eddielewis

18/19 Season Portsmouth were top going into the new year on 51 points and then didn't win for 8 games (3 losses then 5 draws). Could it be happening again? Their fans might be thinking so after today's result

criminal from Hourihane not tracking Vela there should be 1-0 fleetwood

3 minutes ago, ariotofmyown said:

So Cashin and Nelson have been great for weeks. Bradley had looked better in recent sub appearances, at least compared with his poor start (which means he'll be written off forever).

Vickers has looked solid in the past and probably deserves a chance after Wildsmith's poor two games.

Yet this absolutely terrifies you?? What a baby.

Bit harsh to call him a baby? I also have my worries about a back 3/5 from earlier this season as the example. I would say it's not much of the back 3 because Nelson and Bradley have gelled into the side naturally. It's more the case of us getting overexposed in this formation when we lose the ball compared the 4 at the back. Wilson and Forsyth have to keep/use the ball well today otherwise it could get a bit like the last 10/15 at Wigan. Be interesting how fozzy lasts in this formation when he's getting knackered after 60 in at LB. 

He can only sign if he provides just as good quality entertainment as his dad 

It will be interesting how that Posh squad looks like by the end of this month with the amount of interest in their players. Today could have been points dropped against a side that could fall by the wayside from February onwards. Either way we were beaten by the better team. Let's get on another win streak on Saturday!

So far this season is very very similar to the 18/19 season. Portsmouth had a very good first of the season as you can see below. Then they had a very mediocre January whilst Luton were red hot and were unbeaten in 10 games throughout November and December and carried that form into January and only lost twice over the 2nd half of the season. Could we be this years Luton... who can say? but we must carry this form over this next month to stand a chance.

Spent a bit of time the other day just comparing this season in League 1 compared to other years to see a pattern. After looking at the last 5/6 years the playoff teams have pretty much bedded in by this period but there has been the odd anomaly (i.e covid). 18/19 seems to be the most similar after 22 games. That season Portsmouth were top with 48 points after 22 games and then ended up 4th with 88 points. They had a lousy January. Luton who went on to win the league only lost twice more and had the best form from November going into the new year. The next 10 games will show who's serious.

Either way keep sticking the ball in the net and avoid the opposition doing the same to us and we'll be up there...somewhere!

Overall not a terrible result with the way the first half happened. We could have easily been down to 10 with Hourihane's challenge or a double yellow. 

There's going to be some crazy movement and results in the top half of the table with 4 more games in 16 days hopefully we come out unbeaten and healthy

Just need another 4 for a good offer

8 minutes ago, Foreveram said:

It’s week commencing January 8th.

Blame Trevor Birch for that! 😂 I found the info off the EFL site https://www.efl.com/news/2023/december/05/bristol-street-motors-trophy-round-of-16-draw/ 

From what it looks like if we go on to win the entire thing the club accumulates £260k in winnings + I guess half the Wembley gate receipts

For those who care about this cup or love a good cup draw it's on Friday on Sky Sports News at 6.30

It's still a North/South split so we could get:

Blackpool

Doncaster

Bradford

Accrington/Lincoln

Bolton

Burton

Wigan/Stockport

Matches played around week commencing Jan 4th

Who do we want then? 

It will be interesting to see if teams fully put out their best XI from now on let's say if we draw Bolton or Blackpool

He stood out in the FA cup game on TV vs Blackpool a while ago. If i'm correct I can remember he took all the set pieces which gave Blackpool problems later on in that game. Can imagine he'd want to stay in London with Millwall or Charlton.  

Knowing how difficult it is to sign players in the January window will the criticism carry much weight if Warne does not address any of the short term needs in this upcoming window? Didn't Warne quite some time ago (can't remember if it was this summer or last Jan window) say along the lines of 'the Jan window is only for those who failed in the summer' yet with him recently publicly saying he wants more players it just feels that the he's setting himself up for another fall soon. 

Also it's a bit worrying that we haven't really started to address any of the 14 out of contract players because even though collectively they not pulling up any trees at the moment do we really expect to challenge for promotion next year with another huge turnover of playing staff? 

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/southampton-and-derby-county-keeping-tabs-on-midfielder/

Adam Murphy - Centre mid plays as a 8/10  St Patricks Athletic - 18 years old played through all the youth ranks of ROI so far

Report says he could be as cheap as £200k but quite a few clubs inc Man City are looking at him.

We do have a good reputation with young irish players and as the report suggests probably an easier pathway.

3 minutes ago, dantheram said:

The elephant  in the room here is, do you really want Warne to have a war chest? 
 

nah, no thanks. 

What's confusing is who has the real authority at the club over transfers/recruitment is it Paul Warne or Mark Thomas especially if there is an impasse.

What happens if Mark Thomas finds a project player that's available in January (probably more so in the summer) which in 2/3 years could be a profitable asset but not necessarily a player that makes an instant impact (had that reputation at Oxford) but Warne prefers a short term fix because the heat is on him.

How are we going to fit the replay in meaning as we have postponed the Reading fixture? 2nd round matches are played around 2nd December. Surely the F.A. will have to force our hand to play this replay around 14/15th Nov.

1 minute ago, Mr. P said:

Think it was David Clowes shouting it. 

Surely he'd be shouting 'Keep Rocking on!'

The only good thing to come out of this has been the Derby fan caught on the pitch mic shouting 'Paul Warne, your football is $#*%'

6 minutes ago, popside ossie end popside said:

What is Barker writing every time the camera is on him???

Playing through the middle has been thoroughly coached out of these players. Sack him tonight please.

Just now, hintonsboots said:

Yes.

10 minutes ago, hintonsboots said:

Hopefully Sheffield W will beat Rotherham today and the magical manager merry go round begins.

Could you imagine by divine miracle Rotherham taking Warne back after sacking Matt Taylor

5 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

I was for the short term option if it was Warnock. If we’re happy just to tread water then we may as well keep PW until the end of the season.  
 
Bowyer isn’t for me but then again he’s shown to be a decent manager with some clubs so hopefully we’d get the right version of him.

A short term caretaker for the rest of the season option no matter who it is (preferably an experienced coach) whilst Clowes resets the clubs bearings is probably the wisest move. Once we sack Warne it really does rubberstamp this season as a free hit and i think now you have to in order to cull the toxicity it's creating. I wouldn't want to bring Buxton into the first team or any of the academy lot to fill in because who will then fill in for the academy. It's a right pickle!

18 minutes ago, G STAR RAM said:

Any chance of a link to where he said this?

Warne said, via BBC Sport Derby presenter Dominic Dietrich: “His agent reached out to me in early window, I didn’t want to sign him. That’s the honest truth, however, when he came in for Fozzy’s testimonial I really liked him. I’m really glad he’s joined the party.”

2 minutes ago, TomTom92 said:

Looks like Warnock’s going QPR so that’s the free hit potential feel good option gone. 
 
Whoever comes in now will have to be our next ‘long term’ option. Big decision to make..that’s if we can bring ourselves to give PW the bullet first.

Why the rush for a long term option during this season? The whole squad pretty much is out of contract at the end of the season so unless there is a stand out candidate I'd rather have a caretaker who can just a have a free hit on the rest of the season and see what we can do. Gary Bowyer for me would be a decent enough caretaker. If we sell Bird/Cashin replace with loans in Jan until we address the structure of the club going forward.