S-Clarke

On any other day this is a comfortable win, just a freak result honestly. The issue isn't todays game, it's those 4 defeats in a bounce meaning that we need to be pretty much perfect every week - at least at home to get anywhere near the top 2. Teams who go up automatic don't lose 4 in a row, so it was always a tall order after that. In the bigger picture 7 out of 9 isn't terrible, but just not enough because of the strength of Leicester.

Today was just one of those weird days you get, our issues were prior to this when we shipped goals against Sunderland, Leicester, Boro etc - that's what killed our season. We needed 9 points out of 9 from these 3 to bring us remotely back to the rabble, but we didn't. We cannot afford the 4 defeats in a row with teams like Leicester in the league, who will probably get in excess of 100 points without breaking sweat.

Win that 1-0 and it would be viewed as a comfortable, no issues win. Absolutely baffled as to how they got anything out of that, a total and utter freak of a result. Their keeper played a blinder, but our play 2nd half was all too slow and predictable. And when it goes on like that, you're only one random moment away from an equaliser. 9 times out of 10 we win that game, first half there was nothing wrong with us, but we went into a shells a bit second half. Plainly obvious to me that auto promotion is going to be no where near us this year and I have to say I'm pretty devastated by that, we shouldn't be a play off hunting team with the squad we have. But that's the position we've got ourselves in so we've got to run with it. We'll probably go on a winning run when it doesn't matter.

Maybe he'll need another 6 months settling in time there as well? Such a peculiar player.

There's no way it goes to anyone other than Saudi IMO. Book the flights now.

It's no surprise though is it, it's always all about them. I didn't see Wolves kicking up the fuss when their legit goal was ruled out at the start of the season.

These sort of posts really confuse me. One minute you've got people crying out for pragmatic tactics, not as open etc etc, we get that, we win....but it's not good enough. We won, who the fuck gives a shit as to how we won. I don't. You'll get wins like that over the course of a season, if you expect any football team to sparkle every week then you're in the wrong sport.

I saw that, it's only because of $$$$. Fifa rake in more money from all these rich countries and governments. Then they've put Saudi in pole position to host the 2034 WC. Feels pretty dead.

We had some horribly gritty wins under Adkins. Leeds away comes to mind, we were absolutely destroyed by them all night, we were shockingly bad. Only Davis got us over in that one. Teams who go up automatic don't look like world beaters every week, it's just not possible. You need a mixture of wins and we'll have more of these I'm sure.

Pretty much how I saw it, had a good spell in the first half but didn't strangle them as much as we should have. Then they just became the thugs they are and just bombarded us with the ball and big blokes flying all over the place. They didn't let us play football in the end to be fair, they just kept the ball in the air as that is the Stoke DNA.

I thought Flynn was good tonight, tired a bit as the game went on, but he's a tidy CM. Think he would be better with a bigger stature next to him, as Smallbone gets eaten alive.

What an absolutely ugly game of football that was, not much to write about other than the win. I think we were dragged into the Stoke game a bit too much, they had absolutely nothing - a truly horrific side. We should have made it more comfortable than it was. Not entirely sure why Stu got MOTM - bit of a lazy choice just because he got the goal. In play he was inept tonight. Alcaraz was great slightly in front of him I think. Best player for me was THB - he quietly goes about it, but he just defends with no nonsense. Always in the right position, the ball is like a magnet to him. He's going to be huge for us. Subs made us weaker, Mara was really, really, really bad - didn't give us anything as a sub. Can't trust him now, go with Adams if we make that change going forward. Hopefully we get some takers in Jan.

Liverpool have released a 'Club Statement' across all their media outlets due to the VAR/or non decision at the weekend. Everyone suffers with the decisions, look at Wolves on their first game of the season. Did they feel the need to push an official club statement down everyone's throats? Liverpool FC statement - Liverpool FC Such a nonsense club. They think they're so special.

People are getting rather confused about that second half. They didn't own us, we just allowed them the ball in front of us whilst we sat a bit deeper and played more conservative on the break. If you're lazy in your analysis then you could look at the stats and say ''oh they had more possession, they owned us'' - but take time to look into it a bit more and you'll see what it was all about. One week you're complaining about us being too open, the next week you're complaining about us sitting deep and being a little more conservative when the game was already won. Something tells me you will never be happy, given you weren't even happy when we got back to back promotions last time.

I thought the first half was as good as we've played this season, we caught them cold and they were half asleep - we weren't. Sharp, snappy and clinical is how I'd describe that first half. We could have potentially had another goal in there as well, I thought Charly should have done better with the header. I really enjoyed Sullemana's performance, he's not all about pace - he's got great vision and ability when he's on the ball as well, as shown by his two assists. He had their RB for toast and he will do that to a lot this season if we play him. The second half was as conservative as we've been all season in my opinion. Leeds were always going to come out and try, but we defended so well and closed off all the channels. I've been critical of how open we've been against the likes of Leicester and Sunderland, but today we got the distances right and there weren't huge holes everywhere. We didn't sacrifice football for it, as we still played some good stuff. Overall it was a much more measured performance, we played when we could but we were careful and took calculated risks rather than risks at every moment. It was more of a conservative effort I'd say. Defensively outstanding and that is the THB we were getting - he was unreal, the ball was a magnet to him. Onto the proverbial cold, wet and windy Tuesday night in Stoke. Get a win there, get a win against Rotherham next week and in the space of a week we'd have turned it around.

Which is why FFP is so wrong. Smaller clubs punished by something that is meant to even the playing field. Meanwhile Chelsea have spent over a billion in a year.

The change next season will be just as much as this year, but with less money to play with and with less ability to attract high calibre players. That's why I've always believed that promotion this year is huge and not getting out this year could confine us to lower league football for quite some time. You have to wonder if failure this season will make SR just drop and run, nothing they touch seems to work - at any of their clubs. So we could even be talking about an ownership change.

True, but they haven't been scared to invest - that's one thing you can't put on them. But there is being able to invest and then actually investing correctly and knowing what the hell you're doing, and sadly they don't seem to know what they're doing and it feels to me as if they're a bit in over their heads. You'd think priority 1 is build up the 'flagship' club of their group, get that on a sound footing, then start looking around - but no, they've just gone in like a bull in a china shop grabbing other clubs whilst Rome burns around them. They seem naive to extreme levels.

That is really scary to be honest. There's no way we should be performing worse than that shower of a team, not with the finance behind it. I think we can probably confine this season to a 'rebuilding' season if we lose on the weekend, then just hope next year we are able to compete with Luton.

Personally I'm still blaming Eric Black.

If we hadn't been losing at home, every week, for the last 4 seasons then I'm sure the atmosphere would be better. We're ready to get behind a team, they just seem incapable of showing anything.

On paper this team shouldn't have any problems, but as you've put above it's all about playing people in their natural positions and providing the structure around them. We're doing neither and no matter how good a player you are, if you're asked to do something you're not familiar with - with no structure around you - then you've got no chance to look any good. Add the fact that these guys are mainly young kids, it's a recipe for disaster. When we last tried to experiment in the Championship it went horribly wrong under Port and Wotte - that was based on a philosophy of playing football with kids. They sunk. When we became successful after that ill-fated experiment it was because we filled the side with Hammond, Harding, Jaidi, Lambert, Butterfield - proper experience through the spine, and didn't fart arse around with a philosophy - we just put players where they play. That allowed the kids from the previous season to grow inside a structure, and we saw Lallana, Morgan etc grow into the core of our side. I have no doubts that Charles, Edozie, Larios, THB, Sulemana, Charly etc are really, really good young players - but we're not giving them a chance with how we're setting up.

Next season: ''The teams coming down from the PL have so much money these days, it's hard to compete. We will have to be perfect to be in amongst Burnley and Luton, but we will try''

This is the worry I've had in every single game we've played - our full backs get way too exposed. I think this system makes Manning look a hell of a lot worse than he actually is, which is really weird as he's someone Martin supposedly knows the strengths and weaknesses of. I'm pretty sure Swansea didn't do the inverted full back nonsense though, that certainly isn't helping things as the space down the flanks is just ridiculous. Every team we have played, even Gillingham, have targeted that.

Exactly, we cannot afford a transitional year as nothing will be the same next year. Adams, KWP, Bednarek, THB, Fraser, Holgate, Downes, Sulemana, Alcaraz - it's basically starting all over again, like we did this year, but with less $$ and a lower reputation as we won't be a recently relegated side. Failure to go up this year, IMO, will confine us to the lower leagues for many, many, many years. Some of us may never see PL football again.