CanadaSaint

That would be a little surprising wouldn't it, Dave? Costs - as in wages - shouldn't be that big a stumbling block if we really need the player because they're pro-rated for the balance of the season. Perhaps it's the insurance or Reading are looking for a fee, or something else. Strange.

This is how Cortese's "principles" will be tempered, because he didn't get where he is without learning from experience. Leaks are a fact of life in football and there are big sieves, leaking everything, and little sieves, leaking some things. There is no leakproof club of any size or stature. If he can't have complete control, which he can't, he'll have to settle for small leaks. The alternative, in this case, is to pull out of a potential deal on the kind of player we desperately need - possibly the last piece of the promotion jigsaw. That would be a "cut off his nose to spite his face thing."

Okay for me but it did slow-up quite a bit near the end.

You're becoming more childish by the day, which - for you - is quite an achievement. Go stalk someone else. BTW I notice you've been on a charm offensive lately, trying to win back the people who find you negative and tiresome, but you're missing a key ingredient. Well, several actually.

This thread should have been strangled at birth.

It's got Minty written all over it. Or possibly Weston.

Some things are better left un-said. It's only a matter of time before one of our forum morons turns up rejoicing.

Please tell me you're kidding. You're not, are you?

Yes, and further to that I'd offer this: The more I look at the likely candidates for positions 3-6 (Peterborough, Huddersfield and the hard-charging Leyton Orient, who have been doing it for weeks) the more anxious I am to finish in the top two. While I don't doubt our skill levels and while I still think we have the best players in the division, I'm not convinced that we have the intestinal fortitude necessary to emerge from that lot in the playoffs. Saturday is huge.

Same as dune for me, and I'm pretty sure the issue's not at my end.

I'm sorry to hear that and it's hard not to view it as a continuation of the disregard for the past. It wasn't much to ask that we did something to honour him appropriately, and I'm afraid the club is not doing itself any favours with this.

Brighton are a classic illustration of the truth behind the following words: The harder I work, the luckier I get. (Samuel Goldwyn, apparently)

Is he okay with that?

Awful isn't it, and it's a home game FFS. Saturday is going to be a gong show on here.

3-0 up but Alps is *****ing about results elsewhere (even though the top two are dropping points) and lard has completely disappeared. Hypo sounds positive, though. Go figure.

Dave FFS. Don't keep saying that sh*t.

First I've heard of it. Now, what we don't need to do is concede a goal before half time. What we can't afford to do is take our foot off the pedal. Lalanna is arbosoootly margnificent.

Whydoyoukeepcuttingout?

Excellent result today, Dave, especially there. There's another type of team I'm on the lookout for, and one seems to turn up every year. It's the "spoiler" - a team not really going anywhere themselves but capable of screwing up teams that are. Every team will slip but it's just so damned frustrating that we used up one of our lives at Walsall of all places. Vancouver's great. As I type this I'm watching a cruise ship sail past on its way up to the Alaska coast. Not as warm as Harry and Adsy, though!

Ah, but I'm positive as in "optimistic" but not positive as in "confident"! I remember Muhammed Ali saying that if he hit some guy (it might have been Cooper) and he didn't go down, he'd walk round the other side to see what was holding him up. That's how I feel about Bournemouth, and I really admire the way they have refused to fall back on excuses. I wish our lot had their intestinal fortitude - especially as that's what keeps you going through fixture backlogs.

I agree with you. Every year we see a team that goes into free-fall and a team that puts together a late run and comes from nowhere. Orient may well be the late-run team and I have a feeling that Bournemouth might hit a bad patch; hopefully it will start next Saturday.

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I took issue with you last night because I think you deserved it but I agree completely with that thought today. Time and time again those two names have gone through my mind as "just what this side needs". Those exact two. They insisted on commitment, they insisted on sticking to the things we do well, they pulled the errant sheep back onto plan with their leadership, and they never once expected anyone to do something they weren't willing to do themselves. I happen to think that Adkins is doing fine but he can't be out there on the pitch, and when things go pear-shaped the leadership void seems clearly apparent. Our biggest problem - in my opinion and granted from far, far away - is that if we don't score when we're on top, we start drifting away from the game plan and things can go to hell in a handbasket. If we had either a Bally or a Case this year I think we'd be well clear at the top. But that kind of leadership doesn't grow on trees.

LOL. You seriously need to grow up and practice your reading skills. Like your balanced judgment skills, they really go down the sh*tter after a loss. As I said last night, you have a problem with Cortese, you have a problem with Adkins and you have a problems with many of the players. I know what you're "against" but I'm very unclear about what you're "for". I'm not going to start up with you again, hypo. Most people have moved on from last night. Have a nice day.

I think I did because we see this junk from the same people with every bad result. Even after a night's sleep I'm still frustrated about it. That's an excellent post IMO. I especially agree with the last sentence although I think the "one or two" understates it. For me, now, it's not a case of that hideous loss but of how we respond to it. By all accounts we played well enough to win and Adkins deserves some credit for that. If we don't respond to the loss with extra effort at the weekend my relatively mild concerns about Adkins will increase. But as I've said before, I think our squad is much better suited to the Championship than to away nights at Division One grounds. Adkins' big challenge (just as it was Pardew's) is to get these guys "up" for this kind of challenge or else we'll still be here next year - and he, along with some key players, won't. And, for what it's worth, I think we need to finish in the top two because I'm not convinced we're strong enough psychologically to make it through the playoffs.