kevinhectoring

I once tried to explain to my wife what a 6 pointer is never again

One of several reasons to start Wilson AND Ward

It may be as simple as: he won’t sign until he knows we’re in the championship. it may be he’s just decided he won’t play for Warne. Personally I think he’d be a good reserve keeper for a middling PL side and perhaps he’s had an offer that he’s sitting on (which triples his salary). I’d guess he reckons he’s been underpaid by a mile since he joined us and maybe we’re not now willing to offer a salary that reflects his quality It did my head in when he was on the bench but unless you know exactly what that was all about it’s hard to comment further Hope he’s not another who’ll be added to the very long ‘sorry to see him go’ list

Overall he’s been an expensive luxury for us this season imo

If I understand it, xg ignores the situation where - a precision through ball that will probably lead to a goal is marginally misplaced - a player in a scoring position receives the ball but is needlessly offside by a whisker - a player receiving the ball in a scoring position is wrongly adjudged offside, - the ref doesn’t play an advantage which would lead to a goal scoring situation - Collo shoots into a defender instead of putting a teammate clear on goal - the ref wrongly penalises an attacker as he passes a defender towards an open goal etc etc. It seems a really crude measure. Presumably AI could already build a system designed to eradicate ‘happenstance’ altogether and which tells you at the end of the game which team most deserved to win. When it does, is that how we should evaluate managers, build the league table…?

Too late to resort to Fornah imo but wish we’d seen more of him earlier in the season Understand your comments about CH but for me fitness is a part of the issue. Too often he needs to make a defensive run but instead he pulls up.

Draws are expensive from now on in but I’d still want to win defensively and in mf and to trust that goals will come. So 3-5-2

Well at least the current set up (w CH starting) avoids the Bird Hourihane combo in mf which cost us dearly early in the season. Adams and Smith paper over the cracks Hourihane seems to pace himself for 90 minutes. I don’t understand why he is not on a fitness regime that tunes him for 60 mins and why he’s not told that he needs to come off after that wanting to throw up. Otherwise our mf is like Swiss cheese strongly disagree with people who say ‘the captain has to play’.

Oh don’t : we’re 4-5 down in the SF shoot out. The clouds part, Warne’s shining pate is dangerously bare and, as Conor completes his biden-like jog up to the ball, a sun ray, a single beam of laser sharp light, is freakishly deflected from the frontal bone of Warne’s skull directly into the back of CH’s retina. The ball flies over the bar, CH falls to the ground, distraught and … we all step back onto the div 1 Groundhog Day express (reassuring ourselves the league will be even weaker in 24/25 )

That’s hugely disrespectful to @ the running man whose post about sacking the manager has undoubtedly galvanised Warne into a brilliant tactician and led us to glory against Lincoln, Bristol and Bolton. You’ll be saying next that Adams had made a difference. Lay off it

We had an economics teacher at school who - every year it seemed - predicted which essay questions would come up in the exams. I felt I was unlucky not to be in his class but lucky to have a friend who was. Maybe that cancels out. I was definitely unlucky in my land law finals at uni. I was sitting right behind STUDENT C who was so nervous they threw up violently 5 minutes in. So there I was trying to decide calmly which questions to do - and there was sand, disinfectant, mops, ‘that smell’ and this awful simpering whimpering which just went on and on. My most vivid memory (from the entire principles of land law class) was of the long spiders-web-like sticky noxious strands which emanated from the mouth and stubbornly affixed themselves like some magic wonder glue to Student C’s hands, pencils, clothes, shoulder bag … It was like a strange tropical plant from a sci-fi movie It was an enormous exam hall and the students at the back were oblivious once the initial outpouring subsided. I felt I was unlucky to be in the next row. On reflection, though, STUDENT D (sitting immediately in front of the unfortunate STUDENT C) inevitably suffered from the splatter and was damp for the entire 3 hour examination period, so I was lucky to be behind not in front. But overall, unlucky I’d say (It’s not strictly relevant to your question but I’ve always wanted to know what was said on the inevitable post-exam phone call when STUDENT C’s Mum asks, how did it go dear? I’m sure it was better than you were expecting …?)

Plenty of refs would have given NML a red

I prefer doughnuts to Mozart, downhill mountain biking to cash ISAs, Red Nose Day to my mother’s old mini, and I prefer my dog to having a haircut

Yes Barks and Ward were sorely missed when they went off. But very sensible to protect them (even in such a big game). If we’d started w Smith not Hourihane, the Gayle sub would have been like-for-like. What Warne in fact did (bringing on Smith, moving Adams forward) was a good move imo. We were beginning to be overrun in mf and the changes gave us more strength in the middle as well as insight into Adams’ flexibility Maybe the lesson is that we should start Hourihane only against weaker opposition - or, if we start him we should have Adams and Smith on the pitch as well. If luck’s not with us we’re in danger of being 2 down at HT otherwise. so when Bradley’s fit, is he on the bench or is Fozzie? Given his performance today, I’d stick w Fozzie. Step forward CBT

Fozzy, Smith, Adams, Nelson, NML, Cashin all immense. Not pretty but a massive result

Massive goal. Tense 15 to come

Tommo a little off the pace. Our subs haven’t worked so well.

We’ve lost some control this half

Maybe elder to lwb, sibley to no 10 and Adams to sit deeper ? CH will need a rest very soon. Should be another big chance for cbt today

Anyone see Gayle getting injured ?

Excellent free kick fr Ward giving Nelson a gilt edged header Over the bar

Wildsmith at his sparkling best. well it’s clear we should have started smith not Hourihane

In practice, an accidental handball by a forward in the area is much more likely to be penalised than one by a defender. Whatever the theory may be. I don’t think the fact Gayle was ‘worried’ about being cleaned out would be a factor in referees’ minds

Hope he puts Fozzie in the middle. Want Cashin and Sibley covering their right wing. With Adams sitting deep in MF that’s less ground for Fozzie to cover

Very hard to say. Smith for Hourihane? Fozzie for Bradley ? Got a nasty feeling that if we start the same we might be a goal down at half time.