Chez

Leo not started the game well. Watford pretty compact.

Watford look a good outfit to me

Pit you foot through it Stewart. Dont pass there

Wellington's been done three times now. Oh that's close.

3 in 16 games I h=think I read on here. Was dropped towards the end of the season too.

I appreciate goals often come in batches, but let's be fair to Larin, Armstrong scored 11 goals in 29 games. We only have 16 games to go. So, 6 goals is more in line with Armstrong's scoring rate this season...assuming Larin gets to start games.

Armstrong was available to buy last January. We only managed to loan him out. I would imagine Armstrong was available all summer. No one met our valuation. And obviously Armstrong was available again in this window. After three windows, I think the club may have had a good idea of the demand for him and the fee they could get.

Fair points. SR did seem to take the cheap option with Tonda, but equally they did rate him/trust him enough to bring him here in the first place. Personally I like a big name because it helps create the excitement and momentum that you need to get promoted. It's not the only route though. Perhaps relying on an injury prone striker having sold your leading scorer does say "we are giving up", but I am not sure they have. They have allowed a guy to leave who wanted out and brought in a guy as backup for Stewart that fits the number 9 profile we really need. They could have sold AA and stuck with Stewart, Archer and the youngster who's name I find impossible to remember. The same goes for bringing in Peretz. Why do that if you had given up? I also wondered how much his value would go down in the summer from the pretty average £7m+£2m. Perhaps if Wrexham and Boro offers were peanuts, then maybe the Wolves offer looked attractive as the club knows (after three windows where he was available) there are not many that can spend nearly £10m in the championship. It's worth pointing out that Armstrong's current rate of scoring would mean 6 more goals. So, 17 in total. I keep reading he is a 20 goals a season man, but that's not where he was headed this year.

I think you might be right.

I thought I'd take a look at his stats to see if that was actually the case. He played 593 games over 19 seasons according to Wiki. Transfermarkt has it at 500 games for some reason. In the first three seasons with Spurs he played over 40 games. His 1995/6 season was totally ruined by injury, playing less than ten games, and he then missed quite a few games in the two seasons after that. But in the following season he played 46 games - that's what I am hoping Stewart does next season should he get a contract. He did say he continued to suffer injuries and played with them, which made things worse. If you look at his career from 2000, there were plenty of seasons with just 20+ games and just one more with 40 odd games in a season. At Bournemouth in the twilight of his career at 34 years old, he played 30+ games.

You are right to question the strategy or lack of. From a purely football sense, why we sold Armstrong, who can play on the right, and retained Archer, who doesn't fit the system terribly well, I don't know. However, AA wanted to depart and there are no doubt some financial considerations. When it comes to Stewart, I think we are long-shots to make the play offs anyway, so relying on him to stay fit and score goals is a risk worth taking. No matter the outcome in the league, we will have the benefit of seeing if he is worth a new contract and we have the funds from AA to find that permanent striker we need in the summer (easier then than now). In addition, we get a look at Larin and can sign him if we think he can do the job next season. I personally don't think its a foregone conclusion that Stewart gets injured. Some players just go through elongated periods where one bad injury creates another, but that can come to an end. I am hopeful that with Larin to step in, we can better manage his appearances and reduce the chance of another injury. Would I bet my house on it, no, but seeing how far behind we are in the league, maybe SFC are not betting the house on it either.

IMO Stewart needs to be better than Armstrong. We need at least 6 goals out of him in the next 16 games to match his scoring rate, but obviously if he can win some headers, be a nuisance and generally provide a focal point our attack, which AA didn't, that can help the side as a while be better. Larin needs to be better than Archer, coming on off the bench and ensuring we still have a target man.

You are probably right, but seeing as we have just won a game let's to enjoy the feel good factor while it lasts. Worth noting that Cov and Bristol made the play offs last season. At the same point in the season they had 41 and 42 points. We have 40. The team in 6th, WBA, had 44 points. Wrexham currently in 6th has 47. Hmm. I think I've just made the argument for us not even making the play offs!

I went to that game, although it wasn't my first, so I knew we wouldn't win every week. However, if you only went to home games, as I did in 1986, it sure felt like it as we beat QPR, Liverpool, Newcastle and Spurs in the first couple of months. Obviously it didn't last. Was Colin Clarke any good? I always felt that he needed about 6 or 7 chances to score. Luckily for him, we created a lot of chances and thus he got 20 goals. Would a better striker would have got 30+ or have I done him a disservice?

Looking at the youtube videos again, when Larin was scoring goals, it was lots of one touch finishes from crosses when he has burst into the box - the typical Lineker type goal. I am thinking, hoping perhaps, that he might benefit from some of the decent Fellows (low) crosses and also from Bree, all be it to a lessor extent. Not sure that type of goal was particularly AA's forte, but it might be a `new' way of scoring/replacing AAs goals. I have perhaps go recency bias with the Azaz goal, but I am thinking about the Jander cross in the same game at Stoke and the couple of whipped in crosses from Bree against the skates. Maybe, finally we can become a side that scores fast breakaway goals?

The Nokia 3310 has fought valiantly, but it has met its match in the form of digitalisation of football tickets. Bollocks.

both feels like an upgrade on AA, but we shall see.

yes, but I don't believe that. It makes no sense. My guess is the english clubs offered buttons while an oversees club would pay most or all his wages, so SFC `turned down' those English offers. Edozie perhaps didn't fancy the oversees move or preferred the UK clubs, so there was a stalemate.

Makes sense. And assuming he is match fit - he's played recently, so no reason why he wouldn't be - we will see straight away if having more of a target man (if that is what he is) can make a difference in the later stages of games. We have struggled badly near the end of games to keep the ball and remove pressure with the likes of Archer and AA.

I agree. If the parties have fallen out, why hasn't he gone out on loan? I don't buy the line that we wont loan to another English side. Sounds stupid when we have loaned others. If we got a better offer from abroad, why didn't he take - he was fine going to Anderlecht. Was it from Turkey perhaps and he didn't fancy it? The club has bene very good at shifting unwanted players (how much of their wages they are paying I don't know), so don't understand why he hasn't gone. Weird.

Who is our penalty taker now? It's time we had someone as reliable as MLT-Beattie-Lambert

I'm going for the play off final, but actually it's just cramp due to an overelaborate and elongated 96th minute winning goal celebration.

i wont remember him for his championship goals, i will remember him failing in the PL which contributed to us get regelated so he could play at his level.

We won't notice Fraser and Downs are gone. Armstrong is a different matter. As we had a suitor for Archer, which it sounds like we did, I'd of let him go and kept AA.

Beaver tool hire too.