Saint_lambden

That point at Lincoln looking more and more like a good result! 😄

Bruised ego I heard.

When Tyrone Mings is keeping you off the bench, you know it's not good.

It's not. He's a great goalscorer but part of the reason the ball keeps coming back at us is his inability to hold the ball up. Today for example - he completed just 3 passes. From Jan to May it got covered up by the fact we had Stewart as well who was excellent at that. But his goals value far outweighs it, of course. So we just need to find a way to control games better so we're not under the cosh so much if we can't make the ball stick at the top end of the pitch.

They'll ban him for a few games, the first one being Pompey for maximum impact. FA have planned it that way all along

One thing I noticed last night is how much more positive we were at throw-ins in their half. Constantly looking to go forward with it instead of the (often usual) backwards to a more safe option. It seemed to catch them off guard for the opening goal but hopefully that will be more of a deliberate ploy moving forward as it made a refreshing change.

The whole 'taking off a midfielder/forward and putting on another defender' never works, at least not for us. It just invites pressure and instills an attitude of 'we're defending what we've got' rather than having a front-foot mentality. Right the way back to Adkins taking Billy Sharp off for Dan Harding against Pompey in 2012, it baffles me each time. Plus our ability to never stop the cross or attack the ball in with any intensity, it's a toxic combination against sides that are direct.

Lincoln have had more shots from set-pieces than any other Championship team so far this season (25), 50% of their shots! Going to have be on our game from that point of view.

Has to be a win if we're serious about promotion. Won't be easy - again a very physical side who will be direct but we should show too much quality for them. Bring Matsuki back in on the right as Fellows was poor last night and would be tempted to rotate JWP in for Bragg who has played a lot of minutes in the last two, for a bit of freshness. 1-2 Saints.

Really need another forward...

Stuttgart did bid for Jander a couple of weeks ago but we told them where to go. Don't know fee. It was when they were expecting Stiller to leave so, given he looks to be staying, they haven't pursued it further (or our demands were too high, or both).

For what it’s worth, lad I know from work who supports Forest really rates him. Has captained England youth teams, played regularly in Europa League for them last season and has just been unlucky that Murillo and Milenkovic have had such a decent partnership together that he hasn’t had more minutes. Plus he can play right-back too which helps cover for Bree.

What’s the logic behind that? We signed Schlotterbeck to play left-sided CB and he was superb on Saturday. Abbott is a RCB so Stephens and will rotate with Wood.

People annoyed that we’re signing a player they’ve never seen play instead of another player they’ve never seen play

Played once and was sent off 13 minutes in to it. Full international doing some very heavy lifting here

And a LW'er when Edozie goes.

Looking on another level at the moment, despite missing most of pre-season. Top, top player.

Adam Markhiev - who Nurnberg signed to replace Jander - is one we did like but not sure if a) we’ll be signing another CM or b) whether we’d want to still do business with them following the stories of the potential legal action they want to take against us.

Trying to sign Aster Vranckx - midfielder - from Wolfsburg.

They’re a terrrific side - so well organised, fit, strong and tough to beat. All the things we aren’t at present. 0-2.

We’ve bid for Falchener the CB from Viking who Wrexham were after a few weeks ago

Anyone keeping count of how many goals we concede from down our left hand side? Whether it's Wellington or Manning at left-back, opposition teams constantly target us - knowing that Stephens is LCB too. Biggest concern for me is the physical side of the game. We get shrugged off far too easily, aren't aggressive enough off the ball and it's far too easy to play through us. If a strong CB and CM aren't signed in the next week - we'll be midtable at best.

We had a scout at LASK v Celtic last night. Could be for any number of the home team's players, but we have looked at Bogarde who is a number 8 type before so maybe it could be him.

As I said on here a couple of weeks ago, Solak tried to persuade him Serb to Serb but sounds like that hasn't been successful.

Quarshie has a loan offer from Paderborn