hypochondriac

I woild still like us to produce a performance like this against 11 men for 90 minutes but beggers can't really be choosers in a day like today. I still want some assurance that our approach will work longer term.

He's a young kid who made a mistake and hopefully learns a lesson from it. He even apologised after scoring. Give the guy a bit of slack.

What a great performance and a cracking win. Worth highlighting days like today after all the shit we have had to endure for so long. Thoroughly enjoyed my day today and looking forward to QPR now.

I'd say points wise we are slightly above my expectations at the start of the season. Particularly when we didn't sign a fit striker of note.

Stand by this. Not too low or high after a performance. Overall this season we are doing very well.

Bizarre comment given the service we got from Ings last time out.

How many people seriously expected him to stay in the summer? I would have had him nailed on to leave. The reality is we have been lucky to see him in this division. If he goes then no one could say it wasn't fully deserved. He's our best player for me and really should be making England squads.

We'd likely replace KWP with the other West Ham player. I love KWP but I was amazed he didn't go in the summer and we've been incredibly lucky to get another half a season out of him if he does go. He's also a RB which TBH isn't the most vital position on the pitch even if he is probably our best player. KWP out, Ben Johnson in Adams out, Ings in Holgate out, not sure we need a replacement. I'd probably take that with the hope that Stewart and Ings could share the load given they won't be up for starting every game. If I were greedy I'd like a creative player too but I'm not sure we'll be getting that in January.

I don't disagree with any of that. I said in the summer how annoyed I was that we didn't bring in a striker that was ready to start. Bringing in Stewart was idiotic and has probably cost us the chance of getting closer to the top 2. It's happened now though so no point getting all bent out of shape because we're just managing to match the performance of Burnley from last year despite our deficiencies up top.

I know people hate the stats but solent mentioned that our xg over I think the last five games is 1 which means we are in fact scoring the chances we are getting we just aren't making many...

Firstly I wasn't comparing us to other teams but them doing better than us doesn't make what we've done bad. Secondly, Leicester clearly had a far superior squad to us to begin with and had less upheaval.

I would say the results are a clear sign of progress when we haven't even had half a season yet and when we lost as many players as we did over the course of the summer. If we get to this time next year with some different players and the same deficiencies that would be the time for me to question if this is the right pathway. I don't think anyone can seriously argue that we haven't seen signs of progress this year although clearly we would like a bit more in terms of penetration and ultimately goals.

Agree with that. Shades of Huddersfield in League One when it seemed like it became more important at a certain point to protect the unbeaten run rather than to win games of football. I think it's a mentality thing more than anything not just tactics.

Well we don't know for sure do we. Armstrong has certainly been more prolific this year and Che Adams couldn't hit a cow's arse before this new style came in. I'd like to see what a more creative AM and clinical finisher could do in this system before writing it off entirely.

100%. Also worth pointing out that the vast majority of primary inspections are carried out by inspectors with little to no experience of early years. It's a distinct category incredibly different from older year groups.

I think people need a bit of perspective. If everyone was told our points tally at this point of the season when we started the season then almost everyone would be biting your hand off. Yes the style could be better and we could be winning games more convincingly, but the vast majority would have been predicting playoffs after our summer of upheaval. We're probably performing slightly above where I expected us to be given we are now very comfortably in the playoffs. Lets bring some goals in in January and some creativity and hopefully we will find that some of our lack of domination is down to personnel rather than just the system.

Part of me would love this even though I don't think it would be a success. I'm also not sure he'd be able to play the football we currently play. Fuck it though it would be awesome to see him on the pitch and getting a few goals.

Stories like this everywhere. Seems the only people who don't think there's a problem are people who have never worked in schools.

Will add that I don't think we should really place much stock in much that Martin says in interviews. He's routinely said about making changes and then playing the same team or Downes being ready and then him not making the bench. I think that largely his post match comments about pride and how good we were is just bland platitudes to build up the players. Who knows if he really believes much of what he says.

Yes I agree with you. We haven't truly dominated an entire game all season which I think is partly because of the amount of players we have from last year still. I'm not sure we have the calibre of players to dominate other teams with this style of play but this is what we have decided to go for so we have to make it work as best as we can. I'll be interested to see if we can make it work better with a few different attacking options beyond ones that have never really worked like Mara.

Yep. Hoping for a couple of reinforcements in January to help us with this. I'm sure the club would have been counting on Stewart being fit now to contribute to things. We've also lost Sulemana which will inevitably make us slower. Very confident of getting playoffs now and little chance of automatic which tbf I would have taken after we lost 4 in a row. Hoping to increase our goals scored which should give us more chance of success in the playoffs.

I'm satisfied with a point away to a decent team on a good run of form. Any normal championship year and we'd be top of the table right now. Yes I want some better performances but I'm not pissing my pants like some people.

Draw away to Coventry isn't the worst result. It only sucks because we didn't beat Watford.

What a shit lineup we picked to start this game. That midfield was crap and Bree has done nothing wrong to be dropped.

Admittedly I was dipping in and out doing other things but I thought we looked alright?