S-Clarke

Why would you want to sell him? Ideally we now keep him and make him a pivotal starter in whatever league we are in, he's a PL level player as proven. He was in and out of the side way too much and could never establish himself. Class player who we were lucky to still have, and we massively misused him.

Depends what his aspirations are I guess, but in my opinion if any of our out of contract guys were sticking around (Che/Stu/McCarthy) then they'd have signed by now.

Great news, he did not deserve an end like that. I hope we give him all the help he needs to get to the Euro's, then if he has a good Euro's he'll have a pick of clubs in the summer now he's not going to be injured. I can see him back at Celtic, could be a great move for him.

That was the most pointless FA Cup Semi Final win ever, the Utd players knew how much they fucked that and how undeserved it was in the end - they didn't even run over to celebrate with Rasmus when he scored, all very odd for them. The right result would have been a Cov win after the way they got back into it, but I guess we now get to see Utd pulverised by their neighbours. The money makers in the FA will love it though, will generate the bean counters more money than a City v Cov final.

It definitely is a freak season for sure, at the same stage last year Sheff U were promoted on 84 points and Luton were on 78. I don't think the points tallies will be anywhere near as high next year, but with the players we had this year (KWP/THB/Downes - absolute PL level players) we should have got closer to the teams setting the pace imo, we've always been stuck on the periphery and look in from a 'what could have been' angle - and that's what's frustrated me more than anything.

Those bits I've highlighted are the key takeaways for me - what we are seeing playing out here (in terms of chances gifted/goals conceded) is identical to what played out at Swansea and MK Don's - he hasn't learnt. I've read some of his comments from yesterday calling them nonsense goals to concede, we need to cut that out etc - absolutley agree with him, but he said exactly the same about the Bristol City goals, the Huddersfield goals, the Ipswich goals etc - it's like groundhog day, no one is learning anything in my eyes and I don't think it'll ever change. I get what you mean about stability 100%, but my fear is that Martin has consistently shown that he cannot coach a team to defend at multiple clubs. His teams always gift up opportunities and opponents know that. If we fail this year the quality of our squad next year will be stark compared to this, so we'll score less goals and probably concede around the same/maybe more - which will equate to a Swansea City and MK Dons finish of mid-table if we're not careful.

Birmingham City away, West Brom away. He has produced moments for us, but plays as an individual which is the problem.

Don't do it to yourself! It was over once we lost to Ipswich away (And the two home games against Hull/Millwall). That meant we put ourselves in a position where we needed to win every game - we couldn't even afford to draw. We can only get 94 points now (seems a bit odd saying only!), Leicester are already on 91 and Ipswich are on 89. Definitely time to really forget about it now. We have consistently been 6 or more points away from the top 2 most of the season, as soon as we get a sniff we choke and it's back to 6+ points again. Leeds are struggling a bit to finish 2nd now imo. Big game for them tomorrow, can at least watch that without putting pressure on us.

I've enjoyed parts of this season, but there's something nagging in me that isn't filling me with much excitement. Promotion efforts should be exciting, lots of comfortable wins and the such - but that's not really felt like the case for us, we're constantly letting everyone we play back into the games - recurring theme, so it's been hard to enjoy a lot of games this year. Our 26 unbeaten run was decent for sure, but it was littered with some crappy draws - and not many comfortable wins. I think our 'relaxed, sit back and enjoy' moments come over Christmas with Swansea, Blackburn etc - but most of the season has been a bit of a chore watching us try and chug outa result, not sure if I'm the only one feeling that. We may look back next year and wish we still had this for sure, but I think it's fair to have expected a little bit more dominance in terms of results/score lines with the players we have this year. We'll never, ever, ever have a better chance.

Yes, 110% agree with you. I still see people on social media proclaiming the reason we're not where Ipswich are is because we don't score enough goals. ''Martin can't do anything if we can't score goals'' - bullshit, not buying it at all. We score bags and bags and bags of goals, but we don't manage the leads we get ourselves into. 2-0 up, 2-2, 2-1 up, lose 3-2, 1-0 up lose 1-2 - it's a recurring theme and that's not because we don't score goals, it's because we fail to control the games in the second half and continuously provide any team we play a sniff - and teams will grab that sniff, no matter how shit they are. I can count our comfortable wins on one hand where I can sit back on an hour and enjoy it, everything else has been edge of your pants stuff or last min rescue acts. I think that may be why I feel a little underwhelmed by our efforts this year, evne though we'll probably beat our 2012 points total.

We'll win it, then lose to Stoke at the weekend.

He did pull off some great saves tbf, I recall one from a diving header from Adam Armstrong - he couldn't have done anymore, but the keeper got really strong hands to that.

Why does that matter? Couldn't care less if we finish 3rd or 4th, either WBA or Norwich will be equally as hard - but either way, 3rd or 4th, we're at home 2nd leg.

Brooks is a decent little player, but a complete individual if I've ever seen one. Very good quality on the ball, but is very selfish and that silly missed opportunity summed him up a little. Rothwell I'll give you though - I have no idea why we brought him in and what we thought we were missing that he could add. He's got a couple of good goals for us for sure, but I have no idea what he is as a player. In open play he has been truly horrific for us.

Not many will disagree with you on that, we should have been out of sight and the first half performance was positive - so you have to give credit for that. The problem I have, and many fans have, is that his subs made us worse and brought Cardiff back into the game. From a comfortable and controlled 1-0, missing loads of chances, we changed to a sloppy, disjointed and weak team who were being played through by the team who ultimately won it. For all the good in the first half and the team he picked, he un done it all by what he did with the subs. We'd got a goal, were being wasteful, so at that point you've got to think about 1) retaining control and 2) retreating a little bit, not much, but not being as adventurous during the final 20. Charles would have been perfect to sit and shied, but fuck knows why he doesn't trust him for the only job he can actually do. Rothwell doing that job cost us the match.

I've loved Stu's time with us, he's been a really good player during some pretty bleak moments. He's not a world beater by any means, but has always done a job for us. I think he got ill around Christmas of the 20/21 season and he's quite simply never ever been the same player. When he has his bursts forward he's great, has fantastic moments of quality, but just cannot handle any longer than an hour of pro football anymore - I'm sure he knows it. I personally feel gutted for him as he will likely lose his final shot at an international tournament which doesn't seem fair. He's obviously out of contract too so he has some serious career decisions to make at this point. If he weighs it up (he cannot last longer than 60 mins anymore) and if he's got a serious 12 month+ ACL, he really needs to be considering retirement and focusing on what he wants to do after football - which I think is law, he's a pretty clever bloke by all accounts.

I think we've got one more shot next season if we get our recruitment right. If he cock it up next season then, yeah - we won't be seeing PL football for many, many years as the gap to bridge will only get bigger. Ipswich have shown that you don't need to spend a fortune to compete occasionally, but the form horse is that the teams with the $$ will be the ones competing 99% of the time.

Feels a bit of a discredit to Ipswich, they'll be as difficult as any of the 3. We aren't beating any of them in a final, let's be honest.

I think the first half performance showed that he got the team right, nothing wrong with that selection or Smallbones inclusion. The Aribo/Rothwell sub is what really impacted us. Lost all elements of control at that point. Then we just threw on 3 wingers for the sake of it with no thought. That's what did it for us today.

Yeah, obviously - but the subs then ruined the game because they weren't very well thought through imo. Credit to him for the first half team and performance, spot on, but the way the subs destroyed us in the 2nd half has to be on him.

That's the worry for me, this was a huge game - we put ourselves right back at centre stage with the win against PNE, and we just buckled. (the pressure got to Che as well imo). Had we won it would have been the same at Leicester though, we were always going to lose - at least we now have a few weeks to stew on it, rather than falling at the 95th min on the last day against Leeds. We'd never recover from that.

Yeah the subs were on him today, totally killed our momentum and control of the game. The first half team and performance was spot on, we just couldn't kill them off. 2nd half we started just as well but again couldn't kill them off. The subs were poor as we lost all control at that point, Cardiff edged back into the game and equalised. After they equalised you thought we'd throw the kitchen sink at them, but again the subs (Edozie/Fraser/Sullemana) confused the team and it was like a tombola substitution - no thought, no tactical idea behind them, just a case of throw them all on and see - that's why Cardiff looked more likely to win it with a bunch of kids, and ultimately they did. Frustrating as our subs have often got us over the line, but today it cost us everything.

It was over in Feb if we're honest. Impossible to win every remaining game, we gave ourselves no margin for error because of that run during Feb. That's what did it for us.

Luckily we'll have a new bunch! Hopefully with much better mentality, but ultimately a lot less quality. Cardiff had a great mentality today, bunch of misfits, kids, u21's. Played out of their skin. So far off us quality wise it wasn't even a debate, but they proved that it's not about quality if you have the mentality right.

That's the worry, I don't think these players have the bottle or mentality for the playoffs - absolute pressure caldron games. If they read this and hate us for saying it then I don't really care, but the proof is in the pudding and whenever the pressure has been on us this season we have fluffed our lines, either through overall performances or our goal scorers panicking. We're fine when we're chasing and closing on teams, but when that chasing gets us back centre stage we choke. We did it in February when we got to 2nd after not losing for 24, and we've done it today when we once again got to within 1 point of 2nd with equal games. As much as we like to hope, it's been pretty obvious since Feb that it's 4th for us and nothing else. And as much as I hate to say it, from what I've seen all season it seems pretty obvious that we are a 'gallant' but losing playoff team.