stevegrant

Is it really that puzzling, though? None of us see what goes on behind closed doors at training - perhaps Edozie has only shown glimpses, just as that's all we've seen in his appearances off the bench, and the management believed that wasn't enough to justify picking him from the start. Let's be honest, a few people got very excited by a handful of stepovers and a nutmeg in that cameo at Wolves and declared him the Second Coming of Christ. Those who are paid to make the decisions have to be a little bit more objective. Has there been any end product from him this evening, despite supposedly being our "brightest" player in a turd of a team performance so far? Certainly doesn't sound like it. He may well turn out to be brilliant, but the club can't win - play the kids and "we're taking too many risks with this lineup", don't play them and "why can't we throw the raw but promising nippers into the team".

Goals have been the only thing really lacking so far this season, good to see them finally being a bit more ruthless, albeit against comfortably the weakest team in the division. They'll need that cutting edge against the better teams in this division if they want to go up again.

Decent start this evening, 1-0 pretty much straight from kickoff

Correct, but I suspect it was more a realisation that even a club like Man United couldn't be granted a WSL license and expect to compete in the first season - not even sure they got promoted at the first time of asking. United got the license ahead of us based on assumed spending because they're a big club and they would naturally be able to attract big crowds and therefore use that revenue to drive growth, whereas what ended up happening was that after they got promoted, the club basically left the women's team to rot, with constant complaints about poor facilities, a lack of kit and equipment, a lack of duty of care, etc, to the extent that the manager walked away after that first season. Meanwhile, we have invested the money that we said we'd invest during that application. In truth, perhaps building from lower down has allowed the club to build up a bit of momentum - we all want to see a successful team that represents the club, whichever team it is, so if we'd started in the Championship and just bobbed around at a low level there, perhaps we wouldn't have what appears to be the well-oiled machine with excellent attendances we have now.

I think that might be the first goal Tranmere have conceded since he's been there! Can only think Tranmere gave a guarantee of him getting playing time, whereas League One sides weren't so forthcoming. Suspect even if he'd gone to a League One side and not immediately been put in the starting lineup, he'd have forced his way in eventually.

No doubt Cowley will be bemoaning the fatigue levels in his team after their heavy excursions against the ten men of our academy team last week.

In Dave Horseman's defence, perhaps there isn't another centre-back deemed ready to play at that level yet. Dynel Simeu has been getting rave reviews at Tranmere (I saw him on Saturday and he looks very solid at League Two level, ideally he'd have got a step up from last season's loan at Carlisle) but there's no point keeping someone like him in the sort-of-competitive B team environment when he is definitely good enough to be playing regular first team football.

Yep. Theoretically the club is getting a player who is still fit and determined enough to play B team football, be the encouraging experienced voice in the dressing room who players can bounce things off, leads by example, etc, and is looking to move into coaching when he does retire. For most other clubs, though, it's someone who's still at least good enough to play at that B team level...

There does seem to be one of these sorts at most PL clubs these days. Liverpool had Jay Spearing playing for them in the Papa John's Trophy last week, Man United have Tom Huddlestone!

Fucking hell, can you imagine...

Absolutely this.

It seems as if things are getting much better in the small-sided games, but then anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that it all goes to pot when they get onto the full size pitch at U11/U12 level. In every league there's always that one team who take it all far too seriously, with that one parent running the team who thinks he's the next Pep Guardiola, and a handful of parents on the sidelines who are living their own failed footballing dream vicariously through their child.

Regardless of Cowley being asked questions about it by a local reporter, I'd still be very surprised if there was a single player who has played first team football in the last few weeks in their side. Might throw a few fringe players in, but look at what good that did for Leicester's U21 side last night with Vestergaard getting a run out...

I find all the talk about radical new ideas pretty frustrating - the Laws of the Game already cover all of this, but they are never enforced by referees in the professional game. That has a drip-down effect where players in semi-pro and amateur football see pro players hurling all sorts of abuse at officials unchallenged and they think it gives them carte blanche to do the same. If officials in the professional game started enforcing the laws when it comes to abuse and dissent, the grassroots game would soon improve. The FA keeps trying things like their Respect campaign, but the framework already exists to fix the problem. They just have to have the will to use the powers they already possess. Unfortunately the PL and PGMOL issues guidance to referees every year that there's to be a "light touch" approach as they want the star players to be on the pitch as much as possible for the "brand"

Looked like it was a much-changed lineup with an intention of giving fringe players some more game time. Coventry are a team who we probably should have been beating, really, given the respective resources. Fair to say it'll be a hell of a lot tougher against WSL sides Reading and Spurs in the other group games!

A more comfortable win than the scoreline suggests, in truth. Lacking a bit of clinical finishing where we could have been 4 up inside 20-25 minutes and missed chances in the second half having regained the lead too. Palace were neat and tidy in possession but were guilty of constantly overplaying when they were in wide areas near our penalty area.

Brentford at the end of last season, at a brand new ground in an easy-to-reach location at the start of summer, went down to about 5 aways, Bournemouth will probably be similar. Midweek games are always harder for people to justify for various reasons.

Part of the issue is that the clubs we're travelling to tend to want us to tell them pretty early on which allocation we want - they actually seem to be a bit more flexible these days when in previous years we've definitely had loads of scenarios where we had to pick an allocation at the start and that was that, whereas now there's at least the option to get the full allocation if the initial sales are good, but the club fails to appreciate (or doesn't want to risk) that people with lots of aways often want to go to specific away games with friends who are much lower down the priority list. Brentford was obviously a high-demand game at the end of last season - new ground, small allocation, easy to get to. That was originally on sale to ST holders with 12+ aways, but I think went all the way down to 2 or 3 in the end for the last few tickets, probably because people were keen to wait and buy in a group. The club claim they use past sales data to determine initial allocations, but also probably take circumstances (what day the game is, whether we're playing well at the time, etc) into account. We've always tended to sell well at Villa, so I'm surprised we've not taken the full allocation there, but I assume the Friday night kickoff has driven that decision. As @JRM says, I'm surprised City has sold that quickly - we didn't even sell out there for our first game back in the PL after promotion.

Excellent bowling today, Northants bowled out for 175. Bit odd that James Fuller only bowled three overs, but picked up two wickets. Having enforced the follow-on, I'd expect him to have more to do in the second innings.

Didn't bowl well last night, rectified that this morning.

Some fairly mediocre bowling at the tail end there, but somehow we've managed to smash our way to 400 and maximum batting points Obviously hoping to only bat once given the conditions. Got to fancy Abbas, Barker and Abbott to like their chances...

Make that 350! But rain is incoming again, we'll presumably declare imminently.

And 300 up