Saint Fan CaM

Nope - sorry not having it. He’s slower than AA, has seemingly zero positional sense, can’t tackle, doesn’t find a decent pass and usually shoots straight at the keeper. I’m trying to think of one attribute.

Difficult to tell as squad quality has deteriorated badly over the last 5 years - probably a mix of lesser skilled or unsuitable teammates and diminishing coaching quality, coupled with SR strategic dogma. Either way, we’re not scoring enough goals and Archer has not proven himself as an answer.

Anyone who thinks Archer can perform to AA’s levels needs to seek help - he’s nowhere near IMO. And this is the dilemma - the same flaw in recruitment decisions we’ve suffered for years - we never seem to bring in a great new player without releasing another good player. It’s a slow terminal dilution of talent and skill. We should be releasing Archer and bringing in someone better than AA and Stewart to challenge for the place in the team, even if that’s a loan.

Agreed. I’m not seeing evidence of the basics in terms of passing and move in the team. I watch other teams in possession and there seems to be more structure and purpose in their playing - they create more time on the ball and therefore less risk in their passes.

Think we’ll struggle with this one even if Scienza is available - the top 6-8 teams seem to have too much for us unfortunately. 2-0.

This idea that not getting another striker this window because this season is over in terms of promotion or relegation is very, very noddy thinking and totally SR style strategy in my mind. You speculate to accumulate, with the key success factor being squad BUILDING - it takes time to bring a player in and get them playing in cohesion with their teammates, so starting that process before next season surely has to be the smart move. If there’s no-one available that’s a different matter, however I refuse to believe there’s no decent striker out there to be hired.

That’s the point - I don’t think he or the Lino’s were. They had the weight of the Fratton scum on their backs for the entire game and their decision making was swayed by that undoubtedly in my eyes.

I’m afraid I disagree with this - given we have far more cultured players like Scienza and Fellows in our team, Pimpley’s brutish tactics coupled with the Refs bottling cards meant our side got the worst of it. The Ref is there to protect players from injury as best possible and I don’t think he came away with much credit. The Lino’s were just as bad - probably scared shitless being so close to so many inbred smelly fuckers spitting out fishy phlegm with every expletive.

Thought we outclassed them and the only way the inbreds could get a point was to cheat by hand balling it into the net. That said, AA wasted his chances and we failed to work their dodgy defence and keeper anywhere near enough.

Credible fight but…We gave that win away.

Every single decision going Pimpleys way now

Foul but Ref is utterly ineffective

Hand bags! Some Py fan has thrown a crutch on the pitch! 🤣🤣🤣

Leo’s done.

Fellows and Charles on. Good move.