Bethnal

I’m not going to comment on Eustace’s record at this time, because it doesn’t help the state of the forum. Suffice it to say, that if there aren’t at least two victories on his (direct) record by 5pm on 9th March, there’s every chance there never will be.

Lot of players playing football for football’s sake. Holding onto the ball too long, looking negatively, not reading the game, aimless flicks into more danger than they initially found themselves in (Brittain), aimless punts up to the front three. Hedges off early is a blow but Pickering is solid enough and likely improves our chances of not conceding from our left wing, at least. Disappointing. The rest of this season is going to be a poor watch, any semblance of attacking identity is gone, the defending looks like last-gasp stuff at all times. With regards today: I don’t see us turning this around, based on the first half. Eustace and his backroom staff need to find something in that dressing room to change that.

First bit of positive play and Gally is unlucky with the header. Players look like they’re doing basically no ball work in training, somehow.

Didn’t get me up off my seat, interestingly.

We have the Chanpionship’s top scorer and we’re basically bypassing him entirely.

Good free kick, not much anyone can do about those. We’re just not doing much at all to impact the scoreline from the other angle.

Well, that lineup gives me half an idea what to expect. Players have to be much more competent on the ball, today. The same lack of forward ambition as at Cardiff won’t be acceptable.

Was trying to snag a ticket to Palace to watch Adam Wharton put a display on against your lot. Will have an eye on it, it’d be a good time for him to get his first Premier League goal!

The King’s Arms 1st XI, instead of The Dog & Duck’s 3rd team.

From memory (and I’m not a stenographer) you were of the opinion that the manager would take us nowhere but down, in essence and the frequency increased with each game at the end. Again, that is only my memory of it, in a general sense. I would definitely agree that you weren’t a fan and add that you made that clear, strongly and often. I could almost understand your logic on Eustace, it’s just that we currently look like we don’t really know what we’re doing at all, as though none of them can really play football, basically. We’ve somehow come out second half looking even worse than the first. Eustace surely had some influence at half time, unless we’ve got a trove of JDTs half time team talks that were showing the players on a big screen? We look like shit and we’ve looked like that basically the entire time of the last three matches, save for 30 mins against Preston.

BigBar, you and I generally see things about football similarly, but you can’t be blaming a manager you were slating to high heaven while he was here, when he’s been sacked. When does it stop being his fault?

Players look like dogs chasing a car that finally catch up with it. Now they’ve got their way, they’ve no idea what to actually do. Embarrassing. Genuinely embarrassing. Imagine pitching up however-many-miles to Cardiff on a Tuesday night and the people you turn up to support - with them having whinged about boos a couple of weeks ago - serve up that.

Record levels of goal kicks en route, if so.

My gut says that we’re trying to play a conservative version of what we did under JDT, but it’s not being coached as well as that and the players just don’t fancy it at all. I’ve seen worse halves from us, but I haven’t seen many and none that I remember where the absolute basics of football were this bad.

Okay. We look like a fucking pub team here. This is really bad.

Wanted to be clear that the criticism is of the players, as I’m confident Eustace won’t be looking for what they’re currently serving up. I just don’t understand how the players’ technical abilities are this bad, across the board, in this game. Gonna reserve criticism of Ayari. He’s positive in his play, which a lot of players currently aren’t.

Well, this is a difficult watch. No fluency from either side. All the energy/atmosphere of a pre-season friendly. Players are so far off it. Awful distribution and retention of the ball. Away on a cold Tuesday night in Cardiff, maybe a point is fine, maybe we’re set up to test our resolve to earn a point. A few players look like they don’t fancy it (again). Very little forward ambition, save from the usual suspects trying to drag us forward. I don’t really know what I’m watching, I don’t understand what the players are trying to achieve.

Interesting approach from Carabao: make an advert so bad that people are encouraged to pour your product into their eyes and ears so as not to hear or see it. Certainly not drinking the stuff, anyway.

Have been high in my praise of Sigurdsson, having been at QPR away to witness that performance, but he’s offered basically nothing today. This squad probably needs £10m throwing at it, at least, if we’re to make any progress at all.

Only bit of shape at the minute is the back three, everyone else is getting pulled out of position.

I’ve been a bit rash in my criticism (he’s got an assist today), just a complaint that dead balls aren’t amounting to anything and the balls in are poor.

Preston looking the more comfortable, currently. We look a stretched squad. More subs at this stage would be a big risk, so the 11 currently on the pitch have to make something happen.

Kinell, Brittain is a real head-scratcher… such a strange footballer that he can go from two assists in the Stoke game to absolutely dogshit supply in the two following games. How do players - who train with footballs for hours each day - not master the ability to kick a ball?

Chrisene against Millar is a car crash waiting to happen.

Fans have been fantastic so far, but the players need to give them something to roar about. Second half is giving me flashbacks to Tuesday, we look like we’re clinging on and we shouldn’t have to be.