Is was good that he started Dembele but

[Adams Kebab]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

What this meant was anytime we had a chance to break through midfield we didn’t have much option as we had very little pace or players to pick out. The Carey breakaway 1st half prime example. No support, attack just fizzled out.

In the 2nd half, they had a chance from 2 passes through the middle of the pitch that cut us completely open. It’s not something I could see us being able to do due to the system and options on the ball.

We’ve now got people saying Dembele didn’t do much after everyone’s been saying he should start but we played him in the same position he did at Derby at home where he was also relatively quiet.

I’m boring myself saying it but against 3/4 of this League we can play him behind 2 strikers and have 2 midfielders behind him. This gives the link from midfield to attack much better fluidity and means we have better options to create chances, eg- Cheltenham and Cods 2nd half. 3-4-1-2 if we’re insisting on 3 at the back. Sonny Carey has looked far better when he has an option to play off centrally ahead of him.

To be fair Lavery was a miss yesterday as he has that bit of pace to be fed through but we need two up tops to get the most out of Rhodes and we need to get that because he’ll give us goals.

Our 1st sub yesterday on 74 minutes (late to make a change) was screaming for Dale for Thompson as he was having one of his episodes and had just made a great save with his hands as they broke away and dribbled the ball out for a corner for them but more crucially provided no attacking outlet. However, we decided to bring Dale on to play off Rhodes (where he’s not played for 14 games or so and not played much if at all for us) and hook our most creative player. Weird one.

People talk about negative subs and selections and for me that was one again. They go and score straight after it and then you’re thinking how do we get back into this game now? It all seems too scared of going for it. Even starting Dembele yesterday, he couldn’t do it in our midfield 3, he had to do it reducing us to one striker. Don’t know if it’s a handbrake more steering lock and driving gloves.

I don’t know what goes on in training or the fitness levels of players but our next few home league games are :-

Shrewsbury
Northampton
Carlisle

With Pompey and Cambridge away inbetween…

There’s only one game there where you could defend us not playing two strikers with Dembele behind to roam and create on what we’ve witnessed in games the past couple of months.

We aren’t in the Championship anymore and most teams aren’t better than us. Think we need to remember this when we pick our teams and make our subs.

 

[Hooleys]

Good post, Agree with most of your post. Paragraph 3 we said at the time, Rhodes needs a partner, Dembele behind with Dougal and Norburn possibly but that means Carey misses out who in fairness in recent weeks has been improving. Agree about the first sub too.
We definitely aren’t getting the best out of this squad currently though.

 

[Adams Kebab]

Good post, Agree with most of your post. Paragraph 3 we said at the time, Rhodes needs a partner, Dembele behind with Dougal and Norburn possibly but that means Carey misses out who in fairness in recent weeks has been improving. Agree about the first sub too.
We definitely aren’t getting the best out of this squad currently though.

I think in certain home games we can afford to have Norburn-Carey-Dembele as we’ll have more of the ball and we need to break teams down who sit in.

Can then bring Dougall in when we need to be more solid.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

The Lavery injury will have completely thrown things up in the air yesterday.

For the most part I thought we got it spot on yesterday and made the most of our available resources, in a difficult fixture away from home.

I struggle with Thompson as a player, full stop, so I find it difficult to be completely objective. His grabbing of the ball and subsequent booking was another example of the hot-headedness that saw him sent off at Sheff United. However, I don’t think a like for like replacement with Dale would have been the right choice yesterday… Dale is weak defensively and I think Bolton would have exposed that and capitalised on what would have been a poor substitution.

I remember thinking about the Subs at the time and wondering what I would do to try and see out the game … maybe nick it.

I’d be loathe to bring off Carey, due to the long range goal threat. Dembele certainly seems to tire after 60 or so….Morgan too..

I think I might have brought Connolly on for Morgan perhaps… and probably replaced Dembele with Joseph.

The goal was unfortunate… A draw would have been a fair result over the 90.

 

[1966_and_all_that]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

What this meant was anytime we had a chance to break through midfield we didn’t have much option as we had very little pace or players to pick out. The Carey breakaway 1st half prime example. No support, attack just fizzled out.

In the 2nd half, they had a chance from 2 passes through the middle of the pitch that cut us completely open. It’s not something I could see us being able to do due to the system and options on the ball.

We’ve now got people saying Dembele didn’t do much after everyone’s been saying he should start but we played him in the same position he did at Derby at home where he was also relatively quiet.

I’m boring myself saying it but against 3/4 of this League we can play him behind 2 strikers and have 2 midfielders behind him. This gives the link from midfield to attack much better fluidity and means we have better options to create chances, eg- Cheltenham and Cods 2nd half. 3-4-1-2 if we’re insisting on 3 at the back. Sonny Carey has looked far better when he has an option to play off centrally ahead of him.

To be fair Lavery was a miss yesterday as he has that bit of pace to be fed through but we need two up tops to get the most out of Rhodes and we need to get that because he’ll give us goals.

Our 1st sub yesterday on 74 minutes (late to make a change) was screaming for Dale for Thompson as he was having one of his episodes and had just made a great save with his hands as they broke away and dribbled the ball out for a corner for them but more crucially provided no attacking outlet. However, we decided to bring Dale on to play off Rhodes (where he’s not played for 14 games or so and not played much if at all for us) and hook our most creative player. Weird one.

People talk about negative subs and selections and for me that was one again. They go and score straight after it and then you’re thinking how do we get back into this game now? It all seems too scared of going for it. Even starting Dembele yesterday, he couldn’t do it in our midfield 3, he had to do it reducing us to one striker. Don’t know if it’s a handbrake more steering lock and driving gloves.

I don’t know what goes on in training or the fitness levels of players but our next few home league games are :-

Shrewsbury
Northampton
Carlisle

With Pompey and Cambridge away inbetween…

There’s only one game there where you could defend us not playing two strikers with Dembele behind to roam and create on what we’ve witnessed in games the past couple of months.

We aren’t in the Championship anymore and most teams aren’t better than us. Think we need to remember this when we pick our teams and make our subs.

Good analysis. For me, the Dale for Thompson change should have happened before minute one.

 

[Seasider3610]

The Lavery injury will have completely thrown things up in the air yesterday.

Fir the most part I thought we got it spot on yesterday and made the most of our available resources, in a difficult fixture away from home.

I struggle with Thompson as a player, full stop, so I find it difficult to be completely objective. His grabbing of the ball and subsequent booking was another example of the hot-headedness that saw him sent off at Sheff United. However, I don’t think a like fir like replacement with Dale would have been the right choice yesterday… He’s weak defensively and I think Bolton would have exposed that and capitalised on what would have been a poor substitution.

I remember thinking about the Subs at the time and wondering what I would do to try and see out the game … maybe nick it.

I’d be loathe to bring off Carey, due to the long range goal threat. Dembele certainly seems to tire after 60 or so….Morgan too..

I think I might have brought Connolly on for Morgan perhaps… and probably replaced Dembele with Joseph.

The goal was unfortunate… A draw would have been a fair result over the 90.

Dembele couldn’t have been tired after 60 minutes yesterday as he didn’t really do any serious running, tracking back a few times maybe but he must be fit enough by now surely.

He should have stayed on

 

[Adams Kebab]

The Lavery injury will have completely thrown things up in the air yesterday.

For the most part I thought we got it spot on yesterday and made the most of our available resources, in a difficult fixture away from home.

I struggle with Thompson as a player, full stop, so I find it difficult to be completely objective. His grabbing of the ball and subsequent booking was another example of the hot-headedness that saw him sent off at Sheff United. However, I don’t think a like for like replacement with Dale would have been the right choice yesterday… Dale is weak defensively and I think Bolton would have exposed that and capitalised on what would have been a poor substitution.

I remember thinking about the Subs at the time and wondering what I would do to try and see out the game … maybe nick it.

I’d be loathe to bring off Carey, due to the long range goal threat. Dembele certainly seems to tire after 60 or so….Morgan too..

I think I might have brought Connolly on for Morgan perhaps… and probably replaced Dembele with Joseph.

The goal was unfortunate… A draw would have been a fair result over the 90.

The change definitely wasn’t to bring on Dale centrally when we had two actual strikers on the bench. Granted Dale isn’t great defensively but he gives you something going forward from a wide position. To put him centrally which he hasn’t done for months was daft.

In January we need to actually sign wing backs if we want to play the system.

I didn’t think we were that far away yesterday if at all, but we now have an easier set of fixtures on paper so should be setting up accordingly not like we are playing Real Madrid.

 

[Bamber]

The Lavery injury will have completely thrown things up in the air yesterday.

For the most part I thought we got it spot on yesterday and made the most of our available resources, in a difficult fixture away from home.

I struggle with Thompson as a player, full stop, so I find it difficult to be completely objective. His grabbing of the ball and subsequent booking was another example of the hot-headedness that saw him sent off at Sheff United. However, I don’t think a like for like replacement with Dale would have been the right choice yesterday… Dale is weak defensively and I think Bolton would have exposed that and capitalised on what would have been a poor substitution.

I remember thinking about the Subs at the time and wondering what I would do to try and see out the game … maybe nick it.

I’d be loathe to bring off Carey, due to the long range goal threat. Dembele certainly seems to tire after 60 or so….Morgan too..

I think I might have brought Connolly on for Morgan perhaps… and probably replaced Dembele with Joseph.

The goal was unfortunate… A draw would have been a fair result over the 90.

I like that Thompson took a booking for the handball, Bolton were looking to take the free kick quickly and had an overload. I felt a bit sorry for Thompson yesterday, he was clearly under instructions to not get too far forward which must have been frustrating and meant we lacked a threat down his side.

 

[BFC_53]

I would say the one midfielder we can't leave out is Dougall. He's quality in this league and imo our best midfielder, and I think we'd have got something from the game yesterday if he was on the pitch.
Dembele is a conundrum that needs solving. I think our strongest midfield is Norburn, with Dembele and Dougall ahead of him. But Carey is getting better and he can last for the full 90, whereas Dembele noticeably fades quite quickly.
I also think having Lyons and Gabriel as the wingbacks rather than CJ and Dale will significantly strengthen us when they're back.
I don't think we've hit anything like what we're capable of tbh.

 

[Allmodcons]

Dembele should be utilised in midfield, he is wasted playing up front.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

The change definitely wasn’t to bring on Dale centrally when we had two actual strikers on the bench. Granted Dale isn’t great defensively but he gives you something going forward from a wide position. To put him centrally which he hasn’t done for months was daft.

In January we need to actually sign wing backs if we want to play the system.

I didn’t think we were that far away yesterday if at all, but we now have an easier set of fixtures on paper so should be setting up accordingly not like we are playing Real Madrid.

I certainly don’t think our season will hinge on results like yesterday. It was a decent enough performance overall and I was encouraged by it really.

I suspect he was fairly happy with things as they were. I must admit I kind of wondered myself whether to make a substitution at all… There’s obviously some reason he feels Dembele needs to come off right now (it happens to consistently)…I wonder if he was just trying to go as like for like as possible with Dale?

It’s not always easy to get a perspective on exactly how the change impacted us without seeing it all again.

I think a quality CM would be useful in Jan. Someone who can mix it up a bit, but also has ability… A Ritchie Wellens … And we certainly need to address the LWB situation one way or another.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

I like that Thompson took a booking for the handball, Bolton were looking to take the free kick quickly and had an overload. I felt a bit sorry for Thompson yesterday, he was clearly under instructions to not get too far forward which must have been frustrating and meant we lacked a threat down his side.

How could Bolton have taken the free kick quickly?

The free kick didn’t exist until the handball?

 

[Hooleys]

I think in certain home games we can afford to have Norburn-Carey-Dembele as we’ll have more of the ball and we need to break teams down who sit in.

Can then bring Dougall in when we need to be more solid.

Possibly could also possibly play Dougal instead or Norburn in those games too ?

 

[Hooleys]

I certainly don’t think our season will hinge on results like yesterday. It was a decent enough performance overall and I was encouraged by it really.

I suspect he was fairly happy with things as they were. I must admit I kind of wondered myself whether to make a substitution at all… There’s obviously some reason he feels Dembele needs to come off right now (it happens to consistently)…I wonder if he was just trying to go as like for like as possible with Dale?

It’s not always easy to get a perspective on exactly how the change impacted us without seeing it all again.

I think a quality CM would be useful in Jan. Someone who can mix it up a bit, but also has ability… A Ritchie Wellens … And we certainly need to address the LWB situation one way or another.

Could Lyons not play LWB ?
When/if Gabriel is fit will he play and CJ Switch sides?

Personally thought Dembele faded the longer the game went on but he gives us something not many if anybody else gives us.

 

[HighfieldSeasider]

I don't understand the 'wingbacks weak defensively' thing personally, if we're playing 3 at the back surely that gives the freedom for your wingbacks to be more attacking, especially if we're playing with 2 holding midfielders, which is something else I don't understand when playing 3 central defenders.

I personally don't like the current formation, however I can see the benefits of it and imo we have the players at the club to use it successfully, unfortunately the manager still doesn't play the players who actually suit the formation and it's becoming increasingly frustrating.

Jordan Gabriel should be back soon who's actually a proper right wing back, but he will continue with Hamilton, Andy Lyons was playing in European competition as a left wing back 12 months ago yet the manager continues to play Owen Dale (who's done well to be fair) or Thompson in that position who clearly isn't good enough.

The Dembele debate isn't really a debate, most of us can see he's the man to have in the hole behind 2 proper strikers, Rhodes and one of Lavery, Kouassi or Joseph. Then depending on the opposition we go with Norburn and either Dougall or Carey alongside him. Whoever plays central midfield, we've got 3 centre backs behind them FFS, there is zero need for 2 holding midfielders sitting deep to protect them.
If it's 4 at the back and the full backs are expected to bomb on ala Liverpool/City then fair enough, have 2 holding midfielders to cover, but never in a 3 with wingbacks for me.

Even the teams at the top this season are average, there is no way we shouldn't be in the top 6 and pushing for the top 2, only 1 man holding us back.

 

[Bamber]

How could Bolton have taken the free kick quickly?

The free kick didn’t exist until the handball?

You're right but the point stands, we lost the ball and they had a great chance for a break, Thompson stopped it at source which was the right decision.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

You're right but the point stands, we lost the ball and they had a great chance for a break, Thompson stopped it at source which was the right decision.

I’m not sure they did have a chance for a break really … In fact I wouldn’t have been surprised if we’d been awarded a free kick if he hadn’t tried to make the decision on the refs behalf.

 

[Adams Kebab]

I don't understand the 'wingbacks weak defensively' thing personally, if we're playing 3 at the back surely that gives the freedom for your wingbacks to be more attacking, especially if we're playing with 2 holding midfielders, which is something else I don't understand when playing 3 central defenders.

I personally don't like the current formation, however I can see the benefits of it and imo we have the players at the club to use it successfully, unfortunately the manager still doesn't play the players who actually suit the formation and it's becoming increasingly frustrating.

Jordan Gabriel should be back soon who's actually a proper right wing back, but he will continue with Hamilton, Andy Lyons was playing in European competition as a left wing back 12 months ago yet the manager continues to play Owen Dale (who's done well to be fair) or Thompson in that position who clearly isn't good enough.

The Dembele debate isn't really a debate, most of us can see he's the man to have in the hole behind 2 proper strikers, Rhodes and one of Lavery, Kouassi or Joseph. Then depending on the opposition we go with Norburn and either Dougall or Carey alongside him. Whoever plays central midfield, we've got 3 centre backs behind them FFS, there is zero need for 2 holding midfielders sitting deep to protect them.
If it's 4 at the back and the full backs are expected to bomb on ala Liverpool/City then fair enough, have 2 holding midfielders to cover, but never in a 3 with wingbacks for me.

Even the teams at the top this season are average, there is no way we shouldn't be in the top 6 and pushing for the top 2, only 1 man holding us back.

 

[Briggs5]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

What this meant was anytime we had a chance to break through midfield we didn’t have much option as we had very little pace or players to pick out. The Carey breakaway 1st half prime example. No support, attack just fizzled out.

In the 2nd half, they had a chance from 2 passes through the middle of the pitch that cut us completely open. It’s not something I could see us being able to do due to the system and options on the ball.

We’ve now got people saying Dembele didn’t do much after everyone’s been saying he should start but we played him in the same position he did at Derby at home where he was also relatively quiet.

I’m boring myself saying it but against 3/4 of this League we can play him behind 2 strikers and have 2 midfielders behind him. This gives the link from midfield to attack much better fluidity and means we have better options to create chances, eg- Cheltenham and Cods 2nd half. 3-4-1-2 if we’re insisting on 3 at the back. Sonny Carey has looked far better when he has an option to play off centrally ahead of him.

To be fair Lavery was a miss yesterday as he has that bit of pace to be fed through but we need two up tops to get the most out of Rhodes and we need to get that because he’ll give us goals.

Our 1st sub yesterday on 74 minutes (late to make a change) was screaming for Dale for Thompson as he was having one of his episodes and had just made a great save with his hands as they broke away and dribbled the ball out for a corner for them but more crucially provided no attacking outlet. However, we decided to bring Dale on to play off Rhodes (where he’s not played for 14 games or so and not played much if at all for us) and hook our most creative player. Weird one.

People talk about negative subs and selections and for me that was one again. They go and score straight after it and then you’re thinking how do we get back into this game now? It all seems too scared of going for it. Even starting Dembele yesterday, he couldn’t do it in our midfield 3, he had to do it reducing us to one striker. Don’t know if it’s a handbrake more steering lock and driving gloves.

I don’t know what goes on in training or the fitness levels of players but our next few home league games are :-

Shrewsbury
Northampton
Carlisle

With Pompey and Cambridge away inbetween…

There’s only one game there where you could defend us not playing two strikers with Dembele behind to roam and create on what we’ve witnessed in games the past couple of months.

We aren’t in the Championship anymore and most teams aren’t better than us. Think we need to remember this when we pick our teams and make our subs.

Great Post.

I think we've got the players, but we seem to have a timid head coach who is more concerned with the opposition than picking his best players and a system to suit them.

We say the same thing after every game and Critchley is never going to change so we're just going to have to get used to it. I've done most aways this season, but I'm not spending money on tickets and travel for 2 of us to go to Pompey and Cambridge to watch dull, turgid football. A few I know feel the same way.

 

[Critchknows]

I have a hard time with this formation. Not that I think it's a poor formation per se just that we don't have the players to make it work properly. Our squad has always been tailor made 4231 for me.
Norburn and Dougal hold, Carey in front in his proper position, Dembele off the left.
We have never looked right with 352. Maybe he will bring in a couple in January and with Gabriel back it will look better but I'm not seeing it atm

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

Dembele couldn’t have been tired after 60 minutes yesterday as he didn’t really do any serious running, tracking back a few times maybe but he must be fit enough by now surely.

He should have stayed on

He was visibly tiring… I think you need to bear the physical aspect for a player of his stature. Bolton were a strong side and competing with that can be strength sapping.

I think we’re making progress with him, but I do think 90 is always going to be a stretch for that kind of player in this kind of league.

For me it’s just a stick to beat the manager with. He went as like for like as he possibly could, because on the whole we were doing OK.

It took a minor mix up and a very good long range shot to undo us in the day. The result is very disappointing, the performance not so.

 

[TANGERINETOWERPOWER]

He was visibly tiring… I think you need to bear the physical aspect for a player of his stature. Bolton were a strong side and competing with that can be strength sapping.

I think we’re making progress with him, but I do think 90 is always going to be a stretch for that kind of player in this kind of league.

For me it’s just a stick to beat the manager with. He went as like for like as he possibly could, because on the whole we were doing OK.

It took a minor mix up and a very good long range shot to undo us in the day. The result is very disappointing, the performance not so.

The only stick needed to beat the manager with is ZERO shots on target. One up front in isolation just doesnt work for us. I thought we played OK but just ok and we should have tried to do more to win the game. Anything less than a top 6 finish this season is failure and I have seen nothing to change my mind that we will finish somewhere between 6th and 12th (That is where I predicted at the start of the season.)

 

[Ping Pong]

I thought Thompson was poor yesterday.
He cant defend yet was presumably asked not to attack, thus confusing everyone why he started.
He also contributed to their goal losing the ball.
However I was hoping we would start a back 4 of Connolly Pennington marv & Hubby, & start kouassi alongside Rhodes ( as Lavery absent). We all know Rhodes cant play upfront on his own, as proved at Huddersfield!

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

The only stick needed to beat the manager with is ZERO shots on target. One up front in isolation just doesnt work for us. I thought we played OK but just ok and we should have tried to do more to win the game. Anything less than a top 6 finish this season is failure and I have seen nothing to change my mind that we will finish somewhere between 6th and 12th (That is where I predicted at the start of the season.)

That’s a really short sighted way to look at the game yesterday. Shots on target really doesn’t tell a proper story of that game.

The shots they had ‘on target’ (barring the long range shot from which they scored) were all very lame efforts hit straight at the keeper and to that extent they might as well have missed the target.

In equivalent terms, we created 3 (maybe 4) opportunities to score and we should have been awarded a penalty for hand ball.

This whole “anything other than a top six finish” nonsense is …. Well … exactly that !!! Nonsense

It’s just the typical kind of shyte that everyone spouts.

The main thing for now is that we continue improve as the season progresses. If that sees us finish in the Play Off spots, which I’m pretty confident that we will, then that’s fantastic…. If we fall short, then we will need to dust ourselves down and go again next season.

This whole jelly legged, snowflakey attitude that we are developing as a fanbase needs to be addressed. I’ve never known a time supporting Blackpool FC where we’ve had such a limp wristed support overall.

The fans are almost unrecognisable from the ones who have backed us through our historic struggles and promotion campaigns. There’s a kind of ‘consumer’ mentality that has developed… It’s not something I recognise as being Blackpool FC at all…

Even the whole attitude around the Fleetwood Fixture, the disrespect towards a supposedly smaller Club, the lack of any kind of perspective about our own Club…Same with Oxford, Peterborough etc…

These fans need to know and understand the real history of the Club they support… All this bollocks about Ballon D’ors and FA Cup wins etc… it’s embarrassing

We regularly had gates in the 3 & 4000’s … Had little hope to no hope of ever being a Championship Club. Have travelled to some of the shittest grounds in the U.K. …

We might have s history from the dim and distant past.., but the reality is that we’re a small club ourselves… And bigger clubs than ours have spent plenty of years in L1 thinking they were too big to be here and thinking that pressing the Managerial ejector seat every five minutes was the solution to their problems.


We’ve no more right to be in the Play Offs than any one of the other 23.

 

[Charliecleanstonysheens]

I like that Thompson took a booking for the handball, Bolton were looking to take the free kick quickly and had an overload. I felt a bit sorry for Thompson yesterday, he was clearly under instructions to not get too far forward which must have been frustrating and meant we lacked a threat down his side.

I thought he took one for the team there at the time.

 

[haggertyf]

Hopefully Critchley will put starting Dembele in behind Rhodes as a lone striker to bed now. It didn't work against Derby and it didn't work yesterday, because of our lack of creativity in midfield we can't get these players facing the goal which is when they are at their best.It just needs a bit of lateral thinking from the manager on how to combat the better teams in our division more effectively.

 

[JJpool]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

What this meant was anytime we had a chance to break through midfield we didn’t have much option as we had very little pace or players to pick out. The Carey breakaway 1st half prime example. No support, attack just fizzled out.

In the 2nd half, they had a chance from 2 passes through the middle of the pitch that cut us completely open. It’s not something I could see us being able to do due to the system and options on the ball.

We’ve now got people saying Dembele didn’t do much after everyone’s been saying he should start but we played him in the same position he did at Derby at home where he was also relatively quiet.

I’m boring myself saying it but against 3/4 of this League we can play him behind 2 strikers and have 2 midfielders behind him. This gives the link from midfield to attack much better fluidity and means we have better options to create chances, eg- Cheltenham and Cods 2nd half. 3-4-1-2 if we’re insisting on 3 at the back. Sonny Carey has looked far better when he has an option to play off centrally ahead of him.

To be fair Lavery was a miss yesterday as he has that bit of pace to be fed through but we need two up tops to get the most out of Rhodes and we need to get that because he’ll give us goals.

Our 1st sub yesterday on 74 minutes (late to make a change) was screaming for Dale for Thompson as he was having one of his episodes and had just made a great save with his hands as they broke away and dribbled the ball out for a corner for them but more crucially provided no attacking outlet. However, we decided to bring Dale on to play off Rhodes (where he’s not played for 14 games or so and not played much if at all for us) and hook our most creative player. Weird one.

People talk about negative subs and selections and for me that was one again. They go and score straight after it and then you’re thinking how do we get back into this game now? It all seems too scared of going for it. Even starting Dembele yesterday, he couldn’t do it in our midfield 3, he had to do it reducing us to one striker. Don’t know if it’s a handbrake more steering lock and driving gloves.

I don’t know what goes on in training or the fitness levels of players but our next few home league games are :-

Shrewsbury
Northampton
Carlisle

With Pompey and Cambridge away inbetween…

There’s only one game there where you could defend us not playing two strikers with Dembele behind to roam and create on what we’ve witnessed in games the past couple of months.

We aren’t in the Championship anymore and most teams aren’t better than us. Think we need to remember this when we pick our teams and make our subs.

We're too inconsistent and are changing things too much, so it's hard to build any consistency. Some of that is forced and some by choice.

It's probably hardly surprising we've only won back to back games once, given all the different combinations, new roles for people etc. Also our mindset isn't right for the players we have or they aren't confident enough to successfully see out games often.

We always seem to have a weak link too, whether Ekpiteta passing straight to the opposition, Thompson with his usual mistake etc. Even Grimshaw at times hasn't been making the expected last line of defence stops.

There's just been too much wrong when getting Critchley back was meant to give familiarity and repeat what we once did. We didn't hit the ground running and aren't managing to put in a display for 90 minutes, rather small spells. Which is still enough to see of teams below us.

There are some signs it might not be far away, but also we've said that before.

Time to start delivering.

 

[gjr]

Critchley got the team selection wrong. Playing Rhodes as a lone striker didn't work against Derby, Huddersfield fans have said to me that he has to be in a front two to get the best out of him, why do it again at Bolton?
Critchley needs to be braver, Carey shouldn't have started, Dembele should have been playing behind Kouassi and Rhodes.

 

[Adams Kebab]

Even the whole attitude around the Fleetwood Fixture, the disrespect towards a supposedly smaller Club, the lack of any kind of perspective about our own Club…Same with Oxford, Peterborough etc…

These fans need to know and understand the real history of the Club they support… All this bollocks about Ballon D’ors and FA Cup wins etc… it’s embarrassing

We regularly had gates in the 3 & 4000’s … Had little hope to no hope of ever being a Championship Club. Have travelled to some of the shittest grounds in the U.K. …

We might have s history from the dim and distant past.., but the reality is that we’re a small club ourselves…

That’s a really short sighted way to look at us.

 

[TANGERINETOWERPOWER]

That’s a really short sighted way to look at the game yesterday. Shots on target really doesn’t tell a proper story of that game.

The shots they had ‘on target’ (barring the long range shot from which they scored) were all very lame efforts hit straight at the keeper and to that extent they might as well have missed the target.

In equivalent terms, we created 3 (maybe 4) opportunities to score and we should have been awarded a penalty for hand ball.

This whole “anything other than a top six finish” nonsense is …. Well … exactly that !!! Nonsense

It’s just the typical kind of shyte that everyone spouts.

The main thing for now is that we continue improve as the season progresses. If that sees us finish in the Play Off spots, which I’m pretty confident that we will, then that’s fantastic…. If we fall short, then we will need to dust ourselves down and go again next season.

This whole jelly legged, snowflakey attitude that we are developing as a fanbase needs to be addressed. I’ve never known a time supporting Blackpool FC where we’ve had such a limp wristed support overall.

The fans are almost unrecognisable from the ones who have backed us through our historic struggles and promotion campaigns. There’s a kind of ‘consumer’ mentality that has developed… It’s not something I recognise as being Blackpool FC at all…

Even the whole attitude around the Fleetwood Fixture, the disrespect towards a supposedly smaller Club, the lack of any kind of perspective about our own Club…Same with Oxford, Peterborough etc…

These fans need to know and understand the real history of the Club they support… All this bollocks about Ballon D’ors and FA Cup wins etc… it’s embarrassing

We regularly had gates in the 3 & 4000’s … Had little hope to no hope of ever being a Championship Club. Have travelled to some of the shittest grounds in the U.K. …

We might have s history from the dim and distant past.., but the reality is that we’re a small club ourselves… And bigger clubs than ours have spent plenty of years in L1 thinking they were too big to be here and thinking that pressing the Managerial ejector seat every five minutes was the solution to their problems.


We’ve no more right to be in the Play Offs than any one of the other 23.

It’s not a short sighted view at all ..it’s a fact we had no shots on target. You are not going to win many games with zero shots on target and if you think otherwise you are not short sighted you are completely blind.

I have no delusions of grandeur and don’t think it’s our god given right to beat teams but I also don’t think we should have a little old Blackpool attitude. How did that work out for us last season with Appleton constantly saying how lucky we are to be playing all these massive teams.

It’s bollocks and few would disagree we had some of the worst ever owners in football in Karl and Owen Oyston. That is the principal reason we struggled in the last 30 years plus. We have a better owner now and should be all the better for it. We played way too safe again yesterday and reverted to one up top which patently doesn’t play to our strengths. That was another winnable game yesterday and yet again the points slipped though our fingers..I reckon we could and should be doing much better if we had a better and more positive attitude going into games.

The manager has a lot to prove and cannot simply live on past success. At present he looks to be going the same way as Simon Grayson and we all know how that ended.

Just out of interest Bifster what is your idea of a successful season ..if we finish 12th do we just dust ourselves down and hope for better next season?

 

[Qblock]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

What this meant was anytime we had a chance to break through midfield we didn’t have much option as we had very little pace or players to pick out. The Carey breakaway 1st half prime example. No support, attack just fizzled out.

In the 2nd half, they had a chance from 2 passes through the middle of the pitch that cut us completely open. It’s not something I could see us being able to do due to the system and options on the ball.

We’ve now got people saying Dembele didn’t do much after everyone’s been saying he should start but we played him in the same position he did at Derby at home where he was also relatively quiet.

I’m boring myself saying it but against 3/4 of this League we can play him behind 2 strikers and have 2 midfielders behind him. This gives the link from midfield to attack much better fluidity and means we have better options to create chances, eg- Cheltenham and Cods 2nd half. 3-4-1-2 if we’re insisting on 3 at the back. Sonny Carey has looked far better when he has an option to play off centrally ahead of him.

To be fair Lavery was a miss yesterday as he has that bit of pace to be fed through but we need two up tops to get the most out of Rhodes and we need to get that because he’ll give us goals.

Our 1st sub yesterday on 74 minutes (late to make a change) was screaming for Dale for Thompson as he was having one of his episodes and had just made a great save with his hands as they broke away and dribbled the ball out for a corner for them but more crucially provided no attacking outlet. However, we decided to bring Dale on to play off Rhodes (where he’s not played for 14 games or so and not played much if at all for us) and hook our most creative player. Weird one.

People talk about negative subs and selections and for me that was one again. They go and score straight after it and then you’re thinking how do we get back into this game now? It all seems too scared of going for it. Even starting Dembele yesterday, he couldn’t do it in our midfield 3, he had to do it reducing us to one striker. Don’t know if it’s a handbrake more steering lock and driving gloves.

I don’t know what goes on in training or the fitness levels of players but our next few home league games are :-

Shrewsbury
Northampton
Carlisle

With Pompey and Cambridge away inbetween…

There’s only one game there where you could defend us not playing two strikers with Dembele behind to roam and create on what we’ve witnessed in games the past couple of months.

We aren’t in the Championship anymore and most teams aren’t better than us. Think we need to remember this when we pick our teams and make our subs.

AK for manager

 

[Qblock]

It’s not a short sighted view at all ..it’s a fact we had no shots on target. You are not going to win many games with zero shots on target and if you think otherwise you are not short sighted you are completely blind.

I have no delusions of grandeur and don’t think it’s our god given right to beat teams but I also don’t think we should have a little old Blackpool attitude. How did that work out for us last season with Appleton constantly saying how lucky we are to be playing all these massive teams.

It’s bollocks and few would disagree we had some of the worst ever owners in football in Karl and Owen Oyston. That is the principal reason we struggled in the last 30 years plus. We have a better owner now and should be all the better for it. We played way too safe again yesterday and reverted to one up top which patently doesn’t play to our strengths. That was another winnable game yesterday and yet again the points slipped though our fingers..I reckon we could and should be doing much better if we had a better and more positive attitude going into games.

The manager has a lot to prove and cannot simply live on past success. At present he looks to be going the same way as Simon Grayson and we all know how that ended.

Just out of interest Bifster what is your idea of a successful season ..if we finish 12th do we just dust ourselves down and hope for better next season?

I know the question wasn’t directed at me but my definition of success would be promotion this season or next. I think we are definitely underperforming, but can make some allowances for new manager, squad overhaul, relegation hangover etch

 

[SpionKop]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

What this meant was anytime we had a chance to break through midfield we didn’t have much option as we had very little pace or players to pick out. The Carey breakaway 1st half prime example. No support, attack just fizzled out.

In the 2nd half, they had a chance from 2 passes through the middle of the pitch that cut us completely open. It’s not something I could see us being able to do due to the system and options on the ball.

We’ve now got people saying Dembele didn’t do much after everyone’s been saying he should start but we played him in the same position he did at Derby at home where he was also relatively quiet.

I’m boring myself saying it but against 3/4 of this League we can play him behind 2 strikers and have 2 midfielders behind him. This gives the link from midfield to attack much better fluidity and means we have better options to create chances, eg- Cheltenham and Cods 2nd half. 3-4-1-2 if we’re insisting on 3 at the back. Sonny Carey has looked far better when he has an option to play off centrally ahead of him.

To be fair Lavery was a miss yesterday as he has that bit of pace to be fed through but we need two up tops to get the most out of Rhodes and we need to get that because he’ll give us goals.

Our 1st sub yesterday on 74 minutes (late to make a change) was screaming for Dale for Thompson as he was having one of his episodes and had just made a great save with his hands as they broke away and dribbled the ball out for a corner for them but more crucially provided no attacking outlet. However, we decided to bring Dale on to play off Rhodes (where he’s not played for 14 games or so and not played much if at all for us) and hook our most creative player. Weird one.

People talk about negative subs and selections and for me that was one again. They go and score straight after it and then you’re thinking how do we get back into this game now? It all seems too scared of going for it. Even starting Dembele yesterday, he couldn’t do it in our midfield 3, he had to do it reducing us to one striker. Don’t know if it’s a handbrake more steering lock and driving gloves.

I don’t know what goes on in training or the fitness levels of players but our next few home league games are :-

Shrewsbury
Northampton
Carlisle

With Pompey and Cambridge away inbetween…

There’s only one game there where you could defend us not playing two strikers with Dembele behind to roam and create on what we’ve witnessed in games the past couple of months.

We aren’t in the Championship anymore and most teams aren’t better than us. Think we need to remember this when we pick our teams and make our subs.

great post. actually agree with every paragraph.

would just add we missed King Kenny yesterday imo.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

That’s a really short sighted way to look at us.

What … ? Reality ?

If we want to aspire to be anything beyond where we are at this time, then the first thing we need to do is fully ground ourselves in reality. By doing that we can start to recognise progress as progress, instead of continuing to put ourselves down.

Just out of interest Bifster what is your idea of a successful season ..if we finish 12th do we just dust ourselves down and hope for better next season?

I’ve said from Day 1 that I think that this was a transitional season. I think that simply turning things around to a point where we end the season competing on a level with the best the league has to offer would be a success in itself.

I fully expect us to finish in a Play Off spot and then it’s a lottery.

As I’ve said already I’m more worried about our fans scuppering what the club is trying to achieve in the longer term than I am about this season if I’m being totally honest.

There’s an impatience and a self-harm mentality that’s being couched as wanting the best fur the club and I have a horrible feeling that might see is ruing the loss of the best opportunity we have had as a club.

I think we’re a great fanbase when things go our way, but I think our lack of perspective, ingrained negativity and ingratitude are wearying ….

 

[TANGERINETOWERPOWER]

I know the question wasn’t directed at me but my definition of success would be promotion this season or next. I think we are definitely underperforming, but can make some allowances for new manager, squad overhaul, relegation hangover etch

It was unlikely we were going to be winning this league given what a poor season we had just endured. I would have hoped to make the play offs but if we keep on improving and just miss out then they can persevere with the Critchley way. If we continue to piss points away and lose touch then the manager , team and even the owners have to take some criticism. I hope he turns a corner but there is little evidence of that thus far.

 

[TANGERINETOWERPOWER]

What … ? Reality ?

If we want to aspire to be anything beyond where we are at this time, then the first thing we need to do is fully ground ourselves in reality. By doing that we can start to recognise progress as progress, instead of continuing to put ourselves down.


I’ve said from Day 1 that I think that this was a transitional season. I think that simply turning things around to a point where we end the season competing on a level with the best the league has to offer would be a success in itself.

I fully expect us to finish in a Play Off spot and then it’s a lottery.

As I’ve said already I’m more worried about our fans scuppering what the club is trying to achieve in the longer term than I am about this season if I’m being totally honest.

There’s an impatience and a self-harm mentality that’s being couched as wanting the best fur the club and I have a horrible feeling that might see is ruing the loss of the best opportunity we have had as a club.

I think we’re a great fanbase when things go our way, but I think our lack of perspective, ingrained negativity and ingratitude are wearying ….

So you think the main reason we would miss out on a play off place would be because of the fans attitude…hmmmm

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

So you think the main reason we would miss out on a play off place would be because of the fans attitude…hmmmm

No…that’s not what I meant at all.

I think that a minority of fans will (and already are) continue to create an underlying toxic negativity that will likely result in the untimely loss of a brilliant manager and possibly a fantastic and forward thinking owner.

As I said, I think we may find that ultimately people will lose patience with us, which would be rather ironic.

 

[TANGERINETOWERPOWER]

No…that’s not what I meant at all.

I think that a minority of fans will (and already are) continue to create an underlying toxic negativity that will likely result in the untimely loss of a brilliant manager and possibly a fantastic and forward thinking owner.

As I said, I think we may find that ultimately people will lose patience with us, which would be rather ironic.

Ok that’s fair comment but my question to you is how unsuccessful do we have to be before questions are asked because an underperforming team should and must be held accountable at some point to establish why it isn’t working. If we drop away and finish 16th for example would u then give the manager the benefit of the doubt and give him another season?

 

[Costero Poderoso]

I think in certain home games we can afford to have Norburn-Carey-Dembele as we’ll have more of the ball and we need to break teams down who sit in.

Can then bring Dougall in when we need to be more solid.

Dougall for Norburn every day of the week, and I might even say Connolly as defensive mid to solidify the defence before Norburn.

 

[Old_Laytonian]

There's a lot UEFA coaches on here

 

[Adams Kebab]

What … ? Reality ?

If we want to aspire to be anything beyond where we are at this time, then the first thing we need to do is fully ground ourselves in reality. By doing that we can start to recognise progress as progress, instead of continuing to put ourselves down.

Yep no doubt it’s reality but it’s also under two cretins who held us back and wasted our one season in the sun. I’m realistic, granted there’s a few space cadets but that’s not just us, look at some Newcastle fan giving Trippier shit yesterday.

We should be trying to be the best we can and I think that’s where the Manager has been let down on recruitment as there’s no way we went from Moxon to Oakley-Boothe if we had big ambitions this season.

I don’t think we’re that far away but it’s becoming increasingly frustrating as I think we’re not being as pro-active as we can be…

Dale on in the hole a classic example, leaving Rhodes alone and removing our best creative player even if he gasses whilst leaving two strikers on the bench.

 

[20togo]

mary mary quite contrary, what does your garden grow.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

Ok that’s fair comment but my question to you is how unsuccessful do we have to be before questions are asked because an underperforming team should and must be held accountable at some point to establish why it isn’t working. If we drop away and finish 16th for example would u then give the manager the benefit of the doubt and give him another season?

I can’t relate to the mentality / mindset that would want (at this point in time) to want to adopt a position on my requirements for sacking the manager.

As things stand, beyond the garbage I read on here each day, the thought of sacking the manager simply doesn’t enter my head at all. It feels to me like something that shouldn’t even be up for debate at all.

So to answer your question…

I’ve got no idea…I’d cross that bridge when I came to it and could take into consideration all of the circumstances.

I thought Critchley was the right appointment at the time. I was under no illusions about the difficulty of the task he had ahead of him, I’m relatively happy with the progress we are making and I’m still 100% behind him.

Barring a disaster in terms of injuries, I expect us to improve between now and the end of the season and I’d be disappointed if that didn’t happen.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

Yep no doubt it’s reality but it’s also under two cretins who held us back and wasted our one season in the sun. I’m realistic, granted there’s a few space cadets but that’s not just us, look at some Newcastle fan giving Trippier shit yesterday.

We should be trying to be the best we can and I think that’s where the Manager has been let down on recruitment as there’s no way we went from Moxon to Oakley-Boothe if we had big ambitions this season.

I don’t think we’re that far away but it’s becoming increasingly frustrating as I think we’re not being as pro-active as we can be…

Dale on in the hole a classic example, leaving Rhodes alone and removing our best creative player even if he gasses whilst leaving two strikers on the bench.

Every Football Club will have its own story (a sob story, for want of a better expression). Our reality both before the dodgy owners and since, has always been one of a fairly small fanbase.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t aspire for better or try to change that situation over time, but it is, nonetheless a factor.

To that extent we probably rank around upper League 1 level in terms of our attendances / fanbase. So our reality in terms of building a sustainable club is that in order to advance beyond what amounts to our expected place in the natural order, we need to get lucky, benefit from a generous owner or do what we do much better than everyone else.

It’s all well and good talking about past glory and tangerine tinted dreams, but if we want to collectively make that a reality, then we first need a solid grounding in where we are now and what it takes to achieve real success moving forward.

Throwing our collective toys out of the pram, because a side pulling 20K plus fans every week, who have an established manager, managed to marginally edge their home game against us, certainly isn’t a platform for future success at all.

We have an element of toxicity which has crept into our fanbase in the last year. It’s unjustified and it poses a massive threat to the prospects for success.

 

[TonyParrsDodgyMic]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

We have the players to really open players up but the problem seems to be their consistency and how injury prone they are.
Lavery and Dembele showed against Bromley what pace can do but as the o/p says that is wasted if you have a hare and a tortoise up front (btw am a huge fan of Rhodes and so that wasn't an insult!).

 

[Sandgrown1]

It wasn’t good we had him behind a lone striker in Jordan Rhodes, who struggles without a strike partner. He’s completely ineffective. Rhodes has been brilliant this season but he has next to no pace and just relies on movement and his footballing brain- which is top notch in this League.

What this meant was anytime we had a chance to break through midfield we didn’t have much option as we had very little pace or players to pick out. The Carey breakaway 1st half prime example. No support, attack just fizzled out.

In the 2nd half, they had a chance from 2 passes through the middle of the pitch that cut us completely open. It’s not something I could see us being able to do due to the system and options on the ball.

We’ve now got people saying Dembele didn’t do much after everyone’s been saying he should start but we played him in the same position he did at Derby at home where he was also relatively quiet.

I’m boring myself saying it but against 3/4 of this League we can play him behind 2 strikers and have 2 midfielders behind him. This gives the link from midfield to attack much better fluidity and means we have better options to create chances, eg- Cheltenham and Cods 2nd half. 3-4-1-2 if we’re insisting on 3 at the back. Sonny Carey has looked far better when he has an option to play off centrally ahead of him.

To be fair Lavery was a miss yesterday as he has that bit of pace to be fed through but we need two up tops to get the most out of Rhodes and we need to get that because he’ll give us goals.

Our 1st sub yesterday on 74 minutes (late to make a change) was screaming for Dale for Thompson as he was having one of his episodes and had just made a great save with his hands as they broke away and dribbled the ball out for a corner for them but more crucially provided no attacking outlet. However, we decided to bring Dale on to play off Rhodes (where he’s not played for 14 games or so and not played much if at all for us) and hook our most creative player. Weird one.

People talk about negative subs and selections and for me that was one again. They go and score straight after it and then you’re thinking how do we get back into this game now? It all seems too scared of going for it. Even starting Dembele yesterday, he couldn’t do it in our midfield 3, he had to do it reducing us to one striker. Don’t know if it’s a handbrake more steering lock and driving gloves.

I don’t know what goes on in training or the fitness levels of players but our next few home league games are :-

Shrewsbury
Northampton
Carlisle

With Pompey and Cambridge away inbetween…

There’s only one game there where you could defend us not playing two strikers with Dembele behind to roam and create on what we’ve witnessed in games the past couple of months.

We aren’t in the Championship anymore and most teams aren’t better than us. Think we need to remember this when we pick our teams and make our subs.

One of the best posts for some time.

 

[Sandgrown1]

The Lavery injury will have completely thrown things up in the air yesterday.

For the most part I thought we got it spot on yesterday and made the most of our available resources, in a difficult fixture away from home.

I struggle with Thompson as a player, full stop, so I find it difficult to be completely objective. His grabbing of the ball and subsequent booking was another example of the hot-headedness that saw him sent off at Sheff United. However, I don’t think a like for like replacement with Dale would have been the right choice yesterday… Dale is weak defensively and I think Bolton would have exposed that and capitalised on what would have been a poor substitution.

I remember thinking about the Subs at the time and wondering what I would do to try and see out the game … maybe nick it.

I’d be loathe to bring off Carey, due to the long range goal threat. Dembele certainly seems to tire after 60 or so….Morgan too..

I think I might have brought Connolly on for Morgan perhaps… and probably replaced Dembele with Joseph.

The goal was unfortunate… A draw would have been a fair result over the 90.

Nahhh they deserved it for that 20 minute spell when they could have scored a few goals. They got one n that was enough. Our problem is when we are on top, we don’t shoot enough n so we don’t score so often.

 

[Sandgrown1]

What … ? Reality ?

If we want to aspire to be anything beyond where we are at this time, then the first thing we need to do is fully ground ourselves in reality. By doing that we can start to recognise progress as progress, instead of continuing to put ourselves down.


I’ve said from Day 1 that I think that this was a transitional season. I think that simply turning things around to a point where we end the season competing on a level with the best the league has to offer would be a success in itself.

I fully expect us to finish in a Play Off spot and then it’s a lottery.

As I’ve said already I’m more worried about our fans scuppering what the club is trying to achieve in the longer term than I am about this season if I’m being totally honest.

There’s an impatience and a self-harm mentality that’s being couched as wanting the best fur the club and I have a horrible feeling that might see is ruing the loss of the best opportunity we have had as a club.

I think we’re a great fanbase when things go our way, but I think our lack of perspective, ingrained negativity and ingratitude are wearying ….

I’d like to c the fans carry on singing n backing the lads more when we are behind. Palace fans r the benchmark.

 

[BFC_BFC_BFC]

I’d like to c the fans carry on singing n backing the lads more when we are behind. Palace fans r the benchmark.

Our fans just walk out when we're losing... You can't sing when your sat in the pub..

 

[mad-link]

Totally agree BFCx3, patience has gone out the window and every defeat is met with waves of negativity and bollocks theories that don't really exist.

History says getting promoted anytime soon is highly unlikely - as Wednesday, Sunderland and now Pompey and Oxford have found out. We need to give things time ffs, it may take 2 or 3 seasons of measured progress. It may take another 10, but binning Critchley who is highly respected and has a good long-term plan is just ** daft.

We are a relatively small club, but miles bigger week-in week-out and more professional than the previous shit-show of a club. 10k at home was unthinkable when I started going. Remember our farmers field-esq pitches of not too long ago? Short memories indeed, we have some right entitled wankers who post on here.