Hodgey

Yep - McD has done a Whitely this year, he’s not even a great keeper so if he isn’t scoring quick runs hes useless. Too much pressure on Vince means he’s been caught in two minds how to manage an innings. All rounders done a decent job but they shouldn’t be better than our frontline batters and bowlers. Need another spinner too. Our previous tactics of posting ok scores and relying on bowlers doesn’t work if your bowlers can’t do that. Total rethink needed for next year. We need to be much more aggressive batting and accept sometimes we will hit a low score. Batters in this format should have SR at c 130-150

I’m not so sure - it does seem we have very little transfer budget due to ffp so are trying to max out frees etc. But if we are clever we could use the loan system to attract players who will look at our team and see themselves as a shoe in, and gk could be one of those positions (and striker). Bonus of that is we’re in less financial jeopardy if we go down / they’re rubbish (which given our horrific scouting efforts on big signings may be sensible)

So near and yet so far…

Anyone bemoaning our inability to quickly finish off a game for the lower order - I’d suggest a cheeky look at what is happening with Sussex and Leicestershire!!!

I think Fuller does have a place as a handy all-rounder but he does bowl some brainless just bang it in filth sometimes.

Dreadful death bowling - no pace variation, just bang it in and get walloped that was why we lost. Mills and McAndrew showing guile our seamers don’t seem to have at the moment. think that’s probably us - been a bizarre tournament where our batting has just never got going bar the odd cameo and our bowling has lacked variety and brains (Dawson excepted). we were probably due a bad one given how consistent we have been, but got to question the tactics and prep.

A lot of players look out of form / poor confidence. Even Weatherly who hit 48 was never really middling it. I think we are over cautious whilst 20/20 is becoming more explosive. still a hope if the top order can find more consistent form, middle order is more like a 4 day team. And Essex away is a difficult place to play

One of those days - 2 home games where they could limit runs / control run chases then off to Taunton where you need very different tactics. They are not used to chasing anything like that, even though it’s a great batting pitch and it showed. Didnt watch until later in our innings so there may be a reason for this but Gubbins in at 9 ??? Assume that is because he can’t score quickly - but come on now - let’s give one of the big hitting kids a chance / experience

We looked like a level up for most of that match. Still really poor in the power play, I still think if we are to win this we need a better game plan for that, at the moment we seem to score slowly and lose wickets. Great bowling and Albert is giving us something different.

We’re a funny side, we rarely go after the power play at a time when most do. It really is rare for Hampshire to be ahead after 6 overs. What’s odd about that is we actually have 2 players who like to score fast opening so it must be tactical. With our record it must work for us but seems very odd tactics especially with our depth of batting. We pretty much rely on one of our 5-8s to up the scoring rate at the back end of the innings. Fuller today, Dawson on Thu. Also extremely slow starters so good we have a win already. Concerned Gubbins is anywhere near a 20/20 1st team…

Is this still live on you tube this year ?

Great result especially with Prest injury. Openers starting to fire, as long as one of them amasses a score each time that’s progress.

Imagine we’ll see organ, Dawson, Prest and even Gubbins have a bowl, especially on day 4. Hopefully we have a couple of good sessions tomorrow, rack up a big score and put them in at end of day. if Organ bats 9, as a previous opening batter, that would suggest we’ve a very short tail !

We do have an obsession with City group - that is clearly the model we are trying to replicate to the point of employing a number of their staff and players (don’t forget we also got turned down by the Leicester manager). Problem is we are a pound shop version who has not adapted to the resources we actually have - City are massively successful as they have spent billions over a number of years and got the best people out there.

Surrey get a decent total in testing conditions, be surprised if they need to bat again. Hope we’re not playing them again this year (I know we beat them in a dead rubber last year)

Ahh our yearly thrashing at the oval !.To be fair they are much better than pretty much any other team, especially one that never bats well there. Surrey will be all out for maximum points here and a quick finish

RM has definitely made mistakes this season, when I saw the team sheet I wasn’t happy shea wasn’t playing but reading the comments seems his team hammered Cardiff in the first half and just missed a hat full of easy chances (again) Our players are mentally weak, have been for years and whilst RM has improved this it’s arguably only the loan signings that have done this (Downes, Fraser, THB). Not a huge amount he can do about that when he can’t really buy any players - although those bought in have been poor (but was this RM fault or our traditionally terrible recruiters). We may still go up -but given our struggles to convincingly close out any game I’d put it at 25pc, look how close games have been with us and WBA/Norwich. If we do we will get hammered with RM style as manager and our finances, I reckon down by March. If not I actually think we should stick with him. The reality is we will be a slightly above average championship squad next year, he’ll have had play off experience and most of the team will know his style. Hopefully we have another successful loan market and blood some of our young players , and honestly with our min aim being play offs he is a bit ‘better the devil you know’.

And if you listen to Burnley fans - it’s happened 3 times as Trafford has been dropped after being found out (unsurprisingly) in the Prem. I cannot fathom how scouts are getting away with this nonsense - everyone knows keepers don’t mature until at least mid 20s, quite how prem clubs with their wealth of cash and resources are doing this is ridiculous (of course we’ve actually done it twice)

As Fareham saint noted - our players didn’t want to pass the ball back to him which forced us to go forwards more. Like others say he terrifies me with the ball at his feet so if we are going to limit pass backs he’ll be fine, if we are going to need a ball playing keeper has to be Lumley

There is some very good talent coming through, Prest is maturing and I think both Middleton and Albert have got what it takes. Bowling wise there is Turner, Wheal can look useful, plus I think Currie has something. I do get your point though - it’s an odd team with either under 23s or over 30s, and you’d imagine this is the last season for two of Barker, Abbas and Abbott. You need a few players in their prime to win championships. Might also be the season where Eckland shifts Brown out. To the missed opportunity - agree with that, and you can pretty much point to the failure to address the openers (they’ve gone from Weatherly and Soames to desperation in two bowlers in Holland and Organ). Still looks like a problem now but Orr and Middleton look like they have the potential if not the application yet. think they’ll do alright this year, but further of winning it than last.

Our policy of signing City youth players has been a poor one. Edozie, Bazuna, Larios, Charles all at best average championship players. Yes we struck gold with Lavia - but he looks highly injury prone. When you think about it, buying expensive youngsters who have barely played professional football and asking them to succeed in high pressure environments straight away is silly.

Not quite sure why people are claiming Ipswich are lucky. They are top of the table, lost fewer games than anyone else, all on far less resource than 3 other teams. Those are the kind of comments that we’d get upset about - they deserve to be where they are and are clearly a very good team. think it’ll be close on Mon - reckon we’ll be dominant, 1-0 up and miss a few chances and they will get a late equaliser as they seem very mentally strong.

I’m surprisingly not as bothered as I thought I would be, I got marginally excited when Leicester lost, but when that equaliser went in for me it just confirmed what I’ve felt for a long time - we are the 4th best team so play offs. in an odd way, I wouldn’t be bothered if Ipswich beat us - that would put hope of the autos out early and we could mentally adjust to winning the play offs and hopefully play with a bit more freedom. what is also telling is deep down I don’t really want to go up, but we have to given our perilous finances and for momentum. This team and manager would get absolutely hammered in the Prem. Also next season we’ll only be an above average Championship side if we don’t. I’ve had a funny feeling about Norwich for over a month now - I think they’ll beat Ipswich, we’ll beat WBA, and they’ll beat us in the final.

That’s the exact team I would pick except Edozie for Brooks so Arma goes back to right wing and hopefully finds some form - Brooks coming on early. I get the Smallbone criticism and on a one for one basis and on form you would go Aribo, but for me it’s about how the midfield complement each other and Smallbone adds to a midfield where one breaks up play and the other drives aggressively forwards but loses the ball a lot. For me it’s between Aribo and Stu (and Rothwell) and I go Stu.

I’m really hoping the club are looking at this as a ‘assume he’ll never be fit and as good as he was, anything else a bonus’, ie we should be looking for another striker pre season. We should have learnt a valuable lesson with M Svensson which for me started our decent down the divisions. worked with Ings, didn’t here - those are the risks…