S-Clarke

yep - sky sports 3, 7pm K.O.

Achilles injury, so fortnight at least.

I'm sure i read somewhere that players signed mid-season from the championship and above, cannot be included in the JPT squad...can anyone confirm that? Prob a load of rubbish, but im sure i saw it somewhere.

only confirmed his interest in Stock, but the problem is that Doncasters valuation doesn't meet ours....at the moment.

He's not the greatest of players, but i don't think he's been that bad this season? he's done a job when he's been asked to do one, and although he's clearly limited you cannot question his commitment. Still, he needs to be replaced if we're going to move forwards and i'm sure we'll do that this month.

I don't think we'll sign another ''top'' striker - probably just one more to add depth, although 4-5-1 can be seen as negative, with the right players it's actually a really offensive formation. Lallana hasn't been bad IMO, one of our better players - but our problem with Lallana at times is our bloody urge to hoof it, players like Lallana cannot play if you just hoof, they're completely isolated from the game. I've seen him try and win headers...and although he tries and works his socks off (you cannot deny that) - it's just not his game. Get someone to pass the ball to him instead of hoofing it and he'll be even more influential.

We can be, and we've shown that earlier in the season. Southend away for example, both players were excellent. what was the difference in that game for e.g....? Wotton in a 4-5-1. I'm not saying we need to play wotton etc - but we need another midfielder to give a bit more security to morgan and even lallana to a lesser extent.

lol how many did we have turn up for our ''Lowe, Wotte-Notta-Gotta-Clue'' march?

they're not that bad tbh. what they also have is a settled team, they've kept it the same for pretty much 2 seasons (colchester lost hammond, granted - but they did a good job replacing him with O'Toole).

yep, spot on. our team is better than the bottom half teams in the leauge, hence the wins we get against them - but it's not quite good enough against the leeds/norwich/colchester/millwall's etc...

i think it's the way in which certain people put their views across.

He's a funny player, undoubtedly has more ability than most players in this league but goes missing way too often. I don't think Hammond has been all that great recently either, which possibly is contributing to the quietness of morgan. Another good quality midfielder in there would shake things up a bit.

nope, he said on solent that it was 2 pts dropped because of the position we got ourselves in.

Johnny Ots

I do see what you mean but i think we've had a bit of a reality check recently. Colchester and Leeds are better teams than us (not in terms of out and out quality, but in terms of balance etc) - we've still got some way to go in certain areas. We really really lack drive and attacking quality from midfield, that IMO is our massive weak link - which makes stock a massive signing if it happens.

I'd guess that talks between the clubs will continue next week, they want Gillett back....and we obviously want to include him in any sort of deal. I've got a feeling that this could drag out until the 11th hour though.

I think Pardew came into this game to contain Millwall, that was the way our midfield seemed to be setup for this game (inc. bringing on Wotton for Hammond) - we were never too adventurous. We setup in a way to ''nick'' a result, rather than try to control the match. Was that the right thing to do? Personally I think we still lack the real quality in midfield to go and dominate a game against a top team in this league, so for now a more cautious approach is probably sensible. If the plan was to contain millwall today, you have to say it worked - they did have a few chances (as you'd expect) but surprisingly we had more possession than them in the game and we should have won it, ''good'' teams would have - and that would have been the sort of result that can win you a league title (scrappy 1-0's when you don't deserve it etc...) Today kind of summed up where we are, in the middle somewhere - not that bad and not quite good enough at times. I'm sure by the end of the window we'll be stronger but I don't think we'll see the complete benefit of this until next season. This season should be viewed upon as a building season - any success achieved should be seen as a bonus. I expect us (if we're still in this league next year) to dominate it and win it, if we're still stuttering along next season, that's when I think questions should be asked – not yet.

His (almost) exact words were... ''Stock is a player i like, a very good midfielder. But our valuation is different than the valuation that doncaster have for their captain. It's a bit of a longshot at the moment''

more of an enquiry rather than a formal bid IMO - but now with hammond out with an Achilles injury, i guess we'll find out one way or another next week.

Thomas, Pulis, Saganowski, Molly, Olly, Oscar, Forecast, Gillett - question marks over Holmes and Mills.

For me, the playoffs would always have been a bonus, i'd have taken top half of the table (8th - 10th) before the start of the season, and we're there or thereabouts. We're not far off in terms of competing with the best, but we're not quite at the level of Leeds or Norwich yet. This season was always a rebuilding season and anything else achieved would have been a bonus. The playoffs are still not out of the question either, but i'll admit it's starting to drift away from us.

possibly - first time that pardew has said he's interested in him specifically.

Pard's just said on solent that ''Stock is a bit of a longshot for us'' - as we cannot meet doncasters valuation.

pardew out

Jesus, i feel as crap as anyone, but some of the reactions here are mental. How the hell has pardew ''ruined'' our season? What on earth are you on about? we would be in the top 6 without the -10, and seeing what we started with (i.e a bunch of kids) that's not a bad effort at all really. so i don't agree that he has ''ruined'' our season.