Morning Everyone, Wow, what a game Saturday...... Lets review. Mowatt gets dropped, and Brown gets selected. Mowatts still young and inexperienced, don't know how he would have played in those conditions!!! McDermott brings in Michael Brown. Brown sets up the first of four goals for McCormack. According to most reports, he had a great game.... Lets look at the other change. Pugh came in for the injured Warnock / Drury. Again, Pugh had a solid game, got us a penalty at a time the game could have gone either way. Before the game, fans were really giving McDermott a hard time for making those changes, but, it was a touch of genius, agree? If there was one negative about McDermott, he left an obviously injured Wootton on the pitch, for 15 minutes, which apparently led to the Charlton equalizer. Agree??? Thinking of it, didn't McDermott leave Warnock struggling on the pitch, when he was injured too??? Thoughts? If you continue to play whilst you have an injury, don't you make it worse? Anyway, where do we go from here. We are three points from a play off position? Should Pugh and Brown have more game time? Should they start? I do remember when we first had Pugh on loan, he was fantastic. When he was bedded into the team, he was dreadful! Is he one of those players you have to keep hungry? Have we got a squad that can challenge for top six? Does McDermott need to make any more signings? Should we snap up Blackstock permanently in the January transfer window? Anyone feel sorry for Smith?
Great that the players coming in did the business, so well done all concerned. I still wonder if BMD knows his best team, or is he being a fantastic tactician and have a team set up for every oponent? Is Blackstock the missing link and have we gone past the point of needing a winger or 2? My own view is that we are still not top 6 quality and lack depth. Still worried about our medics and young Sam's problems, and would like to think that GFH will give BMD some cash for January. I will be happy with top 10 this season because I can see blue sky or in the words of politicians, green shoots of stability and recovery. We really need to go on a run of victories as this one step forward two back is a bit of a chore even for us long suffering guys.
Morning Elland and all those joining. I think Wooten was left on for an extra 15 mins in the hope that he might run off his injury. Clearly it didn't happen but we have two weeks to get him and our other walking wounded back and playing. Dropping Mowatt for Brown was a stroke of genious, as was moving from 352 to 433 at half time. The boy knows what he is doing, and was roundly applauded for it. Playing Pugh and Brown shows its a case of horses for courses. Brown and Pugh did a fine job each and have probably secured extensions for a year or so off the back of it. Think the last time Brown started in a Championship match was months ago. That he did such a good job and I think lasted the whole game in a heavy energy sapping pitch speaks volumes. Some on here (u no hoo u r) should get off his back. Fine display, especially as he stayed on his feet most of the time, rather than dive in and get a pointless booking. On Blackstock, if his club will let us have him, then yes please. We can pay for it by loaning out/saying bye bye to either Hunt or Varney. On other signings, I think we should see where we are. The squad is looking good and the Manager now knows what it takes to win ugly. A two week break should help us nicely.
Doc, we'll have to agree to disagree on the depth of the squad. Given that we won without Mowatt and Byram, I think we have a squad more than capable of a top 6 finish. Time will tell and we still have some good sides to play away from home. But we're certainly in a much better position than last season and our Manager is a huge step up on Colin. All in all, Champions League and world domination, here we come.... albeit via this season's play offs!!!
Before we all continue to get carried away with promotion hopes and because we have won 4 out of the last 7 only playing against teams in the bottom half please read the match reports of fans that were at our last two games. Most recent http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/236926-Fooking-Ross
Morning all I'd heard that Mowatt picked up a knock too, rather than was dropped. It was a great decision to play Brown for that game though. I wouldn't get as carried away as Boggers and say that he will get a year extension off the back of that though. While it was a fantastic result, I'm still sticking to the same opinion as I had before the season kicked off. We could just creep into the top six if we go on a very good run, but there's a lot of the season to play yet. Don't get me wrong I'm very very happy with the direction BMD is taking the team, but I think we're one or two players short still. For example, if Austin or McCormack got injured at the minute, we'd notice that in a big way. It's always good to go into an international break on the back of a result like that, but it would have been nice for us to carry this momentum straight into a game next week! It's going to seem even longer waiting for the Middlesbrough game now
Morning all Will we ever see EHD in our colours again? Great result especially as I know more than my fair share of Charlton supporters
Agree with what you say apart from I see us finishing 10th, we have rode our luck a little and I keep stressing, we have only played bottom half teams for the last 7 games. On the International break look at it this way, an extra week to get Byram and Mowatt back to fitness.
True, and our next 4 games will be interesting. Middlesbrough have always been a bogey team, Blackburn are on paper better than their position for me, but I think Wigan and Watford will both be real tests. Let's see how we do against them, and if we start putting a run together, let's hope we don't have that all too common after Christmas slump!
I like to think of my self as leaning on the optimistic side of realistic too, just not sure I agree with you that one good performance warrants offering a 36 year old another year on his contract
If he can put in a performance like that having not actually played for months on end, what's he going to be like if Austing gets injured and he has to cover for a few weeks? We don't have a decent natural DM better than Brown if Austin gets injured. So when we play the top sides, it might just be worth playing both Brown and Austin; Brown as DM and Austin as the other CM running all over the place covering as a DM and also supporting the attack. Time will tell how we progress this season. But we're still much better off today than we were at the same stage last season.
If we win the next 4 games I will be over the moon, as it will give us a real pointer to where we are in terms of quality. Watford, Blackburn, Wigan on paper should have too much for us, so if we can lay them ghosts we will put some ground between us and them, making it simpler to go for play offs
I don't disagree that he could well step in and perform, I just view it as an unknown. That's why I was suggesting that we shouldn't rush into a new contract, not that I have anything against Brown or think any of our other midfielders would be chosen ahead of him to step in. Interesting idea to try playing him with Austin a little more advanced though, and that could well work. We all know Brown has got a great engine and he keeps himself in great shape for his age, but could he play week in week out and keep that up? Surely if he could, we'd have seen more of him this season? We're definitely better off than this stage last season though, completely agree with you there. Onwards and upwards!
LiD, given that we have Mowatt and Brown in CM as well as Austin, I think Mowatt and Brown will interchange depending on the opposition. Mowatt is still learning and we don't want him to burn himself out. But a midfield 5 2 WBs and 3 in CM) from Brown, Byram, Austin, Murphey Mowatt Warnock, & Pugh doesn't look too bad to me.
RIP Corporal Jake Hartley and all the others that have lost their lifes fighting for our country Miss you mate
