So went to Farnborough v Hartley Wintney in the Hampshire derby yesterday, a relatively huge crowd of over 900.. Farnborough weren't brilliant and were pretty dreadful in the first half, however they were resilient and kept a clean sheet as well as scoring 2. The second didn't come until the 89th minute so it was a stressful match. So one match left and we play the league leaders Taunton who are three points ahead of us. However they have a much better goal difference, as do the team in 2nd but we're joint on points with them. We're not gonna win the league, but hopefully we can get second so guaranteed home advantage in the play off final I'd we make it. Though presumably if the 2nd place team get knocked out in the semis, 3rd place would get home advantage in the final if they make it. I think we're guaranteed to finish at least 3rd
Fulham promoted. But the bigger story has to be Mitrovic getting 40+ goals (with 4 games to play). F*cking astonishing. It’s a madness that he got just 2 in the Prem the previous season.
Because there is a big step up in quality in the PL. Scoring goals is a lot harder in the PL, as others have found out.
Mitrovic should demand a transfer to Watford or something. At 27, he could set damned near unbeatable modern records for Football League and Championship goalscoring and get a new team promoted every year or two. That has to be may more fun than scoring 7 a year for a team struggling against the drop.
I agree, but at the same time I think that's doing a disservice to both Mitrovic and Marco Silva. Mitrovic has got double figures in the Prem before, so he has the ability. Scott Parker just obviously couldn't find a way to utilise him last season.
That's not the way athletes think about it though. It's not just a once-a-week hobby to them. They work every day to reach the very highest level, and they generally have incredible self-belief. Anyone saying "you're not good enough" is just going to be met with, "I'll prove you wrong". And that's why you get the likes of Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren pursuing Champions League football at all costs, even though it isn't probably the most pragmatic path they could take.
Or we just play Bedders up front instead of Armstrong - our Ricky migrated from midfield into an attacker, Bedders could be on the same career path! In all seriousness, Armstrong does not look a good bet for the future. He and Che, are not the future. Che works very hard for the team, but he just cannot take a sufficient number of the chances created.
Che is quite useful alongside a more established goal threat. He chips in with some of his own, but also provides the movement, hold-up play and pressing to allow them to hunt those goals. Definitely though, Che alongside another Che, or Che alongside a guy like Armstrong who doesn't seem particularly adept at either creating or finishing chances, isn't going to be a particularly threatening strike force.
I'm watching a couple of our ex academy lads which I expected to push through here, Bevis Mugabi and Callum Slattery playing for Motherwell against Rangers and they're playing well.
