Lighthouse

I don't particularly rate Stephens, even at this level, but I can't in all honesty slate him for those two goals. That penalty was soft for starters. It probably was a foul but it wasn't exactly some reckless lunge (or even another hair pull). The first goal was somewhat fortunate on their part as it bounced of Stephens' heel, right into the gap between him and Manning, which wrong footed both of them and also fell extremely fortunately for the attacker. Not a great game for Jack but he looked pretty decent two years ago, before he got injured, then played his part when he game back. There's plenty of competition at CB and Still is no mug. If Jack doesn't deliver, we've still got the likes of THB, JQ, RE and in an emergency NW to choose from.

By ‘over’ do you mean promotion is already assured? A lot of that happened two years ago and we got promoted.

As I said, an obvious difference in quality, but yes he was basically the one being expected to make the key passes.

Whenever we’ve played the 4-2-3-1 successfully in the past, we’ve relied on four different types of player, each with defined roles. The focal point, front and centre - Lambert or Pelle A mobile, supporting striker out wide - J Rod or Mané A creative player who can make the key passes - Lallana or Tadic An industrial player to link attack and defence - Davis We didn’t have that today, we basically had a not very physical focal point, with two J Rods and a Tadic. Aside from the obvious difference in quality, the balance just wasn’t there, hence we had three strikers not doing much.

Great ball from Q and a decent run from BBD. Well blocked in the end.

Glad it's not just me. When they're stood side-on with the white socks and shoulders and the sun behind them, this is a hard watch.

Do you have to register and log in with age-verified I.D. like you do on porn websites now, apparently, so I'm told by a friend?

If we're trying to offload both, my respect for SR just went up a notch.

I'd guess so, the other possibility being Fraser and Wely at WB and a 5-2-3, although Still hasn't hinted at anything like that in pre-season. In either case, the starting line up looks a bit top heavy with strikers and I'm guessing it's being done to accommodate eleven changes at half time.

Think it's good for pretty much everyone TBH. Labour can focus on trying to be (re)electable, with fewer distractions in the background and the idealists who feel they've been stabbed in the back by Starmer and co. can vote for their cult hero. If it hurts anyone it'll be the Greens IMO.

Peter Shilton* Aaron Martin - Chris Perry - Wayne Thomas - Charlie Taylor - Mark Dennis Lloyd James - Olivier Bernard** Charlie George - George Lawrence Lee Barnard Manager: Russel Martin * Got a bit stuck on keepers but 'Shilton' would be a decent West Indian cricketer IMO ** F**k it, he was always out of position so I'll stick him here

Weatherley picked to open the batting. Are Stoneman and Orr both injured or just not fancied? Organ as expected replaces Daws.

I think our team last season had a lot of medicinal properties. The defence, for chronic constipation and the attack, for chronic insomnia.

They’d all be top six in the nineties.

I thought 220 was a good score but Essex are having an absolute yard sale at the moment - everything must go.

She's fit but she's no Catherine of Braganza.

Not really. Kevin Phillips did exactly the same with us and Sunderland, I don’t remember anyone laughing at Villa for signing him, and they paid money. There’re probably a fair few other players like that.

When have we done that?

Missed a trick not getting Stan Collymore to model it.

I quite like that training shirt, not seen it in the online store yet.

Two thing: My criticism of him isn't that he was bombing forward, whipping in crosses and leaving space behind which exposed the CBs. My criticism is that when he was in position, he made the kind of errors you'd get yelled at for making on a Sunday league pitch. Arsenal away was perhaps the best example but if you go back through this thread there are many others. You say, "even KWP came under criticism," like he was somehow infallible. He wasn't, he was just one of our more competent players. It looks like he's off to Turkey but if he wasn't, he'd be an Everton/West Ham level player, not a Champions League one. We only got him because he was fourth choice at Spurs.

It'll be a black day for the club if we sign him.

Gut feeling is he'll get a loan to L1/2 and released next summer. I know he's had his injuries but he just hasn't done anything, even at League 1 level. It's probably best for his career to sign a contract for a League 2 club and work his way up from there.

The rest of our squad also being substandard doesn’t make Yuki any better. Neither is any manager responsible for Sugawara’s regular, calamitous brain farts. I’ll judge him as what he is, a player with a decent enough delivery but an absolute liability defensively.