Screw up incoming.

I thought it was pretty in keeping with the Boro and Wednesday performances. They had a lot of the ball but created very few clear cut chances, whereas the ACD and Weismann chances were the best in the half. I doubt we concede with 11 . Therefore the defeat hurts but doesn’t worry me as much as the injuries do and the upcoming workload on Baath and Hyam does. I worry the Burnley game will feature a team fairly different than those which won 6 on the bounce.

That’s a fair appraisal although the wheels were still on in November. The start of the bad run was the first game in December. But we still beat Bristol City pre-Christmas (and we’re unlucky not to beat Watford due to Wahlstedt). It was the back to back heavy away losses over Christmas and then a failure to beat Rotherham at Ewood when I’d say they came off.

Our form had fell off a cliff long before Wharton was sold, although I agree on the point with Travis. I said it was ludicrous the moment he left. But none of that changes my view on JE last season. Ultimately his absolute minimum achievement for me was making sure we stopped up and we just about did that. I said he'd get a clean slate this year, I aired no criticism over the summer and this season he's proving to be an absolute masterclass.

I think the previous 18 month and a 44% win ratio (despite the awful ending) had given JDT some grace. However at that QPR game it was planly obvious JDT had lost the players and had no intention of changing tactics to try and alter anything. Subsequent players comments confirmed this. I can only speak personally, but I felt that removing JDT and with us posessing the players that had gathered so many points the previous season and up until December, that Eustace should have been able to get some form of new manager boost. Therefore yes, I was expecting improvement in form within the first few weeks and I was worried when it didnt happen, especially when we started to really need points and yet showed no attacking urgency at home to Millwall. I'm not sure my reactions were too unrational. I didnt agree with people who wanted him gone last season, although were there that many saying that?

In what way?

We had amassed 5 point from the previous 11 games due to 3 reasons - JDT being stubborn in his methods, injuries, players downing tools on the manager. When Eustace come in, 2 of those excuses were then removed, and the injury list was better than it had been in December. Therefore it was right to replace JDT, but I expected a new manager to come in and get better results. We failed to win a home game, we were pretty negative at home and it took 3 remarkable away wins to save our neck on the last day of the season. I said all along if Eustace kept us up then that was his job done, and that he would get a clean slate for next season. But he flew very close to being a failure, hence why criticism was justified. This season he’s been absolute top class. A proper man manager with a good tactical nouse. Going back to the comments at the start about “JDT fanboys”, many of those criticising agreed that JDT needed to go, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t expect better from Eustace. It’s just we had zero new manager bounce - and that wasn’t cos the squad was bad as it had already amassed the 33 points early season.

Your problem is it appears that there are three teams breaking away at the top of the league. Early season it looked like just you and Wrexham, but Wycombe have really got on a roll. One of you will miss out, and like Leeds last year, being clearly third best will be no guarantee of play off success. Normally id probably want the underdogs to go up and the bigger clubs to miss out, but in this case I actually want the Wrexham hype machine to come unstuck.

The only major attribute of Hedges is discipline. He holds the team shape and does his defensive duties. Im presuming he’s on a slightly above-average salary in this squad. If we were financially OK then I’d understand having him as a squad filler. But as we need every penny to be competitive on salaries I’d rather fill that role with academy or development players, and use the cash to get people in who can improve the first 11. I’ll caveat that with the fact Beck is now filling the ‘disciplined’ wide man role, and he’s not here next year so we will be back to being light in that position.

Baath and Hyam have been outstanding recently. Hyam has rediscovered hi first season form, and Baath has massively exceeded expectations. But I do worry about them having to keep playing 90 minutes of every game, especially with 5 games in 14 days coming up. At some point I think mcFadz is going to have to step in, which would be a worry.

Waggot points out that our adult season tickets are more expensive than other local club but our concessions are cheaper than others. And that we now sell more concessions than adults. It's almost as if the two points are linked !

Hmm. Ward came in during January in the season we went down and scored 5 goals in 17 starts against the likes of Chelsea, Villa, Everton. He then scored 7 against championship opposition in a full season. Whereas Chris Brown couldn’t score against Championship defences full stop. In the battle of “who was shitter”, Brown take this hands down before you even look at the stats from other clubs.

Once he gives the free kick, how he doesn’t send Whiteman off is baffling.

Looking forward to it providing the tills and the drainage are working 👍

😀 I take the point. There are way too many songs with slow drawn-out intros. The short, sharp "radio-friendly" songs have largely gone. The person that likes the The Trooper and Run to the Hills but doesn't appreciate Revelations or Seventh Son isn't going to be too fond of the 21st century albums. However there's still tons of great stuff on the later albums. Saxon have always been good and are also in a bit of a renaissance period. I think the last two albums have been very strong, and they were great at King Georges Hall a few years back. I've never really got into Priest at all. I must be missing something.