Another fine mess Stanley...Away at Accrington in the Cup. Wed 22-Feb. 8-O'clock.

[BWFC_Insane]

My spidey senses are telling me we might lose this. It just has the feel of "that" FA Cup semi-final for some reason.

I'd obviously much rather be wrong.

I’m not sure which one you mean tbh I think it has more of a feel of that ‘league cup semi against Tranmere’.

[KeyserSoze]

We will murder this lot. Be reet.

[officer_dibble]

We’re 10-1 to the good last three games

Jerome news is a shitter - what the feck are we doing in training to injure anyone as soon as they sign?

[TANGODANCER]

It's a big "if" granted, but there's always the possibility of hiding lamps under bushels being played at managerial levels. Mr Evatt won't be looking for saintliness I'm sure, and Accy have already posted the "bad news" list in readiness. "Deguelo" (no quarter asked or given) will be the order of the day, and cup games are notorious for producing giant-killers. With all the fair-play of a Punch and Judy show, give nothing away. Come on then, time for a tough sheet display. COME ON YOU WHITES.......




p.s. Very best wishes to Mrs Sonic.

[TANGODANCER]

Here is the latest forecast from Planet Farnworth recovered from a yellow balloon shot down last night over the Tai Tung Takeaway on Market Street:

Winning this will mean more to the Brickies than us quite simply because they have few other options for fame this season. In the doldrums re league positions, I reckon they'll go hell-for-leather from the off and throw the sink at us complete with dirty dishes and the remnants of Egg-Foo-Yung, fried Rice and chicken bones... They may be brave and try for two goals before parking the bus and starting with all the tactics in the manual of time-wasting, fouling and unfair play. They may also manage to play a bit of football times between...so beware.

Additionally, they have nothing to lose and much to gain by beating the Mighty Whites. Ming the Merciless should have nothing on our desire to see them off. A four kettle performance is needed.



Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?

Very best to Mrs Sonic.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Jerome news is a shitter - what the feck are we doing in training to injure anyone as soon as they sign?

Evatt has said the playing surface at Lostock is causing problems.

[The_Gun]

Jerome news is a shitter - what the feck are we doing in training to injure anyone as soon as they sign?

Evatt has said the playing surface at Lostock is causing problems.

Also I heard our dome was destroyed by the wind and has yet to be repaired, which ain't great.

[Worthy4England]

Jerome news is a shitter - what the feck are we doing in training to injure anyone as soon as they sign?

Evatt has said the playing surface at Lostock is causing problems.

I'm missing a bit. I'm sure most of us will have played on various iterations of "shit pitches" - Maybe someone could explain how Ronnie Radford waded through bollock high mud to score "that goal"...Are they all glass cannons? I sorta get "someone twisted their ankle on a frozen divot" type things - I'm much less sure of "they've done a hammy" etc. Irrespective of the state of the midden, it still seems like we get a lot of injuries early doors, and I don't expect that all incoming transfers have been playing on a feather bed.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Are modern footballers softer than yesteryear? Probably. Are they more finely-tuned athletes and thus more likely to get injured? Certainly.

Lostock is very exposed and I guess it makes the surface slippy and sodden. If a bloke with muscles you could ping a 50p piece off suddenly finds himself Scooby-Dooing in mid-air, I can imagine it can wrench muscles out of place. Shoretire and Jerome are both named as victims of "back spasms", and as someone with a back injury I can sympathise.

Either that or Evatt's lying.

[BWFC_Insane]

I note that Evatt has made 2 pairs of tickets available for tomorrow night in a charity auction to raise money for Turkey and Syria earthquake victims.

Lovely gesture.

Also note that one pair is already at bids of £573.

I know it’s a charity auction etc but nobody can tell me this is a game Bolton fans don’t care about. Christ. £500 to go to Accrington.

Tomorrow night really is critical for momentum. People paying loads on the black market for tickets too. Win and the boost will be immeasurable. Lose…well it ain’t gonna be pretty.

[Worthy4England]

Don't really know what you want me to say, Worthy. Are modern footballers softer than yesteryear? Probably. Are they more finely-tuned athletes and thus more likely to get injured? Certainly.

Lostock is very exposed and I guess it makes the surface slippy and sodden. If a bloke with muscles you could ping a 50p piece off suddenly finds himself Scooby-Dooing in mid-air, I can imagine it can wrench muscles out of place.

Either that or Evatt's lying.

I wasn't particularly expecting/wanting you to say anything, I was just observin' - You'd certainly expect that they were better conditioned than the players of yesteryear along with "fine tuning", you'd probably expect that they were all faster (like for like etc.). But in L1 and 2, surely being able to play on slippy, sodden surfaces (less so in L1 probably) is all part and parcel of being a footballer, which your body has to adapt to - we're not going to be much use if we can only consistently not break-down outside of a non-slip, indoor, astroturf set up! And sure - there's going to always be training ground accidents (although they don't appear to "have it out in the bogs" quite as often that we know of"

It just seems to me that balancing all that out, we get a lot of minor tears, rips, twinges (John has had a back like a scouser with a job offer), that seem to be impinging on us more than other squads and teams - I'd be surprised if it were all down to the state of the training pitch...

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Out of Megsonian interest, who would accept a win tomorrow in exchange for an ensuing loss on Saturday?

Not that it's that simple, as the Ginger Mourinho discovered. But I wonder who would accept dropping points to Vale in exchange for a Wembley trip.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

@Worthy sure. All makes sense. All I'd add is that we play at very high intensity - highest/hardest pressers in the division - and Evatt wants us to train at a similar lick. If they're doing that on soft ground it might be easy to twinge.

On a wider note, I suspect we are (as BWFCi suggested recently) slightly lacking in the sports-science department and might be pushing some players too hard, especially when they first sign. TBF Evatt has said about some signings that they need to be brought up to speed. We have frequently joked about 'downloading content' but it may be as important to upgrade physicality.

Then again, even the fittest can twinge a back. It just happens.

[Worthy4England]

Out of Megsonian interest, who would accept a win tomorrow in exchange for an ensuing loss on Saturday?

Not that it's that simple, as the Ginger Mourinho discovered. But I wonder who would accept dropping points to Vale in exchange for a Wembley trip.

I don't think they're a great comparison for a couple of reasons - whilst we could make 8 changes (or whatever it was numerically, Megson did), I don't think that's likely for Evatt and he's going to look to play his strongest available XI even if there were no onjuriy worries and the second bit, we really were up against it in the Prem at the time Megson had to make some picks - Lisbon for example, we were 18th (albeit a win in our game in hand would have taken us to 13th...) - the rewards vs the penalty's aren't the same for me.

So, I think we need to win both, but if forced to a "pick" - I'll take a win in the next game vs the percentage chance of not making the top 6 and the percentage chance of not winning the play-off. Fortunately, I don't think it's an either / or - and both teams are capable of playing in a manner "we don't like"...

[Worthy4England]

@Worthy sure. All makes sense. All I'd add is that we play at very high intensity - highest/hardest pressers in the division - and Evatt wants us to train at a similar lick. If they're doing that on soft ground it might be easy to twinge.

On a wider note, I suspect we are (as BWFCi suggested recently) slightly lacking in the sports-science department and might be pushing some players too hard, especially when they first sign. TBF Evatt has said about some signings that they need to be brought up to speed. We have frequently joked about 'downloading content' but it may be as important to upgrade physicality.

Then again, even the fittest can twinge a back. It just happens.

Yeah - that's sort of what I'm questioning, do we gain more from going all out Day 1 (which I don't suppose we actually do) to get them up to muster but have a high injury incidence or would we benefit more long term from going maybe in slightly smaller progressions. I'd be stunned if all the twinges were "down to the pitch" - that just doesn't seem likely - and I'm not suggesting in internet binary that Evatt is "lying"...

[BWFC_Insane]

Out of Megsonian interest, who would accept a win tomorrow in exchange for an ensuing loss on Saturday?

Not that it's that simple, as the Ginger Mourinho discovered. But I wonder who would accept dropping points to Vale in exchange for a Wembley trip.

I think the scenarios are very very different for a number of reasons. Firstly Megson was dealing with a situation where the very future of the clubs existence relied on staying in the top flight. At the time lots of arguments to the contrary but we now know the truth. Staying up considering Eddie Davies desire to be less financially involved over time was clearly business critical.

Going up is and clearly has to be business priority number one. Anything else is ludicrous. But the weighting of the priorities is different. The gap between what a uefa quarter final win meant vs staying up was gigantic. The gap here is narrowed although still large.

The other difference is the trajectory of the club. We are on the way back now. From the very bottom. A Wembley appearance now means considerably more than it did then when it looked like we were starting a slide.

I’d also add that we were clearly struggling after European games to then compete on the Sunday in the league whereas I think there is less pressure on fitness and availability here given we have some players to add back Saturday to offer fresher legs. It’s also not as high a level and we aren’t having to play above ourselves most weeks to have a chance which was not the case then.

If Evatt had played very weak sides and we’d been knocked out of this cup earlier on or even last round I doubt many would have been overly bothered. But it’s a step from Wembley and Evatt has taken it seriously enough.

As for the direct question given the situation I’d say yes we can sacrifice Saturday for this. Since we’d still have a reasonable chance of making the play offs and even if we make them no guarantee that leads to a Wembley day or further.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Just realised a good thread title would have been "Getting a semi on"

After all, it can go either way

[irie Cee Bee]

Kachunga looked sharp when he came on against Wycombe. I expect him to play a big part tomorrow.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Kachunga looked sharp when he came on against Wycombe. I expect him to play a big part tomorrow.

Given absentees, looks like he's gonna have to. I'd be delighted if he did. As BWFCi said, it'd be ace if he became this generation's Fabian DeFreitas.

[BWFC_Insane]

Kachunga looked sharp when he came on against Wycombe. I expect him to play a big part tomorrow.

Given absentees, looks like he's gonna have to. I'd be delighted if he did. As BWFCi said, it'd be ace if he became this generation's Fabian DeFreitas.

I feel tomorrow is either that story, Charles destroys his old club or Accrington stun Bolton….

It’s one of those three I reckon.