derry

Moss was transferred in from Bournemouth.

Absolutely correct furthermore referees and authorities are condoning the cheating. Any player that uses his hands and arms to impede an opponent ahould be penalised especially in the penalty area. Referees also have dual standards if it's a foul in the centre circle it's a foul in the penalty area. Players trying to stop free kicks being taken should be sent off. Appealing for throw ins when it obvious it's the oppositions throw. A fifteen minute yellow card sin bin would help referees to apply the rules. Football badly needs cleaning up, cheating is rife. The worst time waste of all is the referee stopping virtually every free kick in shooting range being taken until the ritual lining up of the wall at the required distance takes place. Why should the offending side be allowed time to organise a defence. the free kick should be taken as soon as the attacking side wants. The mobbing of the referee should be a sending off offence. If four players were sent off it wouldn't happen again. Penalties should be allowed to be taken immediately before booking action etc takes place and a penalty goal given if the defending side impede the taking trying to pressure the taker. The rules don't need interpretation they need applying.

Going to be interesting with Cardiff having two Carling Cup Semi Finals plus the FA Cup tie.

I don't want to hear players and management telling us what they are going to do and how good a squad we have. What I want to see is the manager not picking unbalanced sides lacking pace and players not doing on the pitch what they are spinning. FFS Kelvin forget the quotes and stop knocking the ball out to the opposition. Maybe a few goals from Schneiderlin, Cork and Hammond wouldn't go amiss. You're not as bloody good as you complacently are telling us the overpowering workrate has gone trying to score another 25 pass goal. A bloody shot on target from 25yds would be an event in itself so get at it there's plenty to work on without the spin.

If we aren't going to keep him don't cup tie him.

Schneiderlin didn't compete. The three of them wouldn't have worked either. SDR was our most effective attacker. Lallana and Guly were also poor. We missed Fonte pushing on into midfield. In the four and a half matches we played with the three together we scored two goals from play + Fox free kick to Lambert v Portsmouth and conceded seven which really sums it up.

Yes straight at him.

Another rebound from Davis for the first goal, It wasn't even a well hit shot FFS. It's happening far too often.

He didn't need to neuter the team by picking the three holding central midfielders in five matches, especially after changing it at 0-1 at halftime v Hull, then continuing the failure for three more matches.

Chaplow being injured definitely disrupted things but the failed experiment of playing Schneiderlin, Hammond and Cork together made a total mess of it. As soon as Chaplow was injured a forward player should have played wide right. We managed 1 win in five games, and that was only because SDR replaced one of them v Hull. Central midfielders that don't threaten never mind score goals is another part of the problem, I know we need a striker but a quality attacking goal scoring central midfielder is essential to provide something extra. For Davis to stop rebounding shots out to opposing strikers would help, it's not as if he gets many shots to deal with.

Not for the first time. The bad run was basically the failed experiment of playing the three central midfielders together for four and a half games yielding 2 points and 0-1 at halftime v Hull until one of them was replaced, no wonder Lallana has struggled.

Everybody has stood by this team and we are top of the league and up to eight matches ago were going well but the wheels have come off results wise and other teams are now playing well. It was deemed as sacrilege to voice criticism at anyone. If we are to get back on track in my opinion we need one thing above all else a quality goalscoring attacking central midfielder. One goal from the three midfielders is awful. It seems that even when they do get a goalscoring opportunity they don't even remotely threaten. It seems a lot of vital goals against are now coming from rebounds off the goalkeeper. We are short of a striker, Lambert is out until the end of January unless there is a successful appeal. Lallana and Guly are playing poorly without alternatives. We are at the moment looking really thin on quality in the squad. The squad needs reinforcement now, another goalkeeper is required, experienced centre back cover is needed and a decent wide player.

Dave, pm me if you hear anything worthwhile.

Seabourne was unlucky at Peterborough. Harding and Seabourne were left back to deal with CMS who is quicker than Seabourne. Seabourne was hung out to dry by Harding's abysmal positional sense and ball watching. Harding's position at least 15 yds to the left and slightly in front of Seabourne was rediculous when they were only picking up CMS. It meant that CMS was able to muscle Seabourne but Seabourne couldn't touch CMS because he was the last man. If Harding had dropped off behind Seabourne he could have taken CMS out for a yellow at the worst. He would also have forced CMS wider which was significant as Davis was beaten on his near post. Harding then ball watched again for the third goal turning his back on his man facing the corner so he couldn't see him. He was given a little nudge and his player slipped in front of him to score easily. Seabourne was unlucky with the penalty as the film made it look as though he didn't touch the player that went to ground at the same time he had his arms raised conceding non contact. I don't think Seabourne has come on since he signed for us and even a full recovery would put him just in front of Martin. In my opinion we need a couple of better replacements for these two.

That only leads to the self doubt leading to the present situation of dwelling too long in possession in the wrong place. He needs to play slick give and go passing in midfield, forget about holding the ball only just inside the opponents half, get into the last third and let his ability on the ball take care of itself where opponents can't afford to tackle him. He also needs to try and not get sucked into a mid position when we are attacking down the right, he would have a lot more opportunities loitering on the corner of the penalty area and arriving late unmarked and if necessary if the ball is cleared to our right reset to the corner of the box. It also sets him up for bending a shot inside the far post which he is so good at.

Dropping Fox because Lallana isn't playing well is one of the daftest suggestions on here. Lallana is a talent and in my opinion is trying hard to get back on form but has got it wrong. Instead of more running with the ball, taking more and more touches he needs to put in a bit of one touch team play and pass and move more thereby getting into better forward positions where his close control will naturally come into play. At the moment he is a peripheral figure playing in front of the defences he needs to be in behind.

Most of the possession we had was rushed and closed down but when we didn't have the ball we weren't working hard enough to get it back. They were in our faces but we didn't do the same. Schneiderlin is a purist and aggression was needed in the midfield last night.

That wasn't the reason, we needed a more physical presence to win more ball and close them down quicker. De Ridder's unfortunately tagged with this but it is the job of the other players to get on the end of them which we didn't do. He gave a perfect pass to Lallana to dither on and after James saved from him really should have blasted it low at the massed bodies coming in rather than trying to pick out Guly. Other than that he was our only hope of creating something because Richardson put some very poor overhit crosses in last night.

It will cost Maynard and his agent millions if he goes anywhere in January other than on loan. He would be a nutter not to let his contract run out.

Bristol City played with very high tempo, they worked so hard that unless we matched that tempo we weren't going to break them down. Even when DeRidder got down the right we were light on numbers and late into the box. On numerous occasions the ball broke in the six yd box but nobody had made the effort and gambled to get in there. For me apart from Lallana's infuriating self indulgent below par performance the problem was our slow pace of play up the whole spine. The three other flank players put in a good shift and competed. The slow motion started with the goalkeeper. Everybody in the country knows that Davis won't release the ball early, that he will eventually pass short to somebody so they set up with just enough space to entice him then close the ball down. He never ever passes in front of the receiver and often ends up with the ball launched by somebody under pressure or gets it back and lumps it himself. If we want to play from back we need a goalkeeper that is slick at releasing the ball so as to catch the opponents on the break not already compact and formed up. Hoiveldt was solid and constructive but Martin who defended well is extremely limited in possession meaning that our possession didn't work at the back. Cork worked his socks off in closing down but gave nothing in a forward sense. Schneiderlin for me struggled to adapt to the high tempo consequently we never got a proper grip on midfield and failed to support attacks from the midfield. In front of them Lambert was frustrated all night by a referee that gave no protection from the pushing that went on. Guly did some good things but his control was poor and far too many passes were given away. All in all we needed to match Bristol all over the park and fight for the right to play our football but we were off the pace and DeRidder was our only real threat. In hindsight although I thought the change might have been made at halftime Hammond and Cork would have been a more combative central midfield. Lallana needs either a wake up call or to be taken out of the firing line. With Guly from a football sense misfiring there is no room for sentiment. Now Connolly is back and DeRidder playing a part there is a little bit of scope for change.

Doncaster's Chairman last week stated he had a clause in his contract from 1st Jan any club offering £3m could talk to him.

The price in Sharp's contract is £3m (Doncaster's Chairman)

Maynard would be daft if he went anywhere until his contract is up. He would make a killing in July pocketing a big signing on fee and top wages. Coming to us would pale in comparison to waiting six months.

At that time Drew Surman wasn't getting a game which was a lesson well learnt. Staying was a no brainer if he wanted to play every week.

I would be very surprised if we make a Guly/SDR signing other than a goalkeeper from a foreign side. Anyone we sign for the first team has got to be able to fit/fill in immediately, to do that they would really have to be playing in this country already.It took quite a while for Guly/SDR to fit in. I personally favour Jutkeiwicz as he could play with or without Lambert and wants to play for us. Sharp and Rodriguez have turned us down already so even if they came to us now, their motivation as far as we are concerned is questionable. I would like to see us double up and try and bring in Vokes as one for the future/backup.