end up being too many, but we'd win games from the strength of our bench alone. We didn't have depth last season and it cost us because we looked knackered by the end. If we don't have that problem, then there's no reason we can't finish top 2 this year.

I know, but what happens if next time, there's 16 minutes played and it's 0-1 to Derby, or they wait til later in the game when there has been goals? If there are going to be different sanctions depending on the scoreline then it just encourages them to get the games abandoned as early as possible to get their point across. They want their owners gone, I think any punishment such as fines will just encourage it to happen again as it's hitting the owners. I think the EFL will have to punish the Club in a way that has a negative impact on the team to try and deter the fans, if it continues it just makes the whole ordeal embarrassing for them. Docking them points and consigning them to relegation is the obvious outcome, if you start gifting the opposition the three points then those who have already played at Reading will feel aggrieved, it's a tough one.

Probably a bit of both to be honest. The EFL and bad owners go hand in hand.

Posted in a different thread, but it'll be interesting to see the punishment for Reading after the abandonment today. We're their next home game, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the same happen in our game. Fully behind them sticking two fingers up to the EFL, but it may not end up in the best of trips for any of those making the Tuesday night trip down to Reading...