Lessons learned . Away to Cambridge Tues, 26th Nov. 1745.

[TANGODANCER]

We don't need university degrees to pass Eleven plus (see what I did there?) exams in football, home or away, and with five teams joint fifth to ninth on points, we should be able to aquire three more points against a side third bottom of our league. And then, we know better, than take that for granted. Once again we have a must-win affair and our failings are pretty common knowledge to any manager worth his salt.

Get out there, boss the game and don't go behind to soft goals. The rest, as ever, is Que Sera. Go get em..

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Serious question to the floor: which fixtures *aren’t* “must-win”? Given the expectations set to achieve 2ppg (which would now require 2.12ppg to catch up, and which still might not catch the two teams averaging above 2ppg), not to mention the ongoing PR dumpster fire caused by Huddersfield and Stockport specifically but also a general draining of belief anyway, what upcoming games would a draw largely be seen as “ok” in? I can see one - Wycombe away - this side of January. Then in January maaaaybe Mansfield away and Rotherham away. Defeats in any of those would have some reaching for their gun, but draws might just be ok….

Just. Keep. Winning.

[The_Gun]

Only a win will do if Evatt is to keep the wolves at bay. We showed a bit of fight in the second half yesterday, and if we can bring that again we should have too much quality for Cambridge.


Baxter

Jones Santos Johnston

Sheehan Matete

Tutu Thomason Williams

Charles Collins

[truewhite15]

Interesting question.

To keep up with the pre-season promises, they're pretty much all must-wins from now on. Any draws are only bearable if they're followed by a good win. Any defeats will be treated as unforgivable by a large percentage, and will take two or three successive wins to bring people even vaguely back onside.

[TANGODANCER]

Our form's as fickle as the weather and the current top end is hardly what we would have forecast at season start. We can't conrol what others are doing, but we need to keep focus on our own position. There's no doubt injuries have had some bad effect on us, but we seem to be on the mend.

Dempsey is sorely missed as a game changer and we'll really have to be a bit more careful with yellow cards. Taking your shirt off is just plain daft and asking for trouble and the boss man needs to get a grip of that.; it's a bit like kicking ourselves up the buttocks.

[boltonboris]

We need a stronger grip of midfield so I’d be putting Matete in there with Sheehan and Thomo

Dion and Collins both played 100+ minutes on Saturday so they’ll have managed minutes. Presumably we’ll see McAtee and Adeboyejo start as a result. Who knows. I certainly don’t.

3-1 Bolton

[BWFC_Insane]

We need a stronger grip of midfield so I’d be putting Matete in there with Sheehan and Thomo

Dion and Collins both played 100+ minutes on Saturday so they’ll have managed minutes. Presumably we’ll see McAtee and Adeboyejo start as a result. Who knows. I certainly don’t.

3-1 Bolton

Can you explain why Dion and Collins need ‘managed minutes’ yet Santos or Thomason or Cogley don’t? Those lads tend to play three a week if they are fit and able.

I don’t remember McGinlay getting managed minutes. Or Kev Davies who led the line on his own and did the work of two men.

I think one of the problems we have is too much rotation especially up front. Get your best strikers on the pitch and let them do their thing. Have back up or alternatives sure but we have four very good strikers none of which are performing as such yet. And none of which seem to get consistent runs with a partner.

[boltonboris]

We need a stronger grip of midfield so I’d be putting Matete in there with Sheehan and Thomo

Dion and Collins both played 100+ minutes on Saturday so they’ll have managed minutes. Presumably we’ll see McAtee and Adeboyejo start as a result. Who knows. I certainly don’t.

3-1 Bolton

Can you explain why Dion and Collins need ‘managed minutes’ yet Santos or Thomason or Cogley don’t? Those lads tend to play three a week if they are fit and able.

I don’t remember McGinlay getting managed minutes. Or Kev Davies who led the line on his own and did the work of two men.

I think one of the problems we have is too much rotation especially up front. Get your best strikers on the pitch and let them do their thing. Have back up or alternatives sure but we have four very good strikers none of which are performing as such yet. And none of which seem to get consistent runs with a partner.

I'm not saying they do, just that going off history of Striker rotation under Evatt and them normally being subbed off at 68 minutes, they most likely will

[boltonboris]

FWIW I agree that we should build momentum and partnerships and if someone gets the hump, feck em

[Worthy4England]

We need a stronger grip of midfield so I’d be putting Matete in there with Sheehan and Thomo

Dion and Collins both played 100+ minutes on Saturday so they’ll have managed minutes. Presumably we’ll see McAtee and Adeboyejo start as a result. Who knows. I certainly don’t.

3-1 Bolton

Can you explain why Dion and Collins need ‘managed minutes’ yet Santos or Thomason or Cogley don’t? Those lads tend to play three a week if they are fit and able.

I don’t remember McGinlay getting managed minutes. Or Kev Davies who led the line on his own and did the work of two men.

I think one of the problems we have is too much rotation especially up front. Get your best strikers on the pitch and let them do their thing. Have back up or alternatives sure but we have four very good strikers none of which are performing as such yet. And none of which seem to get consistent runs with a partner.

I think there was maybe a better case when we were pressing aggressively in their third. Running rag-arsed. But I'm not seeing us do that as much.

[TANGODANCER]

Our yellow card count is a bit of a worry. I still maintain a lot of our problems are caused by "flexible" refereeing standards. Refs are supposed to be in control of the games, but the decisions should be defined "by the book", and not at the mercy of human nature. It can't be denied that some officials are less "friendly than others. That needs cutting out . They could start by abolishing shirt-pulling and "hands on" opponents. Dion is a classic example of a victim of both spoiling a good player.

[Worthy4England]

Serious question to the floor: which fixtures *aren’t* “must-win”? Given the expectations set to achieve 2ppg (which would now require 2.12ppg to catch up, and which still might not catch the two teams averaging above 2ppg), not to mention the ongoing PR dumpster fire caused by Huddersfield and Stockport specifically but also a general draining of belief anyway, what upcoming games would a draw largely be seen as “ok” in? I can see one - Wycombe away - this side of January. Then in January maaaaybe Mansfield away and Rotherham away. Defeats in any of those would have some reaching for their gun, but draws might just be ok….

Just. Keep. Winning.

We've lost 5 in 15. A third of the season. We lost 9 in total last season and didn't make it. If you win the other 31, you'd get 93 points at just over 2ppg...just saying like. You can draw some, but probably not when you're on track to lose 15.

[BWFC_Insane]

We need a stronger grip of midfield so I’d be putting Matete in there with Sheehan and Thomo

Dion and Collins both played 100+ minutes on Saturday so they’ll have managed minutes. Presumably we’ll see McAtee and Adeboyejo start as a result. Who knows. I certainly don’t.

3-1 Bolton

Can you explain why Dion and Collins need ‘managed minutes’ yet Santos or Thomason or Cogley don’t? Those lads tend to play three a week if they are fit and able.

I don’t remember McGinlay getting managed minutes. Or Kev Davies who led the line on his own and did the work of two men.

I think one of the problems we have is too much rotation especially up front. Get your best strikers on the pitch and let them do their thing. Have back up or alternatives sure but we have four very good strikers none of which are performing as such yet. And none of which seem to get consistent runs with a partner.

I'm not saying they do, just that going off history of Striker rotation under Evatt and them normally being subbed off at 68 minutes, they most likely will

I don’t mind the subs - dependent on the situation I just don’t think you can build partnerships or consistency though chopping and changing. FWIW I think our best partnerships are Charles and Vic or Charles and Aaron.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Couple of interesting Evatt quotes. Admits 3-5-2 is now his preference over 3-4-3. And says we should have all injured players back “by the end of this month” - surely not Toal/Forino/Dempsey. End of next month?

[truewhite15]

Couple of interesting Evatt quotes. Admits 3-5-2 is now his preference over 3-4-3. And says we should have all injured players back “by the end of this month” - surely not Toal/Forino/Dempsey. End of next month?

Only took him two months longer than most of the supporters.

Problem with 3-5-2 is the lack of midfielders we have to make it work even when we have injuries or suspensions. Without Dempsey or CMG, we've got four for three places - and that's only if you're including Scott Arfield. I can't blame people for not including Scott Arfield.

[boltonboris]

Great to hear we’ll have players coming back, but what we’re not accounting for, is the inevitable injuries to people who aren’t currently injured.

[Spartan2]

We were as shite against Blackpool as we have been all season, the only variable is how good the opposition is. Had we been playing Stockport again they would have taken us apart again. Even the second half only happens because Blackpool were woeful. I'm not expecting anything better from us on Tuesday.

[BorsdaneWhite]

I miss Bod and Keiran Lee.

[Harry Genshaw]

We were as shite against Blackpool as we have been all season, the only variable is how good the opposition is. Had we been playing Stockport again they would have taken us apart again. Even the second half only happens because Blackpool were woeful. I'm not expecting anything better from us on Tuesday.

Aye. We were only a Nathan Baxter boot away from going in at ht 0-2 down. Last minute winners are always lovely but it didn't, to me anyway, signal we'd turned a corner.

This is the kind of game we usually do well in under Evatt - flat track bullies etc and it'll always be the ground where BSA started the momentum towards the Prem years. I don't think it would bring anything final from the board if we lost, so long as we weren't hammered.

1-1 draw.

[officer_dibble]

I’m in agreement on the must win mantra…I’d be disappointed with anything less tonight. I see he’s making a point about how we’re only behind Wycombe and above Birmingham and least years league two Wrexham (who are now presumably a side we should count ourselves lucky to share a division with). Conveniently forgetting how we surrendered at Birmingham six (?) games ago.

352, matete thomo and Sheehan please. Collins and Charles up top for me. Williams and Tutu on the flanks would be interesting but if Cogley doesn’t start I will be surprised!