Chewy

Makes sense to keep an unchanged side after such a performance, but with 4 games in 9 days there’ll be some rotation required at some stage. with that in mind I wouldn’t be distraught to see one or two different personnel - hopefully the likes of Shea or Charlie, rather than Ryan!

On the big screen pre-game when they show highlights of goals to get us all excited (before they really ramp it up with Kanye West and the White Stripes … ) the final highlight on Saturday was of Danny Ings. Obviously a sign 😉

You seen the guy’s avatar??

Does anyone have enough inside info to advise on what the issue and anticipated recovery time is for: Larios Stewart Kamaldeen Doyle Edwards? Hear the odd bits when injuries first happen but be good to have an idea in one place. Plus I didn’t even know Doyle was injured until this last week. Thanks in advance for anyone who has this info.

Well that’s nice - walking away from st Mary’s full of joy, happiness and festive cheer. Best result in god knows how long, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Except the penalty, obviously. Literally, wtf???????? In a way the two late goals only brought a fair balance to the score - we were that convincing and in a different league. One free kick aside, and Blackburn offered nothing until we were chasing a third later on. But … and I will sound like a moaning tw4t … for 40 minutes we played beautiful football without looking like scoring, because it all happened outside of the box and down the flanks, with no one in the box. Stu, Smallbone and Aribo kept finding space and then turned backwards because they want to naturally drop deep. So every attack went back in on itself. It was beginning to get quite dull if I’m honest. A somewhat fortunate goal from a corner got us ahead - without it I wonder what it might have taken to break them down. Second half was helped by an idiotic red card, but in fairness we also looked intent on being more compact in attack and I think we’d have scored more without a man advantage. Baz was very good, growing in confidence every game. Defenders all very good, special mention to Bree for another solid display. KWP excellent as he has been since the end of the transfer window. Downes is different class - we are so better balanced when he plays. Aribo was very good, as was Edozie. Arms a bit quieter and isolated out wide, especially first half. Smallbone was fine but nothing special. Which just leaves Stu who was rightly MOTM. I’ve always been a fan and thought he was poor on Wednesday - this was him near his very best. Subs all competent (except at penalties) and good subs at good times. Great to see Jack back. Fraser was very bright. So much to like and enjoy today. I still think we need a forward to occupy defenders and make naturally forward runs that our midfielders just can’t do. But it’s a small negative amongst a whole load of positives this evening. Well done to all, congratulations and keep it up. And never let Charlie take a penalty ever again.

I hear Portsmouth have the bestest retail experience in the world for the greatest ever fans

The most recent of those - Pelle - left 7 1/2 seasons ago. May as well say I’d rather have Ron Davies or Steve Moran. Ings is the best finisher we’ve had in the last 5-6 years by a long chalk. Aside from Broja’s small purple patch we’ve not had anyone who looks remotely comfortable in front of goal since Ings left. It’s why we got relegated, it’s why we’re currently not winning games we should. Ings was miles ahead of anything we’ve had to compare him with in about 90 months. Whether he still would be is another matter, but anyone suggesting he isn’t a class above anything else we’ve had up front for years doesn’t know what a quality player is. IMHO

My favourite moan from last night was when Edozie failed to get a cross in and it went out for a goal kick: ”Fucks sake Edozie, fucking shit, no end fucking product”. 5 minutes AFTER he’s just scored our equaliser.

Rather than singing, most of the fans around me spent 90+ minutes telling our players to “get it forward” and just how sh1t they are, especially Manning, Smallbone and Aribo. Maybe they’re right (Manning 😉) but it was even worse than St Mary’s. Spend a fortune and hours of your time to hurl abuse at the players doing their (possibly limited) best for the team you support. Just moronic.

Been at the game and haven’t read anything above so not sure who stood out or otherwise for the tv viewers, but I thought overall it was dull. Certainly the first half. 98% possession and not one moment of excitement (I may be slightly exaggerating). Thought Stu was dreadful, and I’m a fan. Manning obviously at fault for the goal, KWP a class above and centre backs solid enough against a physical challenge. Biggest issue was lack of movement - with Aribo and Smallbone we had no mobility so everything was slow and ponderous. We didn’t once switch our forwards to confuse the defence, and with Stu off form just never looked like creating, stretching, testing … anything-ing. Surprised first set of subs removed our only mobile midfielder (Shea), surprised Stu wasn’t hooked at any stage, surprised Charlie only got 5 minutes when we needed a spark and were chasing a winner. Overall, weird tactics, weird that we chose to have no midfield movement, and definitely weird substitutions. A poor opposition who we should comfortably have beaten actually shaded the contest on chances despite having none of the ball first half, and only a little second. Just an odd and disappointing game. Unbeaten so no great harm done, but a definite missed opportunity. Good stadium, weird location (edge of town retail estate) easy access, diabolical toilets.

If it takes you 2 years to get a prediction right, could you please predict a defeat?

You take the p1ss out of people using language like “cooking” and “bruv”, and yet you still use language like “mongness”.. You and the three people who laughed at your comment not able to see the irony in that?

Traditional - boy, girl, boy, girl

It was rumoured Marseille were interested in Mara. So I can only assume we’re doing a straight swap for Aubameyang.

It’ll be a loan in January for a striker. Doesn’t make sense to try and sign someone permanently given the quality we’d attract. Far more likely to get better quality in the loan market imho. Aside from the striker situation, I’d be surprised if we do anything much this transfer window.

Our last game, perhaps? Completely convincing last week. I know we’re all gutted at letting the victory slip so late, but let’s not start making things up

I feel strangely confident for this one - nailed on that we lose, then. I’m going 2-0 to us. ArmA continues his form and one from an unlikely source (defender - not KWP - or Charlie maybe).

Coventry struggled for 20 minutes but since then have looked dangerous. Wednesday night could be a stiff test

My issue with Mara isn’t ability as such - more than happy to accept players need time to develop and/or settle if new. My issue is attitude and work rate. His performances have mostly been beyond lazy, and I don’t have time for people with the wrong attitude. I’ll never forget how abject his effort was against Grimsby. I remember one game (might have been the same) where he was actually gently jogging on the spot rather than closing someone down. It was a real wtf moment. I sense he was distinctly unhappy, maybe homesick, maybe just a kid struggling in a new country with managers and coaches who’d didn’t rate or support him. Whatever the case, he couldn’t be arsed whenever I saw him. You can’t just sulk your way into the team however much you cost. All that being said, his cameo on Saturday was markedly different. If the player hiding in there can come out and be combined with a proper professional attitude as we briefly saw on Saturday then great - I’m all for it. Good for us, good for him and we might save a few quid. But up until now he’s done nothing to warrant a start and it’ll need a few more cameos full of that effort level before I think he’ll have earned a start. If it were up to me I’d offer him the start in the cup if he puts in the effort as a sub between now and then. ArmA is his perfect up close example of what is required and how form and confidence can turn around IF you put the graft in. As ever, appreciate there are people who see it differently… it is just my opinion

Should be almost as easy as when we hosted league 2 Grimsby last year

Been critical of him since he joined - never about work-rate, just didn’t look premier league quality. But this season … second top scorer. Ahead of Vardy; ahead of people we should have signed (😉) like Delap and Piroe. Only Blackburn’s Szmodics (me neither) has more. Add in assists and they’re joint top in the league. His work-rate and tracking back have been exceptional; really pleased for him, seems a really good guy and professional. Hope he gets a second crack with us in the premier league and can take this form and confidence with him and have more of an impact. Always happy to be proved wrong by players, especially when they clearly are working so hard for it (Mara take note!). Well done Adam, please keep it going

Quite simply a very good, polished performance all over the park … except for the second half in front of goal. Should really have been a couple more but churlish to be too critical. Only issue is that Cardiff offered so little it’s hard to know how good we were. I suspect we simply passed it so well we made them look ordinary but I still expected them to try something second half. Vey good by Baz (sweeping header, distribution), and from all of the back line; even Manning. Assured performances from Shea and Downes for the second game running. Average age of (I’m guessing) 20 and they just ran the midfield for a second championship game running in 3 days. That’s impressive. Stu and Charlie both had decent games; largely good but occasional brain fart moments. Che wasn’t as bad as Wednesday and at least put a shift in but he’s lacking form, confidence and quite frankly ability. ArmA justifiably motm. Couple of great finishes, excellent work-rate, a constant menace for 90 minutes. Totally professional attitude and disappointed he couldn’t muster the hat-trick he deserved. Tactically, very good again. Somewhere between a 4222 and a diamond (Stu more advanced than Downes and Shea) which meant we could risk 2 attacking full backs. Manning had more space in front of him today so not surprising he looked better. I’m happy we have an option to play either a more attacking or a more defensive (Bree) left back depending on the circumstances, it’s a useful flexibility to have in the squad. Subs were spot on, I thought. Briefly the game opened up and got stretched allowing them a bit of space to operate in; we removed Stu and Charlie, went 433 and barely let them have a touch of the ball for the next ten minutes, confirming the result. Even Mara (who until now I’ve thought of as a lazy, useless excuse for a footballer with a dreadful attitude) looked lively, full of running and almost competent. Loads to like today - if we had the striker we need and should have we’d have at least doubled the score. Never going to blame Russ for that (recruitment teams fault) so a big pat on the back for him, the players and all the coaching staff; very good performance and result.

What about the rest of us? Waited 5 transfer windows to sign a vaguely competent forward and he’s not fit for weeks, plays 5 minutes and is out for another load of weeks. Absolutely ludicrous and quite frankly negligent by our recruitment team over the last 3 seasons.

Russ cancelled it cos he’s incensed with his last interview. Blanket media ban in force.

Belated post-match thoughts FWIW. Satisfied is probably my over-riding sentiment. I know there’s been some negativity and it was obviously far from perfect but I thought it was ok. On another day we might have conceded from the couple of chances we surrendered, but on another day Huddersfield and Rotherham might not have scored. At no point did we look under any sort of concerted pressure, especially once we went ahead which is acceptable against any level of opposition. That said, praise for Bazunu for a quality save. And Bednarek for the blatant push that wasn’t spotted. Tactically we played two attacking full-backs so countered that with a second holding midfielder, so I’m pleased Russ is showing adaptability in this regard. He got this very wrong earlier in the season and defensively we looked a lot better for it last night despite Manning’s return. Unfortunately with an exciting looking front 4 in theory, we just didn’t click. Opposition were very well organised and aside from doubling up on Kamaldeen, loaded everyone else into the centre. Very difficult to breakdown a low and narrow block. Kamaldeen looked disinterested. I understand why Russ thought a different type of player might help when replacing him, but Che was poor. I thought Charlie played well in parts, but had little space. I also thought Shea and Downes were good. KWP deservedly motm, probably even without the goal. Understood the subs in the circumstances - hard to balance trying to get a second without over committing and once 80 mins is up, taking control of possession and holding the lead is the pragmatic thing to do (which I assume is what was intended). Overall we could have been better but still don’t have the forward we need and were playing against a well organised unit intent on defending and hoping to get lucky on the counter or with a set piece (their corners were excellent). We rarely looked susceptible to the counter despite the attacking full-backs and largely controlled it but it was a pretty dull watch. Unfortately, the longer we remain unbeaten, the more we’ll have to endure that sort of game at home. We aren’t good enough in the final third to destroy teams who defend all game - we simply don’t have the players, so I’ll happily take a win and move on. I suspect the entertaining 4-4 games are gone, so just enjoy the result because the opposition are going to make it a poor spectacle when combined with our style. All imho of course