VectisSaint

But as another poster put it, this was 2 years after Antonio, so can't say the two were related. Must admit I thought you and me thought more about the performance on the pitch rather than £sd. Gaston was actually pretty good before his dead leg problem set in. Very popular among the crowd (the ones at the stadium rather than the keyboard warriors). Things went wrong I agree, but really don't think he was a disaster. Osvaldo was a disaster granted..Again a real shame though because lime GR he was a very good signing and talented player, just a shame that he was a bell end.

Hello Mrs Manning. Had a good game for the reserves against Leicester reserves. The sooner Weli is back the better.

Good to see Steve Williams back in midfield. Not sure Hughie can hack it in goal at 82.

Trouble is we'll get Manning back not Jelert. Oh well, backwards and downwards.

Not sure Gaston was disastrous.

That's 14 games now without a goal (and 1 assist) for the regular scorer.

Called it?

We should go back to 2-up, 2-down, and implement it retrospectively since it was changed in 1974

He's only been with Warrington since January to be fair, 4 weeks. Last season he was with Salford in League Two. Has actually played more games in top 4 levels than McCarthy, although mostly at lower levels.

No we haven't.

He was doing that for Norn Iron before Wednesday to be fair.

Masterclass of substitutions by Tonda. Fooled everyone by playing Archer first half in order to get Stewart and Larin both on. Bringing Charles and Manning on. The man is a genius.

Soon got rolled back to the previous version, reported possible vandalism.

On the other hand the "winning team" included Charles, Larin and Edozie. I suspect Charles will start regardless of Downes' fitness. But I suspect he will start with Scienza (unless his poor performance yesterday was in part due to some minor issue) and Stewart. It would be good to see a largely settled side, it does almost pick itself now. Hopefully Bragg will be back on the bench.

Is he just not making the squad or is there something more to this, follow up to his injury/concussion. I know Eckert said there were no injury concerns but it makes you wonder when really it felt like he had broken through a few weeks ago.

The bit I saw/heard said someone was having a scan, but I didn't catch who, presumably it was Robinson.

Sadio Mane in May 2015, fastest hattrick on record against Villa (6-1). I'd ignore co-pilot if I were you.

In - Bree, return from loan

Better than Armstrong then, 0 goals in 9 (League).

Yet another game on Sky where they lost the feed. This time only for 3-4 minutes but it's bloody annoying how dodgy their feeds are, that's 3 in a row now when not on a main channel. I got some compensation for a game a while back, they apologised for spoiling my enjoyment, in fact they put me out of my.misery at the time. Sky have become pathetic.

So just the one experienced striker in the squad, Armstrong and Archer both off. Think thats probably our strongest start XI now (except Charles for Downes). Bit concerned that Bragg is still not back in the squad, concussion should not have kept him out this long, should it?

Thought you were better than that. The two things cannot be equated, it's like comparing apples to oranges. But the fact is, Armstrong has only once (in the Championship) come close to 1 in 2, at Blackburn, when he was actually much better, more like 1 in 1.4. Every season since then (in the Championship) he has been well below 1 in 2, indeed last season it was about 1 in 5. Since the Blackburn season (which remember was 6 years ago) he has often gone longish spells without scoring, and that's partly why he hasn't got close to 1 in 2 for the last 5 seasons. MLG's quote of nearly 1 in 2 was highly contrived, firstly taking only Championship seasons into account, and second going as far back as Blackburn to even remotely get near the figure he was quoting. I don't think we should let Armstrong go this season, but it is an undeniable fact that he goes longish periods without a goal involvement (two such runs this season) and we can't go on with a striker like that.

Statistically a goal every 2 games sounds good, but in reality he goes long spells with no goals (or assists), like now. He doesn't contribute when we are struggling, but has a purple patch when we are playing well (cause and effect).

Scienza fitness a doubt, as expected after he limped off on Sunday. Eckert says he might be OK, and they will do everything to have him on the pitch, scan showed no issues. Have heard that before. Doesn't sound overly promising.

His main issue is not the total number of goals (and assists), but that he goes long periods with little or no involvement. What is it now, 1 assist in 10 games,.at the beginning of the season 1 goal, no assists in first 8 games. In between, 7 goals, 3 assists in 7 games. A real purple patch, with long periods of next to nothing. Was his purple patch because we were playing well, or did his purple patch drive our team's good results. To me he isn't a driving force, he is reactive to how we perform. This season not so much but 2 years ago very few of his goals were critical, i.e. they didn't win a game or earn a point from a losing position, they were often just icing on the cake. All that said, we really should not be offloading him this season, because there is no one who could do what he does for us in the medium term (hopefully).