S-Clarke

I'm happy with a draw, at the end of the day Ipswich have dropped points in their penultimate home game. 3 aways on the spin for them now, if they get 9 points from that lot then fair do's. Even 'If' Boro had won, it didn't really change what we needed. At the end of the day we always needed to win all of our games, Ipswich and Millwall need to throw in 1 or 2 duff results. That wouldn't have changed no matter what result today, but dropped points for both is the better result imo. Keeps Boro a little bit away from us, so we've gained on Boro and Ipswich this weekend. If we do settle for the playoffs, 3rd or 4th will have the 2nd leg at home - so that's another advantage to play for.

I looked at Leicester and Spurs down there and thought, interesting to see....but no chance. But it could actually happen you know. Leicester are all but gone, but if the results go against Spurs this weekend then it's looking a bit squeaky for them too.

I honestly felt we'd be scrambling around with Derby, so to be all but assured in the playoffs with 3 games left is utter nuts. To be 1 point off 2nd is just nonsense. A lot is made of the collapse of Boro, but we've fully capitalised on that lot (and it wasn't as dramatic a collapse as some make out really) Ideally you'd want a Boro win today for sure, but even an Ipswich win and we've still got chances. I look at Ipswich away to WBA and then ourselves, if they get 6 points from those then fair do's - but they've still got opportunities to drop points after today. Millwall are an interesting one as they're in there right now, and their run in does look 'ok', you'd imagine they'll do Leicester quite comfortably. Stoke away isn't a 'banker' by any means, so there are opportunities for them to pickup a draw somewhere I reckon. Like ourselves, Millwall need to be perfect. Maybe Smallbone can come back from injury to head in an own goal against Stoke or something? All totally exciting though, and from a season which was looking like mid-table nothingness - with a bunch of players a lot of us couldn't stand - you have to say this is the biggest turn around in a season I can ever remember.

That's our toughest remaining away game out of the way, and we managed to win it from a position that we'd have lost 9/10 6 months ago. It wasn't perfect and we struggled to get going in the 1st half, but we still kept them at bay and didn't allow them to do too much damage even though they somewhat had our number. I thought Vipotnik was marshalled superbly, bar the flick on he got at the far post, in play he was really well nullified I think. Wood did a good job on him and that is exactly how you use a squad - chose players based on attributes for specific reasons, don't change the shape, just slot one in and one out - perfect. Common sense. The second half was much better, I think Swansea tired a bit - and I think one of the other big takeaways from the last 3 or 4 months has been our fitness over the course of 90, we seem to have teams on the ropes at the end. Given the amount of games we've played and the fixture pileup, I think our sports science/physios and management are dealing with the squad as well as you could ever dream of. I thought Stewart struggled yesterday to really impose himself, I love Larin as he injects so much energy and running when he comes on. He's a perfect number 9 in that respect. He's not static, he moves everywhere and you can anchor an entire attack around him. There are a few differences with this team that we haven't seen in many years, a lot of it comes down to a common sense approach to football - which isn't too common in football nowadays. 1 - A GK who is a GK 2 - A focal point to build an attack around 3 - Skilful and energic players in and around the 9 to pickup the bits and pieces 4 - Playing players in their natural positions and allowing partnerships to form. 5 - Being purposeful every time you have the ball and not recycling it for 10 mins just 'because'. 6 - Hitting it long when needed, not farting around keeping the ball at the back all the time - even when it's not safe. 7 - Players having clear instructions about how to mark, when to press, where to be available on the pitch. Sometimes it's the most obvious things that can make it all click, but we've had years of managers and coaches trying to do clever bollocks stuff - but I always point back to Adkins and Koeman to a degree, we never had what I'd call a defined 'philosophy' or 'style' (like Martin for e.g.), but we just had good players, in their right positions and a common sense manager. I'm not trying to belittle Eckert at all, I think it goes to show that managers who have this sort of 'view' of football are few are far between these days - there are way too many Rosineiors and Martins. Football needs more Eckerts.

Definitely cannot under estimate how much they've improved us too. Tonda has identified the gaps and suggested the GK and ST, I'm sure. And it's been transformational. The structure of the team is amazing though, I mentioned it before but we just look well coached. Players making runs in advance of getting the pass, players pressing in groups rather than individually. The entire machine feels coordinated, and you can even swap players around and it still functions the same - that's all down to coaching.

I like Larin because of his physicality, I think he adds a dimensional focal point we don't really have without him. Stewart is another shout for sure, he's more 'cute' in terms of how he plays - better touch, not as quick, more of a vision. Larin is a bit more all action and I think that energy helps everyone.

To even be in the conversation at this point just doesn't really compute, given where we were in November to be sat here with 4 games remaining and 3 points off 2nd is just twilight zone stuff. I think the equation to get there is quite clear - we need to win every single remaining game. That hasn't changed for me. If we can finish on 84 points with 10 wins in a row then we'll be in with a shout for sure. It may still not be enough, but we've got to give ourselves the chance. In terms of the playoffs, that's done - amazingly. We're there bar the shouting.

I really like him, adds such a different dimension to us. He's so strong, full of energy and elusively quick. We've not had someone like him for a while. Our January transfer window was brilliant, the 3 adds (if you include Bree) have been transformational.

That was absolutely superb, I can't remember such a one-sided first half before. Blackburn struggled to get out at all, luckily we capitalised as I always thought they'd get better. They did get better, the change they made with Ohashi coming on made a huge difference to them in attack - gave us something to think about, and he was moving us around a bit. They were very static in the first half, but we pushed them up a bit. I don't think they had anything to lose really, so they did open it up a bit, but we did defend very well in the main. There was that one shot where they hit the bar, Ohashi i think, but other than that they didn't truly test us much as we kept them at arms length. When we did get the chance to transition, we did, and we did it well - although we were more wasteful in the 2nd half finishing wise. I know Archer got MOTM, and that was one of his best games for us for sure - played really well, but Larin was my MOTM. He was a machine. Running left to right, front to back, holding the ball, playing others in, out muscling them, and scoring. He was epic and it shows how important a focal point is in all parts of the team. We are immediately more physical. I'd also say Larin is another reason Archer had a good showing, Archers best time came with Akpom at Boro - small man feeding off big man, small man feeding big man etc. Archer was never designed to be the main number 9, but if he's supported by physicality I think you can see what he brings. Charles has certainly gone up levels since we were last in the Championship, he was a bit majestic I thought. Winning the ball, running with the ball, his passing in behind was absolutely sublime - it was the ultimate CM performance. He's actually a very progressive central midfielder, not the all out defensive midfielder we used him as in the Martin days. If someone told me I'd be feeling like I am now, back in November, I'd tell them they're off their rocker. It feels like one extreme to the other, it's hard to really compute how we've improved over this period of time. I'd given up on playoffs, distant memory, but to be sat here with Playoffs being all but confirmed and automatics back on the horizon is a pure mind bend, it has to be said. Onto the next one...

It's totally fair to give them a thumbs up when things go well, but equally the 'boot' when things are pretty bad. Let's be fair - based on the whole bigger picture, they have been terrible owners for us. They have wasted a lot of money and made stacks of managerial mistakes. Relegated us twice. They really don't have any credit in the bank. I think they deserve credit for shaking things up in the summer and in January, but we need another couple of years of 'good' decisions from them if they are to erase all of their mistakes from the past.

Bank that.

They'll be without most of their attack at the weekend, so it'll be interesting to see how they play. Carlton Morris is back though, he's another in the 'Moore' category of being hard to play against. Trying hard not to get too expecting of this team, but it does feel somewhat relentless at the moment.

My overriding opinion when Tonda was appointed wasn't positive, I felt a bit sorry for Tonda as I felt he was going to be thrown under the bus. It's not like I didn't have evidence to go back on, as Selles and Rusk are the examples of when we tried this before. No one of us really knew about Tonda, it was really his analysis background and no footballing/management background which made us all blink a bit. But maybe he's what we needed, a bit of intelligence and analytical structure applied to the players in a way they understood, as I'm sure we all agree that as a squad/players - most of them are as good as this league can offer. Personally I think he's very clever, very perspective and an exceptionally quick learner. He always seems to be thinking and analysing, and obviously that comes from his background. I didn't realise he produced the dossier for the Germany team in the World Cup Final against Argentina many years ago, so I'm not sure why it's taken so long to be truly seen. I don't think he's a shouter, nor an ego driven manic - he seems calm, composed, introverted and quite reserved - which is probably why he's not been on anyone's radar before now. I don't think he can hide now though. We can definitely shout when they get it wrong, which they have, but I think it's worth giving genuine credit to the footballing department, including Spors, for a few elements this year. The singings of Jander, Azaz, Larin, Pertez, Leo - not 'obvious' picks, but absolutely shrewd. I'd been calling for those sorts of clever signings for years, and we've done just that. Still was a blot - but I think the intentions were right, it just didn't work and it doesn't always work. At this stage the 2 year deal may not be good enough! Let's hope he's not the Saganowski of Management

I'm not getting too excited about 2nd, I don't think that's realistic as we will literally need to win every game, in addition to the other 3 dropping points, 5/6 games isn't enough for us to leapfrog 3 sides. If we had say 15 games left then absolutely, well in there - but it's just come a little late. It's amazing it's even being debated though. Let's just finish as high as we can, I reckon we'll end up around 4th/5th. The momentum is with us, very much in the same way as it was with Forest under Cooper years ago when they finished in the playoffs.

I think you have to take these things over the season - and it'll be Leo for me. Azaz would be close but he has had dips in and out, along with the team, but Leo has been more consistent even during the down moments. There are many more options now than there were a few months ago though, and that's an amazing turn around.