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Reply | Getting Fleeced Down The Bush Match Fred
at 22:23 13 Oct 2026
Having just read the oppo profile , Derby’s strength appears to be in attack , while our defence is very miserly. They seem to be in dire straits at the back with Sanderson the main man! If we can get Poku motoring down the right and Smythy down the left this could be the game that either Kone,Kolli,or Lloyd open their account - ideally all three! 3-1 to the hoops |
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Reply | Freedom Pass
at 16:07 12 Oct 2026
Most common one here at this time of year is ‘leaves on the tracks’ I blame the trees |
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Reply | Unbeaten away, struggling at home
at 16:05 12 Oct 2026
Yeah it’s definitely becoming an issue. Major hype over the dramatic comeback over Preston, but in the cold light of day , two points dropped. Ditto Bolton . Give us those four points and it’s a different perspective on our home form entirely. Yes, you can argue that West Ham is a point clawed back that we didn’t expect and possibly WBA too. But most successful teams have a strong home record so we need to improve that quite urgently - beginning with Derby hopefully |
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Reply | Injuries
at 23:08 11 Oct 2026
When you say ‘until the owners address the issue what have you in mind? Something as simplistic as sacking cycling Ben or something more profound? My own view is that our in juries are as a result of two things (1) Over training/playing with little recovery time (2) Risky recruitment. We know that Lamptey is a terrific player when fit, we also know he hasn’t been fit for over two years. I would rather have 3 Adamson’s in my squad than one Lamptey . Dunne never (very rarely) misses games. Edwards never misses games Are they training differently than others - resilience is key |
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Reply | Injuries
at 22:30 11 Oct 2026
I think Smyth was genuinely injured. There was a close up of him on Sky as he reached the dug-out and he was grimacing and limping. Shame as he was having the game of his life. What killed us as much as anything in the last 20 was the complete lack of pace up front, no out ball to relieve all that pressure. I know Kone was way off it, but I was relieved just to see him on the pitch after that horror Dev tackle. Hopefully he will now get up to speed. We need him firing on all cylinders. |
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Reply | keeper
at 14:12 11 Oct 2026
Don’t know about us signing him, but it looks as if Northern Ireland may have found Pat Jennings natural successor. |
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Reply | keeper
at 10:09 10 Oct 2026
So on a praising our current keeper thread, you felt the need to dig out a player who is not even here, but may play a role at some point in the future , and is obviously going through a rough time at the moment - classy. |
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Reply | Great draw tonight...
at 10:01 10 Oct 2026
But the problem is, Nix, the players are getting injured anyway. If our loading was working and we kept everyone fit by limiting their minutes, then that would be fine, because we would be replacing fully fit players, with other fully fit players of an equal calibre. But managing their load is not working, we are STILL losing key players and dropping points. Last night was a classic example , we took off the fully fit Kemper, who made Bowen look anonymous, and replaced him with Lamptey, who did god only knows what damage to himself first time he stretched for the ball. Then because we had used up all our subs (or sub windows) he had to stay on as a virtual passenger, doubtless aggravating whatever he had injured - where’s the sport science in that?
There are times when you are absolutely right, we need to manage a player’s minutes, but there are times when JS - who overall is doing a great job - has to use his gut instinct and say, ‘no I am over-ruling our earlier discussion , Kemper stays on’. If it blows up in his face and Kemper picks up a long term injury then so be it, that what he gets paid the big bucks for. But instead of that MAYBE happening to Kemper it HAS happened to Lamptey - and we have dropped to points in the process. |
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Reply | Who has say over players ?
at 09:05 10 Oct 2026
If he was running out of gas, fair enough, but there was no evidence of that. And we have Cirkin available on Wednesday after suspension, so no need to play Kemper at all against Derby. Mbengue comes on for Adamson, Lampty replaces Poku to give a Charles a quick out ball down the right. This means he is not stretching for a ball on his wrong side and likely doesn’t get inured. All hindsight I know, But Shankly/Paisley et al built there success on a ‘one game at a time’ mindset and they were playing just as many games as today with a much smaller squad. Yes the game has moved on and there are times when it is clear and obvious when a play nears to be taken off and protected. But there are times too, when you need to use your gut instinct and last night was one of those times imo.
I wouldn’t mind if all this carefully managed ‘game time’ was working and we had the majority if not all of our players fit and available all the time, but our injury list is as bad as last year and we are missing key players, which has cost us several points.
Obviously before hand if someone offered me a point at West Ham I would have bitten their hand off etc etc, but that was not how it played out. We were magnificent and would have won the game if we had tinkerd with the defence. Let’s hope we can reproduce the performance against Derby, if we do that, we will win comfortably |
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Reply | Who has say over players ?
at 23:58 9 Oct 2026
The irony for me is that we take Kemper off (he is way ahead of Cirkin imo) for medical reasons, but then are forced to leave his replacement - Lamptey - on, no doubt aggravating whatever injury he has picked up . Kemper stays on we win the game, simple as that. |
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Reply | Julien Stéphan Interview
at 20:22 7 Oct 2026
That’s exactly how I read it. He was VERY clear, there is NO link between injuries and who plays. The latter is based entirely on attitude and hard work. Alfie will lead the line, would be an amazing time to break his duck. |
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Reply | Julien Stéphan Interview
at 13:41 7 Oct 2026
Cheers Clive, intelligent questions answered intelligently. Two things (and I hear you Brian re Kolli) I think separating injuries from players selection is very telling. At the moment, the blatantly obvious one is Kolli and I would not expect to see him make the match day squad v West Ham. But it also does not spell the end of his QPR career either. JS has been very clear, but also very clever, it is 100% down to the player if he gets included or not.
On the flip side of that, the ‘Standards’ thing is very interesting. JS can impose strict standards on Kolli, as he is on the peripheral of things. But what happens if Dunne lets his standards slip, or Edward’s, or Charles? You can argue that is never going to happen, but that is not my point. If JS is serious about driving up standards (which is music to my ears) then it must be applied to the most important /popular player too, as well as the dispensable. |
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Reply | Stephan interview with Dave Mc
at 22:52 6 Oct 2026
I think when he was talking about Adamson, he answered the question very clearly about Kolli. Whether injuries will force his hand remains to be seen. He literally has one fit striker against the best team in the division - should be interesting |
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Reply | International Break
at 23:20 5 Oct 2026
Hopefully he’ll come back rearing to prove a point |
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Reply | International Break
at 16:14 5 Oct 2026
Interesting one. I didn’t realise we had the power to do that. Good for us of course, but tricky for the player. |
| | Myke
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