20/21 Matchday Thread

[Super_horns]

I am not surprised Millwall fans booed the pre match knee kneeling.

If any set of fans was going to do it would be them!

 

[SF_]

Well I suppose if we will insist on giving you an assist and an OG then we’re never going to make it easy on ourselves.

Thank fuck you had two top chances fall to Riis though, major letoffs there.

No idea what he was doing, complete slices, both of them, usually got a pretty sweet strike on him

 

[BelizeHatter]

I havent even watched the clip and know exactly which tackle it is

 

[BelizeHatter]

'Gold. Always believe in Sol'

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

I am not surprised Millwall fans booed the pre match knee kneeling.

If any set of fans was going to do it would be them!

Just saw the video of it, doesn't sound like just a few people involved and seems quite widespread. Not surprised but still find it quite sad. There will be the usual talk about mixing politics and sport and thats the "real" reason for it but thats nothing more than dog whistle bollocks. Sad state of affairs.

I see one of there own players has called out there support after the game tonight.

 

[Chris FGR]

I am not surprised Millwall fans booed the pre match knee kneeling.

If any set of fans was going to do it would be them!

Wasn't just them, heard it happened at a couple of other places too. Not as many as at Millwall but still. The more crowds come back the more it will happen unfortunately.

 

[thewwfc]

Wasn't just them, heard it happened at a couple of other places too. Not as many as at Millwall but still. The more crowds come back the more it will happen unfortunately.

well if even the government aren’t arsed about it then it seems difficult to take it much further.

Minister fails to condemn Millwall fans who booed players taking a knee

 

[SF_]

Yep, Bauer is out for the season. Achilles.

Gutted, just as we get him and Ben Davies back partnered together.

Pearson has 'hurt' his achilles ligaments, no operation needed but no time frame given by the club.

I'd suspect a couple of months out at least but wouldn't be surprised if its much longer, it looked bad.

Our spine is now non-existent, only had Pearson back for 2 and a bit games.

Can't see us budging from 15th/16th all season.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Does any team not have at least one key first teamer out with some sort of injury at the moment?

 

[Super_horns]

Does any team not have at least one key first teamer out with some sort of injury at the moment?

Yet you’d think Liverpool were the only ones listening to Klopp!

 

[SF_]

Boro at home under Warnock, just the very last game we need right now and I can't see anything other than an away win.

Pearson out and DJ picked up his 5th booking. Fisher's suspension is over and I think I read that Hughes is back in training so at least we'll be stronger in the full back positions if they start.

Rudd
Fisher. Huntington, Davies, Hughes
Browne, Ledson
Sinclair, Potts, Barkhuizen
Riis​

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Coventry away for us tonight. They seem to be gradually finding their feet at this level and had what looked a very good win against Rotherham at the weekend. Only saw highlights but the big lad up front seemed to cause a lot of problems and worked well with Walker for a couple of goals.

When I’ve seen them on TV they reminded me a bit of us last season in that they looked a little naive in there approach and struggled with a high press, which is something we have actually done very well of late in particular against Norwich. The more recent results suggest they must have worked through that to some extent at least. There also fatigue factor as well which NJ has spoken about this week so o do wonder how long we will be able to go at that level in this one.

We might have a few struggles at centre half tonight as Pearson is suspended and Bradley I assume will be continue to be unavailable for compassionate leave so could see Rea/Lockyer pair up there. I actually think a back 3 would have worked quite well in this one but just don’t think we will have the availability for it now as seems Cranie won’t be fit either.

We have done well this season in winning the games against teams that at the start of the year you felt would be in and around us which has conversely kept us pretty solidly mid table. This feels like another one of those sorts of games but I do think that Coventry have the makings of a decent championship side so will need to be a bit wary. I’d hope we can at least pick up a point from it as looking at the sort of next tranche of 4/5 games, they look like tough ones against some more in form sides. Just need to keep consistently eking out points as we have done so far.

 

[Atavistic]

And our injury crisis somehow gets even worse than it already was, with Gibson and Placheta both out for the next two weeks. Zimmermann at least can step in as back-up for Gibson - although that notably reduces the quality of our defence - but we don't have any real back-up for Placheta's pace with Hernandez also out injured.

That now means we have zero pace in the team which is going to make things somewhat more difficult against a Forest side who will most likely chuck ten men behind the ball in typical Hughton fashion.

On the flipside, we have Dowell, McLean and Hugill returning to training today and a couple of them might make the bench tomorrow if we're lucky (though I wouldn't expect them to play more than a few minutes at the end even if that does happen). Cantwell is also looking likely to return tomorrow, but only on the substitutes bench and assuming no issues arise in training today.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Odd line up. No RB at all considering all of our options there Bree Cranie Pearson think weve even played Tunni there. Guess thats why Jones was saying with hindsight hed have kept Kioso here. So Clark as a RWB? Back three? Pretty adventurous.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

It’s definitely started with Clark there. He’s played there before this season a few times already so not entirely alien to him but yeah it’s an odd one.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

25 or so mins in and this is up there with one of the worst games of football I’ve seen I think. Don’t think either side have put a passing move together.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Well if ever there was a game the phrase “not one for the neutral” was made for that was it. Deary me that was poor. Could have been there until the end of the season and neither side was scoring. 1 shot on target each and both easy saves from distance. I wonder if the games are catching up with everyone as it was just so lacking in quality that game.

That is what happens when we have a game where our set piece delivery isn’t right. We rely on it so much for chances when we don’t get it right we never look like creating anything. Had a few decent openings that if we got the final ball right might have been dangerous but never really did.

Another point in the point which is good and we can all quickly forget that game ever happened.

 

[CCFC_Charlie]

Shite game that, not helped by a shite ref. We just can't handle teams that press us, they completely kill any attacking threat we might pose.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Shite game that, not helped by a shite ref. We just can't handle teams that press us, they completely kill any attacking threat we might pose.

Both teams were struggling quality wise but the ref put pay to anything actually happening by making it so stop start all night, found him so overly fussy think both sides will come away thinking he was poor.

 

[Super_horns]

A solid 2-0 win.

Dominated 1st half.

Seemed to ease off 2nd but Rotherham also improved.

 

[BelizeHatter]

Decent point. One of the worst games ive seen in years. I actually was quite excited before for a good game. Shocker. Not sure there was a proper effort on goal whole game.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Well that was 2 hours of my life I won't get back. I doubt the Cov fans would worry too much about missing that being in Tier 3 when that show was put on.

Perhaps the workload being put onto them is hurting them and they were still knackered from the weekend, but neither side had any energy or even looked like they wanted to push for a win.

Luton's selection was odd (again) with a number of players being rotated out, but what our game plan was, I've no idea?

Can't disagree that the referee was so finicky over everything, but I don't think it made any difference to the spectacle!

 

[Atavistic]

Two changes to our starting XI tonight, with Martin and Zimmermann stepping into the starting XI in place of the injured Placheta and Gibson respectively. Besides that, our bench is looking much more experienced than recent games with the return of Dowell, Cantwell, McLean and Hugill. Don't expect to see any of them get too many minutes tonight - as they've had to be brought back into the fold a little quicker than planned - but seeing those experienced names on the bench will definitely be a nice psychological boost for the team.

I expect Forest will do as Hughton's sides typically do and pack men behind the ball, so just like against Wednesday at the weekend it's going to be a big test to see if we can break them down, especially without the pace of Placheta to allow us to more easily get in behind and stretch the play. Still, I think we can earn ourselves another narrow victory here to keep things ticking over, especially with decent options to change things off the bench if necessary.

Max Aarons will make his 100th appearance for the club tonight, an impressive feat at just 20 years old.

 

[SF_]

By far the better team but no finishing touch, frustrating.

Barkhuizen should have scored, can be lethal when he has no time to think but he's awful one-on-one.

Couple of more moments where it's just not fallen for us.

 

[Craig]

Be amazed if Callum Styles is still with us come February.

 

[Atavistic]

Nothing much to note so far here. Forest getting some joy on the counter down our right wing, but otherwise have everyone but Lyle Taylor behind the ball.

We're getting a lot of possession, but we're basically trying to walk it in when Forest have 10 men in the box which makes no sense. Should have had a penalty from a corner for blatant handball though, as a defender used his hand to stop Pukki's goalward header.

Frustrating so far. Need to be more willing to shoot if we're going to break through here, and to give Sorensen some help dealing with Lolley on Forest's right wing to cut off their primary (or, to be more precise, only) creative outlet.

EDIT: And Sorensen with the breakthrough with virtually the last kick of the half. Against a Hughton side, that should typically be enough, but Forest have some decent attacking players and could still pull one back. Though, even with everyone behind the ball we've got a lot of time and space to work with, so if they try to open up and push for an equaliser that may well just play into our hands.

 

[SF_]

Should have had five in the second half, good performance, soaked up a bit of pressure after half time but the subs sealed the win.

Neil seems to have a good record against Warnock, out-thought him when he was at Cardiff too.

Great cameo from Riis. Potts MotM.

 

[Atavistic]

Made to work hard for that in the second half as Forest considerably upped it, but we managed to hold on and get another three points on the board. Other results going our way means a bit of daylight now between us and Bournemouth, as well as four points between us and the chasing pack in the play-off positions. Nice to see Cantwell and McLean get some minutes back on the pitch, and pleased for Cantwell to get himself an assist almost immediately after coming on.

Two real tough fixtures for us next, though, as we head away to Blackburn at the weekend and then Reading this time next week. Important to at least avoid defeat in those tight games, but we ideally want to be winning those to get our goal difference up as most of our competitors are doing better on that front currently and it could be a concern if the table continues to be as tight as it currently is.

 

[SF_]

Also not sure how we managed to get Sinclair, the guy has serious quality and i'd be worried if he got injured.

9 in 33 from out wide since arriving and far from the luxury player I expected, does a good job defensively.

 

[SF_]

Be amazed if Callum Styles is still with us come February.

Shite.