saintant

I don't think West Ham have any interest in Downes.

West Brom for me as we have beaten them twice while not beating Norwich at all.

I'm not sure there would have been many moans. To be fair most would have had Charles in the side from the start with Downes out. It's very puzzling that when Downes was withdrawn at half time against Preston RM chose to bring on Charles. Yet he doesn't pick him for the Cardiff game! I can't make any sense of that nor the fact that he then chose not to bring him on when we were crying out for a holding midfielder - instead he makes a total car crash by bringing on Rothwell, Edozie, Fraser and Sulemana. Not the actions of a coach who is thinking rationally and it all smacked of desperation. Let's just hope RM demonstrates a cooler head in the frenzy of the play-offs when one of the biggest prizes in football is at stake.

Can't see us winning this one after screwing up yesterday as players will be in the wrong mindset. A win yesterday and I'd have fancied us. Downes will probably not play due to his 'slight knock' and with Stu also out the midfield will be weak. Limp towards the play-offs and I hope we'll give ourselves a fighting chance come the second leg at St Marys. If we make it to Wembley it's about performing on the big day rather than bottling it and we'll likely need a slice of luck.

But this shouldn't happen unless the coach is not up to the level he needs to be. A decent coach would have made fine tuning tweaks and steadied the ship giving us our best chance of winning - might not have worked but it's all about giving yourself the best shot in the heat of the battle. Seems to me there was wholesale panic in the dug-out and that is unacceptable. We could have still won the game after Cardiff equalised but you can't just lose your shit and make crazy decisions.

This is the really damning thing. They were there for the taking.

RM always plays down injuries to Downes.

No fist pumps today for RM. Let's hope he's saving them for Wembley.

Wow!

Subs do smack of panic and it seems to have been reflected on the pitch.

Will there be much extra time?

Maybe spare a thought for the player.

Cool heads needed.

Happens too often.

Love him to prove me wrong but I don't think Sulemana will help.

Trouble is it's all a bit desperate when it really should have been done and dusted. Hard to keep your heads and score when it counts for so much.

Think we blew all our chances in that first half. Gonna be tough now.

Shit or bust now. If we don't get all 3 points here it's the play-offs.

Sounds like we're battering them but not clinical when the chances come. Need to put this game to bed asap because Cardiff will fancy getting something if we continue to waste opportunities.

We've heard this before!

It's going to be a real tough, long haul for the lad and I wish him well in this difficult time.

We've been lucky enough to have some of the best. Le Tiss and Lambert never hit it down the middle they just placed it with power.

It looked to me like Silva was trying the old penalty kick straight down the middle routine and maybe the keeper was expecting it because he just stood there and caught it.

It was all fairly believable until I came to the bit which stated 'Sulemana controls the ball first time'

Assuming Macca leaves in the summer we need to sign a new number 1 keeper and demote Baz to second choice with Lumley as cover for injuries.