20/21 Matchday Thread

[Kenneth E End]

Another brilliant victory! First win at the City Ground since 1983!

There is no way we're going down now unless we have a monumental collapse now. Look upwards.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

True, win our game in hand and 6 points off the playoffs!

 

[BelizeHatter]

Two players ive questioned in the past were outstanding tonight, as well as second half midweek. Tunnicliffe and Naismith. Former gets up and down holds and distributes well and not just sideways now. Latter looks very comfortable at the back since he got moved there v Sheff Weds and great today. Super win against a form side.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Two players ive questioned in the past were outstanding tonight, as well as second half midweek. Tunnicliffe and Naismith. Former gets up and down holds and distributes well and not just sideways now. Latter looks very comfortable at the back since he got moved there v Sheff Weds and great today. Super win against a form side.

The reaction to Naismith has been really harsh. He has played in virtually every position apart from GK up until now and he's only been here about 6 weeks. He has crossed the country and gone back up a league - he will need some time to settle in.

As for Tunnicliffe, I'm really glad for him. The way he is playing, he will get a contract extension.

Going to be some interesting decisions in the summer!

For what it's worth, there are some massively overrated / overpaid players in this division.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

The reaction to Naismith has been really harsh. He has played in virtually every position apart from GK up until now and he's only been here about 6 weeks. He has crossed the country and gone back up a league - he will need some time to settle in.

As for Tunnicliffe, I'm really glad for him. The way he is playing, he will get a contract extension.

Going to be some interesting decisions in the summer!

For what it's worth, there are some massively overrated / overpaid players in this division.

Naismith is really weird as he’s looked more comfortable at centre half than left back. I read at the time of his signing that whilst an all rounder who could play anywhere, left back was an area he’s struggled with but thought he looked an experienced centre half last night. Given his career you’d expect him to be more comfortable at left back than centre of defence.

In hindsight it was pretty remarkable how we defended last night given we had a right winger playing fullback, a left sided winger (on the basis of where he has played the most in his career) at centre half, Pearson who is clearly a second choice centre half now, and at left a player who we have stated we view in future as a centre half! Kind of crept up on me just how much of a patchwork defence it was.

I’d be wary of giving Tunnicliffe a new contract, still have vivid memories of his “point and scream as the player I’m supposed to be marking sails by me” routine from last season. His couple of appearances this season he’s looked better though. Think he’s been helped by the far better structure we have as a side than compared to last year with a proper DM to support him.

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

Bar the Brentford anomaly we continue to be utterly turgid. 0 shots on target in a home game last night and yet more comedy defending for both Middlesbrough goals. Struggle to see where the necessary points are going to come from, imagine we'll be praying the teams below us get worse results than us for the remainder of the season.

 

[Atavistic]

As expected, no changes to our squad for tonight's match (I swear these midweeks are kicking off earlier and earlier lately, 5:30pm feels ridiculously early).

Brentford going with a strong XI as well as expected, although seem to have a couple missing like Dasilva and have Sorensen playing out of position at left back; hopefully he doesn't do as well as our own Sorensen has done in deputising in that position when needed.

 

[Super_horns]

Hopefully you'll win as we are more likely to catch Brentford than you.

So long as we then beat Wycombe......they gave us a good game at Adams Park.

 

[Atavistic]

Can't quite fathom how Canos didn't score that one, to be honest. That aside, Brentford are pressing well and we've yet to find a good answer to break through it. Just a matter of being patient and staying organised so we don't give Toney and co any room to create chances.

Definitely missing Cantwell further forward, as Vrancic and Hernandez aren't getting involved enough in the press up the pitch like Cantwell does.

Well, not like it matters, when Buendia can deliver his magic at any time. Gets past those Brentford players so easily and the finish is excellent. If we can break through their press and get into the offensive third, they seem to be very much standing off which we can so easily exploit.

 

[Atavistic]

God, could this Sky Sports commentary team be any more biased if they tried?

"This isn't the Brentford we all know and love." No credit to our performance for keeping them at bay and stopping them from playing at their usual intensity, instead it's all about Brentford not being at their best.

I swear most teams' IFollow commentaries (at least, the few I've listened to anyway) are less biased than this.

Either way, job done and I think it's ours to lose now. More or less kept Brentford at bay throughout (after a difficult first twenty minutes) and barely gave Toney a sniff. Should have been more convincing really, as we again spurned several excellent chances. (Of the three teams chasing 2nd, I'd say Swansea look to me a much better and more balanced side than Brentford do, while I missed our defeat to Watford earlier in the season so can't judge them very well, besides thinking they were always going to be a threat after keeping most of their squad together).

Now, let's go and beat our latest bogey team at the weekend to really seal the deal.

 

[BelizeHatter]

We gonna give you another spanking ;-)

 

[thewwfc]

Hopefully you'll win as we are more likely to catch Brentford than you.

So long as we then beat Wycombe......they gave us a good game at Adams Park.

You're well ahead so far and we've created very little - and you should arguably have had a pen too. Let's see what the second half has to offer but I'm not optimistic.

 

[thewwfc]

Again, no complaints, beaten by a technically better side who took their chances.

 

[Craig]

An endless stream of shite....

 

[Super_horns]

Again, no complaints, beaten by a technically better side who took their chances.

You had us under pressure a bit but kept being offside at the vital moment.

Job done for us .

Not long till the next game so need to be fresh.

Well done Andre - got the goals.

Hopefully Clev is ok.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Sheffield Wednesday have to be gone now surely? Not sure how you come back from letting a 2 goal lead at half time slip and then follow that up by losing to a 97th minute winner in the next game, against 10 men no less. Just hammer blows mentality wise if nothing else.

 

[Atavistic]

That penalty Swansea got to get a last minute winner against Stoke is an absolute joke, such a blatant dive. An indictment of the quality of refereeing in the league when players can fool refs with that.

 

[Super_horns]

Yes that was annoying.

Even the Swansea manager said they got lucky with that .

 

[Kenneth E End]

I see Izzy Brown is coming in for a lot of criticism from last night. He played really well on Saturday first half but so typically went missing in the second.

I really don't understand where he is going in his career.

He plays for Chelsea and earns £25k a week there. He's had more loans than Wonga in the Championship. And not found a home at any of them. Technically he was our best player last year and did some fantastic stuff and I'd have taken him back in the summer, but he's going to have to realise that he isn't going to be taking home millions every year when his contract expires. He doesn't seem to have the desire for the cause.

As I mentioned yesterday, the amount of players on £15-20k+ a week at this level and who should be walking through this division, is pretty staggering.

 

[Millerbri]

Michael Smith's red card has been rescinded and he will now be available for the Brentford, Luton and Coventry games.

 

[SF_]

Bournemouth at home, won't be paying for this one, especially with Pearo wearing the wrong colours.

Not sure if we've got any returning players, could do with Browne, Lindsay, Ledson and Maguire back, although the latter is to strengthen our bench which is weak as fuck right now. Badly missed Lindsay on Tuesday, Hughes looked like a LB trying to play CB and he was bullied to fuck by Bodvarsson.

Hopefully:

Iversen
VDB, Storey, Lindsay, Cunningham
Whiteman, Ledson
Sinclair, Browne, Gordon
Evans​

Although I doubt all three will be fit and ready to go into the first eleven.

 

[Atavistic]

Looks like Cantwell will be back in contention for tomorrow's squad, so assuming nothing goes wrong in training today we should finally go into a game against Luton this season with a full-strength squad (though I expect that Cantwell might be on the bench just to play it safe rather than going straight back into the starting XI. Even so, we apparently haven't beaten Luton in a competitive fixture in 14 years (albeit we've only played them three or four times since then, as I recall) and even lost to them while they were in non-league and we were in the Prem, so I'm definitely still cautious going into this one.

It's one we should win on paper, but Luton are our bogey team so I wouldn't be surprised to see a 1-1 draw or something similar tomorrow.

Beyond tomorrow, Stiepermann and Nyland will finally return to first team contention for next week's match against Sheffield Wednesday, having returned to full fitness with appearances for the Under 23s after long injury/illness lay-offs.

 

[BelizeHatter]

We are without three of our starting four defenders - all if you unfairly include our season long loan RND who decided Stoke were a better option in Jan.

We still gonna win tho. Treble.

Norwich hammering this league, but one of the worst sides weve played this season!!

Theyre in form, full strength, feel they owe us and with all that power and money....... what can go wrong for them.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Rotherham are riddled with the ‘rona.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Although we’ve beaten Norwich twice this season we’ve kind of caught them at good times on both occasions - although they were still strong sides both times. Kind of view the game as a bit of a free hit really, coming in off 2 wins on the spin agains the team running away with the league, if we lose then no damage done really. Wonder if we rest Dewsbury-Hall, he’s looked knackered lately and not up to his usual standard.

Disappointing about the Rotherham game, they seem to have had issues this season more than most at this level so far, which is kind of remarkable really given how the league has been able to carry on relatively unaffected. They are going to end up with a few games in hand on teams.

 

[thewwfc]

Stoke A for us.

Wish we’d got to play the classic Pulis/Delap version, would have been like watching a game of Battleship with all the long range punts from end to end.

 

[BelizeHatter]

No Glen Rae to screen the non starting defense. Could be interesting. Lots of changes. Good to see Luke. Nombe and Morrell given a shot on the bench

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Quite an attacking side by us without a proper defensive midfield player we could get a bit exposed. Not against it necessarily though, good to try something.

 

[oakroader]

I can’t read,I can’t write but that don’t really matterrrrrrrrrrrrr
Caus I come from narrridge and I can drive a tracterrrrrrr.....

 

[Atavistic]

A couple of changes for us as Cantwell returns to replace Hernandez on the left wing and Rupp takes Vrancic's place in the number 10 slot, no doubt to give the latter a long-overdue rest (as he looked dead on his feet in midweek).

Certainly a bold move from Luton to play without a proper defensive midfielder against the full brunt of our attacking front three. Going to be a good few goals in this one, that's for sure.