shurlock

Guly played in a deeper role yesterday with forte up front- he drifted in and out as usual but with chaplow, hammond and gobern, we had more than enough bodies and cover. Arguably we won the game in the middle of the park, something which we can rarely say. I like the idea of three good cms in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-1-2-1: hopefully with the return of schneiderlin and some strengthening in the summer, we'll be in a position to play it more next season.

Guly played in a deeper role yesterday with forte up front- he drifted in and out as usual but with chaplow, hammond and gobern, we had more than enough bodies and cover. Arguably we won the Brighton game in the middle of the park, something which we can rarely say. I like the idea of three good cms in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-1-2-1: hopefully with the return of schneiderlin and some strengthening in the summer, we'll be in a position to play it more next season.

Fair enough-hopefully as many people as possible who have applied get a ticket. Thinking seating will be better than the terraces for this one.

Poyet contradicted himself yesterday-saying that individually, head-to-head we had the better players, as evidenced by the 5 players in the pfa team and then saying we were the daggers with lambert. I agree with the larger point though- our central midfield is not good enough and we lack decent pace. Our attempts to strengthen those areas have largely been last minute fixes -loans etc- which will be exposed next year if we get promoted. Conceivably lambert and barnard may also struggle - and we probably need another CB. In all, maybe four players but that's no different from the transfer activity you see from other newly promoted teams. At the same time, it's easy to overstate the difference in quality between L1 and CCC - just look at Norwich this year or Leicester the year before or Bristol and Hull before that. I think our current squad could easily finish mid-table in the CCC; but is way off a bunch of teams that has premiership experience oozing through them.

I'd rather be playing Hartlepool than Daggers who are involved in a dog fight - Huddersfield have much the tougher game. By the same logic, just hope that both Plymouth and Walsall are down by the time we play them - otherwise they too could be very awkward. Had Plymouth not won today, they would have been near goners.

Nah was at the game - Connolly's own interview says as much, that's he been available for a while and been banging them away in training. Not saying he should be starting games just yet; but he has been under-used.

Dunno. Berfore last week and today seemed as if forte was higher up the pecking order (notwithstanding he can also play wide).

Class player. Dont buy this 'forever injured' line - has been available for us for a while. Partly LB/RL have been in form; partly its a case of NA not rating him as highly as he should.

Interesting - Butterfield was getting quite a bit of stick from our lot.

Got back - thought we were utterly comfortable - one of the only saves KD had to make was from a deflected shot. AL was class but think Gobern did very well given the circumstances - would have been tempting for NA to go with Stephens; but he made us much tighter in the middle and gave Chaplow alot more freedom. Was his best game in a long time. I think 3 CMs -something we tried at Walsall before Schneiderlin got pulled off- has real potential. Thought that NA's substitutions were perfectly timed - didn't wait to take Forte off and gave DC a proper run-out. If I remember we got two at the death against them last season and our subs -Papa and Barney were involved in the goals; but then Pards had been much slower in ringing the changes. NA is much more versatile. Dickson was very good and linked up well with AL; sense that Butterfield is becoming a bit of target/boo-boy - in part because he allegedly doesnt get forward and attack the space enough. Think that's a tad harsh, especially away from home against the champions. As far as hoofball is concerned, we actually played it along the deck alot- Kelvin took every chance to pass or roll it out - if anything he was doing it too much. It was only towards the end that we went more direct - and Lambert is not as good in the air as people assume from his stocky, scouse frame. As far as Brighton is concerned, I saw nothing of their flowing, passing football. They play alot of sideways football and have only the quick if predictable cross-field ball in their armour. Their midfield is not good enough. Horrible ground - was in row G which I assumed was near bottom but was closer to the top. Couldn't see past the halfway - did realise that Guly was so close to goal when he had his shot cleared off the line. As a result, its also a horrible place an atmosphere. Throw in all the tactics BHA use to slow or break up play and I can understand how hard it is for away teams to get going - hence BHA's uncanny ability to win by the single goal. Glad that Ankergren got it - is a class A ****. Nice to see him roast in the sun and finally break a sweat chasing the ball after they went 2-1 down and having done so much all match to run down what would have been valuable time for them.

Ankergren was one of the worst offenders today - repeated time-wasting, tried to get chaplow sent, went down as if he had been shot in the head, gave the fingers to the saints fans. Best moment though was seeing him sprint to retrieve the ball after they went behind. All that time-wasting wasn't so clever then. Ask any CCC team/fan who they fear most next year - a promoted BHA or us (should we make it), and its pretty obvious what the answer would be.

2 games = no chance

Back from the Franchise-Huddersfield game - f**k were they lucky to win. Bennett kept them in it first-half, including the pen save (which was hit low and in the corner). Had it gone in, the game would have been totally different. Notwithstanding the doom and gloom on here, the vibe I got from them is that they're still hoping for a minor miracle. There's no reason why we should capitulate now when others are expecting us to close this out.

At the franchise - their lot chanting 'are you watching southampton'. ****s.

Jack Hobbs from Leicester would fit the bill perfectly.

Most jews find it mildly amusing that a bunch of thick football factory types have embraced the yiddo banner, though they also understand that this is akin to playing with fire given the general political views some of these people hold. There are worse names than yid and there's massive difference between how some fans might use it and how a Chelsea fan might (as a club, Chelsea has struggled with racism for years) - in other words, the context in which Baddiel has heard the terms is probably menacing but is by no means representative. At any rate, with the rise of islamophobia - the stock of your average jew -for better or worse- has gone up. Bizarrely (if disturbingly), its not uncommon to see star of david flags at EDL marches.

Worth remembering that etuhu got 8 months for ABH (albeit he broke someone's jaw).

Agree Guly's corners on the far side (first half) and near side (second half) were excellent -really whipped in with pace. His free kicks were also very good. A refreshing break from the usual lofted in dollies.

Back from the game- fantastic how we dug in and hung on revealing a resilience that has been missing from the team for years. We didn't keep possession well enough and survived a few scrapes - I thought their second disallowed goal was onside as we seemed to have a player on the goal line; but swings and roundabouts and all that. My ratings: Davis 8 - didn't have too many saves to make but was absolutely immense in the air - never seen him so willing to come out and control his box. never knew he had thar in the locker. Butterfield 7 - the most tested and exposed of our defenders as most of Orient's play came down the right through the midget cox but he coped adequately. Jaidi 8 - characteristic jaidi performance - won everything in the air and helped us weather a real arial bombardment in the 2nd half. Fonte 8.5 - composed, cultured and more like the Fonte of old (his form arguably dipped a month or so ago); made a couple of great runs in the 2nd half, including releasing Lambert that led to our 2nd. should have scored from a header after a lovely disguised freekick. Harding 7.5 - less busy defensively than Butterfield but was instrumental with Dickson to most of our attacking play in the 1st hald. Faded 2nd half. Chaplow 6 - tbf could have given him a lower mark - was a passenger for most of the game and gave the ball away far too cheaply. could have got a goal near the end but it didnt compensate for a poor performance. Less worried about rushing Lallana back when we have Dickson but if Dale Stephens has a fighting chance for Tuesday, I'd risk him. Hammond 7.5 - had to cover a lot of ground on behalf of Chaplow and Guly and unsurprisingly tired. Was slightly wasteful in possession. Dickson 8 - brilliant first half - had lumps kicked out of him and had treatment twice before getting the assist. seemed to slip and slide a bit in key positions but was our main attacking outlet. Guly 6.5 - a passenger at times and part of the reason we invited so much pressure 2nd half - his substitution was no surprise. Needs a more mobile midfield to be truly effective. Lambert 7.5 - well taken goal and got an assist - but didn't hold the ball up well enough when we were playing hoofball and crying out for some respite. Barnard 8.5 - my MOTM - occupied both their CBs all afternoon and was a constant irritant. ran and ran and ran but did it with real brains.

Whatever wry if predictable smile the rest of the song may give me is eclipsed by that line. Have a word with yourself, you c*ck.

supremely casual - but was in a friendly against gothenburg - so not a lot riding on the game.

Helped spearhead Brum back to the prem a few years ago only to be released. If we do get promoted, hope he gets another year.

wonderful what you can do with a bit of editing:

oh dear- have you worked out that one reason why people have some time for cortese is precisely because he's so unlike that? what has he done that is self-publicising or self-aggrandising? He's kept his mouth shut and let business take care of business. If anything, the usual suspects want him to be MORE public. The only thing with cortese is that he's poor at dealing with dissent or challenges to him but that's a totally different debate.

The cortese chant is better than the fonte chant. still can't get my head around that one.