VectisSaint

Just bear in mind that Ipswich and Leicester have not met so far this season. One or both is going to drop some points in those two matches. Probably best for us if one or other does the double. Ipswich have a difficult run from tomorrow until 22 Jan (Watford A, Norwich H - local derby, Leeds A, Leicester H, QPR, Stoke, Sunderland and then Leicester A). They will be doing very well to keep up their current average between now and end January.

Charles is not having a good match. Stupid yellow and giving the ball away, looks a bit like the Charles we saw at beginning of season, thought he had got through that.

He was awful last year, but made no difference to whether we stayed up or not. The whole team was awful, we would have been relegated whoever was in goal.

Yes, I think you are missing something. It won't be 19 unbeaten if we remain unbeaten this weekend. I think you may have missed the point. The record is 19 which has stood for over 100 years.

Nothing like that, sorry you don't understand. It isn't pointless at all (in as much as anything is pointless if it is just idle speculation), fact is we may have looked dodgy in first few games but that was not reflected in the only stat that really matters, i.e. how many goals we conceded, which is how we are judged "defensively" (none of this xG nonsense or whatever it is). We had 3 extremely dodgy games, playing players out of position and so on), replace the 3 bad games (defensively, remembering we did actually draw one v Norwich) with 1 or even 2 goals conceded in each of them and we would still be second best in the League defensively. Those 3 games left a lasting misapprehenison about our defensive capabilities and will no doubt colour our defensive record for the season.

No. 19 league games in 1921 as previously reported.

Girona are not Oriol's hometown club. H was born in Ulldecona (in south Catalnia), whereas Girona is in the north of Catalonia. Hs boyhood club (i.e. where he played) was Barcelona. I think the attraction of Gerona was that it is a Catalan club (like Barca) and Oriol identifies strongly as a Catalan (he represents Catalonia in "international" football, although they are not a full FIFA country.

The tightening up at the back started before Calderwood arrived, primarily when we started to have a relatively consistent defence and CM (KWP, HB, JB, Manning, Downes and Smallbone, not forgetting Bazunu of course). But Calderwood certainly has not done any harm. The porous defence is really a bit of a myth, we had 3 bad games in short order (Norwich, Sunderland, Leicester) which made our stats look very bad. We have not conceded more than 2 in any other league game, and only conceded 2 in a game twice. Take those 3 games out and we probably have the second best defensive record in the league.

Will just be pleased to get to 40. Should be enough to keep us up even with 46 games 😉

Would be nice to honour Chris Nicholl

No chance of long term, but short term loan might be a possibility, don't think he wants to leave Chelsea and they don't want him to go, already rejected interest in him from Fulham.

Didn't sound like it, especially Stewart, I would suggest early February at best.

Toi be fair, t was his playing in the Bundesliga that was being discussed. He has played only 63 minutes in 7 appearance so far in the League, 1 goal, no assists. So far Leverkusen have scored 37 goals this season in 12 games. Clearly struggling to break through into the very successful first team, but his recent goal will help no doubt. In the Europa League he has made 5 starts, also 1 goal, no assists. Nevertheless Sulemana is way behind Tella at present, but bear in mind he has 3 years to develop before he reaches Tella's age.

So how does that help, given we have the current set up and style of play? If he isn't suited to Martin's set up and style, then he won't do well this season and so won't boost our promotion chances. We would be better off with someone that does suit. I think he has flattered to deceive so far, but then most thought that about Mane when he joined, and he seems to have done quite well for himself. By the way I can't see that Tella has done particularly well since he left, 2 goals and no assists in 12 apps, is not exactly ripping it up.

You do know that the WSL teams enter in the 4th round, so that means Manchester City and United are still in. I would guess that Bristol City are still in along with Rovers. Probably others. Besides, Moneyfields are in Portsmouth so that's two Pompey teams in the 3rd round. Also we aren't a town. Otherwise sound comment. 😉

... and the 4th Round is on 14th January, hence the big gap in the fixtures, though quite why the women have a long break over Christmas is a bit odd.

So why was he in the stands before the game, as I pointed out? It is actually very difficult to find information on exactly what is and isn't allowed during a touchline ban. One thing I read says that managers are not allowed any contact with players for the duration of a match (which would suggest not allowed in the Dressing Room at HT). But also they are allowed to participate in team talks, so how does that work, that would suggest they can be in the Dressing Room before kick-off but not at half-time. So why was RM in the stands before kick off?

Not really Liam Manning's style. Manning favours a high possession, high pressing style of football. But maybe its too soon to have changed City from Pearson's style.

Was he even in the Dressing Room at HT? He was sat on the stands before KO, assumed it was more than a touchline ban.

Is it Bob a Job week?

No its 2 (Stoke and Millwall). We've conceded 7 in the last 8, not sure how much improvement you expect on that. We've actually only had 3 league games where we have conceded a quantity of goals, yes they were bad (though even one of them we at least got a point). People are hung up on those 2 heavy defeats, yes they were diabolical, but they were clearly a blip. When we have a proper defence in place and our midfield is performing we now look quite solid, KWP, Bednarek, THB and Bree are looking good and Holgate has now shown he can perform as well, and we still have Stephens to come back.

New manager bounce for Millwall, Joe Edwards

Currently in Indonesia, u17 World Cup for England, scored yesterday in 10-0 win over New Caledonia. Tyler Dibling also scored.

No, never has been unless they changed the rules this year. Unless we chose not to enter all I can think is that they selected the teams based on some sort of ranking (league position last year?) and we were not in the top 16, but given we came top of Div 2 that doesn't seem likely.

I'm still puzzled why we are not in the EFL Trophy this season, it at least have us 3 games against half decent opposition.