OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Yes, Tuesday, but if they don't arrive in today's post, call the club. As a final resort, they can always arrange for tickets to be picked up at the ground which isn't uncommon for Cup games.

That's how I look at it. From our perspective, I'm hoping we can dispatch West Brom midweek and then get something from Coventry away and we'll have a massive confidence boost for the future games.

Agree - got to go for it. Will be really pissed off if he puts out all the youngsters and then our League form takes a dive. That would be a wasted opportunity. Once minute they're producing the 50th anniversary shirts promoting the Cup and the next they put out a weakened team like for Leicester. Doesn't make sense.

Only watched the highlights but he wasn't totally anonymous - he seemed to get in the way of Scienza's goal bound shot at the end of the game 😒 If Stewart's not coming on, I'd prefer to see one of the youngsters given some minutes rather than Archer.

They do this in rugby. They do this in basketball. Think having a countdown clock would cut out half this time wasting which is ruining the game as a spectacle. Think they should also look at the obstruction rule again. How many times do you get players deliberately blocking someone getting to the ball without making any attempt to get to the ball themselves or blocking the goalkeeper? They call it 'jockeying' or 'holding their position' but it's blatant obstruction and should be penalised.

S-Clarke mentioned in one of his posts months ago when we were really struggling that we all know how this will pan out. We'll go on a run. The heat will be taken off SR. We'll all get our hopes up and then we will fall just short of a play off place. This is getting ominously accurate. I do hope that final prediction doesn't pan out but we shouldn't be in this place. Millwall, Wrexham, Hull FFS. We've royally buggered up this season and we are playing catch up on some very ordinary sides. At least we are now starting to pull away from the rest of the chasing pack but we have some difficult fixtures on the horizon.

And they have to play us!

Said at the time that the Pompey game would be season defining but I was thinking more from a result perspective. Actually, it's the stand up and be counted ethic that seems to be have got in to the team which has really moved us forward...combined with the change in personnel and formation. And Matsuki is one of the players getting more game time.

And who would have thought it? A big 6ft+ guy up front who can hold up and lay off the ball would make our team a lot stronger? That was up with Charlton and Stoke as our best performance of the season. Fantastic.

Yes, got to get away from the automatic changes after 60 minutes, 70 minutes etc. Tonda's sometimes guilty of following the mantra, if it's not broke, consider breaking it! I think taking Charles off cost us the match on Saturday. Same starting team as Saturday please. Edozie and Matsuki on if things aren't working.

Yes, but those four away games include Sheff Wed and West Brom (who we should be targetting for three points each if we're going for the play offs) and a cup game against Fulham. Then after that it's Oxford. Tonda says we have to 'game manage' better. Well, for a start increase the intent and increase the intensity and stop this meaningless passing sideways which wastes vital seconds and builds in to wasting minutes every game.

To get to the play-offs, they're going to have to show a lot more intent than they showed yesterday. They played the first half like they had all the time in the world and they didn't. Get people and the ball in the penalty area and stop passing it sideways on the half way line. QPR will present more of a challenge and hopefully they'll be a bit more positive than Charlton, which might create more opportunities for us. We were lucky to beat them at their place, so this could be a measure as to how much we've progressed under Tonda.

My sentiments entirely. Their fans were singing "We are staying up" at the end and that was the extent of our opposition yesterday. Almost level with Blackburn as one of the worse teams I've seen this season, and yes, we're going to have the odd blip, but to create one meaningful chance every 15 minutes or so against this standard of opposition isn't good enough. If not the tempo, we need the level of wanting to score and puuting the ball in the penalty box that we showed in the last ten minutes. We wasted far too much time passing sideways and backwards.

Our group's half time chat concluded with an early second half goal, the game's as good as won. Well that worked out well. It's easy to under-estimate the psychology in sport. Once again, we scored and sat back. FFS, go for the kill. And something's got to be done about time wasting. That lump of a sub they brought on went down like a shot with the lightest of touches. It's time to allow play to continue and even with the head injuries, the ref can call help on to the pitch but play around them. And we've been just as bad recently when we've been one up.

Totally agree. Our precious darlings have had a couple of weeks to rest their weary bones and I'm expecting nothing but a win. Real opportunity in the next three games to accumulate nine points. Fellows has come in for criticism in recent weeks. I like him but would like to see Edozie replace him if Fellow's not on his 'A' game tomorrow.

I like Fellows and he has a great cross on him. Just needs to speed some time practising running with the ball and shooting. Edozie, however, is an excellent sub for him. On Saturday, he was hooked off before he could do anymore damage to Leicester but he showed his potential and his runs (like Scienza, like Fellows) can cause all sorts of problems to championship defences. Think we'll be seeing a lot more of him from now on.

Yep, fell out of love with Poch after he put out that team against Sunderland in the Cup. I appreciate I'm a bit of a dinosaur, but I still remember the days when the FA Cup was taken seriously and it practically occupied a whole day's TV - so I still want a cup run. And anyway, that's just the nail in the stick. Tonda's obsession with a back 5 was baffling (inspiring many conspiracy theories that orders came from above) and his substitutions have often been ill timed and weakened the team. With Stewart and Charles coming back, we've looked a lot better and we've had a couple of recent lucky breaks (Sheff Utd & Leicester in particular). It's not been down to any great genius by Eckert. So my jury is still out but beat Coventry, Ipswich and Wrexham and the jury will make their verdict. 😀

Earlier in the season, playing off Stewart against Norwich, I thought there could be a role for him in the team, but his subsequent performances have been absolute dross. I don't buy in to the 'lacks confidence' argument. His touch is awful, he can't hold up the ball, he doesn't seem to fight for the ball in the penalty area and those misses against Leicester were classics. Hopefully we've seen the last of him.

Despaired at the level of respect he's shown to the FA Cup. I don't buy in to this 10 people needed to be rested for the next league game in a week's time. And when someone like Edozie plays well and looks like he's going to cause more trouble to Leicester, he gets hooked off. As a Leicester fan said: Leicester can't even beat a team trying to lose". He lost a lot of winnable games over Christmas and his substitutions made the team worse. He realised he had to change something and stumbled across a four at the back set up - which most of this forum has been asking for for ages. And now, having a presence in midfield and Stewart playing again, we look more balanced. He's just done the obvious. So the jury is out for me too.

Totally agree. Pleased enough with his performance yesterday. He doesn't get shoved off the ball and seems to read the game well and get in positions to receive a pass or pick up a loose ball but he needs to work on his fitness.

Hardly a worldly 😀

At least we're not playing 5 at the back otherwise we'd have been out of it by now

Yes they're having a good go and they'll enjoy their day out, but this is screaming disrespect for the tournament from Eckert!!

If you're going to give players a run out, I'm not sure this bench has the quality to turn things around if things go wrong. Good to see Edozie having a start. Reckon he could still play a big part in our season.

Is that for real? No 19 Archer is there Is that for real. No 19 Archer is there!!