I Must be the only one thought Browne had a poor game certainly first half they seem to target his area yesterday
Tell you what away games that are early kick offs are dangerous, absolutely hanging today, what a day though
It’s all relative I guess! That moment in the first half when he completely went walkabout and Jobe had to get back to cover and prevent a very big old goal scoring chance sticks in my mind. However he did have some solid defensive moments too. Either way, for him to only find use as an emergency right back says a fair bit. I don’t really see Mepham as a representative of some massive change in plan. We have either made or tried to make signings like him throughout the KLD era. What is different about him is that he’s better quality. He’s not even that much more experienced than the rest of our team in truth. If anyone represents the ‘experience’ that people craved it’s Browne. And he’s been a ****e signing thus far. It’s quality we need, not experience. Mepham has it in spades. So do Bellingham and Mayenda. If we get some experience added as a byproduct then all well and good, but we need quality as first, second and third priority.
Mikey Johnston will give seasoned right backs a tough afternoon to be fair. He is a good player and a box of tricks. West Broms strength is their cente backs and then wingers. I thought Browne did ok when he got in the right positions, but at times he got too high and the ball behind him was a problem. Mind you Mepham is so good on the cover.
Yep, Trai has got balls of steel and never lets us down. Players from a low league who make it this high up are almost always good characters, and he's one of them. Excellent, and for me, he'd be taking the penalties!
Mowbray explains why you shouldn’t make the narrative all about the keeper ... ... by blaming him for the goal, losing the game and blowing their playoff chances “Joe [Wildsmith] acknowledged he made a pretty bad mistake which cost us a goal, and ultimately the game. "But that's the job as a goalkeeper. It's frustrating because that becomes the narrative. With the chances we had and the situations we got into, you have to put the ball in the net. "We've been here before but I'll see what he's like in training and see how he reacts. It's very naive to think 'the goalie makes a mistake, so change the goalie'. "If the goalie you put in makes a mistake in the next game, where do you go then? Change him again? I don't think so. I will rely on my experience to make them.”
If you're that way inclined you can get us to: Win the league at 500/1 Finish top 2 at 200/1 Get Promoted at 5/2 Top 2 finish is definitely worth a daft fiver imo. I can see Burnley grinding it out to win the league now, massive pressure on Leeds and Sheff Utd coming up in the next few weeks.
Agreed, Browne struggled a bit at times but who wouldn't against Johnston playing like that. He did quite well considering.
I said with about 13 games left the top 3 would all drop more than enough points for us to catch them, it's just whether we could capitalise on it, yesterday was the first time we did. I think it's highly unlikely but however we have nothing to lose, if results all go our way midweek then the pressure is on them at squeaky bum time of the season. I think everyone thinks we'll finish 4th so all pressure is off us, we don't have to go into any game needing to win, that feeling will be massively putting our players at ease . They will be going into games so much more relaxed
Throughout the season I've seen people, on forums and at matches, saying we should've signed various players who'd have 'guaranteed' us promotion. They've mainly been strikers who've gone to other clubs yet none of the top three are guaranteed promotion despite signing some of those forwards. At various points Leeds, Burnley and Sheff Utd have all been declared 'promoted' yet one of them will fail to make the top two and may fail to go up. We're currently debt free, have an extremely valuable squad and are 3 games from the PL ... ... after only a few years, at the club the owner has set us up to be something different, and imo better, than the rest of the Championship. If Leeds go up they'll have around £50m debt to pay off before they can reinforce, if they don't they'll still have a £50m debt. It's like Russian Roulette and, eventually, someone will blow their brains out. Yes we could spend £30/40/50m but, as these clubs are finding out it doesn't automatically get you to the PL. Just saying ....
Momentum and form are what’s required come the playoffs, we look to be having both just at the right time.
When Burnley kept winning 1-0 they were declared ‘very impressive’ … … last minute blocks were praised as the epitome of top class defending on here. With Sunderland it’s ’last gasp defending’, we’re ’scraping results’ and ‘failing to put teams away’. Some people just can’t bear to give their own team the praise they deserve in my opinion.
Like I said yesterday mate, get the 1-0 defensive win right we can built into that counter attacking team that starts winning by 3 and 4. Just look at Burnley they got that bit right first, since they've signed Edwards they seem to have starting scoring more. We have young lads who are learning all the time, but just look at their progress, they really are learning and improving
