Kippers, Shrimp boats and quicksands. Away to Morecambe Sat, Mar 5th 12-30 kick off.

[jmjhb]

Some of the teams' games in hand are against each other. I'm really not worried.

Wycombe have 3 games in hand on us, need 7 points, against teams that are not in the playoffs. Barnsley have 4 games and need 4 points to overtake us. Derby look to be above us after today if they continue as they are.

I think we have a good chance of dropping out of the playoffs before the end of March.

Fair play to both if they win all their games. I expect Barnsley to pass us, Wycombe to fall short.

[BWFC_Insane]

Some of the teams' games in hand are against each other. I'm really not worried.

Wycombe have 3 games in hand on us, need 7 points, against teams that are not in the playoffs. Barnsley have 4 games and need 4 points to overtake us. Derby look to be above us after today if they continue as they are.

I think we have a good chance of dropping out of the playoffs before the end of March.

Wycombe, Derby, Ipswich winning. Will all win. So will Barnsley.

We will absolutely need to win next week or I suspect that too 6 spot comes under serious pressure and I don’t back this lot under pressure. They would be in a run in needing to win week in week out. As we all take fifteen touches before missing the chance to shoot.

Weak mentally is my view. Lack leaders and grit.

[Worthy4England]

Also want to add. We’ve absolutely not come out of January stronger than we went into it.

Today we had two signings playing. Shoretire absolutely not as good as Dapo and Mbete only playing cos Johnston is injured. Lack of impact from new players and injuries to them have left our originals being flogged week in week out.

Shoretire's no more a striker in this system than Dapo was. He's a better 10 than Dapo was, though.

Mbete would be better if John wasn't next to him. Dec has gone back to being unforgivably lazy and I'm getting to the point where I'm done with him. Gifted player in some ways, but any 50/50 involving him becomes a 99/1 and he won't track back or make anything of a poor pass. He doesn't offer any guidance to the kid playing inside him and certainly doesn't cover him.

We're no stronger than we came into January because most of the players we signed have been injured. None of the strikers could start today and that's where the issue is. When Nlundulu came on we got up the pitch far better. If he had been able to start, with Shoretire at 10, that's probably a very different game. I don't think Dan was amazing today, but he gave us someone to play off and we improved on that basis. They fouled him, but he was strong enough to still use the ball despite that - whereas Dion or Kacha had to hit the deck and usually got nothing.

Our issue today was the same it always is away at Morecambe. Big lads who are allowed to foul as much as they like on a small pitch make life very, very difficult. We probably should have won, but could also easily have lost. Point is fine and we now have got to win at home.

We’ve had issues but a big lad who has played this season in this league was worked so hard he was injured and then what was meant to be a minor injury turned into weeks. Now he can only play a few minutes and looks like a poor Baka impression.

Shoretire is what I expected. Initial flash in the pan but he’s far from ready to be a central part of a team looking to win promotion in men’s football. Bit part here and there at best.

John was poor today. But again Randell hadn’t shown enough to displace him. Another who looks exhausted after half an hour.

The bottom line for me is non of the signings have really made enough impact to take the load off or to give us momentum,

I’m not necessarily saying you’d expect them too but January hasn’t kicked us on as it has previously.

Need to get the senior lads fit - we miss MJ and the George’s. Morley has been poor for past few weeks and clearly needs a rest.

I'm sort of on the fence here, due to the injuries. Really difficult to see if Dan and Vic are an improvement currently. It felt a bit better when Dan came on, but marginally for me..not "night and day" a fair chunk of our late pressure was long throws...Williams, still jury out. Shortire, I agree with both views. I can see why Utd rate him, but he's short on physicality - Utd won't be too worried about that at the moment, but it doesn't help us much. For me he's being generally well marshalled by players using their physicality in the last few games outside of the view that you can't touch players anymore. Mbete, I thought did fine today and agree he got no cover from John. Nothing much going forwards though.

[BWFC_Insane]

^Shoretire has bags of ability. But we needed someone a bit more finished for the scenario we are in.

[jmjhb]

Whilst we were flying, Ipswich had a wobble, then Derby did too, now it's our turn.

[Worthy4England]

We’ve had issues but a big lad who has played this season in this league was worked so hard he was injured and then what was meant to be a minor injury turned into weeks.

Keeping players fit has been our biggest issue for a long time now.

There's no point having loads of "options" in a 25 man squad if only 14 players are genuinely match ready.

I agree. But I feel we need some know how here. Some investment. It’s very naive to be injuring lads who are match fit because we’ve ‘worked them too hard’. Bring Big Sam in as a consultant and ask him to build a sports science department. Will pay for itself.

Why don't we skip the middleman and just build a sports science department ourselves

It assumes Evatt wants to or knows how to and could sell the need to the board. Given it’s not happened yet I would doubt that. Allardyce has contacts with some of the best in this field.

Do you think Evatt and Sam could work together? I'm not so sure...

[Worthy4England]

^Shoretire has bags of ability. But we needed someone a bit more finished for the scenario we are in.

Yeah. He terrifies defenders when he's got room...so they don't give him any...

[GhostoftheBok]

It assumes Evatt wants to or knows how to and could sell the need to the board.

If Evatt can't sell the project to the board who is hiring Sam as a consultant? Are we saying Evatt can't sell the need for a sports science overhaul, but can sell hiring Sam to sell the need for the same project?

[jmjhb]

Some of the teams' games in hand are against each other. I'm really not worried.

Wycombe have 3 games in hand on us, need 7 points, against teams that are not in the playoffs. Barnsley have 4 games and need 4 points to overtake us. Derby look to be above us after today if they continue as they are.

I think we have a good chance of dropping out of the playoffs before the end of March.

Weak mentally is my view. Lack leaders and grit.

I have to disagree with this really, we've always won when we've needed to in the big games under Evatt.

FGR, Crawley in L2, Accy last week are the main 3 I can think of.

[Worthy4England]

Yes, but we're also prone to creating the "must win" the performances when we were "flying" against Grimsby and Exeter weren't great, creating the pressure against Crawley (which we dealt with admirably)

[GhostoftheBok]

Yeah. He terrifies defenders when he's got room...so they don't give him any...

We need other players occupying defenders. At the minute they man-mark Dion and foul him to death and then double-up on Shola.

When Dan or Vik play they tend to attract markers and leave space for a 10 to operate, I'd assume Jerome would offer the same.

We've no real pace in behind to stretch the opposition and open gaps, so it's a case of forcing defenders into clumps.

Unless we come across that unicorn of a referee who actually sees and gives fouls on our forwards. Today's ref was literally guessing. I've never seen a ref look around less. Zero awareness.

[Worthy4England]

Yeah. He terrifies defenders when he's got room...so they don't give him any...

We need other players occupying defenders. At the minute they man-mark Dion and foul him to death and then double-up on Shola.

When Dan or Vik play they tend to attract markers and leave space for a 10 to operate, I'd assume Jerome would offer the same.

We've no real pace in behind to stretch the opposition and open gaps, so it's a case of forcing defenders into clumps.

Unless we come across that unicorn of a referee who actually sees and gives fouls on our forwards. Today's ref was literally guessing. I've never seen a ref look around less. Zero awareness.

Agree with most of this, until we get to the fouls bit. They toss a coin and see what happens for sure, but a lot of the ones we point at, sometimes you get 'em, often you don't. It also looks, far too often for me, like we've played for the foul rather than the ball. Overall, we've had more fouls than we've conceded and 7 penalties (most in the Div), with none against...

[BWFC_Insane]

Some of the teams' games in hand are against each other. I'm really not worried.

Wycombe have 3 games in hand on us, need 7 points, against teams that are not in the playoffs. Barnsley have 4 games and need 4 points to overtake us. Derby look to be above us after today if they continue as they are.

I think we have a good chance of dropping out of the playoffs before the end of March.

Weak mentally is my view. Lack leaders and grit.

I have to disagree with this really, we've always won when we've needed to in the big games under Evatt.

FGR, Crawley in L2, Accy last week are the main 3 I can think of.

We will find out in the coming weeks.

[DJBlu]

An Aimson equaliser at Wycombe would be really appreciated right now.

edit:

Nevermind, K. McDonald has just scored for em,

An Aimson winner would be appreciated though!

[DJBlu]

Shrews equalise at Derby too!

[jmjhb]

Derby, Barnsley, Wycombe all drawing. As things stand nothing gained, nothing lost.

[DJBlu]

Derby, Barnsley, Wycombe all drawing. As things stand nothing gained, nothing lost.

Wycombe draw would mean nobody outside the top 6 can overtake us, barring a 10 GD swing, not seen that happen before I'll rest easier tonight if that stays the same!

[Worthy4England]

I'm getting the words "panic" and "fannies" be reet.

[DJBlu]

Every game that we need to finish all into 7 minutes injury time.

[DJBlu]

Referee at Derby must have either of em on his Acca,

90+12 mins currently.

edit:

Just finished. 2-2

Nice one.