Holmes_and_Watson

Eye

Having trouble Man-Ageing his squad. Pillock.

Decades from now you'll look at that, and wonder just what was going on. 🙂

Don't do it.

I was wondering just how much rotation we needed. But then we don't know the condition of a lot of them, and knocks they are carrying. The rotation has kept a deep squad, fresh this long, which has been a plus. We've dug out wins when not everyone has been firing in the last two. Tonight, we just didn't quite have enough. Looking at the starting line up, Leo for Archer is the only obvious change. And Archer has done well in the last couple. It would be hard to drop Azaz, even if he's fading a bit. I prefer Downes and Jander as a midfield 2. But there's no question that Charles brings some attacking quality. So, a decent line up really, in the end I think, although I did share the thought, when we looked a bit meh at times.

The unbeaten run continues! We had a few, not chances that troubled their keeper, but nearly moments in the last couple of minutes. But we didn't really get behind them often enough in those closing stages. Roy sent out a well disciplined side with a game plan. We were a bit too disjointed, and unfortunately gave away an OG. A fair number of slips, missed passes and incorrect offsides broke up the play even more. Tonda's subs got us a point. If it's the play offs, then he has done an excellent job to get us there, from where we were.

Hopefully, that defensive sub means we get a lot more space.

I thought Stewart had got a second. Flag up anyway...

Stewart! Lovely ball in. Good to see Tonda switch it up with both Stewart and Larin on.

That looked like a poor one to concede. Easily got it in past Charles. City have made most of the running this half. Happy to sit back, looking for the press, but patient when we don't push. We had a moment when Leo came on. But will be have to a lot better, even to get the draw.

As others have said, it's a bit disjointed tonight. City were controlling the pace of it after we got back into it. They pressed our defence a lot more too. A good 1 on 1 stop from Peretz undone by a lovely diving header from Manning. We've shown we've plenty more in the tank than this, and have plenty of reinforcements to bring on to impose ourselves a bit more.

Yay! Nice delivery and a player's finish. Just got anything on it.

You're left with the impression of him being a careerist, but not a careerist politician. Able to get to the top, but with no method, he's not willing to change his mind on along the way. Points for flexibility. But his political career has left him looking like he's been led by the nose through it all by McSweeney (and behind him, mentor Mandelson). McSweeney got him as far as he did, so giving rewards for loyalists must have seemed like a non issue. Any revelations brushed easily away. The Doyle revelations (more today) show he's happy to promote the careers of pals of paedos. Even after that, he was still happy to promote the career of a national security risk -tnrough Epstein, Russia and China. He did that knowingly. The vetting result is a bit of a red herring in that respect. One day a politician will decide not to listen to his damage limitation shouting team. It invariably ends up in drip fed disaster, with any integrity burned along the way. I saw clips on Sky of a number of times he stood up for the moral compass and accountability he'd bring to leadership. What a disappointment.

Detective

I'm worried he'll retaliate when Pep tries to manhandle him at half time, after Downes has bossed the midfield.