FarehamSaintJames

He will not be on that now. Most players have relegation clauses in their contracts.

Scrappy 1-1 draw. May as well give THB a good home send off as well as Fraser. Sulemana just for shits and giggles. McCarthy; KWP, Stephens, THB, Manning; Charles, Smallbone, Brooks (reluctantly); Fraser, Adams, Sulemana

I switched off in the 37th minute last night at 1-0. I couldn’t be bothered - my wife was keen to give me score updates as the night went on. The reason I switched off was that from the first five minutes you could see only one team fancied this, only one team looked organised and up for the fight. That was alarming. Extremely poor team selection. Brooks and Rothwell are better as impact subs rather than starters. Aribo looked knackered walking down the tunnel. No one performed last night. The fact that Russell Martin said he saw good play out there is alarming. It’s amazing what a difference a week makes. This time last week I fancied us to get back to back wins. I now find myself content with getting a point against Stoke and a point against Leeds going into the play offs. To add a side point, it just shows the vast gulf in class between the two teams. One on their day has players that can turn it on and make a difference. We don’t have that. We should’ve had it with Sulemana but he can’t be arsed. We should’ve had it with Alcaraz but he was shipped out. We should’ve had it with Ryan Fraser but Russell Martin seems to have forgotten he exists. I like Russell Martin and the way we’ve played, you don’t finish fourth be playing bad football or being a bad manager. But he needs to learn to adapt to a Plan B and switch out tiring players sooner or switch depending on opposition; and when to smash the ball long and get rid.

Wow what a difference a week makes. Still just about backing him but my word those post-match comments are alarming. An element of throwing players under the bus (If Jack Stephens plays we don’t concede five), that’s kind of ironic given that the current CB pairing had that mammoth winning streak. A nice word of Che Adams in that he was the only one that looked up for it and he’s out of contract. That implies to me he’s got no intention of staying but we’re persisting with him because we have no other out and out target man. Tactically was awful. Anyone could see that Aribo was blowing out his arse from minute one. Joe Rothwell and David Brooks have always been better as impact subs. I’d love to know what Ryan Fraser has done wrong to not be in the team, given the only reason he went out the team was because of injury - and arguably the team haven’t performed to the same level since. This squad is going to look very different next season. Russell Martin needs to grow a pair and quickly.

Stick him up top. He’ll win a header.

When Calderwood came in we went on a twenty five game unbeaten run.

Adams has spent most of the half on the ground rather than on his feet. I like Russell Martin, but this is piss poor tonight. No creativity whatsoever.

This is a bit shit isn’t it. Looking brave tonight.

Fraser should be starting over Brooks

Now he plays Shea Charles, a game too late. Or several. No Jack Stephens in the team. Rothwell starts, despite the fact he’s never been very good as a starting player. Leicester going full strength, 2-1 win for them tonight.

We also need to make the play off final first. Based on some player performances and how inconsistent we are it’s a case of whoever has the bottle on the day.

We were fucked weeks ago. We just teased and prolonged it so we could do it a second time.

The only thing RM can be blamed for yesterday is not picking a like for like replacement in Shea Charles who is perfectly capable. That didn’t lose us the game though, we still had ample chances to win and our attackers let us down. RM’s blame in this holding midfielder saga is the fact that this has been an issue for a number of games in 2024 when Downes has been out and he hasn’t learnt from it.

In terms of the play offs that’s my thinking entirely. We’ll lose 2-0. Not a lot of creation from our end, and a consolation from RM that the boys have been brave all season and just ran out of steam.

Dream scenario now. Ipswich finish third and we finish fourth. I back us to beat West Brom over two legs, and I back Norwich to beat Ipswich over two legs. I also back us to beat Norwich. Twice this season we just didn’t take chances against them, that’s all.