Chez

One more thing. I am kind of looking forward to being back in the Football League. When we went up to the Prem, I completely switched off any interest I had (and awareness) in the three leagues. I just scanned the league tables and noticed that Barrow are in League 2. I honestly did not have a clue about that. Having to watch EFL highlights will help me reconnect with what's going on in the lower leagues.

Got to say, it doesn't hurt that much at all either. I put a fork in us after the Forest home game...so it's been a long time coming for me. I went to every game home and away in 2005, so had invested a lot emotionally. It hurt like hell to see us fall short after those nightmares against Boro etc when we chucked leads away. I am a lot less invested these days, going to far less games (although watching all of them). When I go to games, I am right back into it and kick every ball, so to speak, but in general I've fallen out of love with the game and refuse to be the football mug I was happy to admin being. I'm looking at the Championship table now and there is one ground I've not been to, Rotherham, so looking forward to that trip, assuming I can get a ticket.

I love wingers with the balls to take players on and to keep trying, but there has to be an end product at some point and for me he flatters to deceive right now. He is not lightening quick and is lightweight. That makes it very difficult to beat someone all ends up, which is what he goes for every time. He may actually need to curb his enthusiasm just a fraction, and look to just create a yard for himself and then deliver a telling cross. I really want to watch players like him, but I have no qualms about Ralph, Jones and Selles not playing him a huge amount this season (although I guess that depends on who they did play). I hope he can keep improving. His game needs very careful development. He needs a very good manager to ensure his talent blossoms.

At some point we will need to decide if we want our centre backs to be dominant ball winners that maybe can't trap a bag of cement, or cultured footballing defenders that perhaps don't do the basics quite well enough. From memory, the ability of CBs in the championship is really bad. Very few have both pace AND power never mind control of the football. How Lyanco (and the rest) fits in, I am not sure. He can play, but he makes some poor decisions and I am no sure he dominates. I am still hopeful he follows the Fonte path, where he settled down (diving in less) and become a `horrible' guy to play against.

The memories of the cup final and Milan will remain forever, but not winning a cup is very regrettable. It's almost impossible to win a cup when you are a lower league team, so you must take advantage of the better quality players you have when in the Prem. We got close, I suppose, but sadly when we had really good sides that were really playing well, we fucked it (in the cups).

I think the reason was that it was difficult to remember anything useful that he did on the pitch. His time may come, but apart from a fifteen minute cameo away at Wolves in his first game, he hasn't looked like a premiership footballer this season.

OK, but what if I told you we only had three games left?

Forest were pretty poor and we dominated the game, but we left ourselves really exposed to the counter and they cut us to ribbons when they broke. As you say, up front, we looked our usual `below average selves'. Not sure Adams held the ball up once.

Jones did pretty much the same after Mara played well against Man City in the cup, giving him 5 minutes at Everton (albeit we won up there). After looking great against Newcastle in the cup semi final and then scoring against Blackpool in the game immediately after, he dropped him completely from the squad against Brentford (was he injured?). Not a lot of faith in him. That said, maybe he just ain't ready and I am focusing too much on hsi good displays and not enough on his poor displays (such as West Ham away).

the advantage we have (in terms of keeping players) is that as a side we have played so poorly, so even our decent players haven't looked fantastic and the January signings (specifically Sulemana and Alcaraz) haven't had enough time/minutes to really prove they are worth a sizeable transfer fee.

Sure, my point was more along the lines of hopefully Mara can find the championship to his liking, as Solanke appeared to.

I'd of brought Mara on, but Selles doesn't seem to fancy him or any of the strikers really. Not sure many on here do either to be fair.

Aye? Was he even in the squad tonight?

Thought Che had a poor game. Second best the whole night. I was hoping for more.

yes thanks. What was your assessment of them?

played pretty well again, except for the first goal - he should not be letting the striker get ahead of him there. Not sure about him being captain, but does it really matter who is captain in football?

Were they playing well?

when we've got players worse than Diallo at CM you will miss him.

He's your scapegoat?

Onuachu just stands there rather than go with his man.

Armstrong's finish typifies the player. Scuffed

he's really been up and down since he joined. He can play, but he doesn't always play well.

He had a poor game at West Ham and as a result Selles has completely written him off. Barnard has more heart.

ABK should have taken one to prevent the first goal.

no solely, but it certainly started there.