Starting to dominate a bit more now (from looking at the stats)... Can we make the breakthrough now? Colwill Jnr on for Sawyers...
Fair dos, that'll do his confidence the world of good too. Shame that it would seem not too many of the players making Bulut take notice for the weekend.
Simpson & Collins had nightmare moments for their 2 goals. At least the second string will get another run out in the next round
Some of tonight's players really don't deserve another chance. Benjamin was so poor. Bullied by a second division centre forward, Akinde. Sideways Sawyers, hardly put a foot forward. He tries hard but we have a candidate for Wickham's Teflon label, Etete. Frequently makes wrong choices. Romeo and Collins had their wingers running around them and looked really rusty. Positives:- Alnwick had a reasonable game although should have done better for their first and gave us all the sh1ts with an attempted punch at a cross first half. But very hard to argue with 3 good penalty saves. Rinomohta usually gets some stick but he did all the grunt work tonight as Sawyers did none. Surprisingly Tanner put in a good shift and caused problems for the defence with his direct running. Has learned to cover back as well. His downfall was scoring 3 points for a conversion when he only had to fire past the keeper for a goal. Cameo of the night to Bagan who came on as sub. Looked composed in defence and very good going forward. Much more so than Collins. Whipped in some great crosses which we did nothing with. If he can carry on like this we might not need another left back. I counted 13 players who did not play tonight who would have been ahead of the 10 outfield starters. All change for Saturday then.
I imagine it'll be back to the same line up as the Leeds game minus Ralls, who will get replaced by either Adams or Rhino... So once again just Alnwick surviving. Potentially we could see Bagan come in at wingback and move O'Dowda forward in place of Grant who had a poor game Saturday, but I reckon he'll keep changes to the minimum this early on in the season and give Grant another chance.
It appears have been taken as an opportunity to see other squad players perform against EFL opposition and if anyone shone to promote them to the first X1. Doesn’t look like anyone stood out, so suspect as Brizzle suggests changes v QPR will be few
Grant was very poor at Leeds and seemed out of his depth. Hope he's given another chance though moving O'Dowda forward in his place would seem an option if Bulut feels he can rely on either Collins or Bagan at the back on the left. It's a question of "big stick" or "arm around the shoulders" for Bulut because the last thing we need is for Grant to have his head down and have doubts in himself.
Not a bad start to the season butts, much better than our shambles!! we've gone from winning games in the last 10 mins, to losing both so far in that time (nin might be happier), but trying to bed in 7 new players is a bit of a bitch by the looks of it.
