Sheaf Saint

Would have taken a draw at HT as we were very poor in the first half. Scored a good goal but still didn't create much at all. Burnley had by far the most of the play in the second half, mostly due to Shane Long's total inability to keep possession of the ball every time it was played up to him. They should have had a pen in the first half, and hit the woodwork, so it's no more than they deserve. Shame we couldn't hold on to that lead for another 30 secs, but it would have been a very undeserved win anyway if we had. Another point against a well organised team - another step closer to safety - especially if Cardiff lose later on. Not great, but not a disaster either.

Bugger. Oh well. Didn't expect to hold on to that lead, but annoying to give it away in injury time.

What is the actual point of Shane Long?

Good block/clearance from Vest.

Palace 2-0 Fulham now. Chelsea 5-0 against Hudds.

That was a lovely hit from Barnes. Deserved a goal really.

That's a bloody lovely finish that is!

Us. Header from a JWP corner (didn't see who it came off).

Looked like it could/should have been a penalty in real time, but in the slo-mo replay you can see Barnes is already going over before there is any contact. Poor from Alex though. Got his positioning all wrong there.

I'm guessing PEH must be injured because he's not even on the bench. Interesting to see Sims and Jones on the bench though. Wonder if either of them will get a run out?

Or it could be the same 3 CBs as recently with JWP at RWB, as he finished the game against Palace. Would perhaps leave us a little light in midfield, but do we really need two holding DMs when we're playing 3 CBs? I'm guessing not.

Yeah I wondered that too. And I imagine there must be a Burnley equivalent of this forum where they are all already consigned to the fact that Ings and/or Austin is guaranteed to score against them tomorrow.

Glad I'm not the only one with suspicions about that

Yep. And then 'Arry won it for March 2005, then we drew one and lost four of our five games in April, and got relegated. So I'm more than happy for Ole to take it. Not like there's any chance they will give it to someone else anyway, given his record.

I can't believe the ref gave that after a VAR review. That's nonsense. He won the ball with his head and there's no way he could have got his arm out of the way after the ricochet.

Seems like Japan have managed to get on the end of loads of crosses but just can't get their headers on target. And that's a ridiculous penalty decision. You can't possibly claim that's deliberate.

Japan get one back at last. They've been so much the better team so far so it's no more than they deserve.

Not really been watching it cos I'm at work, but it seems as though Japan have had by far the most of the game so far, while Qatar have been mostly crap but have scored with their only two shots on goal.

2-0 Qatar now. Doesn't look like Maya will be coming back with a medal after all

Qatar winning 1-0 already. And Maya just prevented a second goal with an incredible flying block.

Not sure about that, but you will be able to watch it on Bet365.

Why don't you crowdfund a consortium and make a takeover approach? Actually, no don't. Given your posting history, the thought of you in charge of the club sends shivers down my spine.

This simply isn't true. There's a misconception that he's lazy, but it has no basis in fact. He's actually a very hard working player - he just didn't fit in with the defensive style of Pellegrino, and Hughes didn't like him so was happy to ship him out on loan. I would love to see what he can do in a RH team.

We cleared some deadwood and got some high earning non-performers off the payroll. That was the most important objective for us this window, so in that sense it has been a partial success. I say partial because I'm sure we would have preferred to secure permanent moves for Hoedt and Cedric. But it's January and nobody was willing to pay our asking price for them, so getting them out on loan was the next best thing. Not ideal, but that's the legacy of Les unfortunately - big-earners on long contracts that we can't shift when they are surplus to requirements. We obviously tried to do some deals, but for whatever reason they didn't come off. Having been badly burnt in the last January window with Carillo, we clearly weren't prepared to chuck money away on yet another potentially expensive flop. None of the players we were linked with looked like an instant improvement over what we already have to me, so I'm actually glad we didn't overpay for risky signings once again. If we had gone out and spunked £15m on Che Adams and he turned out to be not up to it then people would still be moaning, so it's a case of dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Yes, I agree we look a little short of options in case of injuries. And the Palace game showed just how reliant we have become on Redmond's attacking threat and how much we miss it when that threat is nullified. But I don't think Ralph will be unhappy with what he has to work with between now and the summer, and I firmly believe we have enough about us to keep us above the dross at the bottom of the table.

His first yellow was for lashing out at JWP - just handbags really. Then he sarcastically clapped the ref for booking him, and he promptly showed him a second yellow. But Zaha just kept going, kept clapping him and wouldn't leave the pitch. It was quite pathetic to watch really.