Lighthouse

Unused sub last night as they lost at home to Bournemouth, as was Alcaraz who seems to be completely out of favour and hasn't scored in the league all season.

Stubbs sees SA over the line in an absolutely mental game against Afghanistan. Scores tied - Super over. Scored tied again after a six off the final ball, goes to an even superer over. Chasing 24, Afghanistan go - 0W666wd and then out off the final ball.

You say that like nobody has talent any more. These days you need both and to be good enough, you have to be fit enough. Tiss and Keegan, as they were in their prime, wouldn't get a sniff in today's game. They'd have to get up to modern fitness standards to stand a chance.

Weirdly, that's the third time this season we've either scored or conceded four goals in one half.

I have absolutely no doubt that Tonda Eckert knows Ross Stewart is a far better striker than Cameron Archer. No doubt at all. The fact that he started the latter should tell you something, i.e. he didn't want to but on the basis of fitness he was left with little choice. I'm sure the idea of half each for Larin and Ross also occurred to Tonda, so again, if he didn't there's probably a pretty good reason for it. I don't think Tonda quite envisaged the game as it planned out but saving your stronger player for the second half, isn't the stupidest idea ever.

Meanwhile in Manchester…

Really should have done better for the first and third. Not a great game from him tonight.

You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!

I watched him for 25 minutes on Saturday. Of playing half a game. Would you be more happier if he'd been subbed off at HT?

People complain we try to be hipster by signing unproven, foreign kids on the cheap. We sign a 30 year old with nearly 90 caps for Canada, and people start complaining we didn't sign a 21 year old with 11 goals in a year and a half in Denmark.

There's a lot to criticise Tonda for but he's a bit snookered with the striker situation. Larin can't last thirty minutes and Stewart is made of glass. If we don't want to lose him for another two months, playing him twice in four days probably isn't wise.

Apparently they don't live longer with Calgon.

Seems like a pretty good idea to me. With Peretz in goal, we'd only concede a goal every four games. It's just the scoring we'd have to figure out.

Bednarek against Man Utd Valery against Leicester Austin at Fulham Olivier Bernard... just Olivier Bernard My god, we've had a few.

The game hasn't gone soft, it's quite clearly the exact opposite. People love to complain about sports science, data analysis and the obsession with athleticism and physical conditioning. In reality, that's the difference between the Rickie Lambert who played for Bristol Rovers and the Lambert who played for England. The best First Division teams of the seventies and eighties would be comfortably beaten by a decent Championship team from 2026.

We don't need him, we've got Iglouis Suarez.

I'm not 'really into NFL' but it's a much better watch than darts or snooker.

Not to mention Adams, Stewart and Onuachu who we've all signed and/or deployed in the physical number nine role in the last three years. The idea that SR have not signed, or even tried to sign a physical striker is just odd.

I'd agree if that were the case but there was a clear gap between them, so it was in effect two separate fouls. You can't ignore a foul that directly leads to a goal just because it follows another foul by the other team. I don't like it but it's the rules and if Arsenal ended up losing the title on G.D. they'd rightly be fuming.

It’s an absolute buzzkill but that was the correct decision.

Fair play Whitey, that looks like a cracking football trip. A bit livelier than the Estonian league game I once went to.

Five at the back isn’t necessarily a bad formation, played correctly, as we showed when Tonda first took over. That being said I much prefer us playing with a four and thank every god ever invented that I don’t have to watch Manning and Wood try to defend every weekend any more. The playoffs look a tall order, not because of the points gap but because of the flotsam in between us and sixth. Even if we win our next three, the chances are four or five teams above us will pick up six or seven points too.

My first thought was David Connolly, as I went to that Oldham away game. Eight minutes too, apparently. I seem to recall Saganowski hit the post about twenty seconds into his debut, that would have been a good start.

That would be Welington who signed in January last year, a month after Martin was sacked?

Louza to score their winner, just for added irony. Edit: Apparently we lost Aaron Ramsey in summer.